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Baby Rabies

pregnancy & parenting

  • Start Here
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    • Baby Registry Top Picks
    • Favorite Pregnancy Apps
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    • Birth Stories
    • Perinatal Mood Disorders
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    • Photography

      6 Stunning Photos You Would Never Guess Were…

      February 11, 2019

      Photography

      Simple Tips For Editing Snow Photos On Your…

      December 13, 2018

      Photography

      I Wrote A Photography eBook And This Is…

      December 6, 2018

      Photography

      Creative Lighting Ideas To Help You Take Great…

      November 27, 2018

      Photography

      Learn How To Take And Edit Photos On…

      November 19, 2018

  • Reviews
    • Reviews

      The Answer To Last Minute Holiday Gifting For…

      December 19, 2018

      Reviews

      I Was Never A Barbie Girl Until Now

      October 1, 2018

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      Finally! Jeans For My Jean-Averse Kids!

      August 22, 2018

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      August 13, 2018

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anniversary

More Details! Our Oahu, Hawaii Anniversary Trip
The Story

More Details! Our Oahu, Hawaii Anniversary Trip

by Jill October 18, 2016
written by Jill

So how did we decide on Hawaii as the destination for our 10 year anniversary? It actually wasn’t our first, 2nd, or 3rd choice. Originally, it wasn’t even on the list! Only because I didn’t think it would be remotely affordable, and I assumed traveling there would be a huge pain. I was partially right about all of that, but mostly wrong.

I always figured we’d go somewhere in Mexico or the Caribbean, or maybe even the Florida Keys. I also always figured I wouldn’t be pregnant for this trip. And I never knew to expect the Zika outbreak. Once all those original choices were ruled out because of the combination of my unexpected pregnancy and Zika, I thought the only option would be something like Seattle or Vermont. I mean, not bad choices, but so different than what we had in mind.

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After poking around on Expedia, I realized that the travel time to those places up north was actually the same as the direct flight from Dallas to Honolulu (8ish hours) for about the same price. I booked this back in August, so I don’t know if that holds true all year. We decided to use Expedia to book our flights and hotel, and wound up with 4 nights at the Outrigger in Waikiki.

While it was only for 4 nights, the vacation felt much longer because we arrived by 12:30 Thursday afternoon, and we didn’t fly out until 8 pm on Monday night. Yeah… I’ll get to that overnight flight in a little bit.

Where We Stayed

Okay- the hotel. Ugh. I want so badly to give it a glowing review because so many people seem to love it, but I really don’t think we’d chose to stay there again, at least not unless we could afford to upgrade significantly. I kinda feel like we were given the “Expedia” room- the one furthest from the good views, closest to the noise of the street and the AC system, maybe with the worst and most uncomfortable bed they have to offer.

To be fair, I never asked them to move us, but I really felt like it would have fallen on deaf ears because I can’t say the staff was all that warm and welcoming – except for the valets, they were great.

A photo posted by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on Oct 6, 2016 at 7:29pm PDT

It’s not a bad hotel. It’s in a great location as far as Waikiki goes. The beach is amazing. The restaurants there are wonderful, but I really disliked that there wasn’t anywhere to sit that felt cool and comfortable in the AC at the 2 of the 3 we tried (Duke’s and Hula Grill), and there was a strong sewage smell coming from the back of the kitchen that leads out to the walkway along the side that takes you to the beach.

If we did stay there again, it would only be if we could afford a room with a better view/higher floor, assuming they put (much) better beds in those rooms.

What We Did

At first, I thought we’d just book a bunch of tours. It’s not hard to find plenty that will pick you up at your Waikiki hotel for free or a minimal charge. Once I started adding up the cost of all of those, though, I realized it wouldn’t be much more to just rent a car, even including the cost of parking at the hotel ($35/night), especially after pricing out airport transfers. We used Travelocity to book a week long car rental, and wound up getting a “triple upgrade” to a Jeep Patriot, for about $175.

I. Am. So. Glad. We would have been miserable stuck on a bunch of tour busses with people we didn’t know. We wound up loving the freedom of being able to drive wherever whenever. We only booked one “tour” but it was a totally different experience than most.

