Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Grandma's Visit - Photo Special

Does it get any better than this??


Last week my grandma came to visit from Morehead City, North Carolina. She is very dear to me and I am always so excited when she comes!

We picked her up at the airport with enough time to go to lunch before picking Mindy up from her last day at school. Then we took her to experience my Dough Girl, and she was very much impressed. Of course. That is my favorite cookie place ever! Grandma bought more than a dozen cookies for us to bring home and share with everyone.

We relaxed at our house for a little while, then headed to Heber where we were all going to stay for the week. We stayed at my dad's house, which is the house I grew up in, though it is a lot more crowded these days. One of the nights, there were 15 of us sleeping there! 5 of those people were camping out back, but still! It was a really fun, family filled week, and I wanted to share some of my pictures so you could see what a picturesque world I live in. :)

Our first day in Heber, we went up to Wasatch State Park in Midway where we fed the ducks and the kids played on the playground. I love that place!

My Grandma's 84 and she's just as eager to get in the water as the kids! :) She's amazing!

It was unbelievably beautiful. The spring is a great time to visit the Heber Valley. But so is the fall... and the winter is fun too if you like snow.




I don't have any pictures of the rest of the day, but earlier that morning, my nurse called me and informed me that they got my lab work back and (surprise!) I had a bladder infection! What? I had no idea! So, that was a weird little detour we had to make to pick up some meds for me. I was glad I happened to have my checkup and that they caught it before it even really bothered me.

When I told the nurse that I was in Heber she said I had to go try the bread pudding at Daniels Summit Lodge. I've been wanting bread pudding for the longest time so we decided to go try it. My sister knew where it was, so we headed up there for lunch. It ended up being about 20 miles out of town, up in the mountains, so it was just beautiful. We had a good lunch, but found out that they don't have bread pudding there anymore! I was a little disappointed, but so full after lunch that it wasn't a big deal, and we were glad we'd gone up there anyway even just for the pretty drive.

The next day we just stayed at home and relaxed. We sat outside for a while and watched the kids play and the dogs run and just enjoyed the beautiful weather and the even more beautiful view.

I grew up with this view out my back door and totally took it for granted!


Here's me with my Grandma.

We made dinner for everyone that day. I made Baked Potato Soup and it was a huge hit! I shouldn't have halved it. That was really the only cooking I had to do all week, though. I was totally spoiled there! I also sat and watched the incredibly long BBC version of Persuasion because I was feeling pretty sick, but didn't want to nap because that tends to make me feel worse.

The next day, my brother and his wife and kids had joined the crew and we all went out to breakfast at Soldier Hollow. This is where they had the cross country skiing during the Olympics and where BAM is held, and there's also a golf course. I never realized there was a restaurant there, but my dad informed us they had good breakfast so of course we had to try it out. Going out to eat is what we do when my grandma's around! So fun!


Another beautiful view!


Heather and Aria


Baxter, Shane and Ethan

Elle, me (Hmmm, can you tell I was about puked on the way there?) and Ethan

Katie, Grandma and Mindy


Here's one more picture, from the next day, of the cute girls with their matching hair-dos. Awww, so cute!
Mindy, Elle, Aria

Friday afternoon, Pete rode his bike over a couple mountains, and most of the way to Heber so I went and picked him up in Provo Canyon. It was quite a ride, especially because he hasn't been out on his bike much this year. I was glad he made it in time to go out to eat with ALL of us to Tarahumara (our favorite!). I apologize to everyone I didn't get pictures of like my other sister and her husband, and my 2 new step-brothers who we got to know a little better during our stay. I wasn't really in tip top picture taking shape, and a lot of the time I wasn't much fun to be around (which Katie kept reminding me of), but I did have a good time considering the nausea!

The rest of the time it was pretty cold and rainy so we hung out at home a lot. Katie and I were pretty relieved that we weren't running the marathon anymore since we would have gotten rained on for most of it! That would have been 3 for 3 marathons in the rain for me. Provo canyon was really pretty, though, and I'm excited to do it next year. I just hope it doesn't rain! I did get a quick (Ok, not really quick, it was like 5 hours!) shopping trip in with my Grandma and Katie, and that was really fun! No maternity clothes yet, though! I'm going to try and hold off until the fall. I just really needed some summer shirts.

We went shopping in Provo and saw the last 3 marathoners still with 8 miles to go, and it had been almost 6 hours. WOW! I rolled my window down and cheered for them! One of them kind of smiled at me. I really hope they made it. That is such a long time!

I had a great trip to Heber, and I was really sad to come home and have to be in charge of cooking and cleaning and taking care of the kids again. I also just really miss Heber. It is so beautiful there (I know, you're probably think, "Ok, we've heard enough about how beautiful it is there already, geez!") and so much more relaxed. Of course, I only go there on vacation now so that could be adding to the relaxed feel, but not much. Maybe someday we'll get to move back there, but right now I'm just glad we have somewhere to go there to visit whenever we want, and at least we're only an hour away.

