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About us
Our home
Our life
Our travels
- Europe
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- Turkey
- Thailand
- Cambodia
- Vietnam
Say hello

Our travels / Vietnam

Vietnam: Hanoi

December 8, 2017

Written by ashleyrespecki

Further Reading...

Cappadocia (Turkey Part II)

April 18, 2014

EuroTour: Rome

March 1, 2017

EuroTour: Amsterdam

July 30, 2016

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Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City

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Our first house: The "before"

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Another pic from our mommy + daughter photo shoot

Another pic from our mommy + daughter photo shoot 😆 in Miami, just because I wanted it to live on my grid. ⁣
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Plus she’s super snuggly like this right now and I like having photographic evidence of this stage to help remember these days where she needed (clinged to!) me so much. And the randomly discarded mask on the ground seems like an appropriate thing to document from this time period too. (Quinn says, don’t litter people!!)

Way overdue eleven month pics! I mean, she turns O

Way overdue eleven month pics! I mean, she turns ONE later this month—I’m very behind!⁣
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Quinn had such a big/wild 11th month: a plane ride, a beach trip, C O V I D, quarantine with mom and dad; her first teeth (zoom in on the 4th pic for those crooked chiclets!); perfecting the wave 👋🏻 ; learning to climb the stairs; learning to dance, “sing,” “read;” taking her first steps. She also has this very specific noise that is her dog “bark” so she talks to her pup brother A LOT. 😆 She started trying to give her baby doll her pacifier (we’ve named her favorite $2.88 Walmart baby “Lyla,” after Lyla Garrity on Friday Night Lights because we started watching the series during our quarantine to fill our football-loving hearts and free time 😝). She’s busy—and nearly impossible to photograph right now—and we’re exhausted. (Everyone that does this as a single parent or with multiples, major cheers to you! 🍻) ⁣
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If you don’t hear from me for the next several weeks, someone check on me…I’ll probably be in a nostalgia spiral ahead of her 1st birthday…

Remember when we went to Miami last month?? Yeah I

Remember when we went to Miami last month?? Yeah I almost forgot too. Was just browsing pics and thought I’d share a pic of this mom of an 11-month-old (🤯) just because…in a hotel we didn’t stay at but drooled over because one of our first loves is architecture. 🤤 ⁣
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Life used to be about planes and trains and new places captured with my @canonusa. And now it’s mostly about home and the tiny love of my life captured with an iPhone. Swipe to the last frame ❤️ Not mad about it! 🥰
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(Um but I would realllly like us all to get this pandemic stuff under control so we can show our girl some of the world before it burns/freezes/floods, and all her rights to her own body are taken away. 😒 Ugh, Jesus take the wheeeeel)

Lessons from our quarantine⁣ //⁣ 🧺 You cann

Lessons from our quarantine⁣
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🧺 You cannot keep up with cleaning, dishes, laundry when everyone is unwell and stuck in the house. Don’t even try.⁣
🪞 Children are mirrors. (Based on Quinn’s obsessions, I think I have a computer & phone addiction…)⁣
🙏 Childcare providers and stay-at-home parents are SAINTS. ⁣
🐶 Your fur baby may not be thrilled about the human baby occupying their wfh daytime hangs.⁣
💉 The vaccine can truly prevent you and the people you love from ending up in the hospital, or worse!⁣
👃🏻 Losing your sense of taste and smell really sucks the joy out of a lot of things. I can’t wait to taste and smell my coffee again!! (But at least 💩 diapers are a breeze right now) ⁣
❤️ When you’re down about the selfish people of the world, your community will come in hot with selfless acts and pure LOVE. ⁣
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If you’re curious about anything else related to our experience, answering questions in my stories about 💉, 🦠, symptoms, daycare, etc. Hoping it helps someone!!

