10 months... and still counting!

So my due date is here and the baby is not. I wonder what it feels like to go into labor all on your own. I was actually excited to get that experience, but I don't think it's going to happen this time either. I really hope I don't have to wait 10 days to get induced, like I did with Erek. I have an appointment in a couple of hours and I am going to hopefully schedule something for Saturday. I kept feeling like this little girl was going to come early, and then we decided to move a week and a half before my due date and I was doing everything I could to keep her in until we moved. Now I am ready and she is still just hanging out, loving life where she is. :) I'm guessing she isn't going to be very small either, considering I feel like a gigantic bus and can't believe how much my tummy sticks out. I'm so excited to see her and to hold her and I don't think I have ever felt so excited to go into labor. Wish me luck!

P.S. I do plan on finishing my vacation post, but it might have to wait until later.

Day Three of our Coeur d' Alene Vacation

Day three started off in the streets of Downtown Coeur d' Alene for the 4th of July parade.

Here is a picture of Erek and his Grandma Evie and behind them is Grandpa Rusty with Mikey.

This is one of Erek's famous looks. He likes to try and be sneaky and look at people without turning his head.

The poor little guy doesn't like the heat very much. His cheeks always turn pink.

After the parade, we took a 30 minute drive to a little town named Kellogg. They have a nice ski resort, and in the summer time, you can still ride the Gondola to the top of the mountain.

Here is Brian and Erek, Grandma Evie, Brian's brother Mike and wife Taylor, and their kids Mikey and Carter.

Enjoying the ride.

Erek just woke up and was a little confused.

Erek (18 months), Mikey (19 1/2 months).

There was a fun little park at the top of the mountain for the kids to run around in. Notice the sign next to the slide. (Children ages 3-11 ONLY please.) We don't follow the rules.

We ended the day back in Downtown Coeur d' Alene next to the lake to watch the fireworks. The sun doesn't go down until about 9:30, so we had to wait around until 10:30 to watch the show. Erek had already fallen asleep by then, but the rest of us enjoyed it!

Day Two of our Coeur d' Alene Vacation

Most of day two was also spent in the car. We did take a small little detour through Idaho Falls. It took my breath away to stand next to the falls and hear the rushing water so close. I wanted to stay there all morning!

Brian reminded me that we had only been driving for a few hours and needed to get back on the road though, so we piled back into the car. Most of the drive was through Montana (which is beautiful!) and finally in the early afternoon we were passing through Northern Idaho with only a few hours to Coeur d' Alene. I was amazed at how many trees there were! Everywhere we looked there were pine trees covering every inch of space around us. (We went on a little hike looking for huckleberries a few days later in our trip and I will post some of the great shots I got of the beautiful scenery in that post.)

Brian's brother Mike and his wife Taylor bought us tickets to go to the Demolition Derby with them that same evening. It was really hot and we were pretty tired from driving all day, but we still ended up having a great time! It's hard not to have a good time with Mike and Taylor. They are a blast and I was SO GLAD to finally spend some time with them! The derby was pretty cool. Erek LOVED watching all of the cars. His favorite word is Car and anything with two or more wheels on it, to him, is a car. The crowd was a little crazy and the cigarette smoke got to be unbearable, so we had to ditch out early, before the fireworks. We were bummed to leave, but more exhausted than we thought.

Here are some pictures from the Derby.

Uncle Mike, Erek and Brian

Aunt Taylor and Cousin Mikey.

Grandpa Rusty feeding Mikey a red slushy.

Mmmmm...

Day One of our Coeur d' Alene Vacation!

Technically, we didn't even get to Coeur d' Alene on day one, but it was all part of the vacation. We decided to drive the 24 hour trip at the last minute. Flying at the last minute would have been way more expensive. Plus we hadn't taken a road trip in a while and thought it felt like a good time. So... day one was spent in the car from 3am to 3pm. It wasn't a bad ride and Erek did really well.

The monkey around his neck isn't supposed to look like a choker. He wouldn't keep it on and kept suffering from bobble head syndrome, so I had to sneak it on while he was sleeping.

When we arrived in Salt Lake, we had dinner with my Mom and then stayed at her place for the night. I have been craving stinkin Cafe Rio since I moved from Las Vegas, so it was nice to go there for dinner and enjoy the goodness. :)

Just a quickie

I have been on vacation for just about the entire month of July and am coming home on Sunday. Phew! I am exhausted and need a vacation from my vacations! I have SO many pictures to post from our Idaho trip and can't wait to go through them.

I had a doctors appointment in between my two trips and found out that I am having a baby girl! Brian and I are really excited and are pretty settled on her name. We have decided to name her BrinLee. We haven't quite decided on a middle name yet, but have a few in mind. I can't wait to meet her!

