Monkey Island

The first few years of our married life - in other words, before we had kids - when Josh and I went on vacation, we went to do.  If it could be done near where we were, we did it.  We loved exploring, lining up activities, and trying out everything that was offered.

Four kids later, our idea of fabulous vacation is not doing anything.  

That's not entirely true; I'm just exaggerating for the sake of contrast, but you get the idea.

Ten days at the beach with just a few things we hoped to get around to sounded wonderful.

So we took a break from our normally scheduled vacation to make a day trip out to Monkey Island.  Monkey Island is so named because a large group of wild monkeys lives out there and tourists pay money for local fishermen to take them out there and feed them bananas.

Sounds crazy, I know.  A pack of wild monkeys that no one is responsible for.  

Why did we sign up for this?!?

Well, anyway, paranoid as I was, we went.  The hotel arranged a local fisherman to drive us out there, and he supplied the bananas for us.  The whole crew of us went...

...even though it meant putting Silas in a life vest that was bigger than he was!

Local Fisherman Dude had obviously done this many times before.  He walked right up and gave the monkeys water to drink from a water bottle.  Meanwhile, I'm instructing my children to throw the fruit far form them so when the ravenous monkeys try to get the banana, they'll be running away from my children.  I'm the model of calm, collected mother.  I assure you.

I'm also barking instructions about staying close to Daddy and don't wander off.

They can't stay close to me because I'm still on the boat.

Someone had to protect Silas, after all.

The girls watched diligently as LFD doled out treats and drinks.   They had a fun time throwing their own, and were thrilled when two mama monkeys ran down out of the trees with little baby monkeys on their backs.

It was pretty cute.

I could see just fine from the boat though.

We were out of bananas, but LFD was still chillin with the monkeys and the water bottle.  After Josh gave the girls a lesson in skipping rocks (there were great ones on the island) we signaled to him that we were ready to go.

We thought he was just going to make a quick trip around the island, but instead he went around the island and then drove another half hour to a local fishing village.

Being out on the water in this tiny boat with all my precious people was breathtaking.

As we sailed past huge cliffs, waves pounded with their awesome and unstoppable force, gradually eating away at the rock on bottom.  The girls were truly awestruck as they started realizing that huge boulders in the sea had fallen from the tops and sides of cliffs - from the force of the waves.

The open sea is equally frightening and beautiful.  The rhythmic movement of the boat by the energy of the water makes you feel awfully small and awfully helpless.

While we sat on the boat, looking toward the vast fields of blue all around us, Josh quoted Isaiah 40:12-

"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?"

He told the girls to cup their hands and hold it out, helping them imagine how much water they might hold in their hands.   Then he compared how much more his own hands could hold.

Then, we marveled together that our God measures the waters in the hollow of His hand.

That day on the boat was a special one for our family.

We headed back after a quick cruise through the fishing village.

On the way back, we saw a pink dolphin - a rare, but occasional sighting in this area.

On the way back, the girls wanted to sit at the front of the boat.

On the way back, Silas fell asleep.

On the way back, I was thankful to those weirdo monkeys - because without them, we might not have made the trip.  And I was so glad we did.