2012_12_11 MACKENZIE IS HERE!

Got an early morning call from Josh saying I should head to the hospital as Sarah was ready to have our first grandchild soon.  I dropped Connie off at the train and then remembered I had no idea what hospital they were at!  I know I wrote it down somewhere where I wouldn't forget, but you know how that goes......

Called Sarah's phone and Josh filled me in with the details:

St Anthony Hospital in Crown Point, Indiana.

Showered up and tried to slow down for a few minutes and have a bite to eat.  Then off to the wilds of Indiana.

Eventually I got there.

Checked in with the nice lady at the information desk around 9:30 and headed up to the Birth Center on the 7th floor.  

Pass to room 710

Entered the waiting room and saw a large contingent:  Josh's Mom and Dad Lorry and Bill plus sister Abby and her husband Zach AND little Emily plus Abby's mother-in-law to boot.

Sarah was literally in the next room (710).  They told me to go look in on Sarah so I poked my head in. The nurse saw me and said they were "getting busy" so I beat it right back to the waiting room.  Josh came out and said Sarah wanted to see me so back I went.  Her contractions were coming pretty rapidly and she was trying to do her breathing with help from Josh and her mom Pamela.  I guess Sarah had a pretty hard time of it from 6 to 7 until she received the epidural shot which made it "easier".  

Sarah found a picture of her I took just after SHE was born plus the little index card with HER details.  They were up on the wall for her to look at in the birthing room.  Pretty cool!

Sarah's baby picture and details card up on the wall

Here is Sarah just after she was born back in 1492!

Back out to the waiting room until just after 11:00 when Josh appeared with tears streaming down his face.  We were a bit worried but he was able to give us the thumbs up and blubber that Mackenzie was here and was "beautiful"!  Awesome news!!!!

Josh has recovered a bit - able to smile.  This was just after his announcement that Mackenzie was here!

The new family got some time to clean up the baby and have some special time with her and then the horde was allowed in.  Pictures were snapped and the proud parents were beaming.  Sarah said she felt great and the ordeal was "almost forgotten".  

First image of Mackenzie

New family

Where am I?

After a few minutes the little sweetie was passed on to the proud papa.  What a little peanut Mackenzie is!

Nice!

Daddy and his little girl

Sarah working the phone!

She's thinking about it

Official foot prints.

Just because

Headed back home to wait for Connie to get home from work so we could go back to Crown Point so Connie could meet Mackenzie.  

Connie and Mackenzie

She's not happy!  Connie said the blanket slipped down and she was cold.  Maybe so, when she got tucked in she went right back to sleep!

That's better.  

Josh's good friend "Cheddar" got over his fear of holding her and did just fine.

One last shot and we were off to let them all sleep

Mackenzie was taken back to the nursery.  That red thing is a Christmas stocking the hospital gave then to take her home in.  Sarah still has the stocking that SHE came home in (December 22nd birthday) so Mackenzie is going to come home in Sarah's stocking.  THAT IS COOL!

WELCOME LITTLE GIRL!


12/12/12

Just talked to Sarah on the phone and Mackenzie was in a few times through the night and was "quite vocal" each time.  She must be hungry - and they are working on teaching her to breast feed.  Sarah and Josh and Mackenzie will go home tomorrow for the first time.  Mackenzie is sleeping with Sarah right now and here is a picture on Day Two!

Awwwwwwww!!!

2012_12_08 Last Day

Plane is leaving at 9:45 from the local airport (Placencia) to Belize City.  Scheduled for an hour flight.  The front desk asked us to be packed by 9:00 and ready to take the short drive to the airport at 9:15.  It's really close - probably no more than 5 minutes.  So, breakfast and off we go.

Heading for breakfast

Connie diddling with the key.  Not much luck!

By the restaurant

Never sat here - No-see-um's territory

Francis Ford Coppola's house

Balinese statue next to Coppola house

Next to that statue

One last walk on the beach

Plane at end of runway ready to take off - Across lagoon behind our hotel

Airport just a bit down the beach

Here's the airport

Road goes around it.

Well, somehow it's never as easy as it seems.  We arrived at the little Placencia Airport only to find that  we had all booked a flight to the DOMESTIC airport in Belize that is actually IN Belize City.  8 miles form the INTERNATIONAL airport that we needed to depart from.  Who would have known that there were 2 airports?  Apparently not me (and Kasey).  We were able to squeeze onto the correct flight after paying the princely sum of $7BZ each.  $7 US.  NOT a big deal.  And, when I say squeeze in I got to sit in the co-pilot's seat as all others were taken.  Pretty cool to see from up front!  It literally took us 22 minutes to arrive at the International airport, where I am typing this.  We checked in with United to Houston and have gotten into the Duty Free Zone - Connie is off hunting.  Steve and Kasey checked in at another part of the airport for their flight to Miami.  We both leave within minutes of each other - about 1.5 hours from now.  So, we'll shop a bit and maybe have some lunch and then part our ways.

At the airport

Boarding the plane

Down the runway

Captain looking around

My seat!

Don't touch anything.......

Along the way

Belize City in the distance - This is where we would have gone!

Nearing the airport

Approach

Closing in

Touchdown!  Go Pack Go!

