Busy Season Begins

Well, life has been crazy, crazy, crazy for the past few weeks and is just finally settling down. It's kind of nice to look at my calendar and see it blank for a little while, at least. At the end of September Bryan and I headed down to Utah for a Whitney family vacation. Generally when we go to Utah we bring Callie with but since we were headed to Snowbird, where we would be staying in a hotel, we left her behind and had some friends in our ward look after her and the house. She honestly probably preferred this but she is a very people-loving animal so we were afraid to leave her on her own but she seemed to do well and wasn't even mad at us when we got back! It was a relief to not have to worry about anything back home.

We got checked in to Snowbird on a Saturday when Oktoberfest was in full swing there. It was only slightly annoying to have a band playing loudly outside during the day but after Sunday everyone left and it felt like we pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was nice.

On Sunday we went down to Sandy and went to Sacrament Meeting at a local ward. We thought we were being so good but in conference the next week someone talked about going for all three hours when on vacation! I'm not quite there yet...

We participated in a few Snowbird sponsored activities while there. Each day there was a morning hike and Mike went out on those at least a few days a week. Shelley and the kids went to some kid friendly activities and I think Bryan and I only went to the movie ("Now Your See Me") and Bingo, pictured below.

We spent the rest of the vacation mostly just relaxing. We played board/party games pretty much every night, which was a lot of fun. Bryan and I also brought our Wii U, which was a hit. There was a lot of this happening:

Note the kids' involvement in the gaming. I especially love how in the first picture Bryan is playing with Ethan with his left hand and playing the Wii with his right-- look closely.

Months ago when the vacation was planned I couldn't wait to get in a pool, assuming that I'd be so heavy and lumbering around that it would be a huge relief. I bet when the baby is born I will notice a relief but so far I haven't really noticed this heaviness too much. Regardless of all that, I thoroughly enjoyed the pool, which was heated. We went several times while we were there and it was so fun. Everyone else had a chance in the hot tub but I didn't dare.

Here are the siblings enjoying a beautiful view in the hot tub! One morning we woke up to a snow storm! We decided it would be fun to go swimming in the snow, since the pool was heated. That was a cool experience. I wish I'd remembered the camera. Bryan especially enjoyed sitting in the hot tub while snow fell around him.

On one of the days Sandi, Shelley, Ella and I had a lot of fun putting together cute Halloween craft!

Here is my final product, which is currently sitting atop my mantel. Isn't it adorable?

Speaking of adorable, Ethan helped too. :)

From our hotel room we had a beautiful view. One day we went out for a short crisp walk in the autumn air and I snapped a couple of pictures.

I took a picture out our window on the morning of the snow storm but this doesn't really do it justice. There were several times when you'd look out and all you would see was pure white. Bryan said, "Well, it looks like the world got deleted."

We were there for a whole week and checked out on Saturday, October 5th. We drove down to Shelley's house listening to conference and finished up both Saturday sessions watching it at her house. I just loved conference this year. There were so, so many talks that I found inspiring and applicable to my life. As I said, we were driving during most of the first session and then we drove home to Boise during the last session on Sunday and I actually felt like driving while listening made it easier to, well, listen. Sometimes when you're sitting on your couch watching it its a little easier to become distracted or fall asleep, but sitting in the car, focused was really good for us. I'm grateful these sessions were so good for me since I'm worried I'll be kind of distracted during them in the coming months and years :).

Anyway, after Saturday session was over and we were still at Shelley's we set up for my baby shower, which was set to be during Priesthood Session (something we had planned before the church decided to make it available on TV and the internet, meaning Bryan sat in the other room on Ethan's glider watching it the whole time my shower was going on). Look at this awesome cupcake cake! It was so delicious.

There were many pictures of my opening gifts but I figured one would suffice. If you look in the back you can kind of see these cute Dino lanterns we made for the shower decor. I love them! I'll be hanging them up in the baby's nursery so you'll get a better view of them when I finish that and post pictures.

I just decided to include a few shots of my guests. Thank you to all who came! It was so fun and nice to see everyone. I'm grateful I got to have a shower in Utah with friends and family I don't see very often. Thank you so much Shelley and Sandi for all the work you did putting it together!

Well, as I said, we drove back to Boise on Sunday and the next day was my birthday!!! I had a lot to do that day to get the house back together and the bills paid after vacation. I guess that's what happens when you grow up-- responsibilities don't just fall to the wayside even though it's your birthday. It was a pretty low key day-- though I did have my doctor's appointment so I got to hear baby's heartbeat on my birthday. That is the best gift I could ask for. Bryan and I went out to eat at Goodwood and just ordered dessert since we didn't have anything for cake at our house. Afterwards, we went to the movies and saw "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" with movies tickets we got for free when we bought our car! Bryan and I both love the first movie-- this one was entertaining but, I'd say, not as good as the first. Still, it was fun.

Later that week Bryan and I attended a "CPR for Friends and Family" class at St. Luke's downtown. I'll actually be delivering at St. Luke's in Meridian but this was the only place the class was offered. It was kind of a maze to get to but we made it on time. It was very long but I'm glad we went. We're not really doing many classes but this one seemed so important. What if something happened to my baby and he needed CPR and I couldn't help him because I hadn't attended this class? I'm not saying I'll have a cool head in such a situation but at least I have the knowledge and all I can do is what I can do. Even still, Bryan is better with handling such situations so I would hope he'd be there if it did happen but I know I am prepared, at least. Anyway, it was good to take the class.

This past Saturday I had my second baby shower thrown for me by my good friend in the ward, April. We had a milk and cookies bar and everything was so cute and put together! It was kind of themed after the book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..." which was one I loved as a kid.

Don't you love the milk and chocolate milk cooling in canisters over ice? I thought that was so clever.

Here we are measuring my belly with ribbon. We played a game where everyone had to cut a ribbon and guess how big my belly was. My friend Celeste won! I think she won like three of the games, in fact!

Here I am with all of my gifts, which I somehow fit into this big bag. Thank you everyone for the awesome gifts!

Again, here are my guests, not including April herself. I wish this last picture wasn't so blurry because it is so cute!

Thank you for all your hard work and for throwing me my shower, April! It was so much fun!

Well, last but not least here are the latest pregnancy pictures, which I've been lagging behind on in this blog. I do have my fresh off the press 32 week picture, taken minutes before I pressed publish on this post!

32 weeks-- I can't believe it! It feels so much closer now. I think I still am having a hard time believing I'm going to give birth soon. I just have no idea what that will be like, no matter how I try to prepare myself. I also can't believe this is my son in here-- what will he look like? Who will he be? As I'm typing this he's nudging me in the ribs. I love feeling him move on a much more regular basis these days. It's definitely becoming more real. Anyway, enough rambling. Peace out, internet.