It's been a minute

Let's see, what have I been  up to? 

I'll try to make it as quick as possible. I feel like we haven't had much downtime lately, and that trend will likely continue in the near future. Last year, we stayed close-ish to home; at least staying within the United States. We did end up getting TSA PreCheck, which has been AMAZING. After I almost missed a flight out to my Staff Forum last October, we decided to sign up. It has been awesome! In hindsight, I do wish that we would have signed up for Global Entry instead, since we do a fair amount of international travel, but TSA PreCheck helps a lot for domestic travel. 

First, we spent Thanksgiving in Arizona with Colleen and her (err, our?? it's complicated..) family and took some fun photos in the wash for our Christmas cards

Me and sis with matching shirts

We had an amazing time with Colleen and her family. It was also nice to have some extra help with Mark.

We returned home for about ten days before leaving again for a wedding in Florida. The grounds, wedding, and reception were beautiful, however, as you can read about in the link, the caterer left much to be desired! Fortunately we had eaten before we went, since we had a feeling that we might be hungry. Other guests weren't so lucky!

Jay, me, Silvia & Brian at Villa Toscana in Homestead, FL

Despite the wedding debacles, we had an awesome time catching up with friends and making some new ones as well.

After the festivities were over, Jay and I headed south to Marathon for a few days to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. We didn't like the traditional anniversary gift for this year, so we decided to gift each other with experiences. My gift to Jay/us was a sailing lesson. Jay's gift to me/us was a package of private dance lessons with Dancing on the Shore. It was hard to fit them in, but we enjoyed the refresher. We're hoping to get back into some ballroom dancing!

Oh Captain my Captain

This was the view from the front of our beachfront apartment in Marathon. We stayed at Tranquility Bay in Marathon, and I can't recommend it enough. The entire experience was perfect and we hope to return with Mark in the next few years. After our last trip to Key West, we wanted a place that was a bit more low-key - still a place where you could go have a few drinks, but not such a crazy party atmosphere. We'll be back to Key West of course, but the middle keys seem to be more our speed these days. We also went diving in Key Largo, but that photo didn't download for whatever reason.

Obligatory Santa photo

This is my most favorite Santa ever, he's at the Salisbury Mall - this is the second time we've gone to him. He's fantastic.

Quick trip to New York

We made a quick trip to New York the weekend after Christmas to visit Jay's family. His dad was in the hospital, so we got to see him as well. This is one of the few photos where almost everyone is together in the last few years.

This is from early in the night of my company outing

For the second year in a row upon hitting our special number at work, my boss has rented a limo to take us out with our spouses/guest to Ruth's Chris in Annapolis. This year was quite the debacle and probably left a few people scarred. We had a great time though!

Ocean World in Puerto Plata

In February, we returned to Lifestyles Holiday Vacation Club in Puerto Plata for the first time since having Mark. They suckered convinced us to upgrade our timeshare to the Villa level, which is what we've always wanted. We've tried to book the villas before with our plain old vanilla Studio level without success. But now we can finally book the villa. It's obvious that they are continuing to upgrade and update the resort, and the actual city is looking better than it has in previous times, so I know that the company is improving life for their employees and continuously looking to update their properties. So we will be trying to get to the resort at least once every year or two so that we can take advantage of our membership.

 Outback Beach Safari in Puerto Plata

 My favorite beach at the resort - Serenity Beach

Mark with a new friend and a hermit crab friend in Puerto Plata

This is what happens when you can't reach the dog food at the bottom.

Shortly after this photo was taken, someone tipped out of the dog food container, which broke.

 Mark with his second (errr, third??) cousin & Jay's Goddaughter - "Baby Spatula"

I've always wanted to donate my hair - especially before I start to get too much grey in it. I noticed that my hair had been kind of gross, limp, and I was starting to get a lot of split ends. I have also been starting to find more and more grey hair. I decided that this is the time and cut it off. I donated about 10 inches of hair to Children with Hair Loss. 

Before

After - feels so light!

Other news -- after slowly grinding at the Beachbody thing for a while, I started getting discouraged and a little frustrated. I was never big on the whole MLM kind of thing, and messaging people to join my challenge groups, pushing Shakeology, etc, just felt fake to me. It was taking up a lot of time and I slowly realized that I had NO training or business really to be suggesting this crap to people. I was suggesting fitness programs to acquaintances and people who I hadn't evaluated, not to mention I'm not a medical professional. Yes, I love the programs and they work, but it didn't feel scientifically sound to me. 

So I sent a message to a friend who is a Certified Personal Trainer to get her take on whether I should get a personal training certification or a nutrition certification and she said BE CAREFUL about the nutritionist certification, because really only REGISTERED DIETITIONS can prescribe meal plans and that kind of thing. WHAAAAT?? Then WTF is Beachbody doing?? Makes me wonder if this whole coaching thing borders on being against the law with some of the stuff.

At any rate, I decided to up my game and become a Personal Trainer. You know, with all of my spare time. LOL. I'm not going to do too much with it probably - just do in-home training with a few people here and there, but I wanted something else to hold myself accountable.

