Chicago visit - Jen's Bridal Shower

Hmmm... cake! Served at the bridal shower for my little sister (by less than 13 months), Jenni Lou. I was grateful they moved the date around to make it possible for me to be there. Mom and Uncle Jim got a huge pool in the backyard (pictures next trip, forgot to bring my camera out). I got to spend some time in the morning swimming with my cute niece, Raina! The bridal shower was very nice and Jen got some nice things for their home. 3 weeks and 2 days until the Big Day!!!

My niece Raina... cute!!! :)Raina and her buddy, Noami - getting into the goods and opening them up right away. We think they were making "chocolate cake".
Me and my sister, Jenni Lou (she'll always be Jen to me though!)
Happy Bridal Shower sister... see you SOON!

Chicago visit, part 1

Last weekend I was lucky enough to get the chance to visit Chicago for a long weekend (major thanks to Chad for taking care of our little man so I could have a weekend to myself before I am a mommy to two!). The timing was perfect, my sister had her bridal shower that Saturday and my good friend Staci had her baby shower that Sunday. I flew in Thursday night (ate Aurelios!) hung out with Katie, her baby Jack and our friend Lisa. Katie and I stayed up late catching up. On Friday, Staci and I treated our larger than average PG bodies to some pampering and got some a mani/pedi. We had a long lunch at Northside Grill in Bucktown, where Katie and Baby Jack joined us. We walked around (Dairy Queen!) and I went to Staci's that night (hmm... Panera for dinner) where we talked late into the night. And yes, I might have a small obsession with food at this point in the game, so I managed to get in some of my favorites that I can't get here in Washington.

Precious, sweet, adorable Baby Jack Hager. He's a little peanut! He's already 6 months old! I hadn't seen him since he was 2 weeks old. I did a lot of snuggling with this handsome man over the weekend!Baby Jack perched on two PG bellies. Staci and I - the first of many belly photos over the weekend. Staci is due just over 3 weeks ahead of me, on August 22nd (hey Staci, mind letting the baby cook an extra 5 days so your bundle will share a birthday with me?)Mani/Pedi bliss... although what I really could have used was a whole day long at the spa - with a massage, facial, the works. But I have a little plan plotted in my head for this when I make my next child-free visit in March!

More Beautiful Victoria

I'm back with more details on our nice trip to Victoria two weeks ago. This is mostly a picture post... but my pictures won't do it justice. We started in the morning visiting the Butterfly Garden and then off to the Butchart Gardens, which was really beautiful. Grandma Ramsey was with us and is a flower/landscape whiz so it was great to be there with someone that knew a lot and also appreciated it. Braden was kind enough to give us a nearly 2 hour nap in his stroller as we toodled around and ate lunch (that's right... we got adult conversation over lunch instead of being toddler entertainers!) Picture above - Grandma Ramsey and Braden goofin' around.

These are Atlas Moths, they are quite big, probably a bit larger than my hand. But what really made these interesting to me was that they spend 5 years in their cocoon, but only live 3-5 days after emerging.
An interested little fella... As amazed and interested as he was... there were a few moments even this guy was a bit timid.

The first thing we saw at the Butchart Gardens was this interesting "violin/violia/bass" thing... Braden was interested in trying to "play" it. That is until I realized it was a piece of art for sale. And the price tag... $3,000. Needless to say, I quickly removed my man from the scene. Can you imagine if some part of it broke?

By far the most impressive part of Butchart Gardens, and the pictures don't capture how large, beautiful and impressive it was. This area was called "The Sunken Garden"

The Ross Fountains... they were huge (but I don't think you can get that from the photo). They were set up on a sort of "dance", the water just kept shooting up, across and all around.

Just a few random shots of the scenery

He was fasinated by this horse.

Climbing... like most kids his age I'm sure. Braden loves to climb (and to run, and jump, and run, and climb, wait - I already mentioned that... oops).

Rubbing the Boar's nose for a little luck!

If you're a blog regular you know that all big outings end with ice cream cones!

Something "official"

We left Chicago for the West Coast nearly 16 months ago. And it wasn't until yesterday that I finally got rid of the Illinois plates on my car. In Canada I probably should have, but then it was a lock down I would be victim to the outrageous ICBC costs (Insurance Company of British Columbia - there is only one place to get insurance... it's a monopoly and about three times what you would pay in the states). So I kept my Illinois car insurance and while maybe that wasn't the smartest (or legal) choice... it's done and over. Judgers not welcome... because the story continues.

