Roatan, Honduras | Week 1

That’s right, folks…Erin is back on the road!  This time, along with Brett, and Delilah (17 months), we also brought my 12-year-old step son, Alek.  What a crowd!  We are headed to Roatan, Honduras for two weeks, followed by five weeks in the USA (four weeks in Wisconsin and one in Seattle/California).

Now if everyone thought I was a bit nuts for bringing a 7-month-old to Europe for six weeks last year, they thought I was flat out ready for the looney bin when they heard I was carting a (very rambunctious) toddler to three different continents over a seven week period.  And I gotta say…they were partly right.  The flight was NOT fun.  Scratch that, the flight was absolute TORTURE.  Particularly the long flight, in which she was squirming, screaming, running into the aisles, and AWAKE for 12 of the 14 hours.  I was seriously losing it on more than one occasion.  All I can say is, thank goodness for a husband with infinitely more patience than myself!

After about 40 hours of flying, an overnight stay in a hotel in Atlanta (at which Delilah woke up for the day at midnight), and a whole lot of tantrums, we finally arrived in Roatan.  Mom and Dad met us there and took us straight over to their holiday house on the water.  I hadn’t been here before and about died when we walked in the door and saw this:

SERIOUSLY???  Then I actually walked out on the balcony to discover that this was our panoramic view:

A-maz-ing.  The best part of the house though is the colour.  It’s bright pink with lime green trim…so very tropical.  So it’s only fitting that Mom and Dad have named the house ‘The Pink Orchid’.  I love it!  I haven’t taken very many photos of the outside yet, but here’s one we took from a kayak on our second day here:

You’ll have to excuse the poor quality of many of the photos on here…while I brought the big camera, it’s just not practical in most beachy situations, so we have been using the little camera 99% of the time!

The first thing we did was run straight down to the dock and jump in for a snorkel.  We’d heard that there was good snorkeling just 20 meters from the dock, and we couldn’t wait to check it out.

And we were absolutely AMAZED at all of the gorgeous coral and seal life we found within a 20 meter square radius of the dock.  This is truly a snorkeling and diving heaven here in Roatan.  Here’s some shots we got using our underwater camera…love that thing!

The next morning we got up and set out for lunch at The Hole in the Wall.  The Hole in the Wall is a famous restaurant here in Roatan.  It really is a big hole in the wall…just a shack on stilts over the water that you need to take a boat to get to.  It’s very charming, despite the dilapidated appearance.  Only open on Sundays for lunch, it serves the most delicious all-you-can-eat lobster and steak.  Mom and Dad never miss a Sunday at Hole in the Wall, so this one was no exception.

Here we are on the boat:

It was Delilah’s first boat ride and she LOVED it!

Coming up to The Hole in the Wall:

Yum yum!

And since they encourage writing on the walls, we we decided to leave our mark

We spend most afternoons just hanging around on the balcony soaking up the sun and the views.  It is just glorious and hard to even look away from the gorgeous view for even a second!  We love the lounge chairs, eat our breakfast on the outdoor bar table and chairs, and even sit out there to check our email.  It’s such an amazing spot!

And Dad enjoying some coconut milk, picked fresh from one of their trees:

A few days later, we decided to head out to the reef for some hard core snorkeling.  The reef is literally 300 meters from the dock and stretches for as far as the eye can see in either direction.  We had planned on swimming it, but at the last second we managed to flag down some fisherman who took us out to the reef, gave us an hour-long personal snorkeling tour, and brought us back home all for $20.

The reef here in Roatan is the second largest coral reef in the world (after the Great Barrier Reef) and is every bit as gorgeous as we had hoped.  We saw the most massive underwater cliffs, GORGEOUS colours, huge tropical fish, and even a sea turtle!  My favourite part was swimming along the wall of the dropoff…so much marine life was just bursting from the sides of the reef.  Stunning.  We can’t wait to go again!  Here are some of our favourite shots:

Brain coral!

Sea turtle!

Amazing, right??  I was snorkeling around with the biggest dumbest smile on my face the entire time.  I am ECSTATICALLY excited about going diving this coming week.  WOOHOO!!

The next day we headed to the local markets for some quick shopping.  The markets were small, but quaint.  And we even stopped off in the cruise terminal for some lobster burritos for lunch.  Don’t mind my un-makeuped face…it’s silly to bother even trying to put on makeup when we spend so much time in the water!

Street in Coxen Hole:

Tired Delilah and Mummy hanging out at the markets:

And all of us in front of the cruise terminal:

Other than that, we’ve mostly just been relaxing and swimming.  Like clockwork, we go out every evening for a swim just before sunset.  It’s so gorgeous being out there floating around while the sun starts to creep towards the horizon.

And the one of us who loves it the most by FAR is Delilah.  I swear, this girl is half fish.  She could swim all day long and still be begging for more!  She kicks around next to the dock having a grand old time while we either float or snorkel around her.  What a cutie pie

Here she is kicking out into the sunset, determined to swim off by herself (LOL):

And getting her nightly ‘bath’ in the outdoor shower:

And just before the sun sets, we all run up to the balcony to enjoy the last fleeting moments of sunlight.  The sun sets literally DIRECTLY in front of our balcony.  It’s like having front row seats to heaven!  Every night is better than the last…we couldn’t ask for more.

Here’s one of my favourites (and one of the only shots in this blog post taken with the big camera!):

The internet isn’t the best here, but I’ll try to get at least one more blog post out from Roatan.  We are having the time of our lives!

Love,

Erin, Brett, Alek, and Delilah

European Chronicles | Au Revoir, Europe! :(

We ended our epic European adventure with a day and a half in Paris…and what an interesting 36 hours it turned out to be!

We knew things were going to get sketchy when mom stepped off the plane with not one, not two, but THREE huge suitcases that she was supposed to be carrying herself on multiple forms of public transport to get to our Latin Quarter apartment.  Lets just say, it wasn’t pretty.  (Actually, witnessing it first hand was one of the most hilarious things that Caitlin and I have ever seen, but out of respect for mom, I won’t say that out loud.  Haha).

