State Fair Hijinks.

What a great Labor Day weekend! Why? Because 1) we had some pretty awesome visitors and 2) it included a trip to the Minnesota State Fair.

That's right, Brother Boo and Girlfriend-of-Brother Boo visited us for a final hurrah as autonomous human beings (i.e. before the tiny dictator makes his appearance in the next few weeks). Games were enjoyed, fetch was played (with Clyde), and lots of food was eaten. Especially at said Fair:

Sadly, I didn't make it to this trip to the Fair given the super-pregnant status. BUT, I did get to enjoy some Fair festivities earlier this week when Man Boo and I did a trial run one weekday evening so that I could see if I would be able to manage a hotter and more crowded trip with the whole crew. Ultimately, we learned that I couldn't -- it's really hard to strike an appropriate balance of hydrating enough not to trigger Braxton Hicks and not having to waddle to the bathroom constantly -- to make the trip enjoyable for all. Don't worry though, because I definitely got to satisfy some really strong cravings for Fair food -- one of which may have included chicken in a waffle cone. So good.

Besides, I also got to partake of cheese curds through the magic of Snapchat.

(This may have been my petulant response to all of the pictures of food being texted to me)

Clyde found two new best friends and was basically at "11" all weekend with the energy. Scott was a sucker when it came to caving in and playing fetch with him for much longer than Jamie and I could ever endure. And Ruth, was the Clyde whisperer...Jamie and I basically didn't exist for Clyde this weekend. Since they left, he has been a sad former shell of Weekend Clyde. Moping around listlessly and giving intense puppy dog eyes in the hopes that we will bring back his friends.

(Puppy dog eyes intensify)

We even had a surprise visit from our beloved friends, the Weitzes, who were in town and hijinks were had. I'm not sure I'm allowed to share video sample of that hijinks, but it was a great way to end our weekend.

And finally, we're almost to the finish line at 36 weeks and 4 days! Less than a month to go...which is pretty good news since this is starting to get pretty uncomfortable...

Not Throwin' Away [His] Shot.

All of you know my ManBoo, Jamie. You also know that he is one of the most optimistic and perpetually-happy people out there. It's glorious and is one of the many reasons that I adore that man. As his wife, the one teensy downside of this near-constant contentment is that I always feel the need to bump him up from "happy" to "deliriously happy" which can be challenging when he doesn't really want for much. So, I settle for those short little bursts of delirious happiness that come when I surprise him with his favorite candy from the co-op or give him a little back scratch.

Earlier this year, before we knew about Baby, I was given the opportunity to make Jamie deliriously happy to the umpteenth degree. Like, 1000x peanut butter cup happy. I was able to buy tickets for us to see Hamilton in New York. Mind you, these tickets weren't free -- they were pretty pricey, actually -- but before this opportunity came up we couldn't even find any tickets for cheaper than $1,000 each. Needless to say, I bought two tickets and Jamie was deliriously happy and the Hamilton soundtrack blared triumphantly from our speaker systems.

Then we found out about our little stowaway and of course we both were deliriously happy about that piece of news. 

But now about those Hamilton tickets...

Jamie is still optimistic (as usual) that we are able to make it out to New York with a 1-2 month old baby and somehow find someone to take said 1-2 month old for the evening while we hit the theater. I think that's a bunch of hooey. I have since looked into selling our tickets and found that we could actually make a nice chunk of change by selling our tickets because seats that are not as nice as ours are selling for five times more than what I paid for our awesome seats.

So if there is anyone reading this I must know...what would you do? Sell the tickets and continue the regular grind of trying to survive life with a newborn within the safe and comfortable confines of our home? Go on an adventure and bring Tiny Long to New York and go really big for our first post-baby date?

To sum up...

• Pros of Staying Home
• Save (and even make!) money which would be more wisely spent on expensive baby
• Less stressful
• More sleep for all involved parties (which I hear is the most precious commodity)
• More time to hone our parenting skills before taking the show on the road
• Don't have to inconvenience a New Yorker friend to take care of a very young baby
• Pros of Going to New York
• Jamie's dreams will come true and we'll see a great show
• Get out of the house (not sure if this will feel like a pro at this point in time)
• People say it's easier to travel with a young infant than an older child...
• We have lots of friends in NYC that we'd love to see

I'm sure there are more on either side but those are the major ones. Tell us what to do!

