My Crazy Dream

While I was in the bath this morning I felt something tickle across my arm. I jumped and looked to make sure it was just a trickle of water and not a spider. And with the thought of a spider came the recollection of the crazy dream I had last night. 

It was me, my parents, my sister Abbie, and my little sister Morgan. It was Halloween and I was not happy that I had to be celebrating this holiday without Derek. For some reason the fact that I was still pregnant did not bother me. My parents were driving us out to the middle of our pasture where they had built an apartment for one of their friends. We were going out there to check on them because there had been a lot of noise lately. On the drive out there (it took like 45 minutes for some reason) Morgan was trying to convince my dad that her zombie stripper costume was totally appropriate for the stake Halloween dance. 

Once we got the apartment, we found spiders everywhere. There were four spiders that were following me, my mom, Morgan, and Abbie. Abbie decided that the smallest one, which was the size of a penny, was the one she would kill. So she smashed it. Morgan then killed the one that was a little bigger, which was the size of a quarter. And then I smashed a spider that was the size of a a silver dollar. And then the one that my mom was going to smash was HUGE. It was white and had stripes like a tiger, and we couldn't find it! 

So I woke up in a panic that spiders were going to be all over me. 

I hate spiders.

35 Weeks

Well, I'm 35 weeks today! I've gotten to the point where I feel like I get bigger every single day. My face is filling out, giving me quite the attractive "moon face" and my ankles, feet, and calves are always swollen by the end of the day if not earlier. But, I still love being pregnant. Every little kick and stretch, even the punches to the bladder, are reminders that we have a sweet little girl on the way!

I still have yet to pack my hospital bag, get the car seat base in the car, and prepare myself mentally for the fact that in just five weeks I will probably be in labor. Having a baby.

Yikes.

My mom, sisters, and in-laws threw me a baby shower a week ago, and it was wonderful! We had it outside on my parent's back patio. The weather was great, my mom, Abbie, and I had made some chocolate-covered strawberries and white chocolate popcorn, and my sister-in-law Holly had made cupcakes. The food that we had to eat was so good! The strawberries were fresh and sweet and the cupcakes were delicious! 

(Of course I wrote multiple sentences about the food. That's the most important part, right?)

Marcie and Ashley did the games, which were so fun! The thing that made me laugh the hardest was one of Derek's answers in a game called, "Finish Daddy's Phrase". There were a bunch of words on the piece of paper that had blanks next to them. Derek had filled in what he thought worked best with each word. Most of his responses were... well, somewhat appropriate. However, the one that made me laugh was his response to the word "Feeding."

I had written down "Feeding time" and figured that was what Derek would have responded with as well.

But, no. Derek, in all his delicacy and reservedness, put "boobs".

That's right. Boobs.

The first thing that came to his mind when he read the word feeding, was boobs.

Needless to say, everyone at the shower burst into laughter and my face turned red.
Thanks, honey.

Enjoy some pictures from the shower.

Me, and all of the gifts, writing down my answers for "Finish Daddy's Phrase"

Morgan made me (I always say, "made me" when really they are making it for my daughter) this beautiful blanket! I love it!

Opening gifts from Marcie

Opening gifts from Dorene

The awesome diaper cake from Holly

Opening gifts from Ashley, Tallie, and Ady

Me and my mom holding the beautiful quilt that she made! I love it!

I loved the shower, and am so grateful to everyone who came!

Some more exciting baby news: our baby swing came yesterday! My parents bought this for us, and we are very grateful! 

It's the Fisher Price My Little Snugabunny Swing, and while it was somewhat disconcerting while we were assembling it, now that it's all put together it looks and works perfectly! 

I can't wait until I have a little baby girl to put in there!

And then today my boppy pillow came! I ordered it online a couple days ago, and have been so excited to get it. I think the slipcover it came with is really cute!

I had a doctor appointment on Tuesday, and everything is looking good! I'm measuring right where I should be. So if things go well, in just another five weeks Derek and I will have our sweet little baby girl!

Baby Bump Shoot

This past Saturday one of my wonderful sister-in-laws took some photos of me and Derek out on Ruston Way. All of the pictures that Marcie took are awesome and we absolutely love them! Here are a few of my very, very favorites. 

(I had to have two "very"s because I have a lot of favorites.) 

And just FYI, I am 33 weeks and 2 days in these pictures.

After we finished taking pictures, we stopped and bought an elephant ear. And we ate it. And it was delicious.

