Wandering Browns

What a guy in his new red shorts! We arrived in China a few days ago, but due to our crazy week of not traveling then traveling I didn't have time to post about our experience at the Chicago Children's Museum on Navy Pier. Our last weekend in the Chicago area, I asked Austin what he wanted to do. I typically come up with our weekend activities, and Austin just goes along with it. This weekend was our last in the U.S., so I made him come up with our activity and we went out to an early Father's Day dinner. Of all the things he chose to do, he decided that going to the Children's Museum was what he wanted to do. What a guy! Landon had a blast and even though we only planned on staying for a few hours, we ended up staying as long as we could before heading off to dinner.  View from the museum toward downtown Chicago Parking in downtown Chicago is never cheap or easy. Especially near the lake front, it is ridiculous how much they charge for parking. We did

This was formerly on my travel tips page, and in a minor revamp of the blog I decided it deserved a post. During the past year, we have flown internationally five times, four times to Asia. From my experience flying internationally with a toddler, here are my top tips for a smooth and easier travel experience: 1.  DON'T PANIC!  In the book  Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,  these words are on the front cover. This applies so well to traveling with a toddler. Kids pick up on the "vibe" that their parents are giving off. If parents are getting frustrated, angry, stressed, despondent, or any other emotion besides calm, kids are going to notice and begin to act that way as well. For example, we found out we were flying back to the US from Korea only two days prior to our departure date. We were trying to book tickets and pick seats using three separate reservations, so Austin and I were both very busy/stressed. Landon thought it was the perfect time to climb all over

Packing a bag for a trip is a skill and an art. You want to pack everything you are going to need in the smallest space possible. Although my experience packing for trips involves preparing to go overseas for months at a time, I think the same principles apply to shorter trips as well. 1. Select the bag to fit your needs and length of trip: There are so many different kinds of luggage; choose whatever will work best for you and your trip. When we did a whirlwind trip through Italy and stayed 1-2 nights in each city, we packed everything we needed in a backpack to have more freedom to move from place to place without worrying about storing luggage. For shorter, more stationary trips, a small roll-aboard will probably work fine. We love our Lojel! On  Amazon  For the last year and a half, we have been traveling to different overseas locations and staying for months at a time. For this kind of travel, we LOVE our hard-sided bags! We have two large suitcases with the 4-wheel swive

In this previous post , I vented my frustration at the near constant process of packing, unpacking, and shopping for one week of food at a time that we went through for the entire month of May and most of June. I was flabbergasted as to why I would be asked to go through constant travel limbo for this period of time. Austin was frustrated because the project he was assigned was so far outside of his knowledge base, and he would be taking a pay cut to do it (because he would be an operator vs. chief). He secretly didn't even want to go to Dongying. I just wanted to go somewhere and settle in for a few months after a whirlwind trip west to visit family. Mostly I just wanted stability and to know where I was going to be the next few days, or even a week ahead of time. I don't feel like that was too much to ask.  Dongying was going to be a hard place to live. It is basically a town that was born due to the oil/chemical plants that are found there. Although there were some parks

In all of the delays and excitement recently, I completely forgot to announce on our blog that I am pregnant with our 2nd child! We just found out it's another little boy, and I'm due November 10th. We are thrilled and are planning to return to the Chicago area in October to prepare for the birth. We will stay in the area until early 2016 if the baby is healthy, and then head back out on the road!  15 weeks piece sign! I feel very fortunate that this pregnancy is going very smoothly! I felt nauseous and had little appetite pretty much the entire time we were in the Netherlands, but once I was out of the 1st trimester, that all went away. I went through a few weeks of terrible headaches (I think related to hormones), but that has also subsided. At this point, my only complaint is that I've gained more weight than I wanted to at this point (stupid, fatty American food!) and exhaustion. I think my exhaustion is mostly from trying to chase my son around everywhere as

