Keeping Up With the Allens

Whistler Ski Trip

While Alex is off in eastern British Columbia on a ski trip with our friend Patrick, my dad flew out for a long weekend with me in Whistler, on the west side of BC. Alex and I had been to Whistler several times before, but it was my dad’s first trip to the magnificent mountain. He says he’ll be back for sure!

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Whistler is just north of Vancouver, British Columbia and is about a 4.5 hour drive from Seattle. It is also the largest ski resort in North America, offering more than 8,000 acres of skiable terrain {Vail “only” boasts 5,000 and until this year, was the largest resort in the US} across the two mountains {Whistler and Blackcomb}. It is so expansive and I am certain a person could spend an entire season skiing there and not ski the same run twice.

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It’s a toss up between here and Jackson Hole which one is my favorite destination, but Whistler is a very special place for Alex and me {and now my dad understands it!}.

{Best mountain hot chocolate is at Whistler!}

Our trip was great, albeit a bit short {and sadly the snow kept flying as we left and we missed a couple consecutive powder days}, but we had a really nice time skiing together. The conditions were much better than I had expected, given the recent warming trend in the west. We were blessed with fresh snow on our first day, as well as untouched snow on the upper mountain the second day.

We spent our first day skiing exclusively on Blackcomb Mountain. Since my last trip to Whistler there was a new chairlift that had been added and it opened up a completely new section of the mountain that I had never skied before. The wind was howling that day, so we didn’t get to ski the upper mountain at all, but that wasn’t a problem.

{I've got to believe this guy is approaching 50 days on skis this year...} — {I’ve got to believe this guy is approaching 50 days on skis this year…}

Our second and final day was spent on Whistler Mountain. We took the Peak 2 Peak gondola from Blackcomb to Whistler that morning and spent most of the day either in the Symphony Amphitheatre area or on the Peak chair. The snow conditions were great for the most part, albeit low visibility in some places, and we had an excellent time exploring the mountain.

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In addition to skiing, we spent some time in the village and relaxed back at the condo we rented. We also brought Jackson with us and he and I took some nice walks on the snowy trails where he was able to run around and play ball in the snow. It took him a while to settle into the new space, but once he got tuckered out enough he seemed pretty comfortable there. I think he was just as sad as we were when it came time to head home and leave the snow behind.

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My dad’s trip came to an end with a really nice dinner in my neighborhood, joined by my two cousins, Chris and Jon. And then he was off… I have a feeling our next ski trip together will include a little one, so things will certainly be a bit different in the future, and until then, we’ve got the memory of our Whistler trip.

The Next Mr Allen!

We’ve officially reached the halfway point {well, halfway to my due date… who knows when the babe will actually arrive} and are overjoyed to announce we’ll be welcoming a little MAN into our family this summer! We found out in our ultrasound last week that we’re having a boy!

20160219_193003452_iOS — {Yes, yes, that is a picture of what you think it is.}

{The little guy's face!} — {The little guy’s face!}

{We weren't trying to get a picture with Jackson in it - he just showed up when Alex pulled out the camera, but that meant you can't really see the size of my belly that well because I wasn't quite prepared!} — {We weren’t trying to get a picture with Jackson in it – he just showed up when Alex pulled out the camera, but that meant you can’t really see the size of my belly that well because I wasn’t quite prepared!}

Five Month Stats:

“How are you feeling?”: (still the #1 question – yes I’m getting tired of it!) just fine, thank you!
Food cravings: Still loving cheese, particularly cottage cheese. No cravings per se. Salted caramel gelato is absolutely amazing, though.
Weight gain: 6 pounds
Baby’s heart rate: 137 beats per minute
Pregnancy symptoms: A growing belly! I’ve been sleeping a lot better the last few nights and have started to transition to sleeping on my side. I’ve been either feeling the baby move or getting some braxton-hicks contractions. Not really sure at this point!
Doctor’s appointments: Had my 19-week ultrasound last week and 20-week check-up yesterday. Everything looks great with baby!
Medical concerns: Our ultrasound ruled out microcephaly, but I’m awaiting the results back from some blood work to test if I ever had zika.
Highlights at this point: Finding out we’re having a boy was probably the most exciting moment of the pregnancy. It’s been so fun to imagine what our lives will be like with a son. Everything feels more concrete now. Just this week I’ve had kids and adults ask me if I was pregnant, so it’s been fun to actually look pregnant now. It still really depends on what I’m wearing though.
What I’m excited for: Obviously meeting the baby, but I’m looking forward to starting to put together the nursery. We still haven’t bought a single thing for him!
Downsides at this point: ?
Things I miss: Nothing much right now. Sometimes wine, not often though.
Things we’ve done to prepare for baby: Finally we finalized our “baby list” and made some big decisions about the baby stuff we intend on purchasing. We’ve started reading books about caring for babies and being parents of a newborn.
Name ideas: Send them our way! We have no idea what to name our boy.
Nursery ideas: Our nursery will be a modern mountain theme with soft grays and blues.

