Cruise Day 6, 7, 8, Belize, Cozumel, Mexico, New Orleans, Back to School, Driver’s License, Haircuts

 Cruise days 6,7,8 were fun!  The day after Roatan, Honduras we hit Belize City, Belize.  Since the ship can’t come into dock there you have to take a Tender Boat from the ship to shore.  Aaron got up extra early that morning to get in line to get the tickets to be one of the first groups off the boat.  We had scheduled our own third party excursion to go cave tubing so we needed to make sure we had enough time to meet up with our tour guide/group.

The Tender Boat took 30 minutes to get from the ship to the shore.  We got to sit on the sides and watch everything go by.

Once we got ashore we found our tour group.  The company we used was called Butts Up Cave Tubing.  An interesting name, but was the same group my brother and his family used 7 years ago when they were in Belize and they had a good experience.  We met our tour group, got on the bus and headed out to the cave.  The bus ride was about an hour to get all the way there.  Here we are leaving the city:

When they drop you off you have to walk a ways (about 40 minutes) through the rain forest to get to the mouth of the cave to start tubing the river. We had to carry our life jackets and helmets, but no tubes which was nice.

I failed to bring bug spray, unfortunately.  We all got eaten alive by mosquitos hiking through the rainforest.  Half way through the trail the guide said the mosquitos are attracted to dark colors.  Good thing I was wearing ALL BLACK--DOH!!  Oh well we survived even though my mosquito bites are still healing 2 weeks later....

On the trail there were a few cashew trees.  We made sure Daniel stayed far away from those.  We got to cross the river on our walk to the cave:

We went through/under a weird rock outcropping on the trail.  This was not Aaron’s favorite place because there were bats flying around the ceiling.  Good thing we weren’t inside very long.

Bats!!  There were a few flying around us which was a bit unnerving.  Aaron made sure we got through this part as fast as humanly possible--haha!!  He HATES bats!!

We finally reached the mouth of the cave.  They had us go in groups of 6 and tied our tubes together to keep our group together.  Our guide swam the entire way and didn’t use a tube so he could help steer us.  Here we are entering the cave:

It was super dark inside so all of our helmets had a flashlight attached to the top so we could see things.  As soon as we got inside the cave Aaron managed to fall off his tube not once, but twice.  It also happened in the really deep part of the river so getting back on the tube wasn’t very easy.  After he was able to get back on his tube to stay things were more enjoyable for him.  Did I mention it was really dark inside the cave?  My phone didn’t take the best pictures, but you can get an idea of what it looked like:

In the middle of it there was an opening in the rock so you could see some daylight:

There were stalactites and along the cave ceiling:

Here’s where we floated/exited out of the cave:

This is looking back at where we left the cave and continued to float down the river:

Our guide, whose name was Speedy, offered to take a family picture of our group.  He took a few and then made sure he was in a few of our pictures, too--haha!

As we floated down the river we passed a bunch of Pimenta Dioica trees which is where Allspice comes from.  They picked a leaf from the tree and let us all pass it around and smell it and it smelled just like Allspice which was pretty cool.  Allspice smells like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg all together.  They actually get Allspice from the berry of that tree, but the leaves smell just like it, too.  Here’s the leaf we passed around to smell:

I was a bit of a moron here...I was trying to take a few pictures of some things, but the sun was in my eyes and I didn’t realize my camera was on selfie mode--DOH!!  Oh well I figured it out eventually--not after a few fun shots like this, though--haha!

Further down the river our guide gave us the option of getting out of the tubes and swimming down the river or staying on the tube.  All the kids hopped out and swam.  Aaron and I decided to stay on the tubes and watch.

Here is where we got out of the river to get back to the bus:

After that our bus took us to have a chicken tamale lunch provided by our tour guide before we headed back to the ship.  We also bought some Mexican Coke to go along with our lunch.  It was good.

Aaron was getting a bit antsy at this point because we were over an hour away from the port and we hadn’t left to drive back to the port yet.  Our ship departure time was in 2 hours.... Luckily, our bus driver was fast (and a bit scary, too) but we got back in time before the ship left although it was a little too close for comfort, though.  We were lucky and made the second to last tender boat of the day back to the cruise ship. The kids didn’t have a care in the world on the way back as you can see--haha!

Aaron and I were quite stressed we were not going to make it back to the ship in time, but thankfully we did.  Phew!!

The day before we had picked up some Honduran chocolate.  After everyone had showered and gotten dressed we tried out the Honduran Chocolate bar in mine and Aaron’s room:

That night at dinner after we ate our servers put on a ’Showtime’ while we were finishing up dinner.  They play music you can get up and dance to.  Our kids joined right in.  It was great!

After dinner we headed in to watch a show. They were offering temporary tattoos.  Sarah and Noah went up to the stage and got one.

