Peru

May of 2008 Shaun and I went to Peru with his family. We had a great time. Machu Picchu was incredible. Highly recommend it, the many hours of travel on planes, trains, and automobiles (buses really but that doesn't fit) are totally worth the effort.



Plus many other amazing ruins. Look at the size of these rocks the ancient people moved and shaped.


We got to feed and pet Llama's and Alpaca's.


And there was this adorable girl there singing to them.


We also saw these adorable children getting their picture taken. (It is one of my favorite pictures from the trip so I had to stick it in.)


But I digress. On our way we hit this market.

Shaun and I are suckers for local markets. Every time we travel we try to find one and it is usually a highlight of the trip. This trip we found two, one more for the tourists (this one) and one more for the locals with a million different types of corn. At this market they had a stall with little children's clothing. The cutest little outfits for boys and adorable dresses for girls. I walked by this stall more than once secretivly looking at the goodies. There was one dress that caught my eye and I couldn't leave it. Shaun and I had been trying to get pregnant for a couple of months by then, but we weren't telling anyone. I couldn't help but thinking how much fun it would be to put a Peruvian dress on our child someday and reminisce about our trip. But I was afraid of the message it would send to Shaun's family when they saw it. So I tried to sneak away from them to buy it. The package on the other hand was difficult to hide. They saw it and Chris (Shaun's mom) asked me what I purchased. I lied (sorry Chris) and told her it was for a niece. I made myslef feel better about it by convincing myself that if we never had a girl I would give it to a niece (although it was too small for any I had).
Well today is the day to dress up my little girl and reminisce about that trip. Boy am I glad I wasn't pregnant for it, would have totally ruined it. Instead I got great memories of a beautiful place and people and got to see one of the seven wonders of the world. And now I have my own wonder of the world.

Stolen Peaches

There is a house on our street that has 5 peach, a nectarine, and an apple tree. This house has a sad history over the past few years. The original owner, Eve, was slowing down quite a bit three years ago and couldn't keep up with the trees. Her son (who lived next door) said we could go pick some of the fruit since they had all they wanted. You know how much Shaun and I love fresh fruit so we were ecstatic and gorged ourselves. The peaches were huge, so sweet and melted in your mouth. We were hooked.

Eve went into a rest home just over two years ago. The house went up for sale. It sat on the market for a while. It just so happened to be vacant around this time of year two years ago. Shaun and I eyed those peaches. One day we went over to check them out. They were perfectly ripe and begging to be taken. So we picked two grocery bags full. Oh they were so good! My parents had us over and there were so many left on the trees we decided to take what we had picked and give them away. After the party we came home to pick more (after dark so people wouldn't see us). But to our chagrin someone else had come that day and stripped the trees! We were devastated and angry at whomever had taken our peaches. We saw them first! Watch out if we ever figure out who you are...

Fast forward a year. I was pregnant and very sick. I hated fruit. It's acidity made me want to puke (honestly breathing made me puke). But I loved the smell. Shaun would cut up a few slices and put them in a cup and set them on the bed next to me. All day I would smell them, but not taste. It was so sad. Quick detour, Shaun and I planted a peach tree of our own when we bought this house. But it takes a few years for the peaches to grow. Last year was the first year we got peaches off it. They were big, beautiful, and according to Shaun very tasty. Oh the irony that I couldn't eat any. Eve's house had renters so we couldn't have taken the fruit there even if we wanted to.

That brings me to this year. Shaun almost killed our peach tree by moving it (a story for another post). So no peaches there. All our hopes lie in Eve's house. Winter comes, the renters move out, and the house goes up for sale again. With the market the way it is we have hope it will be vacant end of August when the peaches are ripe. Spring comes, still vacant. We go over to check out the trees. One had died, they cut down another, and the smallest one wasn't looking very good. We thinned the peaches looking forward to August hoping the house wouldn't sell. Now we have invested in these trees. Periodically we go over and check them out. One tree has the best peaches, we watch it closely. And another tree dies because isn't getting watered. Two trees left, plus some hanging over from the neighbors house. Of course still the nectarines and the apple trees are doing fine. But who cares about those?

One day we were talking to the neighbor who is upset about the shape the yard is in because the owner hasn't cleaned it up. He mentions he is thinking about calling the county to get them to do something. But NO! what about our peaches. We covertly convince him to wait the summer out in case the owner does something to clean it up.

Three weeks ago Shaun saw a man cleaning up the place. He goes over to protect our commodity. The guy owns the house and says we can have the peaches. We are excited, but worried that we drew his attention to them and maybe he will take them anyway. So we go over after he leaves that night. Even in the dark we can tell he picked the biggest, ripest ones for himself. Thwarted again! But the battle isn't over. There are still plenty left. We keep an even closer eye on them now. Keep taking just a few in case someone else beats us to them. We have a constant debate.
Shaun: "Should we go pick them in case someone else does?"
Katie: "But they just aren't quite ripe yet. They will taste much better if they ripen on the vine."
So we give it another couple of days. Then after dark we sneak over again. This time:
Katie: " They are almost ripe. Maybe we should just pick them."
Shaun: "No, not yet. We'll get a few, just in case, and then check again on Friday."

