Sundown at Rainbow Beach

Our good friends Jim and Kelly invited us to meet them for a sunset dinner at Rainbow Beach tonight. It was lots of fun because we got to see Miss Vicki and Lance and Eileen and their beautiful baby Gwen....Caroline, Emmy and Garrett got to play with Jim's kids Courtney and Justin and eveyone had a blast!

Garrett and Justin exploring the tide pools

Our good friend Eileen and Miss Gwen

Caroline and Courtney doing the "Rock Hop".....

It's so hard to say goodbye.....

So we're down to the barrel now and have begun our final get togethers with island friends and families. It's so hard to say goodbye to these people! They have made our lives here on St. Croix so rich and full. I'll be adding photos as I take them over the next ten days.

Here's Caroline and Emmy with Emily

Garrett and Andrew have been friends since they were babies!

Emmy and Kristina sharing a last playdate......I KNOW we'll see you guys again!
Save the last dance for me.....

AZ Academy's End of Year Show.....

Wow I can't believe that this school year is over! Like all of our years, it's been quite eventful! The school year ended with the annual end of year show composed of a series of short plays and skits.

Here's Garrett and his class singing the national anthem!

As for Emmy, she did a wonderful job as a fairy in her play "A Dragon in the Mix"

And to finish the end of year show, Caroline was VERY dramatic as Snow White in

"The Happily Ever After"

As always, the end of year show was a fun night to see all of AZ's talented students. It was rather bittersweet for me, as I knew it would likely be the last show we, the Corders would attend on St. Croix. During the show, AZ's director (my boss and friend) gave out teacher and volunteer awards. I was amazed and touched to recieve an award for my art program! Like I said, truly a bittersweet night. We've been so lucky in finding friends and family on St. Croix, I really can't believe it's time for us to move on.

Why use a float when you have a horse?

So Melissa finally came home from her cruise; we missed her so much I felt like a kid waiting for the Daddy to come home from a business trip! For a special welcome home treat, (I suspect she missed us as much as we missed her, but I COULD be wrong...) she took the girls swimming with their ponies. Is this paradise or what?

Follow ME, I know the way!!!

Like a boat on the ocean; a ship on the sea.....

HOW NIIICCE!

See, it's not so bad living in paradise; you get too hot, you go swimming and it's alll cool!

Garrett's Class Trip to Coral World

I was so lucky to be able to go with Garrett on his class trip to Coral World in St. Thomas. The entire day was an adventure from leaving the house at 6:00 to catch the sea plane, the actual ride on the sea plane, a "safari taxi" tour of the island and of course Coral World itself, mini golf and last but not least, the bumper boats! What a fun, fun day!

Waiting to go on safari!

Feeding the Lorikeets

Everyone's favorite of the day; the BUMPER Boats!!!!

Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day by having brunch with our friends the Galindo's at the Blue Moon restaurant and then taking pictures of the kids on Frediricksted's beautiful new waterfront; the Veteran's Park. How lucky are we?

We ARE family!!! All the kids together,

a typical St. Croix modge podge fam...

often times, the very BEST kind OF family!

And then there's Garrett always hamming it up!

And last, but not least; the two loveliest ladies of the Corder Clan....

We ended Mother's Day by my family presenting me with beautiful (horribly) pink Crock slippers; lovely in spite of the fact that they were NOT GLASS slippers...something I've always kinda sorta wanted.... But because each member of my family chose a Gibbitz to depict me....a gardener, artist, chef; AHEM , Caroline says a star chef.......and so much more! It was the most beautiful, thoughtful present I've ever recieved.