Home from Aruba

Well it took over 19 hours, 3 planes and a long drive, to get from our place in Aruba to our home in Pincourt. Most of the bags made it, still waiting on my kite/boardbag to get here from Detroit. And I'm slowly unpacking and getting things all sorted out here at home. The house is in one piece thanks Mom, Dad and Steve for watching the house...As I slowly unpack our stuff, and watch the sand fall. I'm feeling like I'm sure alot of people feel after a great trip. A bit happy to be home and a bit sad not to be back in the sun and sand. And although the thought of living somewhere where I can kite more often than I do here so I can push myself to a place that I'll be happy with my kiting(hahah that almost sounds like I believe it) More importantly my wife and son were very comfortable in Aruba, Nat jogging everyday and loving the heat and getting all sweaty, and Davven with his love of the ocean and all things that came with it, from swimming to snorkeling to his new found love boogie boarding. Watching him progress from day one to day 31 was amazing, he was so confident in his abilities by the end of the trip that he's talking about learning to wakeboard this year when the ice melts.
Moving somewhere like Aruba is not totally out of the question but certainly not realistic anytime soon...But I think maybe we'll look into buying some land there and building a house we can rent out and visit 2 to 3 times a year, and maybe start thinking about moving to the east coast by the ocean in a few years...Nat's job is totally transferable to the east coast, but the thought of moving Davven and Nat away from my parents whom they are super close too is daunting and stressful, so for the meantime we'll continue to enjoy our life here in Pincourt, and take trips to distant lands where the wind is steady and the waters warm. We've got a few places on our radar for the next adventure, Soma Bay, Egypt, Cumbuco, Brazil and Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, who knows maybe we'll find a place the we like even more than Aruba...though I highly doubt it.

Aruba the final week

So this is our final week here in Aruba. I wouldn't say that it's gone by super fast, we've certainly done alot. Lots and lots of time at the beach, snorkeling and kiting and recently helping Davven learn and excel at boogie boarding. I personally had a secondary motive for coming here and that was of course to kiteboard my a$$ off, which I have. But as a husband and father my priorities are to my family first, but the unexpected joy that I got for 2 days in a row from standing in the ocean for up to 3 hours pushing my son into wave after wave and watching him laugh and smile as he rode the waves to the beach. And then watching his confidence rise, as he started to learn how to get back out throught the breakers by himself and return to the line-up and do it all again, was something that I hope i will never forget. Now those of you that know me well know that I love being a Dad and love being a husband to Nat, but I never thought in a million years that I would give up the 3 best wind days of the trip and not go kiteboarding cause the waves were good and Davven wanted to go boogieboarding, but thats what happened and I couldn't be happier, cause honestly they we're the best three days of the trip.
Darren