Movement

19 weeks today, and where to start...

I guess the most exciting thing is that in the last week I've finally started feeling some movement!

A few days ago I collapsed in bed (laying on my tummy) after Karl finally woke up and took over for me for a few minutes, and I felt some little flutters! They were low down on my right side, and when they would stop I kept wondering if I had imagined it, or if it was just some bubbles or something, but then they would start again and it felt a whole lot like baby! Later that night I was just sitting in the bedroom talking to Karl and I got a pretty noticeable little thump, again, pretty low. Then yesterday, we were sitting in the car, about to get out and go into the house, when I got I good little kick (or punch) right where my seat belt was pushing on my tummy! I've been feeling more and more little movements ever since, but it's all still very random and not very noticeable for the most part.

I've decided having an anterior placenta stinks... I was so sure that this time around I'd catch a break and I was all prepared to feel my baby earlier, but no. It's also supposedly more common to have a posterior placenta, but I'm just super lucky I guess. The front of my uterus is just the cool place to implant, apparently ;)

In other news, we got our test results back from our integrated screening, and this baby has less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of having down syndrome, trisomy 18, or spina bifida. Yay! And since baby was measuring well with no soft markers for down syndrome, and no signs of cleft lip or any other defects, it looks like baby is healthy! This isn't a guarantee that there isn't anything wrong, but it is nice to have some reassurance. We still have one ultrasound to go to check things out next week, so hopefully everything is still fine and dandy in there (and hopefully our little guy is still a boy, lol)!

Also, I've gained a couple pounds! I'm now up to 3 lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight, and I think I'm happy about that... But now I get to freak out over the whole gaining thing, lol. I'm just never happy.

Anyway, things are starting to pick up a little, and I have started to bond a little bit more, so I'm hoping that the next few weeks will be even better :)

Ultrasound #2, and it's a...

Demon-alien-skeletor!!!

 Just kidding... I love my baby, but this picture is pretty creepy looking. I thought I'd share for the sake of Halloween being right around the corner ;) Also, the doctor looked at these face pictures and kept telling us what a cute baby we have on the way... Between that and her comments about me being thin, kinda not sure about her judgement, lol.

ANYWAY, point is, we got to go to our ultrasound today, YAY! Karl and Evie got to go this time too, which was a fun adventure. 

A cuter, though blurry, pic of our little-one :)

The ultrasound went really well. The tech was pretty rough on my tummy, and her pictures weren't great, but it wasn't too bad of an experience. Evie was very interested... for about two minutes, then she wanted to go back to playing with her baby game, haha.

Baby was once again pretty chill and kept turning away from the tech so she couldn't get a shot of the face, lol. I don't know if we've just caught the babe at nap time twice (I even drank a bunch of OJ right before to help wake bebe up!) but this kid seems much more calm than the Evie-Cakes!

I have an anterior placenta again, which means it's probably going to be longer before I really feel anything, and a longer wait before we can feel baby from the outside, which makes me a little sad, but we'll see how it goes. Baby is also currently head down facing my right side and there is a baby bum hanging out just below my belly button ;)

Everything is measuring perfectly and looks good! Still measuring 5 days ahead, which is exactly what we were measuring last time. No soft markers for down syndrome, no cleft lip from what they could see, heart is looking good so far, fluid was good and no signs of pre-term labor... So happy!!

Waving hello!

 Also, the tech DID ask us if we wanted to know the gender... and we said YES. I Tried looking while the tech was moving around looking at things, but I didn't really see anything, so I was kind of thinking it must be a girl... but the picture was pretty hard to see! The tech finally got through with all her measurements and she suddenly said, "well THAT'S not umbilical cord!" I wasn't quite sure what she was looking at at first, but apparently, THAT little extra appendage means we are having a BOY! Apparently my mommy-intuition was indeed correct, I don't know why I doubted ;)

Bum pic!!

