Grand Canyon - March 21, 2012

Allan and I arrived at Grand Canyon at about 8:00pm. The sun was down so we ate some of our snacks and went to bed. I had booked us in the Yavapai Lodge which was 1/2 mile from the rim of the canyon. It was worth it to be in the park and within walking distance to the rim, but the room was very bare bones and not the cleanest. Pretty much what I expected after reading reviews on line.

We slept well and headed out fairly early to walk the "trail of time" and have breakfast/lunch in the resturant. We had a slight marital meltdown on the way to the rim but managed to get back on track and in there in one piece (and still married). As much as I have travelled, I have never been to the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful. Honestly, you need to see it to believe it.

We walked along the rim with the stroller to the Bright Angel Lodge where we had breakfast. We both ate well since we were getting ready for our hike. I was sad that we could not stay at Bright Angel or El Tovar - but was happy to be in the Grand Canyon with my boys!:) After lunch we headed back to the room and pack up before our check out time. We (I) had decided to hike the South Kaibab Trail because someone had told me it was prettier than the Bright Angel Trail. We had also seen the Bright Angel trailhead, and it was pretty much solid ice. I hoped that the Kaibab trail was less icy.

Yes, the first part of the trail was solid ice.....it was slow going (it was much icier than this picture shows). I had Henry in the bjorn for the trip down so I was super slow and careful on the ice. I wish we had brought our yak-trax! After we got out of the icy parts, it was MUDDY! The good news was that there were no mules and there was not dust.

We hiked down to ooh-aah point where we had lunch and took a break. At that point, Allan took over Henry in the bjorn and we started hiking out of the canyon!

The hike out was just as beautiful. It was shocking how fast the mud was drying. It was actually easier going back up since the mud was almost gone and the ice was melting. (I was also 16lbs lighter). At the top of the trail and on our way out of the park, I was so sad. I wanted to stay and hike more. Allan and I both agreed that we want to go back again and spend more time in the park.

Sedona - March 20, 2012

We woke up on Tuesday morning to SUN! No more snow with fast melting snow as well. That was the good news...the bad news was that my Pink Jeep Tour for 10:00 was cancelled because it was going to be too icy/muddy. I had booked myself on the 10:00am tour and Allan on the noon tour. Luckily, I was able to rebook on the 2:00pm tour. Multiple people had told me that Pink Jeep Tours are a Sedona "must".

We headed back to Red Rock State Park for another hike since we had the pass from the night before. After consulting with the friendly rangers, we decided to hike the Eagle Nest trail. This trail was 1.9 miles and we figured we could easily hike it in 2 hours (which would then give us time to get back into town for Allan's tour).

The hike was beautiful. Henry seemed to like being in the Bjorn again, but fussed after an hour till we stopped and fed him a bottle. He fussed some more afterwards but we kept walking. He finally passed out and we realized back at the center, he had a major poop. I felt bad that we had not checked (we did when he ate).

We headed back into town so Allan could take is Pink Jeep Tour (Broken Arrow). I wandered around town for an hour and then found a nice sunny place to sit and enjoy a coffee for an hour. Sedona is beautiful, but the town is pretty much your standard tourist trap town with tee shirt shops, vortex shops, and LOTS of stairs (not easy to navigate around with a stroller).

Finally it was MY turn for the Pink Jeep Tour. It was fabulous and I would highly recommend it! I was placed with a really fun family that was celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary. I had already met some of the women in the bathroom, while I was changing Henry. Wear sunblock and your seatbelt though.....


I was hungry after the tour but Allan had had some bad food experiences while he was walking around town with Henry so we set off for the Grand Canyon! There was a Dairy Queen stop along the way outside of Sedona......

Sedona, March 19, 2012 (Part II)

We headed back to Sedona after our fabulous lunch at 15.Quince. The weather was clearing as he got back to Sedona and we decided to head to Red Rock State Park. We had tried to go on Sunday, but it was closed (I think for weather and time). We arrived at 4:00pm and decided to go in even though it closed at 5:00pm. The nice ranger gave us a pass for Tuesday since it was so close to the end of the day.
We set off on the House of Apache Fire hike since we had less than an hour.

Allan was in charge of the map and Henry.

Henry did great on his first hike.

We headed back to the hotel after the hike and the baby and I slept from 6pm till 7am. I ate a handfull of nuts about 9pm but that was it. Allan kept telling me that I would be up in the middle of the night - HA!