The Summertime Adventures of Kellie, Ryan, Luke, and Me (Plus Ryan's Dad)

For the past four years, Kellie has been celebrating her birthday by doing a giant slip'n'slide in her back yard. It is AWESOME. We always have a blast and the boys always end up injuring themselves in one way or another.

Me and Kellie - 2009

The original group - Luke, Jon, Ryan, Kellie, me, and Andrew (2009)

Andrew, Ryan, and Jon - 2010

This year, since I'm currently 7.5 months pregnant, I couldn't do the actual slipping or sliding (which is really sad), but I still had fun watching them do crazy things. And eating delicious lumpia. Thanks Kellie's mom!

For a sweet video of our slip n' slide adventures this year, click here.

Kellie's little brother Davis is incredibly talented and put together this compilation.

I love it.

I've watched it a million times already.

Not really.

But close enough.

As we were all sitting around the table inside, eating said lumpia, Ryan asked, "Hey guys. Do you want to float a river tomorrow?" I immediately said, "Yes!" I love doing river floats. They're relaxing and pretty and can become quite adventurous.

Oh, how little did I know.

So we all agreed that we would float a river the next day. (This said day being Thursday.) Kellie was going to try and get suggestions for good rivers to float, Ryan was going to provide the tubes, and Luke and I were coming along for the fun.

The next day, Kellie and Ryan picked me up around 3:30pm and we went over to Ryan's house where we gathered our supplies and left. Ryan's dad, Jay, came with us. And on the way out to the river we picked up Cameo, a girl that Ryan had met at BYU-I. So, with everyone squished in the car, we headed out to Flaming Geyser State Park in Auburn.

By the time we had dropped off one car at the stopping point, piled all of us into Jay's car, drove to the beginning, got our tubes and climbed into the river, it was about 5:00pm. The river was chilly, but we still had some sunshine and had been a very hot day. It didn't take very long for us to realize that there were a lot of spots in the river where it got really,  really shallow. Shallow enough for all of us to get stuck because our butts were on the rocks.

We were floating down the river, enjoying ourselves, when all of a sudden we got to a portion of the river where it was moving much faster. Cameo, Kellie, and I had been floating together at the front of the group. Cameo and I made it down the little dip, but we looked back to make sure Kellie made it just in time to see her tube hit a big rock, and Kellie went flying off her tube! She bumped her elbow pretty good, but other than that she was able to hold on to her tube and her sun glasses (impressive, right?) and came out of the incident mostly unscathed.

After we had been on the river for a couple of hours, we were starting to wonder how much longer we had to float until we would reach the bridge that would tell us we needed to get out. We came across some people that were on the bank of the river, and Jay asked them about how far the bridge was. And we heard this:

"Oh, that's probably about another 3-4 miles down river."

Thus meaning that we had about another two hours to go.

By this time we were all starting to get cold, the daylight was starting to fade, and all of our shoulders were tired from constant paddling. But our high spirits were not conquered yet!

*Two hours later...*

It was dark.

It was cold.

And we were all tired.

We had been paddling down the river and still had yet to see the bridge. We were all fairly close to each other and made sure that we didn't get separated. My main concern at this point was for my little girl. However, after pausing my paddling for a second and paying attention, I felt her get the hiccups and she always gets squirmy when she has the hiccups. So she stretched and pushed, and I was instantly comforted.

As we kept floating, we started smelling what seemed like cows. And as we kept floating it was confirmed: we could definitely smell cows.

Finally, after rounding a bend in the river, we all got close enough to see the bridge! We were so excited and so happy to see it. No more floating on a cold river in the dark!

Now, I wore flip flops to the river because I didn't bring any sandals with me that had straps around the heel. So, I went into the river bare foot! Can't risk losing my trusty Old Navy flip flops. Jay, Kellie, and Ryan all had shoes on, but Luke, Cameo, and I were bare foot. We climbed up the bank on the right side of the bridge, took a few steps, only to discover that the ground was covered with blackberry bushes. Blackberry bushes mean lots of thorns. Thorns and bare feet... not fun. After a few painful steps, Kellie yells back at Ryan, "Ryan! Can't you like, carry Taylor or something? She's pregnant!" So Ryan snuck past Cameo who was behind me and very nicely carried me the rest of the way.

We stopped at a barbed wire fence. Jay was there holding the wires apart so that we could make it through. Kellie went through first and I followed her. As soon as I put my foot on the ground, it squished into something absolutely nasty. It's a good thing it was dark so that I couldn't see right away what it was.

Everyone made it through the barbed wire fence, and we started trekking through a field. We got to the road and realized there was another barbed wire fence between us and the road, and it was lined in blackberry bushes. Great. Ryan approaches the fence, touches it, and jumps back after a few seconds shouting, "It's an electric fence!! Guys, it's electric!"