I will have a whole separate post on this soon, including some free digital downloads of photos (!!), but I think one of the best things we did was book an Epic Sunrise tour with Oahu Photography Tours. We booked it for the first morning we were there. The 5:30 am pickup time scared me, but wound up being perfect since that was 10:30 am Texas time and we’d been wide awake since 3.  Again, so much more on this to come, here’s just one of the pictures I got of that gorgeous sunrise.

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Did I mention that I lived on Oahu from kinder-4th grade? Oh yeah. I guess that influenced our trip a bit. We tried to get on base where I used to live- Pearl City Peninsula- but since we didn’t have base passes or military IDs we were denied entry. I did get to see my old elementary school (Lehua Elem), though! And while we were out that way, of course, we visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.

Our extremely early wakeup worked to our benefit here, too. The memorial opens at 7 am, and since tickets are on a first come basis, I imagine it gets really crazy later in the day. We wound up only having to wait about 30 minutes to get on the 9:30 am tour.

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After that, we drove up to the North Shore for lunch, and just to check out the waves. We fell in love with the sweet town of Haleiwa! We decided to book a surf lesson for Scott out there the next day, and thought a long, scenic drive around the island back to Waikiki sounded like a great way to spend the rest of the afternoon. It was lovely for about 30 minutes. The other 2 hours were pretty brutal, considering how many times we had to stop for me to pee.

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Scott’s early morning surfing lesson with Uncle Bryan’s Sunset Suratt Surf School was one of the highlights of the trip. Scott was up on his board, catching waves within 30 minutes. And there was a photographer there who got some fantastic shots that were available for digital download for only $25 (including the one above).

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Meanwhile, I got to watch from the shore, and they kindly provided me a beach chair and plenty of water. Can’t say enough kind things about them!

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Can we take a minute to discuss my favorite bathing suit probably of all time, and definitely while pregnant? If you haven’t found @KortniJeane on Instagram yet, run there and follow them (or check out their site here). They have the cutest suits for all body types, and when I saw they had maternity bottoms, I instantly fell in love.

I paired it with this SwimZip top for trips to the beach (size L, not maternity, but definitely big and forgiving enough).

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Okay, back to places we went. The last day we were there, we booked a Movie Site tour at Kualoa ranch. We saw some cool spots where Lost was filmed, and Jurassic park, along with a lot of other TV shows and movies. I wasn’t really there for that as much as I wanted up close access to photograph the gorgeous mountains and foliage there.

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I do regret that we didn’t eat lunch there. Scott wasn’t impressed with the “cafeteria” atmosphere, so we wound up back in Waikiki and had to settle for a crappy cheeseburger place. That leads me to…

Where We Ate

Of course, we ate at our hotel at both Duke’s and Hula Grill. And yes, we did have a slice of Hula Pie (ordered to go and ate on the beach because it wasn’t worth waiting 45 minutes for a table).

Other than that, we had no idea where we would go before we got there, but I relied heavily on the Trip Advisor app, and it didn’t steer us wrong. I would just check to see what was around us at the moment, and read the reviews.

Our official anniversary dinner was at the Hau Tree Lanai, just down the street from our hotel. Great food (high prices), great service, great view of the sunset and the beach.

A photo posted by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on Oct 7, 2016 at 11:03pm PDT

When we got to the North Shore, the reviews for KONO’s were too good to ignore. I had the pork plate. So yum!

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The food did not disappoint, and was a great price, but I think Scott could have done without all the wild chickens pecking around our feet. Ha!

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Also in Haleiwa, we had coffee and lattes from Coffee Gallery, and we discovered Island Vintage Coffee, which had THE BEST breakfast I’ve ever had in my life. It was so good, we had it again back at their Waikiki location the next day.

A photo posted by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on Oct 9, 2016 at 11:10am PDT

We ate at a couple other places, but nothing worth noting. We were pretty disappointed that the AC was broken during our reservation at Top Of Waikiki. It’s an enclosed space and they can’t open windows. We didn’t even make it all the way around because we ate so fast just to get out of there. It’s not an inexpensive place, and I wish we would have just gone elsewhere.

