Spring Break {The Florida Keys}

I was singing the Beach Boys Song --Key Largo, Montrego... that's where we wanna go...

Anyway, I've always wanted to go to the Keys and see what's they're all about. This turned into a road trip instead of a destination, but it was so fun to drive through the Everglades, and then drive through the keys and go on one of the most famous US drives and enjoy some road trip time with my love.

Thanks to our awesome cousins, we had a few 'must-do's for our first trip to the Keys. Feed the tarpoons, key lime pie, and the 7 mile bridge. So fun!

So gorgeous! That's HWY 1 you see...

Those tarpoon were soo big!

This Pelican was ruthless--

On the original 7 Mile Bridge.

Can't wait to go back to the keys for snorkeling, jet skiing, Key West, etc. A future trip for sure.

Next Stop: South Beach!

Spring Break {Part 1: Coral Gables}

When you live in a cold climate, a winter/spring get-a-way is the perfect way to avoid winter blues. Not only is it fun to plan a long weekend away, I also think its necessary for a healthy marriage to plan for some alone time and soak up some much-needed sun & fun together. This year, we wanted to do something quick and easy so we headed Florida. While I've been to FL a few times, I've never spent much time in Miami, or been to the Keys or the Everglades. Our itinerary was jam-packed and we had a blast exploring the Southern Florida Coast!

In an effort to not have one overwhelming post-- I'll try to capture our fun in a few succinct posts. Here is a quick overview of our trip (found as a place mat at a yummy cuban restaurant).

We started in Miami, drove through the keys to Bahia Honda, back up the keys to South Beach (Miami). Then drove through the Everglades over to the West Coast to spend a few days in Naples!

We flew out Thursday night,  and stayed in a super nice hotel in Coral Gables (which felt so good after a delayed flight). Friday morning we wanted to start our vacay right with a little R&R by the pool-- the rooftop views were an added bonus.

 After our morning news and sun tanning we had a big breakfast and found ourselves exploring-- a state park was across the street and little did we know it was the land of one of Florida's first settlers. The views of the bay were gorgeous and the tropical walk through the property was an added bonus!

I love these cool trees!

Next stop -- The Florida Keys!!

Pregnancy Diary {20 Weeks}

With so many friends and family living far away, I thought it would be fun to share a few highlights of my pregnancy so far. I'll start a few weeks back -- when I finally had a belly to share.

Before Church 3/4/2012 - 20 Weeks, 1 Day

• Our 20 week highlight was the ultra sound, where we learned little peanut is a boy!! We were surprised and are so excited to learn more about this little bundle of joy coming our way. 
• That evening, we hopped on a plane for a weekend get-a-way to Florida (more posts on that soon). It was such a treat to enjoy time together, nice hotels, the beach, yummy food and family!
• I haven't had any crazy cravings yet, but I do love/want fruit at all times (apples, kiwi, cuties, pineapple, etc). Also, anything sweet and sour sounds amazing like, limeaid drinks, sour patch kids, etc. I've been eating a lot of green salad too.
• I'm feeling so good these days! The experts are right when they say the 2nd trimester is the best! My nausea stopped around week 15 (which is awesome for my appetite!), and I haven't had a migraine since week 18. Finally feeling like 'myself' again! 
• Every now and then I need a nap, but definitely not feeling the extreme exhaustion I was feeling in the first trimester.
• I try to exercise everyday, and you can find me at the gym 4-5x/week. Lately I've been taking a lot of classes -- like yoga, step, pilates, kick-boxing, etc. I hope baby likes all the movement!
• I've been waking up to go to the bathroom for weeks now. I'm lucky if it's only once a night. I really treasure my sleep! If I don't get good sleep -- the following day will not be my best.
• Another sleep-killer is being congested. My nose gets stuffed up and I end up with dry mouth in the middle of the night! Ugh. I bought some dry mouth gel to help...weird pregnancy side effect.
• I've been feeling baby kick for a few weeks now (since week 18). It's such a weird sensation and really makes the pregnancy seem more real! I can't wait to share it with Ryan. 
• My belly finally popped the weekend we were in Florida. I had gained weight, but wasn't showing and I was started to get frustrated -- I wanted to look pregnant! It seemed like it was overnight that I popped out and now everyone can definitely tell I am carrying a lil one with me :)
• I thought once we knew it was a boy, we would be able to figure out some good name options. We are still struggling through this one! We are taking suggestions...

 xo
Future Mama

Happy St Paddy's Day!

This year's St Patrick's Day was a little different than the last. For one thing -- St Patrick's Day landed on a Saturday-- which meant that the Chicago Festivities actually happened on the holiday (typically they are the Saturday before). Also, we've been enjoying this amazing warm spell, and it was a balmy 80 degrees! (Last year, it was 40, cloudy/windy/freezing -- see post here). As a result, we were not only wearing shorts, but there were thousands more people taking over our city than normal...

