Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
UnBELIZEable
How do I even begin to talk about our amazing honeymoon? I'm not sure, but I will try. This will be called the short, short version of our trip :)
We arrived in Belize on June 9th, the flights had been perfect, but we had one more hopper flight to get through. The plane was by far the smallest plane I had ever ridden in with a max capacity of 14 people. I was a little nervous about it, to say the least.
However, once we were up, the view was completely worth it. This was such a neat way to view all of the Belizean Cayes!
We arrived in San Pedro (the main town on our caye, Ambergris) and were greeted by workers from our hotel that took our luggage and quickly moved us to our boat that would take us to our resort Matachica. When we docked at our resort, I think we were both amazed at the beauty of it. We were greeted and given a tour immediately. That time forward, all of the workers there made us feel like family.
Our casita - Tangerine. It was perfect, clean and spacious.
The view from our room. As you can see, we were beachfront - Awesome!
The dock was iconic of how serene and beautiful our stay was.
Nate and I were in relaxation mode from the beginning. It was funny, we almost had to allow ourselves to reach the level of relaxation Belize called for.
Happy Butlers.
Our trip was a perfect blend of relaxation and activities. When we were relaxing we were laying on our favorite 2 person lounge outside our casita, kayaking to the reef, snorkeling outside our resort, going in the pool and doing a whole lot of reading.
Our more major activities included an excursion to the Mayan ruins at Altun Ha, snorkeling at Hal Chun and Shark Ray Alley, and a zip lining/cave tubing tour.
The Mayan ruins were interesting to see. It's amazing how much that civilization could predict through astronomy and other sciences. The ruins were huge! If you need a point of reference, look closely. I am sitting near the top of this structure.
Doesn't this picture look fake?! It's amazing what sticking your arm out and taking a picture can do! Have you noticed the weather we got?! We were truly lucky.
Snorkeling at Hal Chun and Shark Ray Alley was awesome. I'd never been around so much sea life. We saw all sorts of ocean life thanks to Belize's 2nd largest reef in the world.
And, ahhh, Coca-Cola and Coke Light... Why does it always taste so much better in Central America?
Zip lining is always fun. Nate and I definitely preferred to go as fast as possible. Nate taught me the art of pushing off the launch deck to give you a little extra speed.
I think both of us would say that Cave Tubing was our favorite. We felt like we were in National Geographic. Of course we couldn't get any pics while we were tubing through the cave (water cameras don't usually come with flash), but we have a couple of just outside them. We hiked for about 30 minutes and then started at this location. The water was the craziest blue we had ever seen! AND it took us over an hour to get through the huge cave. So cool!
Our very cool headlamps for navigating the caves.
Thumbs up from me!
Okay, there is a huge part of our trip I haven't yet talked about - the food! It was amazing! Most everyone knows that Nate and I are full-blown seafood lovers. Well, this quite possibly was the best seafood ever! Because of our package (and the amazing restaurant at our resort) Nate and I got to eat all the seafood we could handle. If only our computers had a smell button! This was my last meal in Belize. It was called the Deep Blue. This meal came with lobster tail, red snapper, scallops, calamari, and shrimp. It was unbelievable, or unBELIZEable, rather. Lobster season had started that day so the lobster was literally caught that morning. My favorite were the scallops there, they were unlike anything I'd ever tasted. Okay.. I'm probably boring you with food talk, but you know how I like to eat.
Belize was like a mini paradise. We both agree that we wouldn't change a single thing about our trip. If that doesn't prove our trip was a success, I don't know what will.
Let's just say, it was a sad thing to be leaving. Nate and I are meant to be Central Americans, I think.
We arrived in Belize on June 9th, the flights had been perfect, but we had one more hopper flight to get through. The plane was by far the smallest plane I had ever ridden in with a max capacity of 14 people. I was a little nervous about it, to say the least.
However, once we were up, the view was completely worth it. This was such a neat way to view all of the Belizean Cayes!
We arrived in San Pedro (the main town on our caye, Ambergris) and were greeted by workers from our hotel that took our luggage and quickly moved us to our boat that would take us to our resort Matachica. When we docked at our resort, I think we were both amazed at the beauty of it. We were greeted and given a tour immediately. That time forward, all of the workers there made us feel like family.Our casita - Tangerine. It was perfect, clean and spacious.
The view from our room. As you can see, we were beachfront - Awesome!
The dock was iconic of how serene and beautiful our stay was.
Nate and I were in relaxation mode from the beginning. It was funny, we almost had to allow ourselves to reach the level of relaxation Belize called for.
Happy Butlers.
