Just a little glimpse of Colombia

First Foreign Trip With Kids
...and we survived!

Here we are at the airport in Salt Lake. We had to get the kids up at 4 a.m. to make our 7:00 flight. Don't we all look awesome?!?

This contraption SAVED OUR LIVES. It's a doggie tent. We set it up in the airport during both layovers so Pip could nap. He is not a lap napper; he has to have a bed, and this little tent did the trick. Squeak used it the whole time in Colombia for naptime and nighttime. Bless you, Ann!

We had a wonderful trip to Colombia! I was so thrilled to be outside the U.S. again (I used to take foreign trips at least twice a year, but haven't since we've had kids), and we were all so excited to visit D's parents who are missionaries in Bogota. We affectionately call them "Baba" and "Otro Baba" because of Squeak.

I must admit, I was nervous about the prospect of all-day travel with two high-energy kids whose worst nightmare is sitting still. I got some great travel gear and advice from a friend who regularly travels with kids--so helpful! The kids did well, considering, but toward the end of our flight down to Bogota, Squeak was screaming, "No mas avion!"

D spent most of the time working at a nearby hospital. I spent most of the time hanging out with Baba and the kids. We all had a lot of fun! It was really nice for our kids to discover that Spanish is not just their parents' language--Squeak was so pleased to find out that everyone in Colombia understood her. Nursery on Sunday was especially fun for the munchkins.

Well, this post is already feeling too long. I've decided not to give a travelogue, just brief captions for the photos.

Museo del Oro and getting to know the city: D and I got to go on a date! Here are our fans waving to us when we came back. So cute!



These guys aren't statues--they're real people! They were all over the place.

Lots of gold!
Golden grimaces


Birth in the squatting position--I love how all cultures revered birth and fertility enough to make it part of their art.
Being great with child, I just had to pose next to it


Mass at Catedral Primada--it was so neat to be there!

This photo is terrible, but I had to get a shot of all those roses--they're real!

I thought this message in Plaza Bolivar was quite profound


Squeak and Otro Baba on Monserrate

We did this awesome hike. Segun, this crater lake was where the treasures of the famed city "El Dorado" were hidden.

We even got to go to the Bogota Temple (just a 15-minute walk from the apartment!)

My very own store!

Happily eating Baba's waffles

Independence Day for the second time this year--It happened in Colombia while we were there, and we got to see all the flags and celebration in this little town.

Our little monkeys were in heaven with the cheap and plentiful bananas

Maybe I'll post some more photos later...

Tres Primaveras

Scenes from the running trail near Skunk Creek

We are so lucky this year to be able to experience springtime THREE TIMES! I enjoyed the lovely desert flowers near my jogging trail in Phoenix. Just as it started to heat up, we moved to Utah, where spring was just beginning. It was a longer-than-normal spring here, with wonderful rainstorms through May, June, and even into July. I have loved all the green and feel lucky for the extra rain (making up for all the rain I missed out on in Arizona!). Well, now it's starting to heat up in Utah, and we're heading to Colombia, where we will experience yet another spring--temps mostly in the 50s and 60s with lots of rain. Ahhh!

One Fine Placenta

I am fascinated with the human body. I loved my anatomy and physiology classes in high school and college--they strengthened my belief in God and the perfect order He created. I am especially awed by the fact that women's bodies were created to grow and nourish a baby. When Squeak was born, I felt complete reverence knowing that my body had created her entire self from two cells in a mere nine months.

Pretty much my only regret with Squeak's birth is that I didn't get a photo of her placenta. It was awesome, so healthy and large and amazing... I made sure to get a photo of Pip's placenta, not wanting to make the same mistake twice. I won't be uploading that photo, though. The nurse was a little, shall we say, indiscreet with her aim, and since I don't have Photoshop... Oh, well.

The PLACENTA... If you're not a biology person, you may not know this, but pretty much all your body does during the first trimester is make a placenta. Yes, of course, the baby is developing and different organs are forming, but the major GROWTH that occurs in the unborn baby doesn't happen until after the placenta is formed. Your body grows a placenta and your placenta grows a baby. And the placenta is a new organ (but just a temporary one)--so in approximately 12 weeks, the woman's body creates a whole new organ. WOW! That's why I'm always so excited to see the placenta when I have a baby.

