The Belize Zoo

When we arrived on Sunday, David and Cassie took us to the Belize zoo. It has native animals from Belize. The cool thing is that they do not have the kind of security that they do in the states, so you could really get up close and personal to some of these animals. Of course zoom helps it look like I'm a little closer than I was, but there was still not much between us and the animals. The first two pictures are of a Tapir. This is the national animal of Belize. It's a weird looking animal with three toed front feet, four toed back feet, and a trunk like nose that they can move around similar to an elephant.


Here are a few of the birds that we saw. The black one is a Mohawk Chicken. They can ruffle up the feathers on top of their heads and it really looks like they have a Mohawk.




This next little guy is a parrot. He was very kind and posed for a picture.







This is some kind of Eagle. I can't remember what he's called, but he was very impressive. He was farther away when we walked up, but then he flew closer and started ruffling his feathers at us. I guess we were bothering him, but it was impressive to see his wing span and it made for some great pictures.

These birds are scarlet Macaws which are the nation bird of Belize. Very Beautiful!






I'm not sure what kind of bird this was, but it was preening for us. It was big and white with a really big fat ugly black neck.





This is a spectacled owl. It gets its name from the black feathers around its eyes which look like spectacles. This one finally stood still so that I could get a full frontal picture of him which is quite impressive. Its friend was putting on quite a show for us bobbing back and forth in what looked like an odd kind of dance.
This little guy is called a Tucanette. He created a little bit of excitement for us. I was trying to get a better picture of him without all the wires from the fence, so I put the camera up close to the fence so that it would focus between the wires. I guess I upset him, because he suddenly jumped at me and bit my finger. The skin didn't break and it didn't hurt, but he sure did give me a start.
This is a Grey fox. He was tiny. Maybe the size of a yappy dog.






This is a puma. A mama puma from the look of her tummy. I wasn't patient enough to get a really good picture of her. David waited around and she finally sat down right beside the fence and he got some great pictures of her.




This last picture is of a black jaguar. This little pond was right beside the fence and he came to drink at it right as we were walking by. While he was drinking a little gecko walked by and the jaguar started stalking it and then pounced on it. The gecko didn't give up and managed to get away, but the jaguar won in the end, catching it again, killed it and then just left it there. I guess he doesn't like geckos in his territory.


We had a lot of fun experiencing a completely different zoo that you would in the states. It was a great start to a wonderful week. Stay tuned. I'll be posting more pictures and stories from our trip.

Home Sweet Home

We're back from our trip. Yesterday we left Belize and flew to Dallas/Fort Worth airport and spent the night. I was tired and a little discombobulated, but my wonderful husband was persistent and found us a nice affordable hotel to stay in. It was definitely better than trying to spend the night in the airport. So we took the 5:00 hotel shuttle back to the airport this morning and finally after killing some time.....waiting for the pilot to get to our plane....and a few hours in the air, we were back in good ol' PA. It was so good to see my boys again. And they were honestly happy to see us as well and ready to go home after spending a great week with Gramma and Paw-paw. A. kept giving me hugs all this afternoon and just looking up at me with this glorious smile on his face. I swear they both grew while we were gone. I can't believe what big boys they are.
I am so thankful that I have parents that I can feel good about leaving my boys with and know that they will be showered with love and well taken care of. It allowed Dan and I to go away, just the two of us, for a whole week and have a wonderful visit with friends. I am so blessed to have the family and friends that I do. The trip to Belize was full of wonderful memories. I hope to post pictures soon and write in a little more detail later on. It will take a few blogs I think. But for now, I need to get used to this cold weather again.

Belize

Right now, I'm sitting in an internet cafe that is owned by our friend in Belize. We arrived her on Sunday night and have been having a blast. So far we've been able to experience the Belize zoo, Mayan ruins, staying in a Belize hotel and sampling some native food. We're having a great time and are so thankful to be having this experience. I hope all our American friends are doing well and getting ready to have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Alone

So I'm sitting here in my house at 3:20 in the afternoon all by myself. It's a strange feeling. It's very quiet. I feel like the boys should just be upstairs taking naps, but I know they're not.
They boys are with their grandparent on their way to Indiana. They have been invited to their cousins birthday party and just can't wait to get there. You may wonder why they are going with their grandparents instead of Dan and me. The reason is that Tomorrow afternoon Dan and I are getting on a plane to Miami on our way to Belize.
While I was in Japan I became fast friends with my house mate and fellow teacher. She is now living with her Peruvian husband and son in Belize and my husband is fulfilling a promise he made to me that we could go and visit her. I'm very excited. I haven't seen her since her wedding almost three years ago. We'll be in Belize for about five days. I'm so excited to meet her son who is 10 months old and well as just catch up with an old friend. We're also going to get to see some Mayan ruins while we're there, which I think will be thrilling. So in a week or so look back for an update on how our trip went, pictures, and whether our boys missed us at all or were to busy having fun with Gramma and Paw-paw to notice we were gone.

Fun with bargains

My mom is the queen of bargain shopping at Target. She likes to wait until things go 75 to 95 percent off, and then she gets all sorts of things. Today, while we were there for Sunday dinner, she pulled these out for the boys. Unfortunately, my boys can be shy and they refused to show much interest while at Gramma and Pa-pa's. She will be happy to know, however, that once we got home, they became the new cool toys. N. is really enjoying his "Sir Peter, knight of Wolfsbane" costume, and A. loves his soft horse. Priceless pictures. I love the ones of N. with his curly hair. He certainly does look knightly. It is so much fun having two little boys. They are a joy.

Saturdays

A couple of Saturdays ago, my dad came over and helped Dan build our new set of steps. Aren't they beautiful? This was the next step in our driveway project. Dan still has to finish the landing at the top of the steps, but he hopes to do that this Saturday. I'm so excited to have a nice wide set of steps going up the hill.











Then this past Friday, we had 22 tons of slag delivered. Because we needed it behind the garage, the big truck didn't have enough room to spread it for us. So we got it dumped into a big long pile. Guess what Dan and I did this past Saturday? Yep, we spent the day spreading slag, but we did it. We got it done, and now we have a bonified driveway. We still need to get a little more fill to make the driveway a little wider and thus easier to maneuver the van around in, but we are now parking our vehicles behind the garage. Hip Hip Hooray for progress!