Veteran's Day at the Beach

Josh and I decided a while ago that sometime this fall/winter season we would head to the beach for a night just to get away before our daughter joins us. We didn't really have a date picked out, just sometime before she gets here. Well, Josh played in a golf tournament with work and won a putting competition which got us a free night at any Shilo Inn... so... we decided to put the two together and visit the Shilo Inns in Seaside. Of course with the free night came a few restrictions... cannot use between Memorial Day and Labor Day... cannot use on long holiday weekends, cannot use on Friday or Saturday nights... well. We didn't want to take a lot of time off of work, since I'd rather Josh use that time when our daughter is born, so we called and found out Shilo Inn didn't count Veteran's Day as a holiday weekend. Worked for us.

I had the day off already, and took the Friday after off anyway. I waited for Josh to get home from work and we headed off to Seaside. It poured on us the whole way there, but mostly stopped by the time we pulled in. We had dinner at Doogers and headed back to our room. It was great, 3rd floor, king size room with a kitchen and fireplace overlooking the ocean. I could have stayed all week! When we woke up Friday morning it was gorgeous out! The sun was shinning and it was getting warmer. When I say warmer of course I mean mid to high 50's, but still for an Oregon November it was great. We wondered around Seaside, did a little Christmas shopping, had breakfast at Pig n' Pancake... my favorite, and headed in to wander around Cannon Beach. I didn't wear a jacket all day, it was amazing.

On our way home we decided to head to Tillamook to tour the cheese factory and get some yummy ice cream. Then it was off to home, which of course is when the rain started again... not until we were in the car for 5 minutes. While we were originally planning on doing some storm watching on our little get away when we thought of it months ago, this ended up working out quite well... and we're sure the storms will still be there for another time.

Halloween at the Japanese Gardens

Every year I've been wanting to go see the Portland Japanese Gardens as Autumn hits... although we've never made it until this year. It was hard to wait until the leaves were changing when we had such gorgeous weather before all the rain hit. Well, yesterday, Halloween, just happened to be a dry day even with a few patches of blue sky. Hard to believe after such a gray rainy day today. We we not the only ones who had the idea to go to the gardens, but either way it was great to see all the fall colors, I love the Japanese Maples... the only time I like shades of orange! Here are a few pics from our outing.

Last Wedding of the Year

Last weekend we attended our 3rd and final wedding of the year. Josh grew up in a group of 4 guys all having been friends since elementary school. Throughout the years they’ve all been there for each other, even all attending University of Oregon together at one point. Last weekend was Roman’s wedding, the last of the 4 to get hitched. I still think all the mom’s are surprised they’re all now married by 27. It was a beautiful wedding and fun reception out at Meriwether Golf Course on what appears to be the last sunny weekend of the year. They lucked out! Josh and I were both exhausted by the end of the night, me especially... I’m still not sure how I managed to stay in my heels the entire day, or how my feet still managed to get me around the house the next day. Below are some pictures from the day.

Here comes the bride

Off to the reception

A little cake smashing happened...

The Groom's Cake

Yay for the Manson's

Cupcake bar... all friends helped out with the desserts, some made cheesecakes, Josh and I made 6 dozen cupcakes.

Ah... brothers

The guys... we have one of these shots at every wedding

The whole group, everyone's married! A couple hours up to 4+ years.

It's been a while since we've had a good picture taken.

Mother of the groom looking gorgeous, I love this shot.

Awesome ice sculpture

Pregnancy and Hormones, Oh my!

While this may not be my first pregnancy, this is the first time I’ve made it really into the second trimester. Because of what happened the first time we’ve definitely taken everything one day at a time this go around. We were all prepared to tell our friends and extended family after we got back from San Francisco and even made an appointment at 14 weeks the day after we got back just to make sure everything looked good before spreading the word. Everything was great, we had plans all weekend with people and were excited to share our news. Of course the next day I woke up having complications. Of course my doctor had left after our appointment the day before so I got to go to the on call doctor who reassured us that the baby seemed fine but that if something was happening there was nothing they could do and to just take it easy… ya, no problem doc! We decided right then to keep our mouths shut about our good news in light of the most recent doctor’s visit. Everything seemed to get better with each passing week until a few weeks later it came back but with much less force… again I stayed off my feet and tried to do nothing. Ever since then we’ve been doing great! That was almost 6 weeks ago. From an earlier post you know we’ve had our “official” ultrasound and a handful of other doctor’s appointments. Everything seems to be going great, she’s developing faster than my doctor had thought and has all the right parts, 10 fingers 10 toes, all in the right places even!

I am of course way too much of a planner and can already see her entire room laid out… of course I am trying to do a little at a time as to not get too ahead of ourselves. We’ve moved the big stuff and done a lot of cleaning/organizing. Nothing has been ordered yet, but we have registered. The crib we’re going to have only takes just over a week for delivery so we’ll wait on that just a bit longer. Trying to do so much but at a slow pace, but being antsy is driving me crazy!

