Can't believe May is almost here!

It seems that I was just typing about how full of a month April was going to be and I just realized last week that May is just around the corner. Lots has happened since Vegas. It took me so long to get that video link figured out for Chad's indoor skydiving thing so it just took forever to post.

Let's see. The weekend we got back from Vegas we celebrated Jennifer and Eric's birthday and my house. I still think about how yummy the cake was. I really enjoy our family celebrations and that we take time out of our busy lives to celebrate with each other. Getting our schedules to all mesh can sometimes be challenging to say the least, but it is always worth the effort. Here are some pics from that day. Can you believe how big TJ is getting?




On the 12th Chad and I saw Cabaret. Neither one of us had high expectations for this but it was...shall I say "Fabulous". We both really enjoyed this show. I had remembered seeing the movie and not loving it. The show was very different than the movie, in fact, after seeing the show Chad and I watched part of the movie and I was like, "wow no wonder I couldn't remember what had happened in the movie while watching the show". It was completely different. At any rate it was a great one. It's always nice to have those shows that surprise you. When you are thinking, "Oh, I'm so tired, I really could take it or leave it tonight" and then the show blows you away. We recently got our renewal for 5th Ave. and we get to move two seats in. Woo hoo. This upcoming season should be a fun one.
We have started our Childbirth Prep classes on Monday nights. This makes for busy, late nights for me on Mondays. Right after work I get a massage (no complaints there), get dinner in route, and then have class until 9:00. I'm usually in bed by 8:00 so I am usually wiped out by the time I get home and have real difficulties getting up to work out Tuesday mornings, but the classes are worth it. I learned more in the first session than I thought I would that is for sure. I thought I already knew a lot about the process but there is always more to be learned.
Chad has also started his signing with baby classes at Microsoft. This has sparked my interest in learning more about what it would take for me to teach these baby signing classes. I'm currently looking into two programs: Sign 2 me and Signing Smart. I think it would be fun to teach mom's and dad's how to sign with baby and I'm pretty sure I would be able to meet the qualifications. I'll let the blog world know if I do start teaching.

We had another doctor's appointment which was very uneventful, always a good thing. Pee in a cup, take my weight, check for babies heart rate, ask any questions. Done. Everything is looking good. Oh by the way as far as my symptoms go right now, my left thigh has been numb since I got back from Vegas, I have these ghastly mini-pukes, or as Chad calls them "verps",all day everyday, fatigue has started in again as well as the uncomfortableness. But all things considered it really isn't that bad. Dr. McLennen says I can expect more areas to go numb in the next couple of months due to my small stature, so get used to it. My feet haven't been swelling so much, only on the days where I am at my desk at work for at least half a day. I try to get up and walk as well as elevate my feet but it just doesn't seem to help much.

The 19th mom and dad came with Chad and I to our 3-d ultrasound at Baby Pictures. Chad wasn't so impressed with the pictures. I thought they looked pretty good. On the 2-d ultrasound they could see that Genevieve already has a full, thick head of hair. We also learned that she likes to snuggle. She actually has a ton of space up top but she curls up down low and cuddles with her feet and hands. At one point we could see her sucking her arm. This is probably too much information but she also seems to like to snuggle with my placenta which is right in front. In several of the pictures her nose is flat because she is right up against it. So needless to say there were only a handful of pictures where you could see her face without the placenta, hand or foot getting in the way. Oh by the way, she is definitely a girl. I will post the video as soon as Chad gets done editing it.

See her flat nose?Here she is sucking on her arm.
This is probably the best pic of her face.

On the 23rd we visited Tiny Sparts, where Genevieve will be going to Daycare. I have worked pretty closely with the director of the childcare centers so I feel very comfortable that it will be a good program. Chad felt like he didn't have enough questions to ask but by most standards he had plenty. The program has teens that rotate through that are taking classes on early childhood. This is a part of there curriculum requirement. The lead teachers do a good job in making sure the teens are doing what they need to do. It will be nice having daycare so close to where I work and having my baby in the same daycare as a lot of my colleagues.

Every now and then we seem to have an abundance of wildlife in our backyard. I never knew how much fun it would be to watch birds and squirrels until I met Chad. We have a flock of Stellars Blue Jays that visit us often for the peanuts. We also get our fair share of finches, crows, little black birds that we don't know what they are and swallows as well as our little squirrel friend that runs along our fence. This is just one example of the finches in our backyard.

