Costa Maya & Cozumel

Just a few straggler pictures from our stops in Mexico. These were definitely our least favorite stops...Costa Maya seemed like such a touristy place that they kinda force you to do what they want you to do. We ended up at a nice little "beach club" place, with a decent beach and cabanas, but the bus didn't stop where it was supposed to so we had to hike there. If I hadn't done some research before hand, we probably would've ended up at a pricier place near the bus stop. We enjoyed a beach day, nonetheless...the kids especially!

I'm pretty sure I took most of the pics from Costa Maya on my phone!

By the time we got to Cozumel, we were all pretty tired. The kids begged to stay on the boat, so we checked them into the Kid's Club and headed out. We were totally not impressed. It seemed nice enough, and we ate at a delicious restaurant, but it was all shopping. Blah. So we spent a total of probably 3 hours on shore, and then we went back to relax on the boat!

Archer with his binoculars

And the last few straggler pics, from the boat:

Archer zonked out in bed, under the awesome monkey our housekeeper made. She was super sweet, and left the boys lots of fun things to find!

Sunset from our room...it doesn't look super spectacular in the picture, but I'm guessing it was MUCH better in real life!

Belize City

Belize was one of our favorite stops, and I was so disappointed that we didn't have any pictures at all (this was the only stop where we didn't take a single phone picture). We got the camera back, and I was actually pretty disappointed. I thought we had WAY more pictures on it, and I was sure we had more than one dolphin picture, along with at least one manatee picture. Oh well. At least we have something!

We took a boat ride up the Old Belize River:

I THINK this is supposed to have a manatee in it...not entirely sure. Possibly those shapes out towards the middle/left are manatees??

Manatee sign!

Iguanas. Big iguanas.

Baby croc! (So hard to see, but he's right on the tree trunk with his mouth open.)

The lone dolphin picture. So disappointing, because this dolphin was doing tricks and jumping alongside our boat for a LONG time.

We got off the boat, and went to a resort-y type place for a yummy buffet lunch.

This is a self-guided nature/herbal trail we went on...and we got eaten alive by mosquitoes!

Arch crashed out on the bus from lunch, on our way to Altun Ha ruins

The next few pictures are all of the ruins. It was amazing to see! I've never seen any Mayan ruins before, and this was something that John and I both wanted to see. The boys really loved it too, which surprised me. I kinda thought they would be bored with it, but they loved hiking up to the top, and thought it was all pretty cool!

This is the one that we hiked to the top of. It was a little nerve-wracking with the boys, but fun, and a GREAT view from the top of all of the ruins.

The hike down! It was SO HOT - in the 90's and HUMID - we were ready to be done!

Only 6 Months Later...

The rest of our cruise pictures. FINALLY. I am so ecstatic that we have our camera back (well, let's be honest...who cares about the camera itself! I just wanted the pictures.) but now it means that I am forced to look at pictures of warm, sunny, tropical places that I would love to visit again. And I know that, even though it doesn't really feel like Fall yet, we are headed to COLD WEATHER any day now.

I really wish these were back with the other pictures from our trip, but since I recently printed a blog book, I guess I am stuck with them being completely out of order so they get in the next book!

First up: Roatan, Honduras!

 Yeah...I had gotten a little bit of sun! :)

I LOVE this picture! John's sunburned feet, and Archer's crack showing. Hilarious!

Even funnier that Archer still had his pirate face paint on from Kid's Club. He refused to let us wash his face, so he had a mustache. 

The kids loved these little crabs that would bury themselves in the sand.

The beach that we wandered on to was perfect for the kids. It was really shallow for a ways out, and it was so calm that the boys were all snorkeling around in the water without making me panic!