Better Than A Staycation

Sitting here in sub-zero temperatures and ever-present darkness, it's hard to believe I was on a tropical island last week. But I was, and it was great. This year we went to Turks and Caicos, and for the first time, rented a house for our family vacation.

It was a sweet house.

The island itself was a bit strange...it's not very touristy yet, although there is a lot of building/developing going on. It also has many extremely wealthy people, stars' homes, etc., but it doesn't really feel like a wealthy island. I guess maybe that's the appeal. Apparently Haiti and Jamaica are big influences on the island, which may explain the ever present mosquitoes, and why we lost electricity for 24 hours, right after we had bought groceries for the week. It was kind of funny to see my family's reaction, but it's hard to understand why things like that happen if it's never happened to you before.

My family isn't big into sightseeing or really doing much of anything on vacation, so we spent lots of time hanging out by the pool and the beach. I did get my brothers to come to a reef to go snorkeling with me once, and we saw an awesome stingray, swimming and then nestling himself into the sand.


This is obviously not the stingray. My camera doesn't do underwater. But, if you look closely you can see the plethora of conch shells--both on the wall, and on the pier thingy jutting out into the ocean. They were everywhere! Not being the sentimental type, I let them stay in their resting place. Others took them home to display in jars and vases.

Just pretty.

Me enjoying the beach. (And the only picture of me in my bathing suit I will ever post here)

Oops...got some water and sand on my borrowed camera lens. It was worth it.

Some neighborhood animals also wanted to join our party. This dog looks a lot like my mom's Pomeranian, so that really confused the little ones. They weren't quite sure how the dog got all the way to Turks and Caicos. The cat kept his distance, but slept on our drying out towels during the night.

Here, kitty, kitty...

My nephew also got a little nervous that the dog would drink all the water out of the baby pool.

They are also generally adorable, my nephews that is. And photogenic...or maybe it's the fact I took about 6000 pictures of them during the week.

They both swim like fish, and make funny faces for the camera.

B has also taken to using his middle finger to point at things. I love it. It's the aunt's job to encourage inappropriate behavior, right?

And perhaps a few photos just to prove I was there too...

Me and T, and my brother's pearly whites

Dinner

Me and the other nephew. Self-portraits have become our thing.