We were so excited to actually be going somewhere this week! We spent Monday packing up all our stuff and putting the rest of our stuff in the storage unit, I went to the store for some last minute items, and I had another midwife appointment. Tuesday, we found out our flight was delayed due to maintenance issues, so we took our time and arrived in the airport, in the United lounge 3 hours before take-off. No problem. Landon took a stroller nap and we ate lunch in the lounge. We got on our airplane and after taxiing for a REALLY long time, we finally took off. Things seemed to be actually happening. When we pulled away from the gate, I even posted a Facebook status, which I had reserved doing until it was official that we were on our way to Beijing. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. The flight was actually going pretty well. Instead of leaving around lunch time, we left around dinner time and the flight attendants were very nice and attentive- getting meals out on time, and ev

It's been awhile since a Landon update, and he is continually growing and changing into a big boy. Here are some highlights from the past month or so: Landon has started playing pretend. ALL THE TIME. Whether it be with his cars creating elaborate story lines with rescues and friendships, or being a pirate in a pillow boat, he makes up some neat stories. Today, I was talking to my mom and he crawled into my lap with his blanket and said that he was my baby koala. He then started addressing me as mommy koala. He also makes nests with his blanket or pillows and "lays eggs." Then he makes me come check on his eggs. Sometimes he calls me "Aunt Net," my aunt who has chickens, when he wants me to gather his eggs. It is fun to have such an imaginative, talkative boy! Speaking of talking, Landon's vocabulary has exploded. He talks non-stop and says some really funny things. Whenever we are on the phone with anyone, he wants to talk to them. Typically, he says s

Family trip to the Jelly Belly warehouse! This whole month has been all about hurry up, we're leaving for China ANNNDDD nevermind. I have completely three times this month for an overseas trip to China of unknown length, without actually going. Believe me, it is much worse packing for a trip and preparing for a trip and saying goodbyes for a trip and then not actually going. I guess the simple explanation is that the Chinese company that Austin is working with is not ready for him yet, and tend to let us know at the last possible second that they aren't ready. What usually happens in situations like this is they figure it out too late and we get to our destination and spend time there waiting for various things. This time, they just decided to let us know earlier in the day of our flight, several weeks in a row. Sounds like we are going for reals next Friday, but I'm a LEETLE skeptical at this point so we shall see. The boys are excited... There are a few hard t

After spending a month in the Netherlands, I'm still not really sure exactly what constitutes Dutch cuisine. Here are some relatively unique foods we tried and enjoyed during our time there: Some day I will take pictures of my own food, but until that day arrives, photo cred  here Patat (French fries) and other fried things: Thick-cut french fries have their own fast food restaurants here. They are fresh cut right there before your eyes, then fried. The classic way to eat it is with special Dutch mayonnaise squirted on top of a cone of fries, with a little fork for spearing the gooey fries. French fries are one of Landon's favorite foods, and so we ate them more often than I'm willing to admit. First time, I ordered them plain because we were getting on a train, and the 2nd time with ketchup and both were delicious. Along with french fries, most of the fry stands also sell other fried things like fried sausages, chicken, etc. You can make a totally unhealthy fried me

We left Louisiana a few months ago, but I never had the chance to write about the delicious Cajun food we sampled while we were there. We had some favorites, and some misses, but here it goes: Pistolettes: image credit  here Pistolettes: These little fried roll things are a delicacy that I had never heard of before. It is basically a roll stuffed with etouffee of some sort, and then fried. With the wonderful gravy inside, it tastes like you're eating a slightly crunchy, flaky roll full of spicy gravy. There really are no words. We had crawfish pistolettes and cheese pistolettes, and I never found one I didn't like. étouffée:   This gravy-based dish, served over rice most commonly with crawfish or other seafood cooked into it, is complex in flavor and often a little spicy. This is comfort food to the max and if I was in doubt as to what I wanted to eat, I always ordered the crawfish etouffee. Recipe and photo cred Boiled Crawfish: This is a required cultural exper