Hello St. Maarten :)

After our 15 minute win air flight we landed on our new island of St. Maarten. We were welcomed by our friends the Harkers who had arrived two days earlier. I just have to say how nice it is to have such great friends on our adventure here.

The flight was uneventful but the planes are small and loud and Eli was a bit frightened and had to hold our hands almost the entire time.

After checking out our apartment we had to see the beach which was a 3 minute walk from our place. I have to be honest I was not excited about the apartment, going from a house with a huge yard to an apartment didn't thrill me but all those feelings were quickly pushed aside when we got to the beach:)

Look white sand, no more black sand.

I think we will like it here.

We arrived in St. Maarten on August 23, Monty didn't start classes until the 3rd of September so we got to have a little vacation and explore our new island with Dad.

Goodbye Statia:(

We will forever hold a special place in our hearts for Sint Eustatius (Statia). We were only there for 8 months but its charm and quaintness grew on us. We will miss the quiet, slow paced way of life we experienced there.

My "Krysten Maria".

We sure miss Inez, the best landlord ever!

And of course Fergie...

We are off... nothing like selling your car and driving yourself to the airport to leave it for the new owners. We were the last ones of our friends to leave Statia.

Some final pics of Statia..

A peak at our local "Duggins" department store".

Yes, Statia is 20-30 years behind. Some may argue 50 years;)

Saying goodbye to our friends Katie and Kourtney Erickson

Ten year anniversary at the Old Gin house

We will miss throwing rocks at the docks.

I loved these cobblestone streets

I love the charm this little number has.

The best Chinese food on the island;) Good ol' cool corner.

Mandy and Suri, we sure miss you guys.

A stop on one of our many walks.

Oranje Bay

The quill...

When we first moved to Statia the kids didn't walk a lot, I pushed them in the stroller. Monty started hiking the quill for exercise and I asked if we could all do it together and he said there is no way the kids can do it. Well a few months back we started out slowly doing half of it with our friends every Saturday and then after 7 months of being on the island the kids both hiked to the crater rim of the Quill. We were so proud they did it, they proved to be quite the hikers.

Another quill adventure with my friend Kayla, we hiked up to panorama. It was definitely worth it, the view was awesome.

Warning: Tarantula picture below!

I think enough time has passed that I can post about Krysten's tarantula story. One morning I asked the kids to go and get their shoes on as we were heading out the door to pick up a friend. A minute later I hear a scream and Krysten calling for me. She runs into the house hysterical, screaming and crying. I told her to calm down and she said a tarantula bit her. For real, so I gave her hug and calmed her down as much as I could and then I put her on the couch to go and see if the spider was still on the deck. Oh and Eli was freaking out as well during all of this. Lo and behold the biggest spider I had ever seen was a foot away from Krysten's shoe. He apparently liked her pink croc and slept in it for the night and did not like being poked by Krysten's toes. She got a little bite on her fourth toe, no bigger than two bee stings. Luckily tarantulas are not poisonous, their venom is compared to a bee sting. I grabbed the bop and killed the guy, he walked off slowly never to be seen again. We were all a little traumatized for a bit there, I had trouble sleeping that night and Im sure Krysten did too. Krysten didn't wear her pink crocs for a while;)