Sailing Days 5-6: All Anegada

Once we got to Anegada, we stayed for a few days. Our first day, we spent at Loblolly Bay - a gorgeous beach with grass umbrellas and miles of snorkeling.Our perch for the day....

Underwater, we saw schools of fish, turtles and all kinds of coral!

That night, we enjoyed an amazing sunset before heading to dinner.

New Years Eve was that evening and we had a blast getting everyone in the dingy and riding to the restaurant: Neptune's Treasure.

Most everyone had carribbean lobster, but Mike had a pan seared steak.

One of the other families there brought neon necklaces that their kids passed out to everyone there. It was super festive and gave us all something to glow about. After dinner, we bar hopped down the beach to a few more establishments. We enjoyed more time with our favorite bartender, Sam

Some got tired, so Mike and I brought them back to the boat. Billy had had a wee bit much, and ended up misjudging the gap b/t the dingy and the boat and, as Mom said, "Fell into the drink!" We were all laughing as he swam us to the swim ladder. After that, Mike and I went back out to the Reef hotel for some authentic music. You can hear some of it here - the picture was too dark since I didn't have the flash on. Still you can hear the band! Rigga digga digga digga!!

It started to rain a bit, so we made our way back to the dingy, but the rain was fleating, so Mike and I celebrated the turn of 2009 on a hammock watching the fireworks from the surrounding islands. It was truly a memorable moment.

The next day was a lazy start, and we decided to have another day on Anegada. Mike and I kayaked to West End which was quite a ways, or so it felt. Got some good photos along the way...though not always so clear as we were nervous about taking our underwater digital camera out of its water-tight case!

We decided to lave early in the morning for Jost Van Dyke...next post!

Sailing Days 6-7: Jost Van Dyke to Tortola

The last few days on the boat were very purposeful. We woke on day 6 with the plan to get to Little Jost and then over to big Jost Van Dyke. Along the way, we were lucky enough to find dolphins swimming among our front pontoons! Eric had his camera at the ready to capture them.

Once we arrived at little Jost, we went on our last quest for a "ball." This is a large balloon like thing we can attach the boat to in a very secure manner. Eric and Mike were the lookouts.
Once we were all hooked up, we took a hike to the "bubbly pool" - a natural tide pool that channeled water through to a small swimming hole. The pool was quite crowded the day we were there, which made it tough to really ride the gauntlet. Still, it was cool to sit in the natural bubbles as the waves came crashing in.

On the hike back to the boat, Mom walked into a stump wearing only her flip flops and broke her little toe! We tried to bandage it up, but had run out of ice at that point. Best we could do was make her a drink and enjoy our last night on the boat.

As Mom rested, Mike and I went for one last kayak around to see if we could see the harbor at big Jost.

Because it was late in the day, we didn't think we could get a ball, so we stayed where we were for the night. We did family pictures looking across the inlet between big and little Jost.

The next day, we sailed back to Tortola to drop off the boat. We arrived in Road Town to end the trip on Blue Water Bound. We said our goodbyes to the family and Mike and I traveled to the Long Bay resort. It was a beautiful place, with well manicured lawns, inviting beaches and rum punch where ever you looked. :)

We spent time on our veranda, overlooking the resort, sipping rum punch and repacking for our trip back to St. Thomas and then to back to Boston. It was the best way to end our vacation...together, relaxing, and among breathtaking scenery.

We got SHOT in the BVIs

On our sailing trip around the British Virgin Islands, we got SHOT! By a local photographer that is! Below are photos of the Johnsons and Johnahues in action aboard Blue Water Bound.

There were 13 individual shots - some good ones of the boys at the helm

Towards the end, you can see me and Mom relaxing at the patio/lounge.

This was the rough day, with winds at 25+ knots. We actually got to 8 knots under full sail. I got a little queasy with all that sloshing around, but luckily didn't get sick. Sorry, no pictures of feeding the fish!

More personal photos and stories to come...Happy 2009 everyone!

Pre-Christmas at the Johnahues

This past weekend, we celebrated pre-Christmas at our home,

hosting the whole Donahue clan for dinner.

I had a grand time decorating our new dining room

"Martha Stewart" style with a table set for 10!

Just for kicks, I did the kids table up too~

I was surprised to learn that we indeed had enough chairs!

All the guests brought a little something to share;

Julie brought this adorable cheese!

It was too cute to eat - we just took a picture of it.

The cow seemed to watch over our appetizer table for the rest of the night.

Gifts were shared and laughter was heard; it was a terrific dinner with family.

Our china is now fully broken in and all the nieces

raised their champagne ciders to toast to the holiday season.

We are off to sail the Virgin Islands for the holidays!

Wish us well against the Pirates of the Carribbean

We are sure more adventures are sure to await us in 2009!

Stay tuned...

Graduation!

The time has finally come that I can say I've gone and graduated...again. This time, I'm excited to say I've completed my MBA in Nonprofit Management at Suffolk University. It's been a 3 1/2 year process, going part time at night/on weekends while working full time during the day.

This past weekend, we celebrated with a dinner downtown;

a number of my classmates from the Germany trip were there also!

