Goodbye Halloween

I think it's well known that I'm not a fan of Halloween.  But now that it is over, and the decorations are down, it's time to sit down and blog about it.  Despite my lack of enthusiasm, we celebrated quite a bit; and had alot of fun family time.

We attended a Camp Rainbow Gold (for kids who have or have had cancer) party at the zoo, and had a great time.  The weather was awesome, food was tasty, and activities were fun.  The girls won the costume award for "Most Magical", and they were beyond thrilled!  I was touched by how nice of a party they threw, and how friendly all the volunteers were.  Awesome night.

Then we of course spent an evening at the Pumpkin Patch.  This is a Fall favorite of mine.  Plus, I just love the pic we got of all of us on the hayride.  I appreciate how thin my face looks, since I am plumping out way to fast with this pregnancy!

 I tried really hard to get as good of a pic for my friend, Jen.  But as you can see, I failed.  Sorry Jen!  (She looks beautiful though!)

Next was the ward party.  My shirt was my way of announcing my pregnancy to the ward, and to my zumba classes that week.  Hardly anyone noticed the little baby skeleton.  Oh well.

The girls had a blast painting their pumpkins, and they turned out really cute!  Ty was against it, and kept his untouched.  He still loves it.

Every year we trick-or-treat with the cousins, and have a great time!  I love seeing how cute all the kids are in their costumes!

Even though I don't like Halloween, and I don't consider myself very crafty, I somehow volunteered to do all the food for Bronwyn's class party.  Here is a sampler:  cheese cut out as a pumpkin, witch hat cookies, and witch finger bread sticks.  I am much more excited to make pumpkin bread and nanaimo bars.  Bring on the real holidays!

Spilled Beans!

So... I inadvertently announced my pregnancy in my last post!  Only 2 people caught it, which confirms my suspicion that not very many people are reading my blog, LOL!  But for those of you who didn't catch it, we are excited to be adding "quattro" to our family sometime in mid-June. 

 That puts me at a whopping 7 weeks.  

I was pretty sure I was pregnant when I was only 3 weeks along.  We spent the weekend in McCall with Todd's family (our October conference tradition), and I kept running out of breath!  Not to brag, but I am in pretty darn good cardiovascular health due to zumba, so when I couldn't even ride my bike up a small hill, I was already convinced that I was expecting.

Against my husband's advice, I took a pregnancy test on Monday (5 days before my missed period).  I got the one that said it could tell 6 days before, but it came back negative.  I was pretty disappointed, but quickly discovered that I didn't believe the results.  I kept telling myself to believe them because I was just setting myself up to feel bad, but I just knew that I was pregnant!  

So I took another one on Wednesday morning, and it finally gave me the right answer!  

I quickly texted my friend, Emily, and told her I was right!  She called right away and I didn't want to wake up  Todd (who was in bed on the other side of the bathroom door).  So I tried to stick my head out the window and told her I would call once Todd went to work.  Well, Todd didn't exactly know what to think when he awoke to this conversation....  Instead of spending the day coming up with a fun and exciting way to tell him the news, I ended up telling him that very moment so he didn't have to spend the whole day wondering who I was having an affair with.  :)

He was of course, very excited to hear the news and assured me that he really does trust me, even when I am taking private phone calls at 6 in the morning.  Haha.  We couldn't wait to tell the kids.  Here is how they reacted...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150344550987621

A Walk to Remember

All I wanted to do today was go on a walk.  I have been planning in it my mind for several days.  Even thinking of the things I would say about said walk on this blog.  But it didn't happen.  After a long tiring day, and a husband having to work late; it just wasn't worth the effort to take all the kids by myself.  I knew it wouldn't be what I wanted it to be.

So why all the fuss about a walk?

Because I spent almost 25 years walking with my dad, and today marked the 6th year that I have walked without him.

I remember the first walk I took without him, Oct. 18th, 2005.  It was late at night with Todd, and I blubbered the entire time.  Trying to process life without my dad.  And even now when I walk on the fallen leaves, their crunch can remind me of that night.  Looking down at the ground at all the dead leaves.  (And don't even get me started on all the constant reminders of death at Halloween.  I absolutely HATE Halloween!)  Anyways...

Every October 18th I seem to evaluate my life, my family, my heart ache.  Each year it comes back a little more on this day.  But each year the burden seems more bearable.  While it is not the life I thought I would have, it is still a good life.  Still, I can't help but wonder how different things would be if he were still here.  I know he would be great with my girls.  He always had a soft spot in his heart for little girls.  (Couldn't have anything to do with the two adorable girls he raised...)  And even though he never spoke of wanting a son, he sure was excited to get one when I married Todd.  Suddenly there was a lot more talk about football that their ever was before.  So I like to imagine what it would be like to see him playing with Ty.  Well, maybe "like" is the wrong word since it usually upsets me.  However, I still tend to let my wander in that direction at times.

