CHRISTMAS PARTY AT CHURCH

On December 10, 2009 when all was chaotic, Christmas showed up early. At least in our church building.



We had a Turkey dinner at the church, along with some entertainment. A whole lot of Nativitys were setup by friends Lynn and Bob Smith.

A good number of Nativities showed up from many people. Childern and Adults.

The evening was to be one in which we would share in each others company, eating good food, enjoying entertainment and have time to remember the Savior. I think we managed to get all those things in and more.

The decorating was headed by Meredith. She was helped by numerous people. Allie Roberts, Jesse Richins and Lacey Placstead. Husbands helped also. They did a big part in setting the atmosphere for the evening. It was an all day affair just to set things up.

The Food was headed by Karen Pugmire. She had the undaunting task of making sure there was food enough for 250 people. 9 Turkeys and all the trimmings. A ton of people helped here. Many people cooked....pies, green bean casarols, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn and more. It all came together beautifully.

The music or entertainment were also supplied by various members of the Ward. The Quist family playing the Harp, violas and I think Violin. They certainly are talented with those stringy insturments.

One of the missionaries sang. Lisette and Penny Walker played a duette,Lisette on the piano and Penny playing the Flute. Don Pringle read the account of the Saviours birth while being accompanied on the piano by Kerstie Leath. Everyone did a wonderful job. A nicer evening could not be had.

To top things off at the end of the evening a little jolly old fella dropped in to see us. Santa came in style. He visited with each of the childern...and even some adults.

Some of the Kids looked Santa right in the eye......Hmmm...you certainly have a white beard......Are you going to come to my house this year

Jannean Bryant helped us by giving out gift bags to each one of the children. It was nice to see her in action.

LAST DAY OF OUR BELIZEAN VACATION

Our Bags are packed and we do not want to leave.

Us infront of our place here at the Belizean Shores Resort

Dan and Lisette...dressed for travel.....or are they dressed for the beach and town....

Close your eyes......what has she got on her mind.....A surprise stop at the airport on Caye Caulker......Its smaller than it looks
The Airport Terminal in Caye Caulker




Oh and look here....we travel at different times, with different Airlines and we meet up in the Belize City International Airport. From here we head to Houston and Dan goes to San Salvador, then onto Houston. By the time Dan hit Houston we were in the air again heading for Seattle.

The end of another great trip

A DAY OUT ON A CATAMARAN

Today, Saturday the 14th of Nov. we decided to have fun by sailing some and snorkling. It was great fun to be out. We had just a small group of people, 7 of us on the catamaran. We have seen others with at least 20 people on board.


Pink Shoes Billy....One of the Belizean Shores Staff. Took us to our Catamaran......How did he get the name Pink Shoes????

We snorkled in Ho Chan Marine Reserve.


There we saw groups of fish all together bundled up like a big ball. Live lobsters crwaling around and one Baracuda. The water was crystal clear. You could see at least 40' down.




Stop number 2 was an Island called Caye Caulker. This Island is maye 10 niles from San Pedro. A very small and laid back place. The Island was split in 2 in 1961 by a hurricane. There is a gap of about 100' between north and south island. There were a few places to stay, a couple of restaurants, stores in which to buy your touristy things and then the local bar hang outs. We saw one bar that gave the perfect example of the Island life


Mandingo is his name and making people feel welcome is his game. If you ask him foe money.....Check out his ears. He keeps a coin dollar in each ear as he has no pockets.

See the boy....Hes doing a flip into the water. Several of the local kids were running to the end of the dack, jumping and then flipping.The warm Carribean Sea....The temperature was in the high 80's (that is of the water)

The last stop before hading home was shark/Ray alley. This is a spot way out from shore where the fisherman would always come to clean their fish. This would in turn attract the rays and sharks. Now when boats come into the area the sharks and rays immediately come to see what there is for food.

It was here that Dan (Lisettes brother) and I swam with these critters. What an experience. The sharks were varied in size from 3' to about 12' long.

The Rays were absolutely huge. Sorry no pictures from the under world.

Living the Life....Here a young couple have pitched their tent on the Beach just a few feet from the waters edge.

We had a great day

Golf anyone?

