Meadow's Big Birthday Surprise

Meadow is turning 2 in just a few short weeks. We will be heading to NY this coming Thursday for a week and coming back on her actual birthday. We got her an awesome playhouse for her birthday and wanted to put it together this weekend so that she would be able to enjoy it before we left on our trip. We also knew we wouldn't have any time to put it together when we got back so that it could be a surprise and already put together instead of in a box. Todd got the lucky job of putting it together while I took Meadow to the zoo for the day. We had a great day and Meadow walked for four hours and probably around 2 miles all by herself. I brought a backpack just in case she got tired and she didn't want to get in it once. She did eat a great lunch and sat in her high chair for a good half hour. I guess we just need to get a couple hours of walking in before we go out to eat. Todd also had a good day and got the house put together in four hours so he could go kayaking for a little while before the big birthday reveal.

Here are the amazing sea lions, which all the kids loved. They are so beautiful swimming in the water.
A picture of us in front of the elephants, which you can't really see in the picture. Do you like how Meadow is perched on my belly. I keep wondering what the baby thinks when Meadow likes to sit on him.

Look at how mini Meadow looks in this photo.

The big birthday reveal. She was so excited when she saw it. Way to go Todd for putting this together. Rita and Steve met up with us because this was a big part of their birthday gift to her as well. We had a wonderful dinner at the Rendevous afterwards.

The house has a doorbell, a sink with faucets, bbq, puppet theatre and a basketball hoop on the outside. She has been having a blast the past few days playing.

Practicing to be a Flower Girl

I was so happy we were able to get Meadow to try on her flower girl dress. She fought the idea at first, but once she got it on she loved it. She did twirls in it and loved running around the house in her poofy dress. I was on such a roll that I even got her to try on her birthday dress and she loved that one too.

Getting pretty shoes on. I also have some cute bows to match, but figured I better not get too carried away for the practice round.

It was hard to get her to sit still long enough to get the bow on nicely. But, I am sure the day of the wedding we will be able to make a nice bow. I think you get the idea though. I love the blue sash.

This is Meadow saying "cheese"

Mother's Day

On Sunday I got together with my good friend Amy, her husband, and baby at Laurelhurst Park. It was a fun afternoon and nice to introduce Meadow to yet another playground. Here is Amy with Quinn in the sling. Isn't Amy a gorgeous mama! He looks so cozy in there.

This is my new bike. I hope I get a chance to ride it this weekend. It is supposed to be warm and sunny again. Todd got this for me, so I would have a more comfortable ride while pregnant. It will also be great for all the cruising we are going to do as the kids get older.

20 Weeks!

Just a quick upate. I have made it to the halfway mark and for those who are curious the baby is around 6 and a half inches long and weighs around 10 ounces. This website I get email updates from compares this weeks size to a banana. So, cute to think about. I am sure the rest of this pregnancy is going to fly by. We are heading to NY in a few weeks for my brother's weddings and have a few camping trips planned for the summer. So, with the business of summer I am sure September 28th will be here before I know it. I am sure almost everyone reading this already knows the big news. But, we found out we are having a boy this past week. Todd and I are both excited and glad we can experience raising both a boy and a girl. Meadow was able to be at the ultrasound and appeared to really enjoy being able to see the baby. It also helped that Todd's mom had some early birthday gifts for her. She had a great time looking at her new book in the waiting room.

Some other updates, I have been feeling the baby move for the past few weeks and the movements seem to be getting stronger. He was a real mover and a shaker for the ultrasound. At one point he did a full body extension and I was surprised I couldn't feel his foot. I think feeling the baby move is probably the best part of pregnancy. Hopefully, he will like to be active during the day, so he will let his mom sleep at night. We had a nice Mother's day weekend. Todd got me a new bike, which was a very pleasant surprise. We had planned on going for a bike ride on Friday and he presented it to me when I came out to get in the truck to leave. It is a cruiser bike, so I don't have to bend over as much like on my mt. bike and it has a more comfy seat. I am looking forward to many rides to come this summer. Don't worry I won't do anything too strenious, just the mainly flat paved trails. On Friday, we went to the Springwater trail outside of Gresham and road to the Gresham city park and had a nice picnic there. We have discovered that it is always fun to have a playground as a destination. That way, Meadow gets to have her fun as well and doesn't mind riding in the bike seat as much.

We had a bbq on Friday night and then on Saturday I got a massage later in the day and we went out to El Burro Loco. Meadow even behaved wonderfully and ate a great dinner. She has been a wildcard at restaurants these days, like most two year olds. I guess we are also discovering which locations she can handle better. It is just so hard to sit still for long. On Sunday, I got some more planting done and Meadow and I headed into Portland to meet up with friends at Laurelhurst park. Todd had to work so he couldn't join us. It was really fun to check out a new park. Meadow loves playgrounds and whenever she sees one, she says "yheaaaaaaaa" really enthusiastically. I love to see her growing her personality. Well, since wee one is not going down for her nap, I will sign off for now.

