Holly’s Life

Oh boy, where to begin! We spent last week in Placencia, Belize (and other cayes pronounced keys) with dad and Roberta on their boat! Well, not THEIR boat per se. They were there a week before us and in that week, their boat was struck by lightning! Eek! How shocking (muhahaha) - they were both fine, but everything electric in the boat was fried so they were able to be put on a different boat that’s identical to theirs for the remainder of the trip.

We had amazing weather, sails, meals, experiences, and met awesome people. SO, needless to say, this post will be long with lots of pictures!
The first thing that struck us is that such a beautiful “paradise” place can be so poor - we had no idea going there that Belize is basically a third world country - a first time visiting a place like that for both of us. Everyone was very friendly, but it took a bit to get used to the shanty buildings and just general poverty everywhere. Very humbling! So once that initial shock wore off (I believe I said something like “Did we just fly into Belize or Uganda?”) we started loving it - the restaurants, people, sites, etc.

We had to take a tiny plane from Belize City to Placencia. I was a little freaked! It didn’t help that we kept flying into rainstorms and were up and down three times to stop at other airstrips.
Tropic Air planes in the background

View from the plane - I’m thinking this is Belize City

Chris was lovin’ it; I was not

See that little strip of land? Yes, that’d be the runway

But I shouldn’t have been too worried - this life vest in a ziplock would have saved us!

We made it! In the pouring down rain

If you look next to the pole, there’s literally a cat on a hot tin roof

Meeting dad and Roberta and a couple of the Moorings staff

The dock

One of the buildings sunken in the water, not repaired after the earthquake yet

Our home for the week - Beli Dulce

I thought this pic of dad was cute

Produce market

The sign says it all!

Like all the colorful hammocks and masks

Plants aren’t like this in Iowa! Btw there are a lot of pics with me in here- Chris was a shutterbug all week and ould always go to take a picture of something and say “Holly, go over there” and have me pose.

Out on the water! Dolphins came up to swim next to the boat everyday. They’d only stay for about 10-15 seconds at a time but it was still awesome to see them so much!

Mangrove trees. These are the coolest things - they take root in shallow water, make their own soil (over time) which ends up making new land! So what they say isn’t true; new land really is being made! They also de-salinate the ocean water. Hardy little things

Heading into our first stop at Southwater Caye

Feeding a Remora (”shark cleaner”) bread. Yes, we fed wildlife :-/ But it’s a harmless creature really!

These pelicans were a constant source of entertainment with they way they would dive-bomb head first into the water to catch fish. Amazing they don’t hurt themselves

Another good pelican shot

Table for dinner

On Southwater they have a school where mostly college students will come for a 3-week or so long course that counts as a Biology credit.

Classroom. We talked with a few of the teachers there - truly, everyone we met was so nice and talkative.

Little hermit crab escaping under my towel

Ahhhhhh

They’re pretty good friends with one of the DNR guys - Jason. He would come up and chat with us and even brought us lobster for lunch one day!

Ah yes, the most “dangerous” thing we came across was the pica pica (jellyfish larvae). You couldn’t see them or feel them, but you’d come out of the water covered in what looked like mosquito bites. Man did they itch! They seemed to love Chris, but he immediately put on some stuff that a local lady made as a remedy (we joked it was just her pee with lemons and limes mixed in ) and his went away by the next day! Roberta seemed to have more of an allergic reaction with welts

My artsy attempt - focused on island with Chris blurry in foreground. Btw, that island is a Smithsonian research institute. We didn’t go visit as we’ve heard they’re pretty hot and cold about visitors depending on the day.

Lobsters from Jason (I felt bad for them )

After having a wonderful day snorkeling and a great dinner (including the best banana daiquiri in the history of daiquiries) at Southwater Caye, we sailed over to Thatch Caye. This place is awesome! You can really tell they’ve put in so much work on this island. Every building had the thatched roofs so it looked like pictures you see from Tahiti and the Phillipenes.

