Day 6 - The Salt Pond

We got an early start to the day because we were heading to the Salt Pond which is about an hour's drive to the other side of the island. We got there around 9:00 and it was already packed. We just have to get used to the fact that St. John is not the best kept secret anymore!
Gorgeous day, beautiful weather, amazing Caribbean water, cool boats close to shore, lots of playing in the sand!

Our master sand castle builder!

The kids did a little snorkeling and were able to find tons of shells, including some great conch shells like this one...

and little shells that were definitely not vacant.

The water!!!

And just snackin'...

relaxin'...

and hangin' out. I think in this picture everyone is picking out the burs that got in absolutely everything and on everyone!  Boy, did they hurt!

David and Ryan took the kids on a hike which was a ton of fun for them.

Xander making sure cute little Ciara doesn't fall.

They found some cool coconut thing. I love Ciara's face in this picture.

Our cute kids!

The kids spent some time teaching Grandpa how to dab - here are a few of his efforts.

Nailed it, Dad! I'm just there to be his sidekick.

Love my dad!!

And my Xander!

And can't forget my amazing, beautiful sis!

The kids got in a little more swimming...

and my mom and I went snorkeling. I usually don't snorkel much because it's not one of my favorites. I ALWAYS struggle with getting water in my mask (no exception on this occasion). Despite the leaky mask I had a wonderful time. My mom always spots the coolest things and kept bringing up beautiful conch shells. We saw tons of fish, sea turtles, a purple slug, and even some clam shells.
All too soon it was time to pack up and head home. The hike back to the car is never fun.

This is what a long day in the sun and a long car ride home look like! This has to be one of the cutest pictures from our trip!

Dinner was leftovers, nightly devotional was given by Ryan about our own personal Liahona. Dad then told an ancestor story about Grandma Schaeffer's dad losing money in the Great Depression. The kids watched Epic and played pool.

Day 5 - Trunk Bay

The day started early for me - 2:30 to be exact. I sat out in the front room reading and got to watch the sun come up. Dad came out around 6:00 and we had some great father/daughter time.
Every day we passed this sign and I was grateful we would probably never need to refer to it.

Love that we are here!

Today was an absolutely beautiful day so we had to hit the most beautiful beach - Trunk Bay! It was a bit of a rough morning emotionally so I decided to take a walk down the beach by myself and take some pictures of the beauty that surrounded me.

I spent some time just sitting in this little inlet, staring out at the ocean. It was such a peaceful spot.

The kids went off snorkeling with Uncle Bryan and saw some really cool fish!

Cute little Ciara, content to play in the sand.

Just hangin' out in the water - our favorite thing to do!

Oh, how I love the Caribbean!

These little fish loved nibbling on my toes...it felt so weird!

Enjoying the good life, including $7 smoothies that Grandpa treated each of the grandkids to.

Although I did not want to, we left around 1:00. The kids spent the remainder of the day hanging out at the pool and the tennis court while the ladies went on a shopping trip to Cruz Bay. Dad gave each of us some money which was super sweet of him and I bought myself some beautiful bracelets, a sweatshirt, and a new turtle for my collection. The big joke of the week was Dad asking everyone, "Where's the rum?", a quote from Captain Jack Sparrow, so when we ran into this basket of rum at one of the stores we just had to take a picture for him.

We found the rum, Grandpa!

For dinner we had fettuccine and leftovers. For our nightly devotional David talked about prayer and Dad and Mom told us about the time when they were engaged and had no money.

The nightly movie was Bolt but due to my early morning I headed to bed instead.