Vacation with Grandma and Grandpa

For vacation we were required to leave the country to renew our 90 day visas (which we actually had to extend because we were here for like 92 days!  Before going to Belize for the renewal and down time, we headed to Tela again for the weekend and to wait for the ferry that only leaves Puerto Cortes, Honduras on Mondays.  We stayed at a nice hotel, Playa Bonita, just down the street from the beach.  I think we walked to the beach everyday.  Our girls love playing in the sand and started exploring the ocean some more.  Sicily has basically no fear of water and loved to be carried in the waves and splash around.  Before coming to Tela with my parents, Olivia was pretty terrified of the “salty water” – I think because of the waves.  We started conquering that fear with Auntie in Tela and I think we almost completely conquered it with Grandma and Grandpa Brandt.  Olivia started swimming in the ocean by herself (we were nearby in the water also) with only her “floaties”.  It was quite cool to see her being so brave.  It’s sort of funny to see a 4 year old swimming in the ocean by herself.

After Tela we went to Belize.  We took the ferry there, which is just a big fishing boat basically.  Before you get to your final destination you have to go through customs, which is a really long, boringly hot process.  They leave you on the boat for probably an hour or so.  All year round is hot in Belize, but I’m pretty sure April is the hottest time of the year.  At least it seemed like it.  The sun is nice at the beach or by a pool, but not when you are stuck on a boat with 50 other people.  After that getting to Placencia was a breeze.  When we arrived, our first stop was the smoothie shop…wow, smoothies are so good in Central America.  Not sure if it’s that I hadn’t had one in a while, I was dying of heat, the fresh fruit or the combination of all, but it was good.  I’m glad Sarah had the idea.

Our condo was really great.  We had a pool at the complex that was also right on the beach, so we had the best of both swimming options.  Both were great.  Did I mention the swim up, serve yourself bar at the pool…nice touch.  Olivia had a great time swimming and jumping into the pool with Grandma and Grandpa and doing more swimming and floating in the ocean.  The downtime with family was quite nice as always, but it was nice to get back to campus as well.