weekend recap

As you may have noticed, no medical mondays today. That's because we were having a fabulous weekend with friends in a cabin in Woodland Park, CO. We had a great time!!

Jonathan loved this car swing. 

We played an epic game of settlers. Can you tell who won?
Probably not because it is too hard to see... so I'll just tell you that I did not win.

View of Pike's Peak from our cabin.

Junior and Senior on our hike.

Jonathan with his gal-pal Sarah

More time in the car swing, this time with matching hat.

Did you have a good weekend?

27 and 29 weeks (3rd trimester!!)

I know, I know. It's been a while. Don't worry, Aunt Judy, I'm doing fine :)

The last belly pic we took was at 27 weeks but then I left for NYC and never posted it, so here is the 27 week and 29 week pic.

27 weeks.
Things are starting to look rather large... and apparently it is scaring me. Note that this shirt doesn't cover my whole belly--this has been happening a lot lately. 

29 weeks.
It's looking more and more like I shoved a basketball up my shirt. 

 Crazy the difference these 2 weeks have made!

So last Monday we went for a prenatal visit and it was our first visit of our 3rd trimester. The visit was perfect--still measuring right on target, good heart rate, etc etc. We got to meet one of the midwives we hadn't met yet and we loved her! Third trimester has felt different all ready. It feels like we are really in the middle of baby preparation and it is crazy to be able to say the due date is in 10.5 weeks. (And that means I am full term in 7.5 weeks--yikes!!). The biggest shock to us was the realization that from this point on, we will be going to the birthing center every single week until the due date, either with some kind of class or some kind of appointment. Crazy! We start our birthing classes tomorrow evening, which we are both excited about, but honestly with our crazy weekend and past weeks I keep forgetting about! I will remember tomorrow I promise.

My belly is starting to make me uncomfortable, but still overall this pregnancy has been a breeze. We are still having so much fun with this baby in my belly. Lots and lots of movement still and I'm trying to learn baby's patterns throughout the day. I know I always say it, but we fall more in love with this baby every day. We are both glad that we didn't find out the gender and are excited about the surprise awaiting us!! I honestly never even think about or wish we had found out.

I know I haven't posted about NYC yet. It was awesome for sure--great time with Mom, Dad, Kate, and baby, and got to see lots of family. (Kate can I download pics from your Flickr account to put on here?) I was a little shocked, though, at how tired my body got during the travels... I don't know why I was surprised, because I am lugging around 25 extra pounds these days (yes, you read that right). But man it is hard to walk all day when your belly is hanging out over your pants! Lesson learned.

One of my favorite stories from the trip: As you know, the baby is quite an active one. I was excited about the family getting to feel lots of movement, but of course the first few days we were there she was hardly moving at all! I was bummed out for sure. I was joking with Jon that she just missed her daddy and didn't feel like moving around. So one afternoon I put the phone up to my belly so the baby could hear Jon's voice and she kicked right on the phone! It was awesome. Then we tried it again and sure enough, a jab right in the direction of daddy's voice. Me and Kate loved seeing it happen on our side, and Jon loved knowing that baby responded to her daddy. It was quite special. (Are you proud of me for using "she" so much in that paragraph?)

I'm feeling a bit absent minded at the moment. It is possible none of these sentences are actually coherent. We have had a productive but exhausting weekend doing projects for baby and house. I will post those pics later this week. Nice to be getting things checked off the list!!!

Cabo san Lucas

What an incredible and relaxing week we had in Cabo san Lucas!

A little background for some of you... At the very beginning of our marriage (maybe even before we were actually married) we knew how important it was for us to commit to traveling together and making anniversary celebrations a priority. I am so glad we have been on the same page about that ever since. We make sure we have the funds saved up throughout the year and in the months before the trip, but the real reason we are able to travel is because we are good at deal-hunting online! This trip to Cabo was no exception. We booked our resort stay on skyauction.com and did not realize how great a deal we got until we actually arrived at the place!

Part of booking inexpensive and last-minute trips means flexibility is essential, and it helps to always be prepared for some surprises. It was a bit scary at first when we pulled on to a dirt road with no obvious signage to lead us to the resort. We thought maybe we got such a great deal because the hotel rooms were actually camp sites. But, we found out that our resort was just opened in 2007 and only has 2 of its several phases of construction in completion. When it is finished, it will have several multi-million dollar homes and villas built on the property, and you will probably not be able to stay there for less than $300 per night. We got lucky in booking it at such a great deal since right now they are just trying to get people to visit this up and coming property. It truly was luxurious. The room was one of the nicest we have ever stayed in, complete with a whirlpool tub, a complete kitchen, tile floors, a private balcony. Beautiful! But enough talking... let's get on to some pictures!

