Are You with "The Family?" - Part 1

So, back to Peter Island...

(I wish I were back there now!)

We got to the resort at about 3ish on Saturday afternoon -- or at least 20 of us did.  The first thing we did upon arriving was start having cocktails.  They gave us one when we got off the ferry -- some kind of ginger lemonade thing that was delicious -- and after that we headed down to the bar to see how fast we could go through our room credit! 

We were very excited to be there, so we made a pretty good dent in said room credit the first evening -- and we introduced Peter Island to "The Family," as they came to know us.  We took up half of the resort, so anywhere we would go, the staff or other guests would ask "Are you part of the family?"  Some of the other guests like us, some tolerated us, and some (like the Germans I talked about in my last post) would rather we weren't there.

We don't get out much.  ;-)

The rest of the family came in that Saturday evening.  Or at least, the rest of the family was supposed to come in Saturday evening.  My cousin and her husband missed their connecting flight in Atlanta due to some maintenance guy's error at their original airport, so they didn't get to come in until Sunday evening.  They missed an entire day -- and once they finally did get to St. Thomas, their luggage was lost.  For something like 3 days.

After the first full day, several of my cousins took out one of our two rental boats to this bar called Willy T's.  When it became dark and they still weren't back, everyone started to worry -- especially my aunt and uncle whose 18-year-old daughter was on the boat.  Willy T's, a bar on a boat, isn't known for being the classiest establishment -- and that is putting it mildly; there's lost of nakedness at Willy T's, especially by people who really shouldn't be naked in public!  Add to that five or so people who have been drinking in a boat, in the dark, in unfamiliar waters.  Gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling.

With part of our crowd being delayed in their travels and part of our crew missing, it didn't seem like our vacation was off to the most stellar start (although we were all at the resort where we were supposed to be and having a grand old time)!

The Willy T's crowd made it back safely, everyone on board got a good talking-to, and we got on with the business of vacay...

Dinners were always fun.  The first night we were there we ate with just my parents, Hunter and Joe, and Graham and Elizabeth.  There was live music right outside the restaurant, so we spent the entire meal singing at the top of our lungs to easy listening music -- lots of Mariah and Whitney.  I was really surprised they didn't play more island-type music.  We got a lot of stares when we were singing -- we got a lot of stares a lot of the time, in fact!

The rest of the nights they set up three long tables, and the entire family sat together.  It was fun to all be together, but they couldn't really handle serving 35 people at once.  So, some of us would be eating appetizers while others were eating entrees and others hadn't even ordered.  Of course, we all didn't necessarily arrive at the same time, either.  Some nights they had a buffet, and those were definitely the best for our big crowd.

Oh, the beach...

Back later with more!!

House Progress!!!

First, I am going to have to apologize (for the millionth time) for the poor quality photos....these were all taken on my phone.  Second, these were all taken at least a week and a half ago, some over two weeks ago, so they need to be updated even now!  But...here they are...progress!

Brad's closet:

My closet:

Our shower (don't pay attention to the floor...it is getting fixed.  It is a little too gray on one side and white on the other in this photo):

Standing at the front door looking back toward the living room, kitchen, and master bedroom:

 Cabinets going in in the kitchen!!!!

The bar side of the butler's pantry:

The beginning of the cabinets in the laundry room:

My vanity on the left and Brad's on the right:

Girls' vanity on the left and Bubbie's on the right:

 They have started putting up lighting and have done some work on the mantel since I took this pictures, so I will post more soon.  I feel like the ball is really rolling now!  However, Brad and I made the decision the other day (forgive me if I am repeating myself -- I can't remember if I already posted about this...) that we are not going to try to move in before Christmas if they finish the house.  It would be too stressful in an already-stressful and busy time of year, and that is the last thing that Christmas is supposed to be!  The kids did ask for Santa to maybe bring their presents to the new house...it just depends on where things stand on Christmas Day, I guess.  And if the big guy can find our new place!

More pictures soon!

My Hair May LOOK Brown...

Hello!  First of all, thank you to everyone for all of your sweet comments, texts, homing pigeons, etc. about my new brown hair.  I really like it.  It is funny -- people are either totally shocked by it, or they completely ignore the fact that my hair is a different color.  I guess they are going by the old saying of "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

Anyway, as my title states, my hair may look brown, but I am still totally a blond.  I have pulled some really stupid moves since we got home from Peter Island, and I could just kick myself when I do stupid stuff. 

