Elephant

Remember how I thought that I would have a boy? Well, I started knitting this little toy, for the boy, I was sure we were having... When I found out we were having a girl, I just finished it because I thought it was so darn cute. Hope Sophia likes elephants! :)

Camping

Ok, this post is a bit late, but last month, Rich and I drove down to Moab for his birthday weekend, and went camping. I forgot how much I love camping.... especially now that I get to stay in the nice warm bed, while Rich gets up in the cold of the morning to make the fire. :)

We went on a fun little hike. I say little because, pregnancy and hiking aren't super compatible. This hike took us about an hour, with a few breaks here and there so I could catch my breath.





I love the red rocks down there! It's so pretty... my camera doesn't do it justice. (I remember when that shirt actually fit! Haha!)

After driving around and looking at many a campsite, we finally found the one and started unpacking.


Here's our campsite. Rocco was in heaven because he could actually bury his food out in the wild. At home, he tries to bury it by spreading it all over the floor, or putting a toy over his food dish. I think he realized it wasn't as rewarding as he thought because he didn't eat any of the food after it had been covered in the dirt.

He loved camping, but came home SUPER dirty!

This was in the morning, we made some oatmeal and let me tell you, oatmeal never tastes as good as it does when you're camping. Delicious!!


And this is the reason we went camping... our "new" truck. We just put a mattress in the back and slept on that. There was no way I would be sleeping on the hard ground! Sleeping in the truck worked out really nice, and we were super toasty. Ah, I'm excited to go again!

LAS VEGAS

Last weekend Rich and I drove to Las Vegas to see one of my old roomies at her reception. It was fun seeing some of our friends there and of course, seeing the happy couple!

Megan looked beautiful! I love her dress!

Here's me, Megan, and Shannon... the old Pepertree condo roommates. Spending time with these girls in Vegas are some of my most memorable. We had the best kitchen in our condo and would all sit around the bar talking and laughing until it was waaaay past my bedtime.

My good friend (and former boss) let us stay at her house. She was so hospitable!! What other host would give up her master bedroom and put nutter butters on our pillows?? I'm sad I didn't get any pictures with her (or our friend, Dormisha, who stopped by to say hello). :(

Oh boy, do I miss the weather there!! We were able to go for a hike at Mt. Charleston. It was bright and early and still warm enough to hike with only lightweight clothes on.

We hiked up to a lookout point where you could see the Vegas strip in the distance.

Such a pretty view!

This is the gardens at the Bellagio. They are celebrating the Chinese New Year. (The year of the Rabbit).

So festive!

Its funny that when I lived in Las Vegas I thought I would never want to go there for a vacation. I thought living there would cause Vegas to lose it's appeal to me, but I love going there now more than ever before. We can eat at our favorite spots and we know how to get around. We know where to go for some good hiking, biking, swimming, and tennis. There are so many fun things to do there! I'm glad we live close enough still to have weekend getaways there.

Motherly instincts??

For those of you who don't know yet... Rich and I are expecting our first baby at the end of June!! We are SUPER excited! We both thought it is a boy, in fact, I was 99% sure I am carrying a boy. However, I had an ultrasound last week and it told us that we are, for sure, having a GIRL! So much for my motherly instincts! So, to get in the "girly" mood, I went shopping with my friend, and bought a couple outfits.




I had a hard time getting away from blue, but i fell in love with these pj's! And I think they are still girly enough.




Thanks to Carter's I'm more thrilled than EVER to be having a little girl. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our holidays were just full of family time and fun. We went to my mom's on Christmas Eve where we ate and spent time with her, my sister, and her kids. Then went to Rich's sister's house to eat again and spend time with them.

On Christmas day, we opened our presents, went for a Christmas walk, ate a nice big breakfast, opened more gifts, and then went to his sister's house again. It was a perfect holiday and I felt so blessed to be around such wonderful people.

(Don't mind my grumpy look in this photo... it was a practice one for our Christmas card pictures but the good ones are on his sister's camera.) Here's our house all decorated with garland. I think Rich did a great job making it look festive. :)

This is our Christmas breakfast. It was a lot of fun to make something new. We were stuffed by the time we were finished!

Here's Rich and Rocco on our Christmas walk. We went to a place nearby called Memory Grove. It's fun because, not only is it beautiful down there, but you can let your dog off the leash. I love watching how happy Rocco gets sprinting as fast as he can.

As you can tell, it wasn't a very white Christmas... or a very cold one.

Here's our loot on Christmas morning. I love seeing a bunch of wrapped presents... so exciting!

Because our house is so small, we wanted to get a tree that would fit perfectly in a spot in front of the window. We like this one because it's so tall and skinny and wouldn't take over the room. By now, all our Christmas decorations are put away until next year and I kind of already miss them. :)

"The Windy Apple" - Homer Simpson

Rich and I just got back from New York City. We had so much fun!! We got a hotel right by the Ed Sullivan theater (it was pretty dumpy and small, but we LOVED the location).

This was our first day there. These are genuine smiles because the lady who took our picture was holding the camera toward her at first so we could see her up close face on the camera's screen. We still laugh about that.

We made a visit to the public library that day. We tried to spend a lot of time inside, since it was yucky outside because of the rain. I love this library... it's so beautiful inside. There is a ton to see here.





We won tickets to the David Letterman show! It was one of the most enjoyable things we did there. Steve Martin was his guest and made us laugh out loud.

This is ground zero.
We saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance.


I LOVE a good hot dog, and the ones sold on the streets of NYC are one of the best I've had. DELICOUS!

We visited this old church across from ground zero, that the firefighters used as a refuge after 9/11. It has all these old headstones in front of the church. SPOOKY!


We checked out Wall Street. Not very exciting, but the buildings sure are tall. :)


Here's the Brooklyn Bridge. Very pretty.

We made a stop at Grand Central Station.


It's a lot bigger than I imagined.

We stood in line for tickets to West Side Story in Times Square. While waiting, I asked Rich who that was a statue of in the background and he joked, "Me."

See the resemblance?

The curtain before West Side Story began. I loved this musical. The dancing was incredible, as well as the songs.

The NYC marathon was held today (Sunday) but we missed it since we left the city on Saturday. We did get to see all the preparations for it though and that was pretty cool. Here I am pretending to run at the finish line (I am SUPER grateful that I'm not really running it. Boo to running!!)

Rich in Central Park.

These are American Elms, in case you were wondering. You should plant them in your front yard. :)

Here is where we sat for a little snack. We got roasted almonds (So good!) and listened to a band play. You can see the people gathered off to the left of the photo.

Ah, Autumn!

Can you see those rowers in the water? That gave us a good idea...

This was a lot of fun! I was so nice to just sit and let Rich row us around the lake. Thanks, Rich! :)



We then ate at the best restaurant of our trip. It was a french restaurant in Central Park. I don't remember the name of it, but oh, boy... yum!! Rich got a tuna sandwich... the best tuna sandwich I've ever tasted, too.

And I got the hummus platter. YUM!

This was my view in the restaurant. It was really small, but I loved how they decorated with pumpkins.

Here we are, outside of Macy's. I can't wait to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and see this part of New York again!

Here's the Empire State building. It's very tall.

Rockefeller Center. We sat here and watched the ice skaters for a little minute. Everything is so festive there, this time of year!

They even wrap up their buildings!

Here we are lounging in our hotel lounge.


The swanky lobby. We really enjoyed our hotel, even though it was super loud. It felt like our home away from home for a few days.

Here we are in the Subway, waiting to go to Penn station, where we would then take the train over to Long Island for our final night.

The train ride over to Long Island.

What better way to end our trip than by eating McDonald's in bed, watching Dumb and Dumber? It was like icing on the cake! :)