Customs (coming to a state near you?)

Even though we're in a US territory, you have to go through customs.  Weird.  So when we shipped some of our stuff, we had to clear it through the excise office and then the customs office.  I was tweeting about the experience (where we have to convince them we're not shipping anything new, or anything electronic, or anything resembling a weapon or terrorist-support-tool... luckily we knew all the right answers), when Lynnette whispered that I should put away my camera: there were very prominent signs telling us that phones (and cameras and I forget what else) were forbidden.  I should have taken a picture!

What a sad, sorry state of affairs when we're nervous about using phones and cameras around government officials!  OK, I'll stop now.  :-)

Crab Races

We went to crab races last night: we get to name them and cheer them on as they cross the outer circle.

Thomas named two of ours after his friends McKay and Mason:

Then they put them in buckets, turned them over, and released the crabs!

 (That's Ella's finger, to prove that we were there.)

They raced multiple heats, but our crabs never won.  But Thomas did win a miniature golf certificate afterward, and an Angry Bird coloring book for Ella.

Our driveway

Kind of a pleasant little entryway, eh?

What's in your Home Depot?

With so few resources, we were pleasantly surprised to find that St Croix has a Home Depot.  It's pretty much the same as Utah, but look what else we found!  Machetes!

Lynnette held these in her hands and said: "Cool!"

Waves up to the shore

Sometimes the whitecaps come all the way up to the shore.  Pretty cool!

Anniversary Dinner

For our anniversary a few days ago we went to Pirate's Tavern, and here's the view from our table.

A Typical Morning

So here's a series of pictures I took on my way to dropping off the kids at school and then continuing on to work.

This is a yard on the way.  If you look very closely, just above the center, you'll see a bird.

Someday I hope to catch it strutting, because it's a peacock.  There are actually two others in this picture, to the right of this one and back in the brush a bit.  This is the first time I saw them; Ella has seen them quite often, including showing their plumage.

Here are the steps where I drop the kids off at school.

At the top of those steps, here's what you see to the left.

And here's what you see to the right.

Here is the parking lot as I drive away from school.

Yeah... it's kinda cool with all those trees and such... oh, and the view of the ocean on the right side.  :-)


Here's the main street I drive in my commute.

Here is the building where I work.  My office is at the top, third window from the left.

 Here is a chicken and a rooster that inhabit the street in front of our office.

I'm sure I'll give you more pics from various angles... but now, if you want, you can look at the same thing I do each and every morning.  I know you're excited.

A rainy day

It's not always sunny here.  I know... you feel our pain, huh?  So I took this picture from my office... I thought it was kinda cool how the drops on the glass warped the picture, and the second pic shows the normal view... though still cloudy.  :-(

School

Here's Thomas waving goodbye as he walks up to his classroom.  I'll have to get more pics of their school, which is a bunch of separate classrooms... you can see that the hallway is just a roof over a walkway, open to the outside.  :-)

The rocky beach

The beach nearest our house is mostly rocky, not sandy.  So went on crawling over them and smashing them (since they're like shale, easily broken).  Thomas is throwing a rock, and Tolman is touching a brain coral.

Our garage

Here's our "garage"... just an area outside.  (The nicer car is our rental; the other is our beater car that I already have to get fixed.)  Notice the next door neighbor's house close by through the trees.  Also notice that Ella isn't wearing shoes; she doesn't put them on until she must.

On the Boardwalk!

So I went outside for a break from work, walked across the street, and here's where I found myself.  Not too shabby!

... and the backyard

All these barrels are here to catch every extra drop of water coming of the house.  Despite lots of moisture, it's critical to store and conserve it for the times when rain is infrequent.

Other sights in a garden

The first picture is how you prep pineapples for planting: put the tops in water until roots start spreading, then plant them elsewhere.

Home Grown Bananas

This is Conroy Hosier.  He's watering his garden from this pan of rainwater because a haven't had rain in more than a week.  His garden is full of all kinds of fruit, very different from what we're used to.  Hopefully I'll get more pics someday, but today I just have bananas, four different kinds!  Wow.

Our Entryway

This is the view when you walk in our front door, straight ahead and then to the left.  Oh, look: there are the kids... and Tolman has the electric bug killer... which he's obviously using on other stuff... you know, shocking stuff is fun to do.

Fun with coconuts

So I walked outside and found the kids pounding nails and screwdrivers into coconuts.  With enough experimentation  we finally got milk out, then cracked them open and started cutting out pieces to eat.  Lynnette was underwhelmed by the taste, but Ella says she wants to toast it for her.  :-)

The pool, and Hermie

The pool... looks gorgeous, eh?  It is nice.  But there's a big ol' palm tree, making it dirty and getting in the way of our view.  Hard life.

And Ella found this hermit crab, which Thomas played with and called Hermie.  All the wildlife has been pretty small so far.

The view out our bedroom

Here's the view outside our bedroom window.  And, since you're probably getting tired of all the island pictures by themselves, I'll start including pictures of us in them.