75%, three-quarters, or in this case 30/40

Our Cake from a little "shower" in Denver.

Yep, we're having a "blue" baby Cloud!  This week marks the end 30 weeks, which means about 10 to go.  We, well mainly I, have wanted to keep this joyful news to ourselves, but alas we'll have to tell the world sooner or later. (People might think we stole a baby when we suddenly have one!)

We found out we were expecting on National Chocolate Cake Day (yes, there is such a day, January 27).  For date night we had gotten chocolate cake from the cheesecake factory to celebrate the holiday, but after finding out we were having a baby, I sobbed . . . for 2 hours and couldn't eat my cake . .  very unlike me.  Even though this sweet baby was totally planned and very much wanted, I felt this total rush of real grown-up responsibility and an overwhelming feeling my life was never going to be the same.  Have I ever mentioned I don't do well with big life changes?

The first trimester was pretty much a breeze.  Heck, we even went to Hawaii!  I only felt ill a few times, usually at 1 a.m..  But it was nothing a few pretzels didn't fix.  (Note:  At first I was opening little bags of pretzels at 1 a.m., waking the whole neighborhood with the package crinkle.  It was soon decided the pretzels would best be served by being opened prior to bed and put in a bowl on my nightstand, LOL). 

The second trimester was much the same.  The main change happened with our running routine - it became a walking routine at best.  We didn't tell people we saw regularly until I was about 4 months, I wanted to make sure we were progressing normally.  My favorite story of this time of the pregnancy was with my first pair of maternity pants.  Really all of my clothes fit up to this point, but waistbands became a little dicey.  I wore a pair of new dark grey pants to work and the teacher across the hall complemented me on how slimming my new pants were.  I graciously thanked her, but was dying laughing inside, if she only knew!

End of week 30 - and it was 106 outside - yuck!

Now that the third trimester is in full swing, the panic of getting everything complete in time has set in.  Our nursery furniture came this weekend (don't worry, I'll post about it, it is going to be so cute)!  As I feel these senses of panic and anxiety, which I have been assured are completely normal, I always get this sweet assurance from my Heavenly Father that His angels will be near to help me be a top notch mom and do everything I'm called to do.  My relationship with my Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ, has been very real through this pregnancy, I know being parents at this time is part of His plan for our family.

One of those sweet angels I've been blessed with is my sweet husband.  I hope every man treats his wife as well as I'm treated and respected.  C is amazing!  He is so excited to to be a dad - I think he was way more excited than I was for the first little bit.  When I would feel kind of yucky in the night he would rub my back and make sure I was okay.  He often says to me, "Honey, thank you for doing this (carrying our child) for us, I appreciate it."  Yeah, the man totally has and melts my heart!  When we read our little man could first hear things, C started talking to him one night, and the baby jumped, we just laughed!  C everyday wants to know how his son is doing - I may not be able to separate these two!  He often talks to him about playing soccer and football and going camping, which is followed up by a "and maybe we'll see if mom wants to come."  Oh, and because we're having a baby, naturally dad thinks he needs a bigger tent, of course, why didn't I think of that?!?!

Not that there is a question this is C's kid, but at our 16 week ultrasound the sonologist had me cough to get the baby to move positions.  As our little man turned he raised his little hand up like, "seriously, I'm sleeping, leave me alone" - so his father's son when it comes to sleep!  I could not do this with out C, he is my stable force, my assurer that everything is going to be just fine.  I love that he not only brings home Dominoes garlic-cheese bread or Dr. Pepper slurpees by surprise, but that he is so excited to be a dad.  He is always saying, "Can't you wait to meet him?  He's gonna be so cute!"  I love it!

I truly feel blessed my Heavenly Father is entrusting us with this little man.  I recognize many are never able to experience the miracle of pregnancy so I try to relish each day - good or uncomfortable.  We continue to pray we are are fit for the task.

Until next time, we're definately on Cloud 9!
B + C

So, we went to Hawaii!

Yeah, we know this poor little blog is severely out of date, but a lot has been happening at the Cloud household that has kept us from blogging, like we went to Hawaii!

For Spring Break this year we decided we wanted to go somewhere big, and C found some stellar flight deals, so to Hawaii we went!

We first visited the island of Kauai, the garden island.  If you went there and drove around you would think that you were on the set of Avitar, which is where it was filmed. The island is beautiful!

We tried to maximize our time on the island seeing and doing as much as our slight jet lag would allow.  On the first full day there we took a sailing tour of the Na Pali Coast with Captain Andy's Sailing Adventures.  The trip was everything and more that it was advertised to be!  A few days before we arrived the weather was really rainy, and the water had been murky, but not for us!  On the boat we saw sea turtles, dolphins, whales, dolphins, and countless tropical fish.  The tour was really cool, and very relaxing.  Once we got up to the coast we had lunch on the boat, and this was the backdrop:

The Na Pali coast was gorgeous!  We would totally recommend seeing it by boat - opposed to the 9 day hike it would take to see it!  C did a little snorkeling and thought it was cool.  I got on all of the gear, took 3 steps into the water and decided it wasn't for me - maybe next trip?

