Deepsea Fishing!!!

We had the great opportunity to go deep sea fishing with some of our greatest friends, Candace and Richie Bridges. They had a friend visiting, Courtney, and they wanted to go deep sea fishing. We were lucky they let us tag along :) I ended up catching a Tuna and Ben caught a Mahi Mahi! YUMMY!

Here is Richie with his Mahi Mahi!

Here are the flags on top of our boat on the way back into the bay. They represent the fish we caught. The yellow one is Mahi Mahi, and the white is Tuna.

So after Candace reeled in her Mahi Mahi, it got crazy, the fish just flipped all over the back of the boat... kind of freaked all the girls out!

Another boat out to sea.

Here is Ben sipping on a Diet Coke. We were the only ones who didn't get sea sick!

The infamous Simpson Bay Bridge..... it was different seeing it from the water and not from the car.

Here's our boat!!! The "Taylor Made!"

Here is our Captain. They were generous enough to let us take home some of the fish to eat. Normally, they keep it and sell it at the market.

Not sure what I'm doing, but Candace is still cleaning up the fish blood from the Mahi Mahi's that were jumping around her.

Candace and Courtney with their big catches!

Ben reeled in a Mahi Mahi!

I reeled in the Tuna... small but feisty fish!

Here is the group of us! It was a GREAT DAY! Thanks also to Justin and Hillary for taking Holdyn for the day!!

Happy Mother's Day MOM's!!!

What a wonderful day! Ben has spoiled me rotten!

We want to wish Happy Mothers day to all the moms out there and especially those who helped us be who we are today.....my cutsie mom... And my amazing Grandmother!

Also, Ben's Mom
And Grandma Carr

And here is Charlton's Mom!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Yikes, Yikes, Yikes!!

So I want to start off by saying thanks to all for the birthday wishes!!! Ben and Holdyn took great care of me on my Birthday!!! This week was great until Thursday. We lost power. Words can't explain what a long, hot night it was. There was absolutely no breeze. It was HOT, HUMID, and very still!!! Do you know what you get in these conditions??? MOSQUITO'S. This is Holdyn's chest and back........covered in Mosquito bites!!! We didn't get as many bites as Holdyn did, just a few here and there. But the poor girl looks like she has the chicken pox!! Ben and I hardly slept all night, we had to take cold showers before we got into bed just to cool off.....but it didn't last long. We were drenched with sweat in no time! It was absolutely miserable!!! We got up around 4:30am and that is when we noticed the swarm of mosquito's hovering around Holdyn's crib!!!! We started swatting, and kept on swatting! Ben and I both felt sick that she was pretty much eaten alive! That next morning, still no power. We decided to try and get our meats and other stuff from the freezer to another freezer so it didn't go bad.....I just stocked us up! During the process we decided that we didn't want the icecream to go to waste so we had it for breakfast. Seriously, is there any bad time to eat icecream?!
After another long and very HOT day with no power...we ended up staying with some of our great friends. They were nice enough to let us crash on their front room floor under the A/C. It felt heavenly! Anyway, after almost 48 hours....the power came back on!!!! We survived yet another island experience (apparantly this isn't too unusual, and the islanders didn't seem in to much of a hurry to get it fixed). One more reason we are thankful for the good old USA!!

SURPISE...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Hey Mom, I wanted to wish you happy birthday, so I woke Dad up this morning to help me with my little plan. I thought I would have you an online surprise party and I am inviting whoever views the blog today to say Happy Birthday to you. Dad and I love you very much and hope that you have a great birthday.

Morgan and Rimrock Elementary!!!

Hi Miss Perry's 6th grade class!

We just got this bear sent to me from Jaesi...in Virginia. It has been traveling for a few months. We were lucky enough to get him for his last stop before we send him back to Idaho. We live on the island of St. Maarten, N.A. Half of our island is French, and the other half is Dutch. So Johnny visited two countries while he was here!

Anyway, we are glad we got to be involved with this experiment! Good luck and I hope the rest of your class bears make it back safely!!!

Ben, Jill, and Holdyn Cluff
PS-Morgan, Johnny has a few things for you he is bringing back.

HELP!!!!

