Sep 28, 2016

our home in the virgin islands, the good the bad and the jelly fish




How many times have we regretted not having a go pro??
Every. Single. Day. 

I never IMAGINED the things I would be seeing in the short month i've lived in St. Thomas of the U.S. Virgin Islands! Especially the life that is under the sea. 

We finally had enough of it and ordered ourselves a go pro... should be arriving soon. Thank heavens for amazon. And hopefully there will be (and i'm sure there will) more octopus, sea turtles, sting rays, eagle rays, squids, and fishes of alllll colors and shapes to share with you guys and keep for our memories. :)

WOW. ONE MONTH has passed since we moved to our little island, I find that hard to believe!! I've been wanting to share the experiences we've been having but have been caught up between the AMAZING and the HARD and didn't know where to start and plus at the end of the day usually only had energy enough to snuggle up with our fav netflix series before passing out... in our bamboo sheets of course :)

BUT... I will attempt to share a little bit of both the good, the bad and the jelly fish ;)

(referring to jord and I actually getting stung by jelly fish haha)

So Jord and I out of NO WHERE got the opportunity to come work for PW Companies which you may know as DelSol and Cariloha- maybe i'll go more into that another time. Basically we decided we couldn't pass up this opportunity so we're here managing the St. Thomas Del sol and Cariloha stores.  Right now it's slow season so we work about 4 days week- we only work when there is a cruise ship in port. We have a lot of responsibilities but we are starting to get the hang of it! We work with some awesome St. Thomas locals who have been with our company for YEARS and then we get a new set of interns each semester. 
When we aren't at work we are visiting one of our many options of white sand beaches... heart eyes all day. Seriously it's beautiful here. It's old and mother nature has taken over in many places with vines and jungle growing everywhere and it's so pretty. The beaches are ALL breathtaking- that part I don't think will ever get old!! I went from never snorkeling in my life- wait actually no, never even GETTING IN THE WATER to snorkeling at least 3 times a week. haha It's been so fun to stretch out of my comfort zone and Jord is just like a little boy in a candy shop- he gets SO excited and we're not sure what it is but every time he dives in that water- he sees something "rare" or "you probably won't see that very often" haha. There's another couple on the island our age (HALLELUJAH) and they told us their theory, 
"When you go out snorkeling you probably have like a 5% chance of dying...
but when you go out snorkeling with Jordan your odds go up to about 10%"
hahahaha GAH so true. Dang it Jord!!!!! 

Also, since moving to the islands you realize you have to sacrifice a few things in exchange for those gorgeous views every single day.
HUMIDITY.... is a real thing. It actually doesn't bother me that much.. as long as i'm not trying to be cute. You just fully have to embrace that you are going to be wet and a little sticky all. the. time. 
I'll wash my hair and that same day it looks pretty greasy, also forget about any type of powder or foundation... OH and you can forget trying to find your favorite cosmetic brands anywhere near... aka my fav dry shampoo. But as far as the actual heat and humidity... I like it!! I hate being cold. 

We scored and found a really nice apt.. but regardless of our new appliances and granite counter tops bugs of all shapes and sizes will manage to make your home, their home. I was laughing because one of our interns brought up a very good point.. she said "at first we hated the little tiny bugs that run around everywhere, but now we get even more scared when we don't see them because that means there is something bigger eating them!!" 

We live at the top of the mountain... and get the beeeest island breeze up here- it's so nice especially considering we don't have A.C. We leave our windows open all day and all sorts of geckos are just constantly hanging out on the screen. 

Grocery shopping has been an adventure of it's own- we have to visit at least 3 different grocery stores to get everything we need. We've found a couple that are pretty much like Costco and those are AWESOME. Everything seems to be more expensive here... I don't get how people live such simple lifestyles with simple jobs here and STILL AFFORD THEIR FOOD. I mean a gallon of milk is literally $7.00 on a good day. Tuna fish is cheap. Eggs are cheap. Gotta think of the positive haha. 

There are also some way fun restaurants we've visited and are hoping to hit them all up before we leave- also expensive buuuuuut welcome to the islands! We have found our favorite little "In N' Out" known as the "Tap N' Still" here and go there probably once a week. 

There are lots of things about Utah that I miss and I reaaaalllllllyyyyy miss my family but feel lucky that i haven't felt "homesick." I owe that all to Jordan- home is wherever i'm with you is a real thing!

Grateful to be experiencing all this will my lover. 

More to come soon!











Sep 23, 2016

Janelabay



(Wrote this post two weeks ago and never posted it... lots has changed since then BUT here ya go anyway.)

HELLO from St. Thomas!!!!! 
WOW! I can't believe where I am... and that it is my new home. We landed here Tuesday after a red eye flight, got picked up from the airport from a member, and were taken on our first adventure with no time to rest! haha. Right away he dropped our bags off at our hotels and told us to change into our swimsuits and after he took us to lunch we got picked up on his boat, drove out to the middle of the ocean, dropped an anchor and we went snorkeling!! WHAT. It was so cool... I have never been snorkeling before so he was patient trying to teach me how to breathe normal and not hyperventilate haha and as soon as I slowed my breathing down... it was SO COOL. We immediately saw and swam around with two sea turtles, tons of cute little and big fish, a sting ray, starfish and a SHARK. (Supposedly a nice shark.) We were bobbing over the water for a second and he said, "Hey Jessica put your head under and look over there, what do you see?" I knew it was going to be something bad haha I stuck my head under and screamed under the water and grabbed Jordan's leg. It was a baby nurse shark, about 4 ft long and apparently wasn't going to hurt us... but I still swam back to the boat as Jordan and everyone else chased it around. It was so cool!
We picked up some more friends from the ward and then went wake surfing... in the dark... on the ocean haha I also stayed on the boat for this. Then he took us back to his house and made us pancakes. Um. Pretty cool first day haha!
Since then, we have been on the hunt for an apt. SO much to consider and so difficult to know if we are making the right decision... if we pick somewhere that will get a good breeze... not as many mosquitos... a good commute to work... a safe neighborhood.... we don't know what we're doing so wish us luck haha. So far we are drawn to the cleaner apartments and ones with great views... which is PRETTY much all of them. Except the cleanest one. haha we can't decide what to give up. 
We've also been on the hunt for a car, so between all our searching to get settled we haven't gotten TOO acquainted with the island yet.. but can't wait until we can do some exploring! 

More recent update and pictures of our island to come soon!


Jane La Bay

Before I moved to St Thomas I did a collaboration with Janelabay. They sent me the CUTEST swimsuit and Julia had some fun taking loots of pictures of it haha. 
It's super cute and comfy and swimsuits are seriously JUST what I need living on this island! 
Check them out!! :)