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My sister is in California for the summer on an internship between her two years of business school. We were so excited when she suggested flying up for a weekend. Great to see her, and fun to show off our house. This is her fourth Seattle trip so we skipped the touristy things for normal weekend activities (the farmers market, the bread store, a walk around the neighbourhood and Grasslawn park, grilling). It was a treat to see her.

The weather finally cooperated, and she saw both Rainier and the Cascades. (The Olympics were hazed over, but we went down to Lake Washington and the sun on the water was at least pretty.) We have a handful of photos. At the farmers market:

And some of the pretty flowers:

Sharon with the bounty (including the mysterious kohlrabi):

And all of us at dinner, thanks to the tripod and camera timer:

It’s so nice to think that the next time we see her, the baby will be here, instead of just a kicking, hiccuping presence, and Sharon will be an aunt!

We are slowly starting to accrue more baby things. I’d made a series of spreadsheets, with links, a few months ago, but aside from placing an order for the crib and myriad knitting and sewing supplies, we’ve just been waiting. My parents offered to buy us a baby carrier though, and our moby wraps have now arrived! We’d gotten to try them out in our baby class, but we’d both managed to forget just how long they are – high amusement value.

They come with a thick booklet of possible wrapping strategies, and we both managed the basic without too much trouble. Can’t wait until there’s a baby to put in them!

On the bright side, pretty new shoes, and they were even on sale!

On the flip side (no pun intended), it’s a good thing that I like them so much because they’re my only option right now. In the last week or so, the foot swelling has graduated from occasional to constant. There are about two months left (this was week 32), so at least they can pass for pretty summer shoes instead of a desperate pregnancy choice. 🙂

Yesterday was our second wedding anniversary!

We went out to eat at one of the restaurants on the Kirkland waterfront, with a pretty view of the water and Olympics, and great strawberry basil margaritas (mine was less fun than Kevin’s, but still delicious). We had a table outside right at the edge of the balcony, so our view of all of the boat and swimming activity was perfect, and the sunset was lovely.

I remember thinking this last year, too, but it’s such fun to finally have an anniversary. We met seven years ago (crazy that it’s been that long – a quarter of our lives) while we were both out in Seattle for a summer internship at Microsoft. We didn’t know each other at the beginning of the summer and we were definitively together by the end, but the closest we’d gotten to putting a date on it had been the fortnight between our birthdays in the last two weeks of July, and generally it was more just the summer season. Actually having a day to remember, take stock, appreciate, and celebrate is quite fun. Even better that it holds all of the memories of our wedding, which was such a wonderful, happy day. As nostalgic as the day is, it also feels like we’re standing on the platform about to leap – pregnancy is one thing, but knowing that with next year’s anniversary we’ll be a family instead of a couple, the world feels like it’s about to get so much wider.

The second most popular baby question I’ve gotten, after “have you thought about names?”, is what our nursery theme will be. I feel terrible to have to let people down when they seem so interested, but I wouldn’t say that “themes” have ever been my strong suite. (Luckily, I’m not sure how much the baby will notice.) Theme-incompetence aside, we are making progress on the nursery front. After all of the furniture mayhem three weeks ago, we finally have a plan that we’re both excited about for how to free up one of the bedrooms. We have our great glider, have ordered a crib, and have our eyes on an IKEA bookcase that will complete the furniture. We’re planning to use the second vanity in our bathroom as a changer, and the preexisting closet shelves (with baskets and/or hangers) instead of a dresser. I found a pattern online for crib bedding that looks like extremely quick and easy sewing – I just need to find elastic and fabric. There’s the quilt. And then the only major decision-making left is what to do about the walls and floor.

We picked up paint samples after work on Friday – such a cheery pile of potential.

(The two vivid orange squares aren’t really contenders, they were just too pretty to leave there.) It’s been months since we painted anything (last project was the bathroom in January), and while I can’t say that I’ve exactly missed it as an activity, the color is a fun choice to make.

Also, we’ve been planning to replace the carpet in the two front bedrooms (one of the last remaining projects from our initial list), but it wasn’t a high priority item. Since we’re moving all of the furniture anyway, now seems like an ideal time. So we’ll need to find carpet samples, too.

No theme, but I think that both front bedrooms will look extremely pretty by the time we’re done, and it’s not that much work left. 🙂 Good timing, since last week finally marked the beginning of the third trimester!

