The kids took care of themselves this week while Kevin and I took ourselves off to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands to meet with my parents and enjoy the sunshine!

The kids did a great job taking care of each other. Cali and Savannah made meals. All the drivers took turns doing the driving for Beth and Ben. Chey made sure people headed to bed at ten. The house looked great when we got home though we were assured that it had been a group effort to get it looking that way since the mess might have gotten out of control?

Bethany's play performed every night that we were gone! We, however, got permission to see the dress rehearsal before we left and it was fabulous! Bethany did great as a big kid at Matilda's school and as a parent in the opening scenes. We could tell she was having a great time singing and dancing. We're so glad she got to be in the play and so pleased that all our kids took turns going to her play while we were gone so she always had someone there!

Cali and Cheyenne went to Preference while we were gone, too. Megan came over and helped with hair and makeup! Cali and Chey and their friends went in matching dinosaur dresses! It turned out to be the cutest idea ever and I think they were show stoppers at the dance. Best of all, it made it super fun for them! I'm so glad they have such good friends and feel free to express themselves in such fun ways!

So, Kevin and I had a great time in St. Thomas but getting there was a real challenge! We were supposed to leave around midnight on Tuesday night. But after the plane got delayed hour after hour, they cancelled the flight. We got booked on another flight around noon. That flight also got cancelled. We decided to give it one more try and the midnight flight to Philadelphia did actually board and fly us there! We made it to St. Thomas a day later than we had planned, but we made it!

We met my mom and dad there and they were already loving the view and the weather! We sat by the pool and talked. Kevin and I walked down to see the beach. Then we had dinner together at the restaurant by the pool.

The next day we took the ferry over to St. John. We had lunch in a lovely open-air restaurant on the beach under the mangrove trees. Then we had a very charismatic 77 year-old taxi driver named Hamilton who drove us to see all the beaches and told us some facts about the island. He dropped us at Maho Bay where he promised us we'd see sea turtles if we snorkeled there and we did! We found another taxi back to the ferry where we had dinner at the same restaurant before heading back to St. Thomas. It was a beautiful day!

The next day, Kevin and I took a kayak tour through Mangrove Lagoon and over to the Cay. We learned about Mangroves and about hermit crabs. We hiked to a blow hole and then got to go snorkeleing again. No turtles this time but lots of brightly colored fish! That night we grilled some steaks and had dinner on Mom and Dad's balcony overlooking the marina. Beautiful!

The next day, we called our St. Thomas taxi driver whose name was Lucky and had him take us to see Magen's Bay,  souvenir shop called Top of the Mountain that had world-famous banana daquiri's (we enjoyed the alcohol-free kind!), and then to the pirate's museum in Havensight. It was another beautiful day and it was fun to learn more about the island and the history of the area in the museum!

We ate by the pool again that night, but the next day we had to say goodbye to the beautiful view from our window and head home! We had so much fun and it was so fun to share it with my mom and dad!