Ah, sunshine and warmth!

It's too bad we're now back in Kodiak...

Well, not too bad, so much, but it's probably fair to say that we're both missing that warm dose of Vitamin D we got over the past week or so. Back from where, you ask? From Florida and the Western Caribbean - a couple days at sea and port calls in Grand Cayman and Cozumel to be exact. I'm convinced cruise ships are the greatest invention ever - all the good parts about being underway without any of the work!

Fearing an impending volcanic explosion, and bad Kodiak weather, we took advantage of our first class tickets and changed our reservations at the last minute to head out a day early. This gave us a day of shopping in Seattle, and a guarantee of actually making it down to Florida on time. That was fun, but that wasn't the real reason for the trip.

The real trip started in St. Petersburg, FL, where we spent a couple nights with Ryan and Gina before heading out on the cruise itself. It was awesome to get to see them - we hadn't seen Ryan since about this time last year, though we'd at least gotten to see Gina last fall when we were at Disney. Call me sappy, but I missed my brother! From St. Pete, we were dropped off at the cruise ship terminal in Tampa, where we set out on the Carnival Inspiration for a 5-day cruise. The weather was perfect, I didn't puke (Woo-hoo! This was a major worry since I couldn't take seasick meds due to my "condition."), and we enjoyed time with a good chunk of Jason's family. We cruised with his Mom, Jim, Peggers (his grandmother), Margie (aunt) and cousins Meadow and Megan. The cruise was the perfect format for a family get-together because we had the chance to do some of our own stuff, but enjoyed plenty of time together, especially our dinners! I think our table had the most fun in the dining room!!! After the cruise, we got another couple days with Ryan and Gina, with Ryan winning the brother of the year award for carting me around to the best craft store ever and all the maternity places he could think of. What a guy!!

I'm going to take the cheap way out on the pictures for this one, because I couldn't decide which ones I wanted to post. We didn't take a ton on the trip, but came up with some decent ones anyway. So here's a slide show for ya...
Kodak slideshow link that I hope works!
(My apologies for the cut and paste method. I'm having technical difficulties with my normal Slide show method of sharing things. This is the only other thing I could think of.)

The other exciting thing that happened over the vacation was that I sort of popped during the course of the week. From trying on clothes in Seattle to doing the same thing in St. Pete a week later, I saw a major difference in how they fit. Let's just say I didn't need the little pillow in the dressing room at Motherhood the second time around!

So here's the latest installment of...

BUMP WATCH 2009

These were just taken this morning at 19 weeks and 6 days. I swear I look a lot bigger when I look down at myself, but I know I'm actually looking pregnant these days because my seamstress commented on it when I picked up some stuff from her today. Besides looking pregnant, I also have the pleasure of feeling pregnant... specifically feeling Green bounce around in there. Unfortunately, it's too early for Jason to feel anything on the outside, but a 5-hour flight from Seattle to Orlando taught me that I can pat my belly and get a response. Too funny!

Finally, in baby news, the big ultrasound is Wednesday - we'll finally know whether Green's middle name will be Pink or Blue for now! So, hopefully Green will cooperate and show the parts! I'm sure we'll have more pictures to share on Wednesday or shortly thereafter!

That's all from here. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Has it been that long?

I honestly didn't realize until I logged in tonight that it's been so long since I last posted anything. I'm going to blame Jason on this one since he said he'd update with his exciting deployment out to St. Paul. So, if he'd done that when he got home, about a week and a half ago, I'd only really be another week and a half behind. Oh well...

I have to make this quick since it's getting late and I've been running around all night trying to get my stuff together to get out of here tomorrow. We're definitely looking forward to our trip, and bumped the start up a day to try to stay ahead of the pesky volcano that's been threatening eruption for a couple weeks now. Mt. Redoubt is up on the mainland, not too far away from Anchorage, and could seriously hamper air travel if it actually blows. So we've been watching it diligently for the past week+ just hoping it wouldn't come between us and vacation. If we can get as far as Seattle tomorrow, we're good to go!

I don't really have much to say this week.... we've just been chugging along with work, school for Jason (he started another class about 3 weeks ago), class for me (I'm taking EFM through church), walks for Fred, and enjoying the sunshine when we can. We did have a minor glitch a couple weeks ago when a cyst on Fred's tail decided to get infected and scare the crap out of me (while Jason was gone, of course). A few hundred dollars later, and the cyst is gone, the stitches are out, and you'd never know there was anything wrong with him!

Speaking of enjoying the sunshine, we got out for a great hike at Ft. Abercrombie yesterday afternoon. It was only about 20-ish degrees, but the sun felt great and we got the chance to walk across Lake Gertrude, following the cross-country skiers who showed us the lake was, in fact, frozen under all the snow. Even though I hauled my camera around, there wasn't much to take pictures of, except, of course, my favorite subject: Fred.

I also let Jason take a picture of me... I had to show off one of my best Christmas presents! (A hint: it's on my head....)

I did manage to get a few neat shots of the trail, too. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that they're paying us to live here. Kodiak in the summer, when everything is lush and green, is probably the best way to see Kodiak. But, Kodiak in the winter, on a sunny day with fresh, crisp, white snow, is a very close second.

And, of course, beyond the outdoor scenery, is the indoor scenery that probably no one but my mom wants to see... so.....

BUMP WATCH 2009

This was taken last Friday, at 17 weeks, 3 days. I'll hit 18 weeks tomorrow!! I have to say that, looking at this picture sort of surprised me! I had no idea that I was actually looking that pregnant. Huh. Go figure... must be a kid in there or something!

That's the news from here! Hope everyone's doing well!
Becca