Returning home from Belize.

 

Woke up to the beautiful Coco Beach Resort view and this morning we were not going to town for breakfast.  However, Matthew was not hearing that!  He went all by himself into town, got himself a big breakfast fry jack and Daisy a burrito and juice and came back to the resort by 7:30 AM!!!!  I wanted to go along but was nervous about making Mike nervous.  He did not want to be late for any flight and neither did we but Neri's was open at 5 AM, so Matthew went for it!!!!

The rest of us settled for leftover bananas and peanut butter and one passion fruit.

We packed everything up and were off to the cold north.

Gunnar did so well the entire too!  Hopefully this last travel day will go well!

We had 55 steps up to our room.  We got our exercise each day and here Mike and Matthew were trying to figure out who pays for what.  When we booked our stay here at Coco Beach, we told the kids that we would pay for the flights and rooms.  They were to pay for all the food they ate.  That made it really nice to deciding what they ordered or how much or if they wanted just water or sodas or dessert.  Each family on their own with food cost.  At the resort, we did not have an all inclusive but you could charge your room with any food you got at the resort.  

Belize is not that far away but it does take a day of travel.  We were escorted to the little airport in San Pedro to take our first flight out.  Funny, the airport is really close to Neri's so Jeremiah ended up going over and grabbing them some breakfast burritos before take off.  We are gonna miss this place!

The airport is really small here and simple.  You were given color coded passes for your boarding pass.  We were all on flight red!

We flew over the water to main land Belize for our next flight.  This took about a ten minute flight.

When we arrived at Belize National Airport that is bigger airport but still nothing like Philadelphia or any big US city airports.  We went through customs and had to fill out another immigration paper to come back to the USA.  While we were doing this, we were all sitting on a bench in the airport and Ashlyn decided to take Gunnar for a short walk.  She laid her phone on the bench next to me and strolled around with Gunnar.  When she came back, her phone was missing.  Where did it go?  Meanwhile, a family came and sat on the bench right next to us so we asked if we could look around them for the missing phone.  They were not impressed and hesitantly lifted up their luggage off of the floor after we asked them to look for the phone.  No phone anywhere and it was time to go through security.  I asked the lady at the check in/out if there's a lost and found anywhere and she said to check with security.  So, off we went.  Without the phone.  We all said a prayer that it would turn up before we flew away.

We went through security and I asked the man at the end if there's any way there was a phone brought up here and that we were missing a phone.  He asked a few questions and shock his head no.  Ok .... lost a phone.  Just then another foreign man came up to me and said he heard that we were looking for a phone and asked me if this was Ashlyn's?  He had her phone in his hand!  He said he saw her leave it on the bench and was going to bring it to security.  How weird is this?  I hugged him and thanked him and he said, "God works in mysterious ways."  I still don't know the whole lesson in this answered prayer but we had the phone, an answered prayer and now we were ready for our next flight out!

We had a layover in Charlotte for three hours.  The kids got a bite to eat together while Mike and I stayed with our luggage.  Then we went for greens!  I was craving salad greens and really missed raw carrots and celery on our trip!  We ate so good and had so many nachos and it was time for raw food and not raw conch!  A salad and a big coffee and off we were!

Our flight into Philadelphia was late.  Gunnar barely slept but when we were on the highway and in his normal carseat, he was out.  All our flights went well!  Thank you, Jesus!

We came back so tired but feeling so blessed to do a trip like this with our family!

Seeing the snow on the ground was not that welcoming and I had so much laundry to do with no washer and dryer for a week!  Everything got washed, cleaned and folded!

And the groceries were restocked and it's good to be back home!  I didn't know it was gonna be faschnaut day when we returned home!

 

This will be a memory of a lifetime.  We don't do vacations like this every year!  This was a special time and I just really enjoyed all the time we spent together!  Thank you again Lord for your many blessings on us!

Final Belize days.

 The view from our porch was worth a million bucks!

Iguanas were everywhere at the resort.  Nothing to be afraid of though.  But seeing their tails and feet print in the sand was funny to me!

We tried another breakfast spot so that it wouldn't get so late for Gunnar's first nap.  After breakfast, Jere and Hadassah went back to give Gunnar a nap while the rest of us still ended up at Neri's for fry jacks and to see the local church.  I really wanted to sit in on some island worship but after finding the church, we realized they only had an evening service.  Bummer.  

We went through town again and almost got hit by a soft ball.  Where in the world did that come from?  Mike and Matthew had to find out!  Sure enough, there was a ballgame going on right in town.  No grass but sand and bases and guys wanting to play ball!  

Matthew asked for a side of hot sauce at Neri's and we laughed at the tiny two bags they sent along!

We had one more day in the sun and at the pool before we had a travel day back North.  I love these people with all my heart!

Famous hot sauce on the island and available at every place you ate!

We told the kids to pick at place for dinner on our last night and Matthew remembered seeing this when we ate breakfast that morning.  We drove our golf carts to the Rum Dog and really liked it here!  It was a three story restaurant right out on the water.  Our waiter was a real trip and he reminded us of my Uncle Alvin!  We ate good food!  Took some photos on the dock leading out to the restaurant and loved the fun vibe here!

Thatched roof and string lights for the lighting and eating good food and drinking great mocktails ... just lovely!!!!

It was time to end our vacation here and tomorrow we were heading back home.

Lobster Day in San Pedro!

