Chance <3 

Most amazing day!! Ok I’m going to try to get right to it! So Hannah and I went out to zealandia to do a little photo shoot at around 6 or 6:30 this morning. When we only had about 20 minutes left we booked it over to the cliffs to get some pictures by some rocks in the water. On our way back Hannah stops in her tracks and low and behold… A baby sea turtle was trying to make its way into the big ole’ blue!!

Honestly it is so hard to explain feeling. It was just so special. He would be going for a little bit and then the water would come up and push him back up and kind of toss him a bit. It was so hard not to just grab him and plop him into the water. I just had to remember that if he was going to be strong enough he had to take the major step by himself, and by helping him I’d really be crippling him.

Well I am happy to report that after a few minutes when the water came up it didn’t push him back anymore; it took him with it and swept him out to sea to begin his long turtle life! :) We named him chance.

It definitely goes at the top of the list of best mornings of my life! There’s just this crazy fulfillment of my day now.

I have now decided that after years of my favorite animal being a giraffe, it is now a turtle! I think there are some great analogies if you compare turtles to the human race. Sea turtles usually hatch at night and the way they find their way to the ocean is because the moon reflects off the water and makes it bright, so they just fallow the light. There aren’t a high percentage of turtles that make it into the ocean. Lots of times only one from batch even hatches. But even hatching doesn’t guarantee survival. I think the ratio is like 1 in 1000 baby turtles makes it to adult hood. :( So sad.

We named our baby turtle chance for a few reasons. First of all it was by total chance that we came upon him and were able to witness that! (Freaking lucky!!)

And he was given his best chance to make it, and survive. If we’re going to make it in this world than we all have to take our best chance.

                                        

                        Our after thought to picking him up was like.. Crap! What if we shouldn’t have done that! So just so you know… We researched if it does them harm somehow. And what I found is that as long as you are supporting under their shell, but now having your hand wrapped around them and not squeezing at all than they’re ok. So basically if you’re holding it properly there was no danger to the turtle, just to me because it said something about them containing salmonella, since they just hatched I think. And we saw him make it safely into the water. So my conscience feels better knowing I didn’t hurt him! But for future reference, you are not supposed to pick them up. It was only for a couple seconds while we snapped a picture, but we should’ve thought about it.

Nonetheless I have an awesome picture (or 5), and my baby turtle made it safely to the sea :) 

Here's a link to our video -- Koo Koo Ka Choo

Diaries of statia                                             - My mom <3

Well I’ve been missing my mom a lot lately while being here, so I decided to write about her a little. My mom and I are buddies! Since we’re the only girls left at home we do lots together and she’s always trying to think of little projects or stuff we can do to keep us busy. Recently we spray painted my old antique metal bed turquoise! Hah yeah. Sometimes our quality time consists of watching Jane Austin movies, laying on her bed reading our separate books, and talking about my life :) There are others, but those are pretty much my favorite! So off the top of my head I made a list of awesomeness about my mom. I call it.. My moms awesomeness:

My mom is the funniest, most gorgeous, crazy, dorkiest mom!

She’s secretly an artist!

Her laugh is hysterical and everybody knows it!

When she has a good book she’s like an alcoholic.

She’s a cheff! .. in my house.

My mom secretly wishes she could open her own restaurant.. it would be amazing!

Her love for garlic is almost as strong as the love for her kids. ;)

She tries to avoid talking negative about people. For example, if I brought up a comment about someone, my mom’s side of the conversation usually begins and ends with something like, “yes that person is interesting”.

She also has this weird thing where she takes into account other peoples point of view. Like if I had a fight with my boyfriend and I’m ranting about it she’ll automatically take his side and brings in his perspective. (or she just knows how much of a brat I can be..)

There’s something about her that makes me willingly talk to her about everything. Even if its something I don’t want her to know! Crazy!

Most people who even see my mom can tell she’s like this happy, perky, laughing machine! So much happiness! .. most of the time.