I'm still super nervous that our boy is somehow going to end up being a girl at our next ultrasound... but both the doctor and the tech (who looked separately!) seemed pretty sure he's a boy in there!

I'm also a little nervous about the prospect of being a mommy to a boy, but we're excited! We just have to get though the issue of names (Karl and I have differing opinions here), circumcision, and somehow coming up with a bunch of boy stuff, since all we've got are very feminine items... But I'm sure it's going to be great! 

Time for a little blue in our princess castle ;)

10 1/2 Hours...

First off, happy 1st day of October! So excited for this month!!

Secondly, we have an ultrasound tomorrow (in almost exactly 10 1/2 hours)!!! I'm super excited to see baby, but I'm trying really hard not to get my hopes up about finding out whether we have another girly on the way or if we're getting a little bit more testosterone in our house!

They MIGHT not even look, and even if they do, the baby MIGHT no cooperate, and even if baby does, it MIGHT be inaccurate still at this point... So yeah... Trying to prepare myself for the worst, but it's not really working.

For most of this pregnancy I've been pretty convinced this kid was a boy. I don't particularly want a boy more than a girl or anything, but for some reason I just had it in my head that it was a boy. Every time I thought about baby I would just automatically use "him/he". The last couple weeks though, I've been starting to get unsure! I've had two separate people tell me (based on our last ultrasound/how I'm carrying) that it's a girl, so I've been trying to prepare myself to wrap my head around that outcome, and now I just don't know!

This is like the complete opposite of how it went with Evie. I had no feelings or intuition about her gender forEVER. People kept asking me what I thought and I felt so lame saying that I had no idea. Then, the week or so before the ultrasound, I started feeling "girl", still not superly firm in my mind, but I was getting a girly vibe.

Garg! I just don't know what to think this time around!

Luckily, neither Karl nor I have super strong feelings either way. A boy would be awesome, since we don't have one of those, it would be cool to try it out! It would be nice for Karl to have a boy to be more manly with too, but we've also identified some downsides... On the other hand, we know girls are awesome, we know how to deal with them, and we have all the stuff we need for one already, so that would be cool too. And it would be cute for Evie to have a sister.

Either way, we're happy. The thing I'm not happy about, is the waiting!! Let's see if I can get any sleep tonight!

16 Weeks and Feelin' Big ;)

This baby has officially made it's presence known to the world... Lol, definitely no hiding it now ;) Surprisingly, I'm still at my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm having a hard time gaining, though it certainly doesn't show, haha.

Also, while I'm here, I think I should mention a bit about cravings... This whole pregnancy I've only really wanted savory type things (well, during those brief periods when I've wanted anything at all), unlike Evie's pregnancy where what I wanted was all things SUGARY.

Right now what I'm going to call my cravings (but might be more like the only things I feel like eating), are J.J.B.L.T.s (from Jimmy John's) with cheese, onion, and oil & vinegar, and Starbursts (seriously, my favorite candy in the world right now).

Just thought I'd throw that out there, you know, in case anyone ever wants to make the the crazy pregnant lady happy... haha

Surreality, Pt. II

Getting close to 16 weeks and I'm still having a hard time really connecting with this pregnancy... I can't seem to keep myself excited about the whole thing, because most of the time I don't even feel pregnant. It's not that I am not intensely aware of my many pregnancy symptoms or that I don't look extremely pregnant (the belly has more than definitely "popped"!), but I just don't relate it all to the fact that I'm pregnant. 

I want this baby and I'm happy for this pregnancy, but for some reason it just hasn't clicked in my head. I've even seen baby moving around in there and I haven't gotten it yet. I have an ultrasound pic of our little-one in a frame in our living room, but when I look at it I seriously could be looking at someone else's ultrasound, I really don't have any feelings there yet. 

My brain also really can't grasp the idea that I'm going to be a mommy (again) in just a few months! This time next year I'm going to have a toddler AND a baby, and it just doesn't seem real! I think I may be in denial, haha.

