the end of St. Maarten

I am overwhelmed with trying to get all the pictures gone through and edited and so forth so no pictures yet. However, I do want to finish detailing our trip.

Friday Kevin and I left the kids and went back to Marigot. We wandered around some more, appreciated the French architecture, and ate delectable pastries in a French bakery/cafe. Wow! Yum! We both had bites of a pear tart. Kevin ate a chocolate cream pastry that contained cherries. I ate most of an Eclair Cafe which was a very rich chocolate cream pastry with a slight crunch. Heaven! We sat in the cafe for a very long time just talking.

We headed back to Phillipsburg and the kids and found most of them on the beach/in the water. Alec had given McKayla a run for her money and embarrassed her to death though. He actually went into someone else's room in the hotel. The entire hotel staff was helping look for him and they and McKayla found him locked in someone's bathroom. At least McKayla was able to laugh about it by the time we got there.

We spent the rest of the day playing on the beach. I sunburned my back. I knew I should go in but I was having fun with the kids. They were jumping off the end of the pier and having sand castle wars.

That night I dragged the kids on a walk to the cemetery so they could see their very-different-from-ours cemeteries.

Saturday morning we packed, stored our luggage, and hit the beach again. We paid for the kids to use a water trampoline/slide. They had fun but said it was work to get on.

Then we headed to the airport and all fun ceased (but the adventure continued).

None of us got on the first Delta flight to Atlanta and things didn't look good for the second so Kevin and Chandler took all the passports done to ticketing (outside of security) to look for other options. About 2 hours later they were boarding for the 2nd Delta flight and I was called to the gate. They told me they could get 2 of us on the plane. I told them my husband had our passports and asked if they could page him. I had McKayla wait by security to tell him to run! They actually gave up on us because they needed to close the doors and get the flight off so they were beginning to board the next people on the standby list behind us when I spotted Kevin rushing from security. I wish I had a picture of that! He had his belt and his shoes in his hands (took them off to get through security) so he was holding up his pants and trying to run. I told them my husband was coming with our passports so they told the other people they couldn't go and told me they could actually get 3 of us on the flight and asked which ones. I said me, Alec, and Chandler.

We climbed aboard, took our seats (spread far out on the plane) and took off! Whew! The fun wasn't over though. The Atlanta airport was closed due to weather so we circled for almost an hour. It was bumpy and both Chandler and I got really sick (probably not helped by the fact that we hadn't eaten). We finally landed and waited in horrendous lines at immigration and customs before finally making it to the gate only 30 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave for SLC. It was a bit delayed so I grabbed dinner from the nearest place I could find and we hurried and ate dinner at 9:40 pm. About then Kevin called to say he and the girls had gotten on a United flight to Washington, D.C. and had just landed there. Luckily, that's where my parents are serving their mission so I sent my dad to go pick them up from the airport.

Meanwhile, our flight kept getting more and more delayed. Finally, we got en route. Luckily, I had 3 seats to myself so I lay down and was out for most of the flight! I finally pulled into our driveway at 2:15 am (4:15 am on the time zone I'd been operating on all week).

Kevin and the girls may now stay in D.C. until Monday night. They can visit with my parents and go see some sights. Kevin has never been there before. (I've been several times and have taken the girls once). I do wish I had brought McKayla home with me. She has cross-country in the morning and needs to get ready to leave on Pioneer Trek on Thursday. Chandler would have loved being in D.C. However, I didn't have time to think when Kevin is running up with our passports and the gate agent is asking which 3 family members are going. I just thought I'd take the 2 harder ones (harder to keep happy in an airport). Oh well! Longer vacation. Shanley and McKayla are just on a vacation streak. Shanley was at Oakcrest all week before we left for St. Maarten. We had to pick up McKayla early from EFY to leave. McKayla, Kevin, and I will then go on Pioneer Trek later this week. Who needs to be home anyways?