Antarctica: Montevideo, Uraguay

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I just got all of the Uraguay pictures today! The bad news is that there aren't so many of them. At least I can move on with my posts!

We arrived at Montevideo at 8am on February 15th, the day after we got on the ship in Buenos Aires. Look at a map or globe. They are right next to each other. As it was a Sunday, Fiona took Bran and Nuala to church. Zachariah was so kind and stayed home from church that morning for us. He picked us up, drove us around the city a little and then took us to a nice beach about 45 minutes away from their house. It was so nice that he had car seats (for the twins) in his car for Jonah and Jack. And snacks too!

Here is a picture of Zachariah and Jonah building a sand castle. Paige is in the background, in the water of course!

Jack loved taking walks on the beach with Nana. He did not like to wade into the water, but he loved to have his feet dipped. No wet sand for him!After playing at the beach, Zac drove us back to his house. He and Mike drove to pick up pizzas for lunch and then to pick up Fiona and the kids from church while Nana and I stayed with our kids and let them play with Nuala and Bran's toys.

Jack and Jonah LOVED their motos!

Notice Jonah. He found a toy raccoon to play with!
Paige enjoyed the books most, and then the pool later on (which I don't have any pictures of!).

When everyone arrived home (the Rollins' home) we had a nice pizza lunch thanks to Zac and Fiona and a little time to visit while we broke up arguments or encouraged sharing with our five tired children. Good times! It was so nice to see where our friends have been living, as we don't get to Uraguay to often... Thank you for sharing your home and food with us! We all enjoyed ourselves.

News Break!

Jack Bailey receives his first haircut!

I was prepared for tears! Not tears from Jack, since I was pretty sure he wouldn't mind the haircut, but from me. But thankfully his cut really wasn't that traumatic. Jack, at almost 22 months, still looks like a baby with his round face and big eyes. Oh, goody. I can be in denial a little longer...

Here is Jack BEFORE his haircut.

Here is Jack DURING his haircut. He loved holding the spray bottle and giggled a little when it was used on his hair. The only thing Jack did not like during his haircut was the hair clippings. If he got hair on his cape (where he could see it), he would say "uck, uck, uck!" until I brushed them off.

Here is my handsome boy AFTER his haircut. See, not so bad. He still has hair and it's still blond.

Flash back to when Jonah got his first haircut. Mike got out the razor and did Jonah's hair when he was 15 months old. He went from "baby" to "military recruit" in a few seconds. I cried.

And before that, Paige lost her pretty little curls and shiny hair at the age of two. Only God knows why, as we never figured it out. Her hair just stuck up and looked a lot like her baby brother at the time, except she was a GIRL and NOT A BABY. I cried then too.

Here is a picture before Paige began losing her hair.

And here Paige and Jonah are with matching hair (Paige 2 1/2 years and Jonah 8 months). This picture is actually pretty cute. Most pictures from this time looked pretty awful. Poor girl. She definitely deserves that beautiful hair she has now!

Antarctica: We allowed the kids very few toys on the trip...

So Jonah created his own, naturally. Here is his "Elephant Skunk-Monkey!"

There were other fun "toys" that Jonah created as well. I cannot remember them all, but I'll list a few here for your amusement.

A blue and white gingham ribbon was his "powers".

His backpack, on the floor, face down with the straps undone was his forklift. He would get on top of it and "operate" it by moving the straps up and down.

The knives and forks at dinner were cranes.

The lobster tail was his friend (although we made him leave this friend in the dining room).

Antarctica- Cruisin'!

Okay, we are now officially on our way to ANTARCTICA! Getting on the boat, I mean ship, I was still wondering how we were going to do this cruising thing. If you know us, and hopefully you do know us, since you are reading our blog, you'd know that we are just NOT what we thought typical cruisers are. Well, it didn't matter that at least 50% of the people were over 65 or that they were doing what they were doing. We didn't have to be hardcore "cruizies," as we called them (The cruizies were always mentioning all of the other cruises they had been on before and asking about our previous cruises...oh, and they wore lanyards around thier necks with their gold, elite or platinum cards prominently displayed. Mike and I shared a number of laughs about this.) . We could do our own thing and we really had a great time!