What We Would & Wouldn’t Do Different

Overall, we had an amazing time and don’t regret much, but if we are fortunate enough to make it out there again, I think we’d do things a little differently. For starters, we’d probably rent a house closer to the North Shore, especially if we’re able to bring our kids. We’d plan to stock up on lots of local produce and meat and cook most meals there.

We would definitely sign everyone who’s old enough up for more surfing lessons with Uncle Bryan! That was the only part of our trip that made me wish our kids were there. It would have been a joy to watch Kendall give it a try.

We’d make Waikiki a day trip, but wouldn’t spend most of our time down there.

A photo posted by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on Oct 6, 2016 at 7:10am PDT

I’d like to say we would definitely not book the overnight flight home, but it’s possible my extreme dislike of that situation was colored by being nearly 8 months pregnant. I can say, FOR SURE, I wouldn’t do that again while gestating. BUT, a Hawaii trip while pregnant (travel to there aside) can be enjoyable. In case you were wondering.

 

October 18, 2016 19 comments
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BabiesThe Story

That Time My Breasts Met Joshua Radin

by Jill October 17, 2013
written by Jill

Sometimes I wish I could just magically transport my thoughts from my head to this blog in real time. No wordpress app and iPhone required. I always have funny stories I want to share with you all in a moment that’s completely inappropriate to blog through, like on an anniversary date with my husband. It would probably be frowned upon to blog then. Just a guess.

While we completely forgot our real anniversary until 12:30pm that day, we did have plans to get fancy and head out to see Joshua Radin and Matt Nathanson at the House Of Blues in Dallas later in the week.

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See? So fancy in my $5 shirt from Ross and maternity jeans. #ElasticWaist4Lyfe

The evening started out with drinks… for me. All the drinks were for me. 2 at a time.

datenight5I have been dreaming of that drink since the cystical. 

Shortly after diving into this, I discovered I made it out of the house without breastpads. Yeahhhhh… that was going to be a problem. So I scooted off to the bathroom and stuffed my bra with toilet paper like any 12 year old resourceful, lactating mother would do.

On your first anniversary, you get a case of beer and a box of condoms during a pit stop at the local drug store. On your seventh anniversary, you get a box of breast pads and a bottle of Coke for the 1/2 who is not participating in the drink fest that evening.

The show was amazing. That word is overused, I know, but I mean it. We were really there to see Joshua Radin. He is the soundtrack of our married (and a good part of our dating) lives. Like, when our kids grow up, and they hear one of his songs, I want them to think, “Yeah… that was home. That was mom and dad. That was love.” I want them to remember the sunlit days in our house, “I’d Rather Be With You” playing through the rooms as we cleaned, built towers out of blocks, hit baseballs in the backyard.

His songs are woven into our everyday.

datenight4Matt Nathanson was a great surprise. We were familiar with a few of his songs, but enjoyed every single one he performed. He is a fantastic entertainer.

As the show wrapped up, we headed down to see if we could catch a glimpse of Joshua Radin, and maybe get him to sign a CD. (How sad will it be when CDs go the way of tapes and everyone only buys digital downloads? People can’t autograph downloads.)

We wound up with wristbands to a meet and greet with him. Squeee! We were both super excited. Scott didn’t “squee!” though. That was just me. He was more like, “That’s cool.” You know, manly.

I was starting to get uncomfortable. This line tacked another 40 minutes onto our already long night. Another 40 minutes of my milk-makers slowly filling with the goods. Miles away from my baby, and OF COURSE my pump. (I forgot my breast pads, people, do you think I had a pump?).  It was getting a little ouchy.

Did I think to hand-express in the bathroom? No. Not really. I mean, there was a line of 30 women every time I was in there. I didn’t want to hold up the line (and miss part of the show) while I milked myself.

While in line for the meet and greet, Scott and I chatted, people watched, and triple-checked our phones were ready to go for the picture.

datenight3You would never know we were so freaking excited to meet him, though, when it was our turn. We simply didn’t know what to say. I think Scott was relying on me to break the ice, be the outgoing one, per the unwritten contract between us. He takes out the trash, I handle introductions in social settings.

But all I could think was how bad my boobs were starting to hurt as I played out all the possible ice-breakers in my head:

“We love your songs!” Everyone says that

“We’ve been listening to you forever.” Unlike all these 19 year olds in line in front of us who surely weren’t listening to you in elementary school.

“I listened to your Pandora station while I labored with my last baby, and we used your song in his birth photography slideshow.” Right… no.

“We had such a great time tonight. We finally got away for the first night since we had our last baby, and MAN are my boobs taking a beating for it right now.” PARENTS ARE SO UNCOOL.

It was about that time that we reached the front of the line. We handed our phone over, had the official phone-picture-taker-guy snap the pic for us, then we awkwardly gave hugs and handshakes, introduced ourselves, nervously stammered that we enjoyed his music and something about Scott being furloughed blah blah government shutdown yadda yadda. Then an awkward pause with big smiles on our faces before we left.

“What happened? I thought you were going to say… something to him!” Scott teased me.

“I know! I’m sorry! All I could think, babe, was that, seriously, my boobs could explode at any moment. I’m just happy we got out of there before I sprayed milk on him. Somebody get me a baby!” I joked back. “Oh, hey! Let’s look at the picture!”

At least we had the picture, right? So cool. So freaking cool. Scott handed me the phone, purposely avoiding eye contact.

datenight2And there you have it. The moment my breasts met Joshua Radin.

Instagram is the closest I get to real-time blogging/embarrassing myself. If you want to follow me there for more boob hijinks, I’m @BabyRabies.

October 17, 2013 18 comments
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Romance and Real Life
PhotographyThe Story

Romance and Real Life

by Jill October 9, 2012
written by Jill

“Mom, I don’t WANNA eat here,” Kendall whined.

“Well, it’s not your anniversary, is it?” I chimed back.

We took the kids to dinner with us last night for our 6th anniversary. No biggie. I think we took them to dinner last year, too.

It’s just that we are in a particular time in our lives, with the kids being the ages they are, that is basically the exact worst time to haul 2 kids out to eat. Kendall suddenly has passionate opinions about everything and is quite the contrarian. Leyna is too old to be contained by a highchair and too young to be bribed.

A new “tortilla factory” that also offers a full menu of Tex-Mex options opened near by. It’s not very fancy at all, but I chose it because I figured they’d have kid-pleasing food there… and beer. Plus, “not fancy” is exactly what we have to aim for when taking the 2 of them anywhere.

Kendall requested a cheese quesadilla, which is just cheese melted between two tortillas, for those of you not familiar. It’s quite the staple of kids menus ’round these parts… except at this place. A tortilla factory. 

“We’re not allowed to make quesadillas,” both the cashier AND the manager assured me. Yes, they had tortillas (clearly), cheese, and a grill, but could not melt the cheese between the tortillas on their grill inside a Tex-Mex restaurant to accommodate our request. So I decided to order my kid a cheese enchilada, which is cheese, wrapped in a corn tortilla, covered in red sauce.

Looking back, I wonder if I should have requested a cheese enchilada in a flour tortilla with no sauce?

“I don’t LIKE this food!” Kendall protested when the plate was set in front of him.

“Of course you don’t,” I muttered under my breath with a smile.

We spent approximately 15 minutes shoveling food in our mouths, while I chugged my Corona like a college girl, visibly worn out from a day of battles with the kids.

Scott had the job of keeping Leyna from scaling the booth and banging on the windows, and keeping the box of napkins away from her.

We tried to have a conversation about things people typically talk about on their anniversary, but we kept circling back to:

Stop that. No. Sit down. Please use your quiet voice. You don’t have to eat all of it, but you have to try it. You’re going to be hungry tonight. When we get home, you’re going straight to bed. Did you? Oh no. Give me that cup. STOP PLAYING WITH THE NAPKINS.

Oh romance and real life, when will you ever be friends?

Don’t take too much pity on me. It was actually a perfectly lovely day, as a whole. If I forget the entire restaurant scene and just burn this image into my mind, it was downright dreamy.

 

October 9, 2012 21 comments
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