Belize...

it's taken me almost a week to get these pictures together, so i'm just going to leave this post pretty short. the week before school started the whole family (and our friends the Czarneckys) flew down to Belize for a much needed beach vacation. last year we all went to Grayton Beach, but this year we opted for a little more adventure. if you're wondering how we chose Belize, well, it's simple...1. The Husband and i went there 3 years ago for our 10th anniversary trip and fell in love with the place 2. it's only a 2 1/2 hour direct flight from DFW and 3. the country speaks primarily English and the water is ok to drink. Belize is a very tiny country with absolutely no fast food restaurants or shopping centers. if you want to stay off the grid, this is the place to do it. although, if you have some picky eaters in your group, they might get a little hungry. the kids found the local market to be a mecca of interesting items. they pretty much lived off Pineapple Fanta the entire week we were there. for me, being pregnant had some other food disadvantages...i didn't drink the milk (it smelled and tasted very wrong), i couldn't eat the "raw" seafood, and they didn't have sweet tea, but other than that the food is absolutely amazing.

our adventure on the trip included a Jungle Tour with this crazy local named Percy, who, when we went diving for lobster, just stripped down to his "manties" and jumped overboard with a giant stick with a hook on it. Percy was an interesting character, but extremely friendly and he even took us to his momma's place to eat lunch (stewed chicken and coleslaw - pretty sure that's a Belizean staple). we spent a couple days at a pool down the street, which was amazing and completely deserted (most of the time we were the only ones there and it was a giant resort pool - very strange). we drove up into the jungle and went zip lining, and yes, pregnant momma went too. the last day we took a boat out to Laughing Bird Caye, which is the southernmost island of the Belize Barrier Reef. since none of us are PADI certified to dive, we all stuck to snorkeling around the island. when we stepped off the boat it was seriously like Gilligan's Island there. you could see from one end to the other and walk across the entire island from east to west in less than 20 steps. being in the water was like swimming in a giant aquarium. after our week long adventure it was time to say goodbye to Belize and head back home, just in time for school to start...