Pictures.

I have more to add, but here is a start!

Our room, so breezy and peaceful!

The one day I was brave enough to give the belly a little sun (seemed to make a linea nigra appear so I kept it covered the rest of the week).  Secret Harbor, St. Thomas.

"Main Street" on Jost Van Dyke.  One of those little buildings is customs, boats are supposed to dock and check in on a good faith basis.

The Catamaran we took our day sail on, and White Bay, Jost.

 Dressed up for dinner...taken in the Italian gardens at the place we stayed. 

 Love this photo that R took.   I think this was in Maho Bay, St. John.

A little hard to see since he was stirring up sand, but a sea ray in Maho Bay.

  The reef at Coki Beach, St. Thomas.  People could feed the fish here, so they'd actually swim up to you!

Back from vacation!

St. Thomas was fabulous and all in all, I did pretty well physically.   Of course, it was HOT...but there wasn't much humidity so the shade and/or water provided substantial relief.   If you are friends with me on facebook, I've already uploaded a bunch of pictures, but I'll add a long picture post here in the next few days.   I am pleased to say I have an amazing tan now.

Most of the trip was without problems, except of course for a few travel glitches. We left for the airport at 4am Monday morning for a 6am flight.  I wasn't nervous about flying, but I wasn't really sure what to expect either, so I was not prepared for what came next.   About an hour into the 2.5 hour flight I started getting hot flashes, so I took off my hoodie and that helped for maybe 30 minutes.  Then they came back full force accompanied by sudden nausea....yep, air sickness.  I've never been air sick in my life and I seriously thought I was going to throw up right there in the middle seat.   I made it to the bathroom and felt a little better.  I had R dig out the seabands I packed, cranked up the air gauge above my seat and made it through the rest of the flight without incident.   I think it was the first time ever I was a little grateful for a 1 hour delay, giving me a little extra time on the ground in Miami.  Luckily the 2nd leg of the trip and our return were not a problem.

While in Miami, we found out that our friends, flying in from Boston and meeting us at the airport in St. T, wouldn't be making it down until Tuesday, because their flight had been canceled (turns out that mechanical failure was also the cause for our delay).  So it was just R and I that first night and the next day, which actually ended up being really nice because we had some time to unwind without being swept up right away in group plans (there were a total of 7 people eventually).

Over the course of the week we made it to St. John twice, visiting Maho Bay, Cinnamon Bay, Honeymoon Bay, and Trunk Bay.   We took a daysail to Jost Van Dyke, which was absolutely beautiful, but don't go there on or near a holiday weekend, because White Bay becomes party central for everyone in Puerto Rico who wants to enter the BVIs illegally (when I post a pic of "main street", you'll see why it is a prime choice for skipping customs).   We got in plenty of swimming and snorkeling though, and saw tons of fish, sea turtles, rays, and even a school of squid!   The only thing we didn't do was make it over to St. Croix.  Between the cost ($90 round trip) and schedule of the ferry, we decided it wasn't the time to do it because I wouldn't last a full day on the island.

I think might also have a future beach bum on our hands.  It is hard to distinguish movement while swimming, but as soon as I'd settle down on the beach he'd go nuts.

28 weeks!!

Good news, the emotional crazies are not here stay.  After crying at the drop of a hat for the first 5 days of 3rd tri, yesterday I felt back to normal.   Not sure what exactly all that was about, but I'll blame R's fishing trip this weekend for most of it.  ;)

3 more days until we leave for St. Thomas.   My mind checked out around mid-afternoon yesterday...I am so ready to be down there!   I still have to pack, but I've got my assortment of cute dresses and shorts all ready to go.   The only daunting task that remains is attempting to find a strapless bra.  Yeah...not looking forward to that.   The amount of side-boob I've acquired is just ridiculous, so I may end up having to choose between the saggy boob look and the stuffed sausage look for a few of these tops/dresses.   I don't think we'll be paying for maternity photos, so I've been hoping someone can get a few nice pictures while we are down there.  That is all I really need.   And what better backdrops than these?

Hello 3rd Trimester!!

Once again I've been slacking, I'm now 27 weeks and 4 days, so last week was the start of 3rd tri.   Friday I had my glucose tolerance test and all I can is that people are freaking pansies, because it wasn't that bad.  It tasted like flat orange soda with extra sugar in it.  The worst part, naturally, was getting my blood drawn because even with all that extra blood flow....my veins still suck.  At least she only had to stick me once and the vials they took were teensy tiny so it was over before I knew it.   They said they'd call with results only if there was a problem.

So it would appear that 3rd tri has brought along a few sudden changes.   If "nesting" = "OMG I can't shut my brain off ever", then that has started.  Our house is in pretty good shape...at least until the baby stuff start really pouring in, so instead I've gone into panic overdrive about the conditions of the grandparents houses.   My mother-in-law smokes...so we have one house full of 2nd and 3rd hand smoke.  My parents are borderline hoarders.  Not in that TLC show way, more in the too many family heirlooms that we really don't need along with every piece of artwork/toy I've owned stashed in the attic kind of way.   Seriously...I know we have a while, but it is far from child proof.   So my focus over the next few months will be getting rid of as much stuff as I can.   There isn't much I can do about the smokey house except limit our time there...but that in and of itself is a stressful issue.

Also, while it could be the above stress combined with fast approaching major travel, the irrational emotions have arrived as well.  The littlest things will send me into tears now.  Yesterday I asked R which suitcases we were taking now that he had borrowed the extra big one from his parents.  He got short with me and said he'd already told me this 3 times.  That resulted in a good 15 minutes of tears.  

Hopefully once we are in St. Thomas I can slow my mind down and just relax, because I feel like I did back when I was on Adderall for ADD.  Its not fun.

On a good note, my bump did not continue its major growth spurt...if anything, I think it might be a little smaller than my 26 week pic.

Baby/kid resale events.

On Saturday a friend and I decided we'd check out this huge resale event held by a Moms of Multiples club at a local school.  The sale was from 9-12 so I figured we'd go around 9:30.   Friday evening I talked to my neighbor, who is a garage sale pro, and she told me if we had anything specific we were looking for we had better get there early....like before the doors opened early.  She hadn't been to this exact one before, but the last big one she attended had a line halfway around the building.   So we adjusted our plans and decided to meet at 7:30am.

As soon as I pulled on to the road where the school was located, I was cut off by about 3 minivans in a row.  I laughed to myself that they must be headed to the sale....yeah, they were.   The whole parking lot was full of minivans and trucks and there was already a line of at least 100.   These people do not joke around...I even saw one with her own rolling storage cart thing.

So the doors opened at 8 and by the time we got back to the room with the big stuff it looked like a scene from the running of the brides event.  People pushing stuff aside, grabbing things practically out from under others...we just sort of stood there and stared for a minute.  We looked over a few things, but most of it was toys so we didn't spend much time in that section and headed to the clothing room.   Luckily the maternity section wasn't as much of a zoo and I got two cute tops and a pair of pants for $15.   I wasn't planning on buying any baby clothes yet, but I saw this outfit on a rack and just fell in love with it.  It is 3-6 months, so it may not fit until the end of summer/september...but he has his first swimsuit!!

The little wooden train is a toy that R had as a child and will be in the nursery.