The past month

We have been up to a lot the past month.  Here are some pictures to let you in on our happenings (they are not in chronological order... but you'd never know if I hadn't said anything, I guess... just disregard this sentence)

Scout's last day of school.

Baxter's last day of school

GiGi came all the way to Belize. We made her ride the public bus, ride a bumpy boat, and buy us  food :)  It was awesome to have my grandma here.

The Grandparents Durand arrived a couple of days after GiGi.

With mom and dad Durand and Gigi our family took a boat to South Water Caye.  Scout is holding an inhabited shell.  Conchs usually live in them but this one came with a crab. She also came in contact with one inhabited by a Jelly Fish. Yes, she got stung (all over her legs). 

Since moving to Belize we have encountered more mosquito than anyone ever should.  They LOVE Baxter and he HATES them.  We used a mosquito net while sleeping in San Ignacio.  San Ignacio is the base camp town of a few Mayan ruin sites.

Scout was the star guest at her surprise birthday party.  She is now  5 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GO TO CHURCH! We went to church one Sunday and met the owner of a beautiful vacation rental property.  When he found out we didn't have hot water and we were sleeping on a mattress with pokey metal springs he offered up his place for us to use.  We took him up on the offer and stayed for 4 days and 3 nights.  It was a true Caribbean dream vacation.  

Behind Baxter is a glass bottom kayak. It came with the vacation home along with nice hammock, and serveral snorkeling sets.  Once we got him in the darn thing he really enjoyed it.  We saw coral, flying fish, tons of birds, sea stars and crabs all while kayaking.

I turned 30 :) Kids got me Kool Aid and nail polish.

Mom and Dad Anderson took us on a road trip through central and  some of  southern Belize.  They also braved the border and took us to Tikal (amazing Mayan ruins in Guatemala).

This is a picture of the side of a temple at Xunantunich (another Mayan ruin site).   

While on the trip with the Anderson clan 3 out of 6 managed to get sick.  Here is proof of Cedric and Scouts sick day.
Barf Buddies!

He turned 30 and then came Halloween. Both a little Scary!

Cedric turned 30 on October 21st. To Celebrate we took a boat out to the cayes and snorkeled.  Go down a post to see the video.  We also held a family party for him at home.  It was complete with gifts and cake.  Of course, when you are in Belize things of this nature are a little different.  For example, the cake was cooked in the microwave because we do not have a working oven. His gifts consisted of a small bag of Doritos from Scout, a packet of lime Tang from Baxter and some Old Spice body wash from me:)  The kids were still very excited to pic out gifts and wrap them.  We reused cereal boxes for the gift boxes and decorated them with markers and some of Scouts workbook paper.  It was so sweet to see the kids get excited over it all.  He had 3 candles that were actually matches and every thing worked out perfectly (no house fire). Happy 30th Cedric!!!!!!

The next week brought Halloween with it!  Yay:)  The kids were soooo ready for it to come. Luckily they received a package full of candy, cards and stickers from Grandma Durand and it kept them at bay until Halloween night arrived.   They don't really celebrate Halloween in Dangriga, but we were able to find some face paint at one of the Chinese stores (Chinese people own at least half of the shops in town).  As parents we were determined to give our kids a proper Halloween.  We decided to have a party!  Well as you can guess it got wild, people were passed out drunk all over the place and the clean up in the morning was atrocious;).   Really though, our family party was just the thing.  We played mummy bowling, pin the tail on the cat, make a pumpkin face and a couple of other games.  The kids won their candy instead of trick or treating.  Scout was a black cat, Baxter was a version of Spider Man, Cedric was a wolf with a black nose and hairy face (no pictures:( though) and I was Pipi Longstocking.

Poor Baxter really wanted to be Spider Man, but the best we could do was over-sized super hero undies and shiny bike shorts.

Scouts ears were paper and her tail was made of hair extensions.

The Anderson Family at South Water Caye, Belize

Last Saturday, we took a boat to South Water Caye, a small island off the coast of Dangriga. South Water Caye is surrounded by Belize's barrier reef, so we were able to get in some great snorkeling. This is Scout's first time ever doing it, and she is a natural (naturally).

 

Everyone had a blast and our boat captain, Captain Doggie, was very accomodating. He went fishing while we played and gave us a couple large Snappers to take home and eat. Overall, we had a great time. Enjoy the video.

Trip to the inland Blue Hole of Belize

A couple of weekends ago we got out of town and headed  west to see the famous Blue Hole of  inland Belize (the other famous Blue Hole is out in the sea).  After enjoying the cool waters and mild temperatures by the water we hiked (with kids) through a jungle trail in the rain for 1.5 hrs.  Our destination was a cave, but it started raining so hard everything and everybody was soaked through.  We decided to catch a bus home and see the cave another day.  Enjoy the video!

Settling In

The flights to Belize went fabulously.  Kids were very well behaved, and it didn’t hurt we had two computers to help occupy the time.  It took 3 flights to reach the town of Dangriga where we now live.  The last flight was on a tiny Cessna.  Baxter loved the plane, he could actually see the propellers warming up as we were boarding.  We took off, stayed low, landed 5 min later to pick up a couple of people and drop off some mail.  Then we took off, flew for about 10 minutes and landed on a very narrow dirt strip.   We got off and were greeted by the local LDS missionaries.  They had treats for the kids and a church member there to drive us to our hotel. 

I wish I had pictures of the hotel we stayed at the night we arrived.  We stay in a budget room.  Lets just say it was more like camping in a primitive hut than sleeping in a room J. The next morning we learned how early the town gets going.  Due to the hot sun coming up at 5am people are up and moving early.  All businesses open at 8 or 8:30 where as in the States they open at 9 or 10.  So, at 8 am we hit the pavement and were immediately soaked with sweat.  Our mission was to locate the guys who had a key to our new place.  So we asked around and followed some directions the missionaries gave us.