A New Little Peanut

Today was picture day!

For those of you who don't already know, I'm pregnant!

I am 11 weeks along and due on December 22.

The many faces of Erek

The "hmm... am I busted?" face.

The "rockin out" face.

The "concerned" face.

The "not so sure" face.

The "leave me alone I'm drinkin my juice" face.

The "fake surprised" face.

The "trying to squint" face.

(My personal favorite.)

The "bashful looking away" face.

The "here I am" face.

LOST

Brian and I have been spending our evenings watching the seasons of LOST. I can't really decide if "spending our time" or "wasting our time" is the correct wording. We are both really enjoying the time together AND the fun-filled leave you on the edge of your seat confusing no answers episodes, but we aren't getting ANYTHING else done! The tv has completely sucked us in and yesterday we actually spent 4 hours watching it! So… are we wasting our time or spending our time? I’m going to go ahead and say spending our time. Maybe we should cut back to one or two episodes an evening though…

Will You Win?

I came across this fun little post on Abi's blog. I haven't been waiting for a reason to post to my blog like Abi mentioned on hers, but instead, feeling completely overwhelmed when I even think about posting to my blog. I am so behind! Everytime I think about writing a post I get this feeling of complete failure. I have wanted this blog to be more of a journal and a place that my family and friends can go to see what I have been up to, but I am totally slacking off! So, I have decided to start again with today and fill in the blanks as I go. But first, there is something that I have to do...

The first 5 people to respond to this post will receive something made by me. What I make will be my choice, but it will be made just for you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be an original and it will be made just for you.
3. It’ll be done this year (might be December 31st, but you WILL get something) and I will post all of my original creations as they are completed.
4. You will get no clues what it’s going to be. Heck, I don’t even know what it will be. I might paint or draw something. I might compose a jingle or short song. I might even write a short play just for you. Who knows? Whatever it is, it will be a surprise!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange

The catch? The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

Happy commenting (AND posting!)

Taking a stroll

Erek is mustering up the courage to get up off of his knees and walk! He loves to practice at home but I needed a change of scenery, so yesterday we went to the beach. It was a lot colder than it looks in these pictures, but you really can't tell with Brian wearing shorts and flip flops. At least I thought it was cold. Brian just laughs when I think 59 degrees is cold. I'm sure those of you reading this in other places of the world where it is ACTUALLY cold are laughing at me too, but hey! I grew up in Southern California! What did you expect? :)

Daddy and Erek.

I love the look on his face in this picture. I think he was as cold as I was.

We were at the Oceanside Harbor. This is a picture of the Oceanside pier south of us.

It's always fun at the zoo

It's so easy to just pack up a bag and head to the zoo. We have year passes, the parking is free and the weather is perfect. Or, I guess it was perfect up until this week. We went a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I made sure to take some pictures to document the occasion.

The sky ride is one of the BEST things to do at the zoo. It's free if you have a year pass and I think we could ride this thing back and forth the entire time we are there.

Erek liked to feel the wind in his face. You can even see the little bit of hair that he actually has blowing in the wind. Hehe...

The beautiful scenery from up high. Balboa Park in the distance.

The buildings in San Diego.

Erek didn't really enjoy the gorillas face to face up close.

He preferred to see them from the back side and from the opposite side of the glass.

He couldn't keep his eyes off of the gorillas as we were trying to leave.

Hehe... what a cute little Monkey!

We like to visit the orangutans everytime we go to the zoo. They are pretty active and like to come over and say hi to the kids. Erek was more impressed with the kid standing next to him however.

They were having a bonding moment.

A night out.

Haha... it's actually been a little while since we had a "night out". It's not that we don't like having a night out, we just love taking Erek with us when we go places. But this time was just for adults and we really had a lot of fun. It kind of made us want to have more and more "nights out" so whoever wants to go ahead a volunteer to babysit, that would be great. :)

We went with some friends to Pat N Oscar's for dinner and then to K-1 Speed in Carlsbad to race some go-karts a few weeks back. Go-karts that go 45mph! Yikes. I was a little intimidated at first, but after I was T-boned by one of the guys, I was able to loosen up a little and get goin! Haha... actually, it took me the entire race to get over the T-bone incident. Luckily, we got to race twice so I mustered up the courage to put my foot on the gas and get goin! I actually placed 4th out of our group of 7 the second time! Not bad considering there were 4 guys and I actually beat one of them. :) It was Brian's first time racing go-karts like these and he placed 2nd! Way to go babe! Charles, the guy who got first place must race these things at least once a week. It was his idea and he is good! We totally should have taken pictures with our gigantic helmets. Pretty hilarious. Next time.

Here is a picture of the track we raced on.
And here are the pictures of our awards ceremony.

Me and my honey.