For travel this year, I got an AMAZING airfare deal from DC to Brisbane for about $800 roundtrip (thanks to nextvacay.com, so I am actually heading out to visit my aunt next month, but just for a week. After that trip, we have no big plans this summer, then probably a long weekend trip to Idaho for my cousin's wedding, a bucket list trip to Oktoberfest in Munich, then 4 days in Prague (all with a group of about 24 friends). I come back for a few weeks and then I'll be at my company's Staff Forum in San Antonio, where I think I will be presenting some stuff. 

SOOO there's a lot going on this year! I'm tired just thinking of it.

In MUCH sadder news, my baby boy Draco had to be put to sleep two weeks ago. I was absolutely devastated and am still pretty sad about it. He was an amazing cat and I am really going to miss him. He was older and definitely in ailing health. I wasn't a fan of him pooping outside the litterbox and tracking litter everywhere, but I really thought that we had another few years left with him.

Piper is a bit more skittish without him around. I'm not sure how much she misses him, or if she's happy to be the only cat right now, but I think she wants another friend. I do really want another cat and I'm hoping that Jay will warm up to the idea. When I got Draco, what I really wanted was a Maine Coon. I chose him because he was allegedly a MC mix. He definitely had a lot of the same traits, like the chirping that he used to do at birds, and he loved to play in the water. 

Anyway, if I can convince Jay that we need a Maine Coon, I am looking at these two breeders:

RP Cathouse which is pretty close by, and Makanacoon who are in Virginia Beach. I've talked to them both and they have good quality cats. Either way, I wouldn't be bringing a kitten home most likely until the middle to the end of summer. I'm torn though, because I should really be getting a rescue instead. Maybe I'll offset my guilt with a donation to our local shelter. 

So I think that's it for now! I should really be off to bed, I am tired. :)

Thoughts and Prayers

After every shooting, I see an offer of "Thoughts and Prayers." I cynically posted a "Thoughts and Prayers" meme after the church shooting in November in Texas. I said "If only those people in Texas had prayed harder." One of my friends commented "REALLY!?!?!"  Social media has become an increasingly polarizing place. The anonymity of posting memes and arguing with friends and strangers online has taken out a human element of reasonable discourse. We say things on Facebook that we would rarely say to another person's face, let alone our friends. I have been trying to be better about doing this, and taking these conversations offline and out in public.

Here are some of the comments and suggestions I have seen along with my own "thoughts and prayers."

People need to do a better job raising their kids!

Some children live in one-parent households (for a multitude of reasons) and their parents are doing their best just to put food on the table. We don’t know their situation; maybe they shouldn’t have been parents or didn’t want to be a parent in the first place. Maybe they couldn’t afford birth control, or their partner left them after they got pregnant. Not everyone is cut out for parenthood and unfortunately some people only realize it after it’s too late. 

Let’s not forget the half million kids in foster care and their unique challenges. What do we do about those kids that get left behind? It is true that it "takes a village", and we all need to do our part to help out the kids that we see struggling. 

Some of these parents are doing everything they can to raise their kids right. Some children are born with antisocial personality disorder and don’t know the difference between right and wrong. There aren’t enough resources for the parents of these kids, and they also might have a hard time believing that there is something wrong with their child. Deinstitutionalization is another part of the problem, but that is a bag of worms for another day.

Teenagers can be insanely impulsive. As someone who was once a teenager, I can give quite a few personal anecdotes on this topic. According to researchers at the NIH, this is because teenage brains are in the process of maturing – their prefrontal cortexes are still maturing. The rational part of a teen's brain isn't fully developed and won't be until about age 25. As adults, we reason better, develop more control over impulses and make better judgments. This also makes me wonder why we are sending people to war without fully developed brains.

So while everyone is screaming mental illness, let’s be honest with ourselves – teenagers are impulsive and do stupid things. It's because they have developing brains.

If you see something say something! 

People do. Unfortunately, these systems fail as they did in Florida. Reports are now emerging that the latest shooter was reported to authorities multiple times. Also, not every incident is meticulously planned – some are impulsive teenage immature brain problems. There was also the 12 year old girl who brought a gun to school in her backpack. The backpack fell on the ground and discharged the gun, wounding 2 kids. That also puts to bed the "guns are inanimate objects" argument as well. They can misfire and accidents can happen. 

Video games and violent TV/movies/glorification of violence are the problem!
Study results have been inconsistent at best and have produced conflicting results at worst. Canada and Europe have many similar shows/movies/music, yet they don't have these problems. That said, those countries have some major differences: socialized medicine and strict gun laws. 

Mental Illness is the problem!

According to NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Health), approximately 1 in 5 adults in the US (43.8 million) experience mental illness in any given year. Certainly many of the mass shooters were suffering from mental health issues, but to say that anyone who has a mental illness will commit a violent crime is simply false. It creates even more stigma for those who suffer from these invisible illnesses. 

Our schools need more security!

