{how does your garden grow?}

{I wrote this blog post a week ago, and already I need to write an update!}

This year our garden is much bigger than all the previous years!
And finally, it looks like we are going have an overload of vegetables.


I am so excited that I can finally eat at least half of a raw cucumber, without needing to put something on it or just stopping. That's a bit of a break through for me. While I spend a lot of time on this garden, and dreaming of all the vegetables that we'll get to eat....I often don't end up eating them. This year, I've really been coaching myself to eat what we get. No mini tomatoes have made it inside the house, I just love snacking on them!

So, what's growing:

• One watermelon plant (with a watermelon!!)
• Two cucumber plants
• Four okra plants (small this year, looks like they are probably over crowded)
• Four large tomato plants
• Five onions
• Two mini tomato plants
• One bell pepper plant (that seems very unhappy, but not much I can do now)

I also put two marigolds in the garden this time, in between the tomatoes. I think it's helping the tomatoes and with our overwhelming mosquito population, which means now I can water the garden with only 10 mosquito bites rather than 20. Still ridiculous, but I'm trying to get rid of them without always spraying myself with bug repellent. Not working...totally open to suggestions! 

oops, look like I need to weed...

I noticed a few slugs on the cucumbers, and some beetles eating the okra leaves. Keeping an eye on them, but really don't want to do anything if I don't have to! Fingers crossed all the green tomatoes {there are a TON} don't all go red at once! Tomatoes for breakfast seems like a stretch for me. 

xx

{belieze it-beach}

We haven't seen wedding photos just yet, but I cant wait so here's a little bit about Belize & some of what we did. 

The second part of our journey was the Ambergris Caye. It was beautiful, just like the photos you'd imagine to see in a travel magazine. Except we really didn't take too many photos, we were too busy actually enjoying ourselves! 

We had an awesome time snorkeling for the first time ever. As newbies, we didn't take photos. But everyone else on the trip did, and it was mildly entertaining watching them swim like fish to catch the best photo. My husband says the sunburn on my back looked like a pirate's face, ha! I'll keep the evidence to myself though, I don't want you to remember me like that.

early, early morning sunrise

I spent a lot of time in the water, while mountain man preferred to see the view from under a coconut tree. My Dad gave me the appreciation to “touch the ocean every day” when we’re at the beach. I gladly did so, despite how ridiculously sun burnt I kept getting. 

While it didn't dampen our spirits at all, we both got a touch of the travelers sickness. Nausea, etc. killed our appetites, so I can’t really attest to the food. Although we did enjoy some really great El Salvadorian food with our neighboring honeymooners out in the “city.” (It took ten minutes to walk around the main part of the city, but I suppose it is still a city.) We also enjoyed some delicious, authentically native chocolate milk/shake too! 

On the way back to the international airport, I got to sit in the copilot seat!! Check out this view! & I'm glad the nausea definitely went away for this part of the trip. The seat belt is like a spider strapping you in, and of course the pilot asked me to not touch anything. Really? I don't want to die either buddy, promise. :)

If you’re looking for a vacation with adventure and relaxation, it exists! It’s in Belize.

{belieze it-rainforest}

We haven't seen wedding photos just yet, but I can't wait so here's a little bit about Belize & some of what we did. 

 We had such a wonderful time on our honeymoon. Belize is a beautiful country. It was mountain man's (MM) first time out of the country, and I think it was the perfect choice. We chose Belize for a few simple reasons: 1. you can explore the rainforest and the beach 2. they speak english and 3. it's not europe, which I've explored a lot as a kid.

First things first, I got a pretty awful cold after the wedding. Even though I was never stressed the day of the wedding, my immune system finally had it. Fair enough, I kind of ignored it and just dealt with it along the way. The worst part was any nausea, particularly on a plane.

When we landed, we hit the road. They don't use stop signs or stoplights, so they use speed bumps instead I literally mean we hit the road. It felt like there was one every mile or so, making for a long two hour ride. So...I took a nap. Naturally.

We arrive at our little casita in the Cayo district, and my new husband (eek!!) immediately fell asleep on the hammock on our little porch and I fell asleep face down on the bed. After we slept, we promptly ordered a margarita pizza that we will never forget. It.was.that.amazing. Of course, we ordered dinner right after that-traveling really take a lot out of you sometimes!

Sniffling and all, we signed up for a full day of adventure the next day. We went to the ATM cave, which is a water cave that holds some Mayan sacrifices. You cross a river three time just to get to the cave, and our car managed to lose a shock too. Classic adventure! Once we got to the cave, you're in the water either walking or swimming the entire time. There's a point where there is no light, and you only have your hat light to guide you-and that's about the point where I started to feel a little nervous. When we had to take the hats off to squeeze our heads through some rocks to keep climbing, that was probably the pinnacle of my desire to turn around. No photos are allowed, so I had to borrow this one from national geographic. Our private tour guide was amazing, he knew so much! It was so thrilling to be in there. After climbing about 30 feet high  with a real drop if you made the wrong move, we saw the dish the queen and king use for their blood letting, and some crystallized humans. We still marvel over how the Mayans went all the way into their sacred caves, with torches, to their rituals.

After crashing, we woke up to another half day of Mayan touring. Xunantunich was also breath taking, and full of mystery. The majority of the ruins aren't even excavated (or excurvated per our tour guide). Imagining how they lived was pretty eye opening, and we once again had an awesome tour guide who knew everything. (I think he may have literally known everything, he didn't even guess at answering my questions. He just knew, and could tell me why they knew certain facts, etc.) The King kept building higher and higher structures (the tallest one shown in the photo) to basically hide himself away from the people as they lost their faith in them.

The last day we relaxed, and headed out to San Pedro. No more sniffling for me! We took a short little ride, with many stops, on this small plane. I'd never been on a plane so small. Little did I know what would happen next time we were on a plane so small!!