Anyway, we got onto one of the trains while it was still relatively empty, but it was soon quite literally packed to the gills with commuters.  Honestly, I used to take the train every day to Sydney University during rush hour and that was nothing compared to this.  We were quite literally on top of each other.  A pickpocket’s dream, one might say.  So as soon as we stepped off the train and arrived at our apartment, what did we discover?  That mom’s wallet (which also contained her passport) had been stolen right out of her purse.  They even closed the zipper again, those sneaky pickpockets!

At this point, it was Friday evening, Mom was due to fly out on Sunday morning, and the US Embassy was closed until Monday.  So not good, in other words.  But in her usual fashion, mom managed to stay in good spirits as we all headed out to have dinner with Ellen and Jean Pierre Fetu, very good friends of Mom and Dad that live in Paris.  It was delightful (Spanish tapas!), but unfortunately Brett and I forgot the camera, so you will all just have to imagine it in your minds.  Haha.

The next morning, mom and dad headed to the police station to file a police report and see if they could somehow manage to get mom on the plane on Monday morning.  Meanwhile, Brett, Caitlin and I headed out to see Paris.  It was particularly dreary and absolutely freezing, but we soldiered on like good little travelers do.  Caitlin wanted to do three things in Paris: visit Notre Dame, have a picnic under the Eiffel Tower, and have her picture painted at Montmatre.  And by George, we were going to smash all three of those things into one day, come hell or high water!

First stop…Notre Dame!

I thought it was very fitting, as Notre Dame had been our first stop upon our arrival in Paris five weeks earlier…now here we were again on the last day of our trip!  Except this time, we went inside as well.  And boy, was it magnificent.

We even got to peek in at a meeting of the treasury, which was absolutely filled with men in long white robes.  No idea what they were talking about, but it looked important!  Caitlin very much wanted to go up to the bell tower, but we were running short on time and were due to meet Mom and Dad at the Eiffel Tower soon.  So we made a plan to come back after the Eiffel Tower for some bell tower action.

After that, it was onward to the Eiffel Tower!  But not before a funny little pic in the train.  Delilah was quite the little train lover by this point.  She always made sure to squeal and giggle just loud enough so that all eyes in the train car were on her.  She loves the spotlight, that girl

As we stepped off the train and found some takeaway lunch, we were completely dismayed to feel raindrops on our heads.  How could we have a picnic in the rain??  Luckily, it only sprinkled a bit and then just looked threatening for a while.  We found mom and dad and spread out on the (very cold) grass for our lunch.  Even Delilah had a little banana snack (which she insisted on doing while standing so that she could see as much as possible)

We got some great pics of all of us from the south end of the tower…just in the nick of time too.  Not ten seconds after we left, an enormous bike tour of about 150 people came in and piled all of their bikes up on the fence for a group picture.

And the fam

After that, it was off to Notre Dame (thankfully on a very warm metro!) to see the Notre Dame bell tower.  Delilah needed a break from the wrap by that point, so Mom and I decided to hang in a cafe for a bit while Brett went for a walk and Dad and Caitlin went up the tower.  It was absolutely FREEZING and raining by that point…what a strange summer day in Paris!

We then headed off to Montmatre in search of the artists and the famous Sacre Coeur.  We decided to forgo the famous steps to get up to the top of Sacre Coeur (we had been out and about for around 7 hours by that point), and instead opted for the little tram thing that goes up the hill.  Good decision!  Sacre Coeur was, of course, gorgeous.

And it offered an absolutely amazing view of the whole of Paris.  Notre Dame looked like a teeny tiny dot on the horizon, even though we’d just been there a few minutes before!

As you can see from the above photo, Delilah was exhausted by this point (she’d been in that wrap for almost nine hours straight!) so Brett and I decided to call it a day and head back to the apartment while Mom, Dad, and Caitlin went in search of the artists (which they found and Caitlin had an awesome portrait done).

Before we left, we got one last family photo in Europe

The next morning, with a police report, a copy of her passport, an airport security escort, and permission from the head of Air France, mom somehow weasled her way onto her flight back to the States.  When she arrived in Detroit, they told her they’d never heard of anyone being able to do that before.  Leave it to Pam, I tell you

Brett, Delilah, and I left that evening and were so sad to say goodbye.  Our only comfort was knowing that we had had an absolute AMAZING adventure over the last five weeks.  We were a bit unsure of how things were going to go on this trip with a squirmy little baby, but we can honestly say that we had the time of our lives and would do it all over again in the blink of an eye.  And just because I promised, here is a pic of the fabulous globe I found in Florence (that Brett wouldn’t let me open till we got home).  I think it’s such a neat little symbol of my absolute LOVE for travel.  Maybe someday I’ll get to every corner of this baby

We were so happy to share our trip with you all, and hope you enjoyed reading about it.  Our next family trip is tentatively planned for April of next year (Roatan, Honduras and maybe the great State of Wisconsin as well).  See you all then! 

The Weird and Wonderful World of Woven Wraps

Since I had a ton of emails (and Facebook messages and phone calls, etc) asking me about the wraps in my travel pictures, I thought I might do a little post dedicated to the weird and wonderful world of woven wraps so I can have all of the info in one place 

There are two different kinds of wraps: woven and stretchy.  Stretchy wraps (the most common brand is called a Moby wrap) are really great for the newborn stage because they are easy to use for a beginner and can be tied securely before you put the baby in.  They’re also very cuddly and soft and mold right to teeny newborn bodies.  Since I stupidly neglected to take any wrapping pics at the time, here is a random pic of the exact same Moby wrap that I had when Delilah was a newborn:

There are two downsides to stretchy wraps, however.  One is that they are RIDICULOUSLY hot.  However much I loved it, I could only really wear it in the air conditioning because I felt like I was going to die of heat stroke once I stepped out into the Aussie summer sun!  The other downside is that because of their stretchiness, they only last until baby is around 12ish pounds.  Once baby gets to be heavier than that, the Moby sags too much and isn’t supportive enough, which can be very uncomfortable for the wearer and the wearee.