{Here is a better belly photo from 19 weeks.}

Holiday Weekend at Home

It is so nice that Alex’s employer has added President’s Day to the list of company holidays. Those extra days off make such a difference. We had a thoroughly relaxing long weekend at home and enjoyed taking Monday off.

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Friday night we went out for dinner at none other than Bottlehouse. Prior to dinner, though I spent some time in the kitchen whipping up some salted caramel brownies. Alex is a MAJOR chocolate lover, whereas if I have chocolate it’s got to have something with it, like caramel or almonds or cherries… I am more into the fruity sweet desserts, so I thought this would be a nice Valentine-ish dessert we could both enjoy. The brownies sure were tasty, especially alongside the divine sea salt caramel gelato we happen to have in our freezer!

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Saturday morning started quite early. I woke up before the sun and enjoyed my one cup of coffee in Alex’s leather chair while he snoozed away. After a while he rolled out of bed and decided to take Jackson on a “stairs” run – there are all sorts of staircases in our neighborhood that are basically vertical {our part of the city is quite hilly!}, which provides the perfect ski training exercise. The run completely wore Jackson out for the remainder of the weekend and he was nearly a perfect dog!

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That, unfortunately, is where the good news stopped. Just after Alex got out of the shower after said run, he came downstairs and realized there was an enormous leak in the ceiling directly below our brand new bathroom. After hours of deliberation, counsel from my father, investigation and waiting it out, we found the leak and were able to make it stop, then today, a plumber came and fixed it for good. Now we have some ceiling repair to do, but I’m happy to have the full use of our bathroom again! {In the above photo, you can see the ceiling is sagging from the water build-up.}

20160214_044539947_iOS — {Excuse the dark photo – I didn’t want to use a flash when the babies were being put down for bed!}

We got to spend the evening with these two babies and their parents, along with our friends Carrie and Patrick. It was a great to catch up with everyone!

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One of the elements of pregnancy that has been the most fun for me has been scouring the internet looking at all the adorably cute nursery furniture and furnishings and imagining what our baby’s nursery will look like. Sunday marked the day when we headed to Pottery Barn Kids and made some final decisions on things we wanted to see in person, like a crib, dresser and rocker. We made some great choices and I am excited to get started on our nursery in the coming weeks! {And no, we are not registered at PBK, despite the best efforts of the sales ladies at the store.}

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A big precursor to the nursery is doing a major closet overhaul in our house. Starting that process was on the docket for the weekend, so we spent some quality time cleaning out unnecessary stuff that had accumulated over time. After we were done de-cluttering we took some measurements and put together plans on how we will re-organize the closets. We’ll need to get new shelving for the closets in the guest room and office and make some minor changes in the shelving in our bedroom. Hopefully next weekend, if everything goes according to plan, our master closet and guest room closet will be finished!

20160215_193538244_iOS The weather on Monday provided a perfect opportunity to get cozy in the living room and catch up on some reading. Until this weekend I was feeling like Alex and I hadn’t really done much to prepare for this little one’s arrival, but we both started reading our first parenting books {I’m reading “Bringing up Bebe” and he’s reading “The Happiest Baby on the Block”}. I’m looking forward to comparing the theories discussed in both books and figuring out what we think might work for us.

20160211_013933962_iOS — {I absolutely adore my Glassybaby collection… the red one I got for myself, the white one is from my dad, and the pink one is my first Glassybaby and is from my friend Carrie. These are so fun to mix and match and change for the seasons, and I love that the glass is blown 3 blocks from our house!}

It wasn’t a hard transition back into the work week today, but boy was it nice to enjoy some time at home together and celebrate Valentine’s Day!

Deer Valley Ski Trip

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Last week Alex and I took off and met his parents in Utah for a long ski weekend at Deer Valley.