This year I can't help but notice that my life is very similar to how it was the year he died.  I am tired and nauseated from early pregnancy, and seem to be more emotional about the day than I have the last couple years.  A new ache comes with each new child that will never know their grandpa.

But tomorrow will be Oct. 19th, and somehow that gives me more permission to be ok.  So until next year, I will go on pretending to be excited to take my kids trick or treating; and I will continue to be more thankful for the years with my dad than I am sad for the years without him.

Cave Tubing!

 Are you so sad that this is my final Belize post?  I am!  Our final activity was cave tubing, and it was AMAZING!  Our quest began with a hike through the rain forest.  It was so beautiful.  Pictures don't do it any justice.  We had a great guide who showed us all sorts of plants, and even picked us some fresh guava.

See that vine?  Apparently it is the best for tying people up... Just sayin'.

We carried our tubes through the entire hike.  I'm pretty sure there was a time that Todd was holding 3 tubes to help out the other women in our group!  We hiked through a few caves as well, as saw some gross bats.  I LOVE caves though, they are so cool!  

This is where our hike ended and our tubing began.  We were all hot from hiking in 1000% humidity, so we swam here for a while before making a human chain with our tubes and heading into the pitch black caves!  We wore headlights, and our guide had a flashlight to show us all the beauty inside.  

We have no pictures of this, but trust me when I say it was breathtaking.  

Here is a video of us at the beginning of the tubing.

This is what we saw as we came out of the caves.  It was so beautiful and relaxing.  

We were all super sad when it was over!

The next day we flew home.  I was ready to see the kids, but not ready to say goodbye to the ocean (even though it betrayed me with fire coral!).  It was a perfect trip filled with fun, adventure, romance, relaxation, and great food.  Thanks Mr. Bigelow!  I love ya!

The Ruins!

When I was in second grade, my friend (Stacie Palmer) and I decided that we wanted to be archaeologists when we grew up!  While my career path changed, my fascination of artifacts and ancient societies remained.  So getting to not only see but also climb some Mayan ruins in Belize was a total dream come true!  We went to a site called Xunantunich, and it is right along the Belize/Guatemala border.  Apparently there is some conflict between the two countries, and when we arrived to the site, it was guarded by men with machine guns.  I don't believe I've ever been so close to a machine gun before, and let's just say I didn't love it.  

The trip began with a 6 am boat ride to town, a walk to the airport, a flight to the mainland, and a 2 hour van ride to the ruins.  WHEW!

The entrance to the ruins

The official flower of Belize: the black orchid

Our guide (behind Todd) couldn't resist his "Favorite jungle snack" of fresh termites.  And you guessed it, Todd gave it a try.  Says it tastes like mint and bark.  I'll take their word for it!

Only 5 percent of this site has been excavated.  

Temple Altar

This is the main temple of the site.  Over 130 feet high.  We climbed to the top.  Very fun to climb up.  A little scarier going down.  It was so steep!

Here we are standing under a carving of their fertility God.  :)

I love this picture.  It is like looking back in time.  

We liked looking for any Book of Mormon signs.  There were some obvious ones like towns called Lamanai and Lemueli.  Then there were some things like decapitating winners of sporting events so they could avoid the 13 levels of hell that didn't quite jive...

Standing at the top of the temple.  I was a little nervous...

Here Todd is trying an allspice leaf.  We all tried this one.  It actually numbs your mouth, and scientists believe the Mayans used these leaves to do dental work.

Crossing the bridge to leave the ruins, and drinking a coke.  This poor guy was NOT in Dr. Pepper country.  :)

Culture

I thought I would dress up every night for dinner, but it was so hot and humid that I only dressed up one time!  So since it was a rare occasion, I made Todd take some pictures of me.  :)

 Belize is truly beautiful.  It is the perfect background for the incredibly laid back lifestyle of the people who live there.  5 minutes before a thunder shower they will assure you that it's not going to rain; they will smile and assure you that you are totally safe even though the place you are at (Mayan ruins for us) is guarded by men with machine guns; and they only use their car brakes if absolutely needed.

Todd ate alot more seafood than I did.  I'm more of a coconut shrimp and salmon girl.  But here Todd is enjoying some fresh snapper will papaya salsa.  I didn't think I would like it, but it was delish!

The traditional meal of Belize is stewed chicken with rice and beans, and grilled plantains.  Sounds simple.  But it is seriously soooo yummy!

We totally lucked out and ended up in Belize on their Independence Day!  They have only been their own country for 30 years, and the party was nonstop.  They don't do a set parade that starts at 10:00 and runs down one street like we are used to.  They parade ALL day.  Apparently the party started at midnight, and the parade was still going strong in the mid afternoon.  There was lots of drumming and dancing, and TONS of sirens and horns.  It was extremely loud and fun!

One thing I was really excited about was eating all the fresh fruit in Belize.  I ordered a tropical salad and got this beautiful thing.  Pineapple, oranges, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce covered in melted cheese and a light dressing.  I know, it sounds so weird!  But it was honestly the most tasty and memorable thing I ate all week.  Thank you, Belize!