Belizin' It - Day 6 - Bathin' Suits and Cowboy Boots

The last day was one of the best. Another Maria's breakfast to start followed by a long walk on the beach exploring tide pools and scenery.


A typical pier on Ambergris Caye


Husband with a star fish


Me with a star fish


Gilligan's Island?

And finally we had to head to the airport. It was raining, and we rode in golf carts. We arrived slightly muddy, slightly buzzed, and very happy.


We're very broken up about leaving

Belizin' It - Day 5 - Bone Fish, Tacos, and Pickup Trucks

Husband had another good morning of fishing. 3.5 hours of fishing = 3 bone fish. Apparently, bone fishing is pretty tough. Even with the guide's help, presenting the flies to the fish is difficult.


Magnificent shot of the fisherman

I spent the morning by the pool with my laptop, book, and iPod. Internet access has enabled me to stay connected to a work project (not the most successful vacation from that point of view), but it's been just right for me.

Maria chef'd up another fantastic lunch. Homemade tortillas, carne asada, sauteed shrimp, shrimp ceviche, homemade pico de gallo, and pina coladas, of course. It was my favorite lunch so far.


Maria's taco lunch

We went to the 2nd JJW concert last night. On Tuesday, he played solo. Last night, he had a drummer and a bass player. Our seats were better (5 rows from the front), and I thought the music was fantastic. I have 3 new favorite JJW songs: Cowboy Boots and Bathin' Suits, The Cape, and Pickup Truck Song.


Husband and I enjoying JJW

Belizin' It - Day 4 - Snorkeling

The gods cooperated with us today and gave us blue skies and sun. We started the day with Maria's fabulous breakfast: scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon (curly Opa style), fresh-squeezed OJ, coffee, fresh pineapple and cantaloupe, fry jacks (sopapillas minus the sugar) with refried black beans, and raisin bread. Holy moly, it was good.

Our guide, Carlos, picked us up from our dock around 9 am, and we headed north for snorkeling. All of our snorkel stops were between the island and the reef. Bottom was sandy and coral was prolific. We saw lots of tropical fish, some schools of fish, and several very large rays.

The highlight of the trip for me was watching one of our guides spearfish for our lunch. He collected many conch shells, a lobster, and speared several snapper.


With our catch!

Between snorkeling stops 2 and 3, we went ashore on a beach and lazed about while the guides grilled their catch. In addition to the seafood, we had baked beans, cole slaw (with raisins), tortillas, and lime pie. Only downside of the lunch was the indigestion during the 3rd dive.


Waiting for lunch. It's a rough life.


Preparing the lunch


A view from our lunch beach

Belizin' It - Day 3 - King of a Hot Place

Husband had a good day fishing. With the flies he tied, he caught several bonefish.



We attended the first JJW concert. He played for two hours on a dock under the stars. Pretty great. Did you know he wrote Mr. Bojangles? He told stories between songs. My favorite was that he and Jimmy Buffet agreed that they wanted to be kings of a hot places. Nice job if you can get it!

Post-concert, we stopped at a hole in the wall for Pupusas (tortillas made with meat and/or cheese inside of them). Yum!



We're looking forward to a day of snorkeling tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed for good weather.

Belizin' It - Day 3 - The Sun Peaks Through

Last night, I slept through the night for the first time. I think my body clock is now used to not getting up with Squeaker. It was wonderful. I woke up at 6 AM to the rain, and stayed in bed reading and napping until almost 9. Bliss...

Today looks promising. The sun finally started peaking through around 9:30 AM. Four of the guys are off fishing, and I'm gearing up for some beach time.

Stay tuned.

Belizin' It - Day 2 - Tropical Rains

Woke up several times last night to the sound of rain running off the roof onto the tile veranda outside our room. At 8 AM this morning, it's pouring. We had a day of snorkeling on the North end of the island planned--it's been scrapped due to the weather. Today promises more relaxing, likely some of it inside.

