Jan 15, 2017

Andersons Come to St. Thomas for Christmas!!






Nothing makes me happier than my whole fam bam swimming around my little island with me! My family brought Christmas to our home this year- and ventured out to St. Thomas. Jordan and I were soooo excited looking forward to their arrival and tried planning out the perfect trip to make sure they didn't miss out on anything while they were here. My family were all pretty much island newbies (other than my dad living in Fiji for 2 years) as much as I was when I first got out here and we wanted them to have the full experience! 
It was so fun to pick them up from the airport and see all of their expressions and comments- it brought back the same feelings we had when we first arrived and made us excited all over again! 
The week went by too fast, that is for sure. As soon as we got use to having some noise at our house again (it's just been the 2 of us for almost 5 months now) they were packing up and heading out. It seriously hit us like a ton of bricks dropping them off at the airport. We sat in our car quietly driving home and both looked at each other like- dang this sucks. And then hurried and looked in the Calendar for when Jordan's parents were coming so we could look forward to that before we got too sad! haha! 
The only plus is that we made it a full week with my fam doing 2 loads of laundry a day and 6 extra showers without running out of our cistern water and didn't have to stress out about running out of water anymore! haha just teasin ya mom ;) 
(We don't have city water, we have a cistern and strictly all of our water comes from rainfall collected on the roof- running out is a serious issue haha.)
Anyway, the fam was super easy to please which made for a week full of memories. Here are some of our favorites that we did:

1. Sapphire beach. The day they flew in we had about 2 hours of sunshine left. We picked up a pizza and headed to Sapphire  The view is GORGEOUS, and even though the water was sadly very murky on this day my dad and sisters made my day by getting so excited about putting their mask in the water and seeing "the big silver see-through fish! Everywhere! I can't believe what i'm seeing!" hahaha seriously made my day. 

2. St. John is a crowd favorite for sure. When people ask us our favorite thing to do on St. Thomas- it's to go to St. John haha. We woke up to take the car ferry and even though it was super busy and not running on schedule we still made it over with plenty of time to spend on MY personal favorite beach- Hawksnest. Something about it. The sand is flawless, hence the clearest water. The coral is my faaaavorite, there are ALWAYS cool fish, and you are surrounded by the prettiest jungle. I was so happy to show my fam this place. We snorkeled and played in the sand and then went to mine and Jord's faaav lunch spot- Sam and Jacks. YUMMIEST home made potato chips and always the best sandwiches. Plus they are big enough to split- and when that is an option you take it because food cost a fortune! haha! Also- Jord wanted to play with his new Christmas toy so we let him bring it to the beach and open it up a couple days early. 

3. We had a day where the forecast showed rain clouds all day so we didn't want to go too far so we went to the most common and probably most well known beach on St. Thomas- Magens Bay. I was never a huge fan of Magens but turns out I just had never given it a chance. We had a BLAST! We packed a picnic and snorkeled and played alllllllll day. It only rained on us once- and it actually made the day even cooler cause we could all snorkel with the rainfall on the ocean and it looked pretty amazing. My sisters swore they saw a shark and were raving about it until we watched the go pro footage and turns out- only a little barracuda. hahah understandable though- those things look scarier than sharks anyway ;) 

4. Peterborg Point. It's the end of one of the peninsula that makes up Magen's bay. You can walk all the way out to the end and gaze off a massive cliff and watch the huge waves and it's a pretty cool view. We hiked around there for a bit and took pictures. :)

5. St. John. Again. I'm tellin ya, it's the prettiest over there. My fam spent another day in St. John- Jord and I had to work on this day. They didn't mess around this time and got up at the break of dawn to avoid any issues with the car ferry- they were the FIRST humans on the beach and even beat the workers so got in for free!! haha They spent the day on Trunk Bay and i'm jealous we couldn't tag along again. 

6. Water Island. Our good friend on the island picked us up in his barge and took us over to Water Island where we hung out on HoneyMoon Beach. This is another favorite. The vibe here is one of the best. They've got cute little huts, a beachside grill with literally THE BEST fish tacos in the caribbean, and this is where allllllll the sea turtles hang out. It was a dream. We then were so lucky to go tubing and wake surfing!! My dad wondering where mine and Jordan's life jackets were the whole time haha.

Needless to say, one of the best Christmases. We probably won't experience one like this again and it will definitely be one to remember. It was neat to not focus so much on presents but having the present be to spend time with each other- the real present. So grateful for my fam. I sent my dad a picture a week after he left of Jordan skim boarding at another beach and he was like -what the heck why didn't we go to that beach!! TOO MANY BEACHES AND TOO LITTLE TIME DAD!! haha not a bad problem to have if you ask me. 








Happy boy right here- also i'm happy taking the picture on the other side because Jordan's parents sent us our FAVORITE protein bars that are impossible to get on the island!! YAYY!! Also loaded us up with propel packets-seriously lifesavers haha. The things we discovered that we really missed out here. THANK YOUUUU.












CUTEST PARENTS. Thanks for the best Christmas ever!! And for buying our groceries for the week. (Which I PROMISE is no small feat here.) And for making us feel like we were on vacation! :)

















Christmas eve dinner- on the porch surrounded by cutest island christmas lights and a cool breeze. SO thankful for the amazing friends we've made here! So inviting and welcoming and had my whole family over for dinner and games!



Julia's philosophy- "Become friends with the car ferry driver = become the car ferry driver" LOL also- my mom's face when she looked back and realized who was driving the car ferry hahah. Only Julia. 


Hot tubbing at the marriot is the only place to be past 6 when the beaches will attack you with little no-see-uhms aka sand gnats that are teeny tiny but bite HARD.



Jordan around tall cliffs = NERVOUS. STAY AWAY JORDAN. 


She's been keeping this little secret from us the whole time!! Best fish tacos ever right at her own honeymoon grill! ;)







Probably my favorite favorite little group of fishies swimming around i've ever seen. I don't know why- they were all just little guys but they were so dang cute haha watch the video to see this clip where they just hang out around this coral stricken buoy.