Thursday, January 31, 2008

Golf Cart Wheelin'

So the main mode of transportation in San Pedro is golf carts. Either that or taxi's. Everywhere you look there are golf carts. Given that a golf cart is a motorized vehicle, I'm sure none of you will be surprised to see Paul doing a little wheelin'.
A little 3 wheel action.
As you can see he is corrupting our daughter


Here's Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle and Aunt Rachel, and Mariel acting respectable in their gold cart. We won't tell you that Grandpa hit a taxi the first night we were there.

Blue Creek Planes



In the Blue Creek Community where Paul's family lives, there are actually community owned planes. These are the two planes we flew from Blue Creek to San Pedro to the resort. Paul's Uncle James, Uncle Ed, and Uncle John all have their pilots license, although Uncle Ed, and Uncle James did the flying that day. We all squished into the planes surrounded by vast quantities of luggage. Thanks to us, you should see how much stuff you take when traveling with a baby!
Here's Grandpa Ed with the plane that they rode in to San Pedro. Each family rode seperately. Below is Paul checking out the brakes on the plane we rode in. (Can't quit working for one day!)

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Family Ranches

Okay everyone, sorry its been so long, we're having a computer location problem. So here is Belize again. Both Uncle James and Uncle Ed have cattle ranches. This baby cow belongs to Uncle James family, it is their milk cow's baby that stays in the barn. Gabrielle and Paul's cousin Amy went to visit it one night, and Gabrielle just loved it! Although she loves any living thing!
These are some of the cows on Uncle Ed's farm, I can't remember the name of them but they are very closely related to Brahma's. Their are only a couple breeds of cows that can stand the heat down there. The babies were so adorable!!


Please excuse the quality I was taking pictures from the backseat of a truck!!


Thursday, January 3, 2008

Quality Male Bonding

What better way for the guys to hang out than with off road vehicles and guns. Here is some pics of Paul with his cousins. They went on a long trail ride with the quads and dirt bikes the last morning we were in Blue Creek. The day before, a few of them piled into the back of this truck and went in search of something to shoot.









Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Shipyard

We visited an Old Colony town called Shipyard that is similar to Amish in their customs. They don't use electricity, they drive horse and buggy everywhere, have dress codes, etc. It was so neat to see their lifestyle. I don't have too many pictures though as I didn't want to be rude.
This is the parking lot outside of the Shipyard Store. Pretty cool to see all the horses lined up.
Abe gave everyone rides the buggy, running and doing doughnuts in the buggy. His horse had quite the workout that day!

The horses will stand quietly while hitched as their drivers walk away, its pretty amazing. Its hard to look at the tack and harnesses they use, they are not well made or fitted to the horse. The horses are all skinny and wormy looking, but they could outwork any of my horses any day of the week. I asked what breed most of them were, and was told they were survivors. Whatever could stand the heat and the work, that was what was left.


All of the ladies wear dresses or skirts past their knees and the men and boys wear black overalls over plaid button down shirts, a lot of which are very brightly colored, I saw a lot of bright turquoise or purple shirts. The boys wear straw hats, even the very little ones.



Just Back from Belize!





Hello everyone! Well we are back! Maybe you didn't know we were gone, but we just spent the last 10 days in Belize! It was so amazing and so nice to be warm! Well actually hot and sticky, but who cares! It was so beautiful and it is so cold here! I'm going to try and post some pictures in order so you all can be jealous- oops, I mean for you to enjoy!
This picture I thought was so funny, because after I took it, Paul pointed out that the small white sign above the yellow signs say no photography (twice). Dumb tourists!
This photo was taken at Paul's Aunt's and Uncle's in Blue Creek Belize. This is their front yard. We stayed with them for 4 days and spent a lot of time as a very large group of 24 including all of Pauls family in the area. It was so great to get ot know them.