Another trip to Dallas!

Before I get into the details of our most recent trip up to Dallas, I'll update everyone on our growing fetus (or should I say - my growing gi-normous stomach)! I feel like I'm really starting to show. It isn't a cute show mind you... So lucky for most of you - you don't live near enough to witness the new bloated look I seem to be sporting these days. I can't wait until I actually look pregnant, so people don't think I've just been hanging out on the couch with an endless bag of chips, doughnuts and calorie-ridden sodas. Sheesh! I really haven't been! I promise! I'm even still exercising! I'll be 14 weeks tomorrow and I'm still maintaining a 3-4 lb weight gain (which is good), but for some reason it FEELS like I've gained about 15-20 lbs! I just can't figure it out! I mean seriously folks - our tiny little baby is only a little over 3 inches long and weighs about one ounce (about the size of a large shrimp), so what the heck is going on?! ;) You can click here if you want to see what our little shrimp looks like for the time being! My first ultrasound is scheduled for August 28th (a few days from now) - it'll still be too soon to see any SPECIFIC parts (or lack thereof), so we'll still have to wait another 3 weeks or so to find out what's cooking in there!! I can't stand not knowing! I don't know how people can choose to wait and be surprised at birth! No way! I am WAY too impatient!

So anyways - enough about me and the shrimp!  Jason just finished up two weeks of night float. He was working from 6pm at night and coming home at 9am the next morning - only to eat, go to bed, wake up, eat and go back to work!  I hated it!  I'm so glad to be going back to our somewhat normal schedule!  

Much to Jason's disappointment, the Olympics have now come to a close, so we're not sure what we'll be doing with our free time now!  ;)  The Olympics were pretty much over for me after gymnastics and swimming were finished - although I did enjoy watching some volleyball every now and then.

So anyways - onto our trip to Dallas!  Back on August 9th, Aunt Shelley threw a 50th birthday party for Uncle Jim.  Unfortunately for us, Jason had to work late that day, so we weren't able to start our 5-hour drive until 730pm that night.  We didn't get in until almost 1am, but lucky for us - Jason's brother Mike and all of the cousins stayed awake for us!  Jason's two older cousins, Jessica and Doug were also in town to celebrate their Dad's birthday, so there were even more people to visit with! You can never have too many people!!  They were both on their summer breaks from college (Jesse from W. Connecticut and Doug from the Naval Academy) and they even brought along their boyfriend and girlfriend!   

So it didn't take long after arriving before everyone began (well continued) to celebrate Uncle Jim's magnificent milestone of a birthday.  Sure he had been sleeping for at least the past couple hours, but that didn't mean there wasn't still cause to celebrate!  ;)  There was a lot of drinking and swimming going on...excluding the pregnant person (me) and Rissy.  I'm glad Rissy stayed up and kept me company!  It's not fun being the only non-drinking person at a party!  Well - I guess it isn't so bad - you can laugh at people for doing silly things, so I guess it can still be somewhat entertaining.  ;)  This all lasted until about 4am or so and then everyone finally decided to go to bed.  

Katie was right on time and ready for the day bright and early four measly hours later!  Ugh!  I was SO tired!  Not too long after breakfast, Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelley decided we should all go out and spend some quality time on their boat out on the lake - along with a portable grill to cook up some hamburgers and hotdogs!  Of course, I completely forgot about the possibility of going out on the boat, so I didn't bring along any swimwear for myself! Argh! Jason and the girls always have their swim stuff for the pool, so at least they were prepared.  Alas - I was the only one in jeans on the boat, so I look like a total party pooper! Oh well - my favorite thing to do is just spend time with family, so I didn't miss out on much! 

Jason and I - getting ready to leave the dock!


Mike and Jason


Jessie and her pro-mancé Mike ;)


Jessie and her Mommy-poo Aunt Shelley


Becky taking the jet ski onto the lake


Kristin and Katie trying to hide from the sun


Jason and Mike testing out the party island that we dragged behind the boat


Me and Jessie


Doug and his woman Sam


Jason and Kristin

So after Jason, Mike, Kristin and all the cousins tested out the party island and took turns riding the jet ski, the sky started getting dark with some crazy clouds and a few lightening bolts flashed in the distance.  So in his best pirate voice, Uncle Jim belted out, "A storm's a brewin'!" and we headed back to the dock to see if we could wait out the crappy weather and go back out. We waited for a good while and when the clouds and lightening got worse, we finally decided to call it a day and go back to the house.  We never got to test out that portable boat grill, but we still had fun!  We got back to the house and Uncle Jim put together a glorious BBQ instead (no surprise there!) and we all ate while watching some of the Olympic games.  

Uncle Jim says, "A storm's a brewin'!"


This is Jason's artsy picture of me (or so he calls it) ;)


Me, Jason and Kristin


Mike making Jason sick by spinning the inner tube around and around


Jessie, Katie and Mike taking a walk while we wait for the storm to die off


Sam and Doug

The next morning, we took the girls over to Becky's new workplace called Wazoo's (a giant bouncy house place) and we spent a little time there before we packed up and headed back to San Antonio.

Katie in the kiddie bouncy house


Kristin in some sort of undersea bouncy thingy (I don't like the look of this thing...it looks questionable to me!)


Rissy and Katie all ready to go home

On our way back, we stopped at Ikea (as if we would ever drive by Ikea without stopping - psshaw)!  ;)  Of course we shared our usual plate of Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce, but then we veered away from Jason's normal bee-line route to the exit door and took a little extra time to find Kristin a desk, cubby shelf, easel and wall shelf for her school room.  This whole home school business is starting to get expensive!  First the Kindergarten curriculum that cost $925 and then all this stuff for her schoolroom?!  Come on! Of course, you don't have to buy some company's curriculum to home school and you don't need anything more than your dining room table, but...I want it to be as much like school as possible! And Kristin was (and still is) so excited about her school room. She said, "Oh Mommy! Thank you so much for all of the stuff in my school room! It's all so beautiful!" Is she cute or what?!  It made all of our unplanned credit card charges SO worth it...in a tiny sort of way...  ;)