Our trip was a perfect blend of relaxation and activities. When we were relaxing we were laying on our favorite 2 person lounge outside our casita, kayaking to the reef, snorkeling outside our resort, going in the pool and doing a whole lot of reading.Our more major activities included an excursion to the Mayan ruins at Altun Ha, snorkeling at Hal Chun and Shark Ray Alley, and a zip lining/cave tubing tour.
The Mayan ruins were interesting to see. It's amazing how much that civilization could predict through astronomy and other sciences. The ruins were huge! If you need a point of reference, look closely. I am sitting near the top of this structure.
Doesn't this picture look fake?! It's amazing what sticking your arm out and taking a picture can do! Have you noticed the weather we got?! We were truly lucky.
Snorkeling at Hal Chun and Shark Ray Alley was awesome. I'd never been around so much sea life. We saw all sorts of ocean life thanks to Belize's 2nd largest reef in the world.
And, ahhh, Coca-Cola and Coke Light... Why does it always taste so much better in Central America?
Zip lining is always fun. Nate and I definitely preferred to go as fast as possible. Nate taught me the art of pushing off the launch deck to give you a little extra speed.
I think both of us would say that Cave Tubing was our favorite. We felt like we were in National Geographic. Of course we couldn't get any pics while we were tubing through the cave (water cameras don't usually come with flash), but we have a couple of just outside them. We hiked for about 30 minutes and then started at this location. The water was the craziest blue we had ever seen! AND it took us over an hour to get through the huge cave. So cool!
Our very cool headlamps for navigating the caves.
Thumbs up from me!
Okay, there is a huge part of our trip I haven't yet talked about - the food! It was amazing! Most everyone knows that Nate and I are full-blown seafood lovers. Well, this quite possibly was the best seafood ever! Because of our package (and the amazing restaurant at our resort) Nate and I got to eat all the seafood we could handle. If only our computers had a smell button! This was my last meal in Belize. It was called the Deep Blue. This meal came with lobster tail, red snapper, scallops, calamari, and shrimp. It was unbelievable, or unBELIZEable, rather. Lobster season had started that day so the lobster was literally caught that morning. My favorite were the scallops there, they were unlike anything I'd ever tasted. Okay.. I'm probably boring you with food talk, but you know how I like to eat.
Belize was like a mini paradise. We both agree that we wouldn't change a single thing about our trip. If that doesn't prove our trip was a success, I don't know what will.
Let's just say, it was a sad thing to be leaving. Nate and I are meant to be Central Americans, I think.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
$5 Savings
What could be in this cute little coin purse?!
It's my $5 savings! This will be our fun money in Belize.
About 2 years ago my mom introduced me to the concept of $5 savings. The way it works is whenever you have a $5 bill in your wallet, you don't spend it, you save it. What's $5, anyways, right? Create a special spot/purse/envelope to hold your $5 and watch your stash grow! Keep it for rainy days, a big purchase, or save it for vacation money, like this stash will be used.
I am a big advocate of the $5 savings. What will this buy us on our trip? Maybe parasailing, food, transportation, and/or other fun activities. The best part is you don't feel like you are tapping into your money when you are just using your $5 bills you don't often think about.
Happy Savings!
It's my $5 savings! This will be our fun money in Belize.
About 2 years ago my mom introduced me to the concept of $5 savings. The way it works is whenever you have a $5 bill in your wallet, you don't spend it, you save it. What's $5, anyways, right? Create a special spot/purse/envelope to hold your $5 and watch your stash grow! Keep it for rainy days, a big purchase, or save it for vacation money, like this stash will be used.
I am a big advocate of the $5 savings. What will this buy us on our trip? Maybe parasailing, food, transportation, and/or other fun activities. The best part is you don't feel like you are tapping into your money when you are just using your $5 bills you don't often think about.
Happy Savings!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Happy
A funny thing happened today when I went grocery shopping. As I was checking out I put in Nate's preferred number and as I was leaving the checker said, "Thank you Mrs. Butler." I laughed. But that is not the unusual part. The funny thing was that this time I was laughing because it was true and not because it wasn't :)
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Slowly But Surely
Well, the move is in progress. Setting up the new apartment is fun, but I feel like the boxes keep coming! Where did all this stuff come from? Certainly not us. We just don't have this much junk, right? Anyways, junk or not we've had some progress and like we all learned from the Tortoise, "Slow and steady wins the race."
Warning! The following pictures may cause anxiety!
Stacks of boxes:
Stacks of stuff:
But moving isn't all bad. Allow me to introduce our (Nate's) new flat screen. Or, as he likes to put it, 52" of glory.
Nate is away for business, so there are some half-completed projects around. By the way, I got this (soon-to-be) bookshelf at Target for $69.99. It was a steal!
With moving comes adjusting to a new place. Stevie already has her new spot picked out.
These first steps to co-existence are actually kind of fun. Makes me look forward to more in the future. Oh and one more thing... ONE WEEK UNTIL THE WEDDING!
