Belize City

Belize Trip

Day 1:

Catch the red eye (12:55 AM) to Atlanta...layover 4 hours then catch another 3 hour flight to Belize City.  Sleep on both flights most of the way.  Rent a car (2015 KIA Sportage) and find our way to Villa Boscardi B&B where we will rest our heads for the next three days.   After getting checked in we drive to the center of the city to check out the area.  Park the car and peruse the Belize Historical Museum then explore the center a bit then grab some much needed dinner and then get back to the villa to shower and relax.

Day 2:

Have a wonderful breakfast at Villa Boscardi then drive an hour North to Orange Walk and hop on a boat with Eco Tours and see some of the mangrove.  Feed a spider monkey a banana and look for crocodiles (none:( and see lots of birds.  Arrive at Lamanai Ruins and walk through an amazing  jungle to get to the ruins.  Climb the high temple (134 steep steps!) and catch a magnificent view of the whole area.  We see and hear Howler Monkeys at our same level in the tree tops making a ruckus.  They are super cool and really loud!!  We marvel at the beauty of the place and then go see four more parts of the archeological sight.  Enjoy a Belizean lunch of stewed chicken, rice and beans, plantains, and coleslaw provided by our tour guides and then back on the boat for an four ride to get back to home base.  

Take a drive into Orange Walk and peruse the town.  Stop at a mini grocery for a few cookies to snack on and then take the highway back to Belize City.  Before getting back to Villa Boscardi we stop for dinner at Atlantic Restaurant.  Rick has some fabulous shrimp curry and I order a small bowl of egg drop soup with a chicken sandwich.  My soup comes out in a bowl big enough for THREE people.  I can't eat it so I have to leave most of it on the table.  (I hate leaving leftovers....such a waste of food!)  I do love my sandwich though:)  

Get back to the Villa and enjoy a shower and some down time!

Day 3:

Have another wonderful breakfast at the Villa then grab the car keys and head out toward the west this time.  Our destination is San Ignacio, which is close to the Guatamalan border, to a market place and some more ruins.  We find the market place and buy a few trinkets.  A hat for Rick (can't find any bells for me), a handmade wood drum and some maracas for the kiddies to play with.  We have a wonderful lunch at the market.  I choose a panada (a corn dough with meat, beans and cheese inside and fried on a griddle).  Rick chooses a chicken quesedilla with an amazing fresh tortilla.  The fruit at this market looks wonderful.  The cauliflower is twice as big as what I can find in the grocery stores at home!  After the market we drive to Cahal Pech Ruins.  These are just outside of Santa Elena and really fun to explore.  Only part of them are uncovered and there were only a few people there which gave Rick plenty of room to climb and explore all he wanted while I watched and took pictures:)  Lots of mounds yet to be uncovered!!

After Cahal Pech we headed back toward Belize City and stopped at the Belize Zoo.  This is an animal sanctuary with all rescued animals.  We got to feed the Tapir (the national animal of Belize and quite an interesting looking one), feed the Toucan (my favorite bird!  I was so excited to have an encounter with one), and high five a jaguar!  (He was on the other side of the cage but we were right there with him)  He was a beautiful animal and I was a little nervous being so close to those sharp teeth of his.  He even snarled at Rick!  Just before leaving the howler monkeys started howling.  Holy Smokes!!  They were sooo loud!  It was really cool being just feet from them while they were carrying on like that.  The zoo keeper said they do this twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.  And we got to be there for that.  Loved it!

After the zoo we stopped at Old Belize and had dinner.  Rick had the Lobster and I had The traditional Belizean meal again.  (Chicken, rice, beans, and cole slaw)  Now we are back in our room just enjoying doing not much of anything:)  It's been a great time in Belize City.  Tomorrow afternoon we catch the Ferry over to Ambergris Caye!

New Year's 2016

I need to post about our New Year's Celebrations before it gets to late into the month!  On New Year's Eve Rick and I and the Boman family went to the jazz game.  It was Rafe and Scout's first game and they did really well.  Rafe did get frightened by the Jazz Bear who was no where near us but he saw him spraying silly string on a guy a couple of ailes over and that kind of freaked him out....plus the Jazz Bear does look a little creepy.  Those eyes of his.......