One thing that really worked for our benefit was that there were 15 kids under the age of 13 on the ship. So, between the Rollins' and our family, we had 1/3 of those kids! On trips that carried more children, there are 2 classrooms for the young children. One for ages 3 to 8, another for the 9 through 12 year olds. Because there were so few children, staff only worked in one room, combining the children. That left an empty room for us to play in on cruising days! Paige loved to go with the other children (and made some friends, of course!), but the rest of us would usually go into the other room together. We weren't allowed to leave (and wouldn't want to leave them anyway!) our under three year olds, so we had to be there for Jack, Bran and Nuala. Usually, especially in Antarctica, We would take turns watching the children and going out on the deck. It was really nice. The kids got to play with play dough, color, climb and slide and just play with toys and we also got to enjoy the company of Fiona and Zac.

Jack LOVED Nuala and Fiona. He would often sit on Fiona's lap or ask her to pick him up. I don't have a picture of her carrying both Jack and Nuala. It was cute. Although it was not always cute to Nuala, who sometimes wanted her mama to herself. "No Jack. Noona Mama!"
I cannot remember what Jonah was being that particular morning. Maybe a turtle? He is in the bag of toys that was in "our" playroom. They sanitize the toys in that bag. Paige is watching a movie in her classroom and Jack sat up next to her. He sat for less than half a minute, but I love the way he is sitting up so straight. Oh, and the girl in the glasses is the "mean girl." She did not like Jack or Nuala or Bran. Apparently they were too sweet for her taste. We were glad to have our own playroom!

In the afternoons, usually Mike, but sometimes I would take Paige and Jonah to the pool while Jack napped. Again, since there weren't many children, the pools were not full. There were a number of pools on the ship, but we preferred the one that was sheltered, with glass surrounding it. We could still see outside and it was usually pretty comfortable temperature-wise in there. Paige was a fish! Jonah enjoyed the hot tub because he could reach the bottom, but also because it was a good place for him to find random people to socialize with and he really loved to crawl around the ledge a lot...
Another thing that worked for us on the cruise was the food! We really enjoyed eating and who doesn't enjoy 2 or 3 fancy desserts every day?! I loved not having to cook and Mike enjoyed shrimp cocktail as his appetizer almost every night! Because buffets are so hard with children, we would go to it sometimes for breakfast and we did go to it one time at lunch, but usually we went to the regular dining room. It was very nice and we were served in courses, so it usually took 90 minutes to eat. I was AMAZED with our children. I knew that Paige could sit for that long, coloring on her place mat and talking, but Jonah and Jack? Wow! They sat in their seats and we had compliments often on how well behaved our children are. They just didn't see or hear them for long enough apparently... We were so thankful though, because we really got to enjoy the service and the food and each other.

Here are some pictures from our "fancy night" dinner. We dressed so that we would "pass" for formal. The boys wore shirts with collars but no ties. Mike did the same. I have to say that I do not like ties on him anyway. He always looks like he's choking. Paige wore a pretty dress from Aunt Barb with her little black cardigan over top. I wore the same black dress I always do. I bought that dress years before Mike and I were married and we'll be married for 9 years on Wednesday! Oh, and Nana wore a green dress with glitter. Paige loved it and really wished that I had a dress with glitter on it as well. She also had concern, after seeing Nana in her glitter dress, that she might not be dressed up appropriately. Oh my goodness. How old is she? (Paige, not Nana)

Oh, Paigey, we need to work on your table manners! She has never seen a need to use a fork for her broccoli... We ordered Lobster tail and monk fish for Jonah. He ate his entire tail AND the monk fish AND his chocolate ice cream. He came up to me after dinner, wanting me to smell him. He wanted me to smell chocolate on him, but I could only smell butter. He sure loved dipping his lobster and monk fish! The boy was in heaven!

Jack's favorite meal on the ship was grilled chicken breast and steamed broccoli or corn, followed by sorbet.

