Baby Shower #2!

My sweet coworkers were wonderful enough to throw me a baby shower here in South Dakota a few weeks ago. We all had a great time, and although I'm really looking forward to being a stay-at-home mom, I'm going to miss them!

Eva, JoEllen, Rachel, me, Ginger, and Becky/Ethan:

Me and Cori:

Danielle, my dear, fellow military wife/former neighbor:

Me and my first child, who wanted to dress up for the shower too ; )

My wonderful friends from church made me some very cute/creative gifts. They were even kind enough to organize my loot for me afterwards!

Tanya, Juli, Heather, and Emily:

Thank you so much to everyone who was able to make it to my shower and for all of the great gifts. I had a really great time! Just for kicks, here I am as of today, at 33 weeks! He's almost done, and I can't wait to meet this crazy, little wiggler!

The Devil's Bathtub

Adam and I decided a few weeks ago to take advantage of the nice weather before it withered away (which it did...a few days later). We headed up to Spearfish Canyon, about an hour from Rapid City, to do a hike that we had heard was really beautiful. Driving through Spearfish Canyon to see the fall leaves is gorgeous in itself, but I'm always up for a fun hike. The trail follows a creek that leads up to a pool of water known as the Devil's Bathtub.

We had to cross the creek numerous times to follow the trail. It was so fun to watch Heidi jump through the water and find her own paths to cross it.
I was impressed with myself for crossing the log. I was like "Look at me! I'm 27 weeks pregnant, and I can still balance! Woot woot!" We even came across a pregnant tree! Heidi obviously thought it was a danger to us all and refused to walk by it. She chose to bark at it from a distance instead.

Since the creek flowed downhill, the trail was full of gorgeous little waterfalls.

Adam took some time out to search for gold in them thar hills:

Here is a picture of the actual Devil's Bathtub. (I keep typing bathrub instead of bathtub...I think I'm in need of a bubble bath/massage...hmm).

Another family that was at the "tub" told us that kids used to slide down the little nature waterslide into the bathtub back in the day. The forest rangers had to place a large rock at the bottom of the slide to keep it from happening...which is too bad, because I was planning on going head first on my belly... :

It was a really fun hike that we would both recommend to anyone in the area. The creek crossings are probably too dangerous for young kids, but you're welcome to try it out! We ended the hike with a sopping wet and happy dog:

Goodbye beautiful fall weather! You were fun for the month that you lasted!

30 Weeks!

I've finally reached the 30 week mark, so I thought I'd post another bump pic-cha!
Also, Adam and I spent Columbus Day - I MEAN Native American Day (as it's known in South Dakota) - setting up the baby's crib! Hooray!!! There's still quite of bit of work to do on the nursery, but it's exciting to see things coming together!

West Virginia Baby Shower!

Adam, Heidi, and I had an awesome time on our trip from South Dakota to West Virginia for my baby shower! We stopped halfway in Illinois to stay with Adam's family over Labor Day. Here is a picture of Adam and his dad after playing tennis:

They both dribbled water down the fronts of their shirts at the same time when they went to drink. It was pretty funny! It was nice to get to visit with them on the way to WV and again on the way back.

After driving for 25 hours, we finally made it to WV (where I grew up and where my family lives)! The whole trip was so much fun. We stayed the first few nights at my mom's place and the last few nights at my dad's. I was able to spend a lot of time with my BFF Sara and family too. It was great to see my family for the first time in over a year and for the last time before the baby comes!

Sara, Adam, Heidi, and I spent a lot of time at a few of the beautiful WV parks. Here I am with my 2 pooches at Ritter Park in downtown Huntington:

Adam, Sara, my brother Adam, and I went frisbee golfing/hiking at another park later on:

We also had to take advantage of the local food places that I miss (i.e. Jolly Pirate Donuts mmm...) Sara couldn't believe that I had never been to Tudor's Biscuit World, so we stopped there for breakfast one morning. Can you believe they had a biscuit called the "Mary B.?" Of course, I had to order it... I must say, it was pretty delicious:

My baby shower was held on the day before I left. My wonderful mom organized the whole thing. My BFF Sara did a beautiful job with the jungle-themed decorations, and my sister Sarah came up with some fun baby shower games. Here is a picture of me, my mom, and sister Sarah:

A few of the beautiful decorations courtesy of Miss Sara Washington:

Adam even got in on the baby shower fun! haha.

Our good friends Matt and Brooke drove down from Maryland for my baby shower. Brooke is also having a boy and is due a week after me! Here we are sticking out our bumps:

Everyone was so generous with their gifts. Adam's mom put together a long clothesline full of clothes, blankets, and burp cloths. It was really cute:

It meant so much to me to have a lot of my closest friends at the shower. Three of them even drove in from out of state. The whole experience really made me feel loved, and it was just what I needed! Here is a picture of me with some of my best friends: Joelle, Sara, Jenna, and Brooke:

After the shower, Adam and Matt decided they could carry all of our presents out to the car in one trip. They were surprisingly successful, as the presents took up A LOT of space in our car!

