Thursday, September 1, 2011

Unbelizable Holt Family Vacation 2011, part 2

Belizean Night at Captain Morgan's
After the successful picture taking event concluded, 
we walked over to Captain Morgan's to enjoy Belizean Night.
We all agreed that the food was delicious!
Mom and Kimber working their way through the buffet line.
Ashley and I loved the food and the music.
Dad is relieved that the whole family photo thing was over.
And Brett is a little relieved too:)!
These two are happy that Mom got cute her pictures and they got a yummy dinner.
Gorgeous family picture by the beach.  Check!
Delicious dinner and entertaining music.  Check!  Check!
It was a successful evening and a great way to end another fabulous day in Belize!

Another Day in Paradise
The girls posing on the funky stairs/steps/chairs in the pool.
I love the way they look color coordinated with their swimsuit selection.
Justin joins his new bride for a photo...
while Brooke and Kimber relax by the pool...
and Tyler and Sonya take the kayaks out again.

Fishing, Snorkeling and Swimming with Sharks!  What?
Allie and Justin, holding their snorkel gear are anxious to swim with the sharks.
Ready to start our day of fun out at sea.
Sonya throws out her line and gets some tips from Dad.
Within seconds, she gets a bite.
She surprises herself by catching the first fish of the day.
Sonya gets the first catch of the day.
Brooke throws out her line...
and just like that, this Cavitt Jr. high graduate caught a fish.
Tyler with his catch.
Allie and Justin caught a fish...
and they caught another one.
After catching a couple of fishes with Justin, 
Allie was ready to take a break and hang out with Ashley, 
who hadn't quite got into the fishing thing yet.
Brett and Kimber get into the action and show us how its done.
The break from fishing and hanging out with Justin is short lived
 and Allie joins him again and catches another fish.
Ashley is busy looking good, while Dad and Brooke are busy looking for a fish.
Finally, Ashley tries her luck...
 but comes up with nothing.
She keeps losing her bait and almost gives up but then...
hooray!  She catches her first fish of the day!
Now that Ashley has caught a fish, everything was going well 
and then our boat was swarmed by some birds.
And I had to protect Allie, who apparently is scared to death of birds.
A fear that I had never known of before.
Dad thinks the birds are funny!
Justin was a good husband and tried to scare off the birds with his fishing pole.
Brooke didn't seem to be bothered by the birds.
and decides to catch another fish.
With the birds gone, these two team up together to catch some more fish.
Not to be outdone by the Ashley/Allie couple, Brett and Kimber catch another fish.
The birds keep coming back.  
Justin is a good husband and works hard keeping the birds away.
Now that everyone have had a chance to catch a fish or two, or three,
I pick up a pole and do my own kind of fishing.
I call it casual fishing with my husband.
These two are happy to have a break from seeing patients and
 enjoying a day of fishing together.
The brother-in-laws are so cute, fishing side by side.
Another fish for Tyler, who is trying to keep up with his wife.
Allie still seems a little apprehensive about the birds.
Kimber caught a big fish.
And I caught one too.
Sonya caught another one.
Not only does she have sweet nursing skills, 
she showed she has some serious fishing skills too.
Everyone is focused on fishing.
Hanging out with my fishing buddies.
ANd then back to fishing for Mom.
While Sonya, who caught the most fish that day, and Brooke take a break.
Kimber's still has her line out.
Dad catches a fish.
And then another.
And it's determined that we've caught enough fish for our BBQ that night
and it was time to swim with the sharks, so we head to Shark Ray Alley.
Allie and Justin are ready to snorkel.
Tyler and Justin are the first in the water, with their snorkel masks in place, fins on their feet, ready to swim with the sharks.
Swimming towards the sharks.
As soon as we stopped our boat, the sharks begin to appear.
Tyler and Justin find the sharks swimming right around them.
I think this is my favorite photo of the day.  
Justin giving us the "thumbs up" and reassuring us that it is safe to get in.
Sharks. Lots of sharks.
Dad has his water camera, ready to get a good picture of a shark.
Brett bravely helps the girls through the shark infested waters.
Tyler and the sharks.
Justin and Dad swimming toward the sharks!
Dad is looking for more sharks!
Swimming with the sharks.
One shark.
Two sharks.
Allie and Justin love swimming with the sharks.
Brett and Kimber love the sharks too.
The girls are being brave, with Dad close by and swimming with the sharks.
So many sharks!
Ty and Sonya take a break from the sharks to pose for a snorkeling photo.
Brett gently leads Kimber to see more sharks.
After everyone gets a chance to swim with the sharks,
it's time to check the lobster traps.
Tyler and Dad, with our guide, checking the lobster traps.

