Summer Outings

 Here are some of the fun summer outings that we have done in the past few months that I haven't blogged about yet. We love summer and we love that Nate gets off at 10 on Fridays so that we have another day in our weekend to go on an adventure.

One fun adventure in July was walking around Deep Lake in Nolte State Park with Nona. I had never been there before and it is a nice walk around the lake and the lake is very pretty. We found lots of different bugs, found some berries to eat, and Paige and I put our feet in the water.

 Another thing in July was Covington Days and they have a parade to start it off. We have gone every year for the past few years. Nate has to work during it and helps set it up. This year he helped block off roads with cones and they even let him watch it with us.

 All her candy that she collected. She loves going to parades and has the wave down.

 Then the end of July we got to go to a Seattle Storm game. It is the WNBA team for Seattle and Paige got us free tickets for reading 500 minutes so far this summer. We loved it! It was so much fun. We started our evening off with doing some thrift shopping and then some Dicks for dinner before heading to the game. They were handing out the noise makers when we walked in and Paige loved them and loved using them to clap and make noise throughout the entire game. This game also happened to be a teddy bear toss. Nate got a fox from the thrift store a few days before that she could throw onto the court. All the teddy bears and stuffed animals collected go to paramedics, firefighters, police, etc that they give to children when they are responding to an emergency. We were pretty far up and for our section we got to walk down to the court and Paige got to run on the court and throw it in the big pile. She loved it and thought it was so cool to go on the court. Another fun thing was that Nate caught a T-shirt. Before the game he said that he was going to catch one and we weren't sure they were going to throw any but they did it at the very end. One flew right over my head and would have hit me in the head if I stood up. Nate tried to lean over and catch it and asked me why I didn't stand up and then one came flying by him and he caught it!

 A nice weekend in August we went to Auburn to check out some new parks. One park had a vip line and a playground. Paige loved the zip line and went on it over and over. Nate even went on it and was too big for it and ended up dragging on the ground and I laughed the entire time watching. Then we went down to the river and found some little minnows and skipped some rocks. Then we went to another park. We crossed the river on a big bridge and happened across this other park which was a lot of fun but by this time it was too hot and so we will have to come back and enjoy it on a cooler day.

 This past week Paige and I went to Oregon on Sunday and stayed the night at Mike and Christy's. We went with Anna and Margaret and Robert and Christy came up from Eugene. Paige loved spending the evening following Lylia around and playing with her and her friend. We enjoyed a nice dinner and the adults stayed up late talking. The next day we all went to the Street of Dreams. I have gone once before and this year was Paige's first year and she loved it. She loved seeing all the fun decorations, loved to try out some of the furniture, loved the huge showers, and especially loved the two houses that had swimming pools. It was so much fun to have her as my little companion.

 She really liked this dog wash that was in one of the garages.

 She wanted a picture by this for Nate. Go Seahawks!

 She was "blowing" the candle out of the cake decoration.

 Both Paige and I loved this decorated shelves corner.

 Huge walk in showers and huge tubs in all the houses.

 Paige really loved this bunk bed.

 An atrium in one of the houses.

 This was her favorite bedroom and the only bedroom that was decorated for a little girl. It had a craft area, a little reading tent area, and was decorated so cute and Paige loved everything about it.

 We then went to Red Tomatoes for a late lunch which has a buffet which was perfect for everyone to get exactly what they wanted. Paige loved her tiny little ice cream cone.

 It was a busy morning and Paige fell asleep as soon as we got in the car.

 Before heading back to Washington we stopped at the Grotto. It is a Catholic worship area. It has beautiful gardens, and statues of Christ and things throughout his life, and this beautiful church.

 Paige wanted to throw a penny in the fountain and found a rose petal to put her penny on.

 The labyrinth maze

 One of the many statues- it was a very beautiful and peaceful place to walk around for a couple of hours before driving home.

 Then this past week we went to a Mariners game. One of the pitchers won 6 games in a row so we all got 6 dollar tickets. 

 Paige loved getting some cotton candy and spending some time practicing her baseball skills in the kids corner. One of the later innings got exciting and we got two home run and they lit some fireworks for the home runs. Paige didn't expect it and loved it and kept wanting them to get more home run. Too bad they didn't since they ended up losing. I have never been to a Mariners game where they have won so I guess I am just bad luck.

 Even though they lost it was still really fun to go to.

 This past weekend we went to Tacoma for another adventure. We went to some thrift stores, Chick-fil-a for lunch and then we walked on the Sound. We walked on a pier and saw thousands of little fish.

 Then we walked on the beach and saw a seal in the water and Paige collected lots of rocks and seashells. It was a fun little outing and it is always beautiful to walk by the water.

Second Trimester

The second trimester has been great. The morning sickness is gone and I have a lot more energy and desire to get things done. I love feeling the baby move and here are the updates, journal entries, and pictures from the second trimester.

June 12

Today was my 20 week appointment. The past three weeks I have felt the baby move and I absolutely love it! I think I may have felt it before that but the last three weeks I have known for sure that it is baby moving. The first part of June both Nate and Paige got to feel it kick too. I love all the movements and the baby is quite active which is very reassuring to me in knowing that the baby is good. This appointment was a very basic and normal one. Everything looks good and I got to hear the heart beat and it was good and strong. The doctor mostly talked with me about whether having a VBAC or a C-section. I am leaning more towards a VBAC but if it comes to me having a C-section then that is fine too. I am very open minded about it all. Then the end of this week on June 16^th we get to find out whether we are having a girl or a boy and we are so excited to find out!

18 week baby bump

20 week photo shoot- I can't believe that I am already half way done!

Oh how I love this little girl! She is going to be one amazing big sister. She is so excited to help in every way and loves feeling the baby kick her.

June 16

Today was the ultrasound to find out whether we are having a girl or boy! The ultrasound was really long, a little over an hour. I had to go to a high risk office since I did IVF and they are very detailed in the ultrasound measuring every little thing. The baby was sleeping at first but then woke up and was really active which at times made it hard for the ultrasound tech to see what she needed to. We found out that we are having another GIRL! It was so cute watching her move her legs all around and she kept putting her hand to her face and then lifted her feet all the way to her face and was playing with her toes. I love ultrasounds and technology just amazes me. 

Baby girl with her hand in her mouth

 Those cute little feet

 And the cute little profile

Once we got home we wrapped up a girl outfit for Paige to open up. Anna had been watching her so her and her kids were at Dale and Margaret’s house so we took Paige upstairs to open the present so we were by ourselves. Paige for the past few weeks has said it is a boy so when she saw that it was a girl I think she was a little shocked and didn’t know how to respond since in her mind it was a boy. She did say she was excited but didn’t show much emotion and then she took the outfit downstairs and showed everyone else there. Everyone is very excited and the more we talked about it with Paige she is pretty excited too. She is excited to have matching outfits with her sister (we will see how long that lasts) and that she gets to have a little shadow. We posted the news on Facebook that we were having a baby and that it is a girl and I loved seeing all the responses. We are blessed to have so many loving friends and family.

 Two cute girls for me to love and adore!

July 10

Today was my 24 week appointment and glucose test. I got to my appointment and they had me quickly drink the glucose drink. I picked the orange flavored one and it didn’t really taste that bad but drinking it as fast as I could that last little bit was a little difficult to get down. I then had my appointment which was just a normal one of checking my vitals, measuring my belly, and listening to the heart beat. Everything looks good and is going great. I then had to wait in the waiting room for about a half an hour to get my blood draw. The drink gave me a bad after taste in my mouth and whenever I burped it tasted like a dirt and metallic flavor. It was finally time for my blood draw which wasn’t too bad but she did have to fish around a bit for my vein which it not the most comfortable thing to deal with. I am glad that it over with and most of the day I had a pretty upset stomach and was pretty nauseous but it got better as the day went on. I found out a couple days later that my results were normal and that I don’t have gestational diabetes which is great news.

July 12

Today was a special ultrasound that I had to go to the hospital to get done. They suggest it for all women that have done IVF to get pregnant and it is a fetal echocardiogram. It is an ultrasound that focuses on the heart. It was a pretty quick ultrasound but the really cool thing was that some of the pictures were in 3D so I got to see little baby girl in 3D. Technology truly amazes me. It was so sweet to see her little face. Then the ultrasound tech focuses on the heart and looked at the different chambers and just took pictures and videos of specific things relating to the heart. I even got to hear the blood flow from the umbilical cord to the baby and the blood flow in a few different blood vessels. It was very interesting and I loved it. Then I talked to the doctor afterwards and he said that everything looked as it should which is great news and I won’t have to have anymore specialized ultrasounds from now on unless something comes up in my normal OBGYN appointments.

July 24

I had a normal routine check today with my OBGYN and I am a little over 26 weeks along. It is crazy to think that I am already almost into the third trimester. Everything looks normal and is going great. My weight looks good and I am gaining as I should and my blood pressure is still nice and low. The baby’s heart beat is still really strong and is in the 140s. I love hearing the heart beat. My last blood draw showed that I am not anemic anymore so I get to stop taking iron for now. I like check ups like this where is it just chill and I will continue to have these check ups every two weeks until the last month.

July 27

It is amazing to think that today marks three months until my due date. The first trimester seemed to last forever but now it seems to be going by really fast. I have been feeling pretty good. I am starting to have quite a bit of back pain especially at night. I also had a day of heart burn this past week which was weird because with Paige I never really got heart burn. Hopefully it was just that one day and it won’t come back very often. Sometimes my digestion is still not very good. It depends on the day so I am trying to continue to eat lots of fruit and drink more water. I need to try and drink more water though since it has been pretty hot. I have been getting headaches pretty regularly for the past month or so which is annoying but if I stay on top of them then they don’t last very long. I still love feeling this little girl squirm and wiggle around. She is very active and I love it. I love it when Paige feels the baby and she gets so excited about it. I love watching my belly and being able to see the kicks and movements. Paige loves to say goodnight to the baby every night and always ends with “don’t let the tummy bugs bite.” She is so excited to have a little sister and will be one amazing big sister.

Bellevue

 On Tuesday we went on a day adventure with Margaret and Anna and her kids. It was such a fun-filled day. We drove up to Bellevue and first stopped at the Seattle Temple and walked around.

On one side of the temple there is a pretty steep hill and the kids really liked rolling down the hill and it didn't matter to them that the grass was all wet.

 It was a beautiful, sunny day and the temple grounds are always so gorgeous and we enjoyed walking around and taking lots of pictures.

 Oh how I love this little girl! She is my constant companion and does everything with me. I was thinking about her going to kindergarten and that there won't be as many of these day adventures since she will be in school and it made me sad to think about. I love my little companion and always having her with me.

 We then walked through a path that led to this huge park. It is a really awesome park with lots of green space and a really fun playground. We had a picnic for lunch and then the kids spent some time on the playground.

 She is just too cute!

 Then we drove to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. I loved it here! It was so beautiful and I could have spent much longer here. It is pretty big and we didn't get to see it all. I would love to go back with Nate sometime when it is not quite as hot.

 She loved having this map and leading the way.

 On the map there were some fun things for kids to find and this was one of them- a frog statue that you can put money in that helps with the gardens.

 I told Paige to pose by this and this is the face I got. She is such a silly girl.

 Another thing to find on her map- the hobbit door. She pretended to knock and I could see the concern on her face that if she really did knock that someone would answer it. :)

 We then ended our fun adventure at Triple X for root beer floats. Paige and I shared one and it was really good. Thanks Nona for suggesting the adventure and taking us along!

 Then yesterday we went back up to Bellevue with Anna and her kids to go to a new playground/splash pad. We got Subway on the way and had lunch at the park and the kids enjoyed a couple hours of playing. It was a really fun park and I am glad there was the splash area because it was a pretty hot day.

 Paige spent most of her time following Eliza around and being her "babysitter". It was cute to watch and Paige absolutely loves Eliza. Paige will be one amazing big sister.

 There was this waterfall that Paige went through a couple of times. She was very tentative at first and it took her awhile to go through since there was lots of kids but once she went through she had a big grin on her face and was so proud of herself. 

It was another fun day and thanks Anna for the invite and taking us along with you! We have loved all these adventures for the week and spending our summer days outside.