After the boat ride we went to the Waimea Canyon to check out the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.  It was fun driving up to the canyon, it kind of reminded us of Logan Canyon and USU.  As you are passing huge mango trees all of the sudden you look over and are up at the top of the canyon, and you don't even realize it.  The canyon was breathtaking, the colors in the canyon looked like a painting.

The next day we took a helicopter tour of the island - wowza!   Ok, so one thing about Kauai that you should know, it is also known as the newlywed and retirement island (the older folks have figured out the best island), so C and I were definitely the youngest on the helicopter.  Neither one of us had been on a helicopter, and it was totally worth it.  We saw island in its entirety - the waterfalls, whales again, all the beaches, small canyons and mountains.  Most of the land on Kauai owned by only a few families, and the land they own is private property, so parts of the island you can't see unless you're in the air.

Note the unneeded life preservers around our waists!

The cool thing about both the boat and helicopter tours is that they are run by locals, born and raised on the island.  You might say, "Oh that's nice."  But you learn so much from these people!  For instance, Kauai is inundated with these beauties . . .

 

Yes, I have a ton of photos of Chickens and Roosters - even a video of me trying to catch one!

So why are there so many on this island you ask?  Well there was a fire at a chicken coop and some chickens escaped, mated with the wild ones, and ta-da you have flocks of chickens taking over the island.

In our down time we adopted the island style visiting little towns, eating local favorites, and being beach bums.

Hanging at the beach. C becomes a little boy on the beach - building sand castles and watching the waves destroy them.  We sure had fun catching the sun!

Shave ice (NOT shavED ice) with macadamia nut ice cream in the middle.  Spam and Eggs from Micky D's - when in Hawaii eat like a local!

The view from our Kauai Resort room - awesome hotel if you ever go!

After 4 days in Kauai we headed to Oahu for 3 days.  We stayed in Honolulu near Waikiki - incidentally the same hotel that the Biggest Loser was at this past season, I don't think we were there at the same time.   That part of Oahu was very big city and kind of shock after the island life of Kauai, so we escaped the city and headed to Laie and the North Shore.

As per our tradition we attended the Laie Hawaii LDS Temple, it was spectacularly beautiful and very peaceful, a nice break during the trip.  

My cousin was living in Laie when we visited, so we got to see her and she hooked us up with tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  The night show, Ha: The Breath of Life, was amazing.  At the PCC we met a Tongan friend who gave a a coconut to mail back to my dad in Colorado (a which is logistically a little crazy, but it can be done!)

Pardon my cheesy grin - but I was so excited to finally have a coconut!  I had been searching the whole trip!
The mail man delivering it to my dad

Laie is a tiny town with only 1 grocery store as far as we could tell - milk went for about $8/gallon and a simple boxed cake mix was almost $5!  But they have the best street side restaurant - Tita's Grill.  Oh my!  It was delicious, we had breakfast and lunch there (yeah, we travel on our stomachs - and having a foodie inclination to eat how the locals eat doesn't help)!

Sweet Hawaiian Bread French Toast
Guava Garlic Shrimp with Macaroni Salad (an island staple - along with potato mac - a mix of macaroni and potato salad - something that sounds nasty but is surprisingly delightful!)

On our last day in Hawaii we hiked the Diamond Head crater just outside of Honolulu.  It was a nice hike and relatively easy as long as you were in decent shoes - don't follow some of the tourist's examples by wearing little kitten heels, it makes for rough terrain, just FYI.  At the top of the crater the view is like this:

It was sunny - thus the squinting . . .

Alas after one more afternoon as the beach and watching the sun set in Waikiki, it was time for us to head back to the mainland.  Back to our jobs, callings, and other responsibilities.  My favorite part of the trip was hanging out with my sweet husband (who is so fantastic) for 7 days, 24 hours a day and making memories.  Thanks C for pushing me to fly over the ocean to experience the island life.

Aloha from Cloud 9!

B + C

An Oregonian Christmas

 This past Christmas we headed to Oregon for a Cloud Christmas.  We had big plans of visiting the coast, shopping, and skiing Mt. Hood.  A slight curve ball was thrown into our plans as we were packing the skis for our trip. As I began to lift them I threw out my back and ended up walking like a 90 year old for a few days.  So the skiing was out, but the rest of the trip was grand.

We skipped rocks in Cannon Beach, and walked the beach.

Had a lovely Christmas celebrating the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ with the family.

We visited Voodoo Doughnuts in downtown Portland.  The building is painted with glitter, and the doughnuts are FANTASTIC . . . and I, unlike C, am not a huge doughnut fan!  If you're ever in Portland it is a must!

 

We ate some excellent food.  One of our favorites was Big Top Waffles food truck.  We were grateful to be introduced to the savory side of the waffle, we are going to have to explore more savory waffle flavors in our kitchen. 

And of course we had to mark another LDS Temple off our list.  The Portland Temple is beautiful, it was a nice break during our trip.

But alas, after a lovely trip we were ready to celebrate the New Year at home in Texas.

Until next time we're on Cloud 9!

B + C