Unfortunately Chad has been sick this week with a fever, but is finally starting to feel better. It's pretty rough around her with one of us sick and one of us pregnant. Neither of us feels like doing anything. Even so we were both motivated enough to work on the nursery which is very exciting for me. The room is mostly cleaned out except for a few items we are trying to sell on craigslist. We discovered that we are going to have a paint as least one wall. We moved some bookshelves out of the room. The bookshelves were covering patched up holes where the paint doesn't match. We are thinking red? Is that crazy? And we are thinking of only painting that one wall. To those that are curious our theme for the room is Nursery Rhymes, more specifically Mary Englebreit Nursery Rhymes. Here is the quilt I purchased off of Ebay. As you can see, lots of bright colors to choose from. Mary Englebreit also has a couple of Nursery Rhymes books that we may pull a couple of ideas from. We have a couple of outfits (thanks to mom and Karyl), a changing table/dresser, Amby Swing, pack and play yard and half of the crib (we still need to pick up the other half from the friend that is giving it to us). The changing table, pack and play yard and Amby Swing were all craigslist finds. Yea to craigslist! It's exciting to actually have a place to put some of these items. With May just around the corner June will be here before we know it....EGADS!!!

For those of you who didn't notice, Chad has started a blog too. See the link on the left to check it out.

Ain't It Swell?

We had so much fun in Vegas, but we were busy the entire time. We were both happy to be home. Four days is plenty in Vegas when you have a jam packed schedule. There was still plenty more we wanted to do. Guess we'll have to go back again.

Here is our iteniary for the trip

Monday
9:40 - Arrive in Las Vegas, Check in at Bellagio
12:00 - Lunch at Cafe Bellagio
1:30 - Go to Mandalay Bay for the Shark Reef
6:00 - Go to Excalibur for Tournament of the Kings

Tuesday
4:00 - Get up and get ready for Grand Canyon Helicopter Tour
1:00 - Back at Bellagio, Lunch at Sensi
3:00 - Penguin Feed at Flamingo (opps this doesn't exist anymore)
6:00 - Dinner at Tropicana at Mizunos
8:30 - Folies Bergere at Tropicana

Wednesday
11:00 - Go to Bally's for Jubilee Backstage Tour
1:30 - Go to Mirage for Dolphin Habitat and Secret Garden
5:00 - Dinner at Olives
7:30 - Jubliee at Bally's
After Show Freemont Street

Thursday
10:00 - Indoor Skydiving
Lunch
Leave for Airport
Fly home!

Upon arrival we checked into our room. We had requested a room close to the elevator because the last couple times we have been to the Bellagio it seemed we had rooms near the end of the hall. When you are coming back from a long day of walking that hall seems to go on forever! We were very close to the elevator and the view from out room was amazing. It was so cool to be able to watch the fountains and hear the music from our rooms.

Lunch at Cafe Bellagio was wonderful. If you ever get a chance to go their you need to try their Chicken Picatta with Artichoke and Capers. It is to die for!

Chad and I both enjoyed the Shark Reef. We were able to snag a wheelchair for me. It is a little humbling to be in a wheel chair but my feet were so swollen and I was so uncomfortable. I would have been miserable if it weren't for the wheelchair. Looking back I wish I had taken a picture of the Corridor aquarium, but here is a picture of it I found on the web.


Tournament of the Kings is similar to Midevil Knights. We had fun, but both agreed it would be more fun if you either went with kids or had a little to drink. Unfortunately the entire dinner was spinkled with Parmasean cheese so I had fun trying to pick all the cheese off of everything.
We loved our trip to the Grand Canyon. I was a super early day, we ordered room service because nothing was open yet. I had never ordered room service before, what fun. The sad part of this day was I stepped on a scale because they ask how much you weigh even though they weigh you on the helicopter anyways. Oh so sad to see such high numbers on the scale. But at least I have an excuse huh? A shuttle came and picked us up at the hotel and took us to Boulder City. There we learned you could get an "upgrade" to sit in the front. As we mulled it over if we wanted to pay more for this "first class" seating they called us to start boarding the helicopter. Much to our delight we got to sit in the front anyways. I sat next to the window and Chad got to sit right next to the pilot. This would have been his preference anyways since he can see all the dials and controls this way. On the way out to Grand Canyon and back Chad and I were both nodding off. I'm not sure if it was that we got up so early that morning or just that the vibrations of the helicopter were lulling us to sleep. At any rate it was a calm, peaceful, beautiful trip. We landed and had a breakfast there and then headed back.


Lunch at Sensi was a little disappointing. We really should have gone there for dinner but we had too many other dinners planned. We didn't realize that the dinner menu was different from the lunch menu. The service wasn't that great. I ordered a Kobe burger and go two tiny burgers. Nothing on the menu stated that these were not going to be full sized burgers. I ran out of water in my water glass several times, the waiter was not friendly at all and the place wasn't even busy! I'm not sure I would go back to Sensi.