Here is Jack, eating basil-lime sorbet. It was REALLY pungent, but he loved it, just like he loved the lemon sorbet. He preferred the stronger tasting sorbets to the sweeter ones, like cherry or blueberry. He only at a couple bites of those. He finished this sorbet.

And here we are having one of our nightly desserts!I don't know how other people put their little ones to bed... We seemed to be the only ones sitting in the hall, waiting for Jonah and Jack to be silent and asleep (Paige usually slept in Nana's room.). Jack just cannot settle down with us (especially me) in the room. But we made the most of it! Mike would always go down to the International Cafe' and pick out dessert for the two of us.

More to come soon! We are having technical issues getting our pictures from my mom from Montevideo, Uraguay, our first stop on the cruise (where Zachariah, Fiona, Bran and Nuala live and came aboard the ship). I got some from her today, just not all of them. We'll have them soon enough!

Antarctica- Buenos Aires!

I know! It has taken me FOREVER to get this posted. We've only been home for a week and a day. What else do I have to do but blog?

First impressions of Buenos Aires...

Argentina is a 3rd world country (which is not necessarily an impression, but a fact)... I knew, from Mike's conversations with Zachariah, that car seats were not always used there. Actually, Z said that they would probably let the kids drive there...(just sorta kidding) We decided to only take Jack's car seat and a booster seat (Paige's booster seat) for Jonah. Feeling neglectful and a bit guilty, we didn't take a booster seat for Paige. Here it would be illegal for her to ride in a car without a booster seat and I don't believe that Jonah is big enough for a booster seat here with all of the regulations. Anyway, we got to the Buenos Aires airport and then needed to find a ride to our hotel, about 45 minutes away. Mike, in his very broken but functional Spanish, found a shuttle company with a van to take us. Good! There is room for everyone and our stuff in a van, right? So, we get to this "van," that I can compare to something like a Subaru Forester. No third row. 2 seats in the front and 3 in the back. That's 5 seats! And there are 7 of us, including the driver. There wasn't any question by the driver or the company or anything whether we could all fit in the car, so we just got in. Remember, we couldn't really talk to anyone with our toddler-level Spanish acquisition. At least Jack was buckled into his car seat. Oh, but wait, there aren't any seat belts! Jack is in his car seat, but nothing is holding it to the seat. I wonder who had the good idea of cutting off the seat belts. I can understand if there aren't any seat belts or if they're broken, but geez, why would someone purposely do that? Anyways, Jonah is on my lap, Paige is on Mike's lap, and Mom got to be the copilot. This was the first pretty shocking thing that happened that revealed how safe we are here in the states and just how lucky we are. Our country really values our children and their safety. Of course, we can afford car seats and booster seats, our own cars... unlike many/most in a 3rd world country. But I can tell you one thing. It was sure easier to catch a taxi without worrying about car seats! I still feel a little guilty about that... Okay, enough of that.

Here we are in Buenos Aires! It is HOT and HUMID. Just look at how Paige's hair poofed out! Just kidding. We had just taken her 2 french braids out... I'll try not to post any of Nana with superduper frizzy hair, although it may be hard. Sorry Bubba.

We had a couple of days to walk around Buenos Aires before our big cruise. Buenos Aires is a big city with lots of beautiful old buildings and churches and some not so beautiful things, like garbage all over, most sidewalks were crumbling, and nudie magazines displayed front and center on newsstands on every block. Paige is always such a trooper and walked MILES with us around the city. The boys spent a lot of time in the Ergos (which also served us as chair strapper-inners, since there were NO highchairs here), which meant Mike and I usually had an extra 25-30 pounds on us. Hot and heavy. Places looked a LOT closer on Mike's custom Google map... Here is some of the city...

The following is a famous bridge, the Puente de la Mujer, with water underneath that the kiddos so lovingly call "chocolate milk."

This statue was on the top of a church. We thought the running man/woman was cool.

This is the Metropolitan Cathedral. We never checked out the inside because the kids needed to get back to the hotel for a little down time.

Another church...Don't remember which one.

