chicago play

Mom and dad both had to be in Chicago for work last week so Grandma came to show Henry the windy city. Thursday night we went to the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. Free on Thursday nights, it was packed but we found many safe places for baby play.

Henry, who has just learned to stand, got a kick out of ringing bells, turning locks, mixing felt balls, yelling into mirrors and most of all, watching the other babies. Though most of the museum was crazy town with children who seem to know no limits (or manners), the babies were safe in their own shoe-less room staffed by a juggling volunteer.

If you're traveling to Chicago, I highly recommend it. Warning: Parking is a completely unreasonable $21. But you'll pay it because you love your baby.

Bowlin'

We spent last week in the Dallas area cheering on K-State in the Cotton Bowl. 

First up was the pep rally at the Texas Rangers Stadium in Arlington. Henry was enthralled with the 20,000 + K-State fans, fireworks, big screens and familiar fight songs. He yelled right along with the best of them.

Followed by the game at Dallas Stadium, which is unnecessarily huge and left me nauseated for the first quarter. We also visited the Fort Worth stockyards where Henry sat in his first saddle. Giddy-up!

Now we're home. There are no more road trips, holidays or extended periods of time off. Hello, real life.

trip report: belize, part two

If you didn't catch part one, start here first.

Mr. Chan drove us to Placencia on the beautiful Hummingbird Highway, which was lined with orange groves and banana trees. Earlier in the week he'd stopped by the market and taught me that green oranges are actually tastier than orange ones (fact), and I bought eight for 50 cents. When we arrived in Placencia, a more touristy, beach village on a eight-mile peninsula, we said our goodbyes and posed for a few pictures, which he wants for his Facebook.

We stayed at the Laru Beya Resort which we found to be much less friendly and accommodating compared to our last four days in San Ignacio. Plus we had a room adjoining someone's kitchen, and they liked digging through an ice machine at 6 a.m. Luckily, our routine seemed to be sleeping by 9 p.m. and up by 5:30 a.m.

We only did one tour - a boat ride and hike to Monkey River where we saw howler monkeys that had deafening howls (true to their name) when the guides pounded machetes against their trees. On the way back we saw lots of birds, manatees and dolphins.

The rest of our trip we spent by the pool or biking the four miles into town to grab cheaper dinner or Tutti Frutti gelato. Total miles biked: 16.

And other than sweat pouring into our eyes, there were other biking hazards:

I wish I could tell you about all the great food we ate but really, if it weren't for the baby belly, I'm pretty sure I would have lost 10 pounds. We drank water and ate Luna bars more regularly than good meals. Traditional Belize food is rice and beans with chicken or beef, which is good for two meals tops. A nice grounds keeper at the hotel, noticing my round tummy, cut down a coconut to drain the water for me because of its extreme health benefits.

The disappointing service and food made us miss San Ignacio (and home!) but it was hard to argue with the scenery.

And my 20/21 week belly shot, which I'd like to point out significantly grew in eight days. 

We had to take a small, teeny tiny plane to get back to the Belize City airport, which had laminated boarding passes (confidence booster). The entire time the baby was kicking me, and I was motion sick and bargaining with God. But we landed in one piece.

Our final and completely unexpected memory was Jet's Bar at the airport. He's famous, all 4'5 of him. And prides himself in taking pictures with women while shoving his head into their chest. The dozens of pictures around the bar prove it.

And, you know, just for fun:

Sadly the biggest problem I have with this sign is the random capitalization. But it does beg the question, who is flushing toilets with their feet so much that it's creating a noticeable problem worthy of a sign?

When we got to Atlanta Monday night, I may or may not have eaten half a large pizza.

All in all, we loved Belize. I can't tell you I'd go back because I don't like repeating trips. Most tourists go to the cayes for snorkeling and scuba diving. But alas, we are both terrified of deep water so we chose culture, relaxation (and apparently a lot of exercise) and excursions instead. It was a good choice for us.

Bottom line, we got to be together for nine days without interruption, which has pretty much never happened. And probably won't happen again for a very long time. We just celebrated everyday as a family of two. I loved it so much that I cried on the plane home because when the wheels touched the ground it meant work, cooking, cleaning, packing moving boxes, and spending at least eight hours apart every day.

But I think we're ready now to be a family of three. But in four months... don't rush me yet!

trip report: belize, part one

We chose Belize for our vacation mostly because we had enough Delta miles to go there for free and in general wanted to avoid touristy, resorty, snotty islands.

After the three hour flight from Atlanta to Belize City, we met our driver, William, who took us on the two hour drive to San Ignacio in the Cayo district. San Ignacio is only about 15 minutes from the Guatemala border.

We stayed at the Cahal Pech Village Resort, which means "place of ticks." Despite that, we saw none. What we did notice was the blistering heat pushing 110 degrees. Luckily our cabana was equipped with a fairly effective window air conditioner and a hammock that dipped dangerously close to the ground (and no, not because I am getting that fat).

We did most of our adventuring here with a trip to Jaguar Paw for cave tubing (awesome but pictures are still on an underwater camera) and then a trip to Guatemala to see the Tikal ruins. I'm a sucker for history/anthropology type activities so this was by far my favorite day despite the fact it was HOT. Tikal is the largest Mayan ruin site in Central America complete with temples, pyramids and palaces, which we can now tell you the difference between the structures. Our guide, Jose, was a 18-year-old Guatemalan who used to live in Pennsylvania and is as close to an expert of Mayan culture as I have ever met. I am convinced that because our guide was a teenager, I got to do a lot more climbing than if we'd had an older guide who was much more aware of my pregnant belly. For example, when you are in Belize and cave tubing pregnant, you will not carry your own 5-pound intertube.