The next day, day 7, we had a port day in Cozumel, Mexico.  It was also Sarah’s birthday this day.  Aaron and I decorated the kids’ cabin door with birthday signs so Sarah could see them when she walked out of her room that morning. After breakfast we headed off the ship.  This day we arranged our own excursion completely on our own not with any company.  I was a bit nervous about it, but luckily, we had a Spanish speaker with us (Josh).  The place we went to also came recommended by my brother as he and my older sister have been here years before.  After getting off the ship and finding the taxi station Josh arranged taxi transportation for us to get from the port to a bar/beach club in downtown called The Money Bar Beach Club.  It was a beach club so they also had regular food and an amazing waterfront section where you could snorkel.  We snagged an outside dining table by the stairs out to the Dzul-Ha Reef.  There was some amazing snorkeling there!!  While we were there we noticed smaller chartered boats bringing their guests here to snorkel as well.  However, there was a big section cordoned off just for the Money Bar so those people didn’t come by us.  We were the only people there for the majority of the day which was awesome.  Here’s the view from the stairs into the water.  You can see Josh, Daniel, Noah snorkeling out there:

The water was so warm, CLEAR and blue. It was beautiful!

Here’s some shots from under the water.  Josh and Sarah snorkeling:

A huge school of fish:

Me accidentally being on selfie mode again...DOH!  It’s amazing I can adult sometimes--haha!

Noah with fish:

Here’s the side view from our dining table.  The beach there was very rocky, but we were there to snorkel and not sit by the beach so it was fine.  We were glad we had water shoes, though.  The ground around the reef had some sharp, rocky parts.  In this picture you can see the charter boats with their snorkeling guests in the background:

There were some locals just hanging around that gave us some really helpful hints and offered an extra snorkel set after talking with Josh.  It was awesome!!  Josh really was helpful there.  Glad we could get some return on investment with his Spanish skills from his mission--haha!

Aaron is out there, too:

It was amazing!!  As we were finishing up a crab came crawling by we all took a turn to hold.  It was cool!

Since it was a beach club we had to pay an entrance fee which wasn’t bad and we ordered a huge plate of nachos to share.  They were pretty good.  We did also get some access to some beach chairs which was nice.  Seriously we were the only people there for most of the time so I felt like it was worth it.  It was great!!  It was such a pretty place.

I found a tiny hermit crab and watched it crawl around my hand:

After snorkeling we then caught a taxi to a supermarket on the other side of town so we could pick up some cheap, but amazing vanilla.  As we walked around the grocery store we truly stuck out like a sore thumb, but it was fun to look around at the different items they had on the shelves.  We bought a bunch of vanilla and then left the store and walked over a few blocks to the shopping center.  

We HAD to stop by and take a quick picture of the Cozumel sign:

After walking around the shopping center for a bit we caught two taxis back to the ship since there wasn’t a big one available for all of us at that time.  We made it back to the ship without any issue.  It was a really fun excursion day.

When we got back on the ship we showered and got ready for dinner.  Aaron had told the servers the night before that it would be Sarah’s birthday the next day.  They didn’t disappoint.  It also happened to be a fancy/dress up/ elegant night for dinner that night, too which was fun.  After dinner they brought her some cake with a candle to blow out.  They got all the tables and staff around us to sing Happy Birthday to her.  Happy 16th birthday cute girl!!

At the show later that night we got her a non alcoholic strawberry daiquiri to sip on.  She didn’t even have to share with anyone!

Sarah was given this cool rose made out of thick grass while we were walking around the city:

The next day, day 8, on the ship was a sea day so no stops.  Let me just say that Aaron and I vacation differently.  Aaron loves to relax on vacation--I like to adventure.  I like to plan activities all day long every day.  Aaron likes to relax and people watch and doing an occasional activity here and there.  That is why one of his favorite vacations is a cruise.  It is forced relaxation/downtime (for me) because there are only so many activities to do on a ship.  However, I may be coming over to Aaron’s side of things.  This last sea day on the ship we let the kids do whatever they wanted.  Aaron and I grabbed our books, grabbed some beach chairs up on the deck and spent the day reading and snoozing in the sun.  Funny thing is the kids ended up finding us and joining us later.  They read and relaxed with us that afternoon.  Maybe forced relaxation isn’t so bad....don’t tell Aaron I am saying that, though.  I still like my fully planned days of adventure, but an occasional relaxation day might be great to work in once in a while.  We also got to try out our apple sodas that we had picked up at the Cozumel supermarket the day before.  Josh said they were pretty good so we thought we would try them out.  They were good.  It was a fun, relaxing day.  A good last full day on the ship.