Last night Shaun noticed the owner there again. We fret over the possibility of him taking more. But he is working inside so we hope he won't go out in the dark. Shaun sneaks over and picks a few more. This picture is of one of them. They are so close to being ripe (although we have been thinking that for weeks now). Everyday we leave them opens them to someone else coming to steal them from us. The question is, how long do we wait? Check back to find out...

New York City!

Shaun had another conference in NYC last weekend so Ceci and I decided to tag along. After a long day getting there (I vowed no more cross country flights that mess up both naps and bedtime) we were finally there. We had a good time and Cecilia was a trooper. I don't really heart NY to tell you the truth, I'm more of a San Fransisco kind of a gal. Especially after dragging a stroller up two flights of stairs in the subway and begging a stranger to help me carry it up another two. Let's just say Shaun got an earful after that experience. It was really hot in the city too. We picked the perfect weekend to visit, the hottest it has been all summer, click here for an article about it. So Monday we decided to take a walk in Central Park. Again Ceci was a trooper, as you can tell, even though she had a very short nap. It is also really humid there and if we had a question about her hair turning curly we don't now. As a lady in the elevator said she was "having a bad hair day" like everyday we were there :)
I wasn't really able to capture it on film unfortunately. We'll all just have to wait until she is older.

One of the most exciting moments of the trip happened Tuesday night, the night before we came home. We were just going to bed when we heard a lot of thunder. We were staying on the 28th floor of the Marriott in Times Square, a pretty crazy place. So at first I thought it was something going on down there. But after about 10 minutes of it we really started to wonder what it was. It kinda sounded like thunder, but thunder usually reverberates a couple of times and then dies out, but this went on much longer. Shaun got up and looked out the window and goes Whoa! He had my attention then so I get up and look out the window. It was a huge storm! Rain coming down in sheets whipping through the buildings. This country girl has never seen something like that before. Being so high we had a really good view of it all, the rain, wind, lightning, and thunder. So interesting seeing a huge storm in the middle of a big city. I think the thunder kept going longer than we are used to because it was echoing through the buildings. The wind was blowing really hard and the afraid of heights scaredy cat in me started to get nervous when I saw a tower out our window swaying in the wind. I decided to go back to bed, plan my escape route in case of an emergency (baby and diaper bag are all I need) and say my prayers. I guess it was one of the worst storms in 30 years, read about it here. All in all a good trip, but not one I'm eager to take again soon. Maybe after our stroller days are over as I'm not likely to forget those subway stairs for a long time.

Cecilia Update

Shaun went to a conference in New York last weekend so Cecilia and I visited my parents. While there I was sitting on their comfy couch and sat Ceci next to me. They have a perfect spot in the curve of the couch where I could put some toys next to her and prop her up. I soon realized that she was sitting there all by herself and I didn't have to hold her up. It was one of those moments where you realize your child is doing something new. I sent Shaun a picture and he was sad he missed it (but not too much because he was at a Yankee's game). I decided to sit her up on the couch here today and take a picture for all of you. Just a little bit longer and she will be able to sit up without props.

I also took this picture of her today. Isn't she just the cutest thing ever? She recently discovered her bottom lip, or should I say lost it.
One last thing and I'll let you go :) We took her to the doctor today. I hate the shots (probably as much as she does, but it is hard to tell). But like finding out how much she has grown. She weighs 15 pounds 2 oz which is about 75%. Carting her around I can feel it! And she is 25 and 3/4 inches long which is 95%. I think the nurse stretched her a bit, but either way she is getting very tall. I wonder if it is an indicaiton of how tall she will be whe she grows up. Does anyone know?

Double Grandpa

This past weekend we took a trip to Oregon to make some introductions. Yes, we happened to coordinate it with blueberry picking season, but we'll get to that in a minute.
When we found out that Katie was pregnant with Cecilia, we could hardly wait to give some bright news to our families, especially my grandparents, who had both been facing some long odds on still being around when she was born. It was a great experience just telling them that they would finally be great grandparents in a matter of months. However, the challenge was they had to still be here when she came. Needless to say, they are still with us, my grandmother having beaten cancer (again!) and my grandfather seeming to get even better after a few mini strokes. So it was this weekend when we were finally able to introduce Grandpa Ritchie to his great granddaughter. I don't think I've seen a bigger smile come across his lips in years when we walked in the door with her. This is a cute one of him engaging with her.


He says he's now finally a "double grandpa."
We visited Renee and Doc on the way out of town in Silverton. Renee has the baby touch and she was able to make C giggle. Unfortunately, she also puked all over Katie who had to take a shower.

We also were able to stay a night with Cherice and Wes outside of Portland in their new house. They haven't put the A/C unit in the house yet, and we picked the week of the heat wave to visit. Luckily it cooled down nicely at night. Saturday morning we went to the U-pick blueberry farm to go picking. The bushes and berries were small and so was our time to pick because the child refused to take her morning nap.

The biggest bonanza, however, was outside of Submilmity. The bushes were laden and the berries were ripe and for some reason no one else was there. I picked 25 pounds of berries in an hour and a half from about 6 bushes while the baby was sleeping. I'm sure you can tell we love blueberries.

Finally, to end our trip, our flight was delayed by 40 minutes, which gave us a chance to eat lunch before we flew home. Cherice and Wes introduced us to an Oregon institution called Burgerville. "Fresh, local, sustainable" is what they call it. I call it "fresh, tasty and sweet Walla Walla." Check out these monster onion rings. At a buck a ring they ain't cheap, but oh so worth it.