 It feels like I could write a book about this very fun day!  We were all looking forward to this Lobster Dive Cookout on the Beach Day!!!!  Mike did this same type of thing on his very first trip to Belize.  Ten years ago.  I dreamed of doing it as a family and here we are .... with a day planned out for us!!!!

I made these reservations weeks ago and I just couldn't wait for it!  We woke up to another gorgeous morning!  Every single day is so nice here!  

I have a lot of videos from the day that are fun but my blog only does photos so I'll try to take you through the day!  We walked from our resort just down to the next pier to get on a fishing boat!  There were two native men were waiting for us and were our tour guides all day.  We got into the boat and our first stop was to catch a bunch of smaller fish to be used for bait.  The tour guides threw in a big neat and brought in bait!  

Then we sailed off to our next stop where we were looking for the large shells in the ocean that are as wide as your thumb to your middle finger.  These shells are called Conch and there is a large snail that lives inside.  Everyone had snorkeling gear and jumped out to see what we could find.  Snorkeling is actually way harder than you may think it to be.  It's easy to panic and try to swim and breath and flip your flippers all at once and it was not for Jere and I!  Everyone else kept trying and did good!  We found a few Conch Shells and we were off to the next place.  

Gunnar was lathered in sunscreen for the day but the boat went fast and his naps were happening.  The poor guy had a few moments of wondering what in the world was going on but mostly he did a really good job!

Our next stop was fishing!  Austin caught the first fish and Matthew caught one too.  After a few catches, we were off in the warm breeze cruising the clear ocean water!  At our next stop, we were going to be looking for fresh lobsters!  We needed at least a dozen lobsters to make a meal for us all.   

Austin was all about it and did good!

The girls loved it too!  They got in the water at each location for the shells and lobsters!

It took some practice to use this gear but they got it figured out after swallowing the salt water a few times.

It was hard work to keep swimming around and looking for lobster so we got Austin a life vest to use.

Matthew found a few large shells and Hadassah was loving it!

After swimming around for awhile, we realized lobster hunting is hard work!  Thankfully one of the guides went out hunting too and found all these lobster!  We tricked Mike in believing that we all found lobster while he was way out near the reef trying to find lobster.  He was shocked and could hardly believe it when he got back in the boat.  He was so happy we found so many.

We boated off to this lovely island where we were going to eat the fresh catches we found!  Conch ceviche, grilled fish, grilled lobster with veggies and scalloped potatoes.  Everything with a side of glass bottled soda!

Mike was still so proud of Austin catching lobster.  We didn't tell him the truth till we were eating.

The two guides cleaned out the shells and filleted the fish and got the lobsters ready for the grill.

He loved every moment even though he didn't really catch a lobster!

The island we were on for the cookout was so pretty!

Still couldn't believe we actually got this whole trip accomplished!  It was my dream for many years!

This is what the big shells looked like and baby dear finally got a simple nap on the beach.  Any nap at this point is wonderful!

Here's what the snails inside the conch shells looked like.  They were cut up raw, tossed with lime juice and cilantro and served with tortilla chips.

For someone like me that liked sanitary and clean spaces and hate germs, this was a trip that I had to turn my head at times and just face the fact that life is simple here and you wash everything in the wild ocean to clean the food and knives and hands and then eat it!  Even if it's right off of the boat deck.

While we waited, the tour guides threw any trash from the lobsters and fish into the water and two huge sting rays came to eat it.  The bowl of conch ceviche was devoured by the kids because we were so hungry at this point.  We did not have Neri's this morning but grabbed a quick breakfast at the resort before leaving for this trip.  By 2:00 PM, we were hungry!  I didn't eat this though.  I did have a bad reaction to some raw sushi a few years ago and didn't trust the raw shell fish here.

 

The lobster and fish was grilled up with a side of potatoes and everything gets served with tortillas!  And at this point, we confessed to Mike that we actually didn't catch any lobster but only the guide did!  He laughed!  

This was a very fun experience for the kids and after our bellies were full, we were off to return back to the resort.

What we didn't know about this trip was that we would get the next opportunity!  We zoomed off into the water with the fishing boat and after a few miles, the guides said that we were going to stop and swim with sharks and sting rays.  Years ago, Mike and I did this.  I was terrified to swim in the water and only stuck my toes in the ocean but Mike actually did it!  Who was gonna be brave this time????

Any leftover bones and shells from the cleaning of the fish and lobster and any little bait fish were cast out into the ocean after an anchor was lowered.  It didn't take long before the boat was surrounded by sharks and sting rays!  Everyone was flipping out!  My videos are priceless here!  Mike was the first to get into the water!  The kids were nervous and not sure about it!

The sharks were about four feet long.  Huge sting rays!

One by one they all decided they were going in.  Mike was surviving!  Jere and I said again that Gunnar needed us on the boat but everyone jumped in!

Ashlyn was swimming around and was right next to a shark and she was screaming through her snorkeling tube and grabbed ahold of Mike!  The water was deep here and Mike couldn't hold on for long but they braved it out and did swim!

They stuck together for the most part and was both freaked out and happy to be doing such a brave thing!

That ended up being the highlight of the entire day!  Nobody touched any wild sting rays or sharks but were pretty close to them!  They loved this!!!!!!!

We got back to the resort around 4:00.  It was a long day in the sun and we had tender sun-kissed skin!  Everyone was tired and after baby had a good nap, we went to The Truck Stop again!  We didn't stay up late any night we were there.  Each day was full of sunshine and fun and after watching some winter Olympics each night, we were ready for bed!

This is a day we will never forget!!!!  It was so much fun!