One must do something while waiting for everyone else to get ready!
Hangin' with Uncle Bryan prior to heading out for the day.
Beautiful Trunk Bay!!
We stopped to take pictures of the amazing view.
Silly McKenna!
We headed down the beach a bit this time around and found a really great spot to set up camp for the day. Oh, how I love all the palm trees!
We are most definitely in paradise!!!
Water fun with Uncle Bryan.
My cute family. We absolutely love Trunk Bay!
Savannah soaking up the good life.
They love their Grandpa Schaeffer.
David was much more willing to take photos with me today which I loved. One of my favorite memories of this trip was snuggling with him in the warm Caribbean waters.
Ciara and Noah heading down to the cove to see what the others are up to.
Apparently the kids found a coconut and got Uncle Ryan to open it up.
Time to pose for some pictures!
Rock climbing and exploring.
Cousin buddies.
My Xanderman!
He was the only one to head out snorkeling with Uncle Bryan and had a blast! The other kids said they were all snorkeled out.
Heidi and I spent a lot of time in the water each day chatting about all kinds of things. On this afternoon Noah decided he wanted to cuddle with me while I talked with Heidi and it must have been quite comfortable because he ended up falling asleep!
Our first attempt at a family picture. Okay, this one was decent but the picture taken with Heidi's phone was even funnier. The lady who took it did not know how to zoom in and we looked like we were a mile out to sea.
We all love being together!
I heart this picture!
Best place in the world - in his arms on St. John.
Ha ha! That photo bomber!
The water is fabulous but the kids also loved digging in the sand.
Quite proud of their sand creations.
Xander is a master builder as well.
Back to the water for a few more pics!
The day before, at the Salt Pond, our beach neighbors had been a group of older adults who enjoyed drinking and talking loudly about their drinking. Much to our dismay that same group showed up as our beach neighbors at Trunk Bay! What are the chances? They spent the majority of their day once again in the water talking about their drinking exploits. As we tried to take some pictures of the kids, one of the men watched us and unfortunately kept getting in our frame. As we moved the kids down the beach, trying to remove him from the background, he just kept moving right along with us, frustrating our plans. There he is, watching us, completely oblivious in his happy drunken state that we were trying to get away from him. Oh, the memories!
Thank goodness I was able to get him out of the frame on this one. This picture of all the cousins has to be one of my all time favorite pictures ever!
Bryan, the master dabber!
Me and my sis!
Never wanna leave.
More family pictures.
Second attempt at the full family picture which I think turned out much better. Love all these people so very much!
Afternoon naps. The girls covered up from the sun as well as the birds. It was my terrible misfortune to be pooped on TWICE by the stupid birds as I sat innocently eating my lunch and chatting with my parents.
Not sure what happened here...maybe another instance of "There I go"?
Little tube cutie.
Around 3:00 we ended up leaving which made me incredibly sad. I could have stayed there until the sun went down although it was probably good to get my sunburned back out of the sun. For some reason I had forgotten to have David put sunscreen on my back and it was fried. Back at the house some of the kids played tennis and shot baskets down at the tennis court while Xander and McKenna played some board games.
I just sat on the balcony, enjoying the view!
Our last supper of hamburgers and hot dogs.
Dad had given the boys money in the afternoon to do a little shopping and Noah had picked out this dagger as one of his souvenirs. Looks like he needs to keep it away from Aunt Heidi!
Our nightly devotional was "Men are that they might have joy". We went around and had everyone tell one thing that brought them joy this week:
Ashlyn - snorkeling and hermit crabs
Savannah - being with family
Bryan - speaking Spanish
Heidi - playing tennis with Kellan and Noah
Ciara - collecting seashells with Grandma
me - being with my family enjoying the beauty of Trunk Bay
David - how well the cousins get along and have fun together
Xander - snorkeling with Uncle Bryan
Noah - falling asleep in mom's arms and snorkeling with sea turtles
Ryan - seeing smiles and joy on the kids' faces
McKenna - petting sea turtles
Mom - building sandcastles with the kids and being all together
Kellan - being followed around by fish at Trunk Bay and seeing all the big schools of fish swim by Dad - being all together as a family in such a beautiful place.
One last game of pool for the pool sharks and then it was time to pack up.