Back to the plates. I finally gave in (after waiting for my duplicate title to get here) and got Washington State plates. It was actually something I HAD to do since my Illinois plates expired... in February... of 2008. Oops! But I'm all up to date and legal now.

Just for the record, I'm not usually that irresponsible. I think that letting go of my "home" plates really made it official that we don't live there, but not just that... we probably aren't coming back.

My next step... a new drivers license.

On a side note - when filling out all the paperwork yesterday Braden was getting a bit restless. I gave him my passport to flip through and when he opened to my picture this is our exchange:

Me: Braden - who is in that picture?

Braden: My Beautiful Princess Mommy

Lady behind the counter: Awwweee... so precious. How did you teach him to say that?

Me: I didn't... first time. Braden, you make me smile.

*** And I think it was actually the Dora he watched over breakfast yesterday, but I'll take it however I can get it!

Oh Victoria!

Another post about our recent trip to Victoria on Vancouver Island. We were there at the "start" of the major visiting season. The flowers and landscape is beautiful... add that to the water as a backdrop and the charming downtown and harbor area, it's a nice place to visit!

I still have more, but too much for one post.

Picture above, Braden (with Grandma Ramsey's help) finds an interesting tree to climb.

Grandma Ramsey and Braden on the Big Boat (Ferry) Ride to the IslandAbove, the front of our hotel and below the back of our hotel. We stayed at the Fairmont Empress, one of the hot spots in the area, central location and lots of things to walk to. It was an impressive sight!

Walking through Beacon Hill Park... I just liked this photo of my two special men.

Beacon Hill (walking distance from our hotel) had a children's zoo, with a petting farm. Petting one at a time just wasn't enough for our curious fellow.

Braden enjoyed the animals a lot and quickly went from one to the next. Chad was on "chasing Braden around duty"... what a good sport!I think this is the only family shot of the three and half of us. Chad was pretty busy with his work conference, but he ventured across the street to the Harbor with us for about an hour. Big B looks grumpy... I think he kind of was, and obsessing about the sailboats (more on that in a later post).
At the end of both nights... in effort to completely exhaust Braden so surely he would fall right asleep (didn't work) we took him to the hotel pool for some swimming. Since our swim classes he's become increasing fond of the water and the 1.5 ft children's pool was perfect for him to "swim" around in and be a bit more independent. :)

My Music Man

For those of you that know Chad, you will appreciate this. He'll dance anywhere, throw me into the two step in a hotel lobby if he's had a few drinks and he hears some tunes. And if it's not the Texas Two Step, then it's some "Chad version" of a Latin dance, as long as he's shaking his hips and kicking his feet it feels right to him. (Which reminds me, friends - in a few weeks at Dunbar and Amy's wedding I will be 8 1/2 months PG... feel free to offer yourself up as his dancing partner and give me a rest!)

But singing is a whole other matter. Now I have personally been witness to Chad's memorable voice (especially when he thinks he is the reincarnation of Old Blue Eyes and belts out some Frank Sinatra... and this is without any drinks). But Karaoke? Not that I can recall in the almost 10 years I've known him. However... in the spirit of the team, (and the help of some liquid courage), Chad did just that at his work "outing" with his sales team and boss that were all in Vancouver last week.

Chad sent me a text, and I knew they had already been out for 5 hours that said "Robyn is going to make me to karaoke". My response... "good, I need to meet her, she sounds fun" (Robyn is Chad's manager). I immediately sent a message to Stephanie (of Steph and Paul from Seattle fame). She's working with Chad now and I told her I needed pictures to share with you all. Steph was a good sport and sent them over to me. Yay!

The scene: The Best Western Hotel Bar in Downtown Vancouver

* I could not take out red eye or edit since I copied the pics from another album

Chad let his team pick a song for him... "Back on the Bayou". He didn't really know it. Chad admitted to me himself this was a bit of a disaster. He could read the words of course... but didn't really know how to pull it all together.

Now since he doesn't really know the song, rumor has it he started dancing a bit... the Texas Two Step (not really made to be danced solo). I think through the haze he thought it may provide a distraction, which it did.

Once wasn't enough... Chad had to make another appearance to redeem himself a bit. Steph's notes said he did much better singing "Friends in Low Places". I can picture him kind of enjoying it! :)

Stop and Smell the Roses...

Last week we took a trip to Victoria, British Columbia. It's the capital of BC and you get there by taking a ferry ride to Vancouver Island. I have LOTS to post about this trip, but wanted to start by sharing our final morning spent in the hotel garden letting Big B run around and try to expend some energy before we left. While we were there a good photo op came up to capture Baby Girl Ramsey in momma's growing belly.

