St. John --- Impromptu Virgin Island trip with Em!

About a week and a half before Christmas, I got a jingle-jangle from my eldest sitster, Emily.  Her boss had to speak at a conference in St. John (you know, in the Virgin Islands??).  His family was going to come along and he also invited Em and anyone she wanted to join them.  Hellllllo??  Awesome.  I was the lucky gal who Emily picked... and you bet I was going to make it happen... even though we only had three weeks to get our ducks in a row!

We were able to convince Aaron's sister, Stephanie, to fly down to watch the kids for the weekend while Aaron was working (and, of course, I'd be gone).  She was the ultimate and the kids had so much fun with her.  Tillie still asks me to do her hair like Stephanie did!  hA!

Three cheers to Em's awesome Boss and his family for letting me come (his family was so much fun. seriously.)!  Three cheers to Em for picking me to come on this tropical adventure (it was so fun and comfortable being with her and just hanging out)!  Three cheers to Aaron for helping arrange life/work so I could go!  And, of course, Three Cheers to Steph for flying down from Utah to be with Tillie and Calvin!!

Here are a ton of pictures of the grand vacation:

I got there about 30 minutes before Em and the rest of the gang... so I snapped a pic of the airport. SO different than the HUGE Dallas airport I had come from.

We stayed at the all inclusive resort, Caneel Bay.  It was pretty fantastic.  Here are several photos to show you all the fun we had:

Our awesome bungalow!  Check out that awesome rock wall with sea shells in the grout.  So cool.

Rock wall shower.  Like showering in a cave!

Even the bugs were cooler there!  Check out the turquoise on those legs! Amazing.

Took this on instagram.  This is the view we had every time we ate.  

One of the fancy pants restaurants we ate at.  So much delicious food.  Great company.  Fun conversations.  It was crazy.  And, I loved the shell covered chandeliers.  

There were these wild donkeys that roamed around the resort we were staying at.  It was crazy to see them pop up random places.  The resort capitalized on the uniqueness of the donkeys and left a cute toy stuffed donkey on the pillows at the end of your stay.  It was a perfect little gift for Calvin (I got home on the day of his 2nd birthday).  

It was so great to just do WHATEVER we wanted... WHENEVER we wanted.  Something I'm definitely not used to doing.  Such a nice change.  Unfortunately, it did RAIN a fair amount while we were there---so when we did venture out to the beach, we did so cautiously, b/c in ten minutes it could be a torrential downpour.  

The staff kept talking about their famous complimentary Island Rum.  Too bad we don't drink.  Too bad.

I loved being able to read Ender's Game.  This is a favorite book of both Aaron's and my brother, Jesse.  It was a great read and I was definitely a big fan.  When it would rain, we'd grab our books and read in our room... or watch some of the great movies Em had on her laptop.  

We went on a little hike.  The bathroom was farther than we thought, so I made Em hoof it fast toward the end. :)  It was nutso walking through the jungle there!

We were super curious/afraid of this huge nest thing!  I have a feeling it might have held a nest of tarantulas or something equally frightening!  We ran by it the first time, and then quickly took a phone shot on our way back!

Old sugar mills on the resort.  

We played a bunch of games with the Christensens.  They were so warm and inviting.  Genuinely a wonderful family.  We played Bananagrams one afternoon and here was one of the boards Kate came up with.  So funny.  

We went sailing one night on a sunset cruise.  It was cool to have BLACK sails.  And, the scenery was great too, obviously!  From the boat we saw one of Kenny Chesney's homes (hello, awesome that he lives there!  no wonder so many of his songs are about tropical/beach life!).  And, we also saw Eric Clapton's boat.  Very posh.  

Em was brave and tried a real coconut drink.  I (not being a fan of coconut anything) passed.  She looks she loved the drink, but really, she didn't think it was that delicious.  :)  

why yes.  That IS a rainbow.  

This is us PRE-snorkel.  The resort was huge, so we just tromped around there after hearing several GREAT reports about the awesome snorkeling.  It did not disappoint.  

This is one of the only group shots we got... and it wasn't of the whole gang.  This was the last night when we walked home from a restaurant.  Super lovely family.  I have nothing but great things to say about them.  My shiny face pictured below?  not so many great things to say.  I stole this from Kate's facebook page.  hA!

Going home.  It was bittersweet.  I loved being able to just hang out with Em for such a long, un-interrupted period of time.  And, hello, it was awesome being in paradise!  But, I was excited to get home to my little family.  I missed them a ton.  And, it was Cal's birthday, so I was pretty jazzed to squeeze his little cheeks and marvel at his two year old little life.

While I was at the airport, there were two little birdies that were in the seats across from me.  So funny.

Good times in St. John.  Thanks, Em, for the fun.  It was a TOTAL BLAST!

Here are pictures from Cal's birthday later that afternoon after I landed back in Dallas!