Cousins Party

Sometimes we get together and have a cousins party.  I love it so much! I love having so many cousins living close by.  This last weekend Kurt and Julie were in town so we made sure we all got together with them. We had so much fun! Thanks Shay for getting it all put together, and thanks Larkie for letting us use your house!

First Cousins!

Second Cousins!

And Ellie of course just because I am obsessed with her and I love her so much!!!

24 weeks!

How far along? 24 weeks

Total weight gain: 30 lbs

Maternity clothes? My belly has popped enough that I have started wearing more normal clothes because now I actually look pregnant.

Stretch marks? I thought I saw one two days ago, but I cant find it now so hopefully I was wrong.

Sleep: Getting a little better. I got a body pillow which seems to help.

Best moment this week: Going to the baby store with Tabor and his brother Marcus and realizing that we have no idea what we are doing haha.

Miss Anything? I miss being able to go for more than 2 hours without having a snack.

Movement: She wiggles all the time. Tabor has even felt her a few times.

Food cravings: I always crave skittles, but I don’t think that has anything to do with pregnancy.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing really

Gender: GIRL

Symptoms: bad skin, hurting hips, EXTREME weight gain

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? on

Happy or Moody most of the time: I have been feeling great! Generally very happy and grateful that I have such a wonderful husband.

Looking forward to: Possibly going to the pool with Larkie this week to get some much needed exercise, and maybe a little sun too.

And speaking of pregnancy I made a cake for a little party we had last week and it was so yummy.

It was a chocolate chip cake with whipped cream layers and chocolate mousse on the outside and covered in fresh strawberries.

Tennessee

 Last week Tabor and I took a trip to Tennessee to visit Tabors brother and his family.  We were out there for about a week and we had such a great time! They had so many fun things planned for us to do, and we loved all of them!

No one warned me that Hannah would get into my purse and play with everything she found.  So I was a little surprised when I came into the room and found her with a mascara uni brow. She is so cute.  

The next Day we went and saw the old Tennessee State Prison. It isn't in use anymore, but they filmed the movie The Green Mile there.  It was a beautiful old building, but apparently they aren't very fond of visitors because they made us leave the premises.

This was a fake body that was in the driveway of the prison for some reason.  We still aren't sure what that was all about.

 We next day we went out on the Canoe to do a little fishing.  They didn't catch much, but it sure was fun and beautiful.

Tabor was in heaven the entire time because there was so much water for him to fish in. 

On Monday we went down to Chattanooga to a place called Rock City.  It was full of awesome rock formations and deep cracks in the rock.  Some places were so narrow that we could barely walk through.

From the top of the cliff at Rock City you could see so far that you could actually see 7 different states.

It was actually a little scary to have the kids running around because there were so many places where they could fall off the side.  They seemed to have a lot of fun though.  And they found tons of fun bugs to play with.

After Rock City we went to the Aquarium for the rest of the day.  We were all a little tired by then, but we still had fun.  Chloe especially loved the butterfly room where they let you hold the butterflies.  

 Sometimes in the car when Hannah would not like what you were saying to her she would put up her fists to fight.  She is so adorable.

By the end of that day everyone was ready to get home and go to bed.  Tabor had to wake up really early the next morning to catch his flight.  We had to fly separate because Tabor had a standby buddy pass.  I really didn't like flying without Tabor, especially because he got direct flights both ways, and he got bumped up to first class, while I had to sit in the airport for my 4 1/2 hour layover. 

We had so much fun with the Thayns in Tennessee and we cant wait to go back again!!!

Memorial Day

For Memorial Day this year I really wanted to go camping, so I checked the weather in all of the surrounding areas and decided that our best bet would be Moab, Utah.  Here in Orem/Lehi the weather was supposed to be cold and rainy so I wanted to do all that I could to get away from it.  I looked up good fishing spots near Moab and found a map to some beautiful secluded lakes about 40 minutes South of Moab, in the La Sal Forest. We packed our car, and headed off on our romantic camping/fishing weekend getaway trip.

I soon learned that Pregnancy and camping are not the best combination.  We stopped to spend the night in a little town called Green River, UT to do some catfishing.  The wind was blowing so hard that we couldn't set our tent up so we slept int he back of the car (not the most comfortable situation). Tabor did catch 3 catfish which he was really excited about.

This was the only picture we got of the two of us.  We set the timer on the camera and put it on the hood of the car, but right when it took the picture Tabor had to run and catch it cause it was so windy that it was blowing the camera off the hood. (and yes I look like I have a huge pillow in my belly because the wind was blowing and filling up the little space that is left in my shirt.)

Little Catfish in the Green River

Catfish from the Green River.

After a miserable nights sleep in Green River we continued on to the lakes.  The closer we got the more nervous I got. These beautiful little lakes were apparently at the top of a mountain where it was still very cold. 

At one point the tiny dirt road was blocked by a fallen tree.

Luckily a nice man named Kyle came along with his chainsaw and cleared it. Thanks Kyle!

This is what my hair looks like after not showering and sleeping in a car. This was the first fish I caught and I was so excited!!!

And so we started fishing in the freezing, cold, torrential wind. And I loved it!!

I just love Tabors fishing hat.  He makes me so happy!

This first lake was called Dons Lake. We bought a 4 person inflatable fishing boat to take out on the lake, but it was too windy to take it out.  It sure was beautiful though.

I caught the biggest fish of the day and I was so happy!

We ended up driving down to another lake close by called Hidden Lake to do a little more fishing.  This is where we camped for the night.

We decided to set up our tent even though it was still really windy, and then we ended up sitting in the warm car and watching a movie.  We decided to give it a shot and sleep in the tent, which proved to be a bad idea.  I hardly slept at all because the wind was so loud.  We decided that if the weather wasn't better by morning we would just give up and drive home. 

When we woke up it was still really windy and to top it all off the car had a low/flat tire, we took these both as a sign and packed up camp to head home. After putting the spare on the car we made our way back down the mountain and drove ourselves home.

The final fish count by the end of the trip was Rachel 11- Tabor 17.

Despite the bad weather and the flat tire we both had a wonderful weekend and we are so excited to go on more camping and fishing adventures.