Family Reunion According to Me

Shortly after the Portland expedition, Darla decided she hadn't gotten enough of us. Missing us terribly, her heart aching as she suffered through countless nights of longing tears, she stumbled upon a clever solution and single-handedly arranged a family reunion for late September. (She's shy about this, so if questioned, she'll likely claim my uncle instigated the whole thing). And REALLY, to tell the truth, she probably didn't arrange it all completely by herself. I expect my brother had been daydreaming for months (if not years) about spending hours in a compact vehicle with Sean and I, so it's likely he collaborated with her in planning the event in the Missouri Ozarks.

My siblings' scheming proved to be a great success (although the credit really must to go Sean and I... being the true impetus behind their elaborate plans). All my mom's immediate family and their children made it. Last time we had that whole crowd together was about 15 years ago, so we were due for another clan snapshot. And it's probably been about a decade since my whole immediate family went on a vacation together. It was great to get everyone miles away from their employers, into a cabin on a lake, eating Grandma's meatballs, catching up with cousins, attempting a little wakeboarding-- and with lovely weather to boot! Couldn't have asked for a better time.

Naturally, (as if I even need to clarify this) everyone loved Wilbur.

snoozing

Wilbur firmly believes that if you hide your face, no one can see you.

15 weeks

Baby Update: Last Tuesday we went to our 14 week appointment at the birthing center, which went well. It was our second visit and much shorter than the first; not a whole lot to discuss at this stage.

All my blood work came back fine (found out my blood type is O+, which I'm so happy to finally know... my blood donating experiences have all been fiascoes so I've never found out). The midwife acted really impressed with my iron levels, and she said my blood pressure, pulse, and weight gain were all excellent. This made me quite happy and proud-- like a 10 year old acing a spelling test. I amused myself by spending the rest of the day saying, "I'm a good momma!!" ...because really, I can't take credit for any of the stuff I was being complimented on. It's like someone saying, "Good job! Your heart's beating!" What do you say to that? "Why, thank you-- I try?"
Anyway, I CAN be grateful, though, that all is going well, and I am.

Best [and weirdest] part was getting to hear the heartbeat, which this time she had no trouble finding.
Again, kumquats don't have heartbeats...
Actually, it's no longer kumquat size anyway. It's an APPLE. (Which causes me to question why I look and feel like I swallowed a cantaloupe).

Here's the Buddha belly at 15 weeks:

Not one to be left out, here's Sean at 15 weeks:
(I'd forgotten to include his 8 week photo in the earlier post, so I went back and added it.)

bathtime

Sorry, just can't handle the top post not being pictures of Wilbur.

Thought y'all would enjoy photos from his first bath. Wilbur HATES baths. He wears himself out trying to escape the raging sea of 1 inch deep water, and when I finally wrap his exhausted, drowned little body in a towel, he's so tired and relieved to be alive that he'll let you snuggle with him forever.

He's an amusing little guy.

Portlandish

In celebration of our 4th wedding anniversary, we flew to Portland for a long weekend in early September, a place we've both been wanting to visit for a long time but hadn't gotten around to. Our perfect excuse came up when my youngest sister, Darla, was placed on an assignment out there via her IT consulting job at Accenture. This meant she could stay over the weekend with us and play. Out of an obligatory sense of sibling protectionism and social justice, I did warn her about Sean's travel style in advance...

Case in point: having booked the tickets, my dear husband (who still insists that he's spontaneous) promptly compiled no fewer than 42 single-spaced, typed pages of notes on precisely what to do in Portland should we find ourselves in any possible situation in any possible part of town (namely, where we should EAT in those situations). And then, research tightly in hand, off we went into 3 days and 4 long nights of full-time gluttony.

Despite toying with one of the seven deadly sins, the trip was nothing short of a dream-- GORGEOUS weather, beautiful hiking, superb food, and excellent company (though no doubt Darla is still reeling from the rigorous 10 meals/day schedule. But she did tolerate us very well).

A few photos follow:

This, my friends, is a symbol of GREATNESS.

You Atlantans can verify this with the Palmers (they hit the same spot a week later). THE most incredible breakfast anywhere is at the Little Red Bike Cafe, kind of on the northwestish side of town. This gem is one of the many reasons I can't complain too loudly about Sean's travel style... his research often leads to pure bliss.

We actually decided, after eating the breakfast to the right, that there would be no better breakfast ANYWHERE. Darla missed this first outing, and thought we had to be exagerrating when we told her about it.

We went back Saturday morning.

She understood.

Rental car maps, being what they are, naturally lack important details like entrance/exit ramps. We therefore found ourselves (still under the influence of prosciutto and fried egg) in Washington Park. Not a bad place to end up. Having escaped the 100+ heat of Texas, the cool shade of the Hoyt Arboretum only further intoxicated Sean and I while we waited for Darla to get off work and join us.

This resulted in Sean hugging trees. Me, I just sat calmly, (still contemplating breakfast and whether or not Sean might agree to eat there for the remaining 29 meals of the weekend).

Found more natural goodness at the rose garden further down the road. It was too bright for my little camera to take a good picture of the whole vast garden, but here are a few close ups...

Across from the rose garden is the Japanese Garden, which is also very well done. I know ZERO about gardens, so take my observations with a grain of salt. Seemed to me, though, that the Japanese Garden had this subtle, understated quality; upon close scrutiny, you could tell that the landscaping and maintenance were painstaking efforts of diligence. Yet its goal seemed to be that nothing in particular would stand out. Even the water features that flowed through the whole garden were quiet and simply a part of the grander landscape. This is in stark contrast to what I picture as a typical garden, where loud, flowering plants are meant to draw your eye, the more blooms and color variety the better, and water features are also designed to be a focal point.

The zen-like quality got to Sean. He paused to jot notes. I took a picture, deciding he had been struck by deep, poetic notions that demanded immediate artistic expression.

Maybe I was still intoxicated by breakfast.

After a solid day of pizza "sampling" [we'll call it, since "devouring" sounds like an activity more befitting a college student than the culinary critics we fancy ourselves], we desperately needed some semblance of health the following day. So Saturday morning found us meandering through the colorful farmer's market, acquiring a picnic to take out to Mt. Hood for our hike.

We drove along the Columbia River Gorge on our way out there. Again, GORGEOUS weather.

Here's Darla and I at Multnomah Falls, Mr. Handsome taking a hiking break, and then Sean and I while he takes another break, this time from keeping his eyes open.

Sunday was another full day, mostly of exploring downtown Portland itself and EATING (surprise!). One of the more interesting food options Portland offers is a series of carts set up in parking lots and along streets. They're tucked into every neighborhood we found, and often served up some of the best food we "sampled" [okay, devoured].

It seems fitting then, to end this post the way we ended the Portland-dish trip. We squeezed in the 527th meal on the way to the airport Monday morning, stopping at Moxie's, a food cart on the east side of the river... it was cute, the food was good... but it's now the middle of October, and I'm STILL full.