That night at dinner one of the staff dressed up as Spider man and was giving everyone high fives:

One thing I do like about a cruise is the chance to try all kinds of different foods.  Since the cost is already built in to the price you don’t have to pay for any of it so you can order a few different appetizers, entrees and desserts to try them all.  I am glad that my kids are adventurous eaters.  They were willing to try most anything.  Some entrees were better than others.  One night for dinner Daniel just saw a pasta dish for main entree so he ordered it.  He didn’t realize it was a seafood pasta dish.  He had one bite and you can tell from his reaction what his thoughts about it were.  He was NOT a fan and immediately pushed it away--haha!  

Everyone tried out the escargot (snails).  They weren’t actually that bad.  I guess if you put enough butter and garlic on something (except for the above seafood pasta dish) it is palatable. However, I don’t think enough butter and garlic could have saved that seafood pasta dish in Daniel’s eyes--haha!

Here’s a collage of some of the things we tried including lobster tail, filet mignon, fried catfish, fried calamari (squid/octopus), crayfish wrap, prime rib, cheese plate, Baked Alaska, baked fish, etc.

The kids were on their own for lunches and they really liked Guy’s Burger joint.  They also embarrassing kept the ice cream machine busy, too:

The massive food intake bordered on some gluttony, but since it was only on the cruise that we are like that, I tell myself it was okay.  Yes, we all gained a few pounds during the cruise, but it was fun.

We also loved the folded towel animals on our bed every day.  You can tell what some of them were, but some were a mystery:

The next morning our cruise was over and we got off the ship at 8 am and were back in New Orleans.  We caught an Uber to the hotel and dropped our luggage off. We then walked over to Cafe Du Monde to get some famous Beignets.  Beignets are a pillowy type of donut dusted with a ton of powdered sugar.  Cafe du Monde has been a New Orleans coffee shop since 1862 and are known for their beignets so we wanted to try them out. Aaron and I had been to New Orleans back when I was pregnant with Matthew so it has been a long time for us. We had tried Cafe du Monde back then so we wanted to try it again with the kids.  

There was so much powdered sugar, but they came out super hot and good.  They are very similar to a scone.

However, next time I will think twice before I wear all black before I eat a beignet. Not the smartest clothing choice--haha!

We then walked around the city and even hit Bourbon street.  It was a little less crazy being earlier in the morning.

We got a picture by an iconic New Orleans hanging fern building:

We then decided to ride the Wooden Streetcar to see around the city.

It has been continuously running for the last 150 which meant it also didn’t have air conditioning.  Good thing the windows could be put down for some air circulation.  It was fun to see around the city, though.

After riding to the end of the line and back we got off and walked back to our hotel.  It was so hot and humid.  We were tired so we decided to go swimming in the hotel pool.  We had fun.  

It was a nice way to end our vacation.

We headed to airport very early the next day.  However, both of our flights were significantly delayed.  Thankfully we were able to still get home that day.  We got home in enough time to do some quick grocery shopping, to pick up Sophie, and to get all things ready for school the next day.  Our cruise caused the kids to miss the first three days of school.  That was the only time all of us could get together so I felt like it was worth it.  We did the kids’ annual height measurements on the wall.  Aaron gave everyone their back to school blessings and then we all went to bed.  It was heavenly sleeping in my own comfy bed that night.  

The next morning Aaron made a yummy back to school/work breakfast for everyone.  Aaron, Josh and I had to go back to work that day.  That was rough.  Sarah and Noah started school that day, too.  Here we are at breakfast:

First day of school pictures:

Noah 9th grade:

Sarah 11th grade:

They started school on Tuesday.  Wednesday morning we had an appointment for Sarah to get her Driver’s License now that she is 16.

Wahoo the newest driver in our family:

She was even brave enough to drive to school herself the next day and work the day after.  

Things haven’t slowed down, either.  Everyone needed haircuts which I got done in the backyard.  Noah is particular about his hair so I had to take pictures after each time a trimmed an area up so he could give his approval.

This week has been just as busy.  I have had to work and in-between that Daniel and I have really started making sure he is ready for his mission.  We have been inventorying his missionary items and making sure he has everything on his checklist.  He picked up his new drivers license that won’t expire while he is on his mission.  We are also completing all the paperwork.  He will be picking up a new retainer later this week since his current one is almost broken.  He got to visit the dentist last week to get a final check before he leaves.  I refilled his epi pen so that is ready for him to take. Yesterday we cleaned out the extra basement bedroom so he has a quiet place to do his Home MTC that will start on MONDAY!!  It is coming so fast!!  I can’t believe it!!  Here’s the cleaned out room:

After we cleaned it out Daniel decided he wanted to set up the free standing hammock in there just for 'rest breaks’ while he is doing his Home MTC....This is the hammock Aaron won at the 4th of July BINGO game we played.  Daniel got it out of the box and put it together.  Here’s the final product:

Josh started school this past Monday.  He has a heavy load of classes this semester, but is excited to be back at school and work.

It has been an intense few weeks.  I keep saying things will slow down soon, but I am not sure.  Maybe I should have planned some more relaxation days on our trip because I could really use some about now--haha!!