My Last Childless Vacation

The last few months I've been aching for a vacation or something to get me out of town.  So we planned a trip with my parents to Hood River (not more than an hour and half away, in case I shot into labor) and I've been looking forward to it for quite some time!

Warning:  This post contains LOTS of pictures!

We stayed at a cute little Bed and Breakfast.  I love B&B's.  It's the way to go if you want to meet talkative people in a quirky little town.  Kirk and decided that if we ever owned a B&B, he would do the cooking, and I would do the talking :)

Here are my parents posing out front just after arriving at Hood River.

Our room was awesome.  It had two doors that lead onto "the Terrace."  

And no, we did not share a room with my parents.

We became aquainted with the little town by walking up and down the mian street.

Had to take a pic in front of this sign.  It has the word "Labor" in it for goodness sakes.

There were several bike shops, so for Kirk's sake we stopped in.  Although it was my mother who ended up actually purchasing something.  A bike bell.  Go figure.

If you look carefully you can see the Columbia Gorge in the background.

I LOVE this picture of my dad!  

"slow down"

Hood River is well-known for Kite Surfing.  I always see tons of them from the highway on the drive to Utah, but I've never seen them this close up.  There were some impressive tricks and flips goin' on there..

This random dog decided to join us in spectating.  

He seemed to know exactly what was going on.

Spectating.

The whole weekend was surpsingly sunny for Oregon.

We scouted out this restaurant "Nora's Table," and I highly recomend it if you're ever in the area.  Deliciously yummy and very reasonably price.  Kirk labled the food as a highlight of the trip.

The Bed & Breakfast meal in the morning was quite delicious too.

On Saturday morning we headed out to the Hood River Railraod for the scenic ride we'd been looking forward to.  The train went from Hood River to the Base of Mount Hood.  It was about a 4 hour trip and super fun!

Filing on to the old fashioned cars.

When I say old-fashionied, I mean authentic.

We were in the Dome Car.  It was high enough up to be able to see really well (and it was much quiter than the other cars).

"Look!  We're moving!  Woo hoo!"

I never realized how much trains rock back and forth.  We're thinkin that the baby like the gentle rocking motion too.  He was not very active.  I'm guessing he slept through the whole thing.  Good to know that if we ever want him to go to sleep after he's born, that we should just thop on the nearest train.

We followed Hood River for most of the ride.

Spectacular views of Oregon that I've never seen before!

(Check out the reflection of my shirt)

Apparently this area is the ideal climate for harvesting fruit.  The trees on the right are cherry trees and the ones on the left are apple trees.  We happend to be there the week that everything was in bloom.  It was gorgeous.  There were tons and tons of blossoms :)

My luvvy-dubby parents

Mount Hood in the distance

A part of me wanted to bust out into song on the train - secretly hoping that everyone else would join in with a choreographed dance rountine.

The train stopped in Parkdale, OR for about an hour.

Kirk fascinated by the size of the gas tank

Apparently it had 2,000 gallons left at half full. 

This tree stump was huge.  We grow them big here in Oregon.

I'm counting the rings.  There were over a thousand.

That's my Lumberjack!

On the ride back to Hood River we explored the other cars.  This open air car was quite windy!

My dad particularly liked the name of this ice cream shack.  We ended up going there twice in the less-than-24-hours that we were in Hood River.

On the drive home, we stopped at random exits along the scenic gorge drive and saw things like Cascade Locks, Oregon and its fairy boat thingy.

Horsetail Falls - one of the many waterfalls of the gorge.

Oneonta (prounouced "On-ee-on-tah") Gorge.  This used to be our favorite family hike when I was younger.  It's a good 2.5 mile hike in the creek to get to the falls.  But it's changed a lot since then.  Like this tunnel.  That's new.

Overall it was a very fun little overnighter vacation.  Very refreshing.  I feel ready to face pregnancy again!

My Bolwing Ball

With less than 4 weeks to go, I'm feeling rather...what's the word...LARGE. The only way I can think to describe how it feels to be 8 months pregnant is: like having a bowling ball strapped to your belly with plastic wrap - expect that the plastic wrap is your muscles, with all the nerve endings and aches that would come from muscles being stretched out that far. (Oh yeah, and the bowling ball is constantly squirming and moving). Every step is a “jiggle, tear, jiggle” feeling. Similar to an attempt to run without a bra on (which I’m sure every woman can relate to). Thus why I wear: The Belly Band. I also call it, My Belly Bra. It pretty much does the same thing as a bra, but for one large…..belly.

When I’m not wearing my much-appreciated-belly-band, I walk around with my hands under my belly in a futile attempt to keep it up. The slower the steps, the better. No really, Kirk can run up the stairs and write a novel in the amount of time it takes me to walk from the kitchen to the couch.

Bending over is out of the question. The hold-your-breath-and-squat position works much better. Although it always reminds me of the “no, allow me” scene from Emperors New Groove.