Baby Crash Course.

Man Boo and I attended a crash course in childbirth, breastfeeding, and newborn care yesterday. It had the intended effect of making things feel "real" and giving us a more accurate picture of just how much we didn't know we didn't know.  The good part of that is that we now know lots of those things.

While I anticipated feeling somewhat panicked about how ill-prepared we were for baby, I actually felt pretty good walking out of the full-day class because I realized that as ill-prepared as we were, there were so many other people in that class that were just as ill-prepared, if not worse off. Now that I type that, it sounds pretty schadenfreude-y of me...but it's totally true.  At least I knew that a cesarean section doesn't involve removing several of my organs and storing them in Pyrex containers whilst delivering baby. I'm not kidding. An adult -- and soon-to-be mother -- asked that question including the Pyrex detail.

All-in-all, money and time well-spent. And I'm very glad that we didn't enroll in one of those class series that involved several nights of information. With one day of high-level overview, I could attend with Man Boo at my side and feel really confident that while there really is no way to fully prepare for raising a tiny human, at least I have the very best partner going into this with me.

We're at 32 weeks and change, folks!

(Yes, it bothers me that I'm facing the other direction in that last picture)

I am officially restricted to maternity pants and get winded climbing up to the attic. A few days ago, Jamie told me with a note of wonder in his voice: "my book says your stomach is in your boobs now!" Not exactly, but pretty close...it's getting crowded in there.  Respect.

Hail to the Man Boo.

A lot has been going on in the last few weeks. Probably the most exciting part since my last post was the Democratic National Convention. While I'm not usually all that much of a political nerd, this year, I watched pretty much the whole thing each day through the magic of online streaming. Granted, the stakes of this election are especially high given the horror that is The Donald, but the primary reason I felt so engaged this year was because Jamie was so involved.

Not only did I get a virtual "front seat" to the convention hall, but through frequent texting, I was able to have some running commentary with Jamie throughout. I felt sort of like the two old theater guys (Statler and Walder) from The Muppet Show, except more patriotic.

(SO MANY BALLOONS!)

I don't often get to see the fruits of Jamie's labor, so it was so energizing to see it for three days straight. There were times while I was watching (particularly when the glass ceiling was shattered) that I felt my heart racing as if I was watching the final minutes of some high-stakes sports play. Jamie even got to meet Kareem Abdul-Jabbar...

...and while he did solicit a picture from KAJ for his boss, Jamie didn't ask for a selfie.  Apparently, KAJ doesn't like having his picture taken. That's fair.

For the last several weeks, Jamie had been working incredibly hard every. single. day. on the Democratic Platform. Staying late at the office, writing proposals, calling Bernie and Clinton folks, and traveling all over (i.e. Orlando, St. Louis, Phoenix, D.C.) for the Platform Committee meetings. Seeing the Platform win the support of so many at the convention was rewarding for me, so I can't imagine what it must have felt like for him. 

(Jamie in his default DNC stance)

Upon his return home, Jamie took three naps and then we went into baby-prep mode. Stuff got done! Nursery furniture was purchased, car seat was installed (and then promptly removed to preserve as many weeks of full back seat as we could), closets were organized, baby spy cam installed, etc. 

(Clyde for scale)

While we haven't really decorated per se, we have the necessary items in place for baby survival. Plus, I had the blinds installed while Jamie was in Philly so I think that really ties the room together. Exciting stuff!

Jamie's Latest Cinematic Masterpiece

So I probably shouldn't have promised that I wouldn't post about New Zealand again before Jamie finished up his latest video of our travels.  Hope you forgive me, because I want to share it now!  Please excuse the geekiness.

Back to non-New Zealand news soon...

Day Nine and Ten: Abel Tasman and Kaiteritiri

Our day in Abel Tasman National Park included some of the best highlights (in my opinion) of the entire trip. We got up bright and early and headed to the north side of the park. While the south side is usually the most popular, the best hikes were only accessible by kayak and the weather was iffy.  I loved the tramps we ended up taking -- Jamie and I basically had the whole trail to ourselves and the weather cleared up just in time for our adventures.

