Billy’s family came to visit us in
June and it was a blast! It was his parents’ second trip (they’re averaging
once per term) and they brought along Billy’s brother and his 2 kids and fiancé
as of last month (who also happens to be my best friend. Matchmaking done
right, people). Since our apartment is TINY, they all stayed at the Radisson.
His parents’ had already experienced being crammed into our apartment, and I
think our 1977 TV model and the fact that we only run the AC at night is what
made the decision to actually get a room next time. Plus, none of them pay for
their flights EVER, so they could splurge on a room. Don’t feel bad for them.
Visitors are always fun because it
forces us to do a bunch of things that we probably wouldn’t have the motivation/money
to do if it were just us. And because they smuggle in all my packages I’ve been
racking up for the past 2 months. So, it’s like Christmas—family, vacation
activities, and packages galore!
One time, the summer before 9th
grade, my best friend and I dated best friends (don’t tell my Dad). It was
glorious. We had kind of planned it out and we had so much fun together. Then,
one of us broke up the next week, and I’ve been looking for ways to make that
situation work out ever since, to no avail. And then we move to Grenada and my
best friend starts dating Billy’s brother! Leave it to fate to give me what
I’ve always dreamed/schemed, but then I can’t even enjoy it because we live in
separate countries. We FaceTime a lot and we hung out over Christmas, of
course, but it was crazy fun to have them be here in Grenada and show them our
stomping grounds.
Having Mac and Jet here was so fun,
but it really made us aware of how hard the island would be with kids. I’d say
that when going out to eat in Grenada, the average dinner is about 3 hours
long. Everything takes forever. We had gotten used to it, but add a 7 and 4-year old (or a 62, 60, 32, 29, 25, and 23-year old, for that matter) who are all super
hangry, and the dinners seem like 6 hours. We’ve learned to go to dinner before
we’re even hungry because we’ll be starving by the time we get our food. Which
is maybe why we’ve gained so much weight this summer. And now we’re hoping the
stress of 4th term will burn it all off.
I’ve learned that when I pick up visitors
from the airport, I must wear sunglasses, no matter the time of day so that my
tears will be hidden. For some reason, airports make me super emotional. I love
seeing or experiencing reunions and hate the goodbyes. That first scene of Love Actually gets me every time. Or
maybe I just have PTSD from all the delayed flights in my life. Whatever the
reason, I’m always a wreck. My most recent flight chose to play a Nicholas
Sparks movie—whoever at American Airlines had that idea, should be fired.
Nobody wants to cry in a plane full of strangers. And I was seated near the
bathroom, so I had a long line of people wondering why I was bawling my eyes
out. I considered telling them I’d had a death in the family—I was sobbing that
hard. So, as soon as that 6-some stepped out the airport doors in their
Avenger’s shirts and luggage full of my packages, the tears were flowing. Oh
and then Mac jumped right into my arms, death-gripped me, and I melted
completely. Too bad sunglasses can’t disguise the gross crying noises and snot
running into my mouth.
The rest of the week, I was able to
hold myself together a little better. I didn’t have as much time to play with
my bestie as I would have liked since she was wrangling two kiddos around. But,
let’s face it, she could move down here and live with us and I still wouldn’t
be able to see her enough. But, seeing how good she is with Mac and Jet was so
much fun for me. You couldn’t ask for a better step-mom.
When people come to visit, I always
start planning all these fun excursions, and forget that the best part about
this place is the beautiful beaches. They can’t be beat. We are all beach
people, so we just spent a lot of time relaxing and playing at the beach and
pool. The ocean in Grenada is really
like a big infinity pool because there are never really any waves—especially on
the Caribbean side. Which is perfect for little kiddos.
We were so excited to take the boys
snorkeling for their first time. Billy had shown Mac how to put the snorkel
mask on in the pool the day before we went. Then, we all took a catamaran to
the best spot to snorkel—Flamingo Bay. The water was crystal clear that day,
and I just knew they would fall in love with it like Billy and I have. I could snorkel all day long and never get
tired. That’s nothing about my physical abilities—but I just have so much
adrenaline when I see a cool fish/creature and get to watch life under the sea.
Billy and I are both Aquarius—the water sign (don’t worry about it, I explained
it all HERE). And we are just drawn to the ocean, lakes, rivers, and waterfalls.
I may have been a whale in another life. Well, I’m also a whale in this life,
but that’s beside the point. Anyway, we had such high hopes for this snorkel
trip to instill (brainwash) our love of the sea to these young minds.
Mac jumps
in the water first, and starts heading towards the reef. Then, we hear these
blood-curdling screams. I immediately think of sharks or rocks. He starts
swimming back to the boat with tears in his eyes, and when he gets out, there’s
no sign of blood. So, I of course think he’s being a baby and he just got
scared of the deep water. I have plans to go throw him back in and to suck it
up, when Jet starts screaming too. They both just say “It hurts, it hurts!”