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We stayed at the Red Stag Lodge which is right at the base of Deer Valley. One of the best parts of a ski vacation where you stay right at the mountain is waking up in the morning, having a leisurely breakfast and then getting ready to go inside {instead of the car!} and slowly meandering to the mountain. We loved taking advantage of that!

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Donna and Stan took a ski lesson on the first ski day. It is always nice to take advantage of the great lesson programs to get their confidence and basics boosted. We saw tremendous improvements with Stan’s skiing this trip, which was really fun to witness.

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It was at Stan’s request that we returned to Deer Valley after our first ski trip together back in 2009. Deer Valley is known for its groomers and we enjoyed skiing them all! In addition to its groomers, Deer Valley is known as a luxury ski resort and caters to a fairly fancy clientele. One of the benefits of that is the on-mountain food selection is superb {and superbly expensive!} and the area is spectacularly gorgeous. One of the downsides, though, is dealing with entitled people who lack self awareness.

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While we were at Deer Valley, the resort was hosting the World Cup moguls and aerials competitions. We didn’t realize the events were taking place through the weekend, otherwise we would have made an effort to go out and watch them. It was exciting and eye opening to see aerials jumps {they launch you literally straight up in the air – terrifying!} and so fun to see the moguls course – all we wanted to do was ski one run down it!

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Donna and Stan conquered Pearl, a ski run that we had discovered back in 2009.

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We skied a lot of runs with Donna and Stan but broke off each day to explore different parts of the mountain together. It sure is different skiing at 9,000 feet elevation while being pregnant! I got really tired skiing the bump runs and on our last day I wasn’t feeling the icy conditions so I played it safe and parked it outside in the sun and ate a cheeseburger.

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One of my favorite parts of Utah and Deer Valley is the Aspen trees mixed in with the evergreens. We were lucky enough to see the evergreens covered in snow. The sun was out each day and the views from the mountain were unbelievably expansive. It felt like you could see forever!

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In addition to the skiing, we had a lot of great food!

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Our first meal was at the St. Regis Bar. After dinner we walked around the hotel and stumbled upon a s’mores bar! We helped ourselves and made some dessert 🙂

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One of our most enjoyable dinners was at Fireside Dining. It’s a ski lodge turned restaurant that features four fireplaces that serve different courses – raclette, stew, leg of lamb and dessert! The food and service were spot on, making this a really memorable meal.

20160207_041235206_iOS We also went into Park City one night for dinner at High West, which is a bourbon distillery and saloon. Our meal was fantastic there, as well. The food was wonderful!

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We returned to the St. Regis Bar for apres ski on sunny Saturday afternoon and sadly did not have the five star experience we had expected. The weather and the view was about the only nice part of our time there.

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Before our dinner at Fireside Dining we took a little sleigh ride around the property.

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It’s nearly impossible for me to take a good photo of the town of Park City. It’s one of the cutest, quaintest ski towns I’ve been to and I’ve never managed to capture a photo to do it any sort of justice. In any case, we spent a couple hours on our last day touring the town before heading back to the airport. We had a great lunch at the Park City Delicatessen and I bought a new mid-warmth jacket from Marmot that will carry me nicely through the rest of the winter, I think, as my belly grows…

20160207_142356580_iOS All in all, it was a wonderful time in Utah with Alex’s parents. We are very fortunate that they are willing to travel and meet us somewhere in the middle of the country and partake in a winter sport they know we love. Until next time, Utah…

Four Months Down!

…and still a long way to go!

{17 weeks today!} — {17 weeks today! Not the best outfit for a belly photo, but at least you can see a little bump in there.}

Four Month Stats:

