The final days...

So our time in TCI is very quickly coming to an end.  We had a farewell dinner with our friends, The Behlmaier's, consisting of some awesome burgers and of course cupcakes! and some apples to apples (a U.S board game).  We are sure going to miss our games nights with them! 

On the day Cam and Kevin left they had their last snorkel of their trip...at Smith's Reef.  Somewhere Byron has been wanting to go for ages and now wishes he had found sooner, as they saw alot of good stuff there! 

Check out this lionfish! If only they'd had a spear on hand (they are trying to kill as many as possible here in TCI as they are doing some serious damage to the local fish population)

Here's Kevin and By enjoying their time down on the reef.

 On Saturday By went for his very last scuba dive, sad times! Although exciting too, because this last dive meant he has now completed his advanced open water course.  He had to do two types of dive: the first, a navigation...here he is with his underwater compass:

His 2nd type of dive was in underwater photography...how apt! and the sea life were certainly ready to pose! this nurse shark circled By for a while and eventually settled down on the ocean bed for a snooze right in front of By!

This is a Parrotfish, my favourite kind of fish to see here...

and By's fave is the Queen Angel Fish

There was alot of different coloured coral to see, and I think By got some awesome shots...

 like this bubble pic!

Another one of By's fave things to see under the water is a sea cucumber, and this one was especially large! 

and here is some rather originally named 'brain coral'! 

On Friday night we had a lovely homemade pizza feast at our Branch President's home, and on Saturday night we got treated to delicious meal at Caicos Cafe by some of our Canadian friends from the branch. We wanted to try and eat somewhere we'd never eaten before on By's last night, and it certainly didn't disappoint! We got some amazing ribs...yes I'm now a rib convert! and one thing we're defo going to miss is the good food here in Provo! 

We've also just been spending as much time with this little guy as we can (he's keeping me company until I'm reunited with By!)

This was By's last shot with Sunny :(

and this is Byron's 'I don't want to go home' face as we waited in the check in queue at the airport.  When we arrived they checked in two people at the front of the queue, and then the two check in desk workers went to get some dinner in the cafe within view of us, so the queue of 40 or so people watched and waited until the staff finished their dinner before they checked the rest of the flight in! One of the things we won't be missing about living on the Island! 

He is back home in the U.K now, and I have 3 more sleeps to go! until then it's corn dogs and root beer for dinner - oh yeah! 

Scuba, Sunbathing and Sunsets at Chinson's...and it's only Day 3!

So today Jay-dee got to put into practice her newly learnt skills and go on her very first dive...ever, and what better place to do your first dive then here in Providenciales!

We took a 45 minute boat ride out to the dive site at North West Point. The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the water was clear and it was the perfect day to see some fish!

By and Jade got suited and booted, and then it was time to jump off the boat!

After a few last minute nerves and a slight panic on the surface after Jade's weight belt fell off, she made her way down to 60 ft and was diving like a pro in no time.

Here are the triumphant divers after their 1st dive, they saw alot of tropical fish but not too much else so they were ready and eager to take on the 2nd one!

The 2nd one proved much more fruitful, and they saw a pretty big barracuda (which Jade is still seeing when she closes her eyes days later!) it gave her quite a scare! along with a reef shark, an enormous lobster, a turtle and a sting ray.

As they made their way back to the boat, the captain told me to throw some pringles out in Jade's direction.  The fish would eagerly swim to the surface to eat them up, and she would get to see them up close! Unfortunately as I threw the pringles in Jade's direction the wind blew and they went in the opposite direction ending up right on top of Byron.  The next minute a whole group of 10 or so snapper fish were surrounding him gobbling up the pringles and one over zealous snapper ended up flapping around in his face! It was pretty hilarious, and I was laughing so hard I forgot I had the camera in my hand so I'm afraid I didn't get to capture it! but if you look closely in the pic above (which I took straight after) you can still see some of the snapper lurking behind him! 

Everyone was all smiles after the 2nd dive, and after eating some cupcakes! it was time to just soak up the sun on the boat ride back to the marina...

...and what a boat ride it was! 

Here we are with Bridget, Jade's dive instructor and our friend from church.

After the diving fun was over we went up Harbour View Drive which is a great little lookout point and By snapped this pic of us and the crazy turquoise ocean behind us! 

We also got a good view of the marina where we had set out from on the dive boat.

We headed back to Emerald Beach (our local) to soak up some sun before dinner time.  Jade was amazed at the conch that you can just find randomly on the beach! 

and we spent a couple of hours working on our tans...

and it seems Jade's 'photographing Sunny obsession' is rubbing off on me too and I couldn't help but snap away as he wondered around...

...he's actually getting pretty good at posing for me now! Check out that cutie pie!

As it was Friday night, where else does one head but Chinson's, because their Jerk Chicken special is amazingly awesome! The owner happily posed with Jade for a pic as the sun was setting in the background, and we tried to restrain ourselves on the drive home from not eating it all up but it was hard because it smelt sooo good!

So it was a day of firsts all round and Jade's experience with Jerk Chicken was definitely a good one! and is sure to be just as memorable as her first scuba dive too!!