Tender Mercies

Dear Mom of the screaming child, Nobody wants to be "that" mom, the mom who receives all the questioning looks from strangers sitting in too close proximity for real comfort. Airplane rides are hard with children, especially when they are crying, but most especially when they are screaming. This is a letter to you, to let you know that you are not alone and that I have been there too.  I sat in the window seat, my seven month old daughter screaming in my arms. She didn't want to nurse. She didn't want her toy. The scene out the window wasn't distracting her either. She was just sad! And so was I. Tears streamed down my face as I thought of the innocent passengers next to, in front of, and behind me. They didn't know they would be stuck next to a mom and her baby when they prepared to board their flight. We all paid the same price for our tickets and we all deserved to have a peaceful flight. But there was nothing I could do to sooth my baby girl...

4,500 miles. 12 days. Kansas to California.  When we mentioned that we were going to take our 10 week old baby on a road trip out to the Bay Area in California, we received many strange looks and opinions from others regarding our pending trip. My husband and I had already driven the ALCAN from Alaska to Kansas in 2014 , so we were ready to take on another road trip, this time with baby in tow.  My goal for our trip was to pack all of our meals while on the road so that we wouldn't have to eat out during the long days of driving. We were blessed to stay the nights at friends' and family's homes and to receive of their hospitality, which made meal planning a little easier. I have shared what meals we ate during the trip below. I learned so much from traveling with a breastfed infant and hopefully this post will help me remember what worked well for our next adventure (mommy brain is a real thing). Tips for Traveling With an Infant: Sit in the backsea...

Kansas Bucket List 2015-2019 When we moved to Alaska in 2011, we heard so many people tell us what we had to do/see before we left the state. So we made a simple chart of 10 items we wanted to do. Some of them were extravagant (like taking a cruise to Hawaii) while others were pretty doable like see a glacier. The funny thing is that we did end up going to Hawaii while in Alaska, albeit on a plane. See? Writing down your hopes and dreams does  help!  When we moved to Kansas, we didn't really have many people telling us of the great and wonderful things we needed to do/see while living here. However, we know there has got to be some great sights and heartland stuff to see...so here is our attempt in making Kansas more interesting than Alaska. I don't know if we will succeed, but at least we can leave here knowing we saw lots of cool "Kansas things." No regrets people.  Many of these ideas came from  Kansastravel.org , a great site that has attractio...