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! 

Taylor Bay Beach

So the exploring continues! and we hit another spot I've been wanting to see for a while now! On Tuesday, the last day of my 5 day weekend, we headed out to find Taylor Bay.  It wasn't the easiest place to find and as usual there are never any signs to anywhere! but when we reached this, it was worth driving down a few of the same roads over and over:

As usual we were the only people on the beach! It was an amazingly secluded spot with those super vibrant turquoise waters and white sand.  The strip of beach is pretty small here but what's cool about Taylor Bay is the water is shallow all the way out to where you can see the change in the colour of the ocean.  I've heard of people who own those lilo's that have spaces for drinks in who come out here and just float on the water all afternoon! I must remember to buy one of those one day...fill it with root beer and head back to this very spot and do just that! 

Imagine these lucky lucky people who live here and get to wake up to this view every morning! I've picked my future house for staying on the Island! 

Check out that clear water! It never ceases to amaze me.

We stopped in at Sapodilla Hill on the way back from Taylor Bay.  We went to Sapodilla Bay a few weeks back, and after we returned I was browsing on the internet and found out that there are ancient inscriptions at that spot too, so we went to try and hunt them down.  We climbed what we thought was Sapodilla Hill and found nothing, although we did find this cool little monument right on the top of the hill, I thought it made a fun picture! 

I later found out we climbed the wrong hill, we should have climbed the larger one behind us to see the inscriptions - oh well we'll just have to make another return trip soon! 

In other news, Byron had his first taste of kiteboarding this week.  I'd like to tell you that's him in the picture above, but it's not, just a random kiteboarder that was at the beach the same time as By.  Since it was his first time he didn't even get to the water, but just had to get used to the kite on the sand.  Apparently they are huge and crazy heavy so it takes some work to control it! He went with our Branch President who is Argentinean.  He is a keen Kiteboarder so I'm sure they'll be doing it more in the future.  

Also Byron had his first wedding yesterday, it went really well and he took some great shots! He also emailed some photos he has taken recently to a friend of ours who owns a gallery here.  She let him know yesterday she has a buyer already who wants to have these 3 prints below put on to giant canvases to go on the wall in her living room - so things are really looking up work wise for By and his photography is going down a storm.  

I think we're being blessed for the work we are doing here in building up the kingdom of God in the Provo branch! I've just realised I haven't yet posted but last Sunday Byron and I got new 'callings' at church.  A calling for those who don't know is like a responsibility you are given, an opportunity to serve at church.  So I am now the new Primary President and Byron is the Sunday School President, which means he oversees all the different scripture classes we have running on a Sunday and I oversee the primary organisation which is for all children at our church between the ages of 3-12.  My sister Mel actually does the same thing back in Leeds.  The funny thing is though in the UK and the States you usually have a Primary President along with counsellors, a music leader, teachers for individual age groups and a whole team of adults who oversee the children.  In Turks and Caicos that team consists of me, just me! It means alot of preparation before Sunday and it's going to be busy busy but I'm excited for it, and have so many fun things planned for the kids!