South Africa: Cape Town Day 1

Posted in Travels by Ashley Z Harper

Directly following our wedding, Michael and I honeymooned in Napa where we instantly fell in love with wine country and everything that comes with it. While living in San Francisco, we went back as often as we could, and somewhere along the way we decided that seeing wine country across the world would be a pretty nice way to see places. Early on, South African wine country was high on our list, so when we moved to Brazil, we decided we had to do it since São Paulo is obviously much closer.

Taking a big trip like this when you have a little one running around can be difficult, but thankfully we have amazing families — both of whom volunteered to watch Colt for us so we could get away. Up until that point I had never been away from him for more than a few hours and never overnight, but as I described in my last post, my mom ended up watching him and having her here made it so much easier to be away. I was honestly so excited for both of them to get that special time with each other that I was much less concerned about me missing the time with Colt. Plus, my mom is just so awesome that I knew everything would be great. Saying goodbye was a little tough but I didn’t even shed a tear!

Saying goodbye! No tears!

When we got to the airport Michael and I kept asking each other if we had everything because when you travel without a baby you have SO much less stuff!

Yay for leg room and lay-flat beds!

Cheers! We are on off!

We flew from São Paulo to Johannesburg to Cape Town. Upon arriving in Cape Town on Friday afternoon, the first thing we did was rent a car. Normally this is no big deal, but in South Africa they drive on the other side of the car, on the other side of the street! AND we rented a stick shift which is fine because Michael can drive them, but he has really only done it a handful of times – always when we rent cars on trips. Anyway, it was just SO BIZARRE to have the stick on the left hand side, to have the blinker and the wipers switched, to take wide right turns and tight left turns… We never really got used to it but Michael was awesome and chauffeured us all over with no problem.

In Cape Town we stayed at a little boutique hotel, The Blackheath Lodge. We would totally recommend the place: great and unique hotel/rooms, awesome personal service – the staff provided lots of good recommendations for us and constantly booked things for us – and we adored the neighborhood – it was close to everything and accessible but still a little less touristy than staying right on the waterfront or something.

Blackheath Lodge front lobby.

Room.

More of the hotel.

Yummy breakfast set-up!

Eating breakfast, overlooking the pool area.

Cute little pool.

After getting to the hotel, we unpacked rested, then got cleaned up and ready for dinner. We had reservations that night for dinner at The Test Kitchen (rated the best restaurant in Africa!) and the hotel staff recommended that we stop first for a drink at The Potluck Club just next door. If you are going to Cape Town this is a MUST-DO combo, (and if you can’t get a reservation at the Test Kitchen, definitely go for dinner at the Potluck Club). The Potluck Club was in a really cool venue, had great vibe and big windows overlooking the city lights.

Beers at the Potluck Club!

After a quick drink, we headed over to the Test Kitchen. As I said, it’s rated as the best restaurant in Africa, top 50 in the world. And it was AMAZING. I cannot say enough about how tasty and fun and cool the whole experience was. We were there from about 7-11 and had a BLAST. Both Michael and I did the full 9 course tasting menu with wine pairings which was a total no-brainer. The food is obviously delicious, beautiful and interesting. The atmosphere is laid back and fun. The service was awesome. It was SUCH a fun welcome to South Africa.

The masters at work.

Happy customers at The Test Kitchen!

2Oct2014

Super Gigi!!

Posted in Baby, Brazil, Family by Ashley Z Harper

While I try to sort through my 1,000+ photos from South Africa, I wanted to post on what was happening during that trip back home in São Paulo — my amazing mom was living in our apartment and taking perfect care of our sweet little Colt! She arrived to our place on the morning of September 1st and even though Colt hadn’t seen her in person since early April, he immediately recognized her and was so happy to see her! He instantly just smiled and giggled with her. She thought that it might be because we FaceTime all the time so he is able to remember her better. At any rate, he was happy to see her.

We spent a couple of days together so that she could get used to our apartment complex, get comfortable going to the grocery store, the park, etc. and then we just left for 2 weeks! My mom is amazing though and she’s totally fearless – she just finds a way to make things work and get things done on her own – even when she’s in a foreign country where she doesn’t speak (a single word of) the language!

While we were gone, we were blessed enough to have friends come visit my mom a few times to give her a little company. Although Joe was traveling for a good portion of her visit, he was able to come by a couple of times. Our sweet friend Tom was awesome and took Colt and my mom out to lunch twice, Brett and Jana came by and played with them at the apartment and she met up with Michelle and her baby Jack at the park once as well. THANK YOU to all who made the effort to see her and make her feel welcome!

