ATM cave (Actun Tunichil Muknal)

By far the coolest thing we did in Belize was to go to the ATM cave.  It is a limestone cave that is in one of the mountains and has a clear blue river running through it.  In order to get to it, you have to swim across a river a couple of times and then swim into the cave.  You then navigate the cave by following the river up, mostly in the water, in sometimes small areas, other times in pools and other times wide open rooms.  When you get about a kilometer in, there is a rock that leads up to a ledge and open cavern.  The ledge and open cavern are littered with ancient pottery remains and skulls.  The name ATM is Mayan for tomb of the stone sepulcher.  That is because there are several skulls in there are two full skeletons.  Unfortunately, you are no longer allowed to bring cameras in to take pictures, but I found some great photos online that show exactly what we saw. This is the entrance.

On the inside, there is another entrance from the top of the mountain.  When you pass it, there is light that comes down into the cave.

 It was quite unbelievable that there was so much pottery sitting around.  Most of it was broken, but there were a couple of pieces that only had small holes in the bottom or along the rim.

 There were quite a few cave features that we just walked by, and they were stunning.

 Looking back through the entrance.

 Before we climbed into the large cavern, we had to remove our shoes and leave them outside.

 One of the pots had this guy on him:

 Part of the large cavern.

 You walk right next to the pottery and there is a small plastic tape that keeps you from stepping on the pottery or skulls.  They pointed out that there were artifacts in the path that we were walking on too, so you had to be careful to walk in certain places.

At the very end of the cavern is this skeleton of a 17 year old.  They had a crazy reason for him to be here, but maybe a curious teenager got to the end and his torch went out!  They said there was a sword found behind him somewhere.

Swamp boat tour

Another fun thing we decided to do over spring break was to go on a swamp boat tour.  Joe and I went on once when I was pregnant with Ellie, but we had never taken the kids on one and we thought they would really enjoy it.

 It was AMAZING!  It was so fun to ride over the grass and then when we really took off over the water it was so fun.  We went with a little private boat operator in Orange, Texas.  It was just on the border of Texas and Louisiana, in fact, we rode across the river into Louisiana for part of it.

 This is what it looked like in front of us.  There were logs an inch or two under that water, but we could ride right over them.

Six Flags

 For the first day of Spring Break, we went to Six Flags San Antonio.  The kids were really excited to have Joe go with us too.  He got to ride all the roller coasters with them.  I get sick too easy, so I get to stay on the side, snap photos and read my kindle Iphone app.  Its a win/win for all of us.

 Proof that there are one or two kiddie rides that I can go on.

It was a great trip, so glad we got to go!

Adam's Eagle Project

Adam just finished his eagle project a couple of weeks ago.  He had a hard time figuring out what to do, but he finally was able to talk to the principal at Michael's jr high and decided to repaint a storage container that sits at the school and holds sporting equipment.  He and Michael went a couple of weeks beforehand to power wash the container.

 Then the day of, he had a ton of helpers come.

 I think overall, everyone had fun painting.

The finished product!

 The helpers!

Everyone show me your blue hands!

 After everyone left, he had to go back and powerwash a couple of spots off the nearby sidewalk.

 Then, later that afternoon, I found him like this:

I am so proud of this kid!