Sacramento Trip

We had a great time on our mini-trip to Sacramento and ended up being able to visit with quite a few family and friends. We arrived in Sacramento on Friday afternoon and met up with Bubba and Ray for dinner. They took us to a fantastic dinner at Luca's in mid-town Sacramento. Both Ben and I were amazed at all of the urban renewal that had taken place over the past 8 years since we left the area. After dinner and our visit with Bubba and Ray, Ben took me to Leatherby's for the famous caramel sundae....yum yum!!! We then headed over to Leah and Dan's and caught up on current events. The next day we headed over to Land's Park for Gabe's, Leah's, and everyone else's birthday party. We were really worried that the weather was going to be hot and unbearable, but luck was on our side and it was a beautiful sunny day....perfect for the park!! Gabe was adorable and we enjoyed spending time with everyone.

We left Sacramento on Sunday and headed to Stockton. Our first stop was to visit Dre, Suzy, and Zen to drop off a "backup" teddy bear for Zen. We then headed over to my grandparents' house and went to lunch with my grandparents, parents, and sisters for Father's Day. After some dim sum, we got back on the Golden State Freeway to travel back home.

To sum up our weekend, as Ben might say, "I'll take a three day trip to Sacramento and a baby over a two week trip to Australia and Hawaii any day -- provided the kid is mine!"


(1) Ben practicing his bratwurst barbecuing skills (2) photo for Michelle's next endeavor - "Hu's Tacos" Taco Truck (3) the party hosts (4) Gabe after a bite of ice cream (5) Gabe snatching my ice cream cone and claiming it as his own

Busy June

We've been keeping pretty busy the past couple of weekends with Jamie's graduation and Ben's birthday. Two weekends ago we drove up North to attend Jamie's graduation from San Francisco State. Can we just say that this was the longest graduation that any of us have ever been too....and between all of us we have been to quite a few. We left the house on Saturday morning at 10 am and didn't arrive back until 5 pm. Crazy!! Here are a couple of pictures from that day......

Ben insisted that I post these before and after pictures of my trip to the port-a-pottie. I avoid public restrooms at all cost (see past post) but had no choice in the matter this time. Ben would like to point out how hesitant I look in the first picture as we are going in (while my sister is an old pro and has no hesitation) and my disgust after the port-a-pottie experience. Ben had a field day playing with our new camera and somehow managed to take 92 pictures - half of which were of the most random things (imagine a close up picture of the head of the man sitting in front of us and a picture of the cameraman "chillin"). And last but not least here's a picture of the graduate with our parents.

For all of you that have been asking....during our trip up North, Ben managed to take a couple of profile pictures of the baby and I while we were watching my dad pick pai pa go (loquots in English) for us to take home.

This past weekend, Ben celebrated his 32nd birthday. For his birthday we went to Porto Alegre Churrascarria Brazilian BBQ, where Ben consumed a tremendous amount of meat....it was amazing!! He was so stuffed he couldn't eat his birthday cake so we had to wait until the next day.....

We're heading up North once again next weekend to Sacramento where we'll meet up with Ben's parents and Bubba and Ray on Friday night. Then on Saturday, we'll be celebrating Leah's 30th birthday and Gabe's 1st birthday. And of course, since we'll be in Sacramento we will be making a couple of trips to my favorite ice cream parlor.......Leatherby's!!!

22 Weeks

We can't believe that a whole month has already passed and it was time for our second perinatologist appointment today. Everything looks great and our doctor confirmed that it's definately a boy!! Now the shopping can begin! Here are some pictures of our little one....

By the look of the yawn he's got going, he's already bored with us!!!

Saying "Wuz up"

Another alien shot..........

Pregnancy Observations

Seeing as we have waited a long time for this, these are definitely not meant to be complaints but observations. Actually, we have been very fortunate with this pregnancy. I haven't had any morning sickness or nausea usually associated with pregnancy so I've been lucky! Here are a few of the changes I have noticed however....

