Sunny days...sweeping the clouds away!

“Thorns may hurt you, men desert you, 

sunlight turn to fog; but you’re never friendless ever, if you have a dog.”

I love this quote, it has been so applicable to my life over the past 7 months.  Things here on the Island haven't always been as exotic and exciting as I make out on the blog! and one thing's for sure Sunny has made my days brighter regardless of everything that's been going on, and it's hard for me to imagine life without him going forward (cue the 8th time I have cried today!)

On Monday night we went for our last sunset walk on the beach together at our local beach. 

Look at those cute little paw prints!

and here's my footsteps along with his.

When we first got Sunny he hated the car and never wanted to go in it.  He would run a mile if he thought you wanted him to get in.  The times when he needed to go to the vet, we would have to coax him in with pieces of ham and even then he wasn't happy! In the past month or so all that has changed and he hops in the car as soon as you open the door, even if you weren't necessarily planning on taking him! Last night I had to run some last minute errands and he of course wanted to come, I managed to snap this pic of us quick.

I had decided I wanted to make one last visit to my favourite beach on the Island, Taylor Bay.  We passed this street sign, and I've always wanted to take a picture of it with the lovely turquoise hues of Chalk Sound in the background, Picturesque Lane is certainly apt! 

We arrived at Taylor Bay and Sunny headed straight for the water, it had been a pretty warm car ride... 

 and as soon as he's out of the water his favourite thing to do is roll in the sand, I don't think he likes to feel wet! 

This afternoon we took our final walk on the beach and then we headed home to hand him over to his new family.

It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to him, I know he will be well loved - the two little boys he will be living with just adore him and have been so excited all week about being able to come and take him to their home....

but that still doesn't make it any less sad.  He has been a part of our family and he will certainly be missed, but we know we helped to save his life and that we were able to give him lots of love whilst in our care and we hope he will always remember us :) maybe one day in the future we will even return and get to pay him a visit! 

It was very sad to return to an empty house tonight, after having a delicious conch curry at the Behlmaier's!, and to not have Sunny's happy face and wagging tail there to greet me but I know Eden (above) will be taking good care of him for us and I know that we have made enough memories with him to last a lifetime! 

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!

The boys are back in town...

So the Braithwaite boys were finally reunited yesterday (minus Ja who will be hitting up the slopes of Andorra next week) and doing what they do best they headed straight to the beach.

There's no denying that they are South African through and through with their love of the sea and the sun!

Not even the choppy water could keep them away, here is Kevin diving straight in for a swim!

By and Cam were picking the best wave spot to ride the boogie board! 

When we got home it was time to open up all the prezzies that were sent over for us! You can see the pure excitement on my face...check out all that English chocolate! and my cupcake tee my mom sent for me.

By's dad also had a few hours to kill in NYC on a layover and went to M&M world to buy us that bottle full! The awesome lipglosses and polka dot pumps are from my mom as are all the malteser bunnies...which are fading fast right now! 

By's mom, Kathy, sent me these amazing cupcake earrings! and plenty of dairy milk to go around and By even got some little rubber duck earphones since he has a bit of a duck collection going on back home!

This morning, the wind was still going pretty strong, but it was perfect kite flying weather! So we headed to The Point with a kite By's dad had brought over from England.

By holds it in the ready position...

and all it needed was a gust of wind to send it soaring...

it kept them all entertained for about 15 minutes until unfortunately the wind got a bit too strong and it broke!

Here is Sunny and his new best friend, Cam, as I write this he is licking Cam's ear off on the sofa right now! 

After that we headed to Taylor Bay for some calmer water, and some swimming and sunbathing time.

This evening, despite the wind still blowing strong, there was no better place to watch the sunset go down then 'Somewhere' our fave Mexican restaurant.

Here are the boys with their fruit punches, and By snapped this sneaky shot of me...too bad you can't see I'm wearing my polka dot pumps here too! 

You have to love eating quesadilla's, listening to Gwen and watching the sun set! It was a great evening...

and I think the fact that we devoured our food within about 10 minutes proved how much we all enjoyed it! 

After the sun goes down, they light up the tiki torches and turn on all the terrace lights.

How we love being able to share all these cool places with our family, it's going to be an awesome two weeks!