October Happenings

It's fall in Seattle!  It's been such a beautiful one too.  Not too much rain and just enough fall colors and leaves.  Brady always says that Utah is prettier in the fall than Washington, but I just don't believe him :) We had a few random adventures that I wanted to blog about, so here goes.
Brady planned a date night for us a few weeks ago.  We went to a sandwich shop and got some yummy soup for a cold night.  Afterward, we went to Barnes and Noble and we each picked out a few children's books to read for our baby.  It was so fun reading them together!  Brady picked a real gem.  We can't remember the name of the story, but Brady remembers the story.  It had such a sweet message about how a mother's baby will always be her baby no matter how big he gets.  Brady may or may not have teared up at the end :)

At the end of the story, this old mother still holds her "baby" even though he's a grown man.  We were laughing pretty good at the picture but it's still a really sweet thought :)

Then we went to the corn maze! I actually went with Hailey and Sofia when they had a day off from school, and then went again with Brady and Leah and Shay and Audri and Charles.  It was fun going with Brady because that was one of the first dates we had two years ago.  It's crazy to think how much better we know and love each other now, compared to two years ago!

The twins actually did a really good job of getting through the maze without my help!

Oh Brady... 

Hey creepy

We rode in a wagon to the start of the corn maze.  It was almost real... except there weren't horses to pull the wagon.  Just a boring tractor.  I was a little disappointed :)

This corn maze was in the shape of Washington state and even had a little Capitol building to represent Olympia!

Brady is about to sneeze?  It's always fun and spooky to go corn mazin' at night

Leah turned 25 on the 19th of October and we got to celebrate with her.  So crazy that she's a quarter of a century old!  Sure like her though... Shay just found out that he was accepted into the Teach for America program (which is very hard to get into btw) and they'll be moving to Indiana.  We're really excited for them and know it's such an awesome opportunity, but we're also really sad because we'll miss them so much!  Leah especially since she's my best friend!

Her birthday was really fun though.  We ended up going to the church building and we played soccer and basketball.  It was really embarrassing when we played basketball because it was Brady alone against me, Leah, Emily, and Colin and he totally beat us fair and square... twice.  :( Us Planks aren't much of basketball players I guess.  It was a good humbling experience, that's for sure.

I think this one went in even! Birthday girl shoots and scores! (is that a basketball phrase?  I never know...)

Colin being... Colin :)

<3

Colin has been staying in Seattle with Leah and I for the past couple weeks, because he's interviewing for jobs and will hopefully be living here permanently!  We're excited to have him so close.  He's gonna love living here.  We had some adventures the first week he was here.  We went on a 18 miles round trip bike ride to Gas Works park... I was pretty tired at the end!  Dang pregnant body can't handle as much as I used to... actually, I probably would be sore even if I wasn't prego.  It was really fun though!  Colin was kind enough not to go his normal speed of 25+ miles per hour and instead he stuck with me at 15 mph.  He said we got up to 20 mph at one point though and I was really excited!  I think it only lasted for about 15 seconds though :)

We didn't think about how cold it would be when we got to the park for our picnic.  We were shivering!

Colin was wearing a blue shirt originally, but changed into his yellow one when he realized I was wearing a yellow shirt.  Being twins is my favorite!

We met up with Leah and Shay at the Arboretum to have a nice stroll and picnic lunch.  Notice all the pretty leaves!

Went to Pike Place market and meandered through my favorite store.. Can't remember the name, but it's awesome.

Halloween was awesome this year.  The weekend before, our friends threw an awesome 90s themed Halloween party.  There was lots of dancing and good food and fun friends to hang with.  I made both of our costumes and I was really proud of myself.  My baby bump was a furby since those creepy little things were popular in the 90s.  Brady gave me a hard time because he said I would be the only one at the party who even knew what a furby was since I was the only one still in elementary school in the 90s, but he was wrong!  hehe.  It was a hit.  Brady was the black power ranger, and he rocked his costume.  He loved wearing it; he was strutting the whole night.  His dance moves consisted of punches, kicks and jabs the entire night.  Leah and Colin came too and they wore legit 90s attire.  They looked pretty awesome.  Actually, Colin was more of a white Steve Erkel. :)

I am almost 25 weeks pregnant!  Crazy... five more weeks and I'll be 30 weeks along... and then only 10ish more weeks til the baby arrives.  I'm in my third trimester and I feel really good still.  No problems at all.  I'm very grateful!  I am still able to exercise, and I think I'm even more motivated and dedicated to do so because I only want to gain weight in my belly :)  I feel her kick all the time and it makes me happy.  We're getting really excited to hold her and just stare at her sweet face!

The following pictures are random, but I wanted to include them in this blog post 

We babysit the Rosenthals for the parents' date night and I love when Brady reads to Paige.  She really loves him.

Went out to dinner on Halloween night to celebrate Shay getting the Teach for America position as a Spanish teacher!

