penn

4 weeks

It is hard to believe that the 4th of July was four weeks ago today. The entire month of July completely slipped by in a whir of baby. When we first held her, she was this new little alien in our lives. Despite being acquainted with her for 40+ weeks on the inside, it was so different to hold Julie in my arms.

Now, we are comfortably acquainted. I almost always know what she wants (usually, to eat). She focuses well and sometimes even turns her head to look at us. Suffice to say that every day I fall more in love with our little girl.

Here are some photos from the past month. I'm doing weekly pictures, but I also try to snag shots with my nice camera from time to time. I am doing daily iphone pics, but they're not quite as nice as the ones from my dSLR. This first one is on her literal birth day; one of Julie's first pictures.

39 weeks pictures

We hit 39 weeks of gestation this past Sunday, and I had a friend take some pictures of us for posterity. We hadn't done any nice posed photos since our wedding, so it was about time.

I'll be 40 weeks this Sunday, and the little one is still hanging in there. Not a lot to report at this time; I've been using my days to nest, rest, and sometimes work on school stuff. My parents fly in Saturday night, and I can't wait to see them.

Here's a few of my favorite pics from the shoot:

Twins

As in, our local baseball team ;-)

We've only been to one Twins game so far this season. Matt is a HUGE fan, but we have had other items on our plate, like finishing up the school year and prepping for the baby. We did go to Spring Training this year, which I think was the highlight of our March spring break trip to Florida for Matt.

I was 23 weeks pregnant in this photo and just starting to show a bit. I wasn't wearing any maternity clothes yet; I still fit into my "fat" shorts.

Even though the Twins lost that game to the Orioles, we still had a great time. We were in the "cheap" seats and still close to the field and right behind home plate.

And, finally, for an extra measure, here's me on Monday. At 37 weeks pregnant, I definitely show a lot. This is the only Twins shirt I can wear right now:

I'm not quite as swollen anymore as I look in the pic. This was taken right before we went swimming, and the water really helped me be less puffy. Of course, I do have a huge belly. Moment of pride for me: I still have an innie belly button. Here's to hoping it stays that way and doesn't get messed up; I rather like my belly button.

Love

"Love does not just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new." ~ Ursula K. LeGuin

It's been awhile, but our spring break in early March was a wonderful way for Matt and I to reconnect and continue to remake our love. I feel blessed every single day that I have found such a wonderful partner. He takes care of me in so many ways, and he has been even more wonderful during the pregnancy. I imagine he'll be a great dad.

One of our favorite things about our trip to Florida was spending time on the beach. I just have a few pics from the iphone; I never got around to uploading our other pics (maybe one of these days!). The water was warm to me, even though the Florida locals thought it was still too cold for swimming.

NASA

Matt and I have been in Florida the past week. In fact, we leave tomorrow, and I will miss the sunshine (though I am happy to get back to Lucy kitty and my own bed, and I have work waiting for me). To help me soak up every last bit, I'll be blogging some highlights from our trip.

We flew into Ft. Myers and drove to Orlando the next day to see my dad. He was at a conference. We had just enough time for lunch, and then we dropped him off at the airport. The next day (Wednesday, 2/26), we took advantage of a cloudy and cool (for Florida) day to visit Kennedy Space Center.

I'd been to KSC before, so a lot of stuff was familiar. However, a wonderful new item since my last visit 5 years ago was the space shuttle Atlantis! The shuttle was huge, and it was really cool to be so close. We couldn't touch it, but we got a really close view.

I tried my hand at landing a lunar module, but I think I need a lot more training before I am ready to be an astronaut (not to mention 20/20 vision).

We also got to see an IMAX movie about the International Space Station, check out some Hubble telescope pictures, and do the Shuttle Launch Experience (well, Matt rode, and I sat in the observation lounge so that I heard the experience but didn't do the rolling and shaking).

All in all, a fun day. KSC is pricey but worth the visit. We did pack our own lunch (the food is nothing to write home about, as I remember) and then made the most of our visit.

Zoo Lights

One of my favorite things during our time in Oregon was visiting the Zoo Lights. I used to visit zoos regularly. During college, I had a zoo membership with a guest pass; trips to the zoo were a fun distraction from studying (and sometimes in addition to studying when I went for class!).

My parents have a zoo membership, and we decided to visit. Not all the animals are visible during the zoo lights, so we visited a little early to check out a few exhibits. One of the highlights of the night was getting to see a 3 year old baby elephant at the zoo! I also got to see my favorite duck, the bufflehead:

By far, though, was the magic of seeing all the decorations. The zoo was much more decked out than it has been in years past. I only took a few pictures -- light conditions were challenging -- but I wish I could have taken many more. Definitely worth a visit.

Home for the holidays

We're back in Minnesota already, but I still want to recap our holidays briefly. We had a great 9 days in the greater Portland area. The time flew by super fast. We spent most of our time at home with the family: playing games, cooking, watching football, or making music.

The main game we played was Ticket to Ride, a route-making, spatial, map-based game. In this game, your goal is to reach destinations, based on "destination cards" you received, by building routes. Some routes can get quite circuitous, but all you have to do is connect your given cities.

We also played a lot of Blokus (a family favorite), Qwirkle, and ping pong.

I brought along my ukulele. To my great relief, I had no issues carrying it on to any plane. I did make it one of my two carry-ons each time, but I was still concerned because it is longer than a standard suitcase. My brothers and I all played some, and we even started teaching Matt how to play.

We also visited the coast with our beagle. Can you believe this dog is 15? I can't. She is still spry like a puppy and loves her walks. She is going deaf and a little bit blind, but she manages okay. Also, somehow, she sometimes manages to hear anyway. We went to Seaside for the superior beach walking and a specific restaurant my parents like.

This is my younger brother walking the dog:

Matt and I played with her too:

Finally, all of our stockings hung up. Matt's and mine, my parents, my older brother, my younger brother, and his girlfriend. We do stockings Dec 6th for St. Nicholas Day, and we all know we must bring our stockings back home for Christmas in order to receive another one next year.

All in all, a delightful trip. Living so far from my family is hard, and I really cherish our time together when we can get some.

Getting home

This year, the holidays once again found Matt and I traveling to Oregon. Even before leaving Minnesota, I found this amazing mural on the wall of a bathroom in terminal E at the MSP airport:

And also this playful drain in the sink in said bathroom:

We traveled through Chicago O'Hare on the way out to Oregon. We had a decently long layover, but of course our plane from MSP was delayed. This lead to a quick walk across O'Hare to get to our next gate. I did tell Matt that it wasn't truly a trip to O'Hare without a little sprinting.

Throwback Thursday

Wherein I check out an old photograph . . .

This is a picture from spring of 2002. The lovely lady is a friend who was studying abroad at my college that term. We met formally after a few weeks of smiling in the communal bathroom. She asked for help with an English assignment: "what are you doing for spring break?" I tried to explain, then said, "heck, why not come with me? Then you can see for yourself!" It was all over; we became fast friends.

She went with me on spring break, which included a medieval recreation, sailing on a yacht in Lake Washington (cold!), hiking, and spending time with my family and friends. Fall semester, she returned to my university, and we roomed together.

I haven't seen her in years, but we still keep in touch via Facebook. This picture reminds me of all the happy times we spent together.

Tuesday Two-fer

A gorgeous butterfly from my sushi dinner the other night:

Part of a Halloween costume I saw -- she was dressed up as a squirrel with the appropriate accessory: