Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Goin' Down The Bayou

We have had just a wonderful trip so far!
So here's the play-by-play:

SUNDAY:
(we got in about 9pm on Saturday and only got a little bit of grocery shopping done while trying to find our condo...)

Since it was Sunday, we wanted to keep things as simple as possible. Plus, we had a huge day coming up and wanted to keep up our energy.
We found a local ward and went to Sacrament meeting. It was interesting, full of all the quirks that an LDS ward has. The chorister kind of flung his hand around. And the men sang a number and there was 1 tenor out of the 30 men out there. On the way to and from church we saw this house with the MOST Christmas decorations that I think I have ever seen... and not necessarily in a good way. Yes, there are more pictures than this. It was impossible to get it all in one shot. This house was CRAZY. Since it is on the corner of two streets, both sides are just covered, but here's the corner and hopefully you get the gist.

Later that day, we decided to walk up and down the beach and hit up the north side of the gulf (well... the part where we are). We walked up and down Clearwater beach since we heard it was a huge attraction and the water was clear and beautiful. It was really lovely and one of the piers had a bunch of really neat vendors on it. We also saw some soccer (I don't know how people play soccer on the sand... I can hardly walk in it!), and some interesting street performers. One guy in particular had some Asian girl with him and he was doing some acrobatics/break dancing, and the entire 4 or 5 minutes that we watched him yell out puffing himself up, he did NOTHING! I feel like Clearwater was a little hyped up. The water was murky and the whole place was crowded. You could tell it was the place people usually vacationed. Well, that's fine, because we really enjoy staying in a place that's a little toned down, relaxed, and quiet.


MONDAY:

We got up nice and early and headed out to Orlando. We had a reservation at Discovery Cove that also gave us admission into Sea World for 14 days. Wow! Everyone at Discovery Cove was SO nice and accommodating. We also got free food ALL DAY! On top of that, only 1000 people are allowed in the park, so it wasn't crowded at all, which is amazing for any theme park.

Since our dolphin encounter wasn't until 11:10, we had a couple hours to kill. Luckily, they had a lot of other things to do aside from dolphins. To our surprise, they had an aviary there. So we went to check that out expecting something really small with a few birds. After all, this is an aquatic park. On no. They had hundreds of birds that you could feed! Since we got there pretty early, not many of them were sick of food yet (all-day buffet for the birds, ya know?) and they would come up to us, land on our hands and shoulders, and eat from our hands. It was SO NEAT! That was one of the most amazing aviaries I have ever been to!!!

After that, we wandered around for a bit and then had our dolphin encounter. We were in a group with about 6 other people and each took turns petting, kissing, and swimming with the dolphins. It's amazing how smart and beautiful these animals are! And each one is just as unique as people are! I have a much deeper love and appreciation for these beautiful mammals!

Did you know:
Dolphins, though they swim in it, cannot drink salt water? It dehydrates them.
Dolphins fins and tails have unique patterns on the end, just like a fingerprint?
Their babies nurse by curling their tongues into a straw?
They don't use their teeth for eating? They use them to communicate in various ways... like flirting.
Most places only let you swim with dolphins for 10 or 15 minutes? We got 30.

After we were soaked in salt water, we took the opportunity to go to their grand reef. Oh yes, we snorkled. They had all sorts of tropical fish and rays. We got to touch them and swim with them. It was beautiful. They had rays that were gigantic!!! They were bigger than me and Cory combined. And we got to watch them eat, which was so interesting.

Later on, we went and lazed around their lazy river, which actually went through the aviary. It was great to see the birds we got so intimate with earlier. It was nice and relaxing. AND, Discovery Cove had showers. Not your standard showers, but they provided clean towels, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, hair dryers, and bags for your wet clothes. I highly recommend saving up and taking the adventure out to Florida and going to Discovery Cove.