The reason that we're in Belize is because Jerry Jeff Walker puts on several concerts this week for his most avid fans. Our friend who invited us on the trip is a long-time JJW fan and bought tickets to the concerts months ago. So last night we attended the first JJW event where the dates of the week's concerts were announced. It was at an over-the-water bar called Wet Willies. After learning that we'll hear JJW on Tuesday and Thursday nights, we participated in karaoke with other JJW fans. It was WAY more fun that I thought it would be. No photos or videos, THANK GOODNESS.

Belizin' It - Day 1 - Photos

I spent a chunk of the day relaxing by the pool


Husband spent a chunk of the day on the veranda tying flies for the week's fishing excursions.

Belizin' It - Day 1 - Changes in Latitude

After all the frenzied prep to get out of town, WE MADE IT TO BELIZE!  Dropped off Bean and Squeaker at OpaNana's successfully.  Morning report from OpaNana was that night #1 was fine. Squeaker woke up at 11 and then again 5 to eat.  All's well so far...

And the report from Belize is AWESOME.  Changes in latitudes do result in changes in attitudes.  If normal day-to-day volume for me is 10, I'm already operating on about a 5. 

Casa Tortuga is more amazing in person than on the web.  It has a more intimate feel--palm trees surround the pool and house, and the beach is only 25 yards from the house.  The house cook, Maria, greeted us last night with fresh-made pina coladas and guacamole.  She followed with a dinner of shrimp, rice with peppers, bbq chicken, salad, and key lime pie.  Husband and I lucked into what I think is the largest room in the casa, the Palm Room.  It's on a corner and enjoys ocean breezes from two sides.  We woke up to the sun rise over the ocean, viewed from our bed.

Casa Tortuga is about 2 miles South of downtown San Pedro.  We took an early-morning walk on the beach towards town.  Passed many private homes and resorts.  Had coffee at the turnaround point.  A walk alone with husband was a treat.  The fact that it was not below freezing, on a beach, and kidless was a bonus.

Today holds lots of relaxing.  We opted not to plan any activities other than lounging by the pool, reading in the hammocks, and playing on the beach.  Photos coming soon!

Do you want some cheese with that whine?

OK, I re-read my post this morning and have to say it was a LITTLE whiny. I mean, really, how awful is it to be employed, with vacation pay, have 2 healthy kids and parents who can babysit them, and go to Belize?

Tiny violins playing for me.

:)

Vacation? I hope it's worth it...

Getting the whole family ready to go on vacation is taking its toll. Just getting me ready has been exhausting. This is a bad time to be leaving work (trying to finalize negotiations on new business, making project staffing changes, starting new projects, blah, bleh, bleh). And, honestly, my to-do list for the next 2 days is nut bar:

• Finalize wills and medical powers of attorney with the lawyer
• Research where OpaNana can take the girls to the doctor in case of sickness (highly likely given our kids)
• Plan Bean's 2-year birthday party which is happening in Austin on Friday
• Write how-to-take-care-of notes for the housesitter and OpaNana
• Call our neighbors to let them know we'll be out of town
• Wash at least 6 loads of laundry
• Pack an amazingly coordinated, yet efficient and flattering beach wardrobe for me
• Pack everything the girls will need
• Take sunglasses to be repaired
• Repair double BOB stroller
• Download episodes of Dora for Bean to watch on the plane
  
• Do 1,000 crunches in 3 days to make stomach halfway worthy of post-baby exposure. Yeah, right.
• Oh, and work 2 9-hour + days
  

I'm staying sane by remembering that all the craziness will be behind me in 2 days. Husband asked what I was looking forward to most about the trip. In order: 1. time with husband, of course; 2. uninterrupted sleep; 3. hammock time combined with #2; 4. warm weather and sunshine; 5. tropical adult beverages; 6. reading. It will be worth it... I know it will!