Since Delilah was a beast baby and was way too heavy for the Moby by the time she hit 2.5 months old, I started searching for something that would work better.  I tried out several other carriers (Beco Butterfly, Pikkolo, Babyhawk Mei Tai, Ring Slings) and then one day, I stumbled upon woven wraps and it was love at first sight.  Well actually that’s not quite completely true.  Woven wraps have a bit of a learning curve and take more than a few tries to get the hang of…but once I started working it out, I knew I found the perfect babywearing fit for us.

We now use the woven wraps every time we go out, as well as around the house every day when I need to get things done.  In fact, my house is almost always spotless because she likes being in the wrap while I do dishes, cook, vacuum, do laundry, make the bed, etc.  I don’t know what I would do without them!  I must admit, when we were planning out our trip to Europe, five weeks without a stroller (when I knew we’d be out and about for hours a day) was a bit daunting.  But I can honestly say that I am SO GLAD we didn’t bring one.  When all the other parents were struggling with strollers on cobblestone streets or massive train station staircases, we just breezed right by.  There were some days that I wore all 21 pounds of Delilah for nine hours straight and it was comfy as can be.  It was brilliant!

Now the details.  Woven wraps are extremely strong (because of the way they are woven) and much cooler than stretchy wraps.  They can be worn from the day baby is born until they are well into toddlerhood (although some fabric blends are more supportive than others for heavy toddlers).  They come in many different sizes, lengths, and fabric blends, all of which can be very confusing!  They can also be worn dozens and dozens of different ways (called ‘carries’) so it’s a bit overwhelming at first.  Hopefully I can clear up some of that confusion in this post

SIZING

When looking for woven wraps, you will notice they come in many different sizes ranging from size 2 (2.7 meters) all the way up to size 7 (5.1 meters).  The sizes usually work out like this:

size 2 -  2.7 meters

size 3 -  3.1 meters

size 4 -  3.6 meters

size 5 -  4.1 meters

size 6 -  4.6 meters

size 7 -  5.1 meters

Why all these different sizes you ask?  While the size of the wearer is a factor in choosing a wrap size, it has more to do with what carries you are looking to do.  If you are beginner, you want a wrap size that will allow you to do a lot of different carries so that you can test them out and find your favorites.  For most average sized people, this is a size 6 wrap.  If you are plus sized, then you would likely want a size 7, and if you are petite, a size 5 would most likely be enough.  The majority of my wraps are size 6, since my favorite carries need that much length.

The shorter wraps can’t be used for quite as many types of carries, but can be more convenient to carry around, since there is less fabric to worry about.  They aren’t great for beginners though, since the carries are more complex and easier to mess up.  I have two 2.7 meter wraps, for example, that can only really be worn one or two ways…but they are very quick and easy to use for around the house when I just want to throw her up on my back for a few minutes to get something done.  If I know I am going to be wearing her for a long time, however, I usually go with a longer wrap, since it allows for several layers of fabric holding her up, and therefore gives me more support.

FABRIC BLENDS

Woven wraps also come in several different fabric blends and thicknesses.  These are usually 100% cotton, silk/cotton, linen/cotton, wool/cotton, cashmere/cotton, and hemp/cotton.

100% cotton wraps are usually very soft and supportive, depending on how thick the particular wrap is.  My rainbow wrap (Girasol Snow Rainbow) is a thickish 100% cotton wrap and it is one of my absolute favorites.  They’re also super easy to care for, since you can just toss them in the washer and dryer.

Silk/Cotton wraps are not as supportive as other blends and are usually very expensive, however they are very VERY soft.  Perfect newborn wraps, in my opinion.  I have a silk wrap that Delilah is too heavy for now, but it’s so beautiful and soft that I’m saving it for any future newborns that we might be blessed with.  They are a bit harder to care for though, since they need to be hand-washed and hung to dry.

Linen/Cotton wraps are the most supportive wraps, in my opinion.  They are the best for toddlers and heavy babies, and are virtually indestructible.  They are, however, quite scratchy when they are new, so they take some wearing and squishing (I sit on mine at my computer!) before they get softer.  They are also very easy to take care of…just toss in the washer and dryer.  My Didymos Marigold wrap is a special linen/cotton wrap in that it’s woven so that all the linen is on one side (the outside orange color) and all the cotton is on the inside (the goldy yellow color).  This makes it supportive AND soft, which is why I love it so much!

I don’t have any personal experience with the other three blends (yet, anyway!), but I have heard that wool/cotton wraps are very soft and warm for winter, but are much harder to care for (even more so than silk), so not great for throwing around.  Same goes for cashmere/cotton, except they are even softer…so soft that they are very sought after (and very expensive!) newborn wraps.  Hemp/cotton blends are not as common, but are apparently good for toddlers.

CARRIES

As you may have noticed in my pictures, I wear my wraps in several different ways.  My favorite carries are the Double Hammock Back Carry, the Front Cross Carry, the Rucksack Carry, and the Kangaroo Carry.  I learned how to do all of these carries by watching videos on youtube and then practicing a million times.  Back carries can be a little intimidating at first, so I practiced on a bed (or with a spotter) until I felt comfortable that I wouldn’t drop her (and that never happened…even when trying the first few times on a bed).

The Front Cross Carry is probably the easiest one to start with for a beginner, mostly because it’s the one carry that you can tie first before you put the baby in (and then adjust, obviously).  This is what it looks like when wrapped:

It’s our favorite carry for naps, and how Delilah took every nap when we were on our trip!  We also use this one for running errands, since I can pop her in and out very quickly and can keep it tied while I get in and out of the car.  We also use it when she’s super fussy, since she’s right there to cuddle up to or soothe if I need to.  The video I used to learn the Front Cross Carry is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0bfAIy8SJQ

The best back carry to start with is a Rucksack Carry.  It’s the easiest and quickest to learn when you are just starting.  It can be used with babies who have good head and neck control (usually around the three month mark and older).  A Rucksack Carry looks like this (sorry, not the greatest pic!):

My favorite video for learning the Rucksack carry is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc2F2oyDqns

However, as Caitlin will attest to, the most comfortable back carry is the Double Hammock Back Carry.  It’s a bit trickier to learn though, so probably not the best for beginners.  Once you get the Rucksack down pat, you should be good to go for trying this one   And don’t fret if it takes a while…my first ten tries at least were a total fail.  LOL.  It didn’t take too long before I got it, however   It looks like this:

