Onesies

Babies...Everybody loves them. But nobody more than me! Anyway, so I got a little carried away the past few weeks and imagined myself a crafter. I decided that Amy's little one (coming any day huh Amers?) needed some one-of-a-kind apparel. Clearly I decided to custom applique onesies. Seemed easy enough when I had the idea. Then of course I remembered that the baby needed some matching headbands as well. Just an easy little project. No big deal.

3 onesies, hot glue sticks, special fabric glue, lots of cutting, 4 skeins of embroidery floss, hours at the fabric store, multiple needle sticks later these are what surfaced...Thank you Darcie for providing such wonderful modeling skills. Well hopefully baby likes them in the one time she gets to wear them before they fall apart...Of course you can't see my favorite part. The brown one has a pink heart embroidered on the back near the hip.




At least the middle aged ladies at the shower LOVED them. One lady: "Did you MAKE those?" Me: "Yes." Lady: "Well my son and his wife aren't even pregnant yet but you are invited to the shower." Hmmmm...Hours of sweatshop textile labor for someone I don't even know? Somehow I think the punch, finger foods, and diapers with candy game (all you girls know the one I'm talking about) won't make it worth it.

On the way home from the shower Kristy so lovingly pointed out that the baby will probably only wear them one time before she grows out of them anyway. Thanks for that. I can only hope there will be more baby girls coming down the pike.

"Feel a fool running your stateside games...Oh Mexico"--James Taylor

Let me tell you what I love about the borderland. Mexico to me has two different faces, the one that I see on vacations far away with the family (see Cabo Dolphins post) and the one I see when traveling close to the US border.

Last weekend we went down to Puerta de Fe (an orphanage) near Ensenada. It was my 6th trip in year and some things never cease to amaze:

-The quality of tacos at slightly suspicious roadside stands.
-Manzanita Lift (always better in the southland).
-How amazingly cute those kids are.
-Why in the world Mexico makes it so difficult for us to adopt those kids and take them to the better side of the greatest wealth/quality of life differential in all the world (someone told me that once about San Diego vs. Tijuana).
-People that buy things like creamed corn and churros while waiting in line at the border (would you like some smog with those food items?). Disgusting.

A couple of new things amazed this time:
-Krystle's comment, "One thing I've learned from you Maren--just because you are in Mexico doesn't mean you have to be ghetto." I'm sure glad I've contributed something to her life.
-Peter somehow getting EVERYONE up and out of the campground by 7 a.m. Sunday morning. I said it couldn't be done. O ye of little faith...
-Churros FILLED with gooey chocolate. Enough said. Emily and my dream come true...

Dramamine is not a nice drug

Well now that I have slept off the Dramamine I took a week ago, I'm ready to write about my latest adventure. See, thing is, I took a trip up to Monterey last weekend and I got a little sick on the way back down Highway 1 in Big Sur. The carsickness probably would have passed given a few minutes, but in my deluded and nauseous state I took Josh's advice and pounded not one but TWO generic Dramamine. According to Josh and the packaging this was "non-drowsy" Dramamine. I may sue for false advertising, since I proceeded to sleep for the next 6 hours. I did awaken from my slumber like Rip van Winkle for two stops, at which I sort of wobbled around and then fell asleep immediately when back in the car. About 2 hours into my nap, apparently Josh turned to Bryan and said, "Maybe we should have only given her one pill." Good call guys, but a little too late. Remind yourself that Josh wants to go to medical school. Yikes. My mother actually called in the middle of this hibernation and I answered the phone through the fog. She asked if I was stoned.

Monterey itself was amazing. We stayed at a beautiful beach house, I won't even begin to describe it because that could take up the whole blog. I saw a great white shark in captivity (a small juvenile) at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I'm sure I was the first on my block since it was the shark's first day EVER on display. Pretty proud of that. Apparently, according to disturbingly small signage, a surfer came in even closer contact with a great white shark in the water immediately in front of the house about 3 days before we got there. Needless to say, I did not go swimming. Although swimming with sharks while on Dramamine could have been very interesting...

My advice to you all is: unless you want to miss an entire day of your mortal life, try those motion sickness bracelets first. Dramamine should definitely be your last resort.

Full House Reincarnated

You may note that this is my second reference to the legendary show on this blog. I will just say I was a little obsessed as a child. So Hayley and I spent every free moment our mom would let us watching reruns of DJ, Steph, and Michelle on the TV. I turned out ok despite this, I think...

Anyway, the point of this is that I lived my Full House dream approximately 3 weeks ago. You are all going to be jealous so remember, you are breaking one of the 10 commandments when you covet this experience. I swam with dolphins. Now when I say "swam with dolphins" I mean, I held onto Olin's (the dolphin's name obviously) dorsal fin and rode around the pool. Ever wonder what that feels like? Sort of like the way I waterski, being dragged behind the boat mostly. I mean I got to dance with, touch, feed, and kiss a dolphin. My poor dad had to spend a fortune on what I'm sure he saw as a ridiculous tourist trap, but he practically made my life. I have begged to do this on every tropical vacation, and apparently the fact that I spent my birthday trapped inside a plane on the Dulles airport tarmac finally broke Dad's willpower and he gave in.

Of course, everyone else was loving it (as you will see from the pics), especially Mom who wants to go back to school to be a dolphin trainer now. Reid had a fear he was going to escape with only one leg intact, so he was just happy that the dolphin didn't have a violent streak.

Furthermore, apparently there are no rules on dolphin cruelty in Mexico because poor Olin was pregnant when she was forced to carry all of us (except Hayley, which if you are smart you will not mention to her since she's slightly bitter) around the pool at high speeds.