1. After walking all day at Disneyland, I found out that swelling feet are just no fun and create a problem when you are not expecting it. The Monday after our trip to Disneyland, I was sitting at my desk and had slipped off my shoes while working on a project. Up to that point, I hadn't noticed any swelling in either of my feet. I slipped my right shoe back on with no problem, but then low and behold my left foot would not squeeze back into my shoe. Since I needed to go across the hall that presented a problem....it's not as though I could go hobbling around the hospital in one shoe! Now if I worked in a psych ward....maybe!! Since that time, we've had some pretty hot days (upper 90s) and wearing closed in shoes was not fun.......it's taken me a whole bunch of shoe stores and numerous shoes that wouldn't fit but I finally found some shoes that will hopefully work for the whole summer....I've bought them in brown and white.......now I just need to find them in black and I"ll be all set for the rest of the pregnancy!!

2. Unfortunately, not only have my feet decided that bigger is better but so has my ring finger on my left hand (don't ask me why but it's only that finger!). So I had to remove my engagement ring and wedding band. However, so my finger wouldn't feel so naked, Ben, being the sweet man that he is, bought me a "maternity band" that I can wear for the duration of the pregnancy from Tiffany's when we were shopping one weekend.

3. Getting used to going to the bathroom constantly has definitely been a challenge. I used to be able to go all day with limited potty breaks and now I can barely go two hours without having to make a potty run. For someone who has a great aversion to public restrooms this creates many many problems. For example, this past weekend, Ben and I went on a picnic and during our excursion I had to make a stop at one of the park restrooms. Let's just say park restrooms are right up there with beach restrooms as being extra disgusting. By the time I made it out of the restroom, I was gagging and tearing so badly that Ben thought that something terrible had happened....luckily I could him tell him that this was just my normal reaction to disgusting public restrooms!!

4. Sleep - this should be the easiest part of any day but now with all of the rules of how to sleep and with what I have to sleep with in conjunction with point #3 above this is not so easy anymore. I have always slept on my side but once I was told that I HAD to sleep on my side for the sake of the baby my body decided that what it wanted most was for me to sleep on my back or my stomach. The books recommend sleeping with pillows to help with this. Ben surprised me one day by bringing home my very own snoogle (which he had to drive forty miles to find)........which I completely love and would recommend to everyone - pregnant or not!! In addition, to this new addition to our bed I have to sleep with wrist guards on both hands....if any of you have had to wear these for carpel tunnel or other wrist issues you know they are not comfortable. Now imagine having to sleep with these things on....not pleasant at all!

Okay, I think those are enough of our "observations".....I'm sure there will be more to come....

A Trip to Disneyland

A couple of weeks ago my parents and sisters brought my little cousin, Sabrina, down for a visit and we spent the day at Disneyland. Ben and I quickly came to the realization that going to Disneyland with an almost four year old is completely different than going to Disneyland with people your age! Whereas, when we go with friends or family our age we are constantly on the go trying to get from one ride to the other, with a four year old that just isn't possible. The rides and attractions that most appealed to her were contained within a number of limited "lands" which meant less walking around like a madperson from land to land to ride to ride. By the end of the day, I could count on my fingers the number of rides we went on......that has never happened before. However, I must point out that we also stood in the longest line I have ever been in in my life - all for the Disney Princess Faire. At first glance the line looked benign, a few twist and turns but nothing compared to what you see at Space Mountain or Indiana Jones. After three hours in line and three Disney Princesses later, Ben and I were abused of that notion. In the end, Sabrina had a great time and I was only asked about a million times by my parents and Ben to "be careful" or if I "was okay".




1) Ben, Sabrina, and I (I was banned from getting on a horse by Ben!) 2) My parents waiting for us to finish with the Disney Princess Faire. 3) What my sisters had done while Ben, Sabrina, and I waited to visit with the Princesses!

Half Way There

Thank you everyone for all of the well wishes!! We have come to realize that we were remiss in our posts and forgot to mention how far along we are and when the due date is. As you can tell from the title of this post we just reached the half way point!! We are 20 weeks along and our due date is September 23rd.....a fall baby!! Twenty weeks seems like forever away but we're sure the time will fly by and we'll be welcoming our little boy to the family soon enough.

Boy or Girl..........

During our stressful visit to the perinatologist we weren't really thinking about the gender of the baby and we almost forgot to ask. But thankfully, before we left the room we remembered....and according to the doctor, we are following in the footsteps of all of our friends who have recently had children and will be beginning our brood with a BOY!! Although Ben will tell you that he really wanted a girl because according to him there would be less pressure/stress, his initial reaction at the doctor's office revealed his true feelings. He is estatic that we are having a boy and can't keep the smirk off his face when ever it is mentioned! In the end, we are both just thankful that the baby is healthy.