There was an armed guard at Parkland High School. It is now reported that he froze in the situation and never went inside to confront the gunman. If this was a trained deputy, why should we expect better from armed teachers? Teachers are barely paid enough as it is for the work that they do. Most of them went into the profession to teach children, not defend them from armed maniacs. Assuming that the teachers would want to be armed, we would also have several officers carrying guns to protect each school entrance, of course we would also install metal detectors. 
Are we sending our kids to school or sending them to prison?

We already have gun laws / gun laws don’t work in Chicago/Baltimore/other place

While it is true that there are plenty of gun laws on the books, the inconsistency between state laws create a lot of problems. Due to lax gun laws in neighboring states, all it takes is an hour or less drive into a neighboring state to have someone make a straw purchase or even a legal purchase. 

On to facts.

Part of the reason that gun violence is difficult to study is because of the Dickey Amendment of 1996, which ties the hands of the CDC and prevents them from using Federal funds to “advocate or promote gun control.” The NRA pushed for this amendment at the time, after researchers had produced studies that suggested that having a gun in the house increased the risk of homicide and suicide (spoiler alert: it does). 

Since 1968, more than 1.5 million Americans have died in gun-related incidents, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By comparison, approximately 1.2 million service members have been killed in every war in U.S. history, according to estimates from the Department of Veterans Affairs and iCasualties.org, a website that maintains an ongoing database of casualties from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the record, this number includes suicides. 

There were nearly twice as many suicides involving firearms in 2015 as there were murders involving guns, and the rate has been increasing in recent years. Suicide by firearm accounts for almost half of all suicides in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A 2016 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found there was a strong relationship between higher levels of gun ownership in a state and higher firearm suicide rates for both men and women.

More guns also means that more police officers are killed. Researchers looked at federal data for firearm ownership and homicides of police officers across the US over 15 years. They found that states with more gun ownership had more cops killed in homicides: Every 10 percent increase in firearm ownership correlated with 10 additional officers killed in homicides over the 15-year study period (American Journal of Public Health).

Here’s another data point: Although we hear a lot about AR-15s and “assault weapons” during mass shooting incidents, most murders caused by guns involve handguns (FBI). The nature of semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15 makes it easier for mass shooters to take out a large amount of targets in a short time frame, due to accuracy and lack of recoil. This said, the truth is that these types of weapons statistically cause fewer deaths than handguns.

Proposed Solutions

Store your weapons securely. Guns should be secured unloaded in a biometrically locked gun safe, with a trigger lock engaged. If not in a gun safe, all guns should have a trigger lock device installed at all times. There are now biometric trigger locking devices available. If all gun owners followed these procedures, it would reduce unintentional injuries and deaths. 

Repeal the Dickey Amendment to allow the CDC to study gun violence. It is truly a public health crisis. Let's study it and create solutions that are backed up with scientific data.

Congress should pass legislation requiring universal background checks. That would close federal loopholes on background checks at gun shows and other private sales. Additionally, anyone who would like to own a firearm should pass a skills test showing that they know how to properly use their weapons and that they have the knowledge necessary to be a safe gun owner. This would be similar to the training already required for those obtaining concealed carry permits. As a part of this, a firearm registry could be created so that gun sales can be tracked. The registry should be able to be accessed by mental health professionals, school counselors, police officers, and anyone else who would need the information in their professions to “red flag” someone as going to hurt themselves or others.

Congress could also limit the number of guns that can be purchased by one person in a period of time. They could also raise the age limit of all gun purchases. It would be nice to say 25, as per the earlier immature teenage brain, but at least increase the age to 21. Lawmakers could toughen penalties for straw purchases. Mass shooters often carried more than one weapon; one was found with 24. At least 167 weapons of mass shooters were obtained legally and 49 were obtained illegally. It’s unclear how 76 weapons were acquired.

Institute a gun buyback program. The cost is not too much. With each mass shooting, schools are renovated or torn down and rebuilt, costing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. How much is a life saved worth? How much do you value your life? Your child’s life? Another loved one? Your neighbor? What about the people in your community?

Although I personally don’t believe that anyone needs semi-automatic weapons, I do recognize that some people really enjoy guns. I believe that certain weapons should require an increased level of scrutiny or “extreme vetting” if you will. The folks that want weapons like the AR-15 should face closer scrutiny than someone who is hunting deer with their bolt action rifle. Perhaps congress needs to specify classes of firearms with screening procedures for each.

I recognize that America is a unique country. I would love to say that America can simply enact the same kind of wildly successful gun regulations that Australia has: 28 day waiting periods, thorough background checks, and a requirement to present a “justifiable reason” to own a gun. Their gun buyback program meant about a million guns went back to the government and were destroyed. 

The problem is that in America we have a gun for every person. However, it is estimated that less than one third of Americans own a gun. So one third of Americans own an estimated 320 million guns. What do you do with that? It’s hard to shut the barn door after the horse has already left the stable. 

Even though the horse has already left the stable, we have to do something and we have to start somewhere. The number of guns in this country has roughly doubled in the past 50 years. Perhaps 50 years from now the changes that we make today will have made a meaningful impact. I hope that my grandchildren never have to fear being gunned down in the classroom or on the street.