“How are you feeling?”: (#1 question – yes I’m getting tired of it!) just fine, thank you!
Food cravings: Really none – loving cheese, but not craving it.
Weight gain: 2 pounds
Baby’s heart rate: 160 beats per minute
Pregnancy symptoms: The last few weeks my symptoms have transitioned into having a sore back, a little bit of acid reflux but not bad at all, headaches, very easily annoyed {sorry in advance}, tire easily, dyslexia {is that a pregnancy symptom!?}. Overall I’m feeling really well, though!
Doctor’s appointments: Blood work this week, then 19-week ultrasound in mid-February, then a regular doctor’s appointment the following week.
Medical concerns: Microcephaly – our Mexico trip coincided with the very early part of my pregnancy and in case you’ve been living under a rock, the zika virus + pregnancy = very bad outcome for baby. I’m like 2% concerned that I am affected by zika because I don’t recall getting bitten by a mosquito, but we’ll find out after our ultrasound.
Highlights at this point: Getting a lot of energy back in the second trimester, starting to eat more normally, not getting up as much to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
What I’m excited for: Right now I’m really excited about finding out if we’re having a boy or a girl, feeling the babe wiggle around and actually looking pregnant to a stranger.
Downsides at this point: Having to sleep on my side now – I am not a side sleeper and it hasn’t exactly been the easiest transition. I’ve been in the “in between” stage where my regular clothes aren’t fitting nicely but I’m not nearly big enough for a lot of my maternity stuff yet, so nothing fits!
Things I miss: I really miss sleeping through the night and enjoying coffee.
Things we’ve done to prepare for baby: We started a baby shopping list and have picked out a lot of the nursery/big stuff we’d like, we’ve discussed our daycare intentions and my going back to work plan, found a birth and new parent support class and have gotten a few baby parenting books. We talk a lot, but we haven’t done anything tangible quite yet.
Name ideas: You’ll just have to wait! We’ve got a girl name picked out but our list of boy names is not as solid.
Nursery ideas: We’ve picked out nursery furniture, naturally from Pottery Barn, and we’re going with a light gray, white colors with either light pink/blue accents. We’re holding off on buying any baby stuff quite yet because of the limited space in our house.

The Happenings

This last week flew by! I’m not sure where the time really went, to be perfectly honest. Here are some of the highlights from our last week of January…

The weather goes in both the highlight and lowlight category – we had several days of complete and utter downpours but then we had just as many days of gorgeous blue skies and sunshine. I don’t think I’ve ever used my big golf umbrella while walking the dog as much as I have the last few weeks. With all the rain, though, it’s been rather warm. Little buds are starting to pop up around our neighborhood and I’ve seen signs of cherry blossoms around, too. Spring is definitely on its way to Seattle!

{This guy has practically been living outside during the nice weather!}

Our pets also go in the highlight and lowlight category. Henry has been so sweet to Jackson lately, which makes up for the fact that he’s been waking us up at 5:00 almost daily meowing like mad to get us to let him outside.

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This week Jackson had some digestion issues and for a few consecutive days woke us up several times in the middle of the night to go outside. Thankfully switching his diet to chicken and rice solved that problem.

We are going to work on getting Jackson certified as a Canine Good Citizen so that we can take him to hospitals and nursing homes eventually. Plus, it’ll be good practice to get him whipped back into shape. He’s really a fantastic dog, but we’ve been reminded lately that we need to work on a few things still, particularly before this little babe arrives.

{Trying to catch up from lack of sleep....} — {Trying to catch up from lack of sleep….}

Alex spent a good part of the weekend with his buddies to celebrate his friend Jon’s birthday. Jon lived in Seattle for a few years but has since moved away and is currently living in San Francisco, so his wife decided to surprise him with a trip up to Seattle to visit his friends. The guys organized {loosely ;)} a weekend out on the town, sea and slopes for Jon, plus Justin came up from Mexico to partake in the shenanigans too! These guys met either at college or as newbies at work and have stayed great friends ever since, even though about half of the group has now left Seattle.

{Enjoying the view from the rooftop deck of one of the guys' apartments.} — {Enjoying the view from the rooftop deck of one of the guys’ apartments.}

While Alex was out, honestly I was mostly sleeping due to the late night nature of their planned activities. But yesterday while he was skiing I baked some cookies, took Jackson for a long walk and did some relaxing. He ended up being home a lot more than I expected this weekend, which was obviously nice, but it also meant I didn’t get as much done as I had planned!

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Last week I started my prenatal Pilates class and my prenatal yoga class! I’m taking the classes at two separate studios and so far I think they’re both great and am glad I’m taking both of them. The Pilates class is very much strength-building and the yoga class offers some seemingly great positions for managing labor pain and getting ready for that whole business, plus it offers a better opportunity to connect with other pregnant women. At this point I will keep up with Pilates on Mondays and yoga on Saturdays and continue with our daily dog walks the rest of the days. I’d love to add in a run once a week too.