We were gone for 1 week, but it was way too short for me! I was so sad to leave. I even cried in the car as we pulled away. I forget sometimes how much my family and friends mean to me, and I can't wait to bring the baby out to see them soon!

Mommy/Son Date Night!

Last week the Central States Fair was going on, and the bank that I work for had two premier seating passes for anyone to use! I snatched those babies up for 3 nights of fair fun. Adam and I went to the Supercross and Demolition Derby on 2 separate nights before he left on TDY for San Antonio. The final night I had tickets for was the Blake Shelton concert (I LOVE country). The premier ticket seating was pretty nice/close, and Blake put on a great concert.

I used one ticket and decided that my son would use the other one since Adam was out of town. We both enjoyed a delicious funnel cake with powdered sugar.

The fair was all good fun until I went home after the concert only to have food poisoning for 4 hours that night. I guess that funnel cake wasn't so good after all....eew.

Anyway, here is my "official" 24 week bump picture. Enjoy!

Glacier National Park

No matter where we live, we always try to tour the surrounding areas and visit the national parks. A few weeks ago, Adam and I decided to go camping at Glacier National Park (most likely our last time camping alone for at least the next 18 years!). Glacier NP is in far northwest Montana, about 13 hours away from us. Being the pregnant lady that I am, I brought a roll of TP for the car ride, knowing that driving through MT is like driving through the middle of nowhere for hours....because you are driving through the middle of nowhere for hours. Needless to say, there were a few times I had to create my own little stall between the car doors...lol.

We stayed at the Air Force Base in Great Falls, MT Friday on the way up to the park so we wouldn't be driving so much in one day. We made it to the park Saturday morning, and as we were approaching the main entrance, a black bear ran across the road! It was pretty cool. I was glad it wasn't a grizzly...those guys freak me out! We set up our little campsite, which I reserved online by finding the closest available site to the bathroom (as seen in the background :) ). The weather was pretty rainy off and on, but that didn't stop us!

After we set up camp, we went searching for firewood. Adam, the Eagle Scout that he is, found us some wild raspberries that were pretty delicious. (The baby thought they were pretty good too ; ) ).

That evening, we enjoyed some yummy foil dinners on the campfire along with roasted marshmallows. We slept pretty well that night on our air mattress. I brought about 10 blankets that we piled on top to keep us warm. I still ended up wearing 3 shirts, a sweatshirt/hoodie, two pairs of socks, and two pairs of pants to bed. I learned after our camping trip to Yellowstone a few years ago that it gets COLD at night - even in August! Heidi snuggled up in between us, and we all slept pretty well.


The next day we toured the park along the most popular road, called the "Going-to-the-Sun Road." I think Adam said the road took us up 3,000 feet. We were both kind of glad that we were so high up in the clouds that we couldn't really see just how high we were.

There were a lot of spots along the road to pull over and see various sights.

The picture of the gulch below was one of my favorite spots along the road. I thought it was so gorgeous! We also decided to capture an illustration of Heidi's rebellious behavior.

The picture of the glacier below is the one that is best seen from the road. The others can be reached by hiking up to them - unfortunately, we didn't have the time or the energy. Adam was making fun of me because I pictured a glacier in my head as looking more like an iceberg floating in the water. I thought we were going to get to touch one and slide down it or something...drrr.

Here is a picture of Lake McDonald. You can see how clear and beautiful the water was. In the picture at the very beginning of this post, you can see how blue the water was too. Adam read that the sediments from the glaciers give the water its blue-ish tint.

This picture was taken along the drive, and I love how it shows just how clear the water was there. Even the rocks in the lakes were red, yellow, and blue colored. Every time I saw the water I just wanted to roll around in it and slurp it up. (Of course, we all know that I think everything looks delicious these days).

Here is a picture of St. Mary Lake near the end of the road:

We headed home after driving the main road. We both couldn't believe how gorgeous everything was there. Our trip was short and full of driving, but it was all worth it!

It's a...

BOY!!!

Adam and I are the soon-to-be proud parents of a finger-sucking, adorable baby boy!!! We are so happy and excited!

Here we are at the OBGYN waiting for my Dr. to come in and perform the ultrasound:

I was excited...



Adam was a little nervous...

(he said he couldn't handle a girl because the boys would be all over her... lol). Here are some ultrasound pictures. He was sucking on his fingers for a good part of the exam (not Adam, the baby...) It was SO cute! I have even more pictures, but I'll just post a few.


This picture is kind of blurry, but I had to take an after shot with Adam holding the ultrasound picture of the baby's wee wee. HA!

Congrats to the 64% of you that voted 'boy' on my little poll! You were right!