Squirt's placenta: Well, this must be one fine placenta, because my body sure worked hard to make it. I never felt so sick with my other two pregnancies. I was curled up on the couch for most of the day, every day. Unfortunately, not knowing how ill I would feel, I had already committed to hosting and running my birthday half-marathon, finishing up one HypnoBirthing class and teaching another, throwing a baby shower, watching my friend's 2-year-old for a few days while she was in the hospital having a baby, and getting ready to move out of state. This time period also coincided with one of D's busiest months of the year. I'm not sure how we survived, to be honest. I was so grateful for the visit of my sis and our dear friends during that time--it helped keep my mind off the fact that I felt like poo all the time. After I'd done the stuff I'd committed to do, I decided to lay low. I didn't clean the house, buy food, or even go out unless it was absolutely necessary. I was a little bit worried about our upcoming move, but fortunately I stopped feeling like throwing up a few weeks before, so I was able to pack and stuff (although 2+ months of being sick had made me completely disorganized, blah!), plus we had a bunch of people bail us out.

So maybe I'll get a good shot of Squirt's placenta this time. I'm interested to see if my theory is correct--the harder your body works to make the placenta, the more robust your placenta is.

100th Post Announcements

So many things to announce! Here we go...

My friends, today, for the first time in almost 17 months, I didn't wear a nursing bra. Pip actually decided to wean himself about a week and a half ago, but with my stuff still in boxes, I couldn't find anything except what I've been wearing. Until today. Anyway, I'm grateful for a healthy body and (more than) ample milk production that has been able to nourish my baby for all this time.

Pip's eyes are not brown. Nor are they blue. They are a greenish grayish color--really cool!

Squeak just turned three. She is unbelievably smart, speaking in 10-20 word sentences regularly. D says, "If I had a brain like hers, med school would be a breeze." She is also incredibly talented. More about her talents later.

Little Squirt is starting to look more obvious. Squirt is our fetus. (S)he is swimming all over the place and very soon I'm going to have to give up my favorite sleeping position (on my back) for my less-preferred sleep position (on my side). Squirt is around 24 weeks old.

D is busy studying for boards again. He loves it!

I'm busy unpacking (sometimes) and trying to get out on regular runs (very SLOW runs) and taking an almost-daily nap.

I'm dying to announce something else but am not at liberty to announce it until who knows when... so you'll have to check back.

Birthday Half-Marathon

I still haven't posted about my birthday party. I felt bad not posting about Pip's birthday first, and then with moving and all... Ah, the excuses!

This time I had a dozen runners show up, along with lots of babies in strollers. My awesome sister came down to run again, this time with three kids! (Her 7-year-old rode a bike). D even ran this time (3rd year of med school isn't quite as time-consuming as the first two years, so he's around for more than 30 minutes a day now). He hadn't trained like I had, but he still beat my time by over an hour.



I was NOT a champion for this race. Although I had trained diligently, it was just not my day. I bonked at mile 6 and thought I'd quit right there, but then I thought, "Hey, this is my birthday race. I'm going to finish even if I have to walk part of it." So I walked for part of it. I was also pushing the munchkins, but D came and took them around mile 7 and I was so grateful!

I love this shot of me behind the bushes--it was toward the end and I'd started running again.

My not-so-glorious finish (but I did run the last mile or two!). I have never run such a slow half-marathon. I was dead-last, and by the time I finished, almost all the other runners had gone home. They told me they had a lot of fun running though! I was just glad to know that I finished the race I started.

Famous Squeak

We have an artist friend who wanted to paint Squeak for her upcoming show. You can view the painting here: "Night Time Butterflies." I love it! I can't wait to see it in real life (tonight!).

So, who wants to donate to the "purchase Squeak's painting" fund???

No Longer Homeless but Going Through CVS Withdrawals

We've moved! As with any move, I anticipated about a week of being in limbo--a few days before and a few days after with packing and then unpacking and getting settled. We didn't plan for three weeks though. The kids have held up remarkably well (Squeak felt displaced without her crib and "Mo" and other special things, but the tantrums were minimal considering, and Pip didn't even seem fazed). After being homeless for two weeks, we've MOVED IN (this doesn't mean we're unpacked; it just means we're sleeping in our own place). My parents were very patient and let us stay with them until we could move in here.

We had a lot of help from family and friends--babysitting, meals, cleaning and packing, taking extras to Savers or the dumpster, loading and unloading, etc. and we're so grateful. We couldn't have done it without everyone's help!

The great thing about life is that we can learn things that will (if we're wise) help us in the future. We've learned some very valuable lessons from this move. Here are all the "dos and don'ts:"

DO:

1. Sell and Re-buy if you're moving to a different city. We thought it sounded like a good idea before we did it, but now we're absolutely sold on the concept. We sold almost all of our furniture and extra stuff on Craigslist: curio cabinet, kitchen chairs, extra strollers, bikes, microwave, old computer monitors, printer, bookshelves, bassinet, freezer, hammock, desk and office chair... What a thrill to not have to pack and transport all that stuff!!