Spearing a lobster.
It's lobster for dinner tonight!
NBD.  Sonya casually holds up the lobster.
Brooke poses with the lobster and poses for a photo.
Brooke isn't so sure about holding the lobster,
 especially when it twitches and apparently is still alive.
And Mom takes a turn posing with the lobster.
Allie decides that it can't be too scary... 
"If Brooke can hold the lobster, so can I!"
Our load of fish and lobsters.
The lobster catch.
Looks like a successful fishing trip.
Time to clean the fish.
They threw the scraps in the ocean and stingrays.
Back on shore, Kimber holds up one of the fish that she caught.
And Tyler and Sonya hold up a couple of lobsters before they are BBQd.
And Allie shows Justin how brave she is (and trying to redeem herself
 after her panicky scene that she displayed with the birds) holds a lobster all by herself.
Our junior fishing guide, climbed the coconut tree to grab some husks for the BBQ.
These three boys stood there mesmerized the entire time,
 watching them clean and prepare the fish and lobster for the BBQ.
The fish dish with onions, tomatoes and lots of yummy spices.
Unbelizably delicious!
The lobster was prepared similar to the fish and was equally as delicious!
Even those who aren't fish eaters tried both dishes and went back for seconds.
Dad showing off the lobster claws that he cleaned and his plate.
After our fabulous fish and lobster BBQ, 
we had to stop and get some frozen custard 
at our favorite place, DandE's, which was right around the corner.
Brooke didn't waste anytime finishing off her favorite, chocolate peanut butter.
Allie prefers to take her chocolate frozen custard in a cone.
And Ashley named these two the cutest couple.  Sorry Ty and Sonya!
But Justin thinks that they make the cutest couple.  Sorry Ash!
Brooke brought the boombox that she and Ashley bought
  with a leftover gift card that they used at the Border's big clearance sale.
Such a good idea to bring it on the trip.
The boombox provide hours of music and fun!
Mom and Ashley getting ready to listen to some good tunes and some sun!
Brooke is relaxing now that she is done with her run for the day.  
But she doesn't rest to long... and heads over to play at the pool at Coco Beach.
The Coco Beach resort is owned by the same company that owns Belizean Cove Estates,
 so we have access to their pool, which has this awesome castle/waterslide structure in the middle of their pool.  
The kids and dad had a blast jumping from the rocks, sliding down the waterslide and playing in the pool.
Dad with the little girls, waving to those of us on shore.
Brooke stops for a picture while playing on the rock structure.
The girls are keeping cool in the pool.
Brooke, jumping off the top of the castle.
Holding her nose before she hits the water.
I think these two are the cutest couple of little girls.
Brett and Kimber both look cute in green.
Dad and his little girls (and Tyler and Sonya) 
walking over to Captain Morgan's for "Mexican night."
The menu.
These two loved the tacos and bean burritos.
I had the tostados and they were so yummy!
The gorgeous sunset and the end to another wonderful day in Belize!
Mom and Kimber enjoying the sunset.
Mom and Dad.
Brooke ordered the Pineapple Fanta and became a fan of that flavor of Fanta just like that!
 So Kimber ordered one too!

Our Last Day in Belize
 We walked over to Capricorn restaurant and enjoyed a yummy breakfast.
Brett especially thought the strawberry-pineapple smoothie was delicious!
Dad ordered the pancakes, homestyled potatoes, bacon and eggs. Yum!
 Brooke had the Strawberry-Banana smoothie.
 After breakfast, we walked over to CocoBeach resort for some fun in the pool.
 Dad is very friendly and waves to everyone.
 Brooke shows Tyler how to jump off the top in style!
 Tyler and Sonya jump with their own style!
While everyone is jumping and going down the slide, 
Dad and Brett settle under some shade and catch up on some reading.
 Brooke comes out of the slide and makes a splash in the pool.
 Brooke could not be happier to have her buddy, Tyler
 to jump, slide, swim and explore in the pool with her.
 Brooke and Tyler definitely "belize" in magic!


 Snorkeling, Fishing and Fun
The kids had so much fun snorkeling and fishing that they talked Dad into going out again.
Kimber and Brett are loving the snorkeling.
Sonya with the first catch that afternoon.
This girl loves to fish!
Dad with his little fish.
These two are loving the view of the sea.
Brett with his colorful fish.
Tyler's caught another fish.
Kimber with her catch of the day.
The gorgeous view of the ocean near the end of another fabulous day.
 You had better Belize it... our vacation was simply Unbelizable!
Thanks kids for a wonderful week of fun!

1 comment:

Kirstin said...

Wow! What a spectacular trip. I can see why you think it was the best one yet. Your pictures are so amazing, you must have some kind of polarized filter or something because you can see straight to the bottom of the water, how beautiful! What an unbelizable trip!