We spent the second half of our day at Sea World. It was pretty much what you would expect at Sea World. What was really amazing was that we happened to be at the right place each time a show started. AND we got some pretty great seats each time. And the shows were pretty cool. The exhibits were great too. We got to see dolphins and rays again and pet them. It was such an adventurous day! I LOVED IT!


TUESDAY:

We decided to take it easy again today. We started off our day going to lunch at a local place right on the beach. Literally, you ate your food on picnic tables in the sand a few yards from the water. I ordered a philly cheesesteak... because it sounded really good. They had some awesome fries. Cory got the fish of the day. I'm not a huge fan of fish... maybe because I haven't really had it cooked well. I'm not sure. But this fish was delicious! And they served him a ton of it! We could barely finish our meal. That seemed to be the pattern when we went out to eat. They really load you up out there.

After lunch, we drove down to the south side of the beaches. We went all the way down to Ft. DeSoto and went to East and West Beach. We started with East Beach... which I was not pleased with. They have the most interesting pine trees... skinny on the bottom and bushy on the top with teeny tiny pine cones. That's not why I wasn't pleased though. Walking the several yards down to the actual beach, they had all those little prickly pokey things in the grass. You know, the ones that are really small and stick you at the slightest touch. So I had prickly pears all over my poor little toes. One stabbed me so hard that it made my toe bleed... a LOT. I was pretty grumpy after that. I was pretty cautious at West Beach, but it was much nicer. No prickly pears AND a sting ray warning. I thought that was pretty cool. After that, we went to the fort, which was pretty neat, then went to a frozen custard place and watch the sunset at John's Pass. We were told there was good dolphin watching there. There were no dolphins... only people fishing off the pier. And, the frozen custard was not that great. Probably the worst frozen custard I've ever tasted... and the most expensive. I wasn't super happy about that either. After all our fun adventures, we went back to our room, planned our next day, and watched Christmas movies.

WEDNESDAY:

Are you kidding me? Disney World ALL THE WAY! We started off at Magic Kingdom, made our way to Epcot, and ended up at Magic Kingdom again to watch the electrical parade, the castle show, and the firework show. Yes, I rode the fun rides. Even though they say expectant mothers should not ride. Seriously. I did it. But, most of them we watched first before I hopped on. Once we realized that these crazy rides were not so bad... I just went on. And so far, I'm fine. Judge me all you want, but my sister said I would be fine and I trust her with my life. And my baby. Good thing I have another ultrasound coming up... but I'm sure everything will be just fine.

Disney World... amazing. I completely recommend it!

THURSDAY:

We had every intention of finishing up Disney World today since we had two-day park hopper passes. But when the alarm clock went off, there's no way that was going to happen... not at all. Seriously, I'm pregnant and was literally walking around ALL DAY the day before, went to bed really late, and tried waking up early. Yeah. No way.

So we slept in really late and finally woke up to go eat some lunch. We ate at Original Pizza. Cory got a calzone and I had something similar, but not a calzone. Both of them were just delicious. Probably some of the best pizza place I've ever been to. And it was so huge we ate it for dinner too.

We kept it a really low key day and did some laundry. The place we stayed at had free laundry facilities... and they were just outside our door too. That was nice and convenient. We went to bed early so we would have plenty of sleep before taking off super early the next morning.

FRIDAY:

This was another Disney World day. :) We saw some super cute Mickey ornaments that we got personalized for our family as a small thank you gift since pretty much our entire family contributed to our vacation. So we had to go SUPER early to get them done. Right after we got our order in, we ran over to Animal Kingdom for the morning. We started off on the safari. We saw so many amazing animals. They made it so realistic too! You could hardly see the ditches they dug to keep the carnivorous animals from eating you. We did drive right next to the giraffes and ostriches.

After Animal Kingdom, we finished off the day at Hollywood Studios. It was okay. There was more to see than there was to do. But the things to see were pretty neat. Cory and I rode the Tower of Terror. That is definitely not my favorite ride. I really hate feeling like I'm falling. I honestly had my eyes closed half the ride. Cory went on another roller coaster, and it's the only one I didn't go on because it went upside down and did loops. I figured that probably wasn't the best idea for Baby. It was still fun and I called my mom while I waited for Cory. It's what I do.

