the NaIgErSyN's: day 3

~Dawn Beach~

{mind you, NONE of these pictures have been edited. these are straight out of the camera- of which i STILL don't know how to use. that is JUST how amazing this place is. the colors are so brilliant there.}

we headed to Dawn Beach on day 3, tuesday, and it was FABULOUS. the pictures tell it all. one of THE most beautiful beaches. it is on the Atlantic ocean so the waves were huge... a little too intense for ej {of course she LOVED getting thrown around by the waves} so it was more of a beach toy day for her. she did get her fair share of time with the waves- as was evident by her sand filled diaper- but it was a hang-out in the water day for her :) kate, myself, and nate did some snorkeling here and found some really great coral and fish. it was a little too rough for me though. i was afraid of getting thrown against the coral. i also was afraid of getting out too far and not having the energy to swim back in. i would have never even thought of that 'pre-ej' days. isn't it funny how we become more weary of the things we do once a little one is dependent on us?!

Nate totally scored multiple days in getting ej to take a nap on him. he totally had the magic touch and benefited from it! this day they both fell asleep and took a good 90 min+ nap. not too many things better than the view i had of this AMAZING island, white sand and turquoise water with nate and ej napping together. meanwhile i got to sit and read a great book without interruption {and not just from ej}. AH, what a life that week was!!

how picturesque is THAT!

after playing, laying out, snorkeling, snoozing, reading, and relaxing the day away at Dawn Beach, we stopped in Philipsburg (Dutch captiol) for the second time hopine to catch some of "the best shopping in all of the Caribbean" . well, we got a few shops in but then they were all closing due to the cruise ships leaving for the day. we found a fun little restaraunt that a couple locals reccommended and ate fantastic food. nate had curried goat {his new fav food}, kate curried chicken, and i had slow cooked bbq ribs.

front entrance to the restaraunt---- would you continue? i was leery... but so glad we continued.

our waitress who was in love with ej

entrance from the boardwalk- a little better

after dinner we headed back to the car. we enjoyed a great walk as the sun set.

ej watching the birds

so relaxing. on our way home we stopped at a grocery store and bought some coconut filled Vanilla Wafers... and a pack of dulce de leche... both of which i am pretty sure were finished that night. this day we were a little pink from laying out. we happened to see some Aloe plants along the roadside and thought we'd save a buck or two picking Aloe and not having to buy it at the store. we couldn't figure out why everybody wasn't picking it. later on- after dinner- we got back in the car and it STUNK so bad. it smelled like a mixture of rotten chicken noodle soup and B.O.~ it was coming from the aloe.... maybe this wasn't 'regular aloe' i don't know what we picked but it was terrible! i looked just like an aloe plant. we all got a pretty good laugh out of it. no more 'wild aloe' for us.

by this point in the vacation i am pretty sure we were on our second jar of nutella~