This year, in addition to the St Patrick's Day festivities, we also had a Stake Youth Service project, so we picked up my amazing young women and headed to Logan Square to get organized. I got to enjoy a festive GREEN donut before taking a few youth to a Low-Income Retirement Facility to make breakfast, make St Patrick's Day crafts and play Bingo!! Our youth are amazing and I loved helping them serve. (I also loved the opportunity to give them a brief history lesson on St Patrick's day as we drove around Chicago and observed the hundreds of people "enjoying" the holiday at 9am ....)

Of course St Patrick's Day in Chicago wouldn't be the same without a glimpse of our green river, so we headed over to check it out. It was a little more difficult to get from point A to point B in Chicago with all of these crazies out and about ---

Birds-Eye View from our friend's balcony. See the rooftop and the lines to get into this pub??

Did I mention it was 80 degrees?!

appropriate car for the holiday...

Later in the day we enjoyed a walk through the city with frozen custard, and a water taxi ride home!

After a busy day serving and enjoying Chicago, we had our own little BBQ-- pork chops, green salad and mashed potatos-- delish! What a great Saturday!

Our Big News.
We broke the news on Facebook yesterday-- we are expecting!! We are so excited to meet our little boy in July 2012. I'm 21 weeks and feeling great. I'm sure I'll be sharing more updates on my pregnancy experience soon, now that 'we went public'.

He's a kicker! I love that he is showing off his personality already.

Naples, FL pier. 21 weeks!

South Pacific
One of my favorite things about living in Chicago is the easy access to so many AMAZING Broadway shows!! South Pacific was in town and we scored some sweet tix so on a Friday night we walked over to the Cadillac and enjoyed an amazing show.

I love the inside of these beautiful old theaters!

We actually met a member of the cast at church the Sunday before we went to the show. It was fun to see someone we 'knew' performing! The songs, actors and everything was amazing. I didn't know anything about the show before we went and I was mesmerized the whole time. Such a fun date night!

Day of Love.

If you read my previous post you know that I spent my V-Day in California ...

I had to be in San Francisco on Feb 15th, so Valentines Day 2012 with Ryan was likely not to happen. So, I got the next best thing-- spending it in California with my family and friends!! I had a really great V-day. It started out with a morning at Grandma's, then I ran some errands for my mom before meeting one of my besties at Luigi's for lunch (OMG I forgot how amazing that place is). Then an afternoon of cuddle time with Daniel & dressing him up in his vday outfit!!

That evening I spent my v-day dinner with Grandma and my Uncle Bubba-- Tony's pizza (again, amazing) and a night of NCIS!

Of course I couldn't let the day go by without telling my love how much I love him. So when he got home from work he found this:

I also made the card for Ryan showed above and hid it in a cupboard with a little care package with some goodies & treats and Ryan's favorite dinner in the fridge :). I love showing Ryan how much I love and appreciate him and I hate being away from him!!

But don't you worry --- there are perks to not having a Valentine on Valentines Day. Like booking a great reservation for the Saturday after valentines day!

We celebrated our Day of Love in style at Everest. We had an amazing dinner that was oh-so-romantic and had some of the best views this city has to offer!!

In Ryan's words -- why just celebrate love on just one day of the year?? I love celebrating our Love every single day. I'm so blessed!!

More of Baby Daniel

I couldn't get enough of my sweet nephew when I was in CA! He is so sweet and sooo little. And he makes the best faces!

I love this one!!

Waving hello. Sweet Uncle Matthew.

Papa and Daniel.

Of course we had to have him celebrating V-Day!!

I'm missing Daniel already! I don't even want to think about how big he will be the next time I see him! Luckily I know when that will be -- May!

Daniel's Baby Blessing.
I feel so blessed to have been able to be in Bakersfield for Daniel's Baby Blessing. My Dad, Brother and Mom were also there-- so we were just missing Tarin & Family! It was not only special to be there for the blessing, but also be as a family in our old Stake Center for church -- something we haven't done in 15+ Years.

Brandon did a beautiful job blessing Daniel, and sweet Daniel was an angel through the whole thing!! Of course we took lots of photos and then enjoyed lunch together that afternoon. I love family time!!

Thanks to everyone for coming to support!!

Sweet Grandparents -- but note Daniel was done with his photo session!

More photos of this sweet new baby to come!

California in February.

I had a work trip scheduled for San Francisco in February, so I took advantage of a long flight and tagged on a few days in Bakersfield to spend some time with my family and meet my new nephew!

It was so great to enjoy warm weather, amazing family and great friends for a few days, and also a lot of great food (El Pueblo, Tonys Pizza, Luigi's, BJ's, etc). Here are a few photos:

Lunch with Kelsie and Robin Ray (Friends for 25+ years) and Cathy Correa, our old Dance Teacher and sage, and of course Mom, Ash and Daniel!

Loving my sweet nephew, Daniel.

New Momma.

This is a blurry photo but I love seeing my Grandma with her sisters!!

Some of my besties!! Megs & Bella, Karah and Brooke. Missing Nicole!!

Our favorite--- yes, I went twice that weekend. Once with the girls (above) and then again with our family.

Dad had a hard time ordering, so he got 1/2 the menu. 

Our favorite- Shrimp Cancuun. Amazing!!

Don't worry -- more posts on CA to come!! Daniels Baby blessing & Valentines Day :)