Day 4 - speed boat and ruins in Belize

We started off this day 4 by putting on fresh, clean shirts (purchased from Cozumel the day before). Loved it! However, our closets still looked like this:

Our shore excursion in Belize was planned by Rhett. We just had to trust him that he knew what he was doing because it was an all day event. During the cruise, we tried to compare stops and rate the ones we liked the best, but it was pretty tough to do because we did such different stuff at each one. But, if I had to pick one that was "not to be missed," it would probably be this.

We started our excursion with an hour+ ride from Belize City to somewhere north (in the jungle). It was very interesting to see how the people lived. Its just too bad the tour guide didn't have a microphone. We jumped out of the van and into a speed boat. Our new guide, Collin, was our favorite of the trip. According to George, to be the best, he had to:

1. Be an incredible animal spotter (see below)

2. Mean business ("ok. you have 10 minutes. right. then we move to next place. right.")

I liked him for those reasons as well as his accent. He drove us down the New River to the ruins at Lamanai. The boat ride was incredible. We were going 40mph (according to the boys) and Collin would all of the sudden flip the boat around and point out a baby crocodile he'd seen in the leaves and logs. Honestly, no one could see it until we were right up near. Even then, he was teasing a few "blind" people. He pointed out iguanas, "Jesus Christ" birds (that walk on water), indigo trees, cacti winding around the trees and all sorts of other interesting things.
Can you see the baby croc? We thought this was his most incredible spot. We were driving really fast at this point... and to see this in the bushes by the side of the river?

How about the "Jesus Christ" bird?

This croc was easier to spot.

The New River isn't real wide in that area, but he said it was very deep. Collin's fast speedboat driving made the trip extra fun.

When we arrived at Lamanai, Collin spread out a lunch of rice and beans (prepared by the someone from a nearby Menonite community), papayas, chicken, fried plantain, etc. It was great (and actually nice to have a break from the fancy cruise food).

Collin guided us through the ruins, again pointing out vegetation (loved the smell of allspice and the orchids) and animals (lots of howler monkeys). It was really neat to learn some history of these people. Its kind of funny to me that, as a people, we think we are really smart, but when I learn about all the things these people were able to do and the fact that their buildings have survived so long, its quite humbling.

Howler Monkeys

Near the end of the tour, we got to climb one of the large temples. Collin gave us 10 minutes and we started hiking. This kind of thing would NEVER fly in America. Just a rope to help you climb a steep ruin and not much space at the top. But the view was incredible. Of course, pictures never give do those sorts of things justice.

When Collin dropped us off, I asked for a picture and he whipped off his hat to reveal quite the head of hair!

It was a great day and it also had a great end. Look what arrived on day 4 at 5:10pm:

Cozumel - Day 3 - F.U.N.

Our first stop was in Cozumel. We were informed that our luggage was not expected to arrive until our second stop (Belize). But lucky for us, Carnival had given us lovely t-shirts with "I have a PhD in F.U.N" on the front.

We rented a van (Rhett: cost of the van... "priceless") and drove around the island, stopping at a pretty beach to enjoy the waves.


Our next stop was some small Mayan (?) ruins. It was pretty funny because we were charged $3 per person to walk about 50 feet (with a couple shops lining the enclosure) and then $3.75 to walk to the ruins. Not sure why those people couldn't get together and charge one fee. ? Anyway, it was a beautiful day for a walk and cool to see the old ruins. We had an Iguana spotting contest with Justin winning for the number of finds, plus the biggest Iguana (which crawled out as he was posing for a picture... ha!). Kelli won for the prize for most colorful.


Next we drove to Playa Mia, one of those "bonus" beaches with snorkeling (the boys loved that. Geo: "I was expecting the snorkeling to be good, but its double as good as I thought it would be."), pina coladas (delish!), and paddle boats (3 girls on one boat). It also had a water trampoline and we laughed pretty hard at how tricky that was to stay on your feet. We had a "bum wars" (I think I managed 2... pretty bad!) and George impressed us with his "frog" dismount into the water. We tried climbing the floating "ice burg", but with no upper body strength, its pretty much impossible.

modeling Kelli and Rhett's swimwear... nice to have friends!

Aren't those beautiful shirts? And don't we look "F-U-N"!?!

We ended the day (at least the part on shore) with some shopping. Geo and I bought new t-shirts to wear on day 4.

After dinner, we usually went to a show of some sort (comedian, juggler, dancers, etc.). Then we found the ice cream machines and either played card games or watched a movie or sat in the hot tub or a combination of those things. One night we watched some show with Will Ferrell and I am sure it has got to rank in the top 10 dumbest movies ever. However, we were sitting in a hot tub on the upper deck of the ship, watching on a very, very large screen so it was slightly more bearable. I didn't want to get out of the hot tub and freeze (only Gundi girls can get cold on a Caribbean cruise) so we sat through the thing (and talked).

The next night, we decided we'd watch the show (no. not the same show. a different one.) on the lounge chairs, but get in the hot tub at the end. So, I was wearing my PJ's (with swimsuit underneath), had my robe and towel in hand (nice and fluffy ones from Carnival) and my pillow for movie watching. A guy in the elevator said, "So... are you changing rooms? Or having to move out? (looking at George)" Ha!

Geo and I looking at the schedule of fun things to do on the ship

Without bags, but on the ship - days 1 & 2

Our vacation destination was a 7-day Caribbean cruise with stops at Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Grand Cayman. This was the first time we've ever done a cruise and it was delightful. The first part of our vacation was the flight to Miami and this part turned out to be the most stressful. The rest of it... paradise, great fun, relaxing.

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We left our house around 4ish to catch a 6:30am flight to Dallas, then on to Miami. We had an hour and 40 minutes between connections. The flight to Dallas was smooth. No problems until the pilot said, "Flight attendants, prepare for landing." Then we circled around Dallas for 30-40 minutes. There were a few clouds, but nothing major. What was going on? The pilot gets on the PA and says, "We have a problem with our landing gear and are going to land in Austin." So we returned in the direction we had just come. Apparently, the "auto pilot" was broken and Dallas was "too foggy" to land without it, but Austin was clear enough that we could land just fine. Yeah, pretty annoying. We got on the phone and stood in lines, scrambling to get anywhere. The earliest we could get to Miami was 3:10pm and Carnival said that was too late (ship was scheduled to leave at 4pm). We'd have to fly to Cancun and meet the ship in Cozumel on day 3. (We could get to Cancun by 2:45pm, by the way.) We caught another flight to Dallas and as we landed, we decided to call Carnival back. They said if we actually made the 3:10 flight to Miami, we MIGHT make the boat, but only if we left our luggage behind. We decided to take our chances and ran to the Miami gate just in time to get on the plane.

A nice Carnival lady met us as we got off the plane in Miami. Whew! What a relief to see her! Carnival sent a bus to pick us up but it hadn't arrived so the nice lady let us wait for it by the baggage claim (just in case it came through). But American Airlines was three flights behind in getting their luggage on the carousel, so we hopped on the bus without it. The driver said he would make no promises to get us there on time, but would do his best. He was honking at people and waving at the cops that he needed to get through (we were stuck in traffic due to a circus). We made it to the cruise boat terminal, zoomed through security and such and ran on the ship. We were there to hear half of the safety briefing and then set sail. Whoa. Talk about cutting it close.
Our bags were missing, but Carnival said they'd take care of everything and see if American Airlines could get our bags to us in Cozumel. Lucky we had friends because this is what I packed in my backpack:



Not so smart to not pack ANY clothing in our carry-on. But at least we made the ship, so we were happy.

Night #1 was filled with a yummy dinner, a trivia game (Geo won a beautiful gold ship trophy :), and a "Carnival FUN" performance by the Carnival dancers. Sadly they had these red & blue velour costumes that have to rank high in the "ugliest ever" category. By the end of the cruise, George was positive that "male cruise dancer" was the WORST job on the ship.

Our second day was "FUN day at Sea." It didn't start out so fun for me or Kelli. She was sea sick and I was sick with a migraine. Thanks to good medication, we were both better by dinner. The day activities consisted of riding the waterslide, soaking in the hot tub, and watching the men's hairy chest contest. Later that evening was elegant night. Here we are all dressed up: (my outfit courtesy of Shannon, George's courtesy of Rhett).

When I told anyone we were going on a cruise, they said, "Oh! You will LOVE the food." And it was yummy. I tried to order things I usually don't order (sometimes because of the price... who wants to order a fancy dish and then go away hungry if it is gross?) I always ordered two appetizers. Sliced tomatoes and mozzarella cheese was a favorite. I thought the chilled soups were good and loved trying different salads and veggies. For the main dish I tried the chateaubriand, lobster, filet mignon and snapper (with the last two being favorites). Later in the week, a comedian joked about the volume of food we consumed, saying we had to stop in the war-torn country of Honduras to load up on food because we were "world-record heifers". That became a standing joke throughout the cruise. He also painted the picture of the wife nudging the husband at midnight, "WAKE UP!!! Its time to eat!" "We just ate 20 minutes ago." "Well, its time to eat again and we PAID for all of this food, so we HAVE to eat it!" I must admit, I fell into the "heifer" crowd. I guess that means that exercise will be my New Years Resolution. Our waitress, Zsuzsanna, took great care of us.
I decided the Carnival Creations cookbook would be my souvenir so I could remember the piles and piles of food I ate (and try to recreate some of it). Here's the recipe for the chilled Strawberry soup. I think it would be yummy for a Valentine meal.