Kank O

"Kank O, Mama." For a couple of weeks now, Bean has been saying thank you on a regular basis. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I tried like heck to get her to say it on camera--it's really tough given that she'd still rather be behind the camera instead of in front of it. Here's the best I could do.



Squeaker's about to hit a milestone, too. She's very close to sitting up on her own. With the help of the Boppy, she's great!

Sleep Training Update #2

So we're in a pretty good routine now. Squeaker sleeps until about 1, is up to eat, and asleep again until 5ish. Next step is getting rid of the 1 AM feeding. Cry it out here we come.

Sleep Training Update #2

• Sun, 1/11: Squeaker went down at 7:30, woke up to eat at 1:30, and then again at 5:30. Yeah!

Sleep Training Update #1

Like my Sister on Carrot Tops, I am trying to train Squeaker to have better nighttime sleep habits. We are leaving Bean and Squeaker with OpaNana in 10 days for 6 nights. After our holiday travels, Squeaker reverted to waking up every 3 hours during the night. While a pain for us, we most certainly don't want to subject the used-to-full-night's-sleep OpaNana to such wakefulness.

We're pulling out all the stops to make Squeaker a good houseguest:

• Ensuring she's warm enough. We keep the house at 68 at night (much warmer than we would before kids), but her little paws have been very icy. After putting a space heater in her room with a thermostat, we now realize that although the core of the house is 68, her room is only about 62. The space heater brings it up closer to 70. In addition, she's now sleeping it at least 2 layers and a fleece hat.
• Re-reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. This is a great book that combines some of the cry-it-out method with common sense. After reading the book, we realized that Squeaker may still need to eat 1-2 times per night, but she shouldn't need to eat 1-2 hours after a nighttime feeding.
• Introducing 1 bottle/formula feeding per night, and 1-2 bottle/formula feedings per day. It's my intention to continue breastfeeding after our vacation, but she's going to be on all formula while we're gone.

Initial results:

• Thu, 1/8: Slept from 7:30 PM to 12:30 PM. This was the first night of the heater, and I think it helped.
  
• Fri, 1/9: Slept from 8 PM to 1 AM. Getting better. She had a bottle at 1, and then back to sleep until 4 when she came to bed with us to eat and sleep.
  
• Sat, 1/10: Slept from 7:30 PM to 3:30 AM! A huge win. She ate at 3:3o and went right back to sleep. BUT then she woke up at 5. Usually, we'd bring her into our bed and I would feed her while sleeping. Instead we let her cry. For 50 minutes. 50 minutes, yes. It was not fun. I had the pillow over my head, telling myself it was the right thing to do. The book said to let them cry for up to an hour. She did go back to sleep until about 7. Hope we're on the right track.

Stay tuned. I know OpaNana will be the most attentive readers of the sleep posts.

Third Cousins, More Like First

Some of our favorite cousins, Wendy and Greg, arrived last night with their 3 boys for a stopover on their drive from Wisconsin to Texas. It was great to see family and hang out. Wendy and I are second cousins but raised more like first. Our Dads are first cousins, raised more like brothers. Our kids are third cousins, but I hope will be more like first as they grow up.

It was a quick but fun visit. Bean ran around behind the older kids the whole time they were here. She also said "Hiiiiiiii, boyyyys" about 10 times while they were here. Husband started reading "Cowboy and Octopus" to Bean last night and quickly had an audience of four.



They loved the book so much that they requested an encore this morning.

New Yearsolutions

It's cliche, I know, but I always set 5-10 goals at the New Year. Usually, I achieve about 80% of them. This year I'm committing to spend some time on myself which will most likely be in the form of exercise. So yesterday, I put on my running gear (it's been taking up an entire drawer in my dresser without use for about 3 years) and went out for a run.

Since it's been so long since I've run, I'm starting with a beginner's plan from Runners World. Stay tuned for progress on this, my 2009 Goal #1.