The really big one is I completely forgot to show up for jury duty last week!  I didn't realize it until last weekend, and when I did, I had that horrible, sinking feeling settle into my stomach like I was going to get into trouble.  I called first thing Monday morning, and the lady who answered the phone told me that I would be visited by a Sheriff's Deputy who would serve me with a subpoena to appear in court next Monday to explain to the judge why I didn't show up -- yikes!  Those of you who know me in real life know that this would be my worst nightmare -- being the put on the spot, in the center of attention, for something I did wrong?!?!  No, thank you!!!  As of this morning when I left for work, I had yet to see said subpoena.  Why hasn't it shown up?  Did that lady know what she was talking about?  Can the Sheriff's Deputy not find our house?? (I know we live in the boonies, but that is a scary thought if we ever had an emergency...)  Now I am wondering if I should call back.  I am definitely not begging to go to court, but I don't want to fail to appear again.  Ugh!  Stupid, stupid Christie!!!

The second thing I did was show up to drop off the girls at ballet Tuesday ready to buy tickets to their Christmas recital only to see that all tickets for both shows (yes, they have to dance two nights) were sold out.  I thought they went on sale this week, but they went on sale last week.  So I am sitting there thinking that I am going to have to bring the girls to rehearsals, bring the to the recitals two nights, and not even get to watch them?!?!  Thankfully for me, the teacher had two tickets for each night saved for someone else who already had tickets and was willing to sell them to me, and I was able to scrounge up another ticket for the first night.  So now I just have to figure out who is going to use those tickets.  And, evidently I wasn't the only parent who didn't get tickets -- some parents got more then their allotted amount, and the theater is really small -- so now the teacher has added a third show that all dancers must attend.  Shoot me now.

So...hair color?  Brown.  Common sense?  Blond.  Definitely blond.

Peter Island Resort, BVI

For Thanksgiving this year, thirty-five of my family members went to Peter Island Resort in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.  It was heaven on earth.

Because there were so many of us, and not everyone could get off of work and school at the same time, we left in shifts.  Brad, my brother Graham, my sister-in-law Elizabeth, and I left on the Friday before Thanksgiving and flew down to St. Thomas and met up with the crew who was already there.  We spent Friday night at a hotel in St. Thomas, and then got up Saturday morning to take a ferry to Road Town, Tortola (the other end of the island where we stayed last year).

Once we got to Road Town, we spent a little bit of time shopping and sightseeing before we were picked up by a taxi and taken to the Peter Island ferry dock and whisked away...

Peter Island is an all-inclusive resort (except for your alcohol -- oh, and bottled water at meals -- found that out the hard way for $12 a bottle!), so basically anything you want to do is included -- kayaking, snorkeling, sailing, windsurfing, etc.  Of course, the spa is extra -- and I took full advantage of that!  However, because we were all staying for a week, we got a nice room credit that we could use at the bar, the spa, or the boutique, so that went a long way to defray those costs.  

We stayed in the ocean view rooms.  We had thought about renting the three villas that they have on the grounds of the resort, but they weren't available for the whole time that we were staying.  The ocean view rooms were nice, though -- and I liked that Brad and I had a room to ourselves:

This was the view from our room:

Most of our days were spent on Deadman's Beach.  We would grab as many beach chairs as we could, and plop ourselves down right in front of the beach bar.  There we would read, listen to music (our own -- that was one thing they didn't have much of in the daytime), hang out in the water, sip beachy drinks, and watch the boys try their hands at sailing/windsurfing/paddle boarding/etc.

This was the view standing on Deadman's Beach, looking back towards the beach view rooms:

And looking toward the other direction:

And out toward Tortola and Deadman's Chest (another little island where Blackbeard supposedly dropped other pirates off to die with only a barrel of rum for comfort...):

The following pictures are from the day we went to White Bay beach.  It was a more secluded beach, and we had to be dropped off there by the Peter Island staff.  They brought us a picnic lunch, and we mostly had the beach to ourselves -- in addition to some Germans who we managed to make angry within the first three minutes of being there:

One of the villas:

One evening we went to watch the sunset from one of the highest points at Peter Island (the island gets as high as 5000 feet).  It was beautiful!

While eating dinner one night, this humongous boat pulled up in Deadman's Bay.  We were amazed by this boat and tried to guess who in the world could be on it.  I tried to get pictures of it at night all lit up, but it wouldn't show up well.  So, I took pictures of it the next day.  Turns out this boat is called Fortunato, and you can rent it if you so desire, for $450,000 per week plus expenses!  That yellow thing coming out the side of it is a slide...

Looking onto Deadman's Beach from Deadman's Grill:

The pool:

Deadman's Chest:

It was really a beautiful place and a really relaxing vacation...overall; we did have our share of craziness, though.  Tomorrow I will tell you about all of that!

Who wants to go with me back to Peter Island?!?!