Ok Jo you wanted belly pictures here you go. This is me at 38 weeks in our front yard.
We went to Kelly Point park, it is where the Columbia and Willamette Rivers meet. Isabella loved just sitting and watching the water. Its so awesome that this is just a few minutes from our house!
July 27-Aug 2, 2009Well so much for Portland's wonderful weather. This week they broke several records. For several days the temperature has been anywhere from 100 degrees to 107, and they broke a record for most consecutive days over 90degrees. That doesn't sound bad compared to AZ, however we have no Air Conditioning. It is was cool in the morning but as the day heated up, the heat and humidity were just terrible. Stanley was amazing. Even though it was hot he still kept working hard to get our house organized and put together. Tuesday night the house didn't cool down like its supposed to so we ended up sleeping down stairs. We woke up in the middle of the night to check on Isabella and her room was really hot and she felt hot, but not sweaty. We were worried that she was getting heat exhaustion. We woke her up to give her some water and she seemed out of it. So we brought her down stairs and sprayed her with a water bottle and kept giving her drinks of water. She soon felt better and even played for a little while before she fell back asleep. I was so worried that I decided to look up the price of a hotel for the night. I found a really good deal for $50, but then we decided to see how much a window A/C unit cost. We got lucky because a hotel was selling all their old window units. The next morning we went and bought one and Stan installed it right away. That evening we spent in our room, and we all slept so much better. It was so worth the money to have one room that was cool. We made sure to spend time at the pool, mall and grocery stores this week so that we could have some A/C during the day. Towards the end of the week it started to cool off. The biggest change was the temp at night. We keep our windows open all night and then it cools off enough to keep the house cool most of the day. So the weather is finally back to normal and we are enjoying it again. Like I said, Stan was amazing. He is so good at organizing. He organized each room so everything had a place and everything was in its place. Our rug came for our living room and we got some pillows for the couch and curtains for the windows to match. We also decided on color schemes for each of our 3 bathrooms and got towels and accessories to match. It is the first time that I have had matching sets for each room. Its wonderful!!Thursday we decided to take a trip to the coast. It is about 2hrs from Portland. We went to a few cities and saw the huge barges on the Columbia River. We went across the bridge to Long Beach, WA. We had a great time just relaxing on the beach and feeding the seagulls. Isabella wanted to touch them and chase them till they started swooping in to get the food, then she decided she was afraid of them it was cute. We drove down the Pacific Coast Highway for a while and stopped in Seaside. It is a cute tourist town. We parked and walked up and down a few blocks that were lined with little shops, candy stores, restaurants, galleries and antique stores. We stopped in the Salt Water Taffy shop where we pick a bag full of salt water taffy from their 170 different flavors. We ate dinner at a sea food and grill place. Stan said I needed to try good fresh fish. So I was daring and ordered Halibut. It tasted so good! It didn't taste fishy at all. The shrimp that came with our salad was great too. So I have decided to stop hating seafood at least the fresh kind. I want to take everyone that comes to visit to Seaside. The beach is great and so is the shopping. The rest of the week we continued to do stuff around the house. I didn't know how much stuff there was left to do. Thank goodness for Stanley! Church was nice and Stan already got a calling. He was asked to teach the Elder's quorum 2 Sundays a month. I hope they hold off on my calling until after the baby comes. Isabella has really been learning fast. She can go up and down the stairs by herself now. She is understanding more of what we say and we just love to watch her play and figure things out. She is so smart. We love being home together as a family and are dreading the that Stan will have to go back to school. Oh well we still have 3 weeks and we are taking advantage of it!
July 20, 2009Beth, Isabella and I flew into Portland. Stan picked us up and took us HOME!! George and Dan had helped Stanley unload the trailer so when we got here it was just boxes to unpack. It thought I didn't like packing...I think I like it better than unpacking. Beth and George were such a help to us. We all worked together till late in the night getting things in order. July 21-23, 2009Dan is leaving to fly back to AZ today so the boys decided to go fishing while they were here. They spent the morning fishing. Stan caught a bass and Dan caught a perch. So it was a successful trip. Too soon Dan had to head home. We are really going to miss not living by family. We spent the rest of the day getting the house put together some more. It is humid here and most people us included don't have AC, so one of the first things we did is go out and buy fans. It gets "cold" at night so if we leave the windows open and the fans on all night and close the house up in the mid morning then the house stays cool all day. Its awesome that our house stays under 80degrees without AC. I am excited to see what our power bill will look like. :)We spent most of Wednesday shopping and putting the house together and cleaning up from unpacking. George and Stan got the back yard all prepared so that we could plant grass. They moved bark chips to the side yard, tilled the ground and then planted grass. They also made me the cutes planter box. It is about 8ft long and 2ft wide. We have tomatoes, 2 kinds of peppers and zucchini to start with. If I can learn how to keep those alive then I will work up to a bigger garden. Isabella loves to be outside. She scoots all over the porch and plays with whatever she can get her hand on. She decided after a few tastes that she doesn't like the taste of potting soil. hahaha however she does like to get all dirty with it. She still scoots when she is outside but mostly walks when she is inside and in familiar surroundings. She doesn't really hold onto the walls for support anymore. I am excited because that means she will be mostly independently walking when the baby comes. Stairs! Oh how Isabella loves stairs. It took her about 10 minutes to figure out how to climb, and now that is all she wants to do . She doesn't know how to get down but always wants to go up. She has already had a few bumps and bruises. So our next purchase was 2 gates for the top and bottom of the stairs. We still let her go up them sometimes and try and teach her how to go down, but this way she doesn't get hurt and I don't have to spend all day at the stairs.Thursday I had a doctors appointment. I met with a midwife and a doctor to talk about doing a VBAC. They think I am a great candidate and the risk is minimal. I only have 4 weeks left so we are getting very excited! After that we took Beth and George to Multnomah Falls. It was so beautiful. Beth had her camera so I will have to post pictures later. It was a nice get away. We ate a picnic dinner and hiked around a bit. There are several falls all within a mile from this one so we stopped at each to take pictures and enjoy the beautiful scenery. It was a great way to end our week together. Beth and George left Friday morning. We didn't feel much like being in doors so we checked out the park that is about a 2 minute walk from our house. Isabella had a great time. She just wanted to push the stroller around and play with the other kids. I think we will love being by the park. Saturday we finished getting stuff for our house and then went to see the Temple. It is so beautiful. I am excited to be able to go sometime...after the baby probably. Sunday we went to our new ward. It is small compared to what are used to. The ward doesn't fill the whole chapel but the boundaries are at least 5 miles around. It will be a change but small wards can be nice because you can really get to know people. We are excited to see what are callings will be, but also enjoying having no callings and just enjoying church.
Portland is wonderful so far. We are getting the house unpacked with tons of help from Stan's parents. They have been such a blessing. More details to come when I have more time.