Our graduation gift was a pen/business card holder set.

Congratulations to the graduates of December 2008!

Christmas photos

We had our first snow (just a dusting), and Sox was very curious about this "white stuff" on the ground. He had a grand time in the snow last year, but he was so small it often was hard to play in. We're hopeing for some great pictures of a bouncing snow pup later this year.

It's that time of year to get the fun family foto taken for the Christmas cards. This year, we decided on a little retrospective - last year at this time, we were finalizing the deal for our new home AND our new puppy! So it was last year's photo and this year's edition that both made the card. It was great to see how far we'd come in a year ... and to see how much our little Soxie had GROWN! We knew he'd be big, but he went from 25 to 85 in his first year with us. I remember when he graduated puppy kindergarten...sniff sniff! My how fast they grow up.

Here are a few favorites from us by the new pellet stove. Sox just LOVES to stare at it. He watches the flames fly with his ears perked, or just snoozes in front of the warmth. Either way, it's adorable. Hope your days are filled with as much warmth and love as our house is nowadays!! XO

Turkey Travels, Birthdays and International Relations

What a wild and crazy Thanksgiving full of family and friends! We traveled to Falmouth Thursday morning to dine with the Donahue clan. All of Mike's brothers, sisters and nieces visited "Nana and Papa's" house! It was a crowded table...in a good way!

After an early afternoon dinner in Falmouth, we traveled back home to Holliston to host Amy's parents, who drove in from Indiana! Luckily there were leftovers from the Donahue's, so the Johnson's got to eat the same meal...only later.

Friday, Mike and Amy went to work, while the Johnson's visited Grampy in Somerset. He was in good spirits and they spent the afternoon and dinner with family there. This was good for us, as the finishing touches were still being put on the hearth pad. :)

Saturday was a big day for Grammy Esther - we all celebrated her 98th birthday! It was a great celebration, with 4 generations of family there. She heard us all singing happy birthday to her and she clapped and smiled - it was such a beautiful sight. We are all so blessed to have her in our lives.

Sunday, we said goodbye to the Johnson's as the headed back to Indiana and HELLO to our friends Rich and Steph who were visiting from South Africa! Unfortunately for them, they hit the brunt of Thanksgiving traffic traveling northeast from Connecticut and suffered the wrath of those without a FastLane pass...waiting and waiting to see someone about a toll. The 3 hour trip took twice as long and although spirits had sunk a bit (what with all that car talk...) we certainly livened things up with a dinner out together. We caught up on the politics in both countries, current and future job prospects for all and generally got caught up since our wedding. A late night turned into a late morning where we enjoyed cheesy sausage eggs and coffee in a leisurely fashion. Love those lingering pajama mornings...

It was a wonderful weekend of visitors and family events - even Sunny and Sox cuddled up together for some together time. (awww) Sox had turned his head all backwards and jammed up against the corner of the couch. How did he do that???

Injured Johnahues

Recent injuries have plagued the Johnahue household. First, our poor Sox was limping around favoring his back left leg. We took him to the vet, only to discover that he was 12 pounds overweight AND had a partially torn CCL (knee). He was put on a diet and bedrest - walks only to do business and not for fun, and on a short leash. No more trips to the dog park (boo hoo!) for at least 6-8 weeks!

Poor Sox doesn't understand all of this short-leash business and is none too happy about not being able to chase squirrels, rabbits, deer or other woodland creatures in our neighborhood, but the alternative is Surgery! So we stick to the regimen as a money saver.

Just as Sox was on the mend, Momma strained her back in a severe way, with muscle spasms, stiffness and a full-on trip to the ER (her first ambulance ride...as she recalls!). It was a totally random occurance, just twisting and leaning on the couch in an odd way after a long long day of work and class. After a few shots of muscle relaxers and pain meds, we all went home at 3 AM. It was bedrest for me too for the next 4 days until movement was possible without discomfort. Pretty random, and it just reinforced my need to do like Sox and lose 12 pounds (or more!).

All in all, we are both on the mend, and you might never know anything happened if you didn't see or hear from us in that 2 week stretch. So alls well that ends well I guess!

November work

It's been a while since the last post and man has it been busy! We raked and raked and raked all the leaves in our yard. I think we filled 30 bags of leaves! The fun part was we got to use a new toy - the backpack leaf blower. Unfortunately there are no photos of that, because Mike and I used it when the other was working. Probably best not to have evidence.

The floor in the laundry room is all tiles, and photos will be coming soon! We're still painting and re-hanging trim, but that project will soon be finished.

Our big event was the arrival of our new energy-efficient wood pellet stove! Mike installed it himself, building the hearth pad in his own design and venting the hole through the side of the house. I think it turned out great! Already, we're pumping out good heat to the bedrooms upstairs and our only challenge is to figure out how to get it to flow around corners to the kitchen and family room. :)

We've also got enough biofuel to get us through the winter - although this means the loss of our garage! Two tons of pellets takes up a lot of space! The good news is that we've always used the garage as manspace and not for either of our cars...so the loss isn't that big. :)