How many of you would shop at this particular Publix?

Ah, but they have limes as big as tennis balls!

On a recent flight over to mainland, here is a guy checking in…carrying his fins and SPEARGUN!!!

No worries, there’s a 10 year old co-pilot to handle any emergencies…

This is our dear friend Greg who owns Island Buzz.  He makes the kids’ lunches about 3 days a week and delivers them to the school. #spoiledrotten

Brunch w my guys after church at Estelles by the Sea:

Oh yes, that juice is fresh squeezed. Talk about spoiled rotten!

 

 

 

OK, so it’s sort of long, but I think worth it for the music alone!

We have just returned from a little vacation from our life of vacation.  We looked at the Tropic Air flight choices, and basically, one of the few direct flights from Belize was Panama City, Panama.  Whit and I have both always wanted to see the Panama Canal, so there you go.  It might surprise you to know that to get to most places in South and Central America by plane, you actually have to fly BACK to the US!  Crazy…

Anyway, our trip was FABULOUS.  I highly recommend Panama to anyone looking for an “off the beaten path” vacation.  It’s a gorgeous combination of sophisticated city, majestic Pacific coastline, and laid back Caribbean beaches.  Since we’ve basically been living the “laid back Caribbean” life, we planned our stops in the city.  We could have used a few more days to see everything we wanted to see!

Panama Canal:

Sloths and Frogs at the Smithsonian Preserve:

Pacific side of canal:

Herrera Square in Casco Viejo (Old City):

Panama Hat and Julia’s Favorite Restaurant in Panama!

Skyline as viewed from top floor of the Trump Ocean Club Hotel!

Stay tuned for “Panama” the movie!  Written and directed by yours truly!

Halloween is a big deal in San Pedro!  It is also a pretty big deal at the children’s school.  Yesterday the children were off to school in full costume for a day of parades, costume contests, parties and games, culminating in a potluck lunch on the school grounds with parents (and BEER)!

I’m just so grateful that Costco had its Halloween costumes on sale back in August so I could buy these and bring with us.  Yes, I did point out to Sam that an all black robe costume would be incredibly HOT in Belize.

Iris with the other TWO girls in her class, Tesla and Zahara.

Infant 1 and 2 at The Island Academy (aka 1st and 2nd grade).

Our next door neighbors, Cameron and Stephanie Krull.

Super Heroes!

 

We have had quite the flurry of Facebook, newspaper, and internet activity as the Belizean government recently authorized seismic testing to look for oil offshore. No, I promise I’m not going political here. This blog is a politics free zone!  That said, I was incredibly proud of Julia when she decided to ask the Belizean minister of tourism a question at a recent town hall meeting. The emergency meeting had been called as the residents here were VERY concerned about the possible impact to their precious resource, the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world.  You can’t really hear much, but here she is:

Iris had a wonderful spa birthday with the girls in her class! She also had a visit from one boy in her class (whose mom owns the spa).  Boys can always be counted on to show up for cake.

We had a fun visit with my mom last week! Missing her, but glad to have Whit back!

My new indoor hobby is movie making!  Here is one from the Mathew’s visit.

My mom is visiting this week so I allowed the children to skip school today in order to join their grandmother on a snorkel tour of the Hol Chan marine reserve.  I have been on this tour no fewer than 10 times and it never fails to disappoint.  Today was one of the best days EVER in terms of wildlife sightings.  I am also debuting my first attempt at movie-making with my Go-Pro.

Some of you sharper viewers may notice that Iris is missing from most of the video.  She chose to go to school instead of going snorkeling AGAIN.  Go figure…

Enjoy!  (FYI, if you are looking at this in your email, you will need to click on the picture below to go to the site and play the video)

No animals were injured in the making of this video…children, maybe…

Well, sort of…

While the Mathews were here, we ate at a local restaurant called “Hidden Treasure.”  Look what national treasure was also dining there!  Nancy and I were silly enough to ask her to take a picture with us.  She really is a beautiful girl – and TALL!