Sedona/Jerome, March 19, 2012 (part I)

We woke up Monday morning and hit the hotel breakfast at 7:00am (when it opened) with all of the other parents who were desparate to get out of their hotel rooms at about 6:45am..... Sedona was still expected to receive snow all day so we decided to drive down to lower elevations and see some sights.

First was Montezuma's Castle. This is a small national park built around an amazing 20 room cliff dwelling that is about 1,000 years old. It was amazing how much better the weather was at a lower elevation and we loved being able to get out and walk around. Henry loved the Bjorn.

We then decided to drive to Jerome to walk around and eat a late lunch. Jerome was an old mining town built up on the mountainside (literally). It is now and artist/tourist town and we had fun walking around. We had lunch at 15.Quince. It was the best meal I have had this year. I had the “Las Comadres” Chile Relleno". I could rave for hours about how good this was with both red and green chile. yum, yum, yum.

Allan and I were fading out after lunch so we bailed on the state park and headed back to Sedona.

Sedona, March 18, 2012

Allan and I have been waiting (impatiently) for spring break. Typically, March in Chicago is very unpredictable, with one last snowstorm. This year, we left beautiful early spring weather in the 80's for Sedona. The plan was to hike and see the sights. Once again, Henry was a travel champ on the plane and in the car. We arrived Saturday night.....at the leading edge of a HUGE snowstorm!

Sunday, we got up and spent a little time driving around trying to see the sights. We drove up to the airport lookout and froze trying to get a picture. In this photo, the baby was in a car seat sleeping, soon to start screaming. We tried to drive around town but the roads were not good. We ended up going to a grocery story for sandwich fixings and snacks and headed back to the room.

We ventured out later that day for dinner and drove by the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It was beautiful in the snow....


After our brief detour, we had dinner at Oak Creek Brewery. The food was VERY average. If you are in Sedona, I would say to skip it..... We headed back to the hotel and rented Horrible Bosses. I was not thrilled to see the movie, but it was very funny.

Man Down!

I had a great time drinking tasty beverages out this week at Flight 1551 on Wells with these lovely ladies....


Unfortunately, after three glasses of wine, I stepped off a curb onto a slight uneven piece of pavement and went down with a twisted ankle. Bummer:( I had had a good run/walk on Wednesday with the jogging stroller (jogging stroller + baby + dog + high winds = MAJOR WORKOUT) and was looking forward to more Thursday but decided to be smart (hard for me). I had really been looking forward to going back to the gym on Thursday night (my membership came off of hold March 1) for Group Groove. BOO!

Onwards and upwards!

South Carolina, February 2012

This blog started as a travel blog. I used to write "daily email updates" when I traveled (this was before blogs) and people loved them. I always said, it is not about what happened, it is about the story you tell. It was a fun thing to find an internet cafe at the end of the day and type up what happened while drinking a tasty beverage....This blog started as a way to keep all of my travel memories in one place. Never thought I would be posting about marriage and motherhood! Times change.

I headed to Mt. Pleasant to hang with the parents this past week. I was originally invited to Soliman Bay in Mexico but decided that I was not up for taking my first trip with Henry (solo) out of the country. I also did not have enough frequent fliyer miles to get me down there ( I did not book soon enough). Luckily, I found a $200 round trip ticket on Southwest (LOVE) and $9 a day parking at MIdway. How could I turn it down? Especially since I am still on *Maternity Leave*? iroll - sometimes I wish I worked for the school district still so I could have had an actual maternity leave. oh well!

The trip was a total success! Henry was a champ. I allowed plenty of time and made sure he was hungry so he was ready to eat through take off and landing. On the way down he slept through takeoff and landing and was awake and happy the entire flight. He started fussing as soon as we turned into my parents driveway.

Coming home, he ate through takeoff and landing and napped on and off through the flight. Getting up at 4:00am was brutal (but worth it for the cheap flight.) I was also lucky that people were more than happy to help me with my luggage on the plane and Southwest made my life easy with curbside checkin. The flights were not totally full so I had an extra seat next to me both ways. It was really pretty easy! Let's hope Henry was not luring me in for the kill. Phoenix next month is looming....


I did not do much other than (try to) get a lot of sleep, do "two a day" run/walks around the 2.4 mile loop my parents live on, and hang out. My Mom and I saw The Artist and The Decendants. My Dad and I went downtown one day to drop off quilts at the quilt show and eat BBQ (yum). I also visited Belk for more "free clothes". Belk in SC is a season ahead of Chicago so I love to go and shop the clearance racks. Five tops for $50 and a pair of Born boots for $35. Woot! I need some help to hide the muffin top:(

My Mom hosted a "sip n see" for Henry to meet some of the ladies my Mom hangs out with and who have known me for years. It was great success and Henry was a champ being held by lots of strangers. He totally conked out by the end of the party though...