Our next flight leaves Belize City at 12:15 and arrives in Houston at 2:45.  We should have almost 2 hours at the Belize City airport to dump the last of our Belize $  Not worth much outside of Belize so we'll spend them all if possible.  We really didn't need to exchange any U.S. as everybody accepts the dollar.  I think Connie did it to have a few for tips, etc.  Anyway we know what to expect as we flew into there on the way in.  pretty small airport.  We'll be more bored than anything, I think.

Belize City International Airport

Belize city airport queue for Tropic Air - taken on way out.  We'll see this pretty soon again.

After clearing customs in Houston our final flight leaves at 4:25 and gets home to chilly Chicago around 7:00.  2 hours to clear customs and drop off bags again and get to our gate.  Should be plenty of time!

Just looked at the Chicago weather for the first time in a week.  Currently 39 with a high of 43.  Not Belize like, but could be worse.  No snow!

Got through customs and got over to our gate with just enough time to grab a sandwich for the plane.  Boarded right away and headed home.  Not too bad.

Arrived early in Chicago and collected our luggage - no problems at all.  Arrived home around 8:00.  Great to be home after a wonderful week in Belize.  2 loads of laundry to the good - AND THE ILLINI BEAT GONZAGA IN SPOKANE!  

2012_12_07 Turtle Inn and Placencia

Slept in a bit today (for me anyway) until around 6:30!  All this week must be catching up with me.  Connie said "Something is going on out there".  Martin has on a suit".  Martin is the general manager of the Turtle Inn.  It seems that Francis Ford Coppola wanted a group image of all the employees from Turtle Inn.  So of course I took one as well!

Martin is over there on the right.  

Steve is off already this morning for tarpon fishing with Mr Eloy.  Kasey just came over to our cabin wondering what was happening out there this morning.  She said she heard the commotion and looked out to see Connie and I.  She thought the breakfast group was really loud this morning!  And then there we were.  Off for breakfast in a few.  

Facebook had a mass friending option last night for a bunch of people that were in an address book of some sort.  I invited a few people and 4 or 5 have already responded.  One of them was Randy the beach attendant that is a big Bulls fan.  I'm going to try and send him a Bulls cap when we get home.  His birthday is the 13th.  22 years old!  I don't even remember that time of my life - maybe a good thing.  So we were chatting on Facebook last night.  He sends messages back in Creole - a sort of shorthand mix of English, Spanish and Caribbean patois.  Interesting!  I just saw him after the photo taking and he's ready for another day of sun.  He's a really good soccer player so we talked about soccer for a while yesterday.  I think our friend Jack Alberts would get on great with this guy!  He's playing semi-professional soccer with the local team here in Placencia and was the MVP last year!

I'm going to show him some video I found of the top 10 goals scored at a national U-15 16 tourney I found on YouTube later today.  He wants me to "put in a word" with the Chicago Fire people to see if he could have a tryout!  I'm sure that will happen!!!!!  I think the Fire has open tryouts once a year.  Maybe someday he could catch a break and make it big.  

Ridiculous breakfast

Walking the beach after breakfast

Crossing gate for cars at the airport!

This will be us tomorrow.  Bummer!

Bye

After breakfast we're going to ride a bike into Placencia for a bit of shopping and sight seeing.  I'm interested to see what the "town" looks like in daylight.  Kasey says it's really way bigger than only 2 years ago!  I also got a Facebook reply to some images of our fishing trip from an old friend Jim Knutson.  He said that he was teaching at Claver College in Punta Gorda, Belize south of here from 1967 to 1970.  Said he would stop in Placencia on a boat on the way to Belize City.  I can't imagine what this must have looked like then!  We talked with a guy who comes here for half a year from Vermont yesterday and he said 10 years ago there were no roads here at all.  Just a sleepy fishing village.  Now the gringos are coming building big old vacation homes.  Progress, I guess. Somehow, it's never the same bt it's probably a good thing for the local people.

Front desk at Turtle Inn

Turtles in pool at hotel

New marina coming at the end of Placencia

Parked and chained up bikes.

In Placencia

Signs gae distances to North Pole, London, Pittsburgh and Friends (Name of restaurant/bar)  Pittsburgh?

Colorful houses and shops

Methodist private elementary school

Mural

Local soccer pitch.  Randy says they're playing here tonight.

Plane ready to take off - viewed from lagoon across the street from hotel.  We're THAT close to airport.

Front entrance to Turtle Inn

One more of the pool bar

Huh?  Outside shower in use

Connie on front porch after shower

Steve is back - his half day fishing trip with Mr Eloy turned into an all day affair.  He caught a 5 foot long tarpon - took 48 minutes to boat.  And then he released it.  Fishermen.......  Seems to be quite happy with the day.

We are being "serenaded" by Garifuna drummers out by the pool area.  Garifuna are descendents' of Africans who have settled mostly in Central America.  Mr. Eloy the fishing guide is of Garifuna  descendent.  Sounds like Caribbean drumming to me!

Off to dinner in Placencia in a bit.  Randy the pool guy is playing soccer tonight right across from where we're eating so we hope to see some of the game.

This was lifted from the internet.  Garifuna ladies - NOT what we had here tonight.  Had to do it!

Another nice dinner at Rumfish.  Stomach bothering me a little before dinner.  Maybe I was hungry?  Watched a bit of the soccer game between Turtle Inn and The Moorings.  Left just after Moorings scored on a p.k. to make score 2-1.  Should have update later tonight.  Randy looked really fast.  The pitch was really pretty uneven and the grass sparse.  These guys were pretty good though.