I live in a rural area with a big gun culture. I know families here who rely on hunting to provide food. Guns are a way of life here. We need hunters to control our wildlife population. Trust me, you’d wish that Bambi had been killed before she ran in front of your car. 

What it really comes down to is do we value our guns more than we value the lives of children?

I am in awe of the kids from Parkland who have started this movement and discussion. It's sad to say that fear seems to be the only effective motivator for change, but it appears that it is. The NRA pushes fear based motivation all the time: "bad guys" are coming after you. The Democrats are coming for your guns. 

It is both terrible and inspiring that it has taken children to stand up and say that they are tired of being slaughtered in their classrooms for anyone to do more than send "thoughts and prayers." 

My thoughts and prayers: March for Our Lives will be the falling of small stones that will start an avalanche.

Coolangatta, Australia - Part One of our trip

I made a video of our fun in Coolangatta. I still have a lot of photos on my old phone from diving and whatnot, so I think I will be making four or five videos from our trip.

This video is mostly from all of our fun with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Darryl, in Coolangatta -- then at the end is from our last night having dinner at their house in Surfers Paradise.

Hope you enjoy!

P.S. I also made an update to my Traveling with Tots post with new travel suggestions!

Australia

I've been back for over a month, so I really need to post about my experience. Traveling with Mark wasn't nearly as awful as I thought it would be and the trip went MUCH better than expected.

This weekend I am going to work on a full post and update. As usual, there is a lot going on.

More pictures of our trip here.

Clownfish at Lady Musgrave Island - diving the Outer Wall

DOH! Pizza!

Jay got to hold the koala at Currumbin this time

Mark feeding a joey at Currumbin

More updates this weekend. I have a ton of things that I need to do that will also tie in to my 101 list.

Some places/things I am planning to review for TripAdvisor: Kirra Dive, Bundaberg Cane Railway/Botanical Gardens, Bargara Beach, Beach at Your Feet, Lady Musgrave Experience, Ocean Plaza Resort, Paradise Island Resort (probably my first bad review of anywhere I've stayed).

Weekend goal: update this blog and my 101 list blog, write 3 reviews from Australia.

Traveling with Tots

I've been wanting to blog about our traveling experiences with Markface for a while in hopes that it might help others.

**UPDATE JANUARY 2018**

Currumbin Wildlife Refuge - Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia
May 2017 (Mark ~2.5)

I scoured the internet for hours, posted questions in the moms group I belong to on Facebook, texted friends, and consulted my Magic Eight Ball.

Travel with a toddler? The number one answer: Don't do it!

Traveling with babies is tough, but how else can you get a picture like this?

In my brief experience, I have discovered (so far) that there is an age that is extremely difficult to deal with - at least it was for us. From about 14 months to 22 months was not good for traveling. In our experience, doing pretty much anything during that time frame was a challenge (and continues to be - terrible twos in full force here).

In the 14-22 month range, Mark was mobile, curious, headstrong, and would not listen to anything we said. Running away was a fun game. This time frame also involved either extreme clinginess or extreme independence. Mark either was clinging to our legs and begging to be picked up or was running away at full-tilt.

This was a trip to AZ to visit my SILColleen at around 17 months old - we were lucky to have family to help on this trip!

You can imagine that this wasn't the ideal time for trips.

While I am by no means an expert, we've chalked up a dozen long weekend road trips and three week-long vacations involving air travel (two domestic and one international) in two years with our son Mark, so I wanted to share a few things that might be helpful for other folks traveling with small humans. We also traveled to Australia (about 48 hours travel time including layovers) while he was 2.5. I will add my updates in this font.

Mark's first "trip" was to New York to visit family when he was three months old.

Here we are at the Residence Inn Long Island Islip, which is our favorite place to stay while visiting friends and family in the Deer Park area.

Here are some travel suggestions to maintain your sanity. Good luck, we're all counting on you!

1. Maintain Your Usual Schedule, If Possible

Kids thrive on routine and still need their sleep. We are all grumpy when we don't get as much shut-eye as usual, and this is especially true for kids. They're in a new place and their schedules are all up in the air.  Staying on schedule is easiest from birth to three months, as kids can nap anywhere, and in these early months, there is no such thing as a schedule anyway.

If you're traveling by car and your destination is less than four hours away, try to plan naptime for the middle of the trip. If you're traveling by air, for the love of God, don't wake them up early for a flight. We immediately regretted our early flight to Miami (which I was so proud of saving a ton of money on). The trade-off for saving cash on our flight was a cranky 15 month old who we woke at 3 a.m. for an hour + long drive to the airport, the usual fun check-in procedure, and security. He put up with all of this until we got on board. He cried for what felt like the entire flight. To my horror, I discovered that we were those people on the plane.

The best baby on a plane is a sleeping baby

It was so bad that the flight attendant gave Jay two free bottles of vodka with his Bloody Mary mix.