Well that’s off the top of my head. Plus there’s just those things that make up a mom<3 Like how when I clean my room she has to inspect it a hundred times before its really clean. Or that funny little smile she gets when I ask her about “girl stuff”.. Or when you're trying to bake something and you dont have a 2/3 measuring cup so you ask a stupid question like what half of 2/3 is so you can use it twice,  and she just laughs and makes you think about it for a while.

Or how you know you’re never to old to sit on your moms lap even though you know she is probably dying.

Moms are constantly wracking their brains for ways to impress, entertain, and reason with us bratty teenagers.

She’s your councilor.

The one who has to endure you practicing the same piano songs, monologues, voice exercises, cheers, dance moves, sports crap, gymnastics, and all your extra curricular stuff (in the living room, kitchen, hallway, on the furniture, coming through the walls of your room) over and over again.

She’s the one who tried a hundred different ‘Cindy-lou-who ponytails’ on top of your head while you cried your eyes out. (maye that one was just me)..

Your mom is the one genetically designed to embarrass you.

Shes the one who sat in your room until you fell asleep when you were scared of the dark.

When you’re a loner on a Friday night she still parties with you.

She’s the one that cries for you when you cry.

 There’s a reason your mom is the one you know you can always cuddle up to, because you know you’re safe in the arms that first held you <3

Well those are the things that make up my mom anyway. Everybody has different memories about their mom, and those are some of mine. When I think of the things that make up a mom it is moments like those. I think its crazy how you can subconsciously label things as ‘mom’ too. Like I can be somewhere and see an old antique bike or a canvas oil painting ‘brain says mom!’ Hear a sugarland song or smell brownies (mom!)

I could go on forever about my mom, but a post has to end sometime :)

Missing my mom in good ole' statia.  

Diaries of statia                                             - Sharks….

Correction. There are sharks at statia. So Josh was telling us more about his fishing trip from the other day and after you swim out for a while.. There are reef sharks. Apparently they aren’t dangerous and blab la bla. But guess what people!. There are reef sharks on shark week. That bite people!!! Ahh!! Well josh said the biggest shark they saw out there was 6 feet. Its just a baby.. oh ok that doesn’t sound too bad for a shark. Then I thought some more and guess what! 6 feet is taller than me! Eek. Todd has even seen one 12 feet fishing so he left!! Ahh! They stay far far out but that does not do anything for my imagination :/ .. Anyways ya I just needed to go off about that for a minute.

Statia...

Diaries of statia                                             -Blue beads

Here on the island there are these rare blue beads that people find sometimes. You can find them snorkeling or scuba diving, sometimes they wash up on the beach after a huge storm or something. Or people have even found them hidden on the island. They’re like a pentagon cylinder piece of blue glass that have a whole through them to string on a thread or a necklace or something. Everybody wants to find one, they can be worth hundreds of dollars sometimes if it’s a good size. They’re so rare and special because statia used to be a transport hub for slaves back in the day. So they would come from Africa and get sold off here and taken to wherever they were sold. The slaves weren’t allowed to have money as currency so they would get rewarded for good behavior or something with blue beads, and sometimes if a slave got a whole bunch of them they could buy back their freedom. Its pretty crazy! There’s a trail here call the slave trail where the slaves had to walk with their loads and stuff. It’s really steep apparently. I haven’t walked it yet.

Crazy statia!.    

Diaries of statia                                             - Volcano!

Well today I hiked the quill with Josh and his sister Jenna. (The quill is a volcano) it isn’t active of course! It hasn't erupted in a really long time. So it almost just looks like a mountain with all the trees and stuff all over it. But.. it’s a VALCANO! Yay! We saw 2 snakes, like a million geckos, and a few hermit crabs on the trail. We decided to have a hermit crab fight club that was pretty legit. The big crab pinched off the littler crab’s leg! Poor little guy :/ .. Oh and I walked through a spider web. Not fun. But when we got to the top the view was so cool! There’s a bunch of trails you can take to go either around the volcano or inside or up to the tiptop where you can see the entire island! We just took the normal trail that only took a couple hours. It went to the crater rim where we could see the inside wall of the volcano across from you.

Good day in statia.