I'm trying to remember how things went with Evie, but maybe I'm comparing a little too much. I know that by the time we had her ultrasound and found out she was a girl, I had a pretty good "bond" with her, but I forget that wasn't until 20 weeks and that was right around the time I finally started feeling her move. This time around I got to see baby so much earlier and haven't felt any movement so far. I'm thinking that's when it's really going to hit me. 

The other problem I think I'm having is that I just don't have the mental energy to spend on this pregnancy that I did with Evie's. I have to devote most of my brain power to the child who needs (sooooo much of) my active attention, plus there are so many "family issues" that are taking up my attention (well, stress), so I really don't have much to spare for daydreaming and bonding with the kid who doesn't remind me he/she is there every two seconds.

We've got two ultrasounds coming up in the next few weeks, so hopefully we'll get to know a little more about who this little person is, and I'm hoping to start feeling him/her soon!

I'm sure that in the next month or so reality will finally set in, to some extent, I just feel a little bit like a terrible mom in the mean time!

2nd Trimester

Today I celebrated finally reaching my second trimester by vomiting while Evie patted me on the back...

shouting: "Spank your bum!! Spank your bum!!"

*sigh*

Morning sickness is definitely a different experience with a toddler in tow ;)

Dancing in the Rain

We had a HUGE rainstorm today! Like, pouring rain, flood causing, non-stop thunder and lighting, micro-burst winds, and power-outages kind of a storm! 

Evie and I had been waiting for Karl to get home from work, when I thought I heard it raining outside. I thought it might be kind of fun to go play in the rain for a bit, so Evie and I went out to take a look at things. To my surprise, things were kind of crazy out there! I managed to get Evie to come in for a bit, but she kept insisting on going back to play outside. Luckily, things weren't too bad when we went out, and they didn't get quite as scary at our house as they did in other parts of the valley, but I was still super nervous even being on our sheltered little doorstep! 

We got drenched and I had to keep bringing Evie inside, but once things calmed down, we had a ton of fun dancing and playing in the rain!

 

I've decided that being a kid in a rainstorm is one of the best things to be ;)

Our Announcement

Our official Facebook announcement ;) Can't believe my little baby is going to be a big sister!!

In other totally cute news: Evie loves to look at pictures of herself from the hospital the day she was born--with the doctors and all the different people holding newborn Evie. We talk about how she got bigger and bigger in my tummy and then we went to the hospital and the doctor helped us get her out. It's so cute... She brings it up all the time and loves to talk about how our baby is growing bigger and bigger. She likes to say to my tummy: "Hi baby! I-uh pay wi you!" or in other words, "hi baby! I want to play with you!"

She loves this kid already and is so excited... I really wish she didn't have so long to wait to meet her baby, lol!

7 years! And other official business...

 

So, I don't know if anyone noticed, but I didn't do a wedding anniversary post this year. I usually do something cutesy, but our five year anniversary was about a month ago and I didn't get a post up.

I am ashamed.

In my defense, the Smith household has been a tad chaotic lately. Luckily, we have ANOTHER anniversary coming up this month, so I feel as if I have a second chance  ;)

SEVEN (yikes!!) years ago, at the end of September, Karl and I became an official couple. That number freaks me out just a tad; seven years seems like a VERY long time!!

For anyone who might not know, we met just before freshman orientation at BYU in 2006, and we started dating (after a lot of complications) about a month after. I fell in love with him pretty quickly, I must say. On September 23rd, we had our very first kiss, in the Morris center, while watching Reign of Fire, and we considered it officially official ;) It was about 3 months after we became a couple that I knew for a fact that he was the guy I was going to marry.