You’re looking at a tiny child with COVID. My ch

You’re looking at a tiny child with COVID. My child, my whole world ❤️ And that’s me—a *fully-vaccinated* new mom, also positive with COVID.⁣⁣
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We returned to DC after a short trip a week ago, and within hours of landing, got word that parents of children at the small in-home daycare Quinn attends were symptomatic for COVID. Within 24 hours of that news, both of those parents had tested positive for COVID and 4 out of the 6 kids at daycare—all under the age of 3—also tested positive. PCR test results now show that Nick and I are also positive. The good news: so far, our symptoms feel just like the other colds we’ve experienced this year, courtesy of good ol’ daycare germs. And Quinn is getting better and better each day! I’m so grateful for our vaccine antibodies helping us fight this, and that I was able to pass on antibodies to Quinn via breastmilk so her tiny immune system can fight. The bad news: when we traveled—despite every distancing precaution, masking, eating meals outside or ordering in to our hotel room, etc—at minimum, we still unknowingly exposed fellow travelers to our COVID-positive child. I won’t ever forgive myself for that, even if there is no way I could have known… ⁣⁣
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Since June, my then 10-day-old niece and 4-year-old nephew have had COVID, and now my daughter and 3 of her tiny friends. Why? Why would we collectively let this happen? Why would we put the people we LOVE, especially the littlest ones, at risk? This all has made me question my own relationships and it hurts, deep. I already know what family and friends won’t like this pic/post. Everyone is very predictable now…so divisive is our world, our own families. But, I have no shame left: if you’re reading this (& consciously not liking it, lol) I *beg* you to go get a COVID vaccine to help prevent another family—another child!—from going through this (or worse) and having to experience the unknown future of having had this illness as a child. If you’re already vaccinated, THANK YOU! Stay vigilant, and healthy, and continue encouraging your family and friends to get vaccinated too—it’s the only way to squash the spread of these mutating variants and save lives!!!

My 10 (and a half) month old 🍒⁣ //⁣ Quinn i

My 10 (and a half) month old 🍒⁣
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Quinn is so busy!!! (Swipe to see what it’s like to try to snap these pics these days) Speedy crawling, pulling up, cruising furniture/walls/etc, and working on her balance. Walking feels imminent—time to buy her first real shoes in preparation! She’s repping cherries this month because they quickly became a favorite food this summer. I’m so proud of her food journey (major s/o to @solidstarts!) and love continuing to introduce and explore new foods with her. We do struggle to get her to eat bread 🤔 but she’s really into pasta! The girl is also the jabber box of daycare. And we’ve got more “communication” happening which is so fun (sometimes she’ll sign “milk” back to me! and then lots of listening to mom and dad’s “don’t touch,” “gentle,” and “don’t eat Sawyer’s dog food!” instructions!)⁣
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I flew down to Miami with her (by myself 🤪) yesterday to meet @nicholasrespecki for a few days of beach vacay 🏖 Here’s hoping she doesn’t eat too much sand!

Work from home perk #1: fur baby snuggles as daily

Me 🥰 Palm Springs, November 2019⁣ //⁣ It’

Me 🥰 Palm Springs, November 2019⁣
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It’s been a rough week and I’ve been in a total funk. 😕 But, we’ve also been prepping for our first “family of 3” mini vacation in a couple weeks so when Nick showed me this vacation pic, I had all these weird emotions bubble up. Feeling nostalgic for old “norms” (like all the fun traveling we used to do as a party of 2) and just struggling to adjust to all the “new” (ummm, we have a 10 month old!! and we’re sorta kinda coming out of a pandemic!! maybe?!) ⁣
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When we were flipping through the pics, I immediately said, “that trip was so fun!” …As soon as I said it I realized time can really tint things: our Palm Springs trip was pre-pandemic, but my world already felt upside down. Days before, we found out I’d had a missed miscarriage but opted to go on the trip anyways and schedule a D&C for as soon as we returned. I was so, so heartbroken.💔 And I was on pins and needles the entire vacation thinking my body might have other plans. All that to say, I’m grateful that travel is evidently healing for me. Because now I can look back on that trip and remember the amazing time we had—we even saw the Milky Way at Joshua Tree!! 🌌 I know the trips we’re finally able to take as a family of 3 are going to be a little wild and different, but I hope they are just as healing because—like I’m sure is true for most of us—this last year+ has been rough in so many ways. Here’s hoping you’re finding your own ways to heal and embrace the new normal ❤️‍🩹

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