And my favorite video for learning the Double Hammock Back Carry is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMW_GUkMdZw

For my size 4 wraps, my favorite carry is a Kangaroo Carry.  This one is trickier to do on the go, but it’s very comfy and it’s nice to only have to cart around a shorter wrap sometimes.  It looks like this (shown with my Didymos Cobalt Rouge Indio):

Here is a great video for the Kangaroo Carry (she does a very good wrap job) except it’s in German -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfuoWaK9I7Q&feature=related

And here is one in English, although the wrap job is not quite as neat -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7ypTiISyrY

If you have a newborn, you will want to use a Front Wrap Cross Carry to start with.  It’s the best one for teeny babies.  It also works for older babies very well, but Delilah doesn’t like this one as much for some reason!  A good video for the Front Wrap Cross Carry with a newborn is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-VHUEM6K0Q

And with an older baby is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZE1L2avn5M

There are many many more carries out there (check out youtube if you are interested), but these are my favorites!

BRANDS

As for brands, the big names are Didymos, Girasol, BBslen, Natibaby, Vatanai, and Storchenweige.  Here’s my thoughts on each brand:

Didymos – These are the most sought after, and therefor the most expensive.  They sell many different fabric blends, as well as a ton of absolutely gorgeous limited edition wraps.  My Marigold and Cobalt Rouge Didymos wraps are limited editions, and therefor aren’t sold anymore (except second-hand, obviously).

Girasol – Very reasonably priced, very supportive, and all around really nice wraps.  My Snow Rainbow wrap is a Girasol and it’s one of my favorites.  So much that I just ordered another Girasol because they can be thrown around anywhere without worrying about them.

BBslen – These are the best wraps for beginners, in my opinion.  They are nice and wide, extremely supportive, and best of all, they’re cheap!  Great for buying if you aren’t quite sure if you want to invest in an expensive wrap, but are wrapping curious   All are 100% cotton, however keep in mind that they tend to shrink in the wash a bit, so better to order a bit longer than too short.

Natibaby – I don’t have any of these, but I want to get one if we have another baby because they sell bamboo blend wraps that are apparently the softest things imaginable.  Other than that, I’ve heard good things about Natibaby wraps!

Vatanai – These are the perfect summer wraps.  They are much thinner than other brands, and are super cool on hot days.  Some people don’t find them as comfortable for toddlers or big babies, however, since thinner wraps can sometimes mean they are a bit less supportive.  They are relatively inexpensive as well.  I had one Vatanai and I really liked it, but passed it onto another babywearing mama when winter hit and I wanted something warmer

Storchenweige – These are super super supportive toddler wraps, but can be very hard to break in.  They are stiff as a board out of the box.  I have one Storch that I put up for sale because I don’t have the strength to break it in!  Those that love Storch’s, REALLY love them though.

WHERE TO FIND THEM

Now, where to get them.  Most woven wraps are made in Europe (Germany is a huge producer of wovens), however there are lots of North American online retailers.  The biggest one is probably Piece of Cloth (they sell most brands):

http://www.pieceofcloth.com/

For Didymos in particular, Birdies Room has EVERYTHING Didymos related:

http://www.birdiesroom.com/c-403-didymos-baby-carriers.aspx

I got my Snow Rainbow Girasol wrap at Pinkletink Baby and had a very good experience with them:

http://www.pinkletinkbaby.com/GirasolPage.php

Woven wraps can also be purchased second-hand.  The great thing about doing that is that someone else has already done the breaking in for you!  And they are just as good second-hand as new.  They also hold their value incredibly well…so much so that you can usually sell a wrap for almost as much as you paid for it, as long as it’s not stained or pulled.  The best place to do that is on the For Sale Or Trade forum on thebabywearer.com.  It’s very fast-moving and a bit overwhelming at first, but there are a ton of awesome deals to be had.  You need to register (it’s free) to view it, but it’s totally worth it in my opinion

http://www.thebabywearer.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?63-For-Sale-or-Trade

Well I think that’s it!  If anyone needs any more info, please let me know.  Also, a great resource for babywearing in general can be found at:

www.thebabywearer.com

Hope that helps some of you!! 

European Chronicles | Wedding Bells in Toulouse

We arrived in Toulouse after one hell of a long journey (a bus, a train, another train, a flight, an overnight stay in Paris, and another flight the next morning) a bit tired, but very excited to see the Audoynauds and the Kucks!

Mom even came bearing gifts…Cows on Parade figurines for the whole family.  Very appropriate coming from Wisconsinites, don’t you think? 

The wedding was the day after we arrived and it was absolutely gorgeous.  It was at a castle in the tiny town of Savenes, France.  It was the cutest town ever…only 200 people live there!  Antoine called it ‘deep country’.  We stayed with Mom, Dad, and Caitlin in a little converted farmhouse in Savenes and it was adorable.  They even brought fresh croissants and baguettes to our door every morning for breakfast!

Antoine and Julie had asked me to do a little wedding portrait session with them before the ceremony, so here are some of my favorites.  Aren’t they the most adorable couple ever??

And a couple from the ceremony…

Delilah enjoyed the wedding very much, even if she was a bit skeptical of Antoine at first.  Haha.

We soon discovered that French weddings usually go until the wee hours of the morning.  Really…dinner wasn’t until 9:45pm and dessert wasn’t served until almost 1am!  Despite being a morning person, I actually quite liked the European schedule of late nights and late mornings.  Delilah wasn’t so much a fan, but she usually stayed up until 11:30 or 12 most nights.  Unfortunately, that meant we missed dessert at the wedding, but we heard all about it and the partying the next day.  Antoine said he didn’t go to sleep until 7am!  Crazy man!

We then moved to Antoine’s grandparents house in Toulouse.  They generously offered to let us and the Audoynauds stay there, since they were going to be away on holidays.  It was the coolest house ever!  Caitlin and Brett said it looked like it jumped right out of a 1970′s James Bond movie.  Haha.  Unfortunately the weather was appalling for the majority of our stay there.  Very cold and rainy.  I mean, look at us on the day that the Audoynauds took us to Carcassonne…does this look like the middle of June to you??

