We're so spoiled!

So Todd and I decided to enjoy our last summer without kids and this month we were lucky enough to arrange some time to get away! Earlier in the month, the two of us just went on a little camping trip by ourselves. We just packed up the dog and the gear in the car and drove up to Todd's parents' cabin up the mountain. It was only for one night, but it was good to feel like we had actually gone somewhere.

As you can tell, we were both really excited to have our pictures taken while we were so dirty. haha.
We had a free weekend turn up, somehow, so we decided to steal Todd's parents' boat and take a last minute trip to the wonderful Lake Powell. Brandon, our nephew, was kind enough to drive down to join us. Simply put, it was a relaxing, wonderful weekend full of sunburns, fishing, sunburns, swimming, and other adventures. (No one was pulled behind the boat, reasons being laziness, pregnancy, no health insurance for Todd, and the boat wasn't exactly in excellent condition.) Turned out to be a great weekend and we simply cannot wait to get back!

I love Lake Powell!


Then, the weekend after that, I drove up to Salt Lake to spend some quality time with my Mom. I am so lucky that I could get away so much this month. The last trip to Salt Lake was the best, I wasn't responsible for packing any coolers with food or camping gear or anything! I just got to go up and relax. My mom is the best and she took great care of me! We finally started collecting some stuff for our little baby that's coming sooner than we probably realize... Thanks for everything Mom!

Anyways, I always have good excuses for not keeping up on my blog don't I? haha. This month is apparently no exception. Todd just finished school for the summer semester this week too, so maybe even more last minute trips will be on the way.

Speaking of trips, I'm looking forward to the Cowan campout this July!! WOO!

Little baby...

So today I broke down and did it. I bought clothes that will fit my expanding waistline. The past week has brought a huge growth spurt for little baby, and me in the process. I'm constantly finding myself stuck between being frustrated that I can't button my pants and excited that my baby is growing! I would trade out the growing pains if possible though. The past couple of days I swear the little thing has either doubled in size or done some serious workouts in my belly because my muscles feel so tight! It feels like I've been doing backbends! So anyways, here is my ode to the fifth month. That month where I'm super excited about being a mom and super depressed about buying pairs of pants with elastic waistbands. Well all of this exercise my fingers just got made me hungry. I'm jonesin for somethin salty right now... Might as well start fillin out them stretchy pants!

Germany Pictures

GERMANY!

So I know I promised Germany pics... but we have like 450 pictures that we took on our trip, so I'll give you a shortened narrative version as we run through the photos. The fist 5 minutes in Germany was pretty eventful. In an attempt to find reverse in our brand new Mercedes rental car, we managed to bang the front end into the wall of the parking garage.

We were both so worn out from flying and already edgy, we were about ready to hop back on a plane and fly home! Luckily everything worked out, and within a short while we were on our way.

We both had some major jetlag so we stopped at a grassy park right along the Rhine River and took a nap. The first week we stayed with families in the areas that Todd served in. It was so wonderful! We got to meet so many awesome people and they were so kind to us! The food was also the best German food I've ever had! So here are the amazing hosts we had that first week...

After that first week, Mom and Dad came and joined us. We saw a whole slew of wonderful things!

Old German villages...

Beautiful old castles and ruins...

Lovely countryside...

I really would expand more but we would be here forever so if you want to see more pics or learn more about the specifics, just let me know.

WOOOH!! Finally back to blogging...

Well it's been a while dear friends... April was a bit crazy, last month of school and all that, so I didn't put in much time on our blog. So far in May, we graduated (hooray) and then left 3 days later for a two week trip to Germany (pictures coming soon). So now we're back and I thought I'd give a quick update. We had our ultrasound the day after we got back from our trip and we were so excited! I couldn't wait to find out what our little baby was going to be! Well after about a million different angles and attempts at getting the baby to move, we still aren't totally sure what we're having. The ultrasound guy said he would bet on a girl but he couldn't be sure because if the baby moved at all, she may be a he instead. Haha. Only a small letdown, right? Well naturally I bawled my eyes out after we left (hormones). Todd, forever positive, told me to just buy everything brown and then we can just add in blue or pink after. I liked my sister Sarah's idea better, we're just going to get another ultrasound. Anyways, here are the pictures. Leave me comments and let me know what YOU think the baby is after looking at the photos...

Here's a little leg, you can see the crazy lookin bones at the end of it.
There's it's little foot, look 5 toes!
This is the head and the spine, the baby was facing my spine during the whole process.
Here's a cute little profile, Todd said that it looks like me. He also said it looked like a fish, so I don't know if that's a compliment or what. haha.
Here's the money shot, little baby with its' legs crossed at the ankles and a very limited view of where any gender parts may be.
Another one of the legs, but this time it has it's little arms down in there too. Apparently my baby can do yoga in utero.
The last one is just a picture of the baby's arm, it kept moving it back and forth during the ultrasound. One minute it was up by it's face and the next it was down by it's legs.

April Fools!

So yesterday, I had to work on April Fools but I wan't going to let that slow me down. I was working down at the girl's home in New Harmony and figured that most of these girls never had enough older brothers to play tricks on them, so I took full advantage. I taped the nozzle down on the sprayer at the sink so whenever somebody turned on the water, they got soaked. It worked at breakfast and lunch... I rearranged all of their bathroom drawers so none of their stuff was in the right place. I short sheeted all of their beds while they were out of the house and then gave them all fake consequence essays for making fart jokes at lunch (one of the girls had a fart machine and used it to trick the newest girl in the house). Over all I felt it was a pretty successful day. The only rebuttal I received was a crank phone call telling me I had an appointment on the dating service, I had figured they would have done better than that! But I'm not going to complain...

Arizona!

So I finally got our pictures online and wanted to give a little shout out to Kevin and Natalie! Just going through our pictures and remembering how much fun we had makes me want to go back!

Here we are at the Science center... the girls seemed to have more fun on the top of the building than inside! We had a blast!! Coloring Easter Eggs, Natalie had to make fun of me because I had to make sure that all of the right colored dyes were in the right colored cups. She said it's a family trait. ha. thanks mom!
Todd and I at the Mesa Temple....



Here we are at the temple Easter pageant, we stayed an extra night and woke up at 5 in the morning the next day to drive home so we could go to the pageant and it was totally worth it!
Rustler's Roost for a great dinner, cool hats and a big slide! Sounds like my kind of party!

So at the science center, there was a big nose that shot foam balls out. When it blew I freaked out and fell over. At least Ellie was brave enough to stay standing. Bested by a 3 year old again!

Kevin and Natalie and Family, we love you guys so much! Thanks for letting us come and play for a weekend! We love the atmosphere that you have built in your home and think you are amazing!