I stopped walking. Let's think about this.

As we were floating down the river, we smelled cows.

We had to climb through a barbed wire fence.

My foot stepped in a big pile of something squishy when I climbed through the fence.

We were walking through a field fenced in with barbed wire and electric fence.

We were walking in a cow pasture. And our feet were covered in cow poop.

Yup.

Cow poop.

Jay found a spot in the fence where the bushes weren't as thick, and we all climbed through and stood in the grass. As soon as Ryan and Jay made it through the fence and all the tubes were thrown over, Jay ran down the road to get the car and come get us. By now, it's probably 10:00pm.

We're all wet.

We're all shivering.

And it's pitch black.

One very nice guy in a Subaru Outback stopped, rolled down his window, and asked to make sure we were okay. We told him that we were just waiting for someone to come get us, and he made sure we were okay, and then drove on. Finally a car came driving down the road flashing its lights at us. Jay had made it back to us with the car! We were so excited.

Kellie, Cameo, and I hopping into the car with Jay and we all drove down to the second c ar together. Jay and Cameo got in the other car, and Kellie and I followed them back to Luke and Ryan and all the tubes. We were finally in the car, with the heat on, our towels, and food. 

As Kellie and I were driving, we realized how terribly wrong everything could have gone. We could have gotten separated, we could have had someone get seriously hurt because it is quite dangerous to float a river in the dark, or we could have just lost our minds and freaked out. But everyone kept their cool, which we were incredibly grateful for. And we were amazingly grateful for the fact that Ryan's dad was there. If he hadn't been there, I'm pretty sure I would have been an emotional wreck.

We picked up Luke and Ryan, put the tubes in the trailer, and drove home. It was 10:30pm by the time we started home. We had been on the river, walking through a cow pasture, and waiting for cars for four and a half hours.

Kellie and I came to the agreement that if we had been with anyone else, we probably would not have made it out as unscathed as we were.

It was quite an adventure. Little did we know that we would end up doing all of that when we set out to float a river. But I had fun! And I will always remember this trip fondly.

Vacation with Thetfords

My parents and younger sister came into town last Friday as well as my oldest sister and her family. It was so much fun! We spent all day Monday and Tuesday at Ririe Reservoir. The water was beautiful, the sun was shining, and we all got burned. But we loved it!

My dad brought his boat along so we had skiers, tubers, and wake boarders going all day. My fun was limited to riding in the boat and swimming in the swimming area, but I still had a blast! Plus, my reason for not skiing or wake boarding is a very good one: my little girl! 

After the first day on Ririe, dad asked Derek and I (since we were already planning on going in to Idaho Falls to find Derek a diving set) to look at wake boards and see if we could find a good deal on one. So we went and we did! We got a Hyperlite Motive 140. Derek consulted one of his good buddies on what board to get, and he told us that this would be a good beginners board and serve my dad's purposes well. So we bought it!

Derek got up on it the next day, and we have some good pictures and video of it... it's just on my mom and dad's camera. So there will be another post with all of that. 

I was 32 weeks on the dot
yesterday. Woohoo!

The second day on Ririe, Derek and I had to leave early for my doctor's appointment. Everything checked out just how my doctor wants it to! Our little pea is growing at the right rate, I'm gaining the appropriate amount of weight, my blood pressure is where it should be, and her heart rate is spot on. So we're still having a healthy pregnancy! Woohoo! 

Every night in my prayers I thank Heavenly Father for that. It is such a miracle. 

And on the third day, Wednesday, some of us got up early to have one more spin out on the reservoir. It was a lot of fun! A short and quick visit, but it was fun. Then we went out to dinner at Red Robin. Afterwards, we all came back to Derek's and my apartment for dessert. 

Vacation ended too quickly. Before I knew it I was hugging the Angulo family for the last time until I see them again at Christmas, and then I was saying goodbye to my husband to come to Washington with my parents. It was so fun! The only thing that could have made it even better was to have Courtney and Jay and their two darling girls with us. But! We are all looking forward to seeing them soon!

I only have a few pictures right now from vacation, and all of these have been stolen from my mom's iPohone, but I will post more later. 

All the Angulo children feeling my tummy and waiting to see if she'll kick.

Cute little Hallie wearing Uncle Derek's/her dad's hat (I'm not sure whose it is anymore) at a place we stopped at in St. Anthony to get some ice cream.

 Playing peek-a-boo with Hallie. She loves it.

And yours truly with the best husband in the world. We were at the sand dunes for a bonfire and