They have no idea what it was though. That’s when I knew—jellyfish. There were
so many tiny jellyfish—you can’t even see them, they just look like a wad of
spit. Poor Jet had little red marks all over his chest. So, after seeing their
reactions, none of the adults wanted to go snorkeling anymore. And Mac and Jet
probably won’t snorkel again until they’re 50. Luckily, Billy made us all feel
like wimps and so we got in and snorkeled anyway. He’s always good for positive
peer pressure. But, I’m so glad we did, because the water was so clear, and we
saw a turtle! So, those jellyfish did come in handy (that’s what turtles eat).
And we saw so many beautiful fish. We each got stung about a thousand times,
but most of them were just little stings that didn’t leave a mark. And we’re
really tough and brave.
This was the first time we had used
our red lens for our GoPro. The red lens makes underwater images so much
clearer because it makes the green seem more blue somehow. I don’t really
understand it, but the before and after pictures on Amazon sold me. Anyway, we
went to look at the pictures and videos of the day, and were so disappointed to
see that they were all red! The water was so clear that day that it didn’t even
need a filter! We are such rookies. So, does anyone know how to un-filter or
cancel out the red on videos and pictures? Since I always need more pictures of
fish and turtles in my iPhoto library. I bet I have 100 GB dedicated to
snorkeling pictures that I’ll never look at again.
You know
how kids usually collect seashells at the beach? Well, in Grenada, there aren’t
too many seashells, but we sure have a lot of bottlecaps! The litterbug
mentality of Grenadians actually benefited us. So, Mac and Jet adapted to the
culture and collected “bobblecaps” as Jet calls them. I’ve never seen someone so
excited about picking up trash. Plus, we were helping the environment—win, win!
Jet would stop everything to get more bobblecaps for his collection. 4-year
olds and their beer.
We “hiked”
or rather,“twenty-minute walked” to Mt. Carmel falls and Mac even went down a
rockslide. Grandpa Bill’s spoiling reached a new level when he promised Mac they
could bring his bamboo walking stick (more like a tree trunk) home on the
airplane with him. “But, Ms. Customs Agent, I promised the 7-year old he could
keep it” isn’t likely to bode well. Then, we made our way to La Sagesse beach
to kayak and play in the waves. We blocked off the whole beach with our beach
chairs. Oh, and we found the best banana splits on the whole island. We may or
may not be making the 30 minute drive back later just for the ice cream.
The boys
got their first taste of gambling at the hermit crab races. Quite the
adrenaline rush, let me tell ya. We also went up to the rainforest to try to see
one of the elusive Mona monkeys, but no such luck. I have been up there on ten
separate occasions and have tried every trick in the book, and I’m starting to
think they don’t exist. I even have the best monkey call of anyone I know. And
if anyone tells me that they saw a monkey on their first time up there, I might
punch them in the face. So, we ended up going to Annandale waterfall where a
local has a monkey on a chain. The guy had already left for the day, but since
I had lured the boys to the rainforest with the promise of monkeys, I paid
extra for the monkey man to come back. I don’t know how I feel about supporting
this man who has captured this poor monkey, but it sure made for some cute
pictures. And that’s what life is all about, right?
We were
able to go see Jurassic World with Sky and Steph one night while Bill and Stacy
watched the boys. One night before it came out in the U.S., I might add. Living
internationally can sure have its perks. I don’t know if it was cause I love
dinosaurs so much, or because I love Steph and Sky so much, or even because I
love Chris Pratt so much, but the movie was AMAZING. I could watch it every day
I think. But that might be because we actually do watch Jurassic Park every
night before falling asleep, and I need some new material. Billy loves to fall
asleep to JP for some reason. But hanging out with our little foursome made me
actually miss being in Utah, which never really happens. I always miss the
people of course, but it made me miss the stuff that we are missing out on
while out here. Living internationally can also have its downfalls, especially
in regards to my FOMO.
On their
last night, we went to dinner at Savvy’s on the beach and had some really good
local food. Then, we followed it up with music and dancing around a beach
bonfire. Oh, and can’t forget the s’mores. Then we ended the night by trying to
get a lizard out of Bill and Stacy’s hotel room. By far, the most hilarious
thing I’ve ever watched. For all their bravado, Billy and Skyler are kind of
wusses. They kept trying to give up but Stacy wouldn’t let anyone leave until
that lizard was as far away from their room as possible. Which was pretty funny
to me since we have at least two lizards who climb in through our AC unit every
night. We have a symbiotic relationship—they eat all the bugs for us, and we
clean up their poop and try not to step on them.
It was such
a memorable week filled with some of our favorite people. And now we know who
really loves us the most.
Here are a million pictures of the trip for those that know how good looking we all are:
