Boy, Oh, boy was it a process to get this vacation all put in place or what??? Last fall when we went on our annual football weekend with John and Kathy, I was expressing how I love to travel with them because Kathy navigates us everywhere we want to go!!! I'm not good at that but neither have I really tried to do it. We talked about how we would someday like to take our children out of the country and do some "really fun vacations" together. We also mentioned how much our family dynamics could change in five years. Hadassah and Matthew would be out of school. Ashlyn would be in middle school and Austin in first grade. This all sounds unrealistic right now but it's true. If we want to get some of these "places to go see with our kids", then we need to get started.
Some families like to visit different places for vacation. Both Mike and I like the same places. We know what's there (not much navigating needed) and what to expect. We have our favorite restaurants and Florida is our favorite state to vacation. Why? Because it's the only state we ever went to for a winter vacation!!!! :))) See? We like the same, same. Now we've stayed at different locations down there but Sarasota has our heart!
But, two years ago Mike and I went to Belize. Just him and I on our 15th Wedding Anniversary!!! We loved, LOVED, loved it and declared right then and there that some day we would bring the kids here!!! Coco Beach is a gorgeous resort in Belize and we wanted to go there again!!! (Same, same, right??? :))) ) Maybe this is our year/winter to go???
We talked a little about it around Christmas, just Mike and I. I really wanted it to be a surprise to the children if we were actually going to get it accomplished. We waited until the first week of January to tell the kids that we need to apply for passports … just in case we would ever need them. This is true. I often wished we had passports for everyone in case we would need to leave our country for some reason!
I made appointments at a post office and we hurried off before school to fill out papers and take some passport photos. We sent them off in hopes of getting them sooner rather than later! The post office official asked when we are traveling and when we needed these by and the kids all looked at us in wonder. We said that we had no plans in place but just wanted to get this accomplished. Boy, was Hadassah full of questions later that day! "So where are we going? Belize? What are the dates?" She asked question after question and even though we hadn't things in place just yet, I was dodging these questions. Mike just laughed at me and said to ignore them. But, you want to know what happened? After we actually had tickets bought and a penthouse reserved, he ended up letting the secret out twice!!!!! Once he was in the basement with Matthew and he said something about "when we go to Belize". Thankfully, Matthew was on his gadget and it went right over his head. The second time was with Hadassah. She asked when the new carpet is coming in the basement and Mike said, "After we get back from Belize." What???? He started peddling backwards in his words and made it sound like he is going to Belize with his friend Dave and maybe then we would all go to Florida in March. Hadassah bit for it!
We received Matthew's passport about two weeks later! Perfect!!! But then we got a notice saying that the photos of the other children were too over exposed and we needed to take other photos. I was not happy!!! This was going to delay us about a week and we didn't have a week to wait for these passports!!! The next morning, we told the children what our plans were and that we needed to take other photos and pray we got these passports in time or we couldn't go. We raced off to CVS before school and then the kids went to school while I went back to our original post office people and asked why our first photos didn't pass? They sent our new photos next day air without cost because of their terrible photos. They also made it sound like it's no big deal and that the process wasn't delayed just because of a photo. I wanted to believe it but when I started calling the passport number every day to track down these other five passports, I was told differently. Nobody really seemed to know exactly when they would arrive in the mail. One person said "oh maybe in three weeks". The next day someone else made it sound hopeful that we would have them all by February 12! Mike was in a panic! Our money was on the line and we needed to expedite those passports, pay the extra money to get them in time! We finally sighed in relief five days before leaving because we got all the other five passports in one day!!! We were now set to go!!!!!
The children were excited and we started to pack our bags. To travel with six over seas is something I've never done before and I knew to only take what we needed!!! Plans were to leave early Wednesday morning. The kids had no school Monday and Tuesday because of snow and we were hoping the roads would clear up for us to travel the next morning. Because of the 'no school days' it also meant we were not taking any school work along because they weren't in school to get their assignments. The children didn't mind a bit! :)
We had to leave the house by 5:30 AM, Wednesday, February 13. We woke up the kids and off we went! We arrived at the airport in good time and grabbed some bagels and pretzels before jumping on board. This was the first time flying for Ashlyn and Austin and Hadassah and Matthew were both really small the other time they flew. So, this felt like a first time for everyone!
Ashlyn wrote this on the way there! :)
Our first flight took us to Houston. There we got on a second airplane and flew to Belize City. These flights were both a few hours long but the kids were still so excited!
We finally arrived in the warm country of Belize and hopped on another little puddle jumper plane that flew us to Ambergris Caye.
There we gathered our luggage and jumped into a van that escorted us to our resort at Coco Beach!!! The kids did super duper the whole entire time and on the third flight Austin said to me, "I'm not even sick of the airplanes yet!!!" He loved every bit of it!!!
It was warm and we were all hungry and ready to settle into our penthouse.
Mike and I were excited and ready to show the kids a foreign country! We showed the kids around the resort and called it a day!!! Everyone was exhausted and ready for bed by 8:00!
Everyone travels on golf carts in Ambergris Caye. We rented one from our resort and the next morning we were off to show the children Belize!!! They were all trying to take in this new culture and enjoy the warm weather!
We started by going to Mahogany Bay Village for breakfast burritos and see some friends there! There is a coffee shop called Rum and Bean that we got drinks from.
And the kids first bottle of coke!!!
We couldn't wait to hit the pools!!! At the resort there were a bunch of pools that flowed into each other. But this pool had a big tower thing that the kids could climb and jump off of.
Here's the resorts dock. The first time Mike and I were at this resort, we got water taxied to the resort. This time we went by van but the dock is still so pretty to walk on!
The children loved that we could have lots of pool options plus the ocean! There was a beach right side the pools and so on day two, they enjoyed the ocean.
Austin's favorite food was shrimp and fries! We could order this right from the pool and he had this for his lunch every day! And the fruit punch was a hit!!! So refreshing and yummy!!!!
Paddle boats were available right from the dock!
I was a bit nervous about the food in Belize for this picky eater of ours and so I stuck in a box of graham crackers in the suitcase just in case we needed it! Austin's favorite bedtime snack is graham crackers dipped in milk. He enjoyed this every day too!!!
Looking in from the dock, you will see two of these oversized chairs! Ashlyn enjoyed the warm sun while sitting in the large chair!
Here is the beach just steps away from our pent house!
We took the kids little nets along and they loved digging in the sand and water with them!
And then there were hammocks along the beach too!!!
Our morning coffee while strolling the ocean is hard to beat!!!
We ate breakfast burritos every morning for breakfast! We drove our golf carts into town each morning because we loved to do that and because we wanted to see the lifestyle and eat their food!!! We were told about Robins food shack and that was our favorite place from day two until we came home!!! Ashlyn loved the watermelon juice!!!!
And this is Robins!!!! Nothing fancy but they sure had some good breakfast burritos for really cheap!!!
Matthew was being adventurous with the food and I was impressed!!! He tried so many different things!!! One morning he ordered the tacos for breakfast!
Belize has lots of fruits and bananas is a very popular kind!!! Austin loved them!
When Mike and I were here two years ago, Dave and Suz introduced us to Maria! She owns a fruit stand with the best fresh juices!!! We were on the look out for her again and we wanted to show her our family! We found her just up from Robins and we bought the best mango and pineapple juice from her!!!!
She loved the "babies"!!! :)
Maria is so much fun and she always loaded us up with extra little bananas and watermelon!!!
On Friday, we went with Jonathon and Marilyn out to Mahogany Bay Village's beach. Here they escort you out by boat and go sail to a beautiful beach with crystal clear water and warm breezes!
Each day was really warm and we got too much sun on our white skin the first two days! We applied lots and lots of lotion but it still left us sun burnt. The kids just loved the pools and didn't want to hear it when I said they needed wear their shirts to swim on day three.
Each evening we went out to the Truck Stop for ice cream!!! This is a popular visitor attraction place! There are small truck cars that were made into food trucks. There you could order pizza, burritos, Asian style foods and ice cream!
And we got to play Connect Four on the largest game board ever!!! :))) Ashlyn loves this game and we played it on the plane on the way to Belize! She was excited to play it here too!!!
Our first few days were off to a great start!!! The children all loved the foods! The pool was the best highlight of all!!! The warm weather and golf cart rides were tops and so wonderful!!!!
We were finally doing this "vacation of a lifetime"!!!! Mike and I were so pleased with how the children enjoyed the different culture. How their eyes were opened to a new way of living. They really did great on this trip!!!!
