Lots of Diving!!

We have been trying to get as much diving in as we can before we leave. We've done a handful of new locations and some others that we've done already. The spots we've dove before provide a great opportunity to play with the camera more. We love diving with Octopus Diving and will be sad to not see Chris and Sally all the time. We highly recommend diving with them if you ever make it to St Maarten, they are the best! 

Here are some highlights from our recent dives and check this album for lots more! 

Love the texture on this coral

Flamingo Tongue Snail

Sea Anemone

French Angelfish

Nurse Shark

Sting Ray

These are so hard to get a picture of! As soon as you get near, they close up. So glad I finally got one!

The beginning of the end

I've been falling behind on posts lately. As our time is beginning to wrap up here, I find less time to catch up on this blog. So here's a little update from the last month and what we've been up to.

•  Sary visited, with some of her friends for a week, which was a lot of fun
• Owen is already into his second block of his last semester
• He got an 84 on his Pharmacology block 1 exam
• I have 2 weeks left of my Mental Health Law class
• We still do the radio, though the schedule varies as Owen's class schedule is always changing
• We did the Boardwalk Triathlon again (last weekend); Owen did the Sprint with me the whole way, which made it much more fun
• I got a huge jellyfish sting during the Tri, as you'll see in the pictures below
• My last day of tutoring was last week
• We've been helping at Octopus Diving while they were between dive instructors. It's nice to help on the boat and get to dive a little more too (look for another post soon with the latest dive pictures)
• It's officially hurricane season, though nothing to worry about for another couple months hopefully. It has definitely gotten hotter though!
• Owen is doing an off-road triathlon this weekend
• I'll be in Connecticut June 27-July 18 while Owen is studying for his big exams here (comps)
• We'll be back for the fall, beginning sometime in August/September

So that's the rundown of what's been going on around here lately. It's hard to believe we only have another 2 1/2 months here. How did 2 years go by that fast? We're making the most of the time we have left here, as we will definitely miss it but we are looking forward to some time at home then a new adventure in England! So enjoy a few pictures, I'll try to update with pictures more often over our last months here. Hope everyone is doing well!

Sary and me at Mullet Bay Beach!

Who wouldn't miss having this as their backyard??

At the station with Soc

Pre-race

Post-race

Jellyfish sting day 1

Jellyfish sting day 3

Landgrens and St Maarten meet again!

I finally had a chance to get to the school and get some pictures uploaded so I could write this blog! I've been trying to catch up on school while also having Sary Marsh on island. I finally found some time between school assignments to write about my parents' second visit to St Maarten. They were here last November and saw most of the highlights of the island then. This time it was a bit more relaxed, and Owen was on break which made it much more relaxing and fun for all.  

Unfortunately the weather wasn't the greatest while they were here, we've been having much more rain and clouds than usual for this time of year. So they had a bit of a different experience of the island this time. One of the highlights for this trip was the massive rain storm and flooding we got on May 3rd. After getting kicked out of the movie theater due to the rain, my parents got to experience what it is really like to live on an island, as we drove through the worst flooding we've seen in 2 years. We don't have any pictures of it, but the headlights disappeared as water was coming up over the hood of the car. The water was up to the door handles of most of the parked cars, as we drove through a stream of rapids on the streets. Luckily we had a rental, so our car didn't get flooded, though the waters tore off the front license plate on the rental! 

Other than the flooding, we spent the week going to different beaches, some of their favorites from the last visit and some new ones. We made a point to watch KLM (Boeing 747) land, which they didn't get to see last time. We tried a lot of new restaurants, went shopping in Philipsburg, the guys rented wave runners. We also spent a day over in Anguilla, none of us had been there before. The weather wasn't the best that day, but at least we didn't get rained out like we had other days. The snorkeling was pretty good at Shoal Bay (East) and my dad and Owen saw some baby reef sharks in the shallows waters when they went for a walk.

Overall it was a great vacation for everyone. Lots of time to relax and enjoy the island. A big thank you to my parents for visiting and everything they did for us, allowing us to have a vacation as well! We really enjoyed the week with you and look forward to seeing you in the fall! Much love!

Can't even see the mountains!

Leaving Marigot

Welcome to Anguilla!

In Anguilla, looking back at St Maarten. The weather wasn't great, but made for cool pictures/colors

Shoal Bay East, Anguilla

love the water in Anguilla

Night Diving

So I had this whole blog post done and I was just about to hit publish when the new blogger site decided to delete it instead. So now it's going to be the quick version.

Over break we had a chance to go night diving. I was pretty nervous about the idea at first, especially getting into dark water that I couldn't see the bottom. Turns out it wasn't that bad. We went out just after dusk, so there was still a little light and it made the transition to dark water easier. There were also 7 of us on the dive and between all of our flashlights, it was never really that dark.

We went to a site that we have dove many times (the training site) but it was very different in the dark. A lot more fish were out, especially the really small fish which hide during the day. I tried to get a few pictures, but apparently it's rather difficult to photograph in the dark, underwater, with just a flashlight; who would have thought ;) We did get to see an octopus though, which was really cool since you almost never see them. Overall it was a really cool dive experience.

Also over break, Owen got his rescue diver certification with Octopus Diving and I helped out by being the victim. Next it's the Advanced certification for me hopefully in the next month. Anyway other than that, break was pretty relaxed, which was much needed. Look for another update soon from my parents' visit. Until then, enjoy the few pictures from the night dive and the starfish in Grand Case bay. Hope everyone is having a wonderful spring!

Sunset in Grand Case before the dive

Divers and boaters

Trunk Fish

Urchin

OCTOPUS!!!

Started changing to a blue-ish color

Huge starfish