Carcassonne was soooooo cool.  It’s a very well preserved walled city about an hour from Toulouse that was first settled in 100 BC (but most of the city was built in the 12th and 13th centuries).

The inside is filled with restaurants, shops, and even a torture museum (which we most definitely went to and are now traumatized by…haha).  We were all starving, so we headed straight to one of the restaurants for some local cuisine.

Brett took the plunge and ordered cassoulet, a very famous dish in the area.  It is a slow roasted stew/casserole that typically contains, pork sausages, pork, goose, duck, mutton, pork skin, and white haricot beans.  I was a bit skeptical, but I tried a bite and O.M.G. was it absolutely fantastic!!  Brett and I added it to our list of things we are planning to cook when we get home.  It doesn’t look like much, but that dish was fanfreakintastic!

After lunch we headed to Carcassonne’s beautiful church.  I’m constantly amazed at the amount of absolutely breathtaking churches here in Europe.  They are everywhere and each is more amazing than the next.  Especially when you consider that many of them took hundreds of years and thousands of hands to build.

All of a sudden, we noticed the sun was out for the first time all week!  Hurrah!

We ran out to get a group shot of all of us (minus poor Antoine who is behind the camera).

All in all, it was a fantastic day!  Caitlin even got to do some babywearing, which both she and Delilah (who was obsessed with Auntie Caitlin’s hair) very much enjoyed.

A few days later, we went on another day trip to Albi and Cordes sur Ciel, two small towns close to Toulouse.  Unfortunately, Brett and I were so busy chatting with everyone and having fun that we didn’t take very many pictures!  We stopped for a late lunch in Albi, where we all had very French meals of Croque Monsieur and Quiche Lorraine.  Yum!

A nap while window shopping.

Then we all headed (in two different cars) to Cordes sur Ciel, but one of those cars got lost and ended up just going straight home!  LOL.  Mine was the car that made it, but unfortunately Delilah was in the other car so we had to marathon through our visit so Delilah wouldn’t have to wait too long to eat.  Even though we weren’t there long, it was an absolute amazing city!  Perched up on top of a hill with the STEEPEST cobblestone streets I’ve ever seen.

The view while driving towards it.

Walking up to the top.  I seriously have no idea what these people do in the rain…or in winter!  Slippery cobblestones + steep hill + water or ice = disaster, in my opinion!

She may be 68 years old (hee hee) but she’s still pretty sprightly!

And at the top!  It might have been work to get up there, but the view was totally worth it.  The south of France is just gorgeous…no other way to describe it!

Our time in Toulouse just FLEW by.  We had such a good time visiting with the Audoynauds.  And I can’t believe our trip is almost coming to an end!  Just a few more days in Paris and then it’s back to Sydney.  So bittersweet!  Paris edition soon to come

European Chronicles | Positano and the glorious balcony.

We finally made it to Positano!  We were absolutely dreading the trip to get there, since it involved a train from Rome to Naples, a train from Naples to Sorrento, a bus from Sorrento to Positano, and then 217 stairs (yes, that’s right…217 stairs) to get to our front door.

To be honest, the journey wasn’t TOO bad…the highlight for me (and funnily enough, the low point for heights fearing Brett) was the bus ride from Sorrento to Positano.  For the last 7 kilometers, we were literally careening on a teeny road on the side of a mountain that plunged straight down into the sea.  The views were AMAZING, but a bit scary at the same time.  Brett happened to sit on the wrong side of the bus (the one closest to the cliff) and spent most of the bus ride cursing me for choosing such a location.  Haha.

We soon arrived at our apartment and O.M.G., it was the definition of fabulousness.  It was tiny (but very cute!) inside, but had double doors in the living area and the bedroom to a massive 60 meters squared balcony with THIS view:

I mean, good Lord!  Made the ridiculous amount of steps totally worth it.  To say we were ecstatically delighted was the understatement of the year.  We spent the whole evening out on the balcony enjoying the views and our favorite meal.  You guessed it…

YUM!  Delilah even got to eat a little bit of the crust…she was definitely a fan.

We woke up the next day and decided to explore Positano a little bit.  It’s quite a small place, but sooooo picturesque.  It reminded me very much of Monte Carlo, in that it was very very steep and houses seemed to be almost piled on top of each other all the way to the ocean.  In fact, we read that the nearby town of Amalfi used to be one of the major naval powers of southern Italy with over 70,000 residents, but then a huge earthquake in the 14th century caused most of the village (along with its residents) to literally slide into the ocean.  Gah!  That story didn’t exactly inspire confidence in Brett, no matter how gorgeous it was

There is only one road in Positano and it is basically a circle, in which traffic can only go one direction.  We opted to go downhill (for obvious reasons) from our apartment toward the ocean and the main beach.

We discovered that Positano has two sides to it.  The side we are staying on is mostly locals, filled with great restaurants and local shops, but not really very touristy.  The other side is like daytrippers central, with TONS of touristy shops and not as much charm.  After seeing it all, we were very happy with our accommodation decision.  We did like looking at all of the clothes for sale though.  Positano has its own ‘Amalfi coast fashion’ where flowy styles all their own are sold all year round.  Mom would have LOVED it all, with the exception of the price tags.  We saw a few tops that were like 100 Euros (that’s like $130)…ouch!

My absolute favorite discovery on our walk was all the bougainvillea everywhere.  You could see it on every other building from our balcony.  They were just covered in absolutely radiant purple flowers.  They even managed to put it above you on the streets!

We made it down to the beach, but as per usual with European beaches, we weren’t too impressed.  It was nice, but it was no Bondi Beach and there were just SO MANY people.  We made a mental note to head to the other quieter beach on our side of town instead for a swim later on.  We did like sitting down and having a bit of people watching time though.  Particularly Delilah.

We came back to the apartment to find that we had a little visitor on our balcony…a kitty!  I knew from reading reviews of the apartment that there was a cat who frequented the balcony for a few pats every now and then, so I was excited to actually see him.  However, my excitement was nothing compared to Delilah’s!  This was her first encounter with a cat and I have never seen her so ecstatic.  She was literally jumping up and down and squealing with delight.  Here’s a little montage of the events:

I think we might have to get a cat for her now.  Haha.

