"Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." Ephesians 3:17-19
Everywhere we look we see evidence of how wide and how deep God's love and power are. It's so humbling to get to see this other part of God's creation... even after 10 days, the views and the beauty are as breathtaking as they were on day 1.
We're on our 3rd tube of "itching cream", we could play dot-to-dot on Maddie and Jeff's arms and legs, and yet we are without question having ab
solutely the time of our lives.
This morning we packed a picnic lunch and headed out for the day (after breakfast and Maddie's morning swim of course). The kids slept in until 7 and 7:30, so we got some extra sleep and felt rested and ready for another wonderful day. St. John used to be a major sugar manufacturer (molasses and rum), so there are lots of ruins of the plantations and other structures used during that time. We drove to the ruins of a large sugar mill and walked around it, and then we hiked Leinster Trail to Waterlemon Bay. Even at Waterlemon we found more ruins, possibly of a plantation owner.
We had a picnic on the beach, and then headed out for our snorkeling adventure. We had lots of swimming ahead of us! We have been so excited about going to Waterlemon. From the beach, you can swim over to Waterlemon Cay (a small island) and snorkel around the island. It's one of the more famous places to snorkel on the island. We'd heard that there are tons of starfish, rays and lots of other cool things to see. It definitely lived up to our expectations. We swam out to the island, and while we rested a bit before swimming around the island, we talked to some folks that had just finished and were resting at the same spot. They said it was incredible, but on the right side of the island the water was a little rough AND there was a HUGE school of jellyfish (thousands of tiny ones). Needless to say, we decided then NOT to swim around the island, but instead just go up and down the calm side before heading back. Just the swim out TO the island was awesome - we saw two rays, a parrotfish, and then over a HUNDRED star fish!! Then as we swam by the island, we saw more different fish than we'd seen anywhere! More parrotfish, blue tangs, and even a flounder I think! (I've got to look that one up, but it definitely swam on it's side - I scared it off a rock while diving down to check out another fish! I didn't even see it until it moved off!)
The highlight of the day, though, happened after we swam back over to Waterlemon Beach. As we were taking our flippers off and standing in the shallow water and sea grass, a sea turtle swam in! We put our masks back on and swam around with him for a moment. It was too cool for words. The sad part was that our underwater camera ran out of film on the starfish, so we didn't get pictures of the turtle.
I was really proud of Matthew today... he overcame two big obstacles. As we were swimming out to the island, we stopped at shore more than half way across to rest for a minute. We got back on our way, and Matthew's goggles started leaking, which made his eyes burn, which made him FLIP OUT. So, we turned and swam back to the "resting spot" to regroup. I thought I might have to sit there with him and send Maddie and Jeff on, but he pulled it together, adjusted the goggles and did a trial run close to shore, and all was well. Whew! We made it to the island with no more problems. Then later, as we were swimming back across the bay to the beach, he bolted up out of the water and screamed "something stung me!". Jeff and I swim with each of us holding one of the kids' hands, and I was with Matthew at this point. So I came up, took off my goggles and tried to calm him down. At that point, he let out one (make that TWO) of his long, high, blood curdling screams. I explained to him that he could NOT panic, that he was FINE and it would quit burning... that his ONLY choice at this point is to SWIM. I was praying to God as I was talking to Matthew, and sure enough, he put on his goggles and kept swimming. I saw him rub his cheek a few times, but he pushed through! I figured he probably grazed a jelly fish, and sure enough a few minutes later a tiny jellyfish went right between us. I didn't bring his attention to it of course. He has not mentioned it tonight, and the redness is gone. It was a mild sting. It didn't ruin his entire day! :)
From there, we hiked out and drove to dinner. We ate at Woody's again - Matthew ate shark and loved it, and Maddie and I shared some grilled shrimp. They were delicious. Jeff enjoyed fried clams. We'd thought we might stop at Cinnamon Bay on the way home, but we decided we were too tired. We had already packed a lot into this day. SO, we came home, took a quick swim and then showered. Now we're watching "Horton Hears a Who".
Oh - and we saw an iguana cross the road today! And Maddie and I saw a BEAUTIFUL yellow bird today that I think was probably a bananaquit!
