A Day in Saint Martin With My Loves

"Gosh, that flight was rough," I said to my husband as we unloaded our luggage. "You'd think the pilot could warn us about all that turbulence, but I'm glad the flight staff had a sense of humor about it all."

"Yeah, it would've been nice to avoid splashing soda all over my clothes, but the kiddo thought it was funny, so..." replied Bennie.

"We should get down to the beach for dinner. You know it takes an hour to get our lunch, so I need to be their before I'm hungry!" I said. Bennie agreed.

We grabbed our little one, still drowsy from the flight, and started our way down the hill to the little beachfront restaurant we both love. I wore my favorite red crop top and skirt and Bennie changed into a new pair of shorts he got at the Guess outlet a day before.

"We're here, little man!" I said as my son awoke from his cat nap. "This is Saint Martin." He smiled as if he knew what I was saying and replied with his famous enthusiastic baby talk and questioning. He's never seen the beach before.

The waiter finally comes around for our order about 20 minutes in. We tell him to surprise us with his favorite items, but of course no gluten and dairy please.

By the time he returns we've played about 8 games of patty cake and served two snacks from my son's bag, but it was well worth the wait.

"What is all this?" I said. The waiter smiled and reminded us we wanted a surprize, so we decided to dig in, no questions asked.

After about 10 minutes of food shoveling and 10 new stains on my son's clothes, we all smiled with full bellies. The food was amazing, or we were starved, or a bit of both. We smile at the waiter with a nod to his recommendations.

Bennie and I could have spent another hour just nibbling and enjoying the view, but little guy wanted out of the seat, so we started back to the room for our swim gear.

"I think I'll wear my yellow one first," I said grabbing my suit.

"Ok, well you do that and I'll grab my swim shorts. Did you get a suit for him?"

"Yep, finding Nemo," I replied. And we both laughed.

We hear a knock at the door and run to answer.

It's a local going passing out flyers about a boat tour leaving in an hour. I buy two tickets (kids are free) and run and tell Bennie.

"Look at you getting adventurous," he said.

We get to the water's edge to find the boat. It's larger than he described.

We remove our shoes and leave them on the dock, holding the rails as we walk onto the deck. "Let's find a seat by the food," I said. "Just in case we get hungry along the way."

It's been a while since I've been on boat. Colorado isn't exactly a beach town with its landlocked borders and dry air, so feeling the cool, misty breeze was refreshing.

It's my first time with my son on a boat, so I held him tight despite his protests. Bennie, being completely in the moment, held tight to me as we enjoyed the sunset over the island. "Can we do this everyday?" he said.