After the game Rick and I went home and turned on the TV.  I got sleepy around 11:30 and dozed off.  Rick woke me up at 12:15 and said, "Happy New Year!"  That was our big celebration!  I know boring, huh?  That's alright, after a full Christmas holiday with lots of family, I was ok laying low.  Sometimes it's nice just the two of us:-)

Rick and Rafe watching the game

Here's a shot of all of us after the game..........

The next day Rick and I drove to Lava Hot Springs for a night out with a few of his siblings.  We got there around 3:30 and after getting checked into our room headed over to the hot springs for a soak.  The place was loaded with people.  It was kind of strange seeing so many people running around in their swimsuits with it being less than 15 degrees outside!  The pools did feel nice though:)  I had an appointment for a massage at 4:30 so I wasn't in the pool for to long.  After my massage Rick picked me up and we went over to 47 Main Restaurant where everyone was waiting.  Karen and Dennis, Darla and Larry, Trent and Kathy, and Rick and I were all that were there.  (plus Hal and Janis and Leatrice Hunsaker met us for dinner)  We went there last year and really enjoyed the food.  We had a nice time visiting with one another and then we went back to the hotel and played games in Dennis and Karen's room.  

Karen came loaded with ALL KINDS of treats and goodies for the evening.  Darla brought some cheese and crackers as well.  We enjoyed playing a couple of games and having fun together.  We all had a good night's rest and then met for breakfast at the Chuckwagon Restaurant.  We enjoyed another 2 hours of talking and laughing and then we each went our separate ways.  It was a nice getaway.  One not so good thing that happened was that after getting on our way about 35 minutes into our drive home we realized that we left our pillows at the motel so we had to go back and get them!  It added a whole hour to our drive home:(  

That was not good but we sure enjoyed the opportunity to be with family for the night!

The group of us just before leaving Lava.

Christmas 2015

This Christmas we had our family celebration a few days early.  We got together on Tuesday the 22nd for our annual "Christmas Eve" party.  Gary had to work that night so he wasn't able to make it:(  We started out with out traditional foods that include tamales and homemade chicken and dumplin's.  And if I may say..... the dumpling's were super scrumptious!!  Even better than last years'!  After dinner we had (or attempted to have) a spiritual program.  Generally we sing hymns and share thoughts of the Savior and what He means to us.  It was very chaotic though, this year, with Rafe and the 3 one year olds.  We might have to do things a little differently next year!

After the program we went caroling to three different families and then came back home to put together a couple of boxes with Christmas dinner for two families in our area.  Then while Rick tended the kids we secretly delivered them to our neighbors' doors.

Afterwards we came back to the house for pie and opening of presents!  It was a great night with good feelings and joy in being together as a family:)

Rafe, Scout, and Haivyn,  Henry was sleeping

Sarah and Skylar

 The Boman Family

Rick and I

 The whole gang

Kaitlyn and Alyssia

Rick and John

On Christmas Eve, Gary joined us for a turkey dinner with all the trimmings!  It was a little strange having a huge dinner for just the three of us but we had a very nice night.  We read some favorite Christmas stories and ended the night by watching Christmas Vacation.  Brach and Kendra came by late (from having Christmas Eve celebrations with Brach's family) and set up camp in the basement.  They didn't want to make the late night trek to Pleasant Grove so they stayed with us:)  We loved that thought because we got to see the delight on the kids' faces with all the gifts Santa brought the next morning!

We watched them for a little while and then let them have some family time while Rick, Gary and I opened presents by our family room tree.  We all took turns opening gifts and it was very nice!  We had a wonderful Christmas breakfast of baked orange french toast, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, juice and hot chocolate.  It filled us up clear til dinner time!  Skylar and Sarah joined us later in the afternoon and we had a nice ham dinner with games afterwards.  It was a whirlwind kind of a day with a lot of time in the kitchen baking, cleaning, preparing, baking, and cleaning again.

A wonderful holiday week:-)

Max the pup

Grandpa and Scout

Rafe with his John Wayne gun

 Grandma and Grandpa!!

PHELPS FAMILY

Saturday we had our family pictures taken by my niece Serenity.  (Thanks Ren!)  We haven't had pictures taken for 3 years.  The last time was just after Rafe was born so it is nice to have some updated ones.  I wanted to have some Christmas photos as well as some winter ones so we took the first ones in our backyard under my favorite trees (our willows) and some more in the music room by our Christmas tree (not shown).  For the winter shots we drove up South Willow where some fresh snow had just fallen:)  These are just a few of them.  I will post some more later.