So, in honor of this anniversary, and as an apology to the wedding anniversary I missed, I thought I would share all the things that made me fall head over heels for Karl Smith. If you don't like sappy, you may want to pass on this, however, there is a surprise towards the end, so maybe just skip ahead ;)

All right, the reasons I fell in love with my dearest hubby (in no particular order):

• I'll admit it, he was just a cute kid! I really loved his eyes, they have definitely always been my favorite physical feature of his. His eyes are really just the perfect shade of blue; not too light, not too dark, just perfectly bright. And they have an all around a nice shape, in my humble opinion. Also, I have always loved his smile. I fell in love with that smile back when he still had braces even! He has such a happy smile, it just made me so happy every time I saw it, and it still does!!
• He is very witty, charming, and funny. One of the first reasons I liked him and considered dating him was that he was just so funny; he always made me laugh. He always has something witty to say in conversations, and it's always organic and perfectly timed... I'm actually superly jealous of his ability to be so conversationally relevant and entertaining. I am a complete disaster when it comes to making small talk. I'm pretty sure this is why he had so many girl friends back in the day, he's just so dang charming and funny!

• He is smart and kind of a nerd. One of his wooing tactics in the beginning of our relationship was to use physics pick-up lines, and he once even attempted to win me over by telling me he could calculate how fast my string-cheese (a staple of my freshman diet) fell from its shelf in the vending machine. And I've got to say, it worked ;) He also liked Star Wars (more than Star Trek, which was a plus in my book) and knew who I was talking about when I mentioned Henry David Thoreau. I've always had a special place in my heart for nerds, and a nerd who is smart and somehow still socially at ease is like a major catch, haha!

• He cares a lot about the people around him and is very sensitive to others' feelings and needs. This is something that is MAJORLY important to me. I'm also a pretty sensitive person, so I don't think I could stand to be with someone who didn't care about other people.

•  He's and introvert and he's quiet. I like that he doesn't like large crowds, or going places to hang out with a million friends all the time... because I don't like those things either! I don't think it would have worked so well if he were one of those people who loves to be around people all the time. Also, he doesn't yell, ever. I should actually say, he physically can't yell, but either way, he is a very mild person who doesn't lose his temper easily. I like that because I am an emotional hurricane... and sometimes one of us needs to be calm and quiet, haha.

• From pretty early on in our relationship I knew, by the way he acted, talked about his little sister, and his reaction to other kids we met, that he was going to be a terrific dad. Honestly, what I needed from the father of my children, was a man who could be fun, playful, and energetic, (and yet still responsible) because I am lacking in those areas. Karl has definitely lived up to my early visions of him as a father. He is honestly just a great daddy! Sometimes I wish I could be as cool a parent as he is, but I am really just thankful I have him to balance and complete our parenting partnership.

I could definitely go on and on about why I love him, but I don't want to bore you, and my brain isn't helping me out so much tonight, but I think you get the picture ;) I love my Karl so very much! Somehow I love him even more than when I first fell for him, and it's just getting better as we go along. I am so glad that he's stuck by me through my craziness and all the tough times we've run into. I feel as if we can do anything as long as we are together!

Happy Anniversary, Karl Andy Smithers!

And now, to get to the business part of this post...

Okay, so I know I said those were in no particular order, but I lied. That very last one I put there to be kind of a transition into my next topic... Is it working??




Fine, well, I guess I will just come out and say it:

After 7 years together and 5 years of marriage, I cannot think of a better announcement to make than that we will be welcoming our second child in March!

We found out on the 4th of July that our little family will be getting a bit bigger (happy Independence Day to us!). Our little clover is due to join us on St. Patrick's Day (3/17/14) and we are both overjoyed about it! Seriously, I've always prided myself on being a festive person, but do we know how to celebrate holidays at our house, or what??

Karl has actually been crazy excited about this from the very beginning (maybe even more than me), which I think is pretty dang cute. Although, after going through weeks of a teething, sick toddler AND an exhausted, morning sick wife, I think the initial excitement has waned just a smidge, haha.

I love how much he loves being a daddy and how much he loves silly toddler games and baby giggles. I'm so lucky to have such a great man in my life!