I love his smiles... sigh.

And in case you didn't know, or hadn't figured it out yet, this kid just goes and goes, he'll run in circles if it means he can run. (No seriously, he runs circles around the furniture in the living room at home.)

It was a fluke, I was wearing pink... so we had to take pictures of that in front of the pink roses for our Baby Girl! I'm 27 weeks in this picture (one week short of 7 months).

Braden wants to give his sister some love... but instead of looking like sweet kisses, it always winds up looking like he's tackling me (which he kind of did) and smashing his whole face in my belly.

Stopping to smell the roses! :)

Strawberries... yum, yum!

Where we live now is a popular place for berry picking. In fact Whatcom County produces 65% of all the raspberries and blueberries distributed throughout the United States! We spent one morning just 5 minutes from out house at a berry farm. So far only the strawberries are ready (that's ok... that's the one I like!).

Two observations:

- Overall the berries were only so-so and not like I expected. But since they need lots of water to get to massive sizes it makes sense. This part of the country that is usually known for all the rain hasn't been getting it. The flavor of the berries were still fabulous... you can't find strawberries so fresh with that much taste and sweetness in the Midwest.

- If you're nearly 7 months PG... I do not recommend this as a fun activity. Picking the berries requires you to be bent over the whole time which was difficult and uncomfortable. I was happy to get relief breaks from Grandma Ramsey!

Hard at work... learning to only pick the red berries.

"So after you pick them... what do you do with them?"

"Grandma... you first"

"Ok, I'll give it a try... YUM!"

Another Seattle Road Trip

This past week we were lucky enough to have Grandma Ramsey come to visit. Braden and I went to Seattle to pick her up and then spent some time at Pike Place Market. Braden could have chased the pigeons for hours if we would have let him. Grandma got the best pictures of that on her new camera, so I'll share again when I get them. Big B and his new hair cut and spiffed up do... he looks even more like his dad when he's all done up!

Pike Place Market had BEAUTIFUL flowers everywhere, huge bouquets like this for what it costs for wimpy ones at the grocery store! Grandma Ramsey (Paula) treated me to flowers... they last more than a week!

Or so I thought...

One day Braden and I were heading out to a new park, I had read that it was a big park, so I thought I was on top of my game by dressing him in a "bright" orange color so it would be easy to spot him on the playground. Or so I thought...A preschool was visiting the park at the same time... and all those kids were in bright orange shirts too. Later that day Big B and his daddy shared a moment blowing bubbles in the backyard on a hot summer evening.

In the Moment

At this moment there still isn't much that's "blog worthy". But that will all change this next week or so because Grandma Ramsey is flying into Seattle tomorrow and will stay for a week. While she's here we're all heading to Victoria (a Canadian Island) for a few days, and when we're back in Washington before she leaves we have other fun things on the agenda (and agenda vs. itinerary because the latter seems so formal and not easy to change. With a toddler ruling the roost we may or may not get to all the things on the "agenda", but that's ok. We'll go with the flow and see what happens. He may need a day of rest and break from all day go, go, go for days on end!).

In Baby Girl Ramsey news, I had a doctor's appointment this week. For about 8 weeks now I've been on iron supplements for slight anemia (common in pregnancy... did you know our blood volume increases by about 50%? And no worries, Baby Girl is getting everything she needs, she's just taking it from my normal reserve!). A test last week showed it's not enough so I've doubled up on my iron doses and really do have to try and eat my vegetables. I don't like veggies. I make them for Chad and Braden and just leave them off my plate, but now I need to be a "real grown up" and mix my vegetables into my pasta salad or potatoes to trick myself. I'm 26 1/2 weeks and measuring about a week ahead. (If you don't know that means... simple explanation is she's growing as expected). I've been feeling good overall, not too many complaints... yet, because it's still relatively early for all of that. And when I do I will save that for my dear husband and not here. (Chad knows that part comes with the territory). :)

Just relax...

That's what we did this weekend. A whole lot of nothing. But it's nice to have a weekend like that once in awhile. Summer kick off is here and we have a lot going on from here on out... before I know it, August will be here and I'll realize I've done nothing to prepare for Baby Girl Ramsey (who by the way is scheduled to arrive in 99 days, we're into the double digits now).
This week is more of the same, work out at the gym... a doctor's appt for me... gymnastic and swim classes for Braden and preparing for Grandma Ramsey's arrival this Friday!
Now that I think about it... something important did happen this weekend... my baby officially turned TWO and HALF years old!!! Wow.