Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays from South America. Forrest and I just said goodbye to his sister Kristin and her husband Nome who were fortunate enough to get down here and visit us for a week and a half. We had a great time with them and have had a very busy tourist schedule during this time. Forrest promises to write soon with the details of all we saw during this time!

We arrived in Las Grutas, Argentina on Christmas Eve after a 14 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. It is a quaint little beach town and is the farthest south we will go on the east side of Argentina. The beach was packed on both Christmas Eve and Christmas and it was a wonderful way to spend the holiday. I have been laying on the beach in the sun quite a bit. Baby seems a little shocked each time I expose my belly to the sun - I picture it wondering "what in the world is that"?

We are officially in the Patagonia region of Argentina, and again, it is not as I expected. When we awoke from the long bus ride I told Forrest it was as if the driver drugged us and drove all the way back to Idaho. The landscape is that of the desert where I grew up. It has been really interesting to us that the food here is not nearly as good as in Buenos Aires. The vegetables in particular are not as fresh, and in fact are really hard to even find in the form of a fresh salad. Lots of meat and seafood (and tons of ridiculously cheesy pizza) but not many veggies. Most meat dishes are served "a la carte" and it is strange to have a plate of shrimp skewers or steak set in front of you with absolutely no accompanying food.

On a side note, I heard yesterday of the death of one visitor and mauling of two others at the San Franciso Zoo by a tiger. It is so sad to me that we are afraid of so many things, when the most unexpected and routine could be our ultimate demise.

I approached this trip to South America as I have approached most of my decisions over the past 5 years, as a therapeutic excercise in fear confrontation and its ultimate defeat. You see, everything can be made scary. If you think hard enough, you can talk yourself out of anything based soley on the risk instead of considering the truly awesome experience it could be. I am happy to say I am here and healthy, as are Forrest and the baby. We have eaten food from street vendors, flown down the Avenida 9 de Julio at 60 MPH in a taxi with no seatbelts, walked the city of Buenos Aires at night, and eaten sushi and bloody rare steaks. All these actions took some degree of courage to complete (ok, the taxi was clearly a fluke) but we can look back on them and laugh or have a fond memory.

What in the world is my point you may be wondering? Well, it is this; as the new year approaches, I always set new goals for myself. As I have experienced firsthand how liberating it can be to overcome the fears that drive us in our daily decision making, I encourage you to enter the new year with an intention to be a little braver and a little more free-thinking. The experience is enlightening and hopefully it will open many doors as it has for us.

For those of you wondering about Baby Beck, we saw a doctor in BA a couple of weeks ago for my 20 week check-up. That's right, already over halfway there. The ultrasound looked great, baby is just slightly larger that average which is surprising since at 22 weeks I have only gained 6.2 pounds! Clearly all the walking is making a big difference, as well as Dr. Beck's high protein diet requirements. My legs are so much more muscular than when I left Port Townsend! Here is a terrible photo, but one for all of you looking for the belly shot. This was a church in the Belgrano neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

We miss everyone and wish you the best holidays with your families.

Love,

Nicole, Forrest, & Baby Beck