Under the great big sky: August 2011

Friday, 26 August 2011

where we're at!

I am sitting in a motel room in Freeport, Maine (home of LL Bean, which we did go see on the way down here! And it's not as good as MEC ;). Last night it was raining as we started looking for a place to camp, and that combined with the tiredness of being on the move for quite a while now (and my slightly more fragile and prone to pampering pregnant self!) meant that we splurged for a motel. (aka the simple Super 8). And it was worth it. Clean sheets, nice shower, and all we have to do this morning is throw a couple things in the car, go eat some free breakfast, and hit the road. Right now dear Brian is still sleeping- poor guy, I keep waking up at 6 AM (really bad at sleeping in on vacation!). He has been driving the majority of this trip and we have a lot of miles to cover today so it's nice if he can rest a little longer.

So much fun and so much seen in the 16 days since we left St. John's. We have some pretty awesome pictures so I'll post some once I get them off my camera. But so many highlights and little things and big sights and sounds and oceans and views.

Brian and I celebrated our first anniversary on the 13th of August. We woke up at a beautiful oceanside campground in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia that morning. I snuck out of the tent and made coffee and fried eggs and oatmeal with peaches for breakfast- we ate it basking in the sun and then went for a glorious swim in the Atlantic. We drove leisurely for a few hours and then had ice cream followed by a lovely dinner at a bistro in Antigonish. Then we stayed at a bed and breakfast called the Blue Tin Roof. It was a great day. So special to celebrate our first year together on holiday like that. It has been one of the best, happiest, at times most challenging, and growing years of my life thus far. We have learned a lo together and I love Brian more than I did a year ago, and it just keeps growing. i pray we are blessed with many more years together. but God only knows our days, and I will cherish each one we have so far..

that's all for now. so much more to write but it's time to go. see you in NL!

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

One quick thing

We are leaving for our road trip this morning and I am excited.

So is Baby Claus! I felt him or her clearly kick me today as I lay there with my hand on belly first thing in the morning (has become custom, waiting to feel something in there). Not once, but three times! He/she is definitely in there! (not that I really doubted). Amazing!

Off we go to Nova Scotia. Don't worry baby, you're coming too. :) I guess you just had to remind us.

Monday, 8 August 2011

Updates from the land of fog

Well, we are leaving for our epic road-trip babymoon holiday in 2 sleeps! Thought I should get a quick little update in before then...

(In case you can't remember, we are driving across NL, then taking the ferry to NS- exploring Nova Scotia for a few days, then PEI and New Brunswick, a day in Maine.. and then Brian's conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire where I will relax and get to be the leisurely engineer's wife.)

Some recent events...

We went sea kayaking a couple weeks ago... a wedding gift from our friends Dave and Danielle. The weather was cloudy, but it was still fun!

Getting all fit into the boat

Out on the water

I only took a couple pics on the water because it wasn't the greatest spot for an SLR camera! Salty, wet, splashy... luckily they gave us drybags to put our cameras in, but I didn't want to bring mine out after all.

It's not as easy as we thought. Turns out that kayaking is a whole lot different from canoeing, especially on the open ocean. But we had a great morning trying it out and then had a nice picnic lunch on the east coast trail afterwards.

These two good friends picked Newfoundland for their honeymoon! Rebecca is my old roommate from Vancouver, and Dan lived in the basement at the time. But he waited until we all moved out to profess his love. :) They just got married on July 30 and I am so happy for them. It is also a testimony to their sense of joy and adventurous-ness that they survived the week of our worst weather yet this summer and still came out all smiles... and loving it! Though they are honeymooners after all I suppose.. ;)

the newlyweds Introducing Mr and Mrs Daniel and Rebecca Poelman! Looking radiant.

Awkward arms length-fit-everyone-in shot... but still fun.

And now the baby update. Things are coming along quite nicely. Here is my little mango...

19 weeks! I promise I will get ones with my face in them soon.. when we move and I get a new picture spot probably.

I also had my mid-pregnancy ultrasound this morning. We don't get official results until tomorrow but preliminary looks say everything is just fine. The only thing was... usually people get a nice strip of detailed pictures from these things. I, on the other hand, have a small shy squirmer inside there who was absolutely refusing to cooperate. It was pretty funny. The tech got me to go empty my bladder (in small amounts) twice just to see if things would shift a bit so little Button would move a bit better! But he or she would just not stop squirming and was all curled up into a ball. So he or she either has their mother's "I'm so antsy, I can't always sit still!" or their father's "I'm trying to sleep, leave me alone as I curl up in bed" traits.

Face! Kind of creepy looking, haha... but you can see eyes, nose, mouth and brain-space :)

We also do not know if the little one is a boy or a girl.. by choice, though I wonder if we could have even found out if we wanted to due to baby's stubborn streak. So the big reveal will have to wait... but I think that's more fun anyway. :)