Amazingly, I've been feeling better the past few days. Well, maybe not today, but the 2 days before that, so I was able to get a lot done around the house, and I actually kicked my shoes off and ran around with the kids at the park yesterday! Maybe I'm almost through this yucky part!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Memorial Day Weekend & Ultrasound

Hello Bloggie-Blog (That's what my kids would name this blog), it's been awhile. To tell you the truth I really haven't had any desire to blog lately. I feel sick pretty much all the time. Some times it's pretty bearable, but a lot of the time I just want to lay in bed or sit and read Fabelhaven (my new obsession). I seriously don't remember being this sick with any of my other kids. I wonder if it's because I'm older or because I was in such good shape and mobile before I got pregnant that it makes it more noticeable? Whatever the reason, I really hate it and I'm trying not to feel depressed about it. The weather was beautiful today, it was in the high 70s, and all I did was sit around in the house. I have no desire to go outside and do anything. I actually thought I'd go swimming today, but after I got up, I quickly changed my mind.

I really shouldn't complain, though. It could be a lot worse. At least I'm able to function and eat, and I haven't thrown up once. I'm very grateful and excited about this little miracle baby. (It was a miracle, even if it wasn't one we knew we wanted!)

We did have a really fun Memorial Day Weekend!

We kicked it off early when Pete and the kids had Friday off and we went out to breakfast. It was a lot of fun!


We went to Coachman's Dinner and Pancake House. It's such a dive, but that's our style, and they have really good food! Here's my eggs benedict. Mmmmm.


Sunday afternoon we loaded 4 bikes up onto our old bike rack and headed for Heber. About half-way there, one of the straps holding it onto the car snapped. We were on the freeway and I looked back to see all the bikes leaning very far to one side! Aaaa! Luckily we were right by an exit so we were able to pull over and rig it back up to working order. We were still nervous, but we made it the rest of the way with no more problems. That was scary, though! We could have lost all our bikes! (including the tri bike, the road bike, and Mindy and Ethan's bikes) As we were pulling back onto the freeway, we saw this uncommon sight:

It's hard to see from my iphone pictures, but that's a buffalo and a zebra grazing together, along with a goat.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day, and I was so happy to be a guest at someone else's house so I didn't really have to do anything, and the kids were well entertained.


Monday morning we all went for a bike ride, though these 2 little ones actually rode in the bike trailer. It was just a short, leisurely bike ride and I felt pretty good doing it. It was actually great to get out on a bike again even if it was on Katie's crappy mt. bike. Pete and I gave my sister a lesson in riding a road bike. We are letting her borrow ours for a while since I won't really be using it, and Pete's happy to switch back over to the tri bike for now. She has a friend doing the Bear Lake tri (I don't know which one, there are 2 in August) and she's thinking about doing it with her. I really hope she does so I can live vicariously through her! Ok, that's not the only reason, I also think it would be fun and good for her. I hope she enjoys the road bike, it's a big improvement on what she's used to!

After our bike ride, we went to How To Train A Dragon. It wasn't in 3D, but I think 3D is overrated anyway. It was a really good movie!

When we got home, we walked down the street with Angela and her son, Drew, who gave the girls a ride on their horse. Ethan came too, but refused to ride it, and ended up going home early with Pete. Mindy and Ethan loved riding the horse, though, and kept wanting to go around again! Mindy even had a little scare on her first time around when the train came by and spooked the horse. She held on really good and it didn't keep her from wanting to go more.

Elle also really liked the baby cows. Or Steers. I don't know what you'd call them. Her favorite one was the one with the white face.



It was a great weekend, and I didn't want to come home. I'm excited to go spend another week in Heber when my Grandma comes to visit from North Carolina next week!

Tuesday, before we got too much back into the grindstone, I had my ultrasound appointment. It was the fastest doctor visit I've ever had! We walked in, they took us right back and got to business. "The pregnancy" as they call it, showed up right away, and I was amazed at how much bigger the baby was! Last time you couldn't see anything, and this time you could definitely see it, and the little heart just beating away! We also got to hear the whoosh whoosh whoosh of the heartbeat, and the technician said it was just at the right rate! He also said, according to the measurements I was exactly at 8 weeks and right on target for my awesome due date of 1-11-11! This was great news, but I wasn't really worried just because I'd been feeling so sick and hadn't had any problems. I just hope I stop feeling sick after 12 weeks, that's only 4 weeks away. I can make it!

By the way, the baby is about the size of a kidney bean right now. So why are my ribs already hurting!?