Fun at the Beach

Today we had lots of time in the water! Leyla spent ALL day swimming, and I mean ALL day. During the meeting she went to the beach with Marcos and then afterwards she played in the pool - then Marcos and I went snorkeling and left Leyla with some friends to take her nap. We found out afterwards she had never fallen asleep and went straight back out to the pool! What a hard life! She has been enjoying every minute, although she did get really fussy in the afternoon because of missing her nap. She perked up again at dinner, and now - she's sound asleep.

 The view from our balcony!

 Getting ready to go snorkeling!

The water was so beautiful! Snorkeling was a lot of fun - It was the most I have ever done. We were really out in the ocean and were able to swim around as much and as far as we wanted. We kept our life jackets on in the beginning and then after awhile we took them off so that we could dive down and pick up shells! Then I got really tired because it took more energy to keep afloat. It was a lot of fun and I wish I had had an underwater camera! We saw parrot fish, purple and yellow fish, beautiful bright blue fish, silver and yellow angel fish, tiger fish, starfish, and of course all the beautiful types of coral.

These electric blue fish were so pretty! We saw them on the edge of the reef - which was amazing in and of itself! The reef just kind of dropped off a cliff and I could feel the water temperature drop and it was just infinitely deep! Scary!!

I saw ONE of these guys. Beautiful little fish.

Here's our resort from the boat.

 Back on dry land in the pool!

 Leyla was "washing" everything.

Tomorrow we are going to head over to West End I think and do some shopping and some different tours. There are a few places with dolphins, an iguana park, and a glass bottom boat, so we are going to see what fun we can have over there. Goodnight!

Roatan

The Predisan board meeting is being held in Roatan this time around. All of the directors and a few more of us are here, along with the board members. It's my first time to Roatan so I'm having fun! Marcos and Leyla came too of course because how could they stay home! Leyla has been thoroughly enjoying herself, swimming and swimming, while I'm in the meeting. Unfortunately I didn't get much time at the beach yesterday - the sun was already going down - but the meeting will end today at noon so we have all afternoon and Sunday to do some swimming and maybe some snorkeling.

We took a plane to Roatan from Catacamas, can you believe that?? We chartered a plane. It was actually cheaper than driving, in a lot of ways. And can you guess how long the flight was? 35 MINUTES! ridiculous! I was trying to figure out what we were flying over and then 2 seconds later I looked out the other window and there was the ocean. And the flight was surprisingly smooth! We were really impressed. It was a lot of fun.

 It was fun to see Catacamas from the air, since it's not something most people ever see! There are no regular flights to Catacamas so it's rare. I saw our house though!

Here you can see a few islands and the mainland in the distance.

We are staying at the Turquoise Bay Resort. I think our group alone has probably booked more than half the hotel! So far everything has been great, the room is nice and spacious, the beach is very calm, the food is GREAT! and the staff is very friendly.

 Leyla was so tired from all the excitement, she fell asleep on the way from the airport to the hotel! I love this picture of her!

 All of the Board members and the staff in our Predisan shirts! Today I'm going to take pictures of the resort and the beach and I'll upload them later. Now, I'm going to go eat all I want at the buffet breakfast :)

Baby!!

We are having another baby! I've alread announced it but haven't put it on my blog yet. So here is my "i'm pregnant" blog post.

I'm due February 21. I'm about 9 weeks along now. Still no symptoms, nausea, or bump. I am hungry all the time but that is not much different from before! I weighed myself this week and still have not gained any weight. I had my first appointment and was due back in 15 days but haven't been able to work it out with my schedule and Marcos's schedule but I'll probably go on Monday. I do have the luck of working at a clinic so when I couldn't make my appointment I just popped over to the ultrasound room and said, hey! give me an ultrasound!

Here is a pic of me at 4 weeks:

I've been doing better but right after I found out I went through weeks of bloating - it was awful. So I look like I have a bump already but it's leftover flab and bloat! ha. My doctor takes ultrasounds at each appointment (so far) so here is my 5 weeks ultrasound:

All it shows is the sac. The round spot in the center is the yolk sac. Now, for awhile, because of the severeness of the bloating and some dreams - I was afraid I was having twins. Not that it would be a bad thing! But looking at the ultrasound there is only one yolk sac so I'm pretty sure it's just one. You can tell though that if it were to be twins, they would be identical twins. Here is my next ultrasound, at 7 weeks:

In this one you can see the embryo - just one! The doctor teased me that sometimes the other one is hiding behind the first one! ha! so I guess we'll still have to wait and see the next ultrasound! But for now, there it is, growing, nice and safe in my tummy :)

9 weeks as of yesterday! Maybe starting to get a little bump? :)



Wedding Weekend

Marcos's  cousin Roger got married this past Sunday so we all packed up and drove to Tegucigalpa to be there! We made it to Tegus fine but had a flat tire right as we got in :( So, we were a little late but luckily they were all on Honduras time and hadn't even started! We had a lot of fun and stayed in a nice hotel that night for some relaxation and gourmet breakfast Monday morning!

Leyla had so much fun playing with her little cousin - They are 10 days apart.

The happy couple :)

We had a lot of fun and I was very happy to see them finally get married!

Time for a change!

I decided to change up my blog tonight! I wanted to see what new layouts there were and then got to thinking, I might as well change the title too! I started thinking how I've been here 3 years now and my life has changed but this blog isn't all about those changes anymore. It's been 3 years since we moved here, got married, and had a baby. I wanted to change it to something more current.

I never really liked the length of the other title either! So I changed the address to themadridsinhonduras. Something simple and easy to remember that describes who the blog is about. It took me awhile to come up with a new title, though. I decided, what I want to convey, is that God has given me a life that I never would have planned for myself, one that I never could have even imagined, but one that brings me so much joy! It is amazing how his plans can be so perfect for you - when you don't plan them yourself! I think God knows our hearts better than we ourselves know them.

Thus, "Greatful for God's Beautiful Gifts." I am greatful for the gift of life, of love, of motherhood, of learning, of culture....God has given me so much to be thankful for and has blessed me abundantly. This blog is all about my life, my family, my friends, and my experiences - all of which are beautiful gifts from God!