2. Call Penske, U-haul, and Budget and ask them to price match to give you a better deal on truck rentals. I started with a quote of almost $600 and got down to under $300. I sure love a bargain!

3. Start packing early, and pack the things you're not using and get them out of the way. I didn't do this very well because I kept thinking I had to pack a whole room at a time. Nonsense!

4. Go through your stuff and get rid of what you don't want a few months before moving. I sort of did this, but I was busy in other ways at the time and didn't focus like I should have.

5. Get more boxes than you think you'll need, plus packing supplies like bubble wrap, newspaper, and tape, and have them ready ahead of time. We were so blessed to get all the boxes we needed for free from nice people on Craigslist. We love Craigslist!

6. Fly your awesome, service-oriented brother down to help you pack, clean, and drive with two little kids.


DON'T:

1. Don't move out of state over a weekend. We rolled out of Phoenix late Saturday afternoon and D had to be at work in Provo on Monday morning. BAD IDEA!

2. Don't try to drive a moving truck over Hoover Dam. The dam guy wouldn't let D through and he ended up driving 180 extra miles (on top of driving all night). Also, it was stupid for us to take separate routes. I went straight north through Page (slightly shorter route) and D went through Las Vegas (safer for a big truck because of better roads and weather). If we had gone the same route, D could've slept in our hotel room instead of being stuck in the truck all night.

3. Don't leave on a 10-hour drive at 4 p.m. with two little kids and expect to drive straight through. After a few hours of Pip screaming, we decided to spend the night in Kanab. My kind parents called ahead and booked a hotel, ready with two cribs and a yummy breakfast in the morning.

4. Don't unload your moving truck until your new place is ready to move into. We unfortunately had no control over this and had to unload our truck into the garage. All my careful labeling was for naught because instead of the kitchen boxes going into the kitchen and the bedroom boxes into the bedroom, etc. everything was a jumbled mess in the garage. Finding things (now that we are actually living in the house) has been a real challenge.



And about those withdrawals...
Last night I had to BUY some baby wipes. It was so sad. I kept thinking that if there was a CVS here, I could get them for free. Boo hoo hoo!!

Happy Birthday to Pip!

Goldilocks turned one! We have enjoyed his presence in our family so much over the past year and couldn't imagine life without him.

I made a banana cake with whipped cream and bananas on top for our boy, just like I did for Squeak. I think I'll do the same for all of our babies when they turn one. My little monkeys sure love bananas! He just couldn't keep his hands away when he saw what it was!
We celebrated Pip's birthday (over three months ago) by going to the Grand Canyon for New Years Eve. We originally thought we'd pack the kids down and back up. Ha ha ha, so funny! Fortunately, it snowed over a foot the week before our trip, so that option was out (too slippery), and we decided to instead walk the rim and enjoy the view. Good choice!

I'm wearing my hood not because it was so cold, but because Pip kept pulling my hair. Funny Pip!

Someone did the creative piggy man and I just had to take a photo

The snowy rim. It was quite lovely.

Below is one of the last photos we took with our camera. It was on the bus going back to the car after two days of hiking the rim. Squeak loved the bus! But we had a little tragedy as I tried to pass the camera to D and in the exchange, it dropped and broke.

We were really glad it wasn't one of our kids that got dropped, and also that the camera dropped at the end of our trip. And I was secretly glad for the excuse to get a new camera.

Family shot with the parents looking good and the kids not really looking

Bright sun!

Squeak enjoyed the snow for her first time and made this mini "hombre de nieve" with her Dada

Hooah, look at my strong husband packing around 60+ pounds of kids and gear!

Our munchkins loved being outside and they loved hanging out in the backpacks.

Little Pip: What's not to love??
There are so many things we enjoy about our boy. Here are just a few:

His goldilocks
His gappy grin and giggles
His "affectionate growl"--he growls with delight at things he loves, like his sister, his Mama, his Dada, breastfeeding, dogs, horses, birds, airplanes...
His speedy crawl and the pitter-patter it makes across the carpet
His clapping sign, which means either "mas" (comida) or "si" depending on what we ask him
The way he holds his arms up and says, "arriba" (actually sounds like, "ri") to be picked up
How thrilled his is about knocking over a tower of blocks
The way he worships the vacuum cleaner
How awesome he is at giving hugs (he growls as he hugs too)
His healthy appetite
How much he loves balls--he throws them and crawls after them, just like my sweet Bruno
The way he loves babies (actually dolls--he picked this up from Squeak)
That he loves going for runs with his Mama and Squeak--I'm so blessed to have two kids who are content in the Baby Jogger so I can get my run in almost every day.
How ticklish he is
How he kneels on the floor to play (with his little feet tucked behind his bum). Love the toes!

What can I say? He is our favorite son!