We did a lovely tramp alongside a river, across a couple suspension bridges, and landed us at the base of a pretty great waterfall.

A day hike like this in the States would have been completely overrun by visitors...

We decided to head over to Takaka and Kahurangi National Park to check out Te Waikoropupu Springs (a.k.a. Pupu Springs....heh).  Ironically, the water in Pupu Springs is considered among the clearest fresh water in the world.  It was officially the clearest fresh water on inhabited land until a few years ago when it was "out-cleared" by another lake in a more remote location in Tasman. Still. It was pretty incredible.  It was hard to capture with my amateur photography skills and equipment, but trust me, you could see all the way to the bottom through the springs and it got pretty deep.

And of course, the drive along the coast back to our "bach" (i.e. NZ AirBnB equivalent) was gorgeous.  We had to stop and take a stroll...

Day Two and Three: Mount Cook.

Welp. My big dreams of updating from the road didn't really pan out given a combination of "technical issues" with our WiFi hotspot (i.e. the rental company forgot to switch it on before we took off) and just plain tiredness after a day of exploring.

Fortunately, Jamie and I took quite a few pictures which can help me retroactively blog about our time on the other side of the world...

From Christchurch we headed south towards Aoraki (also known as Mt. Cook).  We knew going into our trip that it would involve a bunch of driving considering how much we wanted to see in 13 days.  We were also counting on these drives including lots of picturesque stops on the way.  New Zealand delivered.

These are all from the FIRST DAY of driving. Seriously...so much incredible scenery.  We drove through "Pelennor Fields" (or rather, right by it and through land that looked pretty much the same as it) and ended up at Minas Tirith -- or at least the hotel at the base of the mountain upon which they superimposed Minas Tirith. I neglected to take a picture of it, but it was like this minus the CGI castle and Gandalf.

I should note that Man Boo and I had not planned on geeking out on Lord of the Rings while we were in New Zealand, and we actually didn't realize we were passing or staying in these locations until after the fact when we found a book on the Lord of the Rings locations and skimmed it in a souvenir shop.  Still, it was pretty fun to learn about.

It was pretty rainy, but Man Boo braved a trek in Hooker Valley to see Mt. Cook -- the highest peak in New Zealand (also known as The Lonely Mountain in LotR -- again, something we didn't know until later).  Sadly, it was too cloudy to actually see Mt. Cook, but the hike itself was pretty photogenic...

(This one's a panorama shot so you should click it if you want to see the full picture)

(These suspension bridges were all over NZ -- they were scary wobbly)

(Glacier!)

 Because of the rain and clouds, we weren't able to take advantage of the area's designation as a Dark Sky Reserve, but it was a risk we took booking a NZ trip in the off-season. Hey, we got 70% off our hotel and campervan rental and a bunch of free upgrades so I think it was a pretty good trade-off.  We've got stars in Minnesota.

Next stop: Queenstown!

Day One: Kia Ora from Christchurch!

Kia ora from New Zealand!  Man Boo and I made it safely to Christchurch yesterday -- a bit bleary-eyed but happy.

One of the things I had been most worried about on the trip was the extended amount of time we would be spending on planes: MSP --> SFO --> AUK --> CHC.  All told, we left our house at noon on Saturday and arrived in Christchurch at 8:45am on Monday after 19 hours (?? my math might be off, the international date line throws me off) of time on planes and in airports.

A couple of things made that trip much better though -- so much so that I actually didn't mind it at all.

First, we had an extended layover in San Francisco which gave us time to catch up and grab dinner with these cuties.  Spending time with them and the family energized us for the next long leg of our trip across the Pacific Ocean.

The second thing that helped immensely was the run of good "upgrade" karma for my flights.  Not only did I get an upgrade for my flight to San Francisco, but somehow Man Boo and I also got upgraded to first class for our 12-hour flight to Auckland!  Major win considering it meant we got to actually sleep in a bed on our way over and have a fancy breakfast together on the plane when we woke up.

Christchurch was beautiful.  We spent the day walking through the town, visiting the Museum, the Botanic Garden and eating yummy food.  

