Running

So you can probably tell from my mileage log that I haven't been doing too much running this year. My totals are gonna look pathetic next to last years but I decided to keep track anyway because it helps me know when I need to get new shoes. It's hard to know how much exercise is enough or too much when you're pregnant. I feel like I haven't been doing enough and I need to step it up. But I also know that I can't keep up with what I was doing before I got pregnant. I still work out 4-5 times a week for at least 30 minutes, but I have drastically reduced the intensity and length of my workouts. And I don't run very often anymore...instead I've been doing more of the other stuff. But it's still such a hard balance to know how much to do! And I'm stinkin bored of the gym. I just wanna be outside but I hate being cold! I'm such a wuss! Last year I was running 20 miles in the snow!

Top hats and bowties

For our Groundhog Day/Housewarming Party last night, I decided it would be funny to wear top hats and bowties like the Groundhog head honchos do in Punxatawney! Matt was a good sport and let me take a picture. Unfortunately, this was the only picture I took and I didn't get any of our guests. But we had a good time with a few friends eating our groundhog snacks and watching Bill Murray. Thanks to Anne, Emma, Bekah and Nathan! Happy Groundhog Day!

Breakfast in Bed

I have had a nasty cold this week, so yesterday Matt brought me breakfast in bed!

Update

I had another doctors appointment this week, and everything is lookin' good with little Brathen. (That is what we are calling our baby for now since we don't know the gender, Matt is convinced it's a boy, I'm playing along, and we can't agree on a name, so it's a mix of Brandon and Ethan.) We get to find out if it's a little boy or a little girl at our next appointment!

I have been feeling pretty good except for the fact that I am super tired and fall asleep at like 8:00 half the time. But I'd rather be sleepy than pukey! The thing I don't get though is that the scale says I have not gained a pound, but yet half my clothes don't fit...what's up with that? Luckily I still have a couple pairs of bigger pants that I didn't get rid of when I lost weight.

I started my LAST AND FINAL SEMESTER of grad school! And it's gonna be a toughie. I hope I will survive. I'm taking two classes: Assessment and College Student Retention, plus I'm writing and presenting my thesis. Yikes! Matt started his second semester of grad school and is starting to work on his big research project. Even though it's crazy, we are thankful for the opportunity to both get good educations.

Anyway, life is good. Come visit us! We are having a housewarming party on Groundhog Day. (Feb. 2) Hope to see you there!

Adventures in Babysitting

Last week we babysat my cute little cousin, Azilyn. She is so fun and her hair reminds me of mine when I was little, except it was brown. I'm sure our kid will have similar hair as well.

Anyway, we had lots of fun playing. Azilyn loved to get in this little cart and have Matt pull her around the house. She loved to play the drums and guitar on our rock band.

She loved to play with all my candles and stuff I had around the house. She would pick them up and take a big whiff and take them around to everyone else to smell. She also loved the rocks that are in one of the candle things.

We also read stories before bedtime.

She was very good and we loved having her come and play at our house.

Costa Rica: The Wrap-Up

This is my last post about our trip--I promise! New Year's Eve was pretty interesting. We had heard that it could get pretty crazy and we were excited to watch it. But we went downtown at about 10:30 and there was hardly anyone there! So we made our way to the beach and there were quite a few people out on the beach having BBQs and picnics and stuff. About 11:30 or so, the whole town came down to the beach and there were huge bonfires and everyone was letting off fireworks. The thing I liked most was that the whole family was there...from the old grannies to the little kids.

We're not quite sure when exactly it was midnight because one minute one group of people would start cheering and then a few minutes later another group would start. Most of the hotels along the beach had firework shows and everyone else was also letting off fireworks, so it was a 360-degree firework show. It was pretty cool.

The funniest part was that at about 11:40 or so, the power went out. In the whole town. For about 2 hours. So after midnight, people were just out dancing in the street and they were burning random things for light. We saw a chair being burned on a street corner. Since the bars had no power, everyone was just out in the street by their cars--playing music and using the light from their cars. It was pretty funny. We left about 1 or so before it got too crazy. The power came back on about 2 am. It definately was a new experience ringing in the new year!

I had never seen a black sand beach before and there was one about 10 minutes from our condo. I loved it...it was so pretty. The waves were HUGE and it was fun to watch the surfers.

And we found another hammock to relax in while watching the sunset.

There's nothing like laying in a hammock and seeing this...

And this....
Here are some funny signs we saw.

Anyway, that about wraps it up.

Costa Rica: The Adventures

The absolute coolest thing we did in Costa Rica was go on a canopy tour. We did this on New Years Day, and it was so amazing. Basically what it entails is you go up to the top of a mountain and zipline down it through the jungle. There were 15 different ziplines and in between them were these platforms that were way up in the tops of the trees. So you had to jump off the tree and swing down to the next one. Most of the time you couldn't see where the next one was so you just had to jump off into the trees. It was SO FUN!

Seriously, this was probably one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life. Jumping off the first one was kinda scary, but after that it was so much fun. The scariest part was standing on those wooden platforms that were so high up.

I would definately do this again.

Here we are on the platform. Don't worry, it was completely safe. We had three backup harnessess and we were always hooked up to something.

Here's a video of me jumping off one of the platforms and sailing down through the trees.

That was definately the highlight of the trip. Here is Matt overlooking some cool jungley mountains.

For those of you who know me, I LOVE hammocks. And a hammock on the beach is even better. So of course I had to try them all out. This one was on Tortuga Island. Matt really wanted to go there because of the Pirates of the Carribean movie. It was pretty cool.

We also rented a couple of kayaks on Tortuga Island and paddled around for awhile. I love kayaking! The waves were kinda big though so it made it a little hard.

We also went on a little snorkeling excursion on Tortuga Island. That was the main thing that Matt wanted to do on our trip. We saw lots of fish, and I even saw an eel.

We went on three different hikes (sort of) through the jungle. That was really fun.

This tree was huge! There were tons of cool plants.

And lots of fun vines that the monkeys were swinging on. So of course I had to try too!

This beach is where I got stung by a jellyfish (or something of the sort). One minute I felt a sharp sting and the next minute my arm was covered in hives. I never did see what it was that stung me though. This beach was really nice. It was sandy (a lot of the others were fairly rocky) and there was a nice view of the jungle from the water.

Here we are on our boat out to Tortuga Island. I love being out on the water!

This is the place we were going to stay at if we would have gone in October. It's one of the nicest Marriott's in the world. My aunt works for Marriott so she got us a pretty sweet discount. However, when we had to change our plans to go in December, there wasn't any availability there so we had to find another place to stay. Which turned out fine. We snuck into the Marriott one day and all the rich people were just talking about their yachts. We totally would not have fit in!

When we snuck in, we saw these really cool fireflies and a helicopter pad and an endless swimming pool and hammocks on the beach.

I'm actually glad we didn't end up staying there. I think we got a bit more of an authentic experience instead of just hanging around the rich Americans. Anyway, the whole trip was quite the adventure!