Mother's Day Dinner

**Scott has warned me that if I post this then I also need to post some of his better cookings.**

Here are some past posts of delicious foods by Scott:

Strawberry Pie

Blackberry Pie

Crab Cakes

Sous Vide

But back to this post:

For Mother's Day we made some burgers. My dad had preheated the grill but Scott didn't realize how hot it was. He put the burgers on and went back inside to do some other food prep. He was going to check after 5 minute but forgot until 10 minutes had passed and this is what they looked like.

Even the seasoning next to the grill melted!

Needless to say, dinner didn't go exactly as planned...

WOSC Baby Shower

The first Monday in May my work threw us a cute baby shower. Scott even came!

They had delicious treats and great decorations.

They also gave us some great gifts, one of them being this pack'n'play. We got it all set up in Baby's room. Speaking of his room, how do you like it? No those are not ALL his clothes, most of them are ours. His room is the closet. For the time being we can leave our clothes in there but once he's moving and grabbing things we don't want him to pull a shirt down and suffocate or anything. Don't worry, we'll clean his room out a little more before he comes.

So this party was on May 6 before my regular 36 week appt. The week before I had high blood pressure and a headache so I went to the hospital for some monitoring and testing to make sure I didn't have preeclampsia. On Monday my BP was still a bit high and a protein test came back elevated so I was told to quit working! I went back to work, told the HR manager and cleaned out my locker. It was sad. I was hoping to work at least 2 more weeks. I also felt bad that they threw me a party and then I never showed back up. All this time off has given me plenty of time to accomplish my to do list. People keep telling me how great this is that I get to relax but they don't realize that I've spent HOURS on the phone with insurance companies and doing other unpleasant tasks. Don't let me complain though, I am having a nice time. It's just kind of weird to have no schedule.

Strawberry Pie

Scott made some delicious strawberry pies. I was quite skeptical they they would taste good but they turned out to be super delicious. He's quite the baker of delicious food!

Baby Shower

Back in April I had a really nice baby shower with some friends from church. The food theme was dips and desserts and that was AWESOME! Everything tasted delicious and it was the perfect blend of munchies. I was able to bring home some leftovers for Scott and he was really impressed. So many kind friends came and there was an outpouring of support. I felt overwhelmed by their generosity and love! We got so many great gifts. Quite a few gifts were books or book suggestions and that's perfect for us. #1 we both love to read and #2 we don't have space for anything! 

The beautifully delicious spread.

I don't think my parents were too impressed with our pack'n'play plan so they got us a bassinet  Sadly, the pack'n'play has won this battle for reasons of space but we really appreciate my parent's thoughtfulness. Thanks Mom!

One of my favorite shower attendees.

Scott's favorite gift: Baby's first swimsuit. He is very excited to put it to good use.

My sister Melissa made me this blanket. So cute!

My wonderful friends who put on the shower (minus Debbie who had to go home to her 10 day old baby). Thank you so much! I really appreciate all of your kindness and hard work!

Washington DC

Note: This was supposed to be posted Thursday but the third post still needs approval. Hopefully I can post that one on Thursday. If not, just know that Scott got sick before we flew out of Chicago on Saturday night so we stayed an extra night.

Vacation Installment #4: Washington DC

Congratulations on making it to the last one!

We got to our hotel at 3am on Monday morning but still managed to wake up in time for our tour of Ford's Theater. We've both recently read Team of Rivals (I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone), watched Lincoln and The Conspirators, and are genuinely interested in politics/history so we loved this tour. The hour audio tour took about 2 hours because we listened to every audio blurb AND read everything that was on the walls... Nice.

These are some artifacts from Lincoln's family. A toy sword and other things.

(I know these pictures are horrible but if I don't post them I'll have nothing interesting to talk about!)

The boot John Wilkes Booth was wearing when he jumped off the balcony after murdering Lincoln. He broke his ankle and it caused his boot to split.

The balcony where the Lincoln's were watching the play that night.

The Petersen House where Lincoln actually died. It was right across the street.

We got to see it (and the rest of DC) with about 1000+ junior high kids. Nice.

The bed where Lincoln died.

After our gluttony of Lincoln we went to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum. Scott was most excited for this big blue whale.

We loved the elephant there.

They had a display there with award winning photographs and they were amazing. 

This is of Yosemite Valley.

The Mall was simply beautiful and with such nice weather we had a wonderful walk to the Air and Space Museum.

A very old plane. (By this time I was exhausted and could hardly walk so Scott is really the one who looked around and saw the cool stuff.)

 A moon rover picture for my nephew Caleb who LOVES space.

 Tuesday morning we went to the Newseum. It's relatively new and dedicated to the First Amendment and all things news related. We loved it.

This picture was taken on their top floor and as you can see by our dress it was relatively warm!

One of the radio control towers from the top of a World Trade Center building. It was destroyed in the Sept 11 attack.

Shoes from that guy who tried to blow up an airplane but it didn't work.

The Unabomber's cabin.

 Our favorite display was where they had rows and rows of newspapers from about 1200BC. They even had the Times and Seasons from when Joseph Smith was killed.

A media truck from the recent wars in the Middle East.

 Parts of the Berlin Wall.

 Since I can't think straight anymore I thought the White House was close enough to walk to. By the time we got there I sat on a bench and Scott walked around to take pictures.

 Hi Obamas!

By Wednesday I could hardly walk anymore so instead of staying inside all day we decided to take a bus tour of the city and surrounding area.

The Supreme Court was hearing about DOMA or Prop 8 and it was a mad house in front. When we went by the next day though it was deserted!

The bus tour even took us around the Georgetown area and we got to see the National Cathedral.

The Washington Monument that was under construction.

Scott stayed out on Wednesday night to take some night photos. I was nervous about him being outside in the dark but

there were plenty of junior high kids to keep him safe. 

The Jefferson Memorial.

The Washington Monument.

The new Martin Luther King Jr Memorial.

On Thursday morning we had our Capitol tour and it was really good.

This is the ceiling of the Rotunda.

Around the Rotunda there are historical depictions that were interesting. Our tour guide was really awesome and told us about each scene. I think this is John Smith and the Indians.

California has a statue of Ronald Reagan and Father Juniper Sierra.

A crooked yet satisfactory picture in front of the Capitol.

The dome from the outside. 

OK, this is actually the front and the picture of us was taken at the back. Whatever!

 Thursday afternoon we went to Arlington Cemetery.

 There we were able to see 2 wreaths places at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers and also the changing of the guards.

A monument to those who died in the Challenger explosion.

Thursday evening we changed hotels to be closer to Dulles and hung out for a while before getting an early night's sleep. We caught an early flight back to SFO and were home in time for lunch! It was an awesome but exhausting vacation. 

Word to the wise: if you want to take a babymoon or whatever go somewhere that isn't cold and doesn't require much effort. I walked until I couldn't move anymore during these 2 weeks. It took me quite a while to recover. Pregnant women probably shouldn't be spending much time where you need a swimsuit but perhaps that would have been the more relaxing option...