Steak, Starfish, Scuba, Shakes and Sunset S'mores!

It's been a busy few days! and the boys have been growing tired with my constant need to photograph EVERYthing! so instead of a nice posed shot of Steak Night at Tiki Hut on Friday you have one of them attacking each other with their knives instead! What can I say...I tried! 

I stuck to a burger instead, being the non steak lover I am...but I think the steak was pretty well received all round.  Why is 'Steak Night' so special? well we found out once we got there you get a free bottle of wine with your steak! so we indulged in some fruit punch instead!

On Saturday we headed to Pirate's Cove, and stopped at By's fave spot on the beach to skim stones! The water was amazingly calm...perfect skimming condition!

We have decided to rename Bonefish Point 'Starfish Point', we saw at least 15 different starfish while we were there, and they were all pretty big ones like in the picture above!

After that we headed to Turtle Cove where Cam and Kevin took to the pool to undergo their scuba training! Here they are getting suited up! 

It took a little getting used to at first but afterwards they were swimming underwater like pro's ready for their day out at sea.

We made a quick stop at JoJo's on the way home, the thoughts of freshly baked cookies and shakes worked in my favour and the boys were actually willing to pose for a shot!

By got a chocolate shake, made with chocolate unlike last time! Check out the awesome glass sided pool behind him...you can watch people as they swim by but somehow their heads above water don't link up with their bodies underneath the surface - it's a weird optical illusion! Unfortunately with it being a bit breezy none of us were up for a swim which By was greatly disappointed about! 

On Sunday we headed to Emerald Beach for a BBQ (or Braai as the South Africans would say) i

Sausages and steaks all round, and the conch shells on the beach made handy holders for our grill!

We got to watch a pretty cool sunset, although it was slightly hidden by some humungous clouds!

and then the boys started up the bonfire.

Then it was time to enjoy some s'mores, it was Cam and Kevin's first time trying them and they got thumbs up all round! Who knows the next time we will all find ourselves toasting s'mores on the beach, so we made the most of it!

A shot where, for once, I'm on the other side of the camera!

By got arty with the reflecting flames in Cam's shades!

This morning Cam and Kevin got to put their skills in to practice and went out on a dive excursion with the company By has been working for.  

By also got to dive with them, and managed to take lots of awesome shots down under!

Here's Cam as he starts to explore around...

and an awesome shot of the air bubbles

Everyone gathered around to take a closer look at...

two sharks swimming right past each other! As By snapped this he was told to turn around where he caught this shark headed straight for him! 

Here's Kevin happily posing for Byron! 

 They saw alot of cool stuff today including this Southern Sting Ray....

and a ton of yellow tail snappers, these were the ones hitting By in the face last time around!

Check out the electric blue on that Striped Grunt! 

and just to prove Byron was under there too! Today was his 16th dive, and after doing two more at the end of this week he will have completed his advanced open water certification...just in time to head back to the U.K, and believe it or not Bangor Uni even has a diving club which he can join when we head there in September.

and what do hungry divers in the Turks and Caicos eat for dinner?

Conch of course...at Da Conch Shack

The wind was blowing like crazy again this evening, so we actually ate inside 'the shack' for once! and I thought this little window was cute with the palm leaves blowing outside.

We also took the opportunity to buy some amazing conch shells from the sellers on the beach right outside.  From Left to Right: Regular conch, Queen conch, King Conch, Baby conch.  These are going to make great little souvenirs back in England!

Loaded plates! didn't stay loaded for long! and for once I was actually asked to take this photo...to document the conch fest!

I can't believe we only have 4 days left with By's family, the time has flown by! By only has 6 more days on the Island and I only have 10! The countdown is on!

An action packed week...

I can't believe how much we have done this week, and it's not even Friday yet! We are just packing in as much as we can and trying to show Mar as much of the island as possible, and loving every minute of it!

On Monday we dedicated the day to beach volleyball! Mara is an even bigger volleyball fan than me, and was so looking forward to Friday night volleyball when she came. However, I completely forgot to inform her that since the clocks changed and the sun sets earlier beach volleyball doesn't happen anymore! She was pretty disappointed so we met up with some people from church and played all afternoon which was so fun...and of course it wouldn't be Monday without a little bit of Mexican so we finished off the night with a yummy taco bake.

Tuesday brought some not so hot weather, perhaps Mar brought it over from England! So our plan to hang out at the beach was ruined by the 'chilly' wind...first day I've worn long sleeves since I've been on the island! These were the waves that greeted us at the usually calm waters of Emerald Beach...

But we did manage to get some good shell collecting in!

Then we went on a little Bike ride down to Grace Bay to check out some of the tourist shops, which are pretty tacky, but we got some tasty banana and mango milkshakes at Giggles to make up for the disappointing shops!

We found this cool mural painted on the wall, this is the whole of the Turks and Caicos Islands...here I am showing you where Provo is!

Yesterday the weather co-operated with us and so we ventured out to Chalk Sound. The turquoise hues were amazing as usual...

Next, we went swimming at Taylor Bay beach, I love the shallow waters there! 

  

We were even able to play a little sea frisbee...

And we found a starfish which was exciting for Mar!

We took a stroll the whole way along the bay...

and found a little shipwreck which By took some shots of, and then we wanted to try somewhere tasty for lunch!

I've been drooling over the beach BBQ menu at the Gansevoort hotel for a while now and so we decided to give it a try. The hotel itself is so snazzy, we had to take a pic in the gorgeous lobby!

And we sat on these nice white sofa chairs overlooking the beach, and were able to see our lunch being cooked.

It all looked so good Mara couldn't decide what to have!

So in the end By and Mara shared meals of Jerk Chicken and Mahi Mahi, which they were trying for the first time.  It is a local fish here and Mara said it was the best fish she had ever eaten. We were beyond impressed with our meals, and the prices were reasonable too!

After that we went on a beach stroll and decided to pop in at Windsong Resort. We'd heard good things about the homemade cookies and milkshakes at JoJo's Cafe. The milkshakes were

some of the biggest I've seen and mine was super tasty...By and Mar had a slight mix up with their chocolate milkshakes which somehow ended up being Cappucino flavoured...not so cool! But the homemade choc chip cookies were delicious 2nd time round! Our first batch ended up being a little burnt!

Last night Mar and I continued with our Christmas bakefest and stayed up 'til Midnight decorating and icing gingerbread cookies! They were going to be the toppers for our gingerbread cupcakes we made this morning...check out more on my baking blog

Today By went out with a dive company, it's owned by some people from our church and he is helping them out from time to time. He was pretty excited as they taught him how to drive the speed boat today so he cruised to French Cay and spent the day at Sea...topping up his already crazy tan no doubt!

Mara and I went to top up our tans at the beach and then went for a bike ride after By got home to Long Bay Beach, on the other side of the island.

We found a whole pile of cracked conch and enjoyed listening to the ocean! By showed us some of his impressive conch blowing skills that he picked up from The Conch Festival

Tonight, after we have a fish dinner provided by the big catch By brought home from fishing last night, we're heading to the beach to make s'mores around the fire!