Tatum...THE MACHINE!!!

When my girls were born 7 years apart in age, I thought.."Cool, no need for them to compete with anything like clothes, hair, makeup, or boys."  Little did I know that my youngest would be my hardest working kid!  She will NOT be out-done!  (My boys, they don't care to compete in the music world with my girls).

Carlie was called as an organist when she was 10--totally NOT my idea but I was AMAZED at how quickly she picked this up.  Tatum turned 10 at the end of last September and has been bugging me to teach her organ.  I put it off and put it off.  Finally I got off my lazy butt this summer and made good on my promise to "start soon."  So here is my baby girl after about 2 weeks of organ instruction this month (July).  She's blowing me away!  Looking/thinking ahead, smooth/legato fingering, using both heels & toes, silent feet switches...this girl is getting it!  She is a ROCKSTAR!!!  Crazy proud of my Tatum Jane!  A few more weeks and she'll be ready to go!!!

Tatum's First Day of School 2018!

We got home at 3:30 this morning.  We drove all night because Tatum was nervous about missing "Meet the Teacher Night" AND the first day of school.  I got up early with Tatum and got her out the door for her first day of 6th grade!  Here she is in all her cuteness!  Look out 6th grade and Mrs. Weber!  Here comes my TJ:)

Stop #4: Cozumel, Mexico!

Cozumel was a very close 2nd place in my ranking system!  Talk about another cool/never done anything like this before adventure!  This was a two-part excursion.  Part #1:  Swimming/snorkeling in a "cenote" (an underground cave/sinkhole like Carlsbad Caverns but with pure water inside).  Part #2:  Snorkeling with Turtles and Manta Rays!

We headed first to the cenote.  I don't even know how people find these things!  The road we had to take to get there was incredibly bumpy!  It was a crazy drive down a jungle road.  We learned on this drive that the Mayan people are NOT extinct!  There are very much alive and well and still lead very simple/primitive lifestyles--we passed by their open-air huts on the way to the caves.  Once there, we suited up to climb down into the cave.  The water was "exhilarating" for sure (really cold at first but then actually really nice:)  I don't know that I'll ever enjoy Carlsbad Caverns as much after this place!  It was incredible! I did my best taking pictures with my phone in a water-proof pouch:)

Then we headed over to Turtle Cove Beach.  Now this water was nice and warm like a bath:)  We were guided over to areas in the ocean and there were turtles and manta rays EVERYWHERE!!!  And the turtle were NOT afraid of people.  We were asked to "not touch" the turtles but it was usually the humans struggling to get out of the way of the turtles! 

After all that swimming, we were quite famished but we were once again fed an amazing local lunch at a nearby beach resort.  We enjoyed the food, showered off, and relaxed for a bit in the hammocks before heading back to the ship.

Like I said before.  Nothing like we have ever done before.  Loved every single minute of it!

We spent our last full day of our vacation "at sea."  It was really nice to have a full day of relaxing before the long drive home.  We slept in, ate, swam, ate, read, ate, Tatum made a Build-a-Bear, and ate some more.  We were off the boat bright and early Sunday morning.  We jumped into the van and just DROVE all day.  Our goal was to make it across Texas to El Paso for the night.  But we got there and then decided to bite the bullet and to just keep going--Chris, Carlie, and I all took turns driving to break it up--Tatum really wanted to make it back to her first day of school the next day so we mostly did the long drive for her.  It's a 22 hour drive from New Orleans to Chandler.  We left at 7:30 am New Orleans time (5:30 am AZ time) and arrived home at 3:30 am AZ time Monday morning.

I don't know that we could ever top this vacation.  It sure has been a hard transition back into "real life" making our own meals and everything again:)  But my life is a good one and I'm glad to be back home with all these crazies.  LOVE my peeps and I LOVED this trip.

Stop #3: Belize: Central America

This was our furthest southern stop.  Belize was AMAZING!  Our excursion here involved a river boat safari, a tour of the Lamanai Ruins, and a super yummy Belizien lunch!  The weather was incredible.  It was very overcast but still plenty hot and humid.  We learned after the first day we needed to wear swimsuits every day and there was NO need for hair or make-up to be done:)

Look at that sky!

ON THE BOAT cruising down "The New River Lagoon."

Once again, this land is literally covered in Mayan Ruins.  Lamanai is one of the largest and most excavated Mayan sites in Belize.  These ruins are known for their impressive architecture and are surrounded by dense rainforest.  The main temple is located right near the main water source--the New River Lagoon.  There is evidence of Mayan life that dates back to about 1500 B.C. through 1544 A.D.  

The Main Temple...oh yeah...we climbed that thing!!!  The picture does not do this place justice!  We were WAY up high!!!

Views from the top:

That little white fuzz is a caterpillar
my kids found on the climb down:)

We finished off our massive hike with the BEST COCA COLA around!!!  Mexican coke IN bottles is the hands down best!  It's all about the real sugar grown locally:)

Stop #2: Mahogany Bay, Roatan Island: Honduras

It's a tough call but this stop was probably my favorite.  This little long/skinny Roatan Island is part of Honduras and has the most incredible history.  YES!  There were LOTS of pirates who frequented this island.  YES!  There are clearly visible shipwrecks everywhere.  YES!  Pirate treasure/gold is STILL found from time to time on the island--but if you find it, you SHUT UP!  And oh yeah....WE GOT TO HOLD MONKEYS!!!  BEST.STOP.EVER!

We had a little time before our excursion in the afternoon so we hit the beach with the most incredible white sand and clear blue/warm water.  

Then we loaded up on our bus to head over to Gumbalimba Park Nature Reserve.  This park is privately owned and had so much to do!  We took the tour in which we came into close proximity to tons of jungle creatures!

My 2 Monkeys:)

Hard to see but it's the
Park Sloth:)
(Yes...he's the only one)

A whole house of insects:
Ethan's favorite place.

IGUANAS!  IGAUNAS!  Everywhere!!!  NO desire to hold these guys:)

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This guy was HUGE!

This is an actual canon from a pirate ship!

Then we crossed a very rickety bridge to get over to the animal sanctuary.

The first stop was the birds.  Yuk.  I would have gladly skipped this part but didn't want to let my kids down.  There were free flying freaking huge birds everywhere.  A couple of them could say a few words so that was kinda cool.

This Toucan "should" have been inside this cage...
he's trying to break the other one out here:)

 I was perfectly happy to hide in the background and take pictures while everyone else held these little devils:)

On her head?!
This would have sent me RUNNING!

Something about the girls I guess...

There was NO WAY to choose my favorite monkey pictures!  This was SOO MUCH FUN!!!  I could have stayed in this part for hours!!!  The monkeys were sooo darn cute and mischievous!  We say them take off with someone's can of soda:)

Here's a mommy monkey
with her 3 week old baby:)

Seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done.  This place was amazing.  I think when I retire, I'm going to live on Roatan Island and just play with monkeys all day:)