2 c frozen strawberries
2 c milk
1 c whipping cream

1/2 c sour cream

sugar

Place all ingredients in a blender container. Blend on high until smooth. Add sugar to taste. Chill overnight. Serve in chilled soup cups.

Back

We've been on a wonderful vacation. I always feel slightly funny blogging about vacations. Its only fun to read if you were actually there. So ... these long upcoming blog entries are for the family record book. Just thought I'd state that right up front.We vacationed with two of my cousins and their hubby's. The last time we went on a vacation together was 14 years ago when Kari and I graduated from high school. For that trip, we went to Hawaii and had a wonderful time. I scrapbooked some of those lovely photos in college. Sometimes we'd go to "scrapbook all-nighters" and the lady in charge would say, "You are STILL working on your Hawaii vacation!" Well, it got put aside many times for the "mission scrapbook" or "wedding scrapbook" or "1st year baby scrapbook" or whatever. I decided I'd finish it before I left for vacation with these great gals. I only had 4 pages to go (and its probably only 20 pages total) ... not sure why I have issues with "finishing" things. I just thought I'd post a couple of old pages to bring back the memories of scrapbooking pictures by cutting them out in "shapes". Lovely, isn't it?




Anyway, all four of us cousins grew up together and are great buddies. Shannon and Rhett were the masterminds behind this vacation... its been in the works since the summer. Kari was planning on going on this trip too, but if you are over 24 weeks pregnant, they won't let you go on a cruise. No exceptions. We really missed her. But it does give us a good excuse to go again... soon! :)

This was a "couples vacation" so my mom and Lacey were nice enough to stay with the kiddos for a week. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! They were definitely well taken care of. I asked Lucy if she missed us and she said, "Hmmmm.........well..............not really."

Anyway, we got back last night so today was naturally filled with catching up on stuff... lots of email, stuff with YW, laundry from our trip, mail, etc. etc. It was 67 degrees outside so I left the kids in the backyard and hit the computer. Lucy came rushing in saying the babies were playing with the water. I found them at the water spicket, but wasn't concerned. They were messing with a little drip and were happy as could be. Didn't seem like a big deal, so I went back inside.

Then I heard Elise scream, followed by Austin. They flipped the spicket and the water came out full blast. Not happy any more.

I thought the whole thing was pretty funny, but its probably wasn't the smartest idea to try to "catch up" while those little partners in crime were awake.

Even so.... it feels good to be home!

O Christmas tree... again

Remember how I mentioned I was still working on getting my Christmas trees put away? I finally got it done. Well, sort of. They moved from the downstairs to the upstairs game room. In the back corner of the game room is the junk closet (where the trees usually live). The junk closet is also home to my fabric, ribbons, DVD's, board games, picture frames, old decorations ... you know... lots of junk that I can't live without. :) I've been working on de-junking it and the Christmas trees have been sitting in the room waiting to be put back into their boxes. Lucy saw the poor bare trees and recruited Elise to help her fix them up again.

I got quite a chuckle when I came into the room and saw this little team.

We got the ribbons cleaned up and later I came in the room to find Lucy's old artwork (the stuff we had just cleaned out of the coloring bin) decorating the tree.

Let's face it, those trees are not meant to be bare. I don't know how they are going to survive until next December.

Snowman dance

Lu had a little dance recital on Saturday.

One of her favorite parts was getting ready. "I get to wear REAL makeup and its not even HALLOWEEN!?!"

Lucy's dance group performed to "Once there was a Snowman." Lucy thought it was great fun to "dance on a stage." Miss Megan has been such a sweet teacher. I am going to post the whole dance for the family. Just thought I'd give you a warning (its a minute and a half).

I liked watching Austin capture the attention of the ladies.

Another highlight for Lucy was watching the big girls perform. Since Saturday, the "practice CD" (with the dance music from all the classes) has been playing continually at home. Elise can now do the moves as well. Lucy says things like, "Mom, do you remember what they did during this part of the music?" She thinks the "heel stretch by the girls in red" was the coolest and has been practicing to get it right. It amazes me how much motivation comes from watching people that are better. My piano teacher always performed at the end of our recitals growing up and I loved it. I remember thinking I wanted to be just like her. But, not bad enough obviously, since I didn't practice. Anyway, we're taking a two month break from dance so I have more time to get our house ready to sell, but by the time she starts up again, who knows? I might be showing pictures of the heel stretch. Well... probably not quite.