Nanny and Grandpa's Visit

This past week Austin's parents Cliff and Janice came and visited us. It seemed like they would never get here, and once they did our time together went way to fast. I don't know who was more excited the girls or Austin and me. The First day they were here we just took them around to see some of the cool places we have found since living here. These pictures are at Smith Cove.

Our Next stop had to be Dinner at Hammerheads. We got there just in time to enjoy the beautiful sunset. Then had 4 orders of their wonderful fish and Chips. Yummy!!!

On Saturday we spent the day at the turtle farm. It's one of Allie and Kaity's favorite places to go so they couldn't wait to show Nanny and grandpa around.

After we saw all the sights of the Turtle Farm we spent the rest of the day playing and relaxing by the pool.

Right before we left we had to stop and hold the Baby Sea Turtles.

The next day we went out to East End. Once a week there is the best fried snapper on the island at this little hut next to the beach. This snapper is a Cayman style fried fish and it is awesome! They basically gut the fish, season it, and fry the entire thing. It doesn't look very good but it sure is tasty.




Allie and Kaity can't get over the sight of the fish so they had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and then had a good time collecting sea shells by the beach while we enjoyed the fish.

Our next stop that day was the wreck of the 10 Sails. Back in 1794 there was a fleet of 10 ships that wrecked on the reef next to Cayman and the locals risked their lives and saved everyone on the ships. It is said that as thanks to the Caymanians the queen of England promised that Cayman will always be a tax free nation. You can't see much of the wrecked ships from the shore but the view of the ocean and the reef is amazing.

On our way home we stopped and watched the blow hole for a little while.

Monday was a beautiful day so we decided to go to Stingray City. It is a little sand bar that is out a little ways and for years has been a great tourist attraction for the island. When the boats pull up to the sandbar you see all these stingrays swim in from all over. Over the years they have become basically domesticated and you can swim, play, hold, and kiss the stingrays. It was a lot of fun. Here we are on our way out to the sandbar. Kaity and Allie had a good time chatting with Denver the boat Captain.

This guy catches the stingrays so you can kiss them. It is said to give you 7 years good luck if you kiss a stingray...Austin and Kaity will now have 7 years of good luck. The bottom picture is Cliff in the water with the stingrays. (he is the one with the snorkel on his head)

Janice has been stung by a jelly fish in the past so having stingrays brush up against her was a little frightening so she preferred to stay on the steps of the boat. Allie didn't like the stingrays at all ( big surprise) so she preferred to stay on the deck of the boat.

Kaity loved the stingrays at first...then Austin was holding her and he had a piece of squid in is hand to feed the stingray and one of the stingrays over shot the piece of squid and accidentally sucked on Kaity's leg. She started to yell " the stingray bit me, he bit my leg". She then crawled up on Austins shoulders and refused to put any part of her body in the water again. She then demanded, " get me out of here, now dad."

In the end Kaity ened up getting a kiss of her own from the stingray. It was a really fun trip and I would definatly love to do it again.

Tuesday we just took it easy and lounged around on the beach and snorkeled a little reef we like to go to.

Then we walked to this little restaurant just up from where we were and had lunch. As you can see from the picture we sure had a good time with lots of laughs.

That night we got a sitter for the girls and just us adults went to Decker's for all you can eat lobster. It was so good. I think this is one of the highlights of the trip.

The first plate they bring has 3 large lobster tails on it with potatoes and grilled veggies and then they continue to bring you lobster tails until you are so stuffed you can hardly breath. Oh so wonderful!!!!

Wednesday Austin and Cliff went fishing for Barracuda with the dad of a friend of ours. They had a great time and caught 2 barra's. The one Cliff caught was about 2 1/2 feet long; and the other one that another friend caught was about 3 feet long. The guys really enjoyed fishing. Us girls went shopping while the guys were fishing and then had a picnic at the park. That night we fried up some of the Barracuda and it was really good fish.

For our final day together we went and snorkeled this place called Eden Rock. They have a trampoline out on the water and so we were going to let the girls play and jump while Austin took his parents out snorkeling. There are these huge fish at Eden rock called Tarpon and they are about 4-5 feet long Allie wouldn't get in the water because she could see them swimming around. We told her they are harmless and don't have teeth but that didn't seem to matter. I tried to force her in the water and she put up such a fight I figured I should stop or someone might turn me in for child abuse. ;) So the girls and I laid out and Austin and his parents had a good time snorkeling.

After Eden Rock we were going to snorkel at Smith Cove but we were just so worn out we took Cliff and Janice to see the dolphins at Dolphin Cove instead.

On their last night we had to eat at Hammerheads one last time.

When we got home from Hammerheads Rita and Lyle came to say goodbye and Lyle busted out his guitars and him and Cliff took turns playing and singing. It was lots of fun. Kaity kept saying " good job boys, keep it up."

Friday we had to take them to the airport and it was a hard day. There were sad goodbye's and lots of tears. We sure did enjoy having Cliff and Janice visit and wish that we could have had them here longer. I want to say thanks to everyone who sent things with them for us. It was almost like Christmas with all the things everyone sent and it was also greatly appriciated. Thanks again. We love you all.