On the beach in Florence, Oregon

These are some of my very favorite pictures.  I'm keeping a mental list of a few pictures that I want to put in our baby boy's room of the time while I was pregnant with him (because he was there too, right?!) and the one above is one of them.  This beach day with Laura and Joe was cold, misty, and so much fun.  

The beach in Florence has Highway 101 winding right alongside it, and we went exploring to different parts of the beach.  After getting too cold and wet from all the wind and swirling fog, we would jump in the car and go find another place to stop.

All four of us lived on a tropical island together for two years, so it was so crazy to "go to the beach" again with such a different landscape.  The water was freezing and there were a few people that we saw jumping in anyway.

We stopped for an in-car picnic of peanut butter and marionberry jelly sandwiches (if you are in the Northwest area, do yourself a favor and pick up a jar of fresh marionberry jelly) and at a really cool nature center (complete with lots of quoting of the Portlandia Sacagawea skit).  There was also a place where you could take an elevator underground to see a cave of sea lions, but we opted to save that for next time.  On the way back out of Florence, we stopped to get milkshakes at BJ's ice cream parlor.

Les Mis and some Eugene

While we were staying with our friends Laura and Joe last weekend in Eugene, we went for a hike at Spencer's Butte.  Laura had to stay back and work on a paper that was due that day, so it was the three of us.  The walk was so gorgeous with bright green moss on every surface and tons of tall, skinny pine trees shooting up all around.  I loved the misty feel of the air because it's so different than dry, dry Utah.

 Spencer's Butte is a pretty easy hike and has a beautiful lookout over the valley below.  There were a lot of people out hiking enjoying the warm weather.  We were really lucky and had warm and mostly sunny weather the whole week we were in Oregon!

 Baby boy was sleeping during the whole hike, lulled to sleep by the activity. 

 My friend Laura is in grad school at the University of Oregon and she takes a Chinese class a couple nights a week.  I got to go with her to one and had such a blast trying to remember my Chinese language skills.  The class was small with only 2 students, and the teacher speaks in only Chinese (unless everyone is really lost and then she switched over to English to explain).  I felt like I could keep up and understand almost everything she was saying!  She also included me a lot and asked me the same lesson questions as everyone else; sometimes I answered that I couldn't understand, but mostly I could formulate some sort of answer... so exciting!  I love Chinese so much and really don't know why I stopped taking lessons a year ago. I definitely remembered my passion for the language while sitting in on that class and want to find some small group lessons of my own here in Salt Lake.

That night, we also got to Skype with our friends Josh and Liz, who lived in the same apartment complex with us and Laura and Joe while living in Saipan.  We all also went to college together in Oklahoma and Laura and Joe prompted us all to move to Saipan to teach.  It was so fun talking about a bunch of memories and getting to catch up- love them.

 Last night, I went to Salt Lake's Hale Theater and saw the play Les Miserables with Jennilyn, Tessa, and Gemma.  We made a girls night out of it and went to dinner before!  If you live in Salt Lake City, go see this play- it was fantastic!  The stage is in the center of the room with seats all around, and it moves up and down with a ton of different sets- it was so cool- and the cast was amazing. All four of us were in tears at some point or another during the play.

I'm sad I didn't get a good picture with JL in it but those were even blurrier than this one. 

Baby boy was hilarious during the play and was seriously wiggling and kicking around the entire time- especially during the loud scenes and the gun blast parts.  He was probably wondering what in the world was going on out there?  He is such a squirmy little guy and we wonder if he is going to be as active outside the tummy as he is in it!  Watch out, world!

Portland, again.

We ate at the food trucks at least once a day while in Portland.  One stand had the best Thai iced tea (my very favorite drink) and the lady that ran the stand called everyone, "baby."  I also had such good bi bim bap, Indian food, and the same falafel gyro twice.

Brian decided to get the famous Snitzelwich on our last day and it was amazing.

It had this super spicy sauce that would kind of burn your nose sometimes if you took a big bite, but it was the best sandwich ever.  If we go to Portland again, I'm getting one every day.

We took our food and sat in the little brick courtyard and watched people feeding the pigeons.

 Celebrating Brian's 32nd birthday!

 We took a drive along the Columbia River Scenic Highway to get to Multnomah Falls.  There was the coolest lodge right below the falls with a big fireplace.  I ended up relaxing by the fireplace while Brian walked up to see the falls because I was wearing shorts and it was so cold.

 We stopped along the way at the Columbia River Overlook.

 We went to the Pittock Mansion to see the sunset over the city.

Now we are in Eugene, Oregon visiting our friends, Laura and Josiah.  Eugene is  such a cool little college town, and the live within walking distance of so many cool places (like Voodoo donuts, the Eugene version!)  Tomorrow we are visiting the coast and I can't wait to dip my toes in the (freezing cold!) ocean.

21 weeks

How far along are you?  Well, I'm actually 22 weeks now, but I wrote some of this post at 21 weeks and forgot to post it!

Feeling:  Really good.  Struggles are walking long distances (It feels hilarious complaining to Brian about my "aching back," like a true pregnant lady!), and sleeping at night (hip pain!)  But energy-wise, really good right now.

Aversions:  Absolutely nothing.

