What a wonderful Winter Break I have had! Starting from the Saturday we got off school, Mark and I headed to NC to spend some time with my parents. We LOVED the warm weather (50's/60's) and got to see lots of friends and family and just relax in our final Christmas without Baby A! My mom loved having us and especially loved seeing my belly grow, which it seems to have done quite a bit over the 2 weeks!
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| 19 weeks |
Mark left to head to a wedding and I stayed in W-S and got to have some SUITIE time :) And boy was it sweet! We got to eat at Riverbirch, walk around WFU, breakfast at Mary's of Course, and lots of chatting and giggling at Anna's house. In fact, while at Anna's the ladies threw me my 1st baby shower :) And we got to exchange our SS gifts for the year. From Anna's we headed back to celebrate New Years at Andrea's house where all of our husbands (Except for my lazy husband in MN...J/K Mark) made us a gourmet meal complete with our FAVORITE appetizers! It made me realize how great we did at picking our significant others :) and Thankful to have stayed in touch with such a wonderful group of ladies, and their men.
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| Wait Chapel |
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| LEK and I |
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| Suities and Sig Others |
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| Suitie Baby Gifts |
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| Andrea's Pretty Tree |
We brought in the new year with Champagne (Sparkling cider for me) card games, dance parties and laughing and remembering our favorite times of 2013. It was hard for me to come up with just one because I feel so thankful for everything that happened, but I would say 2 big highlights were buying a home and then starting our new family :)
January 2nd I was excited to head home but had not prepared myself for the difficult travels that lay ahead of me. I knew when I saw that Chicago was having blizzard weather my travel may be affected but told myself since I was flying out late at 6pm, I would arrive after the storm..... 2 hour delay in Charlotte, 2 hours on the runway in Charlotte, landing in Chicago and 2 hours on the runway there I soon realized I would not be spending the night in my comfy bed with my husband. After re-booking a new flight for their first time at 12:45pm the next day (hoping I would make my 2pm Ultrasound!) I finally lay down to sleep at 2 am on a lovely cot provided by Midway Airport. It looked like a storm shelter refuge. I slept so soundly....until 4 am when I was awoken by "The airport is OPEN! Make way to your gate, you need to get off the cots! Wake UP!". I didn't yet have a gate seeing as my plane was not supposed to take off for 8 hrs but I found a nice bare area of floor and fell back asleep... not easy to do as a pregnant person in a crowded airport, alone. Napping and waking off and on I realized around 8 am that my flight was cancelled... again. Thinking this was ridiculous and fearing that now would I not only miss my ultrasound today but also my brother's wedding the next day, I re-booked myself for another flight and guess what, that too was cancelled. I finally gave up on SWEST after watching them cancel EVERY flight to Minneapolis for the day, so I headed to Delta, forked up some money and FINALLY made it home.
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| All the flights that are blue are southwest....also cancelled or delayed |
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| Finally leaving CHICAGO! |
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| LONG lines to get to Customer Service |
Just in time for our ULTRA SOUND! And we found out we are having a sweet, healthy baby BOY :) The only negative thing the tech could say about him is that his tummy is 2 weeks bigger than it should be compared to the rest of his body..... so I guess we are growing a chubby little dumpling! You would think at this time the stress was over, right? I had made it home, I had a healthy baby....but my parents who were coming to Minneapolis to see my brother get married had their flight cancelled as well! Exhausted, stressed out and worried Mark and I finally went to bed hoping that my parents would make it from Baltimore to Minneapolis that night, and at 1 am they finally did. Without all 4 of the bags they checked, all lost until 4 days later... Needless to say Southwest, although great with customer service....is on our bad list. They gave us vouchers and they've apologized, and I LOVE their prices but I also love to make it to my destinations :)
The next day, we got to celebrate another special occasion, My brother and new sister-in-law Susan were married! It was a small wedding at a cute place with just immediate family but it was quite beautiful! The past few days we have gotten to spend with my brother and sister-in-law, my parents (my dad's flight was cancelled would you believe it!?) and although it was chilly here, we got a lot of time together because Mark and I got both Monday and Tuesday off due to the -17 + temperatures. I'll take some bad weather for a few days off. We even braved the cold yesterday to show my dad Minnehaha falls, frozen, an amazing sight to see!
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| Minnehaha Falls |
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| The boys don't look to happy to be here |
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| Mom trying to acclimate to MN weather |
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| Family |
Now, as we are about to begin real life again and head to work tomorrow I can't help but think of HOW FAST this break went by, and how thankful I am for the time I got to spend with my family through it all. We will be sad to see my dad go tomorrow (provided his flight isn't cancelled again) but are happy to have my mom staying with us until Paul and Susan's baby is born later this month! I am enjoying watching my baby grow (even if the scale is creeping up...) and can't wait to feel him kicking and squirming around in my stomach like I saw in the ultra sound. For now, Mark and I need to begin to think of names....
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| 22 weeks... finally in Maternity clothes. THANKS ANNE! |
