What just happened?

I cannot believe we are leaving this island in THREE days!  It feels like yesterday that Shane and I arrived here with our 6 month old baby.  I feel like we are just going home for the school break and then coming back like we have for the past two years.  It hasn't really hit me that we aren't coming back this time, which is why I am still trying to decide how I feel about leaving.  Obviously, I am SO excited to see all of our family and friends back in the states and not to mention all of the American conveniences that the good ol' US of A has to offer!  I am so excited that our family is moving on with the next phase of our lives and Shane will be starting the second half of medical school.  I am excited to see where we will go next, we're hoping it will be Redlands, California in August, and our chances of ending up there are pretty high.  I am so excited to meet baby #2 in less than 6 weeks!  There are lots of fun and exciting changes coming soon and that makes me really want to be done here!  On the other hand, I am going to miss Grenada.  This was Jeremy's first real home and where he learned to do everything...crawling, eating, walking, talking, etc.  We are really going to miss our friends and the tight-knit community of other LDS students and their families.  I am SO going to miss being able to go outside whenever I want with just a t-shirt, pair of shorts, and flip flops and have a free activity of going to the beach or pool whenever I want.  As I said before, I am so excited for baby #2 to join our family but I am going to miss it just being Shane, Jeremy and me!  Leaving Grenada doesn't just mean moving, it means a whole bunch of other changes to shortly follow.  Being here has been such a great experience.  Shane and I have been talking a lot lately about how we are so glad we chose to come here and if we had to go back and choose, we'd choose it again!  I mean, how many people can say that they have lived in another country (a third world country, nonetheless) for two years (not counting a mission)?  I have learned so much being here and it really has been a huge blessing in our lives.  But things are always changing and that's really exciting too!  We are excited for the next chapter and what it will bring!!!  

My cousin Tracy came to visit a few weeks ago so we decided that we should all (Shane included, can you believe it?) take advantage of the rental car and go and do pretty much everything cool one last time.  Here's what we did in no particular order.  Enjoy!

Closing social at the Grenada Grand

 LaSagesse Beach

 Snorkeling at Aquarium Beach.  So freakin' cool!

 Swimming at the University Club pool

  Belmont Chocolate Factory

Eating from the Cocoa pod

Where the beans dry

Yummy samples.  The Cocoa tea was SO good!

Seeing the parrots (Choc Factory)

And the monkeys (Choc Factory)

And the turtles (Choc Factory)

And feeding the goats (Choc Factory)

Pearls Airport.  An old airport right off the coast with a couple of broken down airplanes.  I knew Jeremy would LOVE to see them so we stopped here on our way home from the chocolate factory!

At the market downtown.  This is Teresa, she LOVES seeing Jeremy every time we go downtown!

And with Joseph.  He makes the most beautiful jewelry out of seashells, driftwood, fire beans, etc.

Smoothies downtown

So you can't really tell what this picture is but let me explain...We had the opportunity to go up to the north side of the island to Levera Beach and see these giant leatherback turtles lay their eggs in the sand.  They swim up to the shore, dig a hole, lay about 150 eggs, bury them and then swim back out to sea.  They usually only come out late at night and we weren't allowed to use flash photography, they can only be exposed to red light.  Our tour guide told us that only about 1 in 1000 make it to adulthood.  The males weigh around 2000 lbs and the females weigh around 1000 lbs.  They are huge!!!  These turtles are born, swim all over the globe, but make sure to return back to the same beach they were born on to lay their own eggs.  Isn't that crazy?  It was such a cool experience!  Click here to see this cool video!

Eating at Aquarium Restaurant on Tracy's last night!

We also went to Grand Anse beach, BBC beach, Lance Epines beach, Mt. Carmel, and saw the tide pools.  But I can't find those pictures :(  It was a great way to spend Tracy's vacation and for our family to see and do all the things we wanted to one more time before we leave!

Our Anniversary Date at the Beach House (Thanks for babysitting Tracy!!!)