Cravings: Lucky Charms.  We are in Portland right now and I bought a box and some milk for the hotel room and have been sitting in bed eating them like crazy day and night.  Brian is actually out right now buying more milk for my cereal!  Also craving Dr. Pepper still, and almost any kind of sweet foods.

Belly button:  So so close to being out!

Exercise: Still walking and have also been stretching/doing yoga more again, which feels really, really good.

Best moments: Brian can feel the baby move now!  And then it quickly switched to we can both SEE the baby moving!  It's so crazy and looks like a little bump! under my belly every once in a while.  If I'm at home, I will always drop everything to watch him bumping around in my stomach- it's the coolest thing.  Also we have loved shopping for baby boy's nursery while in Portland this week.

Names: We've pretty much narrowed his name down to two choices, and we call him by each one intermittently during the day to test them out.  

What do you miss:  Drinking a ton of coffee, super hot baths, and sleeping on my stomach.

We're pretty big fans

So, we want to move to Portland.  Just kidding!  But seriously, we love vacationing here.

We're here for 4 days before traveling down to Eugene to spend the rest of the week with our friends Laura and Joe.  The drive here really didn't seem all that long (and I drove for a lot of it!  Almost half?  Well, maybe not that much), and it's so nice to take a getaway trip to a city that feels so different from your own.  Compared to Salt Lake, Portland seems really big!  We love the moss growing on all the houses, the gorgeous trees already in bloom all over the city, and the beautiful houses and parks. And you know what the very best part is?  All. the. awesome. food. here.

 Baby bump in Portland

On the drive here, we stopped for biscuits and gravy and pancakes at this tiny little diner.  I've always loved truckstop diners ever since I was little and would see them on family vacations, and this one was super cute.  All of the customers kept joking with the waitress and she would call them all by name.  Do you like the deer head staring us down?

We've spent lots of time walking downtown.  I'm seriously surprised at how much I've seemed to slow down after hitting the midway mark in pregnancy.  I really felt like I was keeping up okay for the last few months, but after 20 weeks, I'm going much slower.  We've found lots of little places to sit down and rest, and luckily there are lots of food trucks to stop at!  The best part of being pregnant on vacation is that Brian will rub my feet when we are finished walking for the day.

22 weeks

 Shopping in the Northwest area in all the tiny little shops.

 Spending a couple of hours in Powell's after getting caught in the rain.

 Best ever falafel shawarma

There are so many bikers here in Portland, and bike lanes everywhere!  Also, there are so many more people walking around downtown than we have noticed in Salt Lake- it's always fun to get food and people watch at Pioneer Square, or just anywhere.

Liz, if you read this, know that the strawberry scone at Public Domain was life changing.  I'm going back to get another one tonight.

It's a boy!!!

Little baby Morris is a boy!!  It's the sweetest thing ever to feel a little baby flip flopping in my stomach and to know it's actually a "he"!  I keep envisioning a little tiny version of Brian, and I can't wait for him to play outside, explore, and come home covered in mud from his adventures :)  We went to our 20 week sonogram a couple of weeks ago and within the first couple of minutes the doctor said, "oh, do you want to know what you're having?" Then we spent the next 20 minutes of the ultrasound being extremely obnoxious, I'm sure, and repeating over and over, "Oh my gosh, it's a little boy!  Can you believe he's a little boy?"  We were just a teeny bit excited,

My little 1980's husband just being adorable.  I hope our little boy looks just like him.

Here is baby boy's tiny hand and little thumb sticking up.  During the sonogram, he kept wiggling or flailing his arms and legs all over.  It's so cool to actually see what those movements I've been feeling look like.  Brian said he loved getting to see that there actually is a tiny human growing in there and to see all of his little features.  It's so crazy to go from seeing a sonogram a few months ago where he looked like a little lump, to seeing hands, feet, and everything- we even saw him blowing bubbles at one point!

Baby boy was being a little shy and kept covering his face with his hands.  Here he is facing us with his hand in front.  He was pressed facedown most of the time so we couldn't get a clear picture of his profile, but we are planning on getting a 3d sonogram in about a month or so and hopefully he will be face up then!  The doctor said his measurements were great and that he looked like a healthy boy!  We could not have been happier to get that report, and I spent the rest of the day telling practically anyone who I came into contact with that we were having a boy- even the random people I was sitting next to at my school's cafeteria while waiting for my lunch order to be ready.  

Brian and I went out and bought him the little pair of blue shoes in the first picture and a furry little winter hat with the flaps that come down over his ears.  It's a challenge not to buy him a billion tiny man shirts and jeans (especially when walking through the baby boy section at Old Navy!  Oh the rolled up summer cargo pants in all colors!) but I want to wait until closer to when he gets here to see what he really needs.  We are trying to keep a strict budget when baby shopping and buy wisely (mostly used items) and it keeps me in a frugal mindset so I don't go overboard with shopping for him.  We have really only purchased a few things so far, and next on the list is his crib (from Ikea, we are thinking) and a really cool used hiking carrier from Kid to Kid.  It's funny to sit with Brian at night and plan out just exactly what kind of bottles, baby carriers, etc. we want to purchase... I feel like we've officially entered the parent category and it's so funny to see us in these rolls.  Brian felt a big baby kick the other night while we were having one of these conversations and he said, "Man, that baby is strong in there!"  Love.