{little bump starting to show a bit more these days!} — {Little bump starting to show a bit more these days!}

Alex has been stepping it up in the exercise game, too! He and our friend Patrick have a big ski trip planned for late-February/early-March where they will be chauffeured up the mountain by a snow cat and ideally get to ski tons of long lines of fresh British Columbia powder. Alex is working quite hard to get his legs ready! Luckily we’ve got a ski trip to Utah coming up quite quickly, so that’ll give both of us a leg workout.

{I got a big body pillow to help me sleep more comfortably on my side now and Alex has taken it over...} — {I got a big body pillow to help me sleep more comfortably on my side now and Alex has taken it over…}

20160129_032207404_iOS — {And at this point he can keep it because I hate it!}

Mid-Winter Slump

I think it’s safe to say no matter where you are in the country that January is typically a boring month with crummy weather. Everyone is recovering from the holiday craze and mother nature is taking it out on us all… Here in Seattle has been no exception.

{Our poor pets have been going stir crazy because it is so nasty outside!}

The last two weeks have been wet and warm! It’s not unusual for it to be damp here, but it is rather odd for it to be pouring for days on end, and that is what the weather has been doing for about the last two weeks. It’s been so warm that instead of snow in the mountains, it’s been raining. Speaking from experience, skiing in the rain is not enjoyable. Needless to say, we’ve taken a little hiatus from our favorite winter sport the last two weeks.

We really enjoyed the long three-day weekend last weekend. Alex had never gotten MLK Day off before, so it was extra nice to have the bonus day at home together. We got some projects done around the house, visited the Millers, enjoyed a fabulous night out at Agrodolce, took a long walk around Seward Park, watched a few movies and relaxed at home.

{We picked a good, clear morning for our walk around Seward Park last weekend.}

As far as I can tell, Baby Allen is doing well. I had a doctor’s appointment on Thursday and got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. I haven’t been very excited about food lately so I haven’t been doing much cooking. I did; however, make some soups {pureed only!} and muffins last weekend. I eat about eight snacks throughout the day, but toward the end of last week I got on the omelet-for-breakfast bandwagon and that helped keep me more full throughout the day.

{15 weeks last week! I had a doctor's appointment on Thursday and got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time - 160 beats per minute.} — {15 weeks last week!}

We had a really nice night out on Friday of this weekend – we went to Red Cow for dinner {I was craving a cheeseburger!} and then went for a nightcap at Bottlehouse across the street. Of course I was half asleep by 9:00, so it wasn’t a late night by any means! I woke up on Saturday quite under the weather, so we were hunkered down at home all day while I slept it off {thankfully after dinner I was almost back to normal}.

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Today we got out of the house and met the Millers for an impromptu morning at the dog park. The boys took the dogs in the dog park while Mary and I walked with the twins around the park for a while. It was a beautiful morning and it was really nice to get out of the house! The rest of the day was spent cleaning and getting ready for the week ahead… Thankfully we have a few more exciting weeks coming up!

Bathroom Renovation…. Complete!

The day is finally here when I can say our bathroom is done! {Ok, well we are still waiting for our ceiling light, but it’s on backorder until March, and I’m not waiting that long to write this post.} We lived for five years with our IKEA bathroom with too tall sinks {make that sink – as one of the faucets leaked and we didn’t want to put a dime into that bathroom until we were ripping it all out, so we just shut off the water to that sink!}, cracked grout, and an overly modern look for our old craftsman house. It has been worth the wait to see the dramatic transformation take place. We are absolutely in love with our bathroom!

{DURING... It was such a shame to have to have a piece of drywall as our countertop for more than a month while we waited for the marble to arrive just in the nick of time!} — {DURING… It was such a shame to have to have a piece of drywall as our countertop for more than a month while we waited for the marble to arrive, and not a day too early}

{AFTER!!! We finally received our art after it had to be custom framed and it looks complete now!}

{AFTER! The custom features, like this niche, and our little footrest in the shower, have been so nice to have!}

{AFTER! We are SO happy with how everything turned out. It came together so nicely in the end!} — {AFTER! We went with a Seattle theme for our art on the walls – this print is a map of Seattle with each neighborhood written out, and the other print above the toilet is my absolute favorite – it’s a depiction of the Space Needle with other iconic Seattle images surrounding it, like mountains, trees and coffee.}

{AFTER!} — {AFTER! We are loving our vanity – the storage is so much nicer with drawers {and my fancy drawer organizers}. The chrome finishes on all of the hardware and accessories came together so well, though it wasn’t easy finding some things on our list! We are SO happy with how this all turned out and we owe a lot to our amazing contractor John and the tile guys at Wilson Tile.}

The First Trimester Recap

I am now into my second trimester of pregnancy, which is pretty darn exciting! The first trimester wasn’t hard, per se, but it was more a period of adjustment and many mixed emotions.

