Special Friends, Growing with Friends, & Sugar Stacks!

Special Friends, Growing with Friends, & Sugar Stacks!

Keeping with the same gift idea for some very special sweet friends we took Courtney and May-Rubya out for their photo shoot!  I think they had some fun along with my crazy frustration on trying to get it right!  They were troopers!  It was so funny watching them try to do these saucy poses but I convinced them that all sweetness was the way to go! Here are some of the fun pictures that we took. Again unedited.

They in insisted on having a picture taken with these awesome booze bottles they found washed up on the beach!  Funny girls!

One of the first friends we ever made on the island, they had been there for 4 years, decided it was time for them to move on to another adventure on Bonaire! We were so excited for them but so so sad that they were leaving.  The good part about it, if there was a good part, that they only left a month and a half before we did.  So there wasn’t much time to miss them on the island but plenty of time off the island. (We knew that was as given.) We spent a lot of time with them, especially the kids, and grew to love and cherish them.

Mr. Eric went first thing in the morning along with two of their dogs. 

And there I invited Anike and the kids to come for some breakfast before their flight later on that morning.  It was so nice to have them to ourselves just one more special time before they went.

Not long after our breakfast it was off to the airport to bid them farewell. It was such a sad goodbye.  We Love you.

Katie, Niz, S-Ade, Courtney, & Sarah

This was the saddest goodbye ever.  Love you Zay.

 And little Niz said she wasn't going to cry, and she was a rock right before she had to walk through security.  Love you too Niz.

Playing and communicating as much as they could between the glass before hey had to leave.  We will never forget you all.

 I had to throw a picture of this plant in here between these farewells.  It’s a bird of paradise that grew in our garden.  We had quite a few beautiful plants in the yard but I’m not sure I took enough pictures of them.  But this one is very pretty.

Matt – What more can I say!  Fun big brother my kids aren’t related to – I guess you could say!  He was headed back to Florida after a visit with his family - our wonderful friends Debbie and Sarah! We had to say one last farewell to him too. Bye Matty!

Signing  the kids books with lots of love and words!  - Right Matt!

There is so much going on these last few weeks here on lovely Statia!!  Courtney had her end of the year party for her afterschool program with Tr. Chris – Growing with Love. It was a fun time for parent and their children to get together and play together.  I was able to bring Jase and Katie too!  Jase got there and we were talking with Mr. Kerkoff and he invited Jase over to hang out with his son Mattaï.  Jase was really please to do that! So it was just the girls and I at the party and the Terminal Park.  There were lots of yummy snacks and lots of friends to play with.  I organized a couple of random games with the loose tires around the park, played with the kids and walked around taking some pictures!  It was a really nice way to end the year!

Chris, Me and Cleo.

As we have been going through the house trying to get rid of thing we can take home with us I’ve taking pictures of items that we wanted to remember.  So many of them I see and wish that we had them!!  We just couldn’t take them – so sad.

Katie made these eggs at easter time.

Jase got this from his graduation during the candle ceremony.

Courtney painted this at Growing with love with Tr. Chris during the moth that they learned about under the sea!

We took the kids out to dinner to celebrate their awesome school marks and each of them scoring at the top of their classes!  Some Smarty Pants we’ve got! Dinner at the Golden Era. 

This was the first time we had eaten there as a family, Todd and I went once before) and we wish we had eaten there more!  We think it is one of the best restaurants on the island – no joking.

A Sunday Afternoon stroll down the what use to be the beginning of the beach/rock beach behind the harbor.   Someone been dredging up the sand/coral in the harbor to make it deeper for ships to come into dock but they have been dumping it all on a nice strolling beach where hundreds and more people go to look for blue beads.  This is where Todd and I alone found two at the same time and Jase and Katie found halves. Plus it was the way to go and explore Kruks castle and other ruins around there.  You can go around but it is difficult.  Not just anyone can get over there now.  I think it was VERY poor planning on someone’s part and its ugly.  On an after thought I guess I can appreciate that the planners were struggling with the limited places of where to put the sand and rubble from dredging. It is after all a tiny island.

After that big disappointment, and for many tourists or blue bead hunters, we made our way to the owners of the property which holds the last full remaining sugar stack on the island.  They are a very sweet couple and we asked if we could go look at the sugar stack.  They were more than happy to let us venture over there and check it out.  They told us the best way to go through the Kasha.  It was amazing!  If you haven’t seen it you should check it out, it’s an amazing piece of history.  I loved it and I loved trying to take pictures of it!

Crawled through all sorts of bones to get in there.

I'm not sure what that ruin is in the back ground but it is beautiful.

This is one piece of pottery that was found by some friends of ours in a watery and sandy grave! We thought it was so beautiful!  They gave it to us! and then before we left we passed it on to Rachel to put into the new store she it hoping to start right by the All-Run Grocery Store.  She wanted to use it as part of her Statia decorations in the store to make it feel homey.