Back From KAH 2012...

Yes, that's right. This is not an illusion, folks. I'm blogging about my vacation the very next day after getting back from vacation. That vacation did me some good. :)  KAH 2012 was an amazing get away. Ahhhh Anguilla. happy sigh. :)   That island is the most beautiful place in the Caribbean! So incredibly amazing. I loved it.  I loved every part of it.  I loved how rural it is. As I sit here writing this, I want to go back.  BarclayNutt KAH forever. I hope to write an Anguilla getaway post EVERY year. :)

We flew into St Marten International Airport. A beautiful island, itself.  I wouldn't mind spending a vacation there, but I think I'd like to stay on the French side of the island.

The St. Marten airport is located right on the coast. There is a cool bar, Sunset Bar and Grill, that is right off the edge of the runway, outside the airport property.  People will sit here all day and just watch planes take off and land.  We did that a while, ourselves... (If we weren't sitting there watching it, i'd think that plane was photoshopped in!)

This is a pretty one from the water taxi taking us over to Anguilla.  Bye St. Martin...

 Our famous "first night" picture. Always with our t-shirts on.  So goofy. I love it! :)  This was at the pool bar, shortly after we checked in to our villa.

And the beauty of the island begins to show!  The island of Anguilla is only 35 square miles, so it was easy to go all over from one end to another exploring the place.  This is a view from one of the high areas on the main road.  Of course we had to get out of the car and set the timer on the camera for a group shot. I loved dressing in beach attire all week.

Our beach. This was Cove Bay beach.

A small fishing bay called Sandy Ground.  This was a beautiful area.

One of the few churches on the island. All very small in size.

One of the few schools on the island.

 Da Vita restaurant, on Crocus Bay. I loved this restaurant!

One of the places tourists can get a local tour of nearby Little Bay. We got dropped off there for a couple hours to explore.  This was one of my favorite days of exploring.  Calvin, who's office is located under that big tree, is the neighborhood tour guide. I love that!! A man and his boat.

 Hi Calvin.

Little Bay.  An amazing little beach.

Notice the cave behind that rock wall. We climbed in and explored. It was awesome! We wanted to stay the night in the cave and build a bon fire, but Calvin advised against it.  I think the cave must fill up with bats every night.

One of only a few local night spots.  They sure keep the rum punch flowing though!

Lunch on the beach, anyone?  Uncle Ernie's had great burgers. 

The island has an abundance of goats running around.

And amazing views from every angle!

Anguilla's version of "fast food".  There were many local road side food places like this one.  (Not one single chain, franchise, or anything like that on this island. Which was awesome!)  We stopped here for Johnny Cakes (which is similar to fry bread).  Although they didn't have their Johnny Cakes ready yet, they had cold beer...and a local dog that decided to befriend our rental car.

Dress up night!  And of course some pictures before heading out to another resort on the island for dinner.

Can someone say BEAUTIFUL BEACH, anyone?  Beautiful beaches and awesome snorkeling.  We saw some really pretty fish. It was also really cool snorkeling at the different beaches on the island. Each beach, although equally beautiful, had different water currents and different underwater topography. The water temperature was always perfect and the snorkeling was great!

Jeremy and Amy soaking it all in!

 The Dune Preserve beach bar. Ranked #1 Beach Bar for 2011 by CNN.  And I can see why. This place is unbelievable. Made out of drift wood and with a tree house feel, it is right on the water. The owner, Bankie Banks, lives there.  http://ivisitanguilla.com/cnn-ranks-the-dune-preserve-1/

Seriously, I had the best seat in the house!

The menu for the day. Just written down on a scrap piece of paper.