The next day we woke up and decided we were going to do nothing for the entire day…for the first time on this entire trip!  We laid out here:

With this:

And this:

Talk about perfection!  Delilah joined us in nothing but her diaper (which, by the way are totally not as cute as her cloth diapers at home) and had a grand old time rolling around and playing with her toys in the shade.

Even our little kitty friend joined us for the afternoon.  It was practically a party, I tell you! 

The next morning we woke up to find that our balcony friend had, in fact, jumped through an open window and was waiting for us in the living room.  LOL!

Good thing he was such a nice kitty.  He was happy to just have a nap while Delilah fawned over him.  Funny little thing.

For our last day in Positano, we decided that we just had to have a real swim in the Mediterranean.  Imagine our surprise when we discovered (after descending the 217 stairs to the main road) that the beach was another 500 stairs straight down!  It took us like twenty minutes just to descend all of the stairs to get there…I was terrified to think of what it was going to be like on the way back up!  Luckily, it was totally worth it.  The water was crystal clear, gorgeous, and very refreshing (without being too cold).  And of course, Delilah had to go for another swim.  Here she is getting ready to go for a dip:

Yay!  So excited!

Getting used to the water with Daddy.

And going all the way in with Mommy.  She loved it!  Was splashing and giggling away the whole time.

I had a long swim after she got out to dry off and it was glorious.  Even if the ‘pebble’ beach did just about kill my feet on the way in and out.  Definitely makes me appreciate all the gorgeous white sand Aussie beaches, I tell you!  We were very sad to have to leave Positano (and Italy) the next morning, but were very much looking forward to seeing everyone in Toulouse!

We have been in Toulouse for a few days now (I was so late with this post!!) and I can’t wait to show you all some of the wedding portraits I took of Antoine and Julie.  They were such a gorgeous couple!  Will update soon

European Chronicles | When in Rome…

We arrived in Rome on the 2nd of June, and after somewhat of a rocky start (we ordered a driver to meet us at the train station and he didn’t show up and left us there for an hour and a half!) we finally made it to our gorgeous Trastevere apartment.  We caught a glimpse of the Colosseum on the drive there, which made us very excited to start exploring the city.

The next morning we woke up to gloomy skies and a forecast of rain for the first time in our entire trip.  We counted ourselves lucky that we’d had such glorious weather thus far, but nobody likes a rainy day.  We headed to the local bakery to pick up some lunch…it was such a cute place!  We got some Swiss cheese, parma ham, fresh warm bread, pesto, and some Italian cookies for dessert.  Delilah made friends with both of the young guys behind the counter, and was not happy with me in the least when I turned down their offer for free pizza and cookies for her.  LOL.

After that, we were off to the Colosseum!  It wasn’t raining yet, so we decided to walk.  We walked…and walked…and WALKED.  And suddenly, there it was in all its glory (disclaimer, these next two pics were taken on a different day when the weather was much more photo agreeable…haha).

Delilah obviously wasn’t as impressed as we were (and she ripped out her hair clip just before this, so don’t mind the shaggy hair).

We headed in to check it out and decided at the last minute to take a tour with a guide and a group of around 20 people.  Big mistake.  I think one of the reasons this trip has been going so smoothly is because we have been able to do everything at our own (read: Delilah’s) pace.  With a tour group, that’s just not possible.  She was fussy at first so I couldn’t really pay attention, then she was happy and squealing at the top of her lungs (which meant I had to back off from the group so she wouldn’t disrupt their tour), then she got hungry, etc.  We ended up ditching the group after fifteen minutes and doing the rest on our own, which was much better.

It POURED with rain while we were inside, so we had to wait for it to stop before we could go into the actual arena.  It was amazing to read all the stories about what used to happen there, as well as see all of the ‘costumes’ and articles (even animal bones and skulls!) that had been recovered from the site.  So strange to think about how unbelievably long all of these things had been there.

Soon the rain lifted, and we were in:

Seeing such an intricate structure and realizing how amazing it is that it could even have been built so long ago, much less withstand so much time was truly awe inspiring.

The weather was taking a turn for the worst, so we decided to head back to Trastevere for the night.  We picked up some fresh pasta (gorgonzola ravioli!) and headed back to the apartment for dinner, followed by a walk at dusk in the cobblestone streets.  Delilah was teething crabby (her two teeth finally cut through that night) and walks are the only thing that will make her happy sometimes.  She loves being out and about!  Here is the street our apartment is on after a fresh sprinkle of rain:

The next morning we awoke to glorious weather yet again, so we set out early for an absolute marathon touring day.

We started at the Pantheon, which we both LOVED.  Such an awesome building, especially considering that it was built over 2,000 years ago and is STILL the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome.  I particularly liked how the opening in the center of the dome created this heavenly beam of light that moved around the room depending on the time of the day.

We couldn’t stop looking at the intricate details over every inch of the building.

Delilah was impressed too, which is apparent in this next pic.  LOL.

Afterward, we headed over to the Trevi fountain.  I didn’t see the fountain the last time I was in Rome, so I was excited to see it this time around.  I was disappointed that we couldn’t go at night (Mom recommended this, since it’s all lit up and gorgeous), but it doesn’t get dark until very late when a certain tiny person is ready for bed!  Even so, it was beautiful.

Next, it was off to the Spanish Steps for some top quality people watching time!

It was such a cool little spot to hang out and have a rest.  Delilah (with her two new little teeth!) was a happy little soul and smiled at everyone that walked past her.  I swear, she is just the friendliest little thing these days.

Since it was almost 2pm, we decided it was time for a lunch break.  So what did we choose to eat?  You guessed it…pizza!  LOL.  We have had pizza for like 75% of our meals in Italy so far.  It’s just a lot easier to eat while holding a Delilah baby, not to mention it’s absolutely delicious and we can’t get enough of it!  We went to a place that had good recommendations for woodfired pizza and it didn’t disappoint.

