Caribbean Cruise Part II

Belize

Belize was an interesting place. I guess I pictured it as an exotic tropical location, but it was kind of the opposite. It was very run down and impoverished. Once we got out into the country it was thick jungle and just beautiful. Our tour guide was really awesome and told us some really interesting things about the country. Some highlights include:

• 1 US Dollar = 2 Belize Dollars
• The hospital system is so bad that even people in the country will go to Guatemala or Mexico to get better medical care. He said only the rich people are able to do that
• All students where uniforms
• The only country in the world with Jaguar preserve
• There is a Mosquito there that will plant itself under your skin and feed on your blood for a couple of weeks - the only way to get it out is to stick duck tape on it and suffocate it and then squeeze it out
• Exports included: Coffee & Oranges
• There were only 6 working stop lights in Belize City

You can find a lot of these things online, but it was still fun to learn them in the country!

The excursion we did was inner tubing down a river while going through caves. We saw some really cool formations and went for a really nice 30 minute hike prior too it. The only problem was that I was slowly getting really dehydrated and got an infection throughout the day so I had to go to the doctor and get medicine. Thank goodness the ship had a medical staff otherwise the rest of the cruise would have been miserable!


This was a view of the ship from the Ferry boat we had to take in. Belize has one of the biggest barrier reefs in the world so the boat had to anchor way out from the dock.

Isla Roatan

This place was the most beautiful of them all! We did some light shopping and then parked ourselves on the beach and played in the water. It was very relaxing and actually nice to have an excursion planned.





White feet in the sand



Mangroves...they were so cool lookin!



Later that day we had the wonderful opportunity to relax even more by reading in this comfortable chair on the front of the boat.

Costa Maya

Costa Maya was pretty fun. The only thing we did here was shop and look at tide pools. The tide pools were my favorite because it reminded me of growing up in Santa Cruz and going to Natural Bridges with my dad and exploring all the creatures in the tide pools. I just loved it! We found a cool crab and some sea urchins.










Later that night was the second formal night. Our waiters were crazy and danced for us.

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Day At Sea

All this day consisted of was reading, eating, playing games and doing some more reading. It was awesome. It was really windy and cold but it didn't matter because we were on vacation.

Caribbean Cruise Part I

In the first week of November Terrill and I got to go on a Caribbean Cruise!! We had a blast and it was a nice get away from every day life. We flew into Orlando airport about 2 1/2 hours before the ship was going to leave. (It's a good thing none of our flight were delayed because we would have been cutting it really close!) We spent that night exploring the ship, playing games and eating a yummy dinner. The couple at our table were around the same age and we got to know them well during the cruise!



This is on the bus over to the cruise. We got to see a little bit of Florida and the Kennedy Space Center from our view on the bus.





One thing we love about cruise ships is there is neverending soft serve ice cream...It was a regular part of both mine and Terrill's diet.



Each night they leave a towel folded cool on your bed.

Cruising Day #1 10-31-10

This was our view from breakfast and I loved it. We also had a great view at dinner time as well. It is a cool feeling to look out for miles and miles all around you and only see ocean.



It was Halloween the first day on the cruise so they had this cool display of pumpkins in the lunch area.



The first night was a formal night so we had to get all dressed up fancy.

Cruise Day #1 - Cozumel 11-1-10

For this cruise we decided on doing 2 excursions since they are kind of pricy and we didn't want to spend to much. Our first excursion was going to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum. We had to take a ferry boat over to Playa Del Carmen and drove about an hour out to the country where these were located. Below -Terrill is standing in front of the Ferry boat we took over. It was a very rocky ride and I was happy when it was over but they provided entertainment. There was a guy about our age singing popular american songs on his guitar. He was really good so it distracted me from the rough ride!





Our tour guide was of Mayan decent and knew a ton about the culture and ruins we were going to see. Some of the things he said that were interesting to me were:

• The Mayan's still believe there is a hidden magical city called Zarahemla
• They have a carving/mural called "Lehi's Dream" - he somehow knew we were LDS and so when we got to a gift shop he showed us a Lehi's Dream carving and then said "You can learn more about this in the Book of Mormon" I was surprised to hear that!
• The rise of the Mayans happened around 500 - 600 AD. This aligns with the time that Lehi/Nephi sailed to the America's and prospered
• The Mayans were very advanced in education. They had a completely different calendar system.
  
• It just amazes me that their structures still stand today after so many years!
  

It was sooo hot. We were drinking so much water, but I feel like I was sweating it out just as fast! You really can't beat the weather in California.





















The ruins were right on the beach and it was the most beautiful beach I had ever seen before!

Terrill's 30th B-day Party!!

It was a success! It was such a blast to celebrate Terrill's 30th birthday with some great friends! There were about 16 of us all in all. We started the night off by playing a fun game of boxers and briefs. Then we sang happy birthday to Terrill and as a surprise to me, Eva had made me a birthday cake as well! After cake, we talked/ate and then played some rock band. All in all it was a really fun night and it was so much fun to plan a party for Terrill! I am grateful I will always be 5 years younger then him because I don't want to be 30 yet...hehe!

Here are some pics of the decorations before everyone arrived.



We definetely had to have as much candy as possible, since Terrill LOVES all candy!









Peanut Butter fingers... Please note the few that have 'blood' on them.






Personalized candy bars of Terrill doing one of his favorite things.






Here are a few pics after the rest of the gang arrived.



Eva and I

11 Year Old Scouts

I am a leader to the 11 year old scouts in my ward. They are awesome boys with tons of energy and zeal for life, it is just a little difficult to control that energy sometimes. After talking with a few people it has become evident that I needed to create some kind of reward system for good behavior. So below is what I have made. They can earn points based on their behavior. I went to the dollar store and picked up some goodies that hopefully they will want bad enough to earn points for! I am excited to see how it goes. This is a good learning experience for me and I hope it makes me a better leader to these boys!

Running the Baltimore Half Marathon

After weeks and weeks of training, Terrill and I set out to run in our very first half marathon! We left early Friday afternoon so we could arrive in Baltimore to check in, eat a pasta dinner and relax in the hotel the night before.

Weather conditions were very nice, minus the fact that there were 20 mph winds!









This Italian place was really good and had reasonable prices.

The Hotel we stayed in. It was about 10 blocks away from the half-marathon start line.

It was really nice because most of the races I have done, you have to wake up super early in the morning to be at the start line around 5:30AM. Our race didn't start until 9:45AM! So we were able to get a decent nights sleep and stretch really well before we started the race.

The race was so awesome. There was a lot energy at the start line! There were 10,000 runners doing the half marathon. We started at the 13 mile mark of the whole marathon. When we started, there were literally thousands of runners in front of us and thousands of runners behind us. It was a rush! Terrill and I ran the first mile together and then slowly separated.

I was scared before starting because I kept hearing people around me saying that it was the steepest half marathon on the east coast and that there were a ton of hills. I had only trained on hills a little and was a little worried. Another thing as the wind, it was so windy. There were points when we were running up the hills and the wind was just beating down on us. But overall it was so much fun. It was a fun way to see the city and there were people on the streets cheering us on the whole way.

They strongly discouraged headphones, but I didn't really listen to that rule. I waited until mile five when the hills started getting bad I turned up the music really loud and I was in the zone. I kept thinking to myself, I am so glad I am not running the full marathon today. Just thinking that gave me energy! Below are some pics from after the race.

Terrill enjoyed it as well. He said he kept thinking to keep on going even if there were still a lot of miles left. As always he kept a positive attitude!