There are a few more photo's I'll post once I get Amy's pictures.  We had a picture taken with Bankie Banks, the owner of the Dune Preserve.  He's somewhat of a local celebrity around the island. A few years ago he started Moon Splash, an annual beach lovers slash reggae music event.  I'd love to go back for that some year.  This was a spectacular get away and, although I ended up getting a caribbean stomach bug that slowed me down a lot the last couple days of the trip, I think I enjoyed this island more than any of the other's we've visited on our cruises.  It was just a heavenly place. We'll be back, Anguilla. We'll be back!  KAH!

2012 Catch Up...

Wow... another extended period of bloggers block!  I've got to get better at fighting this off.  Thinking there are too many things to write about and not enough time, or too many distractions...that is what keeps me from it at times.  My fear of failure. I guess, in the literary biographic sense.  At least I know what the enemy is and I can strive to defeat it.

To catch you up on 2012...Rylie is growing so fast every day.  She is almost 21 months old and it seems like she is so eager to learn and do everything she is exposed to.  She gets frustrated when she doesn't understand or she thinks I dont understand what she wants. She also gets frustrated when she doesn't get her way. I am working on my technique in handling this... her tantrums, that is. We'll see who comes out the victor when she get's through the terrible two's growth period.  She is so damn cute though, it's hard not to laugh at every emotion she expresses, regardless of tone.

Here are a few cute pics from this weekend.

She loves walking around carrying mommy's camera bag. I wonder how she feel's about living with a mommy papparazi?

She helps mommy put away laundry, but she likes to play dress-up while we're doing it. She likes putting on mommy's shirts.

 I took Rylie to the home and garden show Saturday. I was great! I am absolutely obsessed with making over my backyard this spring. I've worked a lot in the yard these past few years, and this spring it's really going to rock!  I cannot WAIT for flowers, decorative paving stones, and colorful garden accent lighting!!  But I digress. Below is a pic of the mommy/daughter matching aprons I bought at the garden show.  So freaking cute!!!  I'd love to have our names embroidered on them. I'm thinking about buying a sewing/embroidery machine so that I can have it for cool projects with Rylie.  Brian's cousin Sara has one and she makes the coolest things.  I'm hoping I can find a "starter" machine for pretty cheap, since I don't know how long this "interest" will last, if it even starts.  I have a lot of ambitious hobby/project ideas that I'd love to follow through with.   (I remind myself that I also want a table saw so that I can build things with wood. Yes, I want to build a built in bookcase in Rylie's room. It will happen.)

 And this is the other evening when we were running her bath water.  She's showing off her teeth and saying cheese, waiting for daddy to get her bath toys out.

Okay, let's go back in time a bit more so I can feel good about catching you up and starting with current events on my next blog entry.  You know, the ones i'm going to start creating more often.

2012 has gone by so fast so far. Let's look back quickly....

Eating cantelope with daddy.

Mommy cutting Rylie's fingernails.  She does very good with this.  I sit her up on the washing machine out in the garage and she sits there calmly while I talk to her about keeping her nails looking pretty. Daddy decided to take pictures this night, so she was cheesing it up. Daddy got some great shots of her precious little face. Thanks daddy!

Our nightly cuddling before bed. She must have her nightly cuddling...and so must mommy!

Our trip to the Aquarium... She loved watching the fish and the shark tank. But her favorite part was the stingray pool. She wanted to touch them so bad!

This is Grammie showing Rylie the stingrays this year.  Reminds me of the first time we took Rylie to the aquarium when she was 5 months old, back in November of 2010.  Grammie lifted her over the edge to see the stingrays back then too.  My how much she has grown!

Rylie at 5 monts old at the Aquarium...  She loved watching them back then too.

Okay....what else do I need to catch you up on?  Rylie learning how to brush her teeth. She really just loves to play in the running water!

Reading with Nana, Valentines Day weekend.

Reading her Valentines day card with Pops!

Sitting with Mommy watching the 2012 Superbowl.

 Prancing around in her new summer swimsuit.  Rylie loves to play dress up and to try on different things, including mommy's clothes.

Alright, I feel good about this catch-up post.  It's not perfect and it doesn't include everything, but that's okay.  :)