Entry to Thatch with the boat in the background

Our homage to Pioneer - posing with a statue of a Mayan corn god

Inside the main building/office/restaurant of Thatch

Yup, paradise. We stayed in those hammocks for quite a while

We lazed around Thatch all day and had a wonderful dinner before going back to the boat to sleep. The next day we went to Whipray Caye which is a private island but they’re open to visitors. The main guy, Julian, is a fisherman and does fishing expeditions with tourists a lot. The highlight of this place was the most amazing coral we’ve ever seen! Seriously, so impressive - huge and colorful. Some of the formations were so big you could swim through them without risking touching it. So incredible.

So on Thursday we headed back to Placencia so we could do a tour of some Mayan ruins the next day.
Our tour guide Christian (a walking encyclopedia, I swear. Such a genuis)

An unplanned stop - banana plantation. Christian works with several of these and gave us a little tour. I learned so much about bananas!
One of the employees pulling bunches down their cable system

At the first site Nim Lim Punit (”Big Hat”) Explaining the stelae to us

One of the tombs

These trees - cotton trees - are sacred to Mayans. Believe they connect the underworld (with the roots) with the upperworld (tall branches). Pretty awesome to see.

At the second site Lubatuun (”Falling Stones”)
We were so excited because here we walked down one of the ruins (probably weren’t supposed to, but we just followed Christian!)

This is the same site where the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull was found in the early 1900s (yes, it was the inspiration for the Indiana Jones movie).

There was an active excavation going at this site.

Santiago and his whistles. They work painstakingly hard at recreating clay whistles that are exact replicas of originals found at the site.

Goods for sale. There were women with blankets full of souvenirs for sale everywhere you looked.

Driving further in land for the tours we really saw more of the lifestyle. Simple lives where there days are spent tending to meals and basic survival needs. Pretty amazing to see.

End of the tour; waiting for our water taxi. These kids liked the camera and kept saying “I’m ready for my picture!”

Good advice

Back in Placencia. Dinner on the beach at De’tach

Who would have known that Frosted Flakes would translate to “Zucaritas”

We had to be off the boat on Saturday so Sat. night we stayed at a hotel. Lovely big porch with plenty of hammock space

We spent most of Saturday at Placencia’s annual lobsterfest. We loved all these wood carvings and came home with quite a few!

Duck race for the kiddos

We ate at another great restaurant Saturday night Rumfish and enjoyed (for the 4th or so time) wonderful gelato at Tutti Frutti

We flew home Sunday! Dad turned 58 and I turned 28 during the trip and Chris turned 32 yesterday - a great way to spend a birthday!
It’s good to be home, but also a bit of bummer to get back to life as usual.
Thanks to mom for housesitting for us and taking care of the kitties!

I think this is the coolest thing - dailylit.com Sign up for free and get installments of books emailed to you everyday (some are free, some aren’t). What a cool idea!
I’ve read a couple of installments of Anna Karrenina (sp?) and it only takes about 5 minutes per installment so it’s a smart way to read a book in bits and pieces that don’t take much time.

Speaking of reading; I’ve been having book ADD, starting and not finishing a lot. But I’m currently reading Emipre Falls and Dreams From my Father.

Even thought this guy is a little on the creepy side with how into wolves he is, this is still pretty darn cute!

…do I have pink eye for the second time this year!? I swear I’m a clean person!

It couldn’t have anything to do with Vivian waking me up every morning by sticking her butt in my face could it!? haha She never actually touches my face though!

Ahhh, gotta love long weekends filled with family and friends!
We took a half day on Friday so we could get on the road to KC early. Our reason for going to KC this time was to celebrate my Aunt Susie’s 60th birthday. Her daughter (my cousin) Emily and her family live in Liberty and as far as Susie knew, she and Dean were going to visit Em for the weekend. What she didn’t know was that her other kids + spouses, Laura and Steve (Portland), and Drew and Marcy (CA and PA) flew in to surprise her! We were always really close to our cousins growing up but as we’re spread all over the U.S. now it’s harder to get together, so it was awesome to spend time with everyone again!