Speaking of driving me crazy, every now and then I can really tell the hormones are running wild… one minute I’m ready to snap (although sometimes there is very valid reason!) while other times I’m ready to cry… although I’ve managed that emotion a bit more than the angry one… go figure!

Anyway, so far things are going well… I’m just past 5 months… more than half way there, and I have a feeling once we get through the next few weeks time will just fly by with the holidays on the horizon!

Our crazy cat, she loves boxes!

Go Ducks!

Over the summer when Duck football tickets went on sale, Josh and I looked at the schedule to pick out what we thought would be the best game to go to. With their home schedule including Labor Day weekend New Mexico… which we had my mom coming to visit flying in that day, which was out, plus we wanted a better game. Portland State was certainly not a better looking option, so that was easily out. The next game was Stanford… Stanford, at home, on a Saturday night, early October we figured had a chance at being a good game and not freezing or soaking wet. The remainder of the home games included UCLA on a Thursday night… The Huskies November 6th, and Arizona the Friday after Thanksgiving… really it came down to either Stanford or the Huskies… with that month difference we picked what we thought would be the best weather option, even though the game was supposed to start at 8:15 pm…

Easy to say I was probably the most ecstatic person alive when learning that the game was moved up to a 5:00 kick off. Between being tired from being pregnant, and the simple fact that after an 8:15 game I’d be tired anyway… it made for a much better looking game. The weather turned out to be even nicer than we had hoped (even nicer than I would have liked actually) but perfect t-shirt weather for kick off and sweatshirt later if needed.
The first quarter sure looked like we picked the wrong game and I was not a happy camper. I have to say its hard going to a game w/out being able to tailgate the traditional way… drinking… then climb up to row 71. Anytime I’d try and stand up to yell I’d get lightheaded with my limited lung capacity due to my asthma… made it hard to get into the game, but the Ducks sure did turn it around and make it a great 3 quarters after the first one from hell.

All in all, fun day, good ¾ of a game, and home before midnight. It was a fun, successful, busy weekend. Here are some pictures from the day… Wish I had more but the stupid kid in front of me kept standing up too fast and I couldn’t see over him unless we were sitting down… stupid short legs, long torso.

Our Family

So it's been way too long since we've posted anything. It seems like the last month has just flown by... although it doesn't feel that way when I'm at work. September had a visit from my mom for just over a week, time with the Mansons, a bridal shower/bachlorette party, and then just this last weekend a trip to Eugene for the Oregon/Stanford game. I'll have more on that later... more being pictures.

In the meantime as I'm sure most of you know by now, Josh and I are expecting... again... I'm just about to the 5 month mark now... 22 weeks, which is sometimes hard to believe. We have been trying to take everything one step at a time, one day at a time.. which has been hard but also I think made everything a bit easier as we come across life's obstacles. We apologize how some of you may have found out or maybe thought we should have told everyone but we really didn't want to shout it out to the world and have the world come shouting back... until February I will continue to try and take everything a day at a time.

We did have our "anatomy screening" basically the ultrasound that shows all the details including sex. Everyone in our lives seemed to have a sense of what they thought we were going to have... Ultimately my mom did the penny test... An old wives tale. When she was pregnant with me her and my dad put a penny on a string and held it over her belly, if the penny went in a circle it was supposed to be a girl, in a line a boy. My mom said that's the only way they knew I was a girl. So when she was here we got out the same penny on the same string and got the same result. She was convinced. As it turns out the doctor really just needed a penny. We're expecting a baby girl sometime in February... doc says the 10th, ultrasound shows the 7th... we'll see what she decides.

Yes, we do have names picked out... and no you can't know. We have the first name nailed down and have for a little while now... it's the middle name we've gone back and forth on... I think we've gotten there, but of course over the next 4 months who knows! You will all find out when we introduce you to the new member of our family.

This last weekend we headed to Babie's R Us to start registering... luckily we have the best friends in the world as Jason and Julie (and Ella) joined us and walked us through the entire store to point out what and how much we really need of each thing. I know we would have been lost without them! We would have scanned the basics but not known the best brands, like the baby butt cream... insider tips are the best! We've got almost everything on the list at this point... still researching stroller/car seats but other than that I think we're good. I'm still trying to find the right bedding set... although I think I found it last night. It's hard to find something cute and girly w/out it being all pink, or have butterflies or something on it... but I think I've done it!

Until next time... here is our little girl.

The 3-D shot... she was being shy and covering her face

For those in the ultrasound world

Good profile shot

As the tech said, this is how you know it's a girl... as I said, this is how you know she's a girl in my family... definitely a Rommel!

Scary face... looking right atcha!