Our Clover Baby

(PS, if you want to know more about how the whole pregnancy thing has been going so far, please check out my other blog, HERE)

12 Weeks!

We've made it to 12 weeks! There is honestly something magical about this week in my pregnancies (the theory seems to be holding up so far any way), in the last few days I've been so much happier, had a bit more energy, and have been able to eat more. I feel like my attitude has done a complete 180! I will admit that in the last couple weeks I've had more than a few "I am the worst mother/wife in the world" and "How am I ever going to do two when I am failing miserably at handling my toddler??" meltdowns...

It's amazing what a little energy and a semi regular blood sugar level can do for a person!

Today I got an extra mood booster, I got to get a good look at baby for the first time! Didn't get super great pictures, but I love them anyway ;)

Hello!

I went in for my integrated screening to check for genetic problems this morning, which was scheduled for 8:45 am, and they didn't call me back until after 9:15! I was starting to go a little crazy just waiting and waiting in the hospital lobby listening to people talking about all the horrible health problems they had (maternal fetal medicine shares an office/waiting room with oncology!), but they did come get me eventually. I had to talk to a genetic counselor, and then I got to see baby!

They needed to get some very specific measurements, and baby wasn't being cooperative AT ALL. Always facing the wrong way and kept rolling in the wrong direction... Definitely my child ;) Seems to be a lot calmer than Evie was, but maybe it was just nap time, haha. Anyway, we finally got the measurements we needed (after the tech bounced the baby, made me roll back and forth, go to the bathroom, and walk around for 5 minutes), and the doctor came in to talk to me about them.

Apparently everything so far looks fine and dandy, but there is a chance that I may be a carrier for a genetic translocation (which would mean a high chance of trisomies and miscarriage... normally more of a random fluke, but not with a translocation :/ ), and since I can't afford $2000 to get a karyotype done, they want to check on baby again in about a month, and then again at the regular 20 week ultrasound. So we may be able to find out if we're having a boy or a girl on October 2nd, 4 weeks earlier than I thought! Doctor said I shouldn't be worried, since things looked good so far, so I'm pretty excited just to be able to see bebe again!

That whole adventure ended up taking me over two hours (with Evie and Karl going crazy at home, gah!), and I still had my regular 12 week appointment to go to! I ended up taking Evie with me to my appointment by myself, which was a little crazy, but she was also very cute. She sat next to me on the little table while the midwife listened for baby's heartbeat, and she was totally transfixed by the sound. She kept talking about hearing the baby the whole car ride home, and couldn't wait to tell daddy all about it! She also loved the toys in the office and the "alligator" (aka, the elevator, haha).

It's been a hectic day (and I actually still need to get bloodwork done once Karl gets back with the car), but I'm pretty satisfied with the results. Also, I'm finally ready to officially announce that I'm having a baby! I'm just waiting on a picture so we can do it in a cute manner ;)

Squishy Tummy

11 Weeks

All right, I feel like I've complained a lot in my posts so far (first trimester has been rough!) so I thought it was time for something cute. Annnd, by cute I don't mean my 11 week belly picture, but I need to get that out of the way too ;) I actually had intended to do a 10 week pic, for the sake of nice round numbers, but I'm kind of glad we did it this week since I feel like I have a bit more going on in the belly department this week. 

I asked Karl a few days ago, if he didn't know I was pregnant, would he think I was or would he just think I was fat? I probably shouldn't ask questions I don't want answers to, lol... He said if he didn't know, he'd think I was just a little chunky. *sigh* So not quite to the cute pregnant stage yet, still in the chubby stage. I know it's really early to be showing, but I'd much rather skip through the chubby and go right for baby belly ;) I guess I still have about a week and a half before I'm "going public", so waiting a little longer is ok. I just don't like feeling fat!!

Ok, NOW for the cute stuff:

Baby hugs!!