My parents were amazing and I did not want to come home. It was SO nice to have 24/7 help with Henry so I could go for a run, take a shower, try to sleep another hour at 5:00am (my mom is an early riser). My goal is to keep going to bed early so the midnight feedings don't kill me. Henry is sleeping for up to 7 hours at a stretch, but he goes down at 7:00pm so he is up at 3:00am! boooooo If only I could keep him up and start the 7 hours at 10!:)

Passport

Henry and I were invited to Mexico later this month back in January. After much soul searching, I decided not to go and am headed to South Carolina instead to see my parents and get some sun. I found a GREAT flight on Southwest so it was a no brainer that Henry and I head there.

Just the thought of going to Mexico had me thinking and we applied for a passport for Henry. At that point, Henry was 3 weeks old. I followed the instructions on the Department of State website and took the following photo:

It was rejected:(. They did not like the folds in the fabric (although the website said you could put them in a car seat to take the picture). Putting him on the floor and trying to have him "look at the camera with his eyes open" was NOT happening. Not enough head control.

I have since been trying to take a better photo and will head to CVS tomorrow in an attempt to get an acceptable photo. I want to use this one....

but am afraid they will not like the face (although I think it is adorable). I'm also worried about the shadow.

I also have this one:

but I am still worried about the shadow. How do I not have a shadow, looking down on him using a flash?

grrrrr


PS - I can't believe that I never posted this! They accepted my photo (the last one pictured) and Henry is ready to go! I guess it is a good think the picture was rejected, I realized that his middle name was misspelled on their records so I was able to correct that before the passport was printed.

Now we are ready to head to Prague this summer! (I wish!)

Workouts/Eating 2/6-2/12

Last Saturday (2/4) Allan and I were talking. We both felt like we needed to get "back on track" with our eating and working out. I could tell that I was slowly gaining some weight, and was really focused on my squishy belly/muffin top. While I don't feel like I am ready for Weight Watchers or anything formal, it was time to be a little more focused.

Weekly goals (starting Monday).
1. Write down everything you eat
2. Work out at least 3 times

My unofficial additional goals were to eat *real food* and only eat when hungry.

Workouts:
Tuesday 2/7 - ran/walked 2.8 miles
Wednesday 2/8 - ran/walked 2.7 miles
Saturday 2/11 - pilates ( I held my first *real* plank post baby and realized how weak I am).
Sunday 2/12 - crossfit interval class - 35 minutes to complete jello body!

It has been good to write everything down, which I did without cheating. I got on the scale Tuesday and saw that I had been gaining (I had not been on the scale in a month) so was glad that I was stopping the slide. Every morning I woke up hungry. I had a little meltdown Thursday when I saw that I had only lost .4 lbs in 2 days (I know, total eye roll). In response, I over ate and made poor choices. I am glad that I got back on track quickly.

baby steps.....

8 Weeks

Henry turned 8 weeks old on Wednesday. He is growing like a weed and eats like a beast. I am seeing more smiles and love it when he "holds on" while I am carrying him. More and more of a personality is coming out, I live for his smiles - which are not as frequent as I would like.

Allan and I have been working on a consistent bedtime and bedtime routine. At this point, we are trying to start the routine between 7 and 8 at night and it consists of: bath, lotion rubdown/massage, food. He usually crashes pretty hard and sleeps for about 5-6 hours. I am trying to decide if I want to start waking him up at 11 or 12 for a *snack* in an attempt to get a little more sustained sleep but have not tried it yet. It is clear that the more he sleeps, the better he sleeps. On Wednesday, he did not sleep well during the day and we had the worst night since he came home, he was up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Thank God I got him back on track and he slept better on Thursday.



Henry continues to eat A LOT. I am taking fenugreek to try to boost my milk production but there is no way I am making enough so we are still also giving him formula. Honestly, I am glad given that he is a slow nurser and I HATE pumping (although I am getting a little more mellow on the pumping). In the last few days, Henry is starting to *urp* up MUCH more than he ever did. I am trying to make sure we are diligent about burping him, which does help. He has started burping like a sailor (LOUD) which makes me laugh.

I can see his vision really improving and he is much more content to lie on his playmat or sit in his bouncy seat and bat at the toys. I am going to try to upload a video...