Who doesn't like swimming at 6 am?

While Atauro was an amazing adventure I have to admit the night time was MISERABLE. It was soooo crazy hot. I have never ever been that hot. There was no AC and no fans. The ocean breeze stopped abruptly around 9pm and then it was just stagnint hot air. Barry's little twins have already contracted Malarie SEVEN times!!!! OMgosh! So of course I was miss crazy with bug spray and making the kids wear their christmas feety pajamas and barracading their bug nets around them. I felt awful when around 11Pm Sam was sobbing because he was so hot. I ended up taking off their jammies and then spent the entire night making sure all three bed nets on the kids beds were tight and that they hadn't snuck out (something they do often at home). So when Sam woke up at 5:30 am and crawled into the hammock with me I thought this is the worst vacation ever!!! Then we watched the sun come up together and I was in awe

We got our swim suits on and headed for an early morning swim.

The light at this time was AMAZING and it felt fantastic out!

Since we were not the only people who had been miserable all night we were joined by lots of our friends for our 6 am swim

The kids were excited not to have to wear their rash guards for a moment and not have me chase them around with sunscreen. Sammy loved that he could go out far and still touch

Once Briggs came out Sam wanted to follow him around, he is Six and so cool :)

I sat on the beach watching the kids and relaxing. A local mommy walked past with her baby boy and I had to try and take a picture. Once I reviewed it I noticed how young she is and I think she was actually his older sister.

It is crazy how much the kids here are left to their own devices and the older siblings basically raise the younger ones. I've lost count of the number of times i have seen two boys Sam and Liams age walking the streets together or the older carrying the younger. It is so interesting to compare cultures. This got me really excited to watch that documentary about babies ;) Around 7 am Liam (who slept like a log!) came wandering down in his suit. Jan was nice enough to take him in since I was now all comfy on the beach

Once Carmen and Amanda joined us the party really started

Sam LOVES Carmen. He is totally smitten with her and hello who wouldn't be! The kids grabbed there buckets and went star fishing.

Briggs and Oskar donned their gear and went a little deeper

But the little cuties did just fine were they could touch. Sam wanted to find Carmen a starfish so bad and when he finally did she had already found one herself but was more than happy to have two!

They ended up finding 6 starfish right in the shallows

It was hilarious to hear them talk about the "hundreds of Tongues" and where its mouth was and which ones were poisonous. They filled up a bucket and carried all their starfish up to inspect over lunch. I was suprised that Liam and Sam would touch them since they wouldn't go near them at the Living Museum in Newport News but I guess it helps to have older cooler boys and a cute girl watching you :)

After lunch Brigg's dad Peter came back from his 6 hour snorkel trip (he was encountered by 2 hammer head sharks!!!! I would have freaked out.) and let the kids try out his surf board. Addie hoped right on and could keep her balance pretty well!

Carmen was fearless...

but didn't stay up that long ;)

After that Carmen got wise and simply had Sam pull her around on it,

which Sam was MORE than happy to do :)

after so much swimming, running and starfishing, all on little to now sleep, everyone was ready for a nap! I went to grab a hammock but they were occupied by the daddies and gorgeous baby girls!

Abby was so happy!

So while Liam slept and Abby and Daddy swung I strapped a life vest and mask on Sammy and took him out for a deeper snorkel. It was so fun to have him hold onto my back and cruise among the reef. He would duck down with me every now and then to get a closer look but was just as happy to bob on the surface with his face in the water. He got tired after a half hour though and I made him walk back (We walked soooo slowly it was comical, every few minutes he would give me something else to hold that had become "to heavy") Chris and Abby were now sitting out in the Balaes and Abby gave me this look:

she is SUCH a mommas girl it is ridiculous. Chris and I have no idea how to break her of it but ma has it gotten bad, adorable but bad. As soon as I sat next to her she was good to go

She has started pointing to everything and it cracks us up. You can ask her any question and she will just point at random things. Chris likes to ask her who her favorite is while I am holding her and she of course points to him :)

Sam and Liam took a break and Sam filled Liam in on his repeated rejections from Carmen, and Liam gave him some comfort ;)

Then came the Tuk Tuk ride...