Determine if adjusting to a new time zone makes sense for you and your child. The general rule of thumb is that it takes one day to adjust to each hour of time difference. If you're taking a long weekend in Paris (lucky you), consider sticking to your usual time zone for activities, if at all possible.

If your trip allows you to adjust to local time, live like our ancestors did. Wake at sunrise and start winding down at sunset. Make sure that you and  your kiddo are exposed to as much natural light as possible. It will help you adjust more quickly.

I've always heard that you should stay up until 8 pm local time to best adjust to a new time zone. For adults, a 2 hour nap on arrival afternoon (hell, you're on vacation - nap each day!) is also fine, as well as up to a 3-3.5 hour nap for your kid. Wake them at least 3 or 4 hours before their local bedtime though so that they can eat dinner and try to get settled in.

Here is an update from my time in Australia: There was a 14 hour time difference, and he actually adjusted to it better than we did. Our first day there, we let him take a 3.5 hour nap. We also hit the playground and got outside right away. Kids are incredibly resilient and adaptable. Although you should check with your pediatrician before doing this, we also got some melatonin gummy vitamins - 1 mg each. We bit one in half and gave it to Mark about an hour before "bedtime". Make sure that you put the top on all the way, because he did get in to them at one point and ate about 4 of them. I'm happy to tell you that he survived and he slept GREAT that night.

2. Prepare for Passport Issues

Ready for Mexico

If you are traveling abroad, it can be incredibly difficult to get a good passport photo of your baby. Especially if they are less than 6 months old and can't sit up. We tried passport photo apps as well as getting Mark's picture taken at Walmart photo. We failed at both. It's difficult to get everything aligned correctly without any shadows, and Walmart employees weren't the most knowledgeable on the whole baby with a passport thing.

If you're going to try the photo yourself, lay your baby outside on a white sheet or blanket. Preferably on a cloudy day, where you get enough light for the photo, but not enough to cause shadows.

I found this post to be the most useful for getting a passport photo for Markface.

Ultimately, the lovely woman who works at our local post office took Mark's photo while he was laying down on an old mail bag. When in doubt, ask USPS what to do. They're experts!

Also, don't forget - kid's passport photos expire after 5 years, so you need to keep a close eye on Passport expiration dates. Most countries require that your passport is valid for at least six months beyond your planned return date. Check to make sure that you have all of the necessary information from the U.S. State department before your trip, and also check with the country you will be visiting to see if there are any travel visas to secure ahead of time.

Australia has an electronic visa system - see if the country you are traveling to has one as well. Prepare to check this at least 2-3 months ahead of time!

3. Keep them occupied

This is the name of the game on planes, trains, and automobiles (and boats too, I'm sure). A kid occupied with a new toy or game is going to be less likely to annoy those around them, especially their parents.

When you think of traveling with your child, think like a bride on her wedding day.

Something Old
A favorite toy, stuffed animal, or blankie- perhaps even something that you haven't let them have in a while that is comforting to them. Break it out if you sense they are about to lose their shit. If you have to resort to a pacifier even if they've given up the habit, do it. It's also good to have a pacifier, bottle, or sippy cup for them during take off and landing in an airplane. Kids have tiny Eustachian tubes that are more prone to getting blocked than ours. This is also why they are more prone to ear infections. Speaking of which, if it looks like that might be happening before your trip, try out Wally's Ear Oil. You'll thank me later.

Something New
Kids love something they've never seen or played with before. Have something new and available before they spy something that someone else has that they want. Download some new apps on the phone or tablet. Some inexpensive suggestions: pipe cleaners with beaded fluff balls, stickers, dollar store junk wrapped in wrapping paper, a Tupperware container full of random objects, yo-yos, invisible markers with coloring books, masking tape and duct tape too (just in case you get desperate - also good for childproofing your destination). Whatever you don't mind losing.

Something Borrowed
Ask friends with kids their saving grace when it comes to traveling with their kids. Then ask to borrow it. A good travel stroller? An ergo carrier? An iPad or Tablet? Think of what can do the most good and take up the least amount of space.

Something Blue
Blue is for blueberries. Stopping meltdowns from happening in our house usually involves snacks. Bring pouch applesauce, blueberries, or raisins. Mandarin oranges. Cereal bars. Bring something low in sugar to stop them from bouncing off the walls, but also something that they might consider a treat.

I can't tell you how we survived all of our travel to OZ, but we did. I think that the pipecleaners with the fluff balls were the biggest hit. He also liked things with magnets. Oh! And those fun toy airplanes that they sell at the airport are awesome too. There was another kid with one on the plane and I thought that Mark was going to steal it from him.

4. Be Prepared, but Don't Overpack

This may come as a surprise to you, but people populate the entire world. This means that at some point, they were babies. Inexplicably, people continue to make other people- there are kids all over the world. You probably don't need to bring your entire stash of diapers. Bring plenty of diapers to get you through the travel day and the next day or two (you never know what delays you'll encounter with air travel). Chances are good that there will be a place to buy diapers where you are going. They might not be your chosen brand, but they will be fine. Exception: Bring swim diapers as those might be harder to find.

