Gong!

Luckily we have found some great people to hang out with while on the island for Christmas!  Catherine and Matt took us out to Gong beach last week (a beach on the Atlantic side of the island - real name Sandy Bank Bay ) that we had not been to yet!  It was fun to venture over to the Atlantic side again as most of our 'beach time' is on the Caribbean side (which has waves comparable to the River on a dead calm day!).  We spent our time there playing like kids in the waves and chasing the dogs around the beach!  It felt so great and reminded me so much of North Carolina and our fun there!  It also made me miss everyone from home too!



Here are some photos to help you better understand the rough life we have had over this Christmas Break!

Some buggie - boarding!

The view to the left

The view to the right

Its always a good day for snorkeling in St Kitts!

Phew!

And he makes it back to shore!

What happened?!?!

Hold your breath!

Who says a cute little dog can't surf?!

My favorite photo of the day!  Catherine's dog liked to dig! 

the view again

Ahh the beach!

Needless to say - we have done a lot of THIS over break!  It has been very relaxing and much needed for both of us!  I have missed home a lot though, and look forward to being home in April!

One Semester Down!

Well, finals week has come and gone and Brayton pulled them off with no problems!  I will say though, it was a LONG week!!  He was stressed to the max, meaning he was a bit on the touchy side, I was busy with school things, so dinners weren't always planned and ready and I wasn't always on his time schedule - which I learned is just not acceptable during finals week at Vet School =)

I am sort of kidding - he really was pretty laid back and mellow!  He even helped with dinner a few nights!!  What a great husband =)

Here is Brayton immersed in his studies!

Grades were posted Friday evening and he ended up doing great!  Thanks to everyone for all the love and support so far =)

Here is the night AFTER finals!

Not the two glasses of nice red wine =)

Bring on the second semester!!!  Great Job Brayt!  So proud of your hard work and dedication!  Love you!

A day at the track

Today Brayton and I took our first trip up the island and visited Beaumont Park which is the local Thoroughbred race track on the island.  I was nervous at first for what it would be like, but it turns out it was amazing.  It was my first time at a race track but I was extremely impressed with the quality of the things there - especially for this island!  It was so great to see horses again (aside from the skinny deprived looking ones on the island) and especially to see Thoroughbreds!  Made me miss my horse so much though!  I really want to find an 'in' at the track and maybe spend some time there behind the scenes!  Today, I happened to spend about a half hour chatting with the GM of the place and he was very nice!  I plan on making trips up there frequently to watch and continue working my way in!  If nothing else, I at least need to go stare at the horse I fell in love with today!  He was my dream man!

Starting gate!

And they are offfff!  

the race is on . . 

The name of the racetrack!

winners circle

starting gate!

racing!

my new love!

GORGEOUS!!

He is giving me the eye! <3

ahh perfection!

the cool trophy

The sun in the roof! 

Christmas in the Caribbean....As a teacher

Luckily for me, I have AMAZING students who are very supportive of me and my homesickness at times!  This year, they helped me turn our classroom into a Christmas winter wonderland and did such a great job doing it!  We hung snowflakes from the ceiling, made a paper christmas tree, hung stockings and made gingerbread men for our bulletin board!  Since they were so good to me, I made them all salt-dough snowmen ornaments for Christmas!  I am NOT an artsy person, so this was a big deal for me!  I made the dough, created them, painted them, and wrote to each individual student on them!  We also did Holiday's Around the World and our last book/project was for The Legend of Old Befana - an Italian legend, so we made broom sticks, which I turned into their gift bags!  What fun!  On the last day of school, I also (also a big deal for me) made HOMEMADE gingerbread and let the kids cut out their gingerbread man and decorate him!  They LOVED it!!  Felt good to see so many smiling faces and feel so much love from students!  Here are some pictures:

The gingerbread men we made!

our tree and our stockings!

My kids!

Step 1 of the snowmen ornaments!

Finished product!

up close - so cute!  Love them! 

And personalized! 

our broomsticks that represent the legend of old befana and were also the kids ''gift bags' for their presents (with their snowmen they got a bell - because we watched and read polar express and a candy cane!)

brooms!

decorating gingerbread cookies!  And the comment of the day was "ask me again ms. leann how good these are. "  me - " ok- how good are they guys?"  them - " better than good, better than awesome!  You are the best teacher ever!"  Easily pleased children - love it! 

The Villa

We are finally all moved and settled in the Villa.  It is beautiful, homey, and so comfortable.  We really couldn't ask for a better place to call home than this while we are here!  I will attach some pictures below!  

The pool outside the living room doors!

pool again!

living room

Stairs to bedroom and laundry room downstairs

Hallway from living room to front door and kitchen on the right

high ceilings in the living room/kitchen

'dining room' within open living room area

Couch and front patio doors

Lizard/Gecko thing.  They are frequently in our bedroom.

Empty wine bottles turned picture frames!

Sunrise from the front porch in the morning! 

Sunrise from the front porch again

Our little Christmas tree <3

I will try to get some better pictures in the light soon!  We are loving it here, feel very at home and are quite happy!  We even entertained and had some friends over on Friday night before everyone left!  It felt good to have my own place to do that in!  I made looots of food!

mmm!  good food!

Round 1 of entertaining at the Villa!

Since we have moved in, we have taken full advantage of the fact that we have an oven and have made so many great dinners, desserts, cookies, anything and everything!  We are loving it!  I wish everyone could find a way to come visit at some point and see the life we live here, the good, the bad and the ugly!

More updates to come - more frequently I hope!