La Familia Guante

After almost a year hiatis, it is finally time to tackle this blog again. How embarrassing that we have been too busy to update, but LOTS has happened! First of all, LILIA HAS A BROTHER! Xavier Miguel, born on 10/15/14, is almost 5 months! They have the most fun together, already, and it is exciting to see the exchanges and love between them every day. From the moment Xavier was born, he has glowed whenever Lilia is around or talking to him or snuggling him. It's pretty incredible to watch! Now that he is bigger, he actually laughs outloud at her! The sweetest! Rewinding to other big events since the last post, travelling to Asia 30 weeks pregnant. What a whirlwind! Lilia was amazing and only had a few meltdowns due to jet lag. We started in Hong Kong, stayed with Som and Butch and TJ. It was so nice to have somewhere comfy and familiar to get over the jet-lag before the real part of the adventure began! We tried the most amazing Dim Sum place IN THE WORLD! (also the cheapest michelin rated restaurant in the world), Tim Ho Wan. 100% reccommended! We didn't even visit Hong Kong island this trip! But I love that we consider it home so much that we don't have to be tourists when we are there anymore. After HK we headed to Vietnam where we met up with Miguel and Kevin. OUr flight was delayed, we arrived very late, went to bed, and woke up excited to start our tour and drive to Halong Bay. One of my favorite memories is on our 15 minute adventure walk to find coffee before boarding the van to Halong Bay. It was so fun to see the culture at that time of day. Vietnamese coffee and lychee were incredible! Our van ride was exciting. We had an awesome tour guide, Jackie Chan, who was hilarious and informative. It was so much fun to see Vietnam from the car. It was mostly rural where we drove. The boat tour also was incredible, we saw caves of wonder, swam in the bay, and ate wonderful meals. We all shared a special moment when Mom gave us our medals of St. Gabriel the Archangel. We decided it would be our family saint, the messenger. I will never forget that boat ride and all of its peacefulness. Truly a slice of heaven. We woke up to beautiful views of the rocks that emerged straight up from the water. The boat tour ended around noon and we drove back to Hanoi. I remember I didn't feel well in Hanoi, probably a mixture of the heat, foreign smells, and being 30 weeks pregnant. But I do remember it being fun and wanting to go back to visit when I am not 30 weeks pregnant! Beer corner was particularly fun for people watching and moto watching. The driving is insane there! After Hanoi, we headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand. Lush, hot, and friendly is how I would describe this town. Elephant things everywhere, from paintings, to sculptures, to the real animal! Lilia had a great time walking around the city in BiaBia's "backpack" and still talks about it to this day. Bia and I got $15 massages, I got a cheap manacure, and we ate at the most delicious burmese restaurant twice. Nerlung is to die for! One of the days we went to an elephant village and spent the day feeding and riding elephants. Lilia was quite scared of elephants up close and particularly did not like when the boys and Bridget rode them! Lilia, Mom and I rode an elephant in a basket while everyone else barebacked. so.much.fun. We had an awesome hotel with a pool. And we will never forget Narong Mountain Man who had a crush on Sean and his long hairs. :) The markets in Chiang Mai were very impressive. They seemed to go for miles and miles in every direction! We bought our fair share of ties, decor, and little outfits for Lilia and baby brother. On our last day in Chiang Mai we took a cooking class. We got to learn about the ingredients and then went to a school to make the food. So delicious! We have tried to replicate it here since we got home, but it just doesn't taste as good! The Saturday night market was amazing, and I would have loved to tried the street food. Authentic and smelly. I really missed out! After Chaing Mai we headed to Bangkok where we said good-bye to Miguel and Kevin who had to get home to work. It was sad, really sad. Our time in Bangkok was dampened by the horrible hotel we stayed in. But we did have fun during the day visiting the monastaries and buddhist temples and famous buddhas, all incredible and impressive. It was very very hot in Bangkok. One highlight of the trip is the traditional thai dancing dinner cruise. The dancers were great, until a monkey dancer came out. Lilia lost it, and cried for almost the rest of the night. He scared the liver out of her. But through her tears I could hear her say "monkey nice", and she still says that to this day when we look at pictures of the traditional dancers. Poor baby girl! This was most certainly her first traumatizing experience...or maybe second after watching everyone ride the elephants. We continued on to Cambodia. Siem Reap is a nice and fun town, but seemed poor to me, only a bit better off by the tourism. The nightlife seemed like it could have been very fun, and very diverse. But being 30 weeks pregnant, I was in bed by 10 every night, exhausted. We stayed in a very nice place in Siem Reap. Happy Hour and Breakfast were pretty decent. During the two full days we had there we visited Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples. AMAZING! We were so in awe with everything our tour guide told us. He spoke english well. We took tuk-tuks everywhere within the walls of the temples. It was so fun riding in tuk-tuks! Lilia loved it too. Some parts of the tour seemed like we were on another planet, so serene and beautiful. The history remarkable. I would love to return here with Miguel- he would have loved the history. I also remember the lunches being great, and we became very addicted to smoothies. In the evenings back at the hotel, we would go up to the rooftop bar and look at the city while we drank smoothie after smoothie after smoothie. The mood was full, the stars were out, and life was wonderful. And we didnt fight too, too much. :) And two months after we returned, Baby Xavier joined us. I often wonder if he remembers feeling all those contractions I had in Asia walking around, or tasting the interesting food we ate. After Xavier was born, one of our Hong Kong friends, Lisa Stetson, emailing me about the life of St Francis Xavier, who is the patron saint of Asia. I knew Xavier was a Catholic name, but this made it so much more meaningful considering Xavier's recent Asia adventure in the womb. It all worked out perfectly.