If I drop something that I don’t really need right then, I usually wait until Kirk comes home and have him pick it up for me. If I do need to pick it up, I cleverly scoot together anything else on the ground with my foot into a pile so that I can pick up multiple things with one bend. I learned this last week while attempting to vacuum. I thought I’d get one last vacuuming in before the baby came – but it took 30 mins just to get things up off the floor in preparation to vacuum. By then I was too tired to vacuum and just wanted to lie down and rest. However, the bed was piled high with the stuff I’d just picked up, so all I could do was lay on the floor to recover for 20 mins. Sound pathetic? Well it is, but that’s how things get done now-a-days.

Yesterday was a rough day. I really needed to go to the store because we had no food. I thought I’d just quickly clean the bathroom beforehand. (It really needed it. I’d been staring at those mirror splatters for over a month now.) After completing that seemingly small task however, my energy was zapped – requiring a 30 min nap – after which I was hungry, but (as noted earlier) we had no food. It was like a vicious cycle. I needed food to give me energy, so that I could go to the store, to get the food, so that I could have the energy to go to the store to get the food we didn’t have!

Ah! I just want to hold my baby in my arms instead of in my belly!!!

I think pregnancy does something to emotions too – what do you think??

I never did make it to the store. Nor make food. Luckily, Kirk got home and saved me from my emotional and physical exhaustion. He soothed my sobbing cries and made some delicious pancakes for dinner. Oh, and they were gooood pancakes. Much needed.

Lessons learned: I should expect to only be able to accomplish one task per day, and do that thing first.

My Song and Dance

Our stake had a performance showcase, and anyone who knows me knows that I just couldn't stay away - 8 months pregnant or not!

The first clip is a weekly singing group I've been going to with my sister, Jenny.  We call ourselves The Wax Lips (one of the only candy names that had not already been claimed by a performing group).  Enjoy the cheesy choreography!

Can you find the preggo lady??

This second clip is the Quatama Cloggers.  Another weekly group I attend, also with Jenny.  Yes, I'm still moving around this much with a bun in the oven!

Disclaimer: We had a really hard time hearing the music, so some parts are not together.

Don't worry - I would not be jumping up and down like this without a belly band!

I think the baby really likes all the rocking.  It puts him right to sleep.

My Decorating Fetish

So, I'm not much into crafty scrap-booking and such. But I LOVE decorating. It's pretty much a constant, never ending project for me. There's always something somewhere that can be improved until it's just right.

Oh, and I try to get things as next to free as possible. That's part of the fun.

Here is my latest addition:



I finally found the red pillows and red rug that I've been hunting for nearly two years! Yay for Goodwill!

The pillows originally from Pottery Barn: $15.

The rug from Ikea: $20 (They were asking $40, but I was able to talk it down with the manager, cause you know, it wasn't quite cheap enough for me to seriously consider).

Everything else in this picture was free thanks to family and gifts, minus the coffee table and the side table - also second hand purchases.

Next quest:  that lamp has got to be replaced.

Happy Easter

May this remind you of the true meaning of Easter.

My Baby Prediction

According to one website, this is a prediction of what our baby will look like. I think he's pretty cute. What do you think??

His eyes will follow the mouse. He's so advanced :)

My Taste of Pain

So, I've had a relatively pain-free pregnancy, which I consider a huge blessing.  However, I spent the last couple of days lying in bed simply because, I couldn't get up!  The little guy (bless his heart), squirmed into the most awkward and uncomfortable position, causing what I would label as excruciating pain!  Every time I flexed my abs (which happens more often than you'd think) I felt like my insides were on fire.  Sitting down, walking, or moving at all became painful a task. 

 

Kirk did a wonderful job taking care of me (loading me up with food and helping to the bathroom and such).  I told him that I could really go for an epidural right about then, but unfortunately he was all out L  As you can tell – I have an incredibly high tolerance for pain. 

 

I knew wasn’t going into early labor or anything, but I called the hospital just ask my doctor a couple questions before the office closed for the weekend.  After talking with the nurse for about a half hour, she said: “Well, why don’t you just come in to the Labor and Delivery Ward so they can do some monitoring and then send you on your way home.” 

 

This is what I heard:  “Let’s increase the pain by making you move more than necessary!!!  Get out of bed (a challenge in and of itself),  Go down the stairs (one of my biggest dreads since being pregnant), drive to the hospital (yeah right), and get hooked up to a bunch of machines, just so that they can tell you everything’s okay and send you home 10 minutes later!”

I didn’t feel like doing all that (I would have made myself go if I felt like it was necessary or if I was actually in labor).  Instead I took a bath and felt much better.  Then I ate yummy ice cream while Kirk and I watched “Hello Dolly” - a classic.  

(Random Trivia: the name Dolly is a nickname for Dorothy, and was a very popular name until the thirties when it was adapted as the name of a cute child's toy - making it a hard name to take seriously.  I had to look it up in one of my baby name books after watching the movie)

I’m feeling much better today by the way.