20151230_023952070_iOS — {Not the slightest bit sad to be saying goodbye to the first trimester!}

My pregnancy was intentional {top question asked!}, happened very fast, and I knew I was pregnant before I had a confirmed pregnancy test. I had two negative pregnancy tests at home, but I just knew that they weren’t accurate. A trip to the doctor’s office confirmed my suspicions, but it was a really anticlimactic and honestly a disappointing way to find out I was pregnant.

Of course Alex and I were both really, really excited about the news that we are going to be parents. It was a lot to take in, though, given how we found out and how quickly it all happened. The fact that basically know one knew we were expecting and I sure didn’t look pregnant, plus in those first couple weeks I wasn’t feeling any pregnancy symptoms other than exhaustion didn’t help the cause. It was just strange and at that point wasn’t as exciting as I had expected it to be.

{Here I am... fresh after finding out I was pregnant.} — {Here I am… fresh after finding out I was pregnant.}

As the first weeks slowly went by, the news started to sink in a little more and things got more exciting – we saw the baby {more like the blob} on the ultrasound and got to see the heartbeat and had an encouraging doctor’s visit, we started sharing the news with more family and friends, and then one day, right around the start of my eleventh week, my belly started to grow. For me it was really that first day of seeing my belly starting to grow that made it seem more real.

{First ultrasound at 8 weeks!} — {First ultrasound at 8 weeks! For those who know how to read the ultrasound, I am tracking my weeks based on my cycle, which is a few days ahead of what the ultrasound is measuring.}

Relatively speaking, I think I’ve had a pretty normal first trimester. I’ve experienced sheer exhaustion, crazy nausea, unbelievable food aversions and a little bit of morning sickness. Thank heavens the morning sickness was very short-lived. The food aversions, on the other hand, were not. I have been eating so differently than I normally eat. Some of my usual favorite foods couldn’t be more unappealing to me right now {don’t even mention bacon or chicken… barf!!}. It’s pretty sad! Initially I had been craving sugary junk food, which is SO unlike me! My staple foods now consist of cheese {cottage cheese is the BEST!}, potatoes and yogurt. I am really loving bland, basic foods quite a bit.

{Second ultrasound at 13 weeks. So amazing to see the changes!}

Some of my favorite parts of the first trimester have been:

Finding out that several of my very good friends are also expecting babies this spring and summer. It has been so fun to go through the first stages of pregnancy with friends!
Sharing the news with family and friends. We’ve had some pretty enthusiastic reactions, funny questions and lots and lots of excitement. That’s been super fun.
Seeing Alex step up and take charge when I’ve been too tired or sick to do much of anything. He’s been an enormous help and I am most looking forward to seeing him as a dad.
Watching the progression and growth of the baby from my 8 week ultrasound to 13 weeks. It’s amazing that the baby’s organs and body is already fully formed!

{Eight weeks and starting to feel the symptoms of pregnancy... yuck!} — {Eight weeks hit and like clockwork, so did the morning sickness… yuck!}

Some of the worst parts of the first trimester have been:

Realizing that for the rest of my life I will perpetually worry about this little thing that is growing inside of me. There will never be a point in time where we’ll be “in the clear” about anything. That sobering reality hit me pretty quickly.
Spotting at week 6. I quickly called the on-call doctor who told me I was having a miscarriage. Just like that, no questions asked. Thankfully he was wrong, but we were on pins and needles for a week waiting for blood work to come back to confirm the pregnancy was still viable. That also made it hard to adjust to the thought of being pregnant.
Being in a constant state of nauseousness. The food aversions have been really strange and it’s sad to be so grossed out by food that I usually love.
This isn’t bad compared to the rest, but I’ve been having really unexpected insomnia. I get up for the second or third time in the night to go to the bathroom {the frequent trips to the bathroom hasn’t been fun either!} and then can’t get back to sleep at all.

{10 weeks and just starting to show! This was a really exciting day for me when things started to feel real. Throughout the whole first trimester I kept having this nagging question of "am I making this up!?" in the back of my head.} — {10 weeks and just starting to show! This was a really exciting day for me when things started to feel real. Throughout the whole first trimester I kept having this nagging question of “am I making this up!?” in the back of my head.}

Now that I’m into my second trimester, I am really looking forward to:

Continuing to dream about our future family with Alex and talk about the life we want for our little ones.
Starting prenatal Pilates {late January} and meeting some new preggos in that class and through my neighborhood mom’s group.
My bump growing!
Beginning the process of picking out baby stuff and furniture for the nursery.
Obviously meeting the babe, but I’m focusing on the now 😉

Relaxing Weekend in Leavenworth

For a lot of occasions like birthdays, anniversaries and Christmases Alex and I opt to get each other “experiences” rather than something tangible. For us, the time together is more meaningful. This year my Christmas gift to Alex was a weekend away in Leavenworth, Washington at the Sleeping Lady Resort.

{This is the rock pool at the resort! Really neat concept. It was really foggy and overcast for our stay, so I didn't get any good pictures, due to the lighting.} — {This is the rock pool at the resort! Really neat concept. It was really foggy and overcast for our stay, so I didn’t get any good pictures, due to the lighting.}

We cashed in on Alex’s gift as soon as we could after Christmas and headed out there this past weekend. Both of us had been to the Sleeping Lady Resort before, which is why it was so appealing to go back. The resort is really unique – the owner turned it from a camp into a high-class resort in the mountains.

Each “room” is essentially its own cabin and there are different clusters of cabins strewn across the property. They all have very modern amenities and are very, very comfortable with nice linens and robes and the like. We were once again very pleased with the accommodations. One of the special perks is that the resort has a huge dining lodge where they offer a gourmet breakfast and dinner buffet that is included with your stay. We felt like we were eating like kings all weekend!

{This is the style of the buildings/cabins on the property.}

So – about the trip now… we arrived around dinner time on Friday night, got checked into our room and then headed straight for the dining lodge. Because it’s a buffet, we were able to pace ourselves how we wanted and ended up having a wonderfully slow and leisurely dinner.

When we awoke the next morning it was snowing! After our relaxing breakfast we took a nice stroll around the resort property. Neither one of us had been to the Sleeping Lady when it was particularly light out, so we hadn’t gotten the chance to do much exploring.

The rest of our morning and early afternoon was spent in downtown Leavenworth where we popped into some shops and had a delicious sausage at our favorite place, Munchen Haus. We needed to fuel up for our afternoon of cross country skiing!

Alex had never been cross country skiing and I had only been once, but not since I was in 5th grade – so about 20 years ago! We rented our gear from the Mercantile shop at our resort and walked across the street to the public cross country ski trail {couldn’t have been more convenient!} and after watching a quick YouTube video titled “How to Cross Country Ski” we set out for our excursion.

Our afternoon of cross country skiing turned out to be the highlight of our trip. We had been talking for a couple years about getting into nordic skiing but just never bit the bullet. Now with our little babe on the way we figure that once s/he arrives, it will be much easier for us to strap the kid into a backpack and go cross country skiing, rather than having to trade off who stays in the lodge with the baby while the other one of us downhill skis by him/herself. Plus, it is absolutely fantastic exercise! Both of us are sore in places we’ve never been sore before. We’re hoping to convince one of my cousins to come out with us and give us a few pointers so we can master the skating part of nordic skiing, rather than just the scooting part 😉

The rest of our Saturday was spent sitting in front of a great outdoor fire at O’Grady’s Pantry {a little restaurant on the Sleeping Lady property}, napping and enjoying another slow-paced dinner at the resort. Both of us were ready to tuck into bed early that night!

Our stay at the Sleeping Lady included ski passes at Stevens Pass, so on our way back home to Seattle on Sunday we stopped at the ski resort to get some downhill turns in. With the Seahawks/Vikings playoff game on Sunday both of us expected the resort to be completely empty – we were grossly mistaken! It was an absolute zoo! This was the starting weekend of the ski lesson program, so we’re guessing that was the culprit. In addition to the crowds, it was really foggy and there was almost no visibility and the conditions were less than ideal. Needless to say, we took a few runs and continued home… It was a little disappointing, but it wasn’t the best day to be skiing.

All in all, we had a fabulous weekend away! Alex and I have been so enjoying the quality time we’ve been spending together lately. I hope we’re able to take a few more little trips before our little one arrives soon!