We called it an early night and were out of the parks by 9. That was kind of nice because we got to our cars and got home pretty.

SATURDAY:

Check-out was at 10am. Our flight was at 8pm. That meant we had a LOT of time to kill before we flew back to Vegas. SO, we packed our bags, and headed up the coast to see what there is left to see. We happened upon this little mini golf course with a 2nd round special. Okay okay, mini golf. Less that glamorous for a vacation. Especially since you can to that almost anywhere. EXCEPT, how many mini golf places let you golf around baby alligators!?!?! It was an awesome course too! It was multiple levels and the holes were all different and pretty tricky. It was so much fun!

Then we went up to Clearwater and bummed on the beach for a bit. Well, 4 hours. It was the only time I got even a little sunburned. Not very bad, but I didn't put sunscreen on. Not too smart, but it wasn't bad.

After the beach, we just headed back to the airport and ate dinner there. We saw a Chipotle nearby, but they closed less than 30 minutes before we got there. UGH! And I've been craving it ever since... sigh. Oh well. We ended up eating Chili's, which is pretty good too. And fortunately our layovers went quickly, everything left on time, and our flight to Vegas even landed 40 minutes ahead of schedule. That was wonderful. We got home, got to sleep, and got to enjoy a wonderful, and busy, Christmas with my family.

Merry Christmas All. I hope yours was as good as mine. :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas Time Is Here

We're getting closer and closer to Christmas. And often the season divides the Scrooges from the Bob Cratchits. I can be a little of both sometimes. For example, I refuse to play Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. It's just a thing.

Well, it also happens to be Cory's birthday. Today, in fact. And my mom was kind enough to send him a gift in the mail. She told me the day she send it so I could keep an eye out for it in the mail. It got here just in time. It was a nice card, but nothing inside. I thought that was strange since she said she sent his gift... not just a card. But either way, no big deal. My mom text him wishing him a happy birthday, and he responded thanking her for the card. Her next text mentioned the card helping on our honeymoon (the vacation we're taking to Florida next week as a belated honeymoon). We hummed and hawed over that one for a little bit thinking it strange that a birthday card would help on our trip. I kind of took over there and text my mom back asking if there was supposed to be something inside the card. Well, yes, in fact, a ticket to Disneyworld was supposed to be inside. But it wasn't. And there was tape on the back of the envelope, which, if my mom is going to seal the back, it's going to be with an actual seal or sticker. It's just her style.

We determined that the ticket was stolen... and someone put the card back in the mail. Sure, strange, but who wouldn't want their birthday card? We were all a little bummed. My mom because she spend some good money and a lot of effort getting it to him on time. Cory because his birthday gift was missing... and he knew what it was supposed to be... and it was awesome. Me because I felt bad for my mom and Cory. It's an all around no fun situation.

That night, Lauren and Ashley came by with Christmas gifts. I gave them theirs earlier. I gave Ashley a photobook of the roadtrip we took 2 summers ago, and I made Lauren some amazing Snuggly Duckling coasters (you know... from the movie Tangled). I kind of wish I had taken pictures of them to show you. Lauren gave me a pretty good waffle maker. Not just any waffle maker, but a circus themed waffle maker! And Ashley, learning how to knit over Thanksgiving break, made me a really lovely and SO SOFT scarf. I ended up giving Cory one of his Christmas gifts a little early since I felt so bad for him (Ticket to Ride - Europe... who wants to play?).

A few minutes after the girls left, my mom calls. She finally got home and got the mail. In the mailbox was an envelope from the post office. Inside the envelope was a letter of apology and the Disneyworld ticket that we assumed was gone forever! It was truly a combination of a Christmas miracle, and my mom being really smart by wrapping the receipt around the ticket (the receipt that happened to have her mailing address on it).

