OMSI, I'm huge, and a trip to Washington

We went to Washington and camped near the coast last weekend. We packed up all our gear and the dogs, started driving, and let the road take us (we had no idea where we would end up). Although we had lots of fun, we both had to admit that we need a destination other than the coast for future trips just to mix things up a bit. I think we've seen every beach from Northern California to Washington.


Taken out of the car window, but too pretty to resist.

Soon I will be too big to do this!

Have you ever seen clouds like this?

Our campsite was actually Lewis and Clark's final destination. There was a sidewalk engraved with the distances they traveled and recorded from several different locations. That's not a good explanation, but it's the best I can think of right now. Every few feet there was another marker. It was really interesting. JP loved learning about it.



You can't even imagine how many self-timer set ups it took to get the timing just right for this picture. We are dorks!

Be sure to tell JP how cool he looks in these pictures because he thought he was in Heaven.



We found a street named after JP!

We went to the Science Museum in Portland and especially enjoyed the prenatal exhibit. If you went to Body Works than you probably got to see it too. There was a fetus for each week of development. This one is 23 weeks old and so was our munchkin at the time. It was so amazing to see all the tiny features our little foot has (she's the length of a foot-long Chicago hot dog). I also got to feel what a baby's kick feels like in her mommy's tummy-not that exciting compared to little foot REALLY kicking me. There was also a huge exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci and the Mona Lisa. We learned a lot. We then went in a navy submarine and saw Portland from a spy hole under the water. We got to the museum late and just found out we need to go back to see the planetarium and the GE turbine power plant.

I went to the doctor this week and found out I'm "HUGE". Caps locks are necessary in this case because that's how she broke the news to me. Her words, not mine. "WHOA! YOU ARE HUGE!!! ARE YOU REALLY JUST 23 WEEKS ALONG? I'M NOT SURE THIS IS RIGHT (as she measured me again). I need you to come back next week to make sure everything is okay. Please don't go home and start freaking out or bawling." Thank you for including that last sentence. It made everything better. I tried to defend myself by saying that I have a really long torso before I realized I wasn't helping my case and a long torso would only make me smaller. Of course I came home and 'googled' reasons for measuring large, none of which are good unless I just have a really big baby or my due date is off (which it's not). I then got on a chat forum and found lots of real women who measured large and just had big 'strong' babies or evened out a little later in pregancy. Is this all TMI? JP is convinced she's just developing muscles more rapidly than most fetuses. Don't worry, I'm not freaking out or bawling, just wondering what's going on.

Spring Break and More

JP and I had a week off of work for Spring Break, so of course we headed straight to Utah. We managed to fit in ALMOST everything on our list while we were there. Our camera decided when it would work so the pictures are pretty random. We finally got a new one today!

Skiing with the girls. We lucked out and got to ski three days in a row! Lots of fresh powder. I think my legs are still sore!

A little back country shot for ya.



Che just wants to give you a kiss.

This big guy had a birthday and turned 8. I am so sad we will miss his baptism. He is such a cutie and is up for any adventure. He's a perfect sidekick for any outing. We got to see a little bit of his soccer game and he's a maniac! He scored about 4 goals while we were watching!!

Indie cannot take a picture without 'peacing' the camera. She is a wild child and the funniest person I know (she got it from her mama). She followed me everywhere and never stopped talking. I loved it. She is pretty excited we are having a 'dirl'. She told me I could name the baby Indie.

Ha ha, dad! Now you know how it feels... You can never escape the camera!

I felt like I was on my bike all day on Saturday. It was the only day that wasn't freezing so I took a ride up the canyon with the fam and then went biking with Des and Shelby. I got worked, but had lots of fun.

Not the greatest picture of Libs, but the only one I got. She is the cutest little performer and so sweet to her brother and sister (most of the time).

Boys will be boys much to Hollie's dismay.

Thank you for reminding me how white I am, Kes!

Little princesses.

Sweet Rylee turned 5! She is all girl. I had so much fun at Trafalga with her, Rylee, and Kes. She always surprises me with her funny little stories. Aubrey is such a good big sister and I love seeing them play together. I already miss these kiddos.

Tristan turned five too and is all boy! He loves tickling people, pretend weapons and pretend fights, but he's really tender underneath it all.

JP with cute little Havey Baby - still adjusting to the idea of a girl. She's the perfect candidate to help him adjust with all of her smiles and giggles.

Nash... little buddy. I miss hearing you yell Ber Ber and following me around everytime I left a room. You've got some killer facial expressions too.

Peacin' it again with her new haircut. Who will her next victim be?

Chase and I got to go skiing together. He's a little ripper and I think he will convert to skis next year.

The ride home was a little crazy. We encountered a blizzard and had really strong headwinds the entire way. The bikes and skis on top of our car didn't help our gas mileage too much. After almost 14 hours of driving Bode started whining. JP was listening to his headphones so I poked him and told him we needed to pull over for Bode to go to the bathroom. JP didn't seem too concerned and kept driving. A few minutes later the whining continued, so once again I tapped him and told him to pull over. We were driving through Portland and there wasn't a great place to stop nearby so JP kept driving and listening to his headphones. After a couple more times of this I heard a disgusting squirt come from the back of the car and almost puked. My heightened sense of smell only made matters worse. Bode didn't want to sit in his own poop so he crawled up in the front seat making it impossible for JP to see the road clearly. We couldn't get him to sit in the backseat no matter how hard we pushed. In the meantime, I was gagging and laughing uncontrollably. I had tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard and JP was right there with me. We FINALLY pulled over and took care of business. Luckily we had a sheet on the seat and were able to pick it up and throw it away, poop and all. What a way to end the trip!
Back in Oregon...
Pretty shot of the coast.

Can you see me in the bushes? We found out the hard way that this is NOT a trail to the beach. Climbing back up wasn't so fun.

Do you see this look of pure joy on my face? I have had a goal of finding a whole sand dollar on the beach since we moved to Oregon. JP told me it could not be done...

Not one, but FIVE whole sand dollars. I probably should've left some for the other sand dollar dreamers out there, if there are any.

23 weeks prego. One of my kindergarten students walked up to me, grabbed my belly and said, "What is this!?" Then she kind of shook it and repeated, "WHAT IS THIS?!" It was pretty funny.

My belly looks gigantic in this pic, but JP is happy it looks big so he can show our baby that she was riding a motorcycle 'in the womb' (I promise we are very careful and she likes it)!

Tough guy thinking about his old trail '90 crew.



Singin' in the rain. I ordered these tights online and had no idea they would be so bright, but I found the perfect occassion to wear them on St. Patty's Day, and they just happened to match my cute umbrella from my big sis perfectly.

One rainy afternoon we decided to go to the Evergreen Space Museum which happens to be in our home town of Mcminnville. JP of course loved it and I thought it was interesting. I kind of thought we were having a boy at this time and had big plans of decorating the room with airplanes (pretty cheesy I know, but I found some really cool ones at Tai Pan and I can't forget about them), so I took lots of pictures.

This is the inside of the Spruce Goose, the plane Howard Hughes designed and built. It was cool to see, but a BIG waste of millions of dollars. It wasn't finished in time for the war and has only flown once, ever.

Keep dreaming, baby.

I liked the colorful planes.

Here we have the 8th member of Mercury 7. He fits right in, doesn't he?