I really didn't have any specific plans for telling Evie about the baby, but it kind of just came out, lol. I also didn't think she'd accept the information as readily as she did (I mean, a baby... in mommy's tummy... weird), but she's super cute about it! There's a picture of me being huge and pregnant with her in our scrapbook that she loves to look at, so forever ago I told her that there was a baby in my tummy in that picture. She was totally fine with that, and so when we talked about there being a baby in my tummy now, she was very excited. 

She likes to run up to me randomly say "look, see, baby tummy!" and I lift up my shirt and she looks at and pokes my "squishy tummy". She likes to say, "Baby in there! Growing, bigger!" Then she gives the baby hugs or pretends to pick up the baby and hold it. She is such a sweetie when she wants to be, haha!

Daddies are Awesome!

Wow. I just have to brag a little for a minute. 

Karl came home today from a 21.5 hour shift (nope, not a typo, usually it's 18.5, but the boss had him stay late) after having been up all night, and did he walk in the door and immediately pass out? I totally would have... but no, he played very energetically with Evie for about 2 hours because she wanted him and missed him.  When he finally did get in bed, he got right back out because she was begging him to help her "run" on the walls (one of her favorite daddy games). 

I love that he would do all that simply because he loves her and missed her so much yesterday. I can't say that I'd be physically capable of doing the same! Those two make my life so much brighter, I don't know that I really deserve them!

Dear Evie

Dear Evie,

I am grateful for your determination and energy. I love that you are so willing to work hard for the things that you want. I am also so, so grateful for your sense of joy and happiness, and for your smiles and giggles. You truly brighten our lives every day. Your daddy is the sun to my world, and you are my very first ray of sunshine. I love you to pieces!!

Love,

Mommy

Family Vacation... 2013!!

 

'Round about July/August every year we usually go spend a couple of weeks at Karl's parents' house (where ever they might be living at the time), but this year, due to his parents being out here a bunch for weddings, a lack of funds, and various other impediments, we aren't going to be able to do that :(

Things have been pretty stressful lately (trying to figure out finances, Karl's job kind of requires him to be on-call a lot of the time, things falling through, life events/changes happening... etc.) and our summer visit is usually our break to kind of reset before the crazy stress of the school year sets in, so I finally just decided that we just needed to get away somewhere, even if it was just for a couple days.

Extremely fortunately for us, we managed to get Karl's 18-hour Friday shift covered/traded so we could get away for the weekend (seriously... this was a miracle)!!

So, I made some quick plans (yup... even my spontaneity is planned), booked a hotel, found something fun to do, and we were set! We didn't actually end up going far, but it was nice, and I really enjoyed getting some family time in with out work and junk interfering.

The day of our vacation came along and we were super excited... but, by the time we visited 5 different stores looking for an essential water floaty, being accosted by a mean/sweet old lady trying to get us to get a Babies-R-Us member card, forcing a cranky Evie back into her seat for the 5th time, and then getting on our way, we were all pretty hungry and grumpy. Thankfully, it was only about a 30 minute drive to... Sandy, Utah!

I know, that doesn't sound super exciting, but for us, it was pretty perfect!

Cranky Baby. Not happy to be in her seat...

We got to the hotel and went to put our things in our room, Evie saw the king size bed and was immediately in the best mood ever; she was so excited to be in that hotel room! She got up on the giant bed and jumped precariously on the edge, ran around the room, climbed on the sofa, looked in the bathroom... I think she was happy for a change of scenery ;)

Karl and I were not quite as impressed by the new surroundings, and still pretty hungry, so we had to gather up our little bouncing ball of energy and stick her in the car once more. While I was trying to get Evie in her seat (not an easy task) Karl offered to get the navigation on my phone started to get us to our dinner destination. It was right about when I looked up and realized he was getting back on the freeway that we both realized something was wrong... The phone was directing us to a restaurant that was 20 minutes away, rather than the one just down the street. But it was too late to not get on the freeway, it was rush hour at this point, and it ended up taking us about 15 minutes to get on and then off again and get to the restaurant... So more grumpiness... I was getting kind of nervous about the success of this trip when we finally arrived at our destination: Crown Burgers!