When we first got to town. Amy and Eli checking out Uncle Chris’ new car! Eli was anxious to drive

SO! Friday night the whole clan got together at Amy and Eric’s so we could all spend time with mom. We relaxed, chatted, ate, played with the kids, etc. until we all got sleepy.
Amy, Mallory, and Eli enjoying the slide (well, Amy didn’t go down it )

Mallory, Em, Chloe, and me enjoying the swing (or, Chloe was….is this joke old yet? No, I don’t think so)

Drinks on the porch. Steve’s (Laura’s husband) back is to the camera, Marcy (Drew’s wife) is behind Steve’s head. Maybe not the best shot! Laura next to me, Steph, then Sarah.

On Saturday we did a shopping trip to Target and the mall (April and Alisha met us there too) and we just did more of the same or just being together and playing with Eli. Dad and Roberta came into town Saturday just in time for the dinner we had at the Hereford House to celebrate Susie’s bday (and I guess to celebrate Laura’s, Sarah’s, and Mallory’s bdays too along with Amy and Eric’s 5th anniversary!). Dinner was extremely good. We were there over three hours in all, it was so great to see everyone and share a wonderful meal and drinks together.

One end of the table. On the left, Josh (Em’s husband), Marcy, Drew, and Chris. Emily and Steph on the right.

Dad, Dean (his brother), and Steve. Susie (bday girl) across the table

Mal, Laura, and Amy

Grandpa Bidney came too! This was quite the feat as it’s hard to get him out of the house! (With Andrew)

I liked this shot Chris got of Grandpa. Looking alright for 86!

Mal thought it was so hilarious to feed “Oma” salad

Dad’s shirt = too funny. “You better Belize it.” An homage to his sailboat in Belize

A toast to the big 6-0 bday

After dinner some of us headed to Josh and Em’s to spend more time together until we were too sleepy.

On Sunday there was another shopping trip and general hanging out stuff until we all went to Josh and Em’s for a BBQ. It was just like all fun, beautiful-day, family-filled BBQs are!

Oh, before that. Dad gave Eli his first BMW roadster ride. Don’t worry, it was only around the cul-de-sac. Amy channeling Britney Spears And a double strike for being on her cell, haha

Em and Josh have the perfect tree for swings

Dean and Susie’s very cute Britney Spaniel, Lucy. She loved anyone who threw that ball

Ignore the toy in the pic. She would do her point stance while waiting for the ball

I tried out the swing too

And Drew showed us all up with his Navy SEAL skills

Eli trying to push the shopping cart full o’ chalk

The brothers, dad and Dean

Hands down, this wins the best shot of the weekend (Chris took)

Chloe and her technicolor dream blanket

Growing up, how many times did we whine and groan b/c we had to line up to get our picture taken?? Now we willingly do it on our own Oldest to youngest (R to L): Laura, Amy, Drew, Sarah, Emily, me

With our significant others and families: Steve & Laura; Amy, Eli, & Eric; Drew & Marcy; Sarah & Stephanie; Josh, Em (juggling two kids!), Chloe, & Mallory; me & Chris

All the May bday girls (except Em whose bday is August) getting their cake

Chris and I left the BBQ a little early so we could drive down to Edgerton to spend time with the Hettinger side of our family! We came to an empty house and found them all fishing.

Kalli sporting her Twilight t-shirt complete with a dozen (yes, 12) Twilight buttons, fun! We discussed our fan-ship of Twilight and she told me all about OTD (Obsessive Twilight Disorder)

We all chatted and ate dinner (yummy Hettinger secret recipe for pasta sauce) and then looked at some old pictures. This one is funny so that’s why I’m posting it. A pic of a slide of Chris’ “play pen” during one of their many family camping trips - a dirt hole that was the perfect size to contain him. I guess he didn’t mind being in there! We’ll consider a dirt hole as a play pen for our kids

We stayed late doing all that and drove back to Independence. Today we did more of the same - relaxing and family time before hitting the road. Such an awesome weekend! So great to see some family members we only see maybe once a year too.