Hawaii Revisited

So, I have been up since 3am ad it is now almost 6 and I have been thinking about ideas for the baby's nursery. I was thinking this idea was a good positive one to think about, so that maybe I could fall back asleep. But, of course it has done the opposite. Well, at least I have a really fun theme picked out. I have been reminiscing about our trip to the island of Kauaii and really liked the idea of a beach/Hawaii theme. It was exactly a year ago we were on that trip. Okay, now that I have that nailed down I was thinking, I should really print some of our pictures from last year's trip and maybe frame a few for the room, especially before the baby arrives. Well, I still haven't started the printing process, but had to share some fun pictures with all of you for fun. I never posted any on the blog last year so now I catching up.

Look at this geared up dad heading to the beach. This lovely lawn was part of the resort we stayed at. It was so great for crawling knees. Meadow was 11 months old and crawling as fast as she could anywhere that she could go.

Beach in front of the resort

Napali coast line

The almost 8 mile hike we took to a waterfall. Meadow was such a trooper that day. She definitely enjoyed the snack and breastfeeding breaks.

She loved hanging out in the backpack.... How things change in a year. Now, she is hiking right along with us most of the time.

Beach Babes!

Coast Trip Videos

Oregon Coast Trip Part 3: The Hotel Life

Meadow is down for a nap, so I will be able to complete my posting on the coast trip today. I am crossing my fingers that the napping trend will continue. This is four days in a row now. She is such a busy girl it can be hard for her to settle down enough to fall asleep. Well, back to the trip. On Saturday once we arrived in Seaside, the weather was a bit windy and drizzly so we checked out a few hotels. We were impressed with the Shiloh Inn because they have a nice pool, kitchen suite rooms, and they were really close to all the attractions. So, we decided to go ahead with an oceanfront room. It was really worth being able to look at that view. We quickly settled into the room and got some warm clothes on to explore the beach and the local Seaside attractions.

Here is a picture of the room
It was very windy Saturday evening, but the rain had stopped.

View of the hotel from the beach

Meadow loved the carousel. She did not want to be done when the ride was over. But, Todd was a bit queesy so we ventured on to do other things. It was one of the fastest carousels I have ever seen. Thank God Todd stepped up to the plate. I would have definitely gotten sick and I don't know how I would have gotten up on that horse with the pregnant belly.

We had a great dinner at a local restaurant and I had some of the best crab I have had in a long time. Here is a picture of the view before sunset. We were at the pool during the sunset so we didn't get any pictures. But, it was beautiful.

Having fun at the pool.

This is the view on Sunday morning. Todd and Meadow slept in and I got some precious moments to myself reading my book on the balcony. I was reading this great book called "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society." I highly recommend it. It is about the occupation of the island of Guernsey off of England during World War II. It is fiction, but really gives you an idea of what it was like for many on this little island cut off from England at that time.

Enjoying the beach later that morning.

Just Meadow and the beach

After lunch we headed to the Seaside Aquarium. This is a small aquarium, but really great for an almost two year old. They have seals which you can feed in the front area and then a large room with tanks with various sea life. The seals were definitely the hit. They were pretty hilarious how they barked and clapped for food.

I just had to share all those pictures from the weekend. I was so glad we finally got to the coast. I knew that Meadow would have a blast and it had been a year and a half since we had been to the coast. Meadow wasn't even crawling the last time we went. We had a really full trip and only missed out on a few things we wished we could have done. Todd didn't end up doing any kayak surfing because the waves were not really good for it and I didn't get any ice cream. I had many opportunities but unfortunately, my system isn't handling dairy very well in this pregnancy so I was good and avoided it. Hopefully, next time after the baby has arrived I can get a large cone. Can't wait! Well, can't wait especially for the baby, but man I miss ice cream.

Camping Life: Oregon Coast Trip Part 2

On Friday night the weather was really mild and almost felt like a summer evening. This was probably a hint to the upcoming storm that was to arrive in the next few hours. We enjoyed a nice campfire after putting Meadow to bed. We were woken up early in the morning to the pounding rain. It seemed like it poured for most of the night. On Saturday morning/afternoon it rained on and off so we spent some time playing in the camper before heading out.

Reading stories before bedtime.
Having pancakes in the morning

Meadow really enjoyed the pancakes

She is ready to go outside

We had a nice little break in the weather so we drove up to the South Jetty to see the view. This is where the Columbia river and the ocean meet.

View of the ocean from the South Jetty. I guess this was built to protect the mouth of the Columbia and has increased in size over the years.

It was a bit windy at the viewing tower

Having a picnic at Fort Stevens historic military site

View of the military post. We actually didn't explore the area too much because it started to pour so we finished our lunch in the camper.

After our lunch we decided to check out of our campsite and head down to Seaside to check out the aquarium. We were possibly going to camp somewhere else or stay in a hotel. We had fun camping, but were worried it might keep raining. We love being able to stay dry in the camper, but we knew Meadow might get a little stir crazy if we had to spend too much time in such a small space. We ended up finding a really nice hotel with a pool and got an ocean front view room for the night. The ironic part of the story is that it stopped raining Saturday afternoon and was calm and clear the next morning. We had a great time at the hotel though, so we were not too upset.