My weight gain has slowed down, and now I'm up about 27 lbs. BugBat's heart rate was 161 as of our appointment yesterday, and my bp is 112/61 or something like that. Anyway, all is well, except for some growing discomfort around my rib cage (stretching ligaments?) and more heartburn - hopefully that means she'll have hair!
It has been awhile since my last post since we went on a 12 day 'babymoon,' followed by a full 10 days of recovery after returning home before feeling motivated enough to catch up with everything.
Before we left on our trip, however, the first weekend of June we went to watch my brother, Jonathan, participate in a little something called the Warrior Dash. I think the pics speak for themselves:
The following week, Wombat and I left for Seattle on June 9th, the day before my birthday. We were lucky enough to stay with our good friends, Cat and DeLaunde, who recently purchased their first house in Renton. Cat recently scored a new job, so she was tired after a long second week, but we still all stayed up until 2 am talking and playing with their new kitten, Oscar! He was so cute! Their house was really nice and they got a great deal on it, being a short-sale. I can't wait to visit again in a year and see all their completed projects. I'm really kicking myself for not taking any pictures while we were there, but it was late at night, and I wasn't thinking clearly after 12 hours of travel. Oh well, next time.
The following day, Friday, June 10th, was my 31st birthday, so we had to celebrate by visiting our favorite Seattle places. First, we went to the Space Needle for lunch, since I got mine for free. It never disappoints, especially the crab mac n' cheese. Next, we hit Fremont for some shopping and ice cream, and Pike's Place Market, where we found some adorable organic baby clothes for the BugBat. We had to hit Green Lake park before we left, where we were engaged more than 2 years ago, and the U district, where Wombat picked up some Thai Tom to go. On our way out, we were able to meet with Cat and DeLaunde again, after Cat got off work, and had some drinks and appetizers in a cute little pub outside the city.
We had to end our whirlwind tour of Seattle in less than a day in order to make it to Laurel's graduation the following day in Cheney, WA, which was about a 3.5 hour drive away. We met up with the family the following morning and after an hour-long rain, the ceremony began just as the storm flew over. Laurel graduated in a rather chaotic fashion, but we were finally able to pick her out of the crowd near the end, huzzah!
Driving from Cheney to Vancouver (about 6 hours, normally) was another adventure. Everything went well for the first 3 hours, when we followed the in-laws to a Red Robin near the half-way point and stopped for a celebratory lunch. After lunch, however, we parted ways and when we were an hour along, we stopped to switch drivers and quickly realized that our rear passenger tire was leaking air like a sieve. It was flat within 2 minutes of pulling over, and after a quick smart-phone search of surrounding tire places, we realized that the nearest open store (at 6 pm on a Saturday) was an hour away, in the other direction! Boo! We called Wombat's family to let them know we'd be home late, and found that they had driven the wrong direction and were nearly to Seattle haha. Anyway, after Wombat put on the spare, we were forced to drive back to a Walmart (this is ironically funny because he hates Wally World with a passion) where we had to buy a $160 tire for our rental car, not a fun unexpected expense so early into our trip :( We finally arrived in Vancouver 9 hours after leaving Cheney, literally 2 minutes after the in-laws arrived home from their unplanned detour as well. I was beyond exhausted and went directly to bed, thank goodness!
We spent all day Sunday with the family, watched the last bball game of the season (yay!) and played some Apples to Apples. Of course I was still forgetting to take pictures at this point, but the weather was nice and the guys played some bball at the school while MIL and I took a walk.
The following day, we slept in as the parents went to work, and then headed out to see some friends for the few days we'd be in town. We ended up staying out late though, since we kept running into more friends, and we got in a little trouble for not coming home in time to hang out with the family after work. Unfortunately, they worked again the next day, and the only time we could see my cousin Lydia and Joe were that evening after THEY got off work, so it did not go well the following night either, since it was our last in town. However, it was great to see L&J, and they are very happy and doing well! They took us to a really cool restaurant in Portland and we couldn't stop talking about the family babies, weddings, and our respective footballs teams in the trouble they've both had lately haha.
Since we were in trouble for staying out late, we did not leave as early as planned the next morning and stayed late instead to try to smooth things over with the family. I think we accomplished what we could, and hit the road around noon, heading toward the Redwoods. Finally, some pictures!
The birds are proportionately bigger there too!
Driving down the 101, we also happened across these beauties:
After a fun afternoon drive through such an amazing national park, we wanted to take it easy, so we stopped at a cheaper hotel outside San Fran for the night. The next morning we were well-rested and ready to go, so we headed into the city for a wonderful lunch of clam chowder in a bread bowl on Pier 39, yum!
We were joined once again by some sea lion friends, with babies this time!
We also met Jonathan Livingston and his clearly illegal friend:
Since we already decided not to try to make it to San Diego that evening, we spend a little more time sightseeing and hiked up Lombard Street:
We ended up making it all the way to LA that night, and found a relatively cheap AND nice motel in near the stadium with this gem of a sign:
Ha! Despite appearances, this motel was awesome and I actually had a great night's sleep, and we didn't get up until nearly 10 am the following morning. Neither of us was particularly impressed with the city itself, and after walking Rodeo Drive, seeing a $500k car, and driving through Beverly Hills for a minute, we decided to be on our way to visit our friends Marissa and Ben in SD. Traffic on I-5 was horrible, as per usual, and we finally arrived around 6, just as Marissa arrived home from work, yay!
We played a little Mario Party that night and went to bed early, since everyone had a long week, but the next morning we headed to the beach first thing! We went to an amazing burger joint and ate along the boardwalk:
Of course we had to go back and play more games later, which ended up with this interesting scene:
This may or may not have been after everyone gorged themselves on a TON of sushi (myself excluded, save for the cooked ones). We had so much fun and Marissa and Ben's new apartment is much nicer (and bigger) than their old one, so it was good to see them!
We ended our crazy trip with a drive to Vegas, where we returned the rental car and stayed on the north strip for two nights. We lucked out because our trip coincided with Wombat's good friends, Jane and Loren, so we had a couple meals with them, including brunch at Denny's haha - apparently a staple restaurant along the west coast. Wombat won a total of $11 overall, and I finally got to see my Cirque Du Soleil show, Zoomanity, which was amazing and very Vegas at the same time. Wombat seemed to really enjoy it too. It was a great trip overall, despite a few pitfalls and the long drives. I'm glad we were able to do it before BugBat arrives; we spent some quality couple-time together, and were able to satisfy our traveling itch for awhile. By the time we finally touched down in Ohio again, even Wombat said it felt good to be home :)
Speaking of home, the day we flew home, Tuesday, June 21st, we also received the news that my cousin Emily had her second daughter, Lila Anne! Today also happens to be the birthday of cousin Sara's second daughter, Olivia Lynn! Two healthy baby girls down, one to go! Congrats, cousins, they are both beautiful!
Emmy and Lila:
Olivia Lynn:
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