In other news, Chris and I finished the next “10 weeks” of our kickboxing class. I’m down about 15 pounds total (though some of the pics in here seem to say otherwise!) and down two pant sizes. I’d like to lose another 10-15 and then just maintain (yeah, “just”). I can officially wear my “goal pants” now although after buttoning them up and celebrating by having Chris take my picture in them, I thought “hmm, that shouldn’t exactly be my goal” ha! No, of course I’m happy for any and all progress. Chris is down 20 pounds and wants to maintain. After a weekend of gorging, we’re ready to get back into working out!

Getting ready this morning I was wandering around between our bedroom and office area as I brushed my teeth. I decided to lay on the bed and it went like this:

H: “I don’t think I’ve ever done this before; laid on the bed and brushed my teeth.”
C: “Well, just another thing to scratch off your bucket list dear.”

Lots of laughing through my toothpaste without trying to spit all over the place ensued.

A great weekend! Flew by like they always do. Friday I watched a couple movies (one was The Reader - very good, I recommend) and we called it an early night because the next morning we had our 5K. I was fully expecting to walk for some of it, but I ran the whole time! Woo!! Chris stayed with me so we were able to finish togehter (my first time jogging the whole time and his first 5K in 10+ years). Sure, it took us almost 37 minutes but hey, we did it! I’m ready to sign up for more!
The group. Sarah’s golf business was as sponsor for this run so she made us all cute shirts that said “I only walk when I golf.”

Me, Steph, Chris, Sarah, Dave

After the race we relaxed a bit and Chris went to a LAN. I hung out at home then Dave and I went to Ames to visit our friend Jason (another camp friend) who was in town for his sister’s graduation. I hadn’t seen Jason since Chris and I got married so it was good to see him and catch up (his wife is preggers, yay!)
After a couple hours in Ames we came back to DM and I was a couch potato.

This afternoon was my orchestra concert. I was pretty happy with this one and very happy there was such a great turnout! Between family and friends I had 11 people come watch - thanks guys! Usually it’s Chris, Sam, and Shannon so I’m glad others were able to make it this time too. Our last piece was by Brahms and was quite long and very challenging to play - I feel like I did well and felt good about it.
Finished out the weekend by having dinner together and relaxin’! Happy Mother’s Day!

Ahh plagiarism - once again I can just link to Amy’s site since we spent the weekend together!

I’ll add a few pics:

Eli had his first hand (or foot) at hop-scotch. It was more of walk-across-scotch

I liked this “action shot” of Amy and the bubbles; Steph in the background

Viv liked the highchair too! And she liked taking a dump on the plastic mat underneath, grrrr

Childhood memorabilia at dad’s - my Strawberry Shortcake lunch box, I loved it!

Some other random things:
Spunky is at the vet (right now actually) to get checked out b/c I noticed one of his nipples is swollen a red. Hopefully it’s just an infection that needs some antibiotics! Poor geriatric kitty!

I’ve been on blood pressure medication for a few weeks (makes me sound so old!), but not so much for the BP side of things; more so that it’s also a diuretic so it’s supposed to help dry up an excess fluid in my ears. I’d been having ear ringing and vertigo randomly, but I haven’t had it in weeks now so let’s hope it’s gone! It might be hormonal too.

This week: James Taylor on Thursday and a 5K on Saturday (wish us luck! I’m fairly certain I’ll walk for some :-/), and orchestra concert on Sunday. Have a good week!

April came to visit this past weekend - yay! We went to Jordan Creek and shopped around (ate Cheesecake Factory, yummy), watched A LOT of HGTV (April and Alisha don’t have cable so she was very excited to see cable tv), walked around the East Village downtown, watched a movie with Sarah and Steph…and that’s about it! It was a nice lazy weekend (in our defense it rained most of the time) and it was great to see her again!
Not very many other goings-on. Chris and Dave D. have been working hard on their game for X-Box Live. It’s coming along great! Work, working out, all that great stuff…..trying to think of something else to type, but I’m stumped. Have a good week!

A couple of hilarious videos that have nothing to do with Easter! Enjoy!

Kittens Inspired by Kittens

Cats Inspired by Kittens Inspired by Kittens