Throughout their time together, my mom took such perfect care of Colt. She took him to the park, the playground, and to the pool every day. They read books and played games and each day she brought out new little toys and gifts that she had brought to be sure that he didn’t get bored and start missing us. Colt was so happy with her the entire time (she swears “no tears”) and seeing his smiling face made being away much easier. She also did all of the grocery shopping and cooking and kept everything running while we were gone. When we got back I realized that even I had never done that much time with Colt on my own!! It’s no small task and takes a lot of work, energy and love. Thankfully Gigi has it all. She was incredible and when we returned I couldn’t believe all of the new things that Colt was doing and saying!

After getting home I was so sad that I only had about a 14 hour overlap with my mom before she had to take off, but I know that my dad and family were missing her in South Carolina. Anyway, BIG THANK YOU to my incredible mom. You gave Michael and me such a priceless gift of your time, energy, know-how and love and you gave Colt the most special gift of time with you. We love you!!

Lunch at the Gourmet Tea upon arrival!

Colt loves the playground in our apartment complex.

Colt loves the little house - especially playing peek-a-boo in the windows.

Such a sweet little house – he especially likes playing peek-a-boo in the windows.

Colt always climbs onto the slide and tries to walk up as far as he can.

He always climbs onto the slide and tries to walk up as far as he can.

Colt’s new bath tub: the kitchen sink!

Colt seems to like it!

Hello!

Swinging!

Gigi taught him how to splash in puddles and he is addicted!

She also introduced him to Cheerios. Also addicted.

Cutie.

Out to lunch with Tom!

Like a boss.

Planes fly over our apartment buildings all the time and my mom taught him to point them all out!

When Gig's in town, Colt rules the house!

When Gigi’s in town, Colt rules the house!

She even lets him play in the dishwasher!

The frog’s eyes are his fav.

My heart.

The dynamic duo!

Colt and Gigi on their way home from visiting our old stomping grounds – Parque do Povo – now about a 10 minute walk away.

New toys!

He also started running, like, really fast while we were away.

Maybe he was just so happy to finally have the space to do it!

Gigi also taught Colt to point out all the birds!

My mom also taught Colt to point out all the birds!

Tom visiting and helping Colt scoot around the apartment.

The pair at the pool.

Gigi turned Colt into a total water-bug. He LOVES the pool.

Gamecock?

Getting good at the fine motor skills.

Another bird!

Wandering in the grass.

Playing with rocks.

We love you so much Gigi!

Thank you thank you thank you!

30Sep2014

August, aka The Blur…

Posted in Brazil, Family, Friends, Travels by Ashley Z Harper

The month of August was a bit of a blur, and by a bit, I mean a complete blur. Why?

1) Apartment Hunting, Contract Negotiations, Packing & Moving:
As soon as the World Cup was over, Michael and I started looking for new apartments. With the addition of Colt and his ever increasing mobility, we had definitely outgrown our old place.

Clearly we needed more space…

We wanted to basically stay in the same neighborhood and remain close to a) Michael’s office, b) Joe’s apartment, c) the grocery store and d) the park. We wanted 3 bedrooms, more space and were hoping for some good, kid-friendly common space in the complex. Long story short, apartment hunting is a challenge anywhere, but Brazil and São Paulo do a few things to make it especially challenging, so when we found “the one,” with everything we wanted, we didn’t let it go!

Date night at Nagayama to celebrate closing on the apartment!

Our old contract didn’t officially run out until October 1st, but we decided to get out a little early and start our new contract on Aug. 20 so that we would be able to move in before my mom arrived (Sept. 1) and we left for South Africa (Sept. 3-17) which would be directly followed the Harpers’ visit (Sept. 20-27).
We decided to move ourselves as much as possible and only hire a truck and some guys for a few hours to move the big, heavy furniture, so once we knew when we were going to move, I started packing boxes at every spare moment — not an easy thing to manage in a small space with a mobile toddler! Add to that testing paint colors, measuring furniture and walls to no end, selling a few items…it’s a lot!
Once we got our keys we painted the walls and starting moving boxes each day. We lived in a small space and didn’t feel like we had that much stuff, but somehow it seemed to multiply with each load we took over. Our first weekend we moved the big furniture. I am still a little traumatized by how difficult the whole process was but let me just say that without our dear (and handy!) friend Trent Hudson, we would never have gotten moved out and in. We still don’t have all of the pictures hung on the walls and I still have some closet type organizing to do, but we got sufficiently settled to hand the keys over to my mom just in the nick of time.
**I’m excited to share a tour of the apartment and complex soon!**

2) Girls’ Weekend / Guys’ Weekend:
The weekend before we moved, we had guys / girls weekend trips!
The boys had been planning their weekend for months. It was affectionately known as “Shooter Weekend” and their itinerary was as follows: Friday: Big steak dinner at 348, our favorite Argentine steak house then pile in the rented bus to ride up to the fazenda (ranch property) where they stayed. Saturday: Paint ball at the fazenda (they had a company come to them and set it up on their property!) followed by a group viewing of the movie, Shooter. Sunday: Bus ride back home.