One of the many places that I fed my kid was at this lovely restaurant in Cancun overlooking the lagoon

On breastfeeding: I made the mistake of bringing my breast pump on vacation several times and I never needed it. If you will be away from your child, invest in a small manual pump. Also, most other people around the world are more used to seeing babies eat in the usual fashion. Bring a cover up if it makes you comfortable, but don't stress too much - no one really wants to see your boobs and they can look away if it bothers them.

We found diapers (aka nappies!) to be cheaper in Australia than they were at home. They definitely have them everywhere!

5. Don't Give in to Fear

It's okay to take a break from your kid(s) on vacation. Go to the spa. Go out to dinner. Take time for yourself (and your significant other).

As soon as I start planning for a vacation, I start the Google search for a babysitter. It never fails that when I begin my search for a babysitter or sitting service, I see posts like this:"I can't see how safe it would be, leaving a child with an unvetted stranger."

I don't advocate that you leave your child with an unvetted stranger. Instead, I suggest that you do some research and meet the sitter ahead of time and/or ask for references. Most hotels also have a go-to babysitting service that they recommend, and they nearly always come with background checks.

We've used babysitting services in Cancun, Outer Banks, NC, and Key West. We even found a sitter on Craigslist for Key West. She gave us references and we met her at her day job when we got down there. Sitter City and Care.com are other resources to utilize.

Sunrise with Markface in Buxton, NC

When we go to Australia next year, we are planning to use Busy Bees. I will report back after our return.

I'm not saying that child abductions don't happen; they certainly do. However, your child is most likely to be abducted by someone they know. 82% of abductions are by a family member, often a parent. Less than 1% of all kidnappings are by strangers, and the majority of those are likely to happen near your house. It's much easier to abduct a kid in ways other than posing as a babysitter online and risking detection and leaving a paper or telephone trail.

If you're still feeling anxious about leaving your kid with a stranger, think of vacationing in a place that has childcare available.

We did not end up using Busy Bees in Australia, as right before we left I was unable to make contact with the person there. I did however find a sitter in the Gold Coast area called Heaven Sent Help and they really were heavenly. Our sitter was a fantastic Kiwi named Colleen and she ended up watching Mark probably 3 or 4 times during our week in Coolangatta. She was phenomenal and I am still in touch with her. 

In Bargara, which is a coastal town near Bundaberg, I found our babysitter using Facebook. Yes, I know it's crazy. I haunted Facebook and creeped on a number of pages until I found Curdy's Kids Care. Zoe is the owner and at the time that I met her, she did not have a lovely website like this. :) She was PHENOMENAL and I felt completely at ease leaving Mark with her. I think that he may have had more fun with her than Jay and I did going out to dinner and diving the Great Barrier Reef.

ONE MORE UPDATE ON TRAVEL TIPS -- HERE IS MY BONUS TIP!

If you have a long layover (5+ hours), may I suggest a Day Use hotel? It sounded super sketchy when I first heard of them, but I am now a firm believer. Gone are the days of sleazy pay by the hour hotels. Now you can book a luxury hotel room for a partial day! We used Hotels by Day  for our long layovers at LAX and booked a Marriott for around $85. It was just what we needed to grab a shower and a nap, especially on our way home. Even better, these hotels are usually near the airport and they have shuttle pick up. Other Day Use websites are DayUse.com and Between9and5.com. 

Obviously this list is not all-inclusive. This is very much a work in progress and I am planning to add on to this list (perhaps even make it a devoted page on the site) as I have new ideas.

How about you? Please share your own tips and tricks of traveling.

Happy traveling!

Wordless Wednesday

101 in 1001 or 202 in 21

Here is our 202 list... the list isn't perfect. I think there are a few things and ideas repeated, but I've managed to assemble things in a somewhat chronological order.

I'll post my itinerary soon with photos from each day.

As you can see with number one, we began our journey in New Jersey on May 10th.

