Let's go fly a kite...

We headed to Coral Gardens on Tuesday to go for a snorkel.   Here the boys are in all their gear.  Unfortunately, the weather hasn't really been co operating since they've been here so the water was a little choppy and murkier than usual but they still managed to see some parrotfish, grunts and snappers (and even a sea cucumber!)  We will hopefully go back when the wind dies down to spot some more...

but thanks to the wind and a quick kite repair it was back to kite flying again!

as we watched the sun set...

a pretty good backdrop for any activity right?!

On Wednesday whilst By and I were at work, Cam and Kevin went on a little kayaking adventure.

They kayaked through the mangroves...

and ended up at Little Water Cay, a.k.a Iguana Island! what a whopper!

When we got in from work we headed to one of our nearby beaches and the boys went snorkelling for conch.  Here they are attempting to enter the water with their flippers on! and check out Cam's awesome Caribbean style board-shorts...pineapples and coconuts and all!

They didn't manage to find any conch this time, but we will be visiting Conch Shack next week and they have some pretty spectacular shells there! 

On Wednesday evenings, us and the rest of the Island (so it seemed) headed to Tiki Hut for their Chicken 'n' Ribs night.  If there's one thing these South African boys like even better than the sun, it's ribs!

Cam and Kevin are working well on their tans, they've pretty much surpassed mine already but you can see in the pic below they've still got some catching up to do to compete with By!

 

Today was a bit of a washout, rain all day! which hardly ever happens here in Provo! so once the rain stopped this evening the boys headed to the dock to do some fishing...not much was biting - the weather still wasn't great so we headed home for some brownies instead! 

We're hoping for a  big improvement in the weather this weekend for all the fun things we have planned!

Back to school blues...overcome by desserts and sunsets!

So it was back to work for me last week...boo, but I consoled myself by getting some tasty dessert at Tiki Hut! Too bad for Mara, we had planned to try their desserts whilst she was here but had so much else to fit in that we never got around to it! oh well...guess she will just have to come back! especially for some Banana Zango because it was the best! 

A warm cinnamon covered tortilla filled with cheesecake, banana and coconut! delish! By got cookie delight: two fresh baked cookies served with ice cream but we shared so we got to try both.  This followed their amazing Chicken and Ribs...Wednesday night is the best night to go! 

Apparently everyone else on the Island thinks so too because the place was packed! We've been several times in the past but never seen it so busy! We went on a nice after dinner walk around Turtle Cove Marina and got this great shot with the lights of Tiki Hut reflecting in the water.

Byron also sneakily snapped me jigging to some Bob Marley beats.

The lights of the Marina looked pretty cool.  In other news Byron caught this whopper of a fish, it was his biggest catch to date! He blackened the fish in a frying pan, Island style, and served it up to the Missionaries when they came over for dinner and we still have tons of it left so tonight he is cooking us up a coconut and mango fish curry...yum yum! 

Just before Christmas, a local company who one of the boys mother works for raised donations for new toys for the therapy house, and we were able to put all the funds together to buy this awesome 'bounce house'.  

It is certainly a hit with the boys and is great to help them release some of that excess energy they have so much of! 

I love this shot of Josiah...what a cutie! 

When we unplug it and it deflates, Jo runs over to it and throws his arms down on it and says 'you okay?'!!  Yes he's quite the caring boy!

Yesterday we took a sunset kayak ride over to Iguana Island.  The water was so calm and By decided it was time to get me to try my skipping stone skills out again.  He has been trying to teach me since we arrived on Island...and so far I've never managed to skip! until yesterday when I managed to make the stone skip 3 times...result! (P.s if you look closely you can check my crazy sunburn I got on my back! I haven't got sunburnt since we arrived!)

By is a bit of a pro and can make his stone skip 8 or 9 times.

It was an awesome scene as the sun was setting and we headed back home...

A passing speedboat made a few mini waves...

and we headed back down the canal towards our house...

I love the silhouette of those trees! and I love chilled out Kayak rides across the ocean - fun times!!

Kayaks, capsizing and calm waters!

This is the amazing weather we awoke to this morning!! The sun was shining and boiling hot at 7am!! and the water was calm calm calm so there was only really one thing to do...go on a kayaking adventure!

By was a bit of a pro...he must have built up his arm muscles with all that furniture he's been sanding recently...

and we were the two slow coaches who lagged behind the whole day! despite having double the power to paddle with! but you must admit our synchronised paddling is pretty impressive! 

I soon learnt that Mara was rather sneakily lying down in the back...so our man power was slightly diminished due to her lazing about! 

We kayaked through the Mangroves which was pretty cool, the water was super shallow and some of these Mangroves have the hugest roots! Plus we saw a baby shark which was pretty exciting! (if you look closely it's in the top right hand corner of the picture)

Our next stop was Iguana Island...Mar made sure she brushed up on her 'Iguana Etiquette' before we set foot on the Island! 

Mara: 'Oh my goodness, is that an Iguana?'

Me: Umm no Mar, that's a model! There's an Iguana! 

We saw lots of massive Iguanas! and Mar was amazed at the tuquoise hue of the water! 

After that we headed for Half Moon Bay which is a private and secluded beach, we had a little pit stop to exchange kayaks.  The kayak Mara and I had been using had filled up with water and we were capsizing left and right! We were pleased to find out it wasn't due to the strain of our weight! but had in fact just filled up with too much water at a previous pit stop we made! 

So we opened the valve and let the water out...and it just kept on coming! No wonder we were finding it so hard to control! 

So we did a quick swop...By got the rather fetching pink kayak - here he is showing off his incredible tan! curse his African skin! 

Although next to Mara, my tan actually looks pretty good too! as you can see Mara's lazing around continued in the turquoise kayak too! but she was still slightly jet lagged so I let it slide! 

We reached the beach and the waves were pretty wild! but very fun...

you can't beat that turquoise water! 

We walked across to the opposite side of the Island and this was the view that we found! It was pretty spectacular! 

And how do we end a perfect day? with Burgers and Mint Oreo shakes of course! yum!