Cardboard Cathedral in Christchurch. An earthquake took down their main cathedral several years back, and they built this cathedral out of cardboard (and other materials, of course) to use while they repaired and rebuilt the original.

The Canterbury Museum.  The top picture is from an exhibit they had on Fred and Myrtle Flutey who were known for their "Paua Shell House". 

Flora and fauna at the Botanic Gardens.

Today, we got up bright and early, did a little grocery shopping for the campervan, made a crucial stop at Knit World to buy some yarn from which I can make my traditional "vacation memento" item.  Incidentally, I have to say that yarn in NZ is crazy inexpensive.  To the point when Jamie was actually encouraging me to buy more so that I wouldn't waste $$$ on more expensive stuff at home.  

Finally, we headed out of town and on our way to Mt.Cook.  It was a lovely drive (through Pelennor Fields for you LoTR fans) and pictures were taken.  As we drove, I found myself vaguely thinking it looks just like Pelennor, but didn't realize that it actually was filmed there until afterwards.  We should have done more LoTR preparation for this trip.

I'll share those pics tomorrow! For now...I can hardly keep my eyes open. Time for bed.

Boundary Waters

I won't pretend that my daily life is blog-worthy by any means -- most days are some combination of the same thing. So to keep things interesting and to jump-start the memories, I figured I would start blogging again by posting about highlights from my year of absence.

I'm going to start with our trip to the Boundary Waters (also known as my first-ever canoe trip).

Let me start by saying this: everyone should go to the Boundary Waters as much as they can.  It is such an intimate and glorious way to experience the wilderness and I cannot wait to get back out there again.

Now that I've said that, I also have to admit that our first couple of hours out there was pretty much a comedy of errors. Like, one of those buddy cop movies where things get worse and worse and you can only laugh.  See this?

Within a minute of taking this picture, both dog and husband were in the water. Clyde couldn't wait to get in the water, and in his excitement created a domino effect that ended with a big shove to Jamie much to the amusement of seasoned canoers around us.  By the time we got out in the canoe Clyde's excitement hadn't abated and a 60lb dog running back and forth on a canoe isn't the most fun for someone (me) who had never canoed before.

We "pulled over" and tried rearranging things a bit putting Clyde up front with me rather than having his way in the middle of the canoe.  This was much more successful as we quickly learned that Clyde had just been trying to get to me the whole time...once there he just went to sleep with his head in my lap.  

Once making it to land for our first portage, we strapped on our hiking boots.  I took my first step and the sole of my boot came off.  Incredulous, I took another step to get to a rock and investigate when the sole of the other boot came off.  I no longer had hiking boots and I had only taken two steps of an estimated many miles.  We forged on -- for the first time I was grateful for my thick-soled Incan feet.

The second important lesson I learned was to never trust Jamie when he told me it was safe to walk somewhere.

Shortly after this picture was taken, I was fully submerged in the water (Clyde jumped in after me because he's a good boy) because Jamie assured me that the grass on the right which is clearly floating ON TOP of the water, was solid ground. Despite my proving it was not to him with an oar, he still insisted that I step on it to get in the canoe. Those pants were wet for the rest of the trip. Jamie was sheepish for the next couple of hours.

Despite all of this, it was still an incredible day and totally worth it.

We spent four days out there, with each night at a campsite even more picturesque than the last. We had a whole island to ourselves in Lake Cherokee and I don't think I had ever seen Clyde happier -- he had a forest to run and lake to swim at his disposal.

We enjoyed the solitude together and took in the incredible feeling of being in a place so quiet and pristine.

We managed to make it the entire trip without tipping the canoe in a lake (the one time it did sort of tip was when we parked it and Jamie was about to get back in, but I'm not counting that) and without any of our gear lost to the lakes.  Clyde did lose some his treats from his treat bag, but I like to think that was just him sharing food with the fish.

Ultimately, we paddled and portaged SO many miles...

...but the incredible scenery made those miles fly by.  That, and the fact that Jamie carried the canoe by himself when we portaged. He assured me it was easier that way, but I'm not so sure...

Boundary Waters gets two enthusiastic thumbs and four fuzzy paws up!