1. Make a left in Jersey
2. Fall in love with Air New Zealand's Premium Economy
3. Cuddle a koala
4. Feed a kangaroo
5. Get molested by lorikeets
6. Be involved in an AFA (automatic fire alarm - this happened in Coolangatta)
7. Watch surfers
8. Walkabout
9. Use a public restroom (OZ has tons of really nice ones!!)
10. Try a flat white coffee
11. Eat beef cheeks
12. Try out SCUBA diving
13. Pet a sea turtle
14. Not get bitten by a carpet shark (Jay thought our dive instructor wanted him to pet it)
15. Find Nemo (found him MANY times!)
16. Watch the sun rise in Coolangatta
17. Pet a fish 
18. Play Apples to Apples
19. Jaywalk comfortably (it's harder than it looks when you're used to right-hand side driving)
20. Stand between two states (NSW and QLD)
21. Find a spot for dad in Coolangatta (he's in the dunes and under a pine tree - I thought he'd enjoy all the lorikeets)
22. Sing with Aunt Nancy (we had a little concert on my last night there)
23. Swallow a live fly (Jay drank a fly in his wineglass)
24. Find Whites Beach (black sand - we found a similar beach in Bayview, NZ)
25. Try Australian pizza 
26. Make a u-turn on the runway (Proserpine Airport is TINY!)
27. Concerns a boat... activity is censored! :)
28. Pee off of a boat
29. Not shower for two days (pact made by fellow Whitsunday Getaway couples)
30. Step in cow poo
31. Walk down railroad tracks
32. Find and try Korean BBQ (AWESOME - in Townsville)
33. Book the last hotel room (at the holiday inn in Townsville)
34. Smash toe in hotel room (seriously who puts a 1" metal lip between the bedroom and bathroom?)
35. Get freaked out in Dimbulah
36. Go over a scary f'n bridge (Destination Truth style!!)
37. Go through the Bismarck Range
38. Share the road.... with cows
39. Drive in the dark
40. Walk in a rainforest
41. Spot for dad in Daintree Rainforest (Daintree Discovery Center - seemed like his kinda place)
42. Eat rainforest ice cream
43. Ride a ferry (across croc-infested waters)
44. Go on a croc river cruise
45. Eat kangaroo (at the Daintree Tea House)
46. Drive windy roads in Daintree (and not die)
47. Figure out how to use air conditioning in hotel room (took us two hours - had to put our hotel key in a slot)
48. Chat with locals (yep, lots of that)
49. See how racist locals are (OMG the racism in OZ was bizarre)
50. Get elfed by a 9 year old (in Almaden of all places)
51. Feel like we were on Destination Truth (so many times)
52. Not see any wildlife in Daintree Discovery Center. $60
53. Have a wine and cheese night
54. Something censored to do with the Outback
55. Take pictures of Australian chickens
56. Steal an Outback newspaper (front page was about the Wheelbarrow Race)
57. Drive over a waterfall (did this several times)
58. See wild crocodiles
59. See a baby crocodile
60. Attempt to sneak into zoo at night (then later find out it was open and we could've gone in)
61. Feed a cassowary
62. Feed an animal prosciutto
63. Feed a wallaby
64. Get eaten by mosquitoes
65. Stay at a hotel in a zoo
66. Finish Kvothe (the Kingkiller Chronicles) - this was super sadface, we enjoyed this audiobook. Hope the author comes out with a new book soon!
67. Draw on each other (I think this happened on the wine and cheese night)
68. Eat strong and bitey cheese (I love what they call stuff over there)
69. Have Cuban rum
70. Enjoy the best mojito ever at Fish d'vine 
71. Boop a kangaroo
72. Pat a kookaburra
73. Pat a dingo 
74. Feed a croc prosciutto
75. Watch croc attack a piece of cured meat
76. Poke a squirrel glider
77. Feed a wallaby (hmm. it appears we did that in 63. oh well)
78. Feed a cockatoo or twenty
79. Taunt a cassowary
80. Something to do with a rainforest
81. Have a wallaby growl at you
82. Have a dingo snap at you
83. Get bitten by an emu
84. Touch a wombat
85. Feed a cassowary (oops, 61)
86. Feed a kookaburra
87. Start a croc feeding frenzy (oops! apparently they really enjoy salami - who knew?)
88. Break tooth on salami
89. Baby bird a croc (see breaking tooth on salami)
90. Boop a quolle
91. Visit the Giant Mango in Bowen
92. Dive 3 sites in the Great Barrier Reef - the Agincourt Reef and Low Isles on Poseidon
93. Learn more dive skills and actually be tested and expect to do stuff
94. Take regulator out of mouth on purpose
95. See a white-tipped reef shark
96. Hold a sea cucumber
97. Nearly get puked on
98. Ride the vomit comet
99. Run into Sally & Chris on the dock having happy hour after getting off dive boat
100. Surf the Bay on the front of the Poseidon a la Titanic
101. Stinky Plastic Couple - Ewww.
102. Get offered free drinks at the Sea Temple because our rooms weren't ready - AND WE WERE EARLY for check in!
103. Have a private hot tub session
104. BBQ our own food at Sea Temple on our rooftop deck
105. Wash a pack of cigarettes and try to hide it (Jay was supposed to quit smoking for this trip, but brought an emergency pack... he washed nearly the whole thing and made quite a mess)
106. Get upgraded to nice apartment
107. Buy souvenirs
108. Stay at Horse and Jockey in at Matamata
109. Have a terrible fried dinner at the Horse and Jockey (pork wontons and curly fries)
110. Hear neighbors in next room peeing because of hole in the wall
111. Leave Horse & Jockey via the fire exit
112. Go from six people in our tour group at Hobbiton to fifty
113. Have a rather obnoxious tour guide at Hobbiton
114. Have a half pint at the Green Dragon
115. Get called a "Little Hobbit"
116. See bag End
117. See Gandalf's limb
118. Discover why the toilet squatting sign exists (in Hobbiton)
119. Hobbiton - where the urinal cakes are hobbit-sized and so are the beers
120. Have an awesome dinner at HuHu Cafe
121. Have awesome dessert at HuHu Cafe
122. Have best culinary experience EVER at HuHu (Waitomo)
123. Sleep in a Hobbit Motel
124. Meet Barry aka Billy Black
125. Abseil 35 meters and not get stuck or die
126. Zipline in pitch black under glow worms
127. Jump into freezing cold water (10C)
128. Ride a tube underground (blackwater raft)
129. Cave slide 
130. Survive double waterfall of death
131. Get invited hunting in Mississippi (and met our first Americans)
132. Stub toe on rock after caving trip and lose a toenail
133. Something about hot springs
134. Go skinny dipping in hot spring
135. Eat good Thai food
136. Something about a trailer
137. See Mount Doom from our breakfast table
138. Simply walk into Mordor (we figure that if we could see Mt Doom from our breakfast table, we were already in Mordor)
139. Have a disgusting cider (Elderflower & Apple and Black currant & Apple)
140. Pass a tractor without incident
141. Visit our new kiwi friends in Bayview/Napier (Sally & Chris)
142. Go on black beach and find cool shit
143. Find a spot for dad in Hawkes Bay (at the end of Franklin Road on the beach)
144. Get a private tour of Napier/Hastings by kiwis
145. Do a tasting at Cidery and TeMATA
146. Learn about scrumpy hands, possum and cone - best drinking games ever
147. Have an authentic kiwi dinner (roast & 3-veg)
148. Get completely shitfaced (7 bottles of wine, 2L scrumpy and a 6 pack of beer consumed by 4 people)
149. Eat a roach (that was all Jay - quite the entomologist this trip!)
150. Draw best map of USA ever 
151. Sleep in a vineyard (they grow Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot & Chardonnay varieties)
152. Spill stuff on our gracious hosts' carpet
153. Go wandering about hosts' house in underwear
154. Sleep naked in another bed from where you initially were sleeping (and wake up with no idea where you are)
155. Soak up spillage with socks
156. Wake up and have no idea where your husband is
157. Black out from Scrumpy (or everything else)
158. Drink 3 bottles of 2004 award-winning wine
159. Exclaim, "What the fuck happened last night??"
160. Puke
161. Consider leaving before your hosts wake up
162. Get invited to stay a second night
163. Try Ginger Beer
164. Drive with one of the worst hangovers ever (on the other side of the road through crazy mountain passes and one lane bridges_
165. Have a good lunch in Rotorua (Mac's Steaks)
166. Walk Lake Trail in Rotorua
167. Watch Asians with cameras feed birds an entire loaf of bread (despite signs)
168. Take a dump in a public toilet
169. See an Indian (presumable American Indian??) on horseback walk down a sidewalk in Tauranga
170. Learn Tauranga is not a place we want to stay
171. Pay a toll
172. Arrive in Mount Maunganui after doubting its existence (drove forever through shipyards)
173. Discover it's difficult to book hotels during the Queen's Birthday Weekend (observed June 3rd 2013)
174. Book the last available hotel in town at Macca's using their free wifi (Baywatch Motor Inn)
175. Develop a disturbing arrythmia (this was Jay, he eventually got better... we think it was due to an electrolyte imbalance from the puking/drinking plus lack of sleep)
176. Have the best pork belly ever (Latitude 37 or Vine in Taupo)
177. See (and play) the FJ Cruiser game
178. Tip a grateful waitress at Latitude 37
179. Find a spot for dad in Mt Maunganui
180. Avoid getting run into by runner (there was some kind of crazy run/walk/bike ride thing happening there)
181. Eat mincemeat pie - delicious!
182. Walk across a CRAZY bridge
183. Start a parking trend
184. Almost get run over by a mountain biker
185. Spot a giant mushroom
186. Successfully drop off rental car
187. Take a weird-ass bus ride
188. Spot homeless people (they're pretty much the same worldwide) - then consider giving them a bottle of wine
189. Mistakenly see Auckland by staying on a bus too long
190. Be surprised by an awesome dinner at Lord Nelson's in Auckland
191. Get a second Skycouch AND be undercharged for it
192. Catch the airport bus perfectly
193. Be test subjects for the egate (I was denied!)
194. Find and buy Cuban rum
195. Debate merits of buying a sheepskin rug at the airport. In hindsight, I kinda wish we had. Even though I have no idea what I'd do with it.
196. Kick a guy off Skycouch
197. Something about Cuban rum. What? You want mojitos?
198. Walk on Manhattan Beach Pier (back in CA)
199. Run into couple from our flight to the US from New Zealand (South Islanders) at El Sombrero in Manhattan Beach. They were heading to the Caribbean to spend a few months on a friend's yacht. You know, since their growing season is over (another vineyard owning couple).
200. Not lose wallet in El Segundo
201. Get Roxie to start (it took some coaxing, sweet girl... she has nearly 300k on her and she was sitting for THREE WEEKS!)
202. Survive the trip, including the drive home

Almost Wordless Wednesday - More trip pics

All of the photos (at least those we are sharing) from our trip are finally up. Check them out on Shutterfly!