Things haven’t changed much around here, if I am being completely honest, since Zach and I found out we were pregnant.  I feel like our lives are pretty much exactly the way that they used to be before.  I keep waiting for life to “change” but I figure that won’t happen until baby girl is here.  As for pregnancy symptoms, I would say my biggest “craving” this entire month is basil.  Basil and Cool Ranch Doritos.  Not together.  Independent of each other.  But basil is a lot better for you…so…

I have this “summer pasta” that I make once a week lately.  Angel hair pasta + (2 Tbs) Olive oil + (2) roma tomatoes + (lots of) fresh basil + (2) minced garlic cloves + salt n’ peppa to taste.  I am completely hooked.

As of work, this week I received an email alerting me that a project I helped on whilst on my internship at Mauk Design was completed.  Back on my internship in San Fran I helped do renderings for the New Doha Airport in Qatar.  I think the elements turned out pretty amazing…

I also got asked to work on a darling little man’s baptism invite.  His step mom, Whitney, wanted a hand drawn version of the Salt Lake temple.  So I busted out my Prismacolor markers and Macron pens and went to town.  I forget how much I love creating things with my hands vs. a computer sometimes.  They were happy how it all turned out…

Mid-week I had my OB appointment.  It was a pretty quick one:  listened to baby’s heartbeat (which is strong and healthy) and did some minor checks and measurements.  I also go to schedule my 20 week anatomy scan so we can see baby girl in all her glory.  All I am hoping for is 10 fingers and toes and that all is well.

I’ve been keeping a pretty steady work-out routine with baby.  I figured once she comes she will be my newest gym buddy.  So I invested in some dri-fit onesies so she can get her sweat on with her mom…

Speaking of gym time.  I have kept up running and plan to continue as long as I am physically able.  The only change is that I have to slow down my pace to keep my heart rate down.  Apparently you aren’t supposed to have your heart rate over 140 while pregnant.  Turns out I can get up to 140 walking up and down the stairs, so I find that pretty irrelevant.  But regardless, I ran a 5K practice this week to prep for a bitty race I am doing this month.  Not knocked up I can run the 3.1 miles in 27 minutes.  With the baby on board I am 10 minutes slower, but at least I know I can still get there, I guess…

I am still loving my calling as the Activity Days leader.  This week we went to the Church History Museum of Art.  The girls loved it, but I think the highlight for them was trying on the hats in the gift shop…  Here are four out of the eight that joined us.

Thursday morning I had a client reschedule so I decided to paint the canvas I bought for baby girl’s nursery instead.  I plan to hang it right above her crib.  It is literally huge – 36″x36″.  Joann’s was having a sale on their stretched canvas [all 50% off] so I went for the biggest one they had that would fit above her bed.  We’re painting all of her walls white so I thought it would be fun to do a canvas covered in some crazy colors that I am using in her room.  I did it in stages throughout the day.  Painting is a huge stress reliever for me.  I never buy any fancy paints, just .99 acrylic bottles, but I am happy with how it turned out.

It’s loud and crazy – it will remind her of her mother…

This weekend Zach had a plan.  The plan was to go camping.  He is on this kick lately of getting out and doing some things we don’t typically do, which I love.  It was the whole reason we started this summer list of things to do in the first place.  I would be lying if I didn’t say that I wasn’t too thrilled about it being almost 5 months pregnant and camping, but I decided I would just go with it and have the best attitude possible.  Turns out we had a fabulous time and I am so glad we went!

We drove up to the Uintas and found an amazing spot at Echo Lake.  We were the only souls there for the first 24 hours.  Zach couldn’t have picked a more beautiful spot.

Before we left, I had told my father what we were doing.  He didn’t believe me that we were actually going camping.  I hadn’t camped [besides at Lake Powell, which is on a house boat – so technically that doesn’t count] since I was in high school with my family.  I was determined to do a few things myself to prove to my dad that I wasn’t a “priss” that he so lovingly deemed me.

I started the fire for dinner all by myself.  Zach chopped the wood, yes, but I created the fire.

After we got our campsite organized we started dinner.  I had prepared all the food that morning so we could just throw it on the fire once it was ready.  We had a Mexican themed dinner the first night.

Mexican corn on the cob…

…and a giant pie tin full of chicken nachos.

For dessert we had s’mores.  To my surprise Zach downed four of them, which is so unlike him.  He must have been really into the spirit of the outdoors.

We don’t own a tent, so we slept in Zach’s car.  Since an air mattress wouldn’t fit in the back we just used some pads and sleeping bags.  It wasn’t “sleeping under the stars”, but technically we could see the stars through the sun roof.  So I am counting that as a win.

The next morning I had Zach up bright and early.  Mostly to help me keep warm.  It was 39 degrees when we first woke and we huddled together in our car bed until the sun peeked through the trees.  We had breakfast up and going in no time.  We made breakfast in a bag with eggs and bacon.

I have to admit that camping isn’t a typical activity that Zach and I participate in.  Zach pretty much only let me pack a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a change of clothes.  So I was pretty homeless looking by day two, but I felt pretty authentic.  Also, I feel like I can use this as ammo in the future.  Like, “Remember when you wanted to go camping and I was almost 5 months pregnant and I didn’t complain once…” kind of thing.  It’s in my arsenal for the future, you betcha!

We hung around the lake for a while until we decided to pack up our stuff and set off for a nearby waterfall Zach had heard of.  It was a short drive from our campsite and right off the main road.  While we were walking down to the water Zach and I were discussing how guilty we both felt that we had lived in Utah our whole lives and have never heard of Echo Lake or the Provo River Falls before this weekend.  It was gorgeous…

We drove around the area afterwards and explored a bit before making our way home.  Zach rewarded me with a successful camping trip by stopping at Coldstone.

Sunday morning we went to a beautiful high-school friend’s baby blessing.  It was so fun to catch up with people I rarely get to see.

I also gave Zach his very first Father’s Day gift – a “man bag” that he will use for taking care of baby with.  He has been telling me for weeks that he won’t be caught dead walking around with my diaper bag, so I got him a super masculine version for himself.  I even threw some bottles and a changing pad in there for good measure.  Also, along with said bag, came a 49ers outfit [sized perfectly for football season] and a red Utes outfit for all the sporting events Zach plans on taking her to.  He can dress her however he seems fit now.

SIDE NOTE:  This year I told Zach that I didn’t want to purchase season tickets to the Utah football games because I would be 8 months pregnant and giant.  Some how, we still purchased tickets.  It’s still a mystery how it all came to be, but turns out you ‘can’t pass up third row season tickets when they become available’.  So I will brave the heat as long as I can physically stand it, but I think Zach is just as excited to take his friends and family members in my place towards D-Day.

Zach’s first Father’s Day was so special to me.  I know baby won’t be here for another 5 months, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t seen a significant change in him.  All weekend [with no cell phone service and connection to the outside world] we discussed our future with this little nugget.  What activities we plan to take her to, sports she can participate in, vacations we plan to take her on.  I know we waited almost 6 years to have children, but I think we are ready now more than ever to do this.  We are ready and excited.

Afterward the baby blessing we made our way to T-ville to celebrate my dad.  We planned to go to the canyon to cook hobo dinners, but there wasn’t anything available.  We literally drove up and the whole canyon was packed.  We even tried a different canyon and it was also slammed with people.  So we all made our way back to my parents house and cooked our tin foil dinners on my dad’s charcoal grill.

My dad is and continues to be one of my best friends.  I completely idolize him and hope to be half the parent he is one day to this baby girl.

But until then, I’ll keep this baby marinating for another 5 months and practice my good parenting skills on my husband.