Delilah and Daddy waiting for their pizza:

And Delilah eating/playing with some crust.  This is also a perfect example of how she has most definitely inherited her great grandfather Paul’s ‘Casper the Ghost’ pale skin and strawberry tinted hair (although Grandpa’s was just plain red!).  I always wanted red hair, so I think she’s a lucky girl

After lunch we headed off to the ruins, with a few stops in between.  I just HAD to get this shot, since the moment we stepped off the train we realized something hilarious…Cows On Parade was in Rome!!  It made this Wisconsinite feel right at home   For those who don’t know what Cows On Parade are, just ask Pam…she has like 200 of them (much smaller than this, of course).  Haha.  They were everywhere in Rome!

We then found ourselves in front of the Vittoriano, which was built to honor Italy’s first king.  It had a little patch of grass in front of it that looked just perfect for a picture and a diaper change.  Haha.

And here’s Delilah smiling at strangers again.  She gets so excited when they smile back at her (which, of course, they all do).  Funny little thing.

We kept on trucking and decided to have a little rest on some pieces of ruins strewn about.  I love that about Rome.  They actually have 2,000 year old columns and chunks of buildings that they use for public sitting areas.  What other city can say the same??

We finally made it to the ruins, which I was so excited about.  There are SO MANY amazing sights in Rome, but the ruins are my absolute favorite.  It’s like stepping back in time…you can almost visualize what it looked like in its prime.  And you can see how truly amazing (I know I keep using that word, but how else do you describe it??) it was that such grand and gorgeous buildings could have even been built so long ago.

We asked Delilah what she thought of the ruins and this was her response…

Apparently she is undecided.  LOL.

It had been seven hours since we left the apartment and we spent almost the entire time walking, so needless to say, we were BEAT.  What an action packed day it had been!

The next morning we woke up and were soooooooo tired.  The Vatican was on the books for the day, so we decided to put it off till the early afternoon and have a restful morning just hanging out.  And boy was that a brilliant plan!  We arrived at the Vatican at around 2pm to literally ZERO lines.  We didn’t even wait 30 seconds to get our tickets.  And for a place that is renowned for it’s 2 to 3 hour wait times, that is saying something!

We first went to Saint Peters Basilica, which for us both was the highlight of the day.

To say that the interior was grandiose and ridiculously intricately detailed is the understatement of the year.  I asked Brett what he thought it would have cost to build such a building nowadays and he didn’t even think it was feasible anymore.  We could have stayed in there all day and not seen it all!

Even Delilah couldn’t stop staring.

We headed into the Vatican and found it almost overwhelming.  There is just SO MUCH packed into that place that you almost don’t even know where to look.   Every square inch is absolutely gorgeous!  We sort of marathon-ed through it until we reached the Sistine Chapel.  That Chapel is by far one of the most awesome places I’ve ever seen.  They won’t allow pictures in it for copyright reasons (and because people are too dumb to turn off their flash!), but we managed to sneak one when no one was looking.  We’re rebels like that

We were sitting on the benches on the side admiring all of the beauty when I noticed Delilah reaching out to the lady next to us.  The lady thought it was so she could touch her hand, so she held her hand up for Delilah to grab…imagine both of our surprise when Delilah just batted her hand away and grabbed the bit of paper she was holding!  What a little thief!  LOL.  I immediately apologized and gave the paper back to the woman, which caused Delilah to start pinching a fit in the middle of the Sistine Chapel.  The very kind woman (who I think was Spanish) ended up giving her the paper to keep to prevent a total meltdown.  We are definitely going to have our hands full with this child if she’s already starting mini temper tantrums at 8 months old!

Here she is with her little Sistine Chapel gift.

After the Vatican, we headed over to Piazza Navona for our last Rome experience.  Mom recommended this Piazza because she thought I would enjoy all of the artists that come to paint and draw here.  She was absolutely right!  We loved it!  We wandered around eating gelato and checking out the artwork.  It was fantastic!

Rome certainly flew by the fastest for us, but we are very much looking forward to our stay in Positano on the Amalfi Coast, since that’s where we went ALL OUT on our apartment (perched on a cliff with a panoramic view of the ocean…woohoo!).  We plan to do a whole lot of relaxing, something that we haven’t done hardly at all in the past few weeks.  See you all in a few days!

European Chronicles | Firenze!

Well we set off for Florence on the 29th of May, with a quick stop at Pisa along the way to check out the leaning tower.  On the way we realized that, as Florence was our fourth city, that meant our trip was almost half over!  How sad!

After a burning hot train ride (what is WITH Trenitalia and their inability to properly ventilate their trains??), we arrived in Pisa to discover that all the rumors were true: there is literally NOTHING there except for the tower.  And even that is on the complete opposite side of town from the train station.  So, like the idiots we are, we decided to walk it (after we’d checked our bags into a baggage storage place at the station).  And it was a loooooooong (and incredibly boring) walk.  But all of a sudden, we came into a clearing and there it was!  And what a strange old building it is.  A lot smaller than I thought…and actually more ‘leany’ than I thought too.  It was beautiful!

We really wanted to have a rest on all that beautiful grass, but they wouldn’t let anyone on it!  So we had to settle for some marble steps instead

If we thought our first train was bad, the second was even worse!  It must have been over a hundred degrees in that car.  We were sweating like beasts!  If it weren’t such a convenient way to get from city to city, I would swear off Italian trains for life.  Haha.  Delilah didn’t seem to mind though.  As long as she had her coke zero bottle (her absolute favorite toy…good thing I spent all that money on new toys for this trip), she was happy as a little clam.  We even gave her her own seat, now that she’s a big sitting girl.

We finally arrived in Florence and had to walk and walk and WALK to get to our apartment.  All on (very very beautiful, but also very impractical for walking) cobblestones. Since we’d already done so much walking in Pisa, we were about ready to die once we reached the main piazzas near our apartment.  But then, lo and behold, we saw the most glorious sight in the entire universe.

TRA LA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We didn’t even know this was happening while we were in Florence, so to see it when we were bedraggled and roasting to death was like a beacon of hope that gave us the strength to carry on and make it to Via Della Mosca, otherwise known as our street in Florence.  LOL.  The apartment was SO CUTE and had a really pretty view of the river.  We loved it!  It was a bit late in the day for us to do anything that night, so we decided to save our exploring for the next morning.