After Sensi we headed to the Flamingo hotel to watch a penguin feed that doesn't exist. Apprantly Chad looked at a book that was outdated. Ah well it was nice to see the hotel anyways. They did have a little aviary that was cute too.

We actually did not have high expectations for Mizunos at the Tropicana because it was part of a dinner/show package, but it was actually very good eats. It was a Benny Hana's type place. Becasue of the timing we got the entire grill to ourselves and it was yummy.

Folies Bergere was OK. It's one of those things that you do once and then say, yep I've done that before. Chad really wanted to see some of the old style Vegas shows since they aren't around much anymore. So now we can say we did that.

Wednesday morning we went on a backstage tour for Jubilee! There we met Sam. Sam is a singer in the cast. We got to see all the sets (a lot of them probably not all), some of the costumes and headresses, a glimpse of the hall of dressing rooms, and some of the ins and outs of what happens backstage. It was really neat to see. If you are planning to see the show I recommend the tour. Of course Chad had a bunch of questions for Sam which led Sam to believe that Chad has a background in theatre. No, Chad does not have a background in theatre (except for a few plays here and there) just a thirst for useless knowledge.

From there we went to the Dolphin Habitat and Secret Garden at the Mirage. Again my feet were massively swollen, so again we got a wheelchair for me. I felt like such a whimp. I felt like people were looking at me thinking you don't really need that. I'll tell you this much, if it weren't for that wheelchair I would have been in and out of there in 5 minutes because my feet hurt so much. Fortunately for Chad they had people stationed around all over to answer any questions visitors might have. Lucky me!! Hey I can't blame the guy for wanting to know more about everything. After a while though it felt a little like oh man this poor woman is going to think we are stalking her. The workers rotate areas they stand in and it seemed she was always where we were. Of course each area harkened new questions specific to that area. I give myself a gold star for my patience that day. I want Chad to get the answers to his questions, but I don't care about them myself. I'm more of the, "hmmm let's have a looksie, "Yep look at the Dolphins aren't they cute, OK let's go now". When Chad sees something he wants to know all about the eating habits, behaviors, the mating process etc. etc. etc. Typically when we go to a place that has information plaques he reads each and every one. I tend to go back and forth between exhibits while he reads and then Chad will report back to me the highlights of that area.

We had dinner at Olive's. That food at Olive's is wonderful! All week I had been checking in to see if Elysa Wilson was working. Elysa has been a friend of the family for years. Her dad and my dad were in the Air Force together and have managed to stay in touch all these years. Elysa is going to school at UNLV where she has finished her dance major and working on her criminal justice major and she works at Olive's. Thankfully she was working Wednesday night. It was great to see her and hear about how the Wilson's are doing (not to mention we got preferriental seating). She was surprised to learn that Chad and I are pregnant and is very happy for us. Here are a couple pics taken at Olives.




That evening we went to see Jubliee. A traditional Vegas show. It was neat that at the tour that morning Sam said he would look for us. I swear the entire opening number he was looking right at us. This show left Chad thinking, did Don Arden (creator of Jubilee) have ADD? There are four acts. The opening act, Sampson and Dehlila, Titanic and the Finalle--a tribute to Fred and Ginger. None of these seemed connected in any way shape or form but rather each was it's own sort of mini show. Another one of those, okay, now we can say we have done that.

After the show we went to Freemont street. Something we have always meant to do while in vegas. I think both of us was a little disappointed. It used to be that Freemont street had a light show coordinated with music and colors above the street now it is esentially a really big really long TV screen. They run a show on it every half hour with people dancing and music but it's not as impressive as I think the light show might have been, but I wouldn't know because I never saw it. It was a late, late night and I think we were both glad to be back at the hotel room to get some zzz's.

Thursday moring, our last day in Vegas. Packed up our bags, checked out, had a bellman put our bags in storage so we can pick them up later and headed to Flyaway for indoor skydiving. Chad had a lot of fun doing this. I would have loved to do this too, but alas no pregnant ladies allowed (no surprise there). Initially Chad did not want to do this without me but I encouraged him to do it because we have no idea when he will have this opportunity again. What a great wife I am huh?

Chad loved it so much and we had enough time left that he did it again.


We headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and get the shuttle to the airport. The flight was incredibly long. Believe it or not it was a 5 hour flight from Vegas to Seattle. We stopped in Ontario, CA and San Jose, CA. Egads!! By the time we landed my legs were swollen from the knee down and I couldn't even stuff my feet in my shoes without taking out my orthodics first. We were able to pick up a wheelchair. It trully hurt with every step. I know I had been sitting for 5 hours but at least it didn't hurt to get from point A to point B in a wheelchair. We were both very ready to be home. We had a great time in Vegas and we realize that this may be our last trip with just the two of us for a long time to come.