He's really sleeping... :)

And then this awkwardness happened.  I guess Calvin said when he saw this pic, "How can two dads do that?  That's really weird."  What is it with that kid and thinking every male adult is a dad! haha

We went for a run around Green Lake!

This is hilarious... Brady's phone does magical tricks

She can't get any cuter!!

The best birthday present in the world!

My birthday was a couple weeks ago on the 19th of September and we had an ultrasound that day to find out the sex of our baby.  We're having a little GIRL and we're ecstatic about it!  Our doc informed us that the size of the baby is normal and everything looks good.  At one point in the ultrasound, we saw her sucking her thumb and we about died. It was so cute.  It was so fun to see her moving around; it makes it all so real.  We're a little unsure about names.  Hadley Marie was on the list from the get go, but now I'm having second thoughts, so we'll see as the due date gets closer.  It's the hardest thing to figure out what our little girl will be named for her entire life.  It's a big deal!
I got a gift card to the Gap from my awesome boss, so we bought our little girl the cutest outfit.  I'm feeling her kick more and more now.  In fact, Brady felt her kick for the first time just a couple nights ago.  It was pretty sweet to see him experience that.  She feels more real each time I feel her.  I really have enjoyed being pregnant.. I may not say that anymore after I'm really huge, but for now I'll just enjoy it :)

We think her sweet little face is the cutest!

The first outfit we bought her 

Gap outfit... I'm gonna buy a matching outfit for me ;)

This is me at 20 weeks!  HALF WAY THERE!

So along with that amazing birthday present, my birthday celebration was pretty awesome.  Brady did a great job at making me feel special.  He made me an awesome breakfast in the morning, then we went to Indian food for lunch... YUM!  That night, he made me a snickers icecream pie with oreo crust.  To say the least, it was delish.  I love how most of the descriptions so far of my bday are about food... oops :)  He also made me the coolest sign.  He is such a MAN!  It's from one of my favorite songs called "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes.  He also got me some sweet rain boots that I will wear for the next 5 months of our rainy season :)

The girls I nanny insisted that I wear this crown for my bday :)  We also didn't have bday candles, so a scented big candle worked just fine

A side note: Brady was super tired my entire birthday... he even took a nap! haha 

It was even better than it looks :)

The weekend after my birthday, I wanted to celebrate in true fashion by doing a baby sprint triathlon!  My sister's stake in Olympia puts this tri on every year and she invited me to join her.  It's like a sprint tri but the swim is only half the distance.  So the swim is 300 yards, bike is 13 miles, and the run is 3.1 miles.  I seriously had so much fun!  It was especially awesome because I wasn't worried about winning since I was 19 weeks prego at the time.  I knew I needed to be smart about how hard I pushed myself. Brady rode his bike with me on the biking section and even rode his bike while I ran to cheer me on.  Leah, Shay, Colin and my mom all came to cheer Leslie and I on.  The run was the hardest part.  Colin ended up running the last 3/4 of a mile with me.  Both Colin and Brady were with me as I ran up the hill to the finish line.  They were singing "Final Countdown" and yelling at me like drill sergeants.  I about died laughing.  It was the best to have them with me :)

Leslie totally beat me though :( We decided that 20 weeks post par tum is easier than 19 weeks pregnant ;)  I still was in the top third for finishing!  haha.  I finished in 1:44:12

Ooh.  When I was running an older man said to me, "You're looking good!" I felt it was necessary to say, "Well, thanks... and I'm 19 weeks pregnant too!"  He responded with "Wow, you're looking REALLY good then!"  It made me feel good :)

After the tri, my family got together for a combined birthday party for my mom and me since her birthday is on the 26th of September.

Loved having Brady Buns with me

Colin at points could walk up the hill as I "ran".  It was so sad! haha

I'm a horrible swimmer... but I improved a ton in just the few weeks that I trained.

We watched the Coppin Kids this last weekend and Calvin said some pretty funny stuff. Sunday morning he crawled into bed with Brady and I and when Brady was talking to him Calvin said, "Stop talking.. your breaths are bad!"  haha 

On Sunday morning, I was practicing my gospel doctrine lesson at home in front of him. I wasn't really expecting him to listen, I just needed to practice... but as I would ask questions (mostly harder doctrinal questions) he would answer the question and say, "Cuz Jesus loves us?"  I responded with, "Yeah! Totally, that's good buddy."  He did this a few times and after the last time of using that same answer he said, "Man... I'm really good at this."  I thought it was pretty cute and funny :)

Sunday morning with our "Rent-a-Fam"

This was a pic from Beren's soccer game a couple weeks ago.  He rocked!

This is a random pic of Paige and me... She makes me so happy and I'm so glad I get to be her nanny!                         

This is one doodle that can't be undid home skillet!

