Family Vacations #1

We had a great week of family coming to visit from WA! Zach and Mom and Dad Peterson came and we all stayed in a condo at Bear Lake. It was great! We enjoyed raspberry shakes, the olympics, and a cute little cafe in Paris, ID. Some of the highlights for us were getting Mom and Dad out to play tennis and Dad getting out on the wakeboard! I sat very jealously and watched all the wakeboarding in the boat. It was so sad and ironic that the only time since Justin and I have been together that we've been on a ski boat, with a wakeboard, I happen to be pregnant and can't go wakeboarding! It was a little bitter, but still a lot of fun to see Justin get some air and Zach and Dad try it for the first time.

I need to explain a few pictures...You see, there on the main street that goes by Bear Lake there is a large wooden carving. We were all a little freaked out by it, so we started calling it "the banchee". Then, the night before we left we decided we had better go get pictures next to it. I'm sure people stared as they drove by and wondered what we were doing, particularly when Dad was doing a kissing pose, but we had a great time with it anyway!

Beautiful Sunirse

Justin spent a few days at Scout Camp a couple of weeks ago, He had a great time and is loving his calling to work with the deacons in Scouts. The morning he left they went on a sunrise canoe trip and got amazing pictures of an amazing sunrise. They were so beautiful that I had to share.

Tagged...

Well, I've been tagged. So I'm supposed to write 10 interesting things about me...yikes:

1. Justin and I are addicted to a TV show called The Office. We are Office junkies. It's quite sad. It makes us laugh SO hard!

2. I can't stand to cook if the kitchen is messy (which it almost always is). It drives me nuts.

3. Justin laughs at this, but in my head all the items (mail, tools, papers, books, phone chargers, keys, phones, backpack/purses, shoes, etc.) in the house need to have a "home". And if I can't seem to find it a good home, I'll go to the store and buy something that will help me feel like it has it’s little home and it's organized in it’s little place and not just sitting out somewhere.

4. I love ice cream. And chocolate. They are some of my favorite things. In fact, I am sitting here eating some ice cream while I'm writing this. :)

5. I'm not very good at dealing with being emotional. I never seem to know what to do with myself. (One of the reasons I'm eating ice cream right now.) And this whole being pregnant thing has brought my emotional self to a whole new level. Help!

6. I love Justin's motorcycle (We got a motorcycle this last spring so Justin would have something to drive this summer). Who would have pictured me being married to someone who owned a motorcycle? And loving it! Not me for sure, but for my birthday, I asked him for a bright red motorcycle helmet. It didn't end up working out, but maybe next year...

7. My ears aren't huge, but they stick out like an elf. Multiple times in high school I was told that I looked like one of the elves on the Lord of the Rings movies.

8. I eat a lot. Really, I mean a lot.

9. I love to run by myself in secluded nature areas. I always feel like the birds singing are cheering me on. It just makes me smile.

10. Justin and I love playing tennis. We go play at night at the Logan high school courts at night and turn on the big lights and it makes us feel like we are at Wimbledon.

It's a Boy!!!

So...we had our ultrasound last week and found out that we are having a little baby boy! Yay! We are really excited and he is apparently already exactly like Justin. He has tons of energy and hates to sit still. He was wiggling all over the place and wouldn't hold still for more than a second. At one point the doctor was zoomed in on his legs and he started kicking them up and down just like he was running in place! We just sat there and laughed as he did it over and over again. That was my favorite part for sure. This is a profile of his face and stomach from the ultrasound.

4th of July - Tall Ships Festival

Justin and I had the best 4th of July! We made a last-minute decision to go to WA and see our families and have the experience of a lifetime of watching the fireworks from a huge sailboat (tall ship) on the water. It was amazing, particularly because we love sailing, we love fireworks, and because three years ago Justin passed up this exact experience to hang out with me most of the day and go on our first date!

I should explain a little I guess. So huge boats with big masts and sails are called "Tall Ships". About three years ago Justin and I had our first date at the tall ships festival (a festival where they have all these huge tall ships, like the ones on Pirates of the Caribbean, come from around the world and make port in Tacoma for a week) and ended up spending the rest of the day together. He had been volunteering as an Interpreter on a Russian ship and had a ticket to see the fireworks from that ship out on the water as it sailed around the bay. Instead, he stuck around with me all day, going from place to place and ended up on top of the Church roof watching the fireworks and looking at the stars. Isn't he sweet? It was a great time and we've loved the fourth of July ever since.

So, this year they brought in the Tall Ships festival again and my parents have been volunteering a ton with them, so they gave my mom 4 tickets to watch the fireworks from Commencement Bay on a ship called the Adventuress. She was so sweet and thought of Justin and I, and offered 2 of the tickets to us! How could we say no to that? So, we did a whirlwind trip up to WA, and celebrated our first date with the experience Justin had passed up. It was amazing! I think we are going to have to make it a tradition to go back for every Tall Ship Festival and have our first date all over again! Thanks Mom and Dad!!!!!!!!

Adventures in Babysitting...

So I have an adorable little niece and nephew that live here in Logan (Katie and Andrew), and Ang and Scott went on a cruise for the weekend with his work, so we told them we'd watch the kids. Whew! Man parenting is a lot of work! It really made both Justin and I think, "Can we really do this? Oh, well - it's a little late for going back now!" We really had a great four days with them and they are so cute, but I realized after we got back to our apartment that last night that I was emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted! I definately thanked Heavenly Father that kids come, usually, one at a time and as little babies so that you can get used to each other and grow together. I'm still not sure that I'm up for this whole thing, but I'm feeling a little better about it all as I look around and realized that people do it all the time and they survive and have wonderful lives and wonderful little families. (I feel a little like the little engine saying to myself "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.")

Some of my favorite moments from this weekend though were at the little play-date that we had in the park with Dana and baby Mason and taking pictures to capture how cute they all are. I can't get over how cute Katie is when she says in her cute little voice "baby" at every child under the age of 2 that she sees (even if they are way bigger than her). And I think the ultimate favorite moment of the weekend was when we were all visiting my work on Friday and Andrew and I went to the bathroom. We were each in our separate stalls and he was talking to me about various random things and then he said "Elise, I love you. Your my best friend." I was sitting there on the toilet and just had to laugh and think "Where else in a public restroom would I hear from someone that they loved me and that I was their best friend except from this cute little 5-year old!" It was priceless. I told him I loved him too and that he was definately my best friend too. I just don't think it gets much better than that!

Comments

So I have to apologize for being a dork. I always knew that people can make comments and that I can make comments on their blogs, but the thought somehow never crossed my mind that people had been making comments on my blog and that I should look at that little print underneath my posts! Nikki Marble was cutting my hair last week and said, "I made a comment on your blog, did you see it?" I just sat there bewildered like "ummm...no. I guess I've never actually looked to see if anyone had been leaving me comments. I didn't know people where even leaving comments on there!" And sure enough when I got home I looked and all sorts of people have been leaving me comments that I've never even noticed! So I'm really sorry if you've made comments over the last couple of months and I've never responded to them. I don't know why that thought never crossed my mind, but it really makes me laugh now how blind I can be sometimes!