I'm so grateful for the kindness of others. In this case, my mom, my family (for helping us go on this vacation), and the Post Office worker who took the time to send the ticket back to my mom.

It's going to be an awesome Christmas.

(Also, the gifts we got our parents are pretty amazing too. And I'm so excited for them to open them.)

Thursday, December 8, 2011

My Baby

There are first-time moms out there who are completely cool and collected their entire pregnancy, and then there are the other 99.5% of us who are normal and worry uselessly if our baby is going to end up being a mutant alien freak, or worse. Well, partially out of my own paranoid selfishness, and partially because I really do have a desire to help others, I signed up for this nuMoM2b study. It's a study to try to find indicators for babies born early, born with low birth weight, or mothers who develop high blood pressure during pregnancy. I'm sure there are other things they're looking for, but that's just a few. Some of the perks of this study are ultrasound exams during each of the three visits for the study. This is definitely a perk since my insurance only covers the ONE ultrasound at 20 weeks. Do they realize that 4 1/2 to 5 months into a pregnancy!?! I'm sorry, that's far too long for me to know if my baby is developing properly. Thus the selfish part of my participation. Unfortunately Cory had to work all day today, and he couldn't come to the appointment with me. He was pretty bummed. But I went straight over to show him the pictures they sent me home with (and I also happened to have a choir concert tonight... it's just convenient they're in the same place).

So this is our baby!:



Feel free to take your guesses. Half a dozen people have their suspicions already.

Either way, I'm pretty excited.

My sisters and mom have all called or text me asking how everything went (well before my appointment, mind you). I love how excited and supportive they are. After all, this will be grandbaby #19... It makes me even more excited knowing that there are a bunch of people out there on the edge of their seats waiting to hear news. It makes me feel really special even though there are a million pregnant women out there. I guess they only have one pregnant sister right now... and I'm the littlest sister.

And can I tell you about the other little adventure Cory and I had this week?

Well, we went to a friend's house for dinner and we all brought food to share. You know, pot luck style. Anyway, we all overate and were uncomfortable. A few hours after eating, I was still really uncomfortable... and I kind of attributed it to being pregnant and eating too much. That is until I got home and COULD NOT for the life of me find a comfortable sleeping position. Everything hurt. I tried and tried to fall asleep and just sleep it off. It wasn't working. Finally around 2am, I got up to go to the bathroom, deciding that would solve all my problems. I guess it did because I just threw up EVERYTHING I ate that day. It was super gross... and the first time I threw up this entire pregnancy up to that point. It was not fun. I was up and down all night, but got more sleep the second half of the night than the first.

There was no way I was going to be able to work the next day, and I always feel bad for calling in since there is no one to cover for me at all and it completely throws off our routine (BAD NEWS!). Well, Cory ended up calling in that morning too. He was heaving a lot, but I don't think he ever threw up. He also slept a lot better that night. I had a final that afternoon that I could not miss, so I ended up going to class for a couple of hours and being completely dizzy the entire time. I just hope I didn't fail the exam. And then the fun part of my evening began. I had to work 3 student recitals in a row. There was no one to cover the shift for me there either, but I tried to work despite my aching body. It didn't go well. I mean, I put on a happy face for the patrons and others who were around me, but once I got back into my office, I was down. Seriously. Not. Well.

This morning was only a little better. I called in to work again. I hate doing it. Slept all morning, and ended up feeling a lot better than before. Not 100%, but at least 55%. I attended my last class, and went to my concert. By the end of the night I felt at least 70% better. But let me tell you that food poisoning (we're pretty sure that's what's going on) + pregnancy = bad stuff all around. And I am STARVING, yet, nothing looks good or edible.

This could explain why I have lost 7 lbs. in the past 3 weeks (since my last dr. appointment).

I'm just grateful for modern technology and that my baby is okay. I'm counting my blessings!