I've always wanted to announce a pregnancy like my title.  Glad I got that off my chest! :)  I am 15 weeks along and feeling great.  I am super lucky because I haven't really felt the normal first trimester pregnancy symptoms.  The three things I struggle with are: constant hunger, peeing non-stop, and fatigue.. but nothing to complain about!

We are so excited to be pregnant.  I can't wait to be a mom!  The baby is due February 19th, 2013.  Our first doctor's appointment, we had an ultrasound and our little blob was so cute!  We could see it move and we were pretty happy.  At our 13 week appt. we heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time, and that was an awesome experience.  There's a human growing inside of me!

It's so fun to talk about our baby and our future and make plans and talk about parenting styles and such.  At 18 weeks, we'll find out the sex, and I cannot wait!  It'll be so fun to really visualize our baby. There's lots to figure out still, but for now we're just happy and praying for a healthy baby.

I think this was at 14 weeks.  I've got child bearing hips, so I'm not quite showing yet ;)

This is Brady and I thought I would document how excited I am about our little guy/girl that has made a home in Julie. I can't think of a bigger blessing in our life right now. I was so excited when I first found out. I was in Utah and Julie had already gone home to go to her brother's graduation. She sent me a picture of the positive pregnancy test and I couldn't believe it! I was so giddy and could not stop smiling. I had that same reaction at both doctor's appointments both when we saw the little blob on the ultrasound and when we heard it's heartbeat :) I can't describe the joy that this little baby has already brought to me and it's not even born yet! I am super excited to be a daddy and look forward to all the adventures ahead!

Don't Go Chasin' Waterfalls

This past weekend, Brady and I were able to go camping in the Gifford Pinchot forest near Mt. St. Helens.  I guess we like adventure because our trips never turn out the way we expect them to!  We wanted to stay in the "Lower Falls Campground" because the trail head to the three Lewis Falls were right on the campsite.  We left a little later than expected on Thursday because it was raining and we wanted to wait it out... bad idea.  We got to the campsite and all of the sites were taken!  We drove further up the road, found a gravel side road and kept driving... (this is the part in scary movies, where you yell at the character to stop what they're doing and go back to safety!)... I was nervous this whole time saying we shouldn't be so far into the forest alone, but Brady convinced me otherwise and we found an open area that had a fire pit made.  We set up camp, made some yummy dinner (steak and potatoes) and sat around the campfire.  I got increasingly more worried and paranoid. I kept hearing things out in the woods and said, "did you hear that?" or "what was that?" about fifty times.  We even sang church hymns to try to make me feel better, haha!  Finally, we heard a distinct, loud growl from the trees and I said, "What was that?! We are NOT staying here!"  So, we packed up our stuff (tent, air mattress, and all) and left.  This was at 9:30 pm.

I was so scared, I couldn't even smile :(

Brady made an awesome dinner and burnt himself in the process!

We finally found an abandoned campground at 11 pm. This is totally Plank style to set up a tent in the dark.  It was kind of a creepy place.  The general store was closed and out of business but still had merchandise inside.  I think Brady was more uncomfortable there than he was with the wild animal back at the other campsite.  

We left there pretty early the next morning and headed back to Lower Falls Campground to hike the 5 mile round trip hike to see all three waterfalls.  They were all really pretty and Brady even got to jump off one... kind of :)

 
 
 
 
 

I got attacked by a bee... stung three times and cried like a baby!

 

When we got back to the campsite, a spot was open so we set up camp for our final night. We played Phase 10 and I beat Brady pretty bad ;)  The next day, Brady had planned a hike for us to do.  It was supposed to be a 6 mile round trip... but, it turned into 14.  We were hiking along and felt like we had gone a lot further than 3 which would have been our turn around point...but then two mountain bikers came along and told us we had another 2.5 miles to Craggy Peak (our destination) so we thought, "hey, let's do it... we can take lots of breaks and we'll be fine."  So we kept going and we saw lots of different landscapes.  It was fun to see so many wild flowers and we picked wild strawberries! They were so yummy!  We finally made it to our lookout but the mountains were half way covered by clouds :(  It was a little disappointing.  We could see half of Mt. St. Helens, and about half of Mount Adams... there was another mountain we saw, but we weren't sure which one it was.  The last half of the hike was pretty hard... our legs were tired, our feet were aching and I just wanted to be at our car.  I jogged the last little bit because I knew my car was close... I was so happy to see it :)  It was a beautiful hike, but we will plan better next time!  (I think I said that last time when we hitch hiked through cougar country).

We saw this rib cage on our way up and made me a little nervous... I'm so wussy :(

 

 

 

I love our matching socks and boots... we're so cute! ;)

Brady was frolicking through the meadow

 
 

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This is Mt. St. Helens

This was our turn around point and we weren't in the best of spirits

Mount Adams

Brady's sock line from all the dust

Brady made a good point that if our activities were normal, they wouldn't make good stories and we wouldn't remember them.  :)