Here it is--The Hacienda Encantada Resort. We highly recommend this  place! 

This is our view from the roof of HE's sister resort, The Marina Fiesta. MF was located more in downtown Cabo, whereas HE was more secluded and about a 20 minute drive to downtown. This was taken on the morning of our SECOND free breakfast for listening to a time-share presentation. Going to this second presentation was an accident (we were told this one was just a tour, not a sales talk), but at least we enjoyed getting free stuff. 

Me enjoying the free stuff. (Are you catching onto the theme of our travels??? Lots of free stuff!) I think I drank about 10 virgin frozen drinks during the week. The bartender at our hotel loved making them for me and wouldn't even charge us most of the time for them. He one time just handed us a mango-flavored one because all we were getting were Pina Coladas and Strawberry Daiquiris, and I guess he just thought we needed to branch out. 

Here is our little seal friend that we followed around the marina. We didn't get the greatest pic. He was a bit evasive. We also didn't get good pictures of the whales we saw everyday, but it was whale season in Cabo, and we could see them spraying water and rolling over/whatever whales do from our resort! It was awesome!

Our resort didn't have a great beach spot, so we walked into another resort and used their beach. The waves at this beach were HUGE. Jon enjoyed them and I enjoyed taking pictures of him. 

Here I am enjoying the other resort's nice chairs and umbrellas. No one seemed to notice we weren't actually staying there. 

Jon is super excited about eating real authentic Flan. I think it tasted the same as when you make it out of a box here in the US. I don't know much about Flan though. 

At a fantastic Mexican restaurant overlooking the marina. 

We had some incredible views from our resort. Here is one of them.  

Awesome sunset. One of our favorite parts of each day. 

The beach by us was very rocky so you couldn't swim, but we walked along the rocks for a long time and found lots of tide pools with various creatures in them. Crabs apparently make clicking sounds and will freak you out with the scurrying sound they make when climbing over rocks. I'm glad we didn't bring the video camera when we went adventuring along these rocks or it would have been full of videos of me clapping and stomping furiously to scare the crabs away. 

Pretty. 

The pools were those Infinity pools so it looks like it just drops off the edge of a cliff. It didn't though. There was a ledge below it that caught the water that spilled over. This was good for me to learn because I had always been curious. 

View from our room. 

Our drive to Todos Santos, a town about 50 miles north of Cabo. That is ocean straight ahead and there were mountains all around. The town was so cute--lots of craft shops with great stuff that we couldn't afford. 

There was a LOT of construction along the road up to Todos Santos. At one point the road was only 1 lane, and to control traffic, a man was waving his red sweatshirt at oncoming traffic to get them to stop. Oh Mexico....

Our last day in Cabo, soaking up some sun. I sure do love this guy. (Jon that is, not the shadow of the guy taking our picture).

Here is The Belly at 21 weeks. I arrived in Cabo at 20 weeks and feel like I noticed the belly being bigger by the end of the trip! 

And last but not least here is a bikini belly pic per Mom's special request :) 

A little update about pregnancy stuff... 2nd trimester is definitely all they say it is. Not too big, but definitely showing, feeling great, seeing the baby and belly grow bigger and bigger. This part is so much fun. Baby was very well behaved the whole trip and only made me feel sick on the last day. Symptom-wise, these past few weeks have brought more heartburn, feeling short of breath a LOT (even when I am just sitting still!), and some interesting clothing challenges. But the most fun part is that baby has been moving a LOT more lately. This last week in Cabo was definitely the most movement yet. Every day, probably several times per day, I would feel distinct baby movement--from little kick and punch jabs, to full roll overs and perhaps flips. Sorry little one, but the full body rolls still make me feel weird, but I'm getting used to them. But I sure do love the increasing consistency of feeling those little arms and legs moving around!

And a note on wearing a bikini during pregnancy--this is definitely the way to go. No worries about being self-conscious about your body--you are pregnant so who cares if your belly is big! I was worried about it at first but actually kind of loved it and am wondering how I can plan future bathing-suit wearing times to correspond with the second trimester of pregnancy. Plus, everyone in Mexico was LOVING asking about the baby and noticing my belly. Random hotel workers would just shout "Bambino o bambina?" It was fun to say "Una surpresa!" or whatever the word is for surprise that we thought we were saying.

Baby is at this point about 8 or 9 inches long and about 3/4 of a pound. That is like triple the size of about 6 weeks ago. Amazing how much this little one is growing. I love it! And I love baby!!

Now that we are past the halfway mark of pregnancy, we are feeling like the next few months will fly by. I'm getting excited about getting serious about some nursery decorating, preparing the house, taking some childbirth classes with Jon, and continuing to watch this baby grow.