We arrived home to find the yard brimming with brilliant flowers.

Our azaleas and rhododendrons are all beautiful, and we managed to catch the tail end of the lilacs (I have a nice big vase of them on our kitchen counter, and they smell wonderful).

Kevin went out with his macro lens, and had fun snapping photos of the bumblebees enjoying the rhododendron blooms.

The bush is right next to our front door, and the pink flowers are spectacular. It’s right outside Kevin’s office window (soon to be the baby’s room) and every time I walk along the path or through the hall, the size and sheer pinkness of the flowers is amazing.

We were quite delighted to see that the grass seed appears to have sprouted as well! It’s still early, but the lawn already looks impressively better. Kevin put in lots of time the week before we left raking up the moss (more than a yard waste bin’s worth! A herculean task) and then raking in the seed, so it’s great to see that a healthy amount of it took even without us here to coddle it. Also, apparently we had cool weather and sufficient rain while we were away so that the container plants didn’t bake — they all look happy and bigger.

The second half of our PA trip was a weekend in the Poconos with my mom’s side of the family to celebrate my grandparents 80th and 85th birthdays. The hotel was a stately place surrounded by nature trails and a golf course, and they offered a daily list of activities and good meals. Seeing everyone was wonderful, but it was especially fun to do it in such a pretty setting.

We arrived mid-afternoon and immediately found my mom, grandparents, siblings and cousin in the lobby.

The frequency and ease with which we ran into family members continued to make me happy all weekend. It was such a treat to be in the middle of family – we usually only get to see everyone a few times a year at holidays, and the long weekend visit was wonderful.

The hotel grounds were quite pretty. Here’s one of several hiking groups returning from a hike down to one of the nearby waterfalls with all of the loveliness in the background.

They had dancing on Saturday night – a grand march followed by open dancing with live music. Here’s my sister and grandmother processing by during the march.

The weather was great – sunny and warm most of the days, and then on Sunday our group lawn-bowling event was interrupted by a big thunderstorm, with nice, dark clouds and even a bit of hail. We all took cover under a porch until the storm passed.

(We barely get lightning in Seattle, and a good storm is always a treat to me.) A second storm rolled in a few hours later, but it would have been more fun to watch if it hadn’t disrupted a wedding. They ended up moving it under the roof on the main porch which also seemed pretty, but the bride looked distressed.

Our east coast trip was wonderful. The first portion was a trip home to see Kevin’s family for his sister’s graduation. For Nursing, there’s a pinning ceremony (which we attended — a happy, proud celebration for her nursing class) and a college graduation, which Kristina decided to skip. We have plenty of great photos from the pinning. Here’s Kristina and my in-laws beforehand:

In between graduation festivities, Kevin and his dad spent the first few days working on re-staining the deck. They did great work, and then Thursday was sunny and gorgeous so we all spent the day outside enjoying it. We’ve had a handful of beautiful days so far in Seattle, but nothing that compares to east coast summer weather.

We made a few pilgrimages to Dunkin Donuts. No photos, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Lots of time was also devoted to trying to let Kevin’s family feel the baby kick. He gets very quiet when I’m talking or moving a lot, and so it was hard to stay settled enough so that he’d really get going when other people were around. Increasingly, I can feel body parts pushing out, but it’s hard to decide what they are exactly (a knee? a foot?), and unless he moves other people usually can’t feel what I’m talking about. We had lots of failed kicking attempts, like this one:

I was so pleased that on the last evening everyone finally got to feel squirming and kicking.

As a quick project before we left on our trip, I made two more rice- and lavender-filled microwavable heating pads.

I inadvertently filled these ones a bit more than the original, but the slightly less moldable shape works well with the smaller size. They’re a great size for sticking in my suitcase. Since I still use my original heating pad more evenings than not, it’s a relief to know I’ll have a good allternative for the trip.

My parents have good friends who live in Seattle, and they’ve made a tradition of inviting us out when the Red Sox are in town. The seats are amazing — right behind the visitors’ dugout — and we always enjoy the game. The Sox are only in town once this season and so we were quite pleased to be invited again.

Sadly, the Red Sox lost, but it was still a great game to watch. The baby seems very into baseball — lots of kicking, especially when the game is tight. I’m sure I probably just have lots of adrenaline that he’s reacting to, but it does feel like he starts rally-kicking when when we need or get a great hit!