When we saw a park in the city, we jumped at the opportunity to let the kids play. Jonah and Jack needed to get some wiggles out and I especially could use a little back recuperation time. Mike's back is freakishly strong. This was my first time seeing a wooden slide. Paige was the first one down and I was so nervous she would get a sliver in her tush. No injuries though. The other thing to note was that this slide is pretty high and a kid could easily fall off the top platform if they weren't careful. Again, safety doesn't take precedence like it does in the states. The nice thing about that though is that you could actually find things like teeter-totters in parks in South America. Apparently they are too dangerous for our North American kiddos...

And now, more of the city...

This is the Obelisco. It is the most famous landmark of Buenos Aires, says Mike, but I hadn't heard of it before we went there. Hmmm...It's good that we like traveling so much and I am learning so much on our adventures. I feel pretty ignorant not knowing stuff like this.

The street below is Avenue 9 de Julio. I think there are 19 lanes (there is more lanes going each direction behind the trees that don't show in the picture), but with the way the Argentinians drive, it has like 23 lanes. They like to make their own lanes...

This is the San Ignacio Church, built in 1730. It is the oldest church in Buenos Aires.

We took the subway one afternoon. It was really a fun experience after Mike figured out how to get where we wanted to go. The subway is really fast, efficient and super busy. Oh, and HOT! Mike made sure to route us so that we had to take the original 'A' line, where the cars are from the 1920's, still wooden on the inside.

Below is the Casa Rosado- the presidential government building most famous for where Eva Peron spoke to her people.


Here is the cemetery that we walked 12 blocks to. I am telling you, the blocks in Buenos Aires are really long! It wasn't a big deal really, but we walked up to this cemetery, where Eva Peron is entombed, and it was CLOSED! It was a bummer! But, oh well. It looked neat even from the outside.

And here the kids are, playing in a tree, near the closed cemetery. I sat down with my mom in the grass resting my weary back and legs while Mike played with the kids around that tree. He didn't tell me until later that someone was living in there. Lucky for the kids, they had a ball climbing around and Daddy did watch closely and asked them not to go inside the center of the tree, where camp was set up. Just so you know, no one was home at the time.

Below is a picture of 5 of us at the best ice cream shop in Buenos Aires, Un Altra Volta. Bubba spotted it on our way to the cemetery, so of course we got a treat on the way back! Mike, Bubba and I all loved the dulce de leche. Paige and Jonah had chocolate. Jack had some sorbet. Mango maybe? He loved it!

I had been walking back from dinner (on a different night than going up to the cemetery) with Jonah when he just started to lose it. All the traveling and not sleeping... Poor Jonah. I offered to pick him up, but he only wanted Daddy. So, here is the backside of Daddy, with Jack in the Ergo and Jonah in the front. Jonah fell asleep during the five minute walk to the hotel.

The last destination in/near Buenos Aires was La Boca. It was a cute little touristy neighborhood with brightly colored buildings and lots of art prints and other crafty stuff for sale. Apparently the original reason for all the colors was that this was a poor area near the original port and the people would paint their houses and buildings with any paint that was left over from work being done to the ships at the port. Now they just keep it that way because it keeps people like us coming the neighborhood, which is a little outside of the main downtown area.

We decided to skip lunch in La Boca and have an ice cream instead. We were headed for the ship right after going here and since we heard there would be a LOT of food there, buying ice cream was the thriftiest choice, right? I just LOVE seeing Jack eating his "ice cream" (lemon sorbet, this time). He loves it and I like that he gets to feel like the other kids. So often we have to say, "No no Jack. That has leche. That has milk it it..."


Okay, another thing. Look at the picture below. It was hilarious. We asked for a crib at our hotel, El Conquistador. Two maids brought it up and Mike told them that he would put it together. No problem. He knows how to put a portacrib together. They REFUSED to let him do it. "No no no..." they shook their heads. Then they proceeded to make up this bed, a miniature version of the big beds, complete with little tiny sheets, a little tiny pillow, a blanket and a coverlet. The time they spent on this, only to have us completely rip it apart... It was HOT and babies from the states don't use pillows... again, another thing that just would not have been done at home. But it was sweet...

More to come! Buenos Aires was fun, and we enjoyed it, but out of everywhere we went this was at the bottom of the list, as you will soon see...