Underwater Camera Delight

Everyone who lives on the cayes should have an underwater camera!  Well, everyone with a toddler learning to swim....digital cameras sure have changed the family photo album.  This Canon Underwater Powershot is waterproof and shock resistant.  It's not even the underwater feature that makes it so great, it's that it can get wet and you can capture moments you would otherwise be unable to catch.  We spend so much time in or near the water, it now seems silly that we didn't have one before now. 

New Deck

Here are the pictures of the beautiful new deck we had built back in December.  We figured since the roof extended well past the existing porch (made hodge-podge of Plysem and Plywood), we'd just have a whole new wood one installed.  It has changed our lives!  Now we have a large outdoor living space that is basically just an extension of the house.  Love it.

Our original deck only extended as far as this.  The new one was built over the concrete septic tank.

 

The empty space is soon to be our new third of a deck.

Marsh built the deck!  And the kitchen!

Egan can take running jumps on the palatial new porch!

Happy boy.

Tommy put 3 layers (or four?) of varnish on it.  Shortly thereafter we had a party to celebrate the birth of our lovely new addition!

Random Videos I've been meaning to post

So sorry for the posting slacking y'all!  I have an excuse for not writing 11 days of the last 30 or so, as Tommy went on a grand adventure to meet up with a bunch of friends in El Salvador and I was here holding down the fort solo.  Or rather, playing with Egan and chilling out and enjoying a visit from my brother/friend Paul.  But still.....

Below videos include: a Valentines Day fund-raising festival put on by Little Stars pre-school.  Treats, face-painting, games and LOUD LOUD dance/rap music.  From what I've gathered, if the music isn't blasting at a Belize party, then it isn't a party.  The louder it is, the better your neighbors will hear it and join in the fun.  So even when the party is for toddlers, one can expect to have music blaring from concert-size speakers.

The second video was shot at The Lazy Lizard down at The Split.  A bunch of British Army soldiers were having drinks and all decided to jump into the sea in their uniforms, boots and all.

The third is Egan doing a bit of bird watching.  We have beautiful birds in our yard every day!  Note the huge Breadfruit Tree leaves when I am panning around.

Ticks on a Wall

Snakes on a plane?!  No!  Ticks on a wall! For reals.  I don't know if anyone else has experienced this, but these days I am finding bloated and gray ticks just chillin' out on our walls.  I've plucked three of them off three different walls in our house over the last month or so. 

Despite lots of preventative treatment, we just can't keep the ticks off of Jesse the Texas Black Dog.  There are teeny tiny ticks that live in the sand or on the flowy grasses around the island and I think they hang out in clumps, so when he brushes by them, several jump on at once.  I pick at least 2 or 3 off of him a day and if I forget for a few days, or if he got into an especially lush patch of ticks, I can end up with a jar full of about 20 of them.  Usually, they hang out in twos and threes on his body; I assume it is easier to get a good chomp where a fellow tick has already settled in.  This makes removal easier and more satisfying!

Egan loves the tick removal process, so we've made it into a bit of family fun....Egan holds the flashlight when needed, guards the jar and alerts us to any attempted escape and lastly gets to be the one to dump them into the toilet and flush.  He says:  "Bye bye tickies" as they swirl on down. 

Despite all of the ticks traipsing into the house, there have only been two incidents of Ticks on a Human.  Once on the back of Egan's head and once on my belly.  I felt it lock down and removed it immediately.  And I'm pretty sure the one on Egan had also only just sunk in because it was still super tiny and flat.  Thankfully Tommy has escaped being a host, as I think he might pass out at the discovery of a little passenger.

For those of you who are considering a move to Belize and are now freaked out about the ticks:  Only the dog people need be concerned.  And more so the dog people who take their dogs out and about and let them frolic in the sand and sea and tropical foliage.  AND then let them in the house. 

So, back to the wall.  I am hoping someone can tell me what is up with that.  I figure that once they hit their limit, they drop off and enjoy lazing about with full tummies.  Then once they deflate they get back into action.  Or they die.  Not sure, but I think it is great they end up on the wall where we can easily see them and send them off to the septic tank.  No more getting back into action!