More fun in Xanadu

Mark took the above picture of me on the pier at our hotel.  The sun was setting and the light was very cool.  I look a little crazy because I had just climbed out of the sea.  My hair was still dripping wet with salty, 90-degree Caribbean water and it was 100 degrees outside. When you're in paradise with your family, who cares what you look like?

I knew that both make-up and a hair straightener would be pointless in Belize, so I left it all behind.  I didn't even look in the mirrror except to brush my teeth.  I had pretty much two hairstyles while we were in Belize.  They are both what I call my Gidget hair.  Either my hair totally flipped out at the ends

or I wore it in 2 tiny ponytails, like this:

Swimming was a huge part of our trip.  We loved the pool, and we loved the sea.

This cute picture is one of my favorites.  This little boy was out on the beach one morning in his jammies playing baseball with his brother.  He even put on his Cubs hat to make it official.

 We discovered a restaurant called Pinnochio.  It is owned by Hans, a white-headed German man.  He was so kind to our family, and we loved getting to know him and to hear his stories and learn about his life.  He makes the best pizza I have ever had.

 One random story that kind of goes along with our dinner at Pinnochio's is about Zachary.  There is an old saying that bad things come in threes.  Zachary's foot had three close calls while we were in Belize. First, at our hotel in San Ignacio, our electric teapot I had used to heat the water for the morning's breakfast was accidentally knocked over and spilled super  hot water on Zack's foot.  He screamed like I have never heard him scream.  We rushed him to the bathtub where we dumped a bucket of ice on his foot, and he calmed down. Luckily the water had not been full boiling temperature, but it was very painful.  And then two days later at Caracol, Zachary put his foot right in a nest of fire ants.  That's right.  Fire ants while wearing Keen sandals.  And we heard the same horrible scream of pain we had heard when his foot was burned.  Then two days later, while we were dining at Pinnochio's, Zachary managed to step on a burning citronella coil.  Once again, the scream.  We put ice on his foot, and he was OK.  And then his feet stayed out of trouble for the rest of our trip.

We really loved staying at Xanadu in San Pedro.  Here's a picture of the building we stayed in.  We had the lower level of the building on the left.

These people were using a boat to move a fridge and mattress set. 

This picture was taken at a restaurant.  I love Zacky's crazy faces.

After 18 fun days and nights in Belize, it was time to come home.  So we packed our suitcases full of souvenirs, and with our heads and hearts full of memories we boarded a plane and returned to our real life.