We headed off for the gelato first (I mean, priorities, people!!) and it was GOOD.   It was set up so you could buy tasting tickets, and then just go around getting little dishes of a bunch of different flavors.  Here we are just after getting our tickets.  I love Delilah’s face in this one…she’s totally excited, even though she has absolutely no idea what is going on.  Haha.

Brett’s absolute favorite was lime, although he also enjoyed limoncello.

And my favorites were dark chocolate and coconut…sooooooo yummy!

We then headed over to the famous Duomo and it’s beautiful piazza.  It was unbelievable!  Such an intricate building…and so huge!  It’s like a giant gorgeous fortress amidst all these teeny little buildings in Florence.  And I swear I have done nothing to the sky in these…it was like a painting!  That’s what happens when you go out later in the day…the light is perfect!

And here’s some with us, which we took earlier in the day when the light wasn’t as purty.

We then headed to the Basilica di Santa Croce, where so many legends have been buried that it is known as the Temple of the Italian Glories.  Micelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Foscolo, Gentile, Rossini, and Marconi are all buried within its walls.  We went in to have a look, but unfortunately Delilah thinks it’s just HILARIOUS to squeal and yell at the top of her lungs in quiet places, so needless to say the two of us didn’t get to stay long.  LOL.  But Brett stayed in for a few minutes longer to get some pictures for us.  It’s such a gorgeous church!

The inside…

And walking outside in the gardens.

By this point, we were pretty hungry, so we decided to try out a sandwich place that gets tons of raves in Lonely Planet.  Imagine our surprise, when we showed up and it was literally just a window on the street with an enormous line stringing a few meters down the sidewalk!

They served little sandwiches absolutely PACKED with delicious ingredients.  Seriously, best sandwiches we’d ever had.  My favorites were soft goats cheese with sundried tomato, and roasted pork with truffle cream.  YUM AND A HALF!

As we strolled home that evening, we couldn’t get over how many people there were on the streets.  Central Florence is a pedestrian’s paradise.  The only cars allowed are residents (and even those are only allowed at certain times) so the city is just filled with people out having a stroll on the cobblestone streets in the evening sunlight.  Most of them eating ice cream of some other delicious treat.  There was such a neat vibe and ambience in the air…I really liked that about Florence!  Here was a shot from our walk back to the apartment.

The next morning we woke up and decided to take a trip out to Tuscany.  We chose Siena as the place in Tuscany that we most wanted to visit.  And due to my research, we found that taking a bus there was actually much shorter (and much easier) than the train.  So on the bus we went!  It was actually quite nice…we got to enjoy the rolling Tuscan hills and beautiful vineyards all the way to Siena.  And Delilah slept the whole way, so that’s always good!

We had to take this shot right after arriving, not because I am looking uber hot with my stupid facial expression and pants falling off my butt, but because of all the motorbikes in the background.  They are EVERYWHERE here.  Everywhere you go, they are just lined up like dominoes down the street.  It’s hilarious.

We loved Siena…it was gorgeous!  The huge main square (Piazza del Campo) is very famous for its annual village bareback horse race (the Palio di Siena) that takes place around the perimeter of the square.  We had just recently watched a special on the horse race on TV, so we were excited to be able to see it in person!

Here we are in the square.

Brett relaxing after a tasty gelato.

And the Torre del Mangia, which was built in the 1300′s.  It was gorgeous!

Delilah liked it too

We even found an Italian baby shoe store, which (luckily for Brett) was closed for the day.  Good thing too…they had the prices in the window and some of them were like 80 Euros!  Good Lord!

The next day we woke up to find a very VERY cranky baby.  After some investigation, we found the culprit…or more accurately, the culpritS.  Two little baby teeth coming in!!

Sheesh.  Lilan and Peter dropped us off at the airport two weeks ago with a teeny little baby.  Now she’s sitting, saying ‘mama’ (although we don’t know if she’s referring to me yet…lol) and has two teeth (they just cut through this morning, thank goodness!).  At this rate, Delilah will be a teenager by the time they pick us up from the airport in three weeks!

Anyway, she was not at all a happy camper (and we were pretty tired too) so we took the morning and early afternoon off to hang out in the apartment.  We headed out for a late lunch at around 2pm at a little restaurant in our neighborhood that had tasty pasta.  It was delicious!  We almost didn’t have dessert, but then changed our minds at the last second…and I am SO FREAKIN GLAD that we did.  Because the dessert menu had the most gloriously hilarious English translations that I have ever seen.  By far my absolute favorite thing I have EVER read on a menu was this:

I mean, how could we not order that???  LOLOL!!

We took crankypants out for a little walk in the early evening to check out the gorgeous (and very very old) bridge near our apartment.  On the way, we took a few snaps of the streets, just because they are so pretty.

I love that everywhere in this city (and all of Italy so far) still has things to tie up your horse along the street.  I thought this was a particularly beautiful one.

We made it to the bridge!

The top of the bridge used to be filled with butchers…one after the next.  But they kept getting in trouble for throwing their meat scraps into the river, so the city forced them out and filled it with jewelers instead.  And O.M.G. was the jewelery the most hideously gaudy stuff that I have ever seen.  It was awesome.  Check out how it is practically radiating gold onto these window shoppers’ faces.

Awesomeness.

And us on the bridge.  Even when she’s teething, she busts out the smiles for the camera!  Just like her mom

I also found the most amazing little globe that I just had to have.  I’ve always wanted a globe, but I either found them too ‘schoolroom’ or too gaudy for my tastes.  And then I stumbled across the perfect one here!  It cost a small fortune, so Brett won’t let me take it out of the box for a pic (it’s all wrapped up).  Guess I’ll have to save that one for when we get home! 

I had Delilah up on my back for our walk home and soon realized that she had passed out from teething exhaustion.  Poor little bug!

It was only when I got home, that I realized I’d been walking around with two little hands sticking out of my shoulders.  LOL!!

Aww, what a cutie face

We arrived in Rome yesterday afternoon (to a not great weather report, so I think our glorious weather streak is officially over…boo, hiss) and we can’t wait to explore.  See you all in a few days!