Happy 25th Birthday Nicholas Andrew!!

This post is a week delayed, but better late than never right?? Last weekend we celebrated Nick's 25th birthday, and due to it conveniently falling on the same weekend as Easter, he had some extra time off of school to enjoy himself! SGU had both Friday and Monday off of school, so we were able to thoroughly relax and enjoy his birthday, while also allowing him a couple days to study as well. Friday was his actual birthday and I think we were able to combine our favorite things on the island into that day. First since there was no class he actually got to sleep in (very exciting for him!) then after getting our house ready to have people over in the evening we set out to enjoy some beach time. We were met by huge waves, which was icing on the cake to a beach day in our eyes. If you know us, you know we love, love, big waves! They were breaking directly on the sand, so I have to admit, although fun, they were a bit painful this time around! 

The waves were so intense I legit lost my pants in the one. Luckily, I reached back in time to scoop them up with my hand before they got swept away and was able to get them on before it was too awkward... but the picture was snapped with my white booty just hanging out for all to see.... nice!  

The beach can go from rough to calm and vice versa so quickly! 

Such a fun day :) Love it when he can relax and enjoy himself on the beach!

Later on in the evening we had a group of friends over to BBQ and hang out before heading out to The Owl. As always it was fun to have everyone over to just relax, play some games, and eat yummy food! And of course we had to walk over to the cliff to catch the sunset- it never disappoints! 

The night continued with karaoke at The Owl. What more could the birthday boy ask for? Seriously he was in his happy place. The bar was relatively quiet too so we were able to take over the karaoke machine and sing whatever our hearts desired all  night - much to the dismay of the few locals who were there! If I had to guess I'd say our group sang somewhere around 20+ songs ranging from hardcore rap songs to Journey to NSync and Backstreet boys to songs from Grease and Aladdin.

All in all, I'd say his 25th birthday was a great success! It's hard to celebrate so far away from home, but luckily he is surrounded by great friends who helped to make his birthday very special. And, it's not every birthday us Michiganders get to celebrate on a Caribbean Island and one of the most beautiful beaches in the world! Cheers to being 25 years young!

The Leo's in Grenada!

This morning the Leo's boarded their plane back to the States :( It is sad to see them go, and was so much fun having visitors and people to hang out with at the beach every day! It was great having them here and being able to show them around this wonderful little island we call home. They got to ride the busses, experience IGA, do tons of walking, ride in a raggae bus, barter with people on the beach and much more! We were super busy while they were here so I have lots of fun stuff to catch up on! Here's a brief overview of how the last several days with them went....

Wednesday

Wednesday was a super long day for all of us, as Papa Leo, Alex, and Shelby did the full day of travel and Nick and I did our best to continue our normal routine and not just sit around all antsy awaiting our visitors! They got in pretty late and were exhausted but hungry so we got some wings at Options and then let them resign to their hotel to pass out for the night. Their hotel was smaller than expected- with only one king (aka 2 twins pushed together) so it was quite the sight to see the 3 of them all snuggled in together!

Thursday

Thursday, I met up with them at their hotel (The Flambouyant) and we spent most of the day just relaxing on the beach and swimming. The waves were pretty good sized and Alex had the great idea of renting a kayak. Turns out they are free to use for guests and it was the best decision ever. We basically played on the kayaks their entire vacation, with a few breaks to eat and drink haha. Thursday night we went to BB's Crabback for an absolutely delicious dinner! BB's is located right on the water and you can actually sit on a deck that hangs over the water- it is really neat. You can also watch the sunset and enjoy looking at the big fancy boats while you wait for your meal! It was my second time there and both times the food has been SO good. I highly recommend the barracuda... yes, I ate barracuda and it is SO GOOD!

They give you markers to write on the wall if you want, so naturally we had to leave behind our mark :)

Friday
Friday consisted of more beach and more HUGE waves. Then we met Nick on campus for cliff jumping!! Everyone jumped including Papa Leo, which was seriously awesome and impressive :)  Always good times at the cliff and we were so happy we got to share the Friday tradition with them!

Saturday
Saturday we went deep sea fishing!! This was my first time and boy was I excited! I really had no idea what to expect even though I had heard so much about it. Luckily, the Leo's have been before and knew to get dramamine ear patches to help prevent sea sickness, because without those... oye, my stomach churns just thinking about it! Unfortunately, we did not catch any fish because the waves were super rough which kept all our fishies away :/ We still had a blast though, and got to see a rainbow and between 20-30 dolphins!!! Seriously seeing the dolphins was the coolest thing ever- our boat was literally surrounded by them all jumping around! All in all, the trip was a success and despite the waves no one got sea sick (although I was very close, and I'm pretty sure my face turned green, but I fell asleep instead! Whew!) If anyone is looking to go Deep Sea Fishing I definitely recommend Gary. He is reasonably priced and just a super nice guy! We have his contact information if you want to try your hand at bringing in a big ol' fish!

Afterwards, we grabbed a bite to eat in downtown St. George and did some souvenir shopping before heading back to the beach for (surprise, surprise) more swimming! Then at night we went to The Owl and were oh so lucky to have Nick, Alex, and Marty sing karaoke for us multiple times...

Sunday
Sunday we went to the beach one last time with the Leo's, then went to Red Crab in Lance Aux Epines for dinner. I got the Jerk Pork and it was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I absolutely recommend it. The others got different kinds of fish and all really enjoyed theirs as well. It is a little pricey, but was definitely a tasty meal! It was a perfect ending to a wonderful few days :) We are truly blessed to have such wonderful, kind, and fun people in our lives!

So that is just a quick overview, but it was so nice to have visitors from home here for a few days! They brought us tons of goodies from home, which was also very fun... we felt like it was Christmas! We definitely appreciated all the running around both our families did for us in order to get everything we wanted to send it down here :) We are very loved. Major kudos to my family for the water bottles... I was literally dying without mine for 2 weeks!

It was a bummer to see our fabulous visitors leave (we were hoping they'd get bumped from their plane and get to stay a few more days) but I suppose it is time to get back to our normal routines. Midterms are in a little over 2 weeks for Nick- so it's crunch time. Keep him in your prayers and send him lots of positive thoughts over the next couple weeks so that he can continue to kick booty in his classes! ... Oh, and feel free to Skype me extra since he will be living in the library, Taylor Hall, or Science Hall until after midterms :)

Playing around with the panoramic setting on my camera- some aren't the best, but pretty cool how you can get a full picture of our view at the beach :)