We first climbed Temple IV, where the warning held "the wall is your friend." It's 230 feet high, the tallest pre-Columbian structure.

That's it. Little ledge, large cliff. Shea ended up climbing Temple V which Jose tagged as "the dangerous one."  I stayed at the bottom with another guide who told me pregnancy was no excuse for laziness and the reason I was having a boy was because I ate too many oranges.

Shea's waving (to the right of Jose in the yellow shirt)

Jose was great about taking us behind the scenes where the other visitors weren't going as well as showing us the wildlife - like these monkeys! Just chilling with their babies.

monkey! monkey!

He showed us the all spice tree (smells just like your spice drawer) which when crushed and placed on your tongue alarmingly resembles Novocaine. He kicked a tarantula web which we were definitely NOT interested in seeing.

On the way back, we got a little delayed because of about 100 of these:

Our driver dropped us off at the border where we ambled through really big guns and scary immigration guards only to find ourselves alone on the other side hassled by a cashew salesman until our driver showed up. Guatemala is a very different place from Belize, and many Guatemalans don't recognize Belize as a country since at one point back in the British ruling the world days they were one territory. Plus, they've got really big guns there.

The rest of our time in San Ignacio was spent hanging out at the pool, wandering into town for food, drinking a lot of watermelon juice (best.thing.ever.) and playing a lot of Bananagrams. The town was about a mile down a very large gravel hill, which we comfortably walked until a couple got robbed a gunpoint. Then we sprung for the $2.50 cab ride. Still, we found the people of San Ignacio to be very accommodating and taking great pride in their culture. We took long naps every afternoon and found that eating was second to drinking liters and liters of water each day.

Mid-week we headed to Placencia on the east coast with our favorite driver Mr. Chan. Stay tuned!

peace out

Oh hello sweet vacation!

First stop, Atlanta for 24 hours to wait for our flight, rehydrate and sightsee. Because of my incessant need to tour every media outlet in the country, our first stop is CNN Headquarters. Then we're off to the Martin Luther King, Jr. historic site since my second favorite travel stop is really old stuff. I think Shea has resigned himself that our family vacations will always consist of newsroom tours or important people's graves. And this time he's smartly wearing his running shoes because he's become accustomed to my "OMG we have to see everything in case we don't come back!" style. As if this baby belly will slow me down! (Note to my mother: I packed Gatorade packets for my bottled water. I'm being responsible and hydrated.) Then it's dinner at the Varsity, the world's largest drive-in.

Then we're off to Belize for nine days! We have our hotels arranged and our shuttle from the airport to San Ignacio. After that, we're winging it. We have no idea how we're getting to Placencia for the second half of our trip but what fun would it be if we did? I know I want to see a howler monkey, not get bit by a scorpion, see the Tikal ruins in Guatemala, lay on a beach, not get sick from the water and enjoy every single second of the last time we vacation as a family of two. At least for a really long time.

And in case you forgot, while it's snowing here in KC, this is where we'll be:

See you in 10 days!

counting the days

In 23 days I will be on a plane to this:

Belize! We're headed to the Cayo District (jungle) and then the beaches of Placencia for 10 days! I'm going to eat rice and beans, enchiladas and seafood. And gelato. We'll be cave tubing, traveling to Guatemala for Mayan ruins and going on a boat tour looking for monkeys. Then I will relax and show off my baby bump in all its bathing suit glory.

No website launches, grad school literature reviews, taking the dog out, cooking dinner or checking my email.

Just me and Shea. And the bump.

i'm a citizen, really.

I love my passport. It's evidence of all the places I've experienced, expect for the one time I went to Paraguay in the back of the van - no passport stamps there!

However, I have a beef with the State Department. My current passport was issued in 2004, meaning it still has a good four years left. But, my name has changed. If my passport would have been issued within the last year, it'd be a FREE passport update. But since it's been six years, I have to pay $110 for a new one. $110 to prove I am a U.S. citizen!

Not only that, but I have to give up my cute, smiling picture for a no makeup, no jewelry, no smile, white background, crappy camera photo that makes me look like I've single-handedly raised 10 kids and not slept for three months. Joy.

And my quest to fill all the pages of my passport will fail despite the fact Argentina seems to give a stamp every time you cross the street. Let's hope Belize and Guatemala are also liberal with their stamping.

On the plus side, I do appreciate the fact I can drop off my application and horrifying photos at the post office instead of mailing them to Philly - that saves me five bucks at least. Bargain shopping! You can find a passport acceptance facility near you here. 

Fun in St. Charles, Mo.

This weekend we headed to St. Charles, Missouri as a gift to my mom who had always wanted to go there, but also as a relaxing family weekend. St. Charles is a super cute suburb of St. Louis that finds itself in the stories of Daniel Boone and Lewis and Clark. The shops, inns and restaurants have been restored making the Main Street a shopping mecca with 125 shops including this one with an impressive collection of hot sauces.

We stayed at the Lococo House where I unabashedly ate french toast, sausage, potatoes, eggs, chocolate pie and biscuits. Our room also included a fainting couch, so naturally, we did a lot of post-breakfast fainting.

 My favorite, though, might have been meeting our fellow traveler Josie who declared that she's been told "fourth grade is the best year of your life." The most I remember was my teacher reading "Where the Red Fern Grows" and having to stop in the middle because she was crying. I hope her fourth grade year is more memorable.

We spent time at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, mostly celebrating the 10-year anniversary of our senior pictures. My dad did not participate.

We ended the day with some beautiful and tasty Missouri wineries.

Both evenings we played Risk - including on the Fourth of July. My family is so patriotic.
Dominating the world > Fireworks.

We ended the weekend with a run along the river and one last cheese tasting.

Great weekend!