We have been in our place for 4 weeks and are getting used to the area.  Our current house turned out not to be such a great deal so we are moving across the street on the 25^th.  The kids are going to school in the mornings. They enjoy it so far and have made a lot of friends. Everywhere we go people shout hello to the kids. Baxter is like a town pet. Everywhere we go, kids approach Baxter and pat him on the head.

But after school is over, it’s a struggle to stay busy (and if you know Scout, you know she HAS to be busy all the time). It is just too hot to play outside in the middle of the day.  People start coming outside around 3:30 or 4 (more about this later).  That is when a breeze picks up and the sun starts it’s early descent. Nighttime officially starts at 6:00pm. Almost everyone takes a very long lunch break in the middle of the day.  The school kids even go home for 1.5 hrs!  The school day is over at 2:30 and you will find hundreds of kids wearing uniforms finding there way home.  Now back to people coming outside…it is so strange.  The little kids (4, 5 years old) come home from school and have to do homework, then they don’t come out to play.  The majority of them for some reason have to stay inside watching TV and just sitting. Kids that are old enough to take care of themselves (10 yrs or so) typically are allowed out to play.  They really aren’t allowed to go further than the porch most days.  Saturday is a different story, all the kids some out around 3 and play. Sunday is quiet most everywhere in town.

Cedric is getting into a groove at work.  He works from 7 to 4 and it is very leisurely compared to any legal internship in the States.  He works alone most of the time, but a couple of days a week he does see his supervising attorney.  He also gets to travel to Belize City and other areas via the Cessna a few times a month. 

Enjoy these pictures.  Pictures of our house are soon to come.

                                                    

At the Beach in Belize

Belize has been interesting so far. We live in a small, very hot and dirty town. Besides the trash, zombie-looking stray dogs, and always being sticky and dirty, we are having a good time.

We got bikes so we can easily travel around town. Scout and Baxter both start preschool tomorrow (it costs about $12 American/month! Pretty sweet).

We've gone to a couple of beaches. There aren't a lot of really nice beaches near us, but they're alright for a swim. The video above features Scout climbing a tree with her new little buddy, Baxter being happy, and Sarah getting some sun.

Pray for us that we don't get rabies, OK?

Our Next Adventure

We have just finish up our time in Reno, NV and are headed for Dangriga, Belize.  Cedric was supposed to do an internship in La Paz, Boliva to fulfill his end of the bargain in receiving the Innoccente Scholarship.  When the Bolivians didn't come through with proper paperwork Cedric was quick to find another exciting adventure for our family.  He had it in his mind that he wanted to go to Belize for a bit:) So, he sent out his resume to a handful of Belizean attorney's. Two were interested. One gave the go ahead and contracted to take Cedric on as an intern for the fall semester.  With nothing but his own will and determination (and his great resume:) he paved the way to a new chapter for his family.  Belize, here we come!

WE'RE MOVING TO BELIZE!

We leave next month for an internship in Dangriga, Stann Creek, Belize.  We fly out on August 27 and will return December 25.  We are so stoked!

While I'm posting, here's a video from our non-family-reunion reunion (Tahoe. Fun.)

4th of July Swim Time Happy Fun Video

We went to Fernley, NV this 4th of July to visit Sarah's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bill.  We went to the parade, and swam, and ate delicious BBQ, and picked fruit, and swam, and also swam. Here's a video:

Scout Riding Bike

   Scout's been riding her bike without training wheels for about 4 weeks now. As with almost everything else she does, she has picked this up quickly and is very good at it. We're really proud of her and hope she doesn't get run over.

Don't forget Easter.

After I saw my sister in-laws Easter post I was reminded that I never posted on our Easter this year.
This year we traveled north two hours to Rancho Cucamonga and stayed with our friends the Oka famliy.  They have two kids close in age with ours and we have know them as long a we have been married (6yrs almost).  It was so fun for the kids and the parents.  We got a babysitter the night before Easter and had a great time.  Here are some pics of the kids from Easter Sunday 2012.

To make grandmas and grandpas smile.

We have a really cute video of Scout's last theater presentation, but Cedric has been too busy to put it up. For now, check out these cute pics of the things going on around our house.

Preschool snack time

Costume dodge ball fundraiser for CIP.

He thought he wasn't tired enough to take a nap.

This is what happened  when I tried to wake him up. 

..

I know, I know.  It is only play makeup.  Scout and her friend both looked crazy.

The fort.

Trip to Grandpa Anderson's Funeral

This is a video I put together from footage I took during my trip to Orem, UT for my grandpa Anderson's funeral. It was a wonderful service and celebration of Grandpa's life. He was a great man.

The trip was also a nice family get-together. Us six kids don't ever get to hang out without our children and I think we all relished the opportunity to catch up.

Baxter's 2nd Birthday

We sure do love this boy.  And, boy oh boy is he all BOY.  He loves everything a boy ought to...trucks, trains, baseballs, basketballs, footballs, meat and potatoes, exciting books and most of all his mommy and family.  He can throw a ball with surprising accuracy and thinks he can jump off of stairs.  We love all this boy stuff about him.  Aside from boy stuff he is so very loving, never wakes us at night and is the best little brother.  He and Scout do so well together and we are grateful for that.  He is quite compliant and goes along with most everything except for taking his shirt off.  That darn kid is absolutely attached to his clothing, particularly his shirts.  It is such a funny quirk, but poor Bax thinks it is anything but funny.

He turned 2 years old on February 1st.  We gave him a football party and celebrated with the neighbors. Here are some pictures of his 2 year Touchdown!