Okay, so things have been going great and not too much excitement has been going on....there were fireworks again last night across the bay from us, and we do still have lizards running around the house...among other things. I suppose living on an island has it's benefits, and it's "not so benefits." To help set the stage for this next saga, picture us living in a tiny, one-bedroom, $1300/month apt. I'm not complaining, we actually have it quite nice. Since we have only one bedroom, we have a corner in the bedroom where we have a small port-o-crib for Holdyn. We have a dresser leaned up against it so she sort of has some privacy. Okay, now with that in mind.

Last night I had put her to bed. She was sound asleep, and I was just getting ready to hop in bed myself. I had left the bedroom door open and the light from the frontroom (only other room) was beaming into the bedroom. I casually walked in and over to my side of the bed when I hear Ben in a yelling-whisper, "GET ON THE BED." So without hesitation, I fly through the air and curl up on the bed. Then he continues, "A Huge roach just ran across the floor." So I do what any brave girl would do and stayed on the bed telling Ben he is on his own! So, with a can of Raid in hand, he began the roach hunt!

After much furniture josseling we (by we I mean Ben) found the roach and put it out of it's mysery. During this bit of excitement Holdyn woke up and was a little upset...so I grabbed her and brought her out to the front room while Ben began putting the bedroom back in order. Holdyn settled down and I went to take her back to her little bed, and what do I see awaiting her in her crib..............another HUGE ROACH!! Of course I scream, tell Ben his roach hunt isn't over, and send him back into the room armed with what is left of the can of raid! Finally, we got them under control and changed poor Holdyn's sheets and settled down for the night! The funny thing is, we have seen a totaly of 5 roaches the entire time we've been here, 3 within the last 24 hours and the other two were right after we moved in. I don't know what they feed their roaches here but they've mutated to the size of a mouse..which makes them even more distgusting!!!

Two weeks with Ben!!!

Sadly, Ben's 2 week break has come to an end. He starts classes again tomorrow. We were among the few families and students to stay on the island. As you can see Holdyn was very excited to spend some extra time with her daddy.

So our break began with some serious relax time. We did a lot of hanging out around the house...which was very nice! One morning we went for a walk around AUC's campus and we saw coconuts up in the trees. We saw a local man who was working on the landscape with his machete. (If I haven't pointed this fact out before, machete's are used for everything...mowing lawns...YES, I said mowing lawns, trimming trees and bushes, cutting coconuts, cleaning fish....and more. Needless to say, it is not unusual to see locals walking around with their machete at their side....I guess you could say they are the Leatherman's of St. Maarten!) We asked the man how to know when coconuts are ready. He went over to a tree, grabbed his pole/tool for knocking them down, and got us a couple. He said these were only good for milk, so he showed us how to whack them open to get the milk and we took the coconut home and tried it for ourselves.

We also got together with friends. Here is a great picture of Cute Hillary and the kiddo's in our living room. It was great for Holdyn to be around other kids!

We also did a bit of snorkeling! Soo FUN!!! Here is Hillary and I with our snorkel gear! We should have been supermodels!!

There was a group of us who also got together and went to the island of Pinel. It is part of St. Maarten and is just a very small island that you catch a ferry to. Speaking of the Ferry, it is just a small boat....that they pack you on like sardines. Here is a photo of the ferry loaded to come back. We were on the back row so it is just the backs of heads....but notice how packed the thing is! You can't even see the boat...the best way for me to explain it is a big canoe with benches....it is about as rickety as a canoe too. Good times on St. Maarten!! Pinel has a very nice beach and some great snorkeling! Even with sunblock caked on, Poor Ben got pretty toasted! He hasn't seen much sun since we came down here so his body was in a bit of shock!

Last night Justin and Hillary had a big group over to their landlords place (who was nice enough to let us crash his pool/patio). We had a great dinner and it was fun to get together for one last hoorah before the husbands start up their next semester! The pools here are often on the second level...so Justin and Hillary live below the pool....strange I know...they have some leaks in their walls and ceiling from the pool above. It would sort of freak me out, having all that water right above your head!

Here is Holdyn rocking out in a little bouncer.

She LOVED it! Well, I guess that sums it up in a nutshell! Oh, one thing that I accomplished was....Hillary and I ran from her house to ours...it is about 5 miles. That was the best jog I've done in a LONG time! We are going to try to do it on Saturday mornings when our Husbands are home to watch the kiddo's.

We Loved having Ben be able to spend the days with us!!