St. John!!

We finally made it to St. John! We left our house at 4:30 Friday afternoon and we arrived in St. John at 5:30 pm on Saturday. We were delayed at the Omaha airport for almost three hours and when we finally arrived in Chicago, the prospect of waiting another hour for a shuttle to the hotel and then sleeping for three hours and having to come back to get through security was just too much to take. We ended up camping out behind one of the boarding gate desks and struggling through the night. Eli and Carli did really well--with jackets for pillows and Sammy's blankies for covers, they slept pretty well. Sammy was living the good life with the stroller reclined back. It took him a while to fall asleep, but he was smiling when we woke him up at 5 am. It looked like Ben got at least a couple hours of sleep, but I don't think I slept more than fifteen minutes. Even through the earplugs I wore, I could hear the stupid announcer every fifteen minutes "Attention airport passengers, it is illegal for drivers to solicit passengers from the upper level, blah, blah, blah..." followed immediately by, "For the safety of our passengers, the Chicago O'Hare airport is smoke-free. You may smoke in designated areas BLAH, BLAH, BLAH . . . " EVERY FIFTEEN MINUTES! I actually spent most of the night in short prayers, "Please let Sammy keep sleeping", "Please don't let anyone steal our bags when my eyes are closed," "Please help me not to hear that stupid announcement again." =)

We had egg mcmuffins at McDonalds and made it to our flight at 6:45 am to Charlotte, NC. The airport in Charlotte is really nice--there were white rocking chairs all throughout, even near the gates. They were really comfortable! The kids had a great time running around, and Ben had a crappy time haggling with the lady at the counter because they somehow didn't have a record of Sammy's ticket for the last leg to St. Thomas. We ended up paying $93 bucks for some stupid taxes or something, and everything was okay. The last flight was about four hours, and Sammy slept two of them, so that was awesome. Eli and Carli were awesome, only getting antsy in the last 30 minutes (thank you Crayola Color Wonder!).

Once we got to St. Thomas, we packed into a van with a bunch of other tourists and headed to the ferry boat. The van went all over the island dropping people off so we got quite the tour. In the Virgin Islands, they have American cars but they drive on the right side of the road like in England. Really weird! (And dangerous!) Most people have the passenger side mirrors folded in in case they clip another car. The roads are super narrow and windy and turning corners is tricky when you're used to driving on the other side of the road! There have been several sharp intakes of breath!

So the taxi van took about 45 minutes (and $50!) and then we waited another 20 or so for the ferry to take off. The ferry ride was fun, but to be honest, by that time I was so exhausted I could hardly keep my eyes open! There were a couple of birds flying along beside the boat and they put on a diving show for us. Eli and Carli loved that. It was great to finally pull up to the dock and see Ben's brother Dru and his parents and sister Susie waiting for us. Dru and his girlfriend Colleen live here in St. John, and Susie, Bill and Jane had arrived before us.

Amazingly enough, Eli and Carli were still in good spirits and excited about everything. They were such troopers! They made it through that hard traveling day like world travelers.

We visited a bit, had sandwiches to eat, took a dip in the pool and went to bed. The villa where we're staying is really beautiful, and never has a bed been so comfortable!

Today we went to the beach and it was amazing! I can't believe the color and temperature of the water. It's absolutely beautiful. Sammy wasn't too impressed, and he ended up taking a great nap with Ben in the hammock.

Eli and Carli loved it! Carli couldn't get enough of playing in the sand and I think Eli spent the whole time in the water floating around. It was really fun to look down and see little fish swimming around in the water. It looks and feels like a swimming pool, so it's really weird to taste the salt. I kept having to remind myself that we were actually in the ocean!

So, it has been a great first day, and we're looking forward to a few more. Tomorrow Dru is taking us sailing on the boat he charters--the kids are very excited--and so are we. I've been boating lots of times, but never sailing. Here's hoping for good weather!