Warning! The following pictures may cause anxiety!
Stacks of boxes:
Stacks of stuff:
But moving isn't all bad. Allow me to introduce our (Nate's) new flat screen. Or, as he likes to put it, 52" of glory.
Nate is away for business, so there are some half-completed projects around. By the way, I got this (soon-to-be) bookshelf at Target for $69.99. It was a steal!
With moving comes adjusting to a new place. Stevie already has her new spot picked out.
These first steps to co-existence are actually kind of fun. Makes me look forward to more in the future. Oh and one more thing... ONE WEEK UNTIL THE WEDDING!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Sisters' Trip to D-Land
During my Spring Break I found out that my sisters were planning to take Sofia to Disneyland for her very first time. I quickly invited my BFF Lauren who in turn invited her lil' sis Claire. It was a ton of fun. To be honest, I didn't know if Sofia would be too young to enjoy Disneyland, but luckily I was wrong. Sofia was bright-eyed her whole visit.
First thing we did was take Sofia on Small World. Lisa and Sofia in line:
Lauren and Claire, those two are as nice as sisters can be to each other..
Me with Sofichka (her hat looks a little silly and so does my face):
On alert during Small World:
Snack time:
After lunch Lisa and her friend, Lindsay, decided the babies had had enough and set the big girls off to ride the "big girl" rides. We hit all the major attractions, only missing Indiana Jones. Buzz Lightyear was a fun one. You ride and shoot lazers for points, trying to out score the person you are riding with. It was fun and I "just barely" lost to Shannon. hehe
In line at Buzz:
My favorite picture of the day (that didn't include Sofia, of course):
When we rode Splash Mountain Claire sat in the front with the three of us behind her (and a crazy lady who was fighting with the conductors was in the very back). Once we went down the big drop we were more or less pretty dry... except Claire who was drenched:
I love doing sister activities. I think I'm pretty lucky to be best friends with both my sisters :)
First thing we did was take Sofia on Small World. Lisa and Sofia in line:
Lauren and Claire, those two are as nice as sisters can be to each other..
Me with Sofichka (her hat looks a little silly and so does my face):
On alert during Small World:
Snack time:
After lunch Lisa and her friend, Lindsay, decided the babies had had enough and set the big girls off to ride the "big girl" rides. We hit all the major attractions, only missing Indiana Jones. Buzz Lightyear was a fun one. You ride and shoot lazers for points, trying to out score the person you are riding with. It was fun and I "just barely" lost to Shannon. hehe
In line at Buzz:
My favorite picture of the day (that didn't include Sofia, of course):
When we rode Splash Mountain Claire sat in the front with the three of us behind her (and a crazy lady who was fighting with the conductors was in the very back). Once we went down the big drop we were more or less pretty dry... except Claire who was drenched:
I love doing sister activities. I think I'm pretty lucky to be best friends with both my sisters :)
Friday, April 24, 2009
Everything's Coming Up Milhouse!
After a couple of hectic weeks, I woke up this morning and had the chance to relax a little. It feels good, I must say. I had a major group presentation to give at my class last night, with that complete school looks a lot more easy to tackle.
Another element that adds to my relaxation is that Nate and I found a place to live and have put down the deposit. That means it is ours. Ours, ours, ours :) It is a 2 bedroom which we didn't think we'd be able to do in our price-range, but we found a great place that's totally affordable. AND it's probably the nicest apartment I've had yet. I'm excited to be able to offer a bedroom to friends and family who want to stay with us ("us", weeiird). I think I owe Shannon and Dougie the most, since they have a room in their house they call "Nikki's room." Actually, who am I kidding? Mom and Dad, you guys are up 20 years on everyone else ;)
What does the rest of my day look like? Well I think I will do so reading, I have tutoring at 12:00pm and then I'll do whatever I feel like, I guess.
ps - more posts to come since I didn't post anything on Easter or my sisters' trip to Disneyland
Another element that adds to my relaxation is that Nate and I found a place to live and have put down the deposit. That means it is ours. Ours, ours, ours :) It is a 2 bedroom which we didn't think we'd be able to do in our price-range, but we found a great place that's totally affordable. AND it's probably the nicest apartment I've had yet. I'm excited to be able to offer a bedroom to friends and family who want to stay with us ("us", weeiird). I think I owe Shannon and Dougie the most, since they have a room in their house they call "Nikki's room." Actually, who am I kidding? Mom and Dad, you guys are up 20 years on everyone else ;)
What does the rest of my day look like? Well I think I will do so reading, I have tutoring at 12:00pm and then I'll do whatever I feel like, I guess.
ps - more posts to come since I didn't post anything on Easter or my sisters' trip to Disneyland
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