J'adore Paris

About a week or two before Clara was born, Kyle and I went out to dinner and he asked me what my "ultimate day" would be like (we ask each other silly questions like this when we're out on dates).  My answer?  A day just the two of us in Paris, walking around, seeing the sites, eating the food, watching the people, just being there together.  It's probably my favorite city in the world to visit, and no matter how many times I go, it just leaves me wanting to go back. Coincidentally, about a week after our conversation, Kyle found out he would be going on a business trip to Europe.  And, it just happened to work out that I could come along for part of it.  What funny timing!

Now, bringing a newborn with me to Paris wasn't exactly part of my original idea, but it actually worked out quite well.  She spent almost all day strapped to her daddy's chest {in the Baby Bjorn} and as you could imagine got lots of attention from everyone we saw!  She's a lucky little girl getting to go to Paris one her one-month birthday, too bad she slept through most of it.  :)  The direct flight was a huge blessing, and she did spectacular on the plane ride.

We also celebrated our seven year anniversary as part of the trip.  La Tour Eiffel has some significance to us because it's where we got engaged, so we took lots of pictures of it.  And we just happened to have a view of it from our hotel room, which was perfect {and unplanned}.  My favorite part was when it lights up and sparkles at night - so romantic!  We definitely had some chilly days, but we were bundled up at spent lots of time in little cafes, drinking coffee and eating chocolate croissants (I just can't get enough of those).  And I think I had enough bread, cheese, and chocolate to last me a lifetime (or not).

Here's a little peak into our time in Paris.  I had a tough decision of whether or not to bring my "fancy" camera, and in the end decided to leave it at home, since we had enough on our hands with the baby. Oh, and a little tip to other world travelers out there that have kids...don't bring a stroller to Europe.  We brought ours, thinking we would just push her around all day, and to our dismay found that the wheels of our stroller were too wide for the metro entrances, and the city is also not very handicap-friendly (think LOTS of steep stairs and escalators going in and out of the metro stations).  Thankfully, I brought a baby snowsuit and baby carrier, which were total life savers.

I guess this means we will have to do Kyle's "ultimate day" since we got to do mine.  I guess we will be planning a ski trip somewhere in the near future!  :)

Passports

We might be crazy.

We took Clara to get her passport when she was 6 days old.

Yes, many of you may think we are crazy for traveling with a newborn.  In fact, we took Callie to get her passport when she was even younger- 3 days old!

A couple of months (ie, 7 weeks) after Callie was born, we went on a family trip to Cabo.  My family was going and we didn't want to miss out.  It actually went quite smoothly, traveling with an infant.  She slept almost the whole plane ride, there and back (we were sure to get a direct flight).  And it was fun to take her in the warm outside air for the first time in her life.

And so we're doing it again.  We have a little trip coming up to my favoritest city ever.  We are bringing Clara, just the three of us.

Are these not the cutest (and funniest) passport pictures you've ever seen?

La Comida

 Here's a little recap of the yummy Mexican food we had while on our trip. One of my favorite parts of traveling is the food.  Is anyone with me here?  I love trying new things, and then recreating them at home.  As you will be able to see, my kind of restaurant when we're traveling isn't a five-star gormet; it's more of a local place with really good food (and cheap is a bonus). 

I'll start with a local favorite...grilled shrimp tacos {definitely something I'll be making soon}.  These were soooo yummy, and could be found at just about any restaurant in this part of Mexico.  They were on corn tortillas, and the shrimp was really tasty.  The best part was the melted white cheese on the tacos too, yum.  They had these tacos with fish and lobster too. And just about everything was served with guac and refried beans {which tasted amazing for the first day or two, then I just couldn't bring myself to eat anything with that mushy texture for awhile}! 

Another favorite of mine was the salsa.  Not just any salsa but fresh, super red-tomato salsa (think pico de gallo).  They served it with chips just about everywhere...it was so good.... just ripe tomatoes, cilantro, mild onion, and a little jalepeno chopped super small, maybe with some salt.  Very fresh.

We shared a mexican platter one night at a place called The Purple Onion.  It was quite similar to something you can get here (except the salsa was way better). 

A typical day for us was making breakfast in our room (eggs and toast or french toast with coffee), splitting an appetizer by the pool for lunch, and then going out on the town for dinner.  We tried this place on the water one night - I can't remember the name but it had some great food and lovely atmosphere. 

I got this Yucatan dish - it was mahi-mahi and shrimp in some sort of yummy sauce, wrapped in banana leaves.  Probably one of my favorite meals of the trip. 

And Kyle got some sort of shrimp that was cooked with tomatoes, and it came with corn tortillas on the side. 

And last but certainly not least was the yogurt.  A pregnant lady has got to snack, right?  I had this in Mexico a few years ago when we were with my family, and couldn't wait ot get it again...it's Mango Yogurt.  Why do other countries have yogurt that is so much better than ours?  

 Oh...the place was called Pueblo Bonito in Mazatlan (I apologize for not listing the name in my first post).  We loved it; it was a great place to relax soak up the sun! 

Now did this post make you hungry???  ;)

Beaches, Sunscreen, Guacamole, and Pesos...

I've finally gotten a chance to upload our pictures, go through them, edit them, and now post them!  This week has been a little crazy...our flight got in at 12pm on Friday night, we left at 6:45am the next morning for a family reunion in Iowa, and then got back on Sunday night, (not quite) ready to start a whole new week!  I've been up to my ears in laundry and it's been a busy week so far!



Here's to beaches, sunscreen, (virgin) margaritas, Pacifico, guacamole, sunsets, taxis, and pesos...a peek into our week in Mexico.

Here's our resort...it was beautiful and everything we had hoped.  

Another of resort at sunset...so beautiful. Can you tell we didn't leave the resort very often?  We pretty much read by the pool or by the ocean all day, shared some guac' for lunch, then went out to dinner somewhere in town.  I was so tired by the end of the day, I usually fell asleep while Kyle watched basketball.  :)

 We loved the open-air taxis.  Only found in Mazatlan.  

Our hotel lobby. 

 Went to see the cliffdivers one day.  Pretty crazy.

Our room had a great view of the ocean.  We loved watching the sunset.

A pretty ocean picture near old-town Mazatlan.

Lena, this picture is for you since you helped me pick out my little romper.  :) 

 Dinner the first night at the resort.  I god Pad Thai (not your typical Mexican dish) and Kyle got seafood enchiladas.  The lemonade was so yummy...it was actually fresh-squeezed limeaid.  I could take another one of those right about now!  :)

 Coconuts!  I totally wanted one!!!

I do have a few more pictures of some yummy food we had I will post later. A couple other things coming up...Cajun-grilled shrimp with cheesy grits, pictures of my parent's NEW house (white kitchen included), and lots of more of Callie.  Stay tuned!

The Last Seven Days...

Yes, it was wonderful.  It was super relaxing.  It was just what we needed.  We just spent the last 7 days in Mexico, like this...

You might notice we are missing someone.  Yep!  It was just the two of us. No baby (well, one baby but that one's pretty easy to take care of if you know what I mean, minus the morning sickness)!  It's hard to imagine it's actually been since 2007 that we went anywhere just the two of us.    

What did we learn?  We need to do this more often!  It's good to get away...vacation makes you miss your "ordinary" life.  And re-evaluate.  And you realize, there's really no place like home.  But oh.  

We had fun.  We did miss our munchkin quite a bit...but she had so much fun at Grandma + Grandpa Camp that I don't think she even missed us!  More pictures to come.  Happy Wednessday!