Sloane and I flew to New York and met up with Chich and John and the four of us flew down to the islands together. We were joined the next day by my Dad, my sister's Katie and Kyrstin, my Dad's girlfriend Balicia and her son Shane.After spending a day relaxing on the beach at the Marriott we rally the troops (no small task with 9 of us!) and headed to Magen's Bay which is said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.
True to it's reputation, Magen's was gorgeous...while we were out swimming a few of us even saw a sea turtle. The highlight of the day, however, was when Sloane had to pay up on a bet he lost. Earlier in the year we organized March Madness bracket with our families, my family had no trouble beating the Griswold crew. Since Sloane's family lost, he lost his bet with me and had to wear a Speedo at the (public) beach. No, he was not happy about it. Yes, I have pictures. And no, (under threat of death) I am not posting them.The day after the "speedo incident" was a little overcast so we decided to take it easy and hang out at the hotel beach. Shane decided to see just how sandy he could possible get.
When the storm clouds rolled we decided it was time to grab some lunch. Sloane, Chich and John treated us to a little "blue steel", or Chich and Sloane did...I'm not really sure what John's doing.
When I said we headed into lunch, I meant the sane among us headed into lunch. Dad, ever the contrarian, thought it would be fun to wait out the storm on the beach (and yes he was the only one on the whole beach).
It must have been pretty rough out there because by the time the storm passed and the rest of us came back down to the beach, Dad was fast alseep.
The next day we decided to take the ferry to nearby island St. John. While the weather wasn't perfect we did get the chance to visit a great snorkelling beach and have a relaxing lunch in the harbor town.
Sloane and I grabbed a beer...
...and then explored a few of the shops after lunch with Kyrstin and Shane while Katie played photographer.
Dad brought refreshments for our ferry ride back, he and John seem to be enjoying themselves.
The nights at the Marriott were beautiful and we spent most of the on our balcony playing hearts before heading down to the pool for a night swim.
The day before we left was by far the most eventful. Dad, Sloane, John and I woke up early to meet up with a fishing boat that dad had arranged. It was a beautiful morning, but unfortunately Dad and John didn't have much luck.
Dad hooked a fish and would have brought it in if there wasn't a shark nearby that thought it would make a really tasty breakfast...
John didn't do much better...his baby barracuda had to be thrown back.
Sloane and I came away the winners of the day with our two sizeable Dorado. My fish was suicidal and swam directly toward the boat. I'd like to say it gave me a good fight, but really I only reeled in slack and the fish was in the boat less than five minutes after I hooked it. Sloane fish, however, had no such death wish. The bigger of the two it gave him a good fight before he finally got it into the boat. To the victor goes the spoils and we filleted up our fish and took it back to have the restaurant cook it for our dinner that night.
I didn't think twice when Sloane suggested that we grab a drink just the two of us before dinner since we really hadn't spent any time alone in a week. We had a quick cocktail as the sun began to set and everything seemed perfectly normal. We were running late after our drink, so when Sloane began to walk down the beach in the opposite direction of the restaurant (to a more private area) I protested. He told me he wanted to see if there was a better view of the sunset from that end of the beach. I know that should have tipped me off, but in typically oblivious form I rolled my eyes at him and told him to make it quick. It wasn't until a second later when he was down on one knee asking me to marry him that I finally understood what was going on. I was so shocked I forgot that I was supposed to answer him! He was looking up at me sweaty and shaking holding out the most perfect ring when I finally composed myself and said of course I would.
The two of us walked to the restaurant where we met our families, and as a bottle of champagne came out we announced our engagement. Only our Dad's knew about Sloane's plan and the rest of the family was surprised and happy. Our only regret was that all of our family couldn't be there with us, but we happily shared our news over the phone as we enjoyed our delicious meal of fresh Dorado!
After dinner we walked back down the beach and showed our families the spot where Sloane proposed. 
It was the perfect end to a very perfect day!