I actually thought about golf in San Pedro as there was not a golf course on the island. To my surprise I saw a golf course that covered an island next to Caye Caulker! I want to go to google earth and check it out...it looked like the whole island was a golf course\resort!

Divided highway...

We think that the resort had to put in a divided highway at the back, which is the road side, when the resort was put in. It's divided highway at the resort and then goes back to single road on either side...I heard two vehicles go by...never saw one in the two weeks we were there.

And along with the divided highway was the regulation for Visitor Parking...check out the big lot with sign and all...

Toyke the blogger

I caught him in a blogging moment...

The Holiday Hotel

This was out pit stop whenever needed and the place we stopped for a drink and to wait for the boat/taxi. We could watch for the boat and watch people on the beach at the same time.

ATM

In order to get to the ATM machine you have to swipe your card to get into the secure little room that the machine is in. I thought it was a good idea as there were a bunch of men sitting outside in a planter...as it turned out someone left their card in the machine and the men whistled to us to let us know...thanks guys....

Lumber Deliveries

I think that you have to be specific when you ask for your lumber to be delivered in San Pedro. One day a boat came in close to shore and a man walked in knee deep water to shore and back to the boat and then started dropping the 2 x 4's out of the boat! Another guy came out and they started pushing the boards towards the shore. The boat was long gone before the lumber was in out of the water.

Mr Billy Pinkshoes and others

There were a number of people we connected with on vacation and here are a few of them...

We don't have a picture of Ivan, the bartender but want to mention him. He made drinks for Toyke with his "powder" in it and other virgin drinks for him...dirty monkey included. He would let us know where the good grocery stores in town were. He has a 3 year old daughter named Kayla!

This is Mr Billy Pinkshoes! Real men wear bright pink crocs...he bought them in Mexico

Then there was Leeroy...he runs the tours out at the dock. Each morning he would say "Happy Monday and Happy Tuesday in advance"

And here's Manuel...our boat-taxi driver. He had a good sense of humor and made riding back and forth to town very fun.

Power...do you really need it?

Did I happen to mention that on Sunday evening the power went out? I was watching the program about the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar and we were almost thru and the world went black...and here it really goes black. Power was out on the whole island.
They said that there were candles incase of power outages so it must not be too uncommon. Hum...no matches though. We used our cell phones to get around. They work really well in a power outage.
The next day the power went out around 7:45 am and no one really worried about it. I thought that I'd hear some complaining from the guests but nope, life just went on. We couldn't use the water from the well because the purification system is electric but we already had water in the fridge.
They said the power would be back on around 1:00, 1:;30, 3:00 and it came on around 3:15. The water must be instant hot here because it was out immediately and came back on immediately.

the hot tub????

Is it a hot tub? a cold tub? a bubble tub? you never know.
Last night we all went out and it was so cold we didn't even get in...
Tonight we went out and it was soooo hot that we couldn't get in! Of course, Toyke was the first one able to get in but Dan and I were squirming like girls! I was scooping water from the pool with a cup Dan got from the bar and he got the hose going and used it to create a cool barrier around his body and even that took a while - making it bearable. We had the hose going for almost the whole time! FYI, tonight the bubbles weren't working...

The funky house...

It's a house and a bar! Not sure that it's a bar I'd like to go to but really I'm not a good judge on bars...I did like the Palapa Bar but that's another story. I had a hard time finishing off the second Diet Coke at the Palapa. Anyway, back to the house/bar. You enter from the water side - that's the part with the thatched roof on it. Apparently the owner lives upstairs.
I'll have to get pictures of Manuel, the boat operator and Ivan the bartender who fill us in on these things.

On a side note....

The first building next to the water faces the water straight on. The rest of the buildings are angled so you have a good view of the water. The problem being...they are identical.
Today as we were eating breakfast we watched a couple walk up to our door, sure enough, he reached for the handle, opened the door and walked in! We greeted them warmly, "Welcome home, honey!" and they left!
We had a man do that to us last week in the evening...
we're locking the door now.

Don't miss the boat!

Especially if it's the boat that delivers the beer!



We sat at the end of the dock and watched for a while as they picked up the empties and delivered the fulls. It was such hard work that I had to come back here and have a nap!
We did get distracted by the hammicks on the way back...again, the best picture is on Dan's camera but this one will give you the idea of how it was...