Shooter Weekend Crew: Trent, Kenneth, Brian, Zach, Brad, Hayden, Jamie, Alex, Joe, Michael, Jeff and Tom!

Michael (obviously) had an absolute blast but (obviously) came home a little rough and ragged.
Some of the wives (5 to be exact) decided to do a little getaway ourselves so we retreated to a beach house a couple hours away for a quiet and relaxing weekend (with babies). It was lots of fun but with my hands constantly on Colt, this is my only photo from the weekend!

Colt and Jack sleeping like champs as Michelle and I pulled up to the beach house Friday night.

3) A Bad Cold:
Unfortunately, I returned home from the girl’s weekend with a yucky virus that made me sick for about 10 days, several of which I hardly even made it out of bed. It was totally miserable and I couldn’t be around Colt for the first couple of days which meant Michael had to help out more at home. All of this put him behind at work and us super behind on the move which just ended up meaning that the last half of August was that much more hectic and frazzled.

4) Rio Half Marathon Trip:
You’d think that for the last weekend in August, our first real weekend in our apartment and the days before my mom arrived, we would stay home, get settled, maybe even relax a little. Instead, we flew to Rio so that Michael could run in a half-marathon with a bunch of our friends.

Colt was just so proud he couldn’t stand it!

The runners! Michael, Michelle, Suzanna, Brad, Bryan & Alex.

It was a really fun weekend with friends.

Colby, Suzanna, me, Brett, Jana, Michelle!

Colt & Michael owning the pool at the Copacabana Palace!

However, just to give you a quick glimpse of the chaos that was our life: on the trip, Michael forgot his running shoes, Colt was getting both of his bottom 1 year molars so he was sick with fever and general pain/misery all weekend and when we were getting on our flight home Sunday night, we realized that we had left one of our bags at security so Michael had to hop off the plane – leaving me with a sick baby for the flight home – and he had to run out, try to find our bag, switch his flight, etc.

Snuggly, sick baby.

And the next morning, just hours after we returned home from Rio, my mom arrived!! We had a couple days of overlap with her to show her the ropes of our new place, all of Colt’s routines, and get her fully acquainted with everything before we took off for South Africa!

Whew – I am exhausted just writing about it all again. It’s crazy that all of the above happened in just a couple weeks but that was the reason for the lack of posts since early August. Lots to catch up on!! More soon on my mom’s visit, our trip to South Africa, our new place and the Harpers visit here and to Rio, but for now, here are some other random moments from July and August:

July: Colt’s 1 year check-up!

Michael with Trent in the Hudsons’ “shop” busy working on Colt’s “Rocking Colt!”

July: Cutie-pie in a bow-tie! Thanks to our talented friend Colby who made it!

July: Michael and I at “Copa da Glitter” Game Night!

The Copa da Glitter WINNING Team!!

July: Rubba dub dub, fun in the tub!

July: Park toys.

July: Park fun!

July: Stick-selfie.

Aug: Family fun at the Pracinha.

Aug.

Aug: Fun dinner with the OConnells -- Colts godmothers parents!

Aug: Fun dinner at Sallvattore with the O’Connells — Colt’s godmother’s parents!

Aug: Colby’s birthday dinner at the Joneses.

Colt facetiming with Michael at the office, and somehow he figured out how to take a screenshot of the moment! I love it.

4Aug2014

A Copa do Mundo (Part 3)

Posted in Brazil, Friends, Travels by Ashley Z Harper

The World Cup celebrations continued on June 26 with yet another USA match at BOS BBQ. Although we lost the match against Germany, we stayed alive and advanced to the Round of 16 so overall, we took it as a win. (Plus, looking back on it, I’m pretty proud of a 1-0 loss to Germany, right??)

Noel, Michael, Joe, Paul and Mark.

Crazy bumping into Hillary – a friend from McCain ’08 – in town for the World Cup!

The next day, Michael and I packed our bags & our baby and headed with Joe and Jake to Belo Horizonte for the weekend where we would get to watch Brazil play Chile in their first match in the knock-out phase. We rented an apartment for the weekend and through friends of friends were lucky enough to find a babysitter to watch Colt all day while we enjoyed a full Saturday focused on the game.