If you've never eaten at Crown Burgers, you really should... Maybe I was just starving to death, but seriously, FANTASTIC burger and some of the best fry sauce I've ever had. I was a little worried about getting a "crown burger" because my stomach has been a little sensitive lately and that burger is packed with pastrami, but I am so glad I didn't wimp out... It was amazing! We all really enjoyed our food and were honestly just soooo much happier after being fed, haha!

Also, we realized that the last time we were at a Crown Burgers restaurant was almost 7 years ago on one of our very first dates as an "official" couple! So, in honor of that, we had to take a picture ;) I don't think the two super young, naive college kids in that first picture could have possibly comprehended where we would end up 7 years down the road, but I don't think I could have imagined anything better!

October 2006
 (oh yeah, we're so cool)

July 2013
(Happy family!!)

Finally full and in a much happier mood, we headed back to the hotel and got ready to go swimming in the pool! Evie is a little fishy baby; she LOVES water. Last week for our family reunion she stood in the little sprinkler thing until her lips turned blue and still refused to get out. So I figured getting a hotel with a pool would be a good bonus ;)

 

 

It took quite a bit of convincing, but we eventually got her out of the pool by telling her we could go watch "Nemo" in the hotel room. We took a quick bath and then all snuggled up in the big bed to watch our movie on Karl's laptop!

Karl eventually fell asleep and half way through the movie, Evie remembered the swimming pool. She jumped off the bed, grabbed her floaty, and ran around the room saying "water! suit! again! go! again! WATER!". I managed to distract her by letting her play with the hotel phone (which I unplugged), she LOVED that... lol. Never thought an old land-line phone would be so impressive, haha. She kept calling her daddy on it, it was cute ;)

The only downside to the whole hotel experience was the fact that Evie REFUSED to sleep. It was seriously after 11pm before she finally gave up and passed out. We didn't have the most comfortable night ever, even with the awesome big bed, but we kind of expected that. Evie's not the best sleeper, even at home. Evie was okay with it though, she thought the whole thing was just the best ever. When we were down at the desk asking for a crib, they had a plate of warm cookies out, which Evie sampled, lol, and when we passed the desk after breakfast, the guy gave her candy! So basically, awesome. hahaha.

The next portion of our adventure was... The aquarium!!!

Finding Nemo was Evie's very first favorite movie, and she still loves it! She loves fish and sharks and water, so we thought this would be an excellent adventure for her!

It was pretty awesome. Evie kept calling it the "ocean", haha! We saw a lot of cool fishies, and Evie even got to have sharks and a giant sea turtle swim right by her face!

 We also got to see penguins!

 

Evie really liked the HUGE amazonian fish (totally brought me back to my "Amazon Trail" days, lol!), but there was one giant catfish that kept "chasing" her, she was so scared that it kept swimming after her that she ran away! I'm sorry, I may be a bad mom, but I thought it was funny ;)

The mean catfish

Running for her life...

Luckily, Daddy saved her!

Evie had such a good time! I don't think she wanted to leave, but mommy and daddy were tired, and Evie needed a nap after a morning filled with so much excitement! We stopped for lunch quickly, and then it was off to Grandma Janice and Grandpa Jack's house (which is also Uncle Christer and Auntie Myrna's house, for the time being, so we got a two for one deal!!)

We had a lot of fun playing at Grandma and Grandpa's, especially since Roxy dog was there!

Aaaand, playing with Christer and Myrna was pretty fun too... Once we warmed up to them a little ;) She wasn't in the greatest mood, since she was in a new place and hadn't been sleeping the last couple nights, but eventually we had some fun!

All in all, it was a pretty good trip, and the day we left, we realized she had sprouted TWO new teeth! That explains some of her grumpiness that week, I'm just glad she was still able to enjoy our fishy trip (which was all planned in her honor)!

I'm so happy we had a chance to get away from the everyday grind and spend a little family time, and even see some of our extended family! I love them so much!