More Belize Photos!

Rhett and I on our last night in Belize. Also, this is the LDS church in San Pedro.



This is the view from our pool; Rhett at our resort; and us at the Altuna ruins.

Belize - Beautiful and Amazing!

As you can see from the pictures we just spent an amazing 10 days in Belize. Most people we spoke with had no idea where Belize is located. It is in Central America just south of Mexico and east of Guatemala. it is a very small country. It is smaller than the size of New Hampshire. The total population of the country is about 311,000. We stayed in Ambergris Caye which is just off the coast from Belize City. It is a small island about half-mile wide and 26 miles long. It has about 12,000 people on it. To say the trip met all my expectations is a gross understatement. This was the trip of my dreams! We had the time of our lives.

This trip was in honor of our 15th Anniversary that is coming in December. We left the kids with Rhett's parents and they did awesome. We were able to leave the world behind. We stayed at a beautiful little resort called Victoria House. We stayed in our own private casita with a thatched roof. Our view was all ocean all the time. Our room had no clock, no TV and no phone so once we got to Belize we were truly on "island time". We really did leave the world behind. We did go to an Internet cafe a few times to check on the real world and to e-mail the kids.

This trip met all my requirements - go somewhere tropical, somewhere I can scuba, somewhere I can just relax!. The island has only one paved road. There are no cars on the island except some taxis. The rest of the transportation is by golf cart, bike or walking. A typical day went something like this - sleep in, go running with Rhett, walk or ride bike into town for lunch, walk around town, go back to hotel, read or nap by pool until evening, get dolled up for nice dinner with sweetie, come back to hotel and walk on beach and talk with the love of my life. Ah, what a life for ten days! I read a large pile of books. During the trip I just felt like a girl, woman, wife, etc. instead of just a mom. It was emotionally refreshing for both Rhett and I.

While there we ate some amazing food. The seafood was to die for. I have recently realized that I like seafood as long as it is fresh, high-quality seafood. I even tried lobster ceviche. Yummy. The mexican food was so delicious. The homemade corn tortillas made right in front of us were way too good. They made things called pupusas that were fresh tortillas filled with all kinds of good stuff. So yummy.

We had one day of adventure in Belize City. We decided to fly back to the mainland from the island (about a 12-minute flight) and go see some Mayan ruins and go cave-tubing. We had a private tour guide, Raul, that met us at the airport to start our tour. We drove to the ruins which took a while. The Belizean idea of a highway is very primitive and the 2 weeks prior to our trip Belize had record rainfall and a ton of the country was flooded. So, a ton of the roads were underwater and covered with huge potholes. It was a mess. We went to the Altuna ruins. Seeing the archaeology gave me some serious flashbacks to fieldtrips while I was on study abroad in Israel. Then we headed off to go cave-tubing and we got to a flooded road. Raul asked a guy on the road if we could get go through in our SUV and he said yes. We got almost through and the car stalled. We went "carnoeing" as Rhett and the guide had to push the car out of the road. We were stuck stranded for a while and finally got rescued by one of his tour guide friends. We went cave-tubing and eventually made it back to the island. I will attach those photos as well.

Beilze is home to the 2nd longest coral reef in the world. The scuba diving on the reef was amazing. You feel like you got dropped into an aquarium. We saw sharks, eels, sea turtle, every type of tropical fish imagineable, spider-crab, coral of every color. The diving was wonderful.

So, overall it was the trip I had hoped for and planned for all year. I will cherish the memories forever. I would highly recomment Belize to anyone. Only word of caution is that your going home present from the country is a healthy supply of mosquito and sand fly bites! ouch!

Happy Halloween - Better Late Than Never!

I know my Halloween update is very late but I have a very good excuse. Rhett and I left for a 10-day trip to Belize on Halloween. We just got back on Sunday and so I am trying to update the blog. I'll put an entry all about Belize after this one. These photos are of Tally as a witch, Lane as Bob-the-Buillder, Cade as a ghost and Chase not dressed up yet. He was carving pumpkins. One odd thing about living in Arizona is that you can only carve your pumpkin on Halloween or the day before because it is so warm the pumpkin withers up and looks like an old maid. So, the night before Halloween we carved the pumpkins and all the kids helped.

Although we missed the actual Halloween night we took the kids to their fall festival at school where they got to dress up and do carnival-type things. On Halloween night Rhett's parents got the task of taking them to the ward trunk n treat. They got off pretty easy since trick or treating around the parking lot is pretty easy. No one trick or treats around neighborhoods here because there are no streetlights, no sidewalks and half the houses are empty because they are owned by part-time residents. The kids and grandparents said that all went well. If I had to miss a holiday with the kids I am not too broken up about missing Halloween. It is has never been high on my list (except for the fact that a large amount of chocolate comes into the house).

I will post about Belize any day now!