About to head out to the game! Colt clearly doesn’t get what a big day this is. Nor is he dressed appropriately.

The patriotism was everywhere!

We were dropped off about 1.5 miles from the stadium where we then walked along a sea of yellow jerseys until we arrived at the Mineirão.

The walk to the stadium.

The walk to the stadium was pretty fun – full of ice-cold beers and lots of Brazil chants – everyone was in the spirit. And the enthusiasm only grew as we arrived at the Minerão.

Getting to the stadium.

A sea of yellow.

So excited to be here!

I couldn’t believe that the first World Cup game I was attending was one with Brazil playing! We arrived at the stadium about an hour and a half early, so after walking around a bit, we went to find our seats.

An amazing view!

Since you buy tickets through a lottery system, you never really know what your seats are going to be like, but we totally lucked out with these.

The Mineirão!

I really can’t describe what the game was like. The entire thing was amazing. Brazil’s first goal was right in front of us and the whole place went nuts. But when we headed into extra time and then penalties, the entire stadium was so packed with intensity I thought it was going to burst. The man behind us said that his heart was not prepared for PKs and literally walked out before they started, unable to handle the crazy pressure of the moment. It was something I’ll never forget and for Brazil to walk away with the win was sweet icing on the cake.

Amazing!

We flew home the next day and even at the airport, the World Cup fandom raged on…

Everyone crowded around the TV in the airport watching Co

Everyone crowded around the TV in the airport to keep watching the games.

Sweet Colt, an amazing traveler and great sport during all of the chaos.

The day after we returned from Belo Horizonte, Michael and I both landed unexpected tickets to Tuesday’s Argentina v Switzerland game in São Paulo. I was so pumped to get to see Argentina play AND get to see the brand new stadium in São Paulo.

Arriving at the stadium.

Inside the Itaquerão.

The game was funny because it was filled with Brazilians who did nothing but cheer against Argentina and Argentines who did nothing but cheer against Brazil! This would make sense if Argentina had been playing Brazil, but they were playing Switzerland! Regardless, the rivalry between Brazil and Argentina – especially when it comes to soccer – is so strong, that the two countries just cheered and chanted against each other the whole time! I was originally cheering for Argentina but I found that I could never join in any of their chants because they were rarely related to the game but instead were all just negative about Brazil! Too funny. Thankfully we were wearing our USA gear in prep for our game later that afternoon, so we didn’t upset any Brazilians.

Paige & me!

Great seats again! With Michael.

The sad part of this story is that we all left the game a little early to get back to BOS in time to watch the USA game and we MISSED the Argentina goal in over-time! The even sadder part is that later that day, despite Tim Howard’s heroic efforts, the US was knocked out by Belgium.

Thankful that we still had Brazil to cheer for, we channeled all of our energy there. This, as everyone knows, ended in quite severe heartbreak for the entire country as we took a crushing 7-1 loss to Germany.

Photo taken BEFORE the game started…

Our Brazilian babies hanging with the babysitter while their parents watched the game at a bar!

Somehow they were not phased by the loss.

Once the US and Brazil were both out of the tournament, our enthusiasm levels went down a bit, but we still watched Brazil compete in their final match to come in 4th and then we watched Germany defeat Argentina for the title.

To be honest, it was kind of an exhausting month, but it was incredibly exciting and truly unforgettable. So thankful we got to be here and be a part of it!

1Aug2014

A Copa do Mundo (Part 2)

Posted in Brazil, Friends by Ashley Z Harper

The weekend of June 21, Michael and Joe and their friends Trent and Tom flew to Belo Horizonte to attend Argentina’s game against Iran. Since Michael’s love for Latin America and soccer began in Argentina, he was super fired up to be going to one of their games. Plus, who doesn’t want to watch Messi on the big stage?

Michael, Tom & Joe at the Minerão.

Michael sporting the jersey that was lovingly gifted to him from his Argentina besties, Pepe and Claudio.

Harper bros!

That weekend was also the USA’s game vs. Portugal and unfortunately, Michael’s flight wasn’t arriving in São Paulo until late Sunday night so he and Joe rocked their USA gear and watched the game from BH.

Michael & Joe in Belo Horizonte.

Back in São Paulo, gringo-nation headed to Casa Hudson for a fun and patriotic viewing experience.

Colt & I on our way out!

Our team played awesome and it was SOUL CRUSHING when Portugal scored to tie in the last minute of extra time, but we still gladly took the point and started prepping for Germany.

Our American babies!

But, before we could cheer for the US again, we had to throw on our Brazil jerseys and cross all of our fingers and toes that they would triumph over Cameroon. By this point, they were pretty sure to advance out of the group stage, but Michael and I NEEDED them to WIN their group since we had tickets to the game of the winner! So we headed to the best spot to watch Brazil play, cheered our little hearts out, and were ELATED when they won!!!

Vai Brasil from Vaca Veia!

Trent making sure that he has his hands free to cheer!

The next day, the Harper household was taken over by some lovely Chicago boys as Michael’s college buddy Mark and 2 of his friends visited for the World Cup.

Welcome dinner at Espirito Santo.

The boys out for sushi!

Meanwhile, Colt was cheering on Italy and couldn’t believe that they didn’t advance out of their group!

The cutest Italy fan! Sporting a jersey gifted to him by Michael’s coworker Artur!

Happy despite the loss.

…Part 3 coming up next…!

25Jul2014

A Copa Do Mundo (Part 1)

Posted in Brazil, Friends by Ashley Z Harper

So… I’ve been a little delayed in my posting on the World Cup, NOT for lack of enthusiasm, but simply due to being a little overwhelmed by the task. It’s hard to explain what the World Cup was like here. All I can think to say is that it was all-encompassing. It dominated our lives. It took over our schedules, our conversations, our work, our apartment, our emotions, our outfits, our food, our thoughts…every aspect of our lives seemed to suddenly revolve around this tournament (that is so much more than a tournament).

Since Brazilians are soccer fanatics, I’m sure that World Cup season is always crazy here, but while they were the host country… it was amazing. I’ll admit that the fandom was a little delayed due to the protests over the government corruption and the gross misuse of funds, however as someone rightly put it, “Brazilians’ main form of protest was really just waiting until the tournament started to go all-in.” Once the first game had begun, the flags were flying high. Speaking of the tournament beginning, I guess I’ll start there…

Just another low-key supporter.

The host-country always plays in the first game and this year Brazil kicked off the tournament on Thursday, June 12 against Croatia. This was a national holiday in Brazil (as were all Brazil game-days). The game was being played in São Paulo and while we didn’t have tickets, we did have great seats to watch from one of our favorite local bars, Vaca Veia. As was the custom throughout the World Cup, we arrived at the bar 3-4 hours early to get the party started and on the day of the opener, even the walk from our apartment to the bar was awesome. There was yellow and green everywhere! The energy was amazing. Although I will admit that that game had some of the tournament’s more questionable calls, Brazil took it 3-1 and it was amazing.

Dropping Colt off with Michelle's nanny and then heading to the game!

Dropping Colt off with Michelle’s nanny and before heading out to watch the game!

Michelle (Joe) and me at Vaca Veia getting ready for the big game!

Joe and Michael are ready!

We even convinced Joe to paint his hair green!

Excitement!

Victory!

That weekend we scheduled our lives around the games, including a full day of feijoada and futebol at Bar des Arts with friends.

Colt, Jack and Mailey being total champs out and about allllll day!

Moms & babies at Bar des Arts. Paige – how are you looking so tall here?!

The next big game was, of course, Team USA’s first match on Monday July 16 against our World Cup arch nemesis, Ghana. It was a must-win for the USMNT so to watch, São Paulo’s gringo-nation all piled in at one of our favorite bar/restaurants, BOS BBQ (where one of the owners is an American friend). We rocked out to the national anthem and went absolutely crazy for the entire 90 minutes of soccer. It was a perfect combination of incredibly fun and incredibly stressful as Ghana seemed to out-play us the entire game, though thanks to Clint Dempsy’s unforgettable goal in the first minute and Zusi’s beautiful corner in the 86th, somehow the US came away with the win.

Yesssssss!!!!!

Hudsons & Harpers! 2 stars for the 2 goals & lucky red lipstick.

USA! USA! USA!

Harpers!

Michael, Pat, Zach and Joe.

Parts 2 and 3 coming up next…!

16Jul2014

Joint “ONE” Party!

Posted in Baby, Brazil, Friends by Ashley Z Harper

I promise that this is going to be my last post on Colt turning 1 (and soon I’ll post on the World Cup!), but I just had to share these adorable photos of Colt and his friends at their joint birthday celebration. There are 6 babies who are all within 6 weeks of each other – Colt being the youngest of the bunch – so the moms decided it would be fun to celebrate all of our babies turning 1 together. We just met up in the park, played, and then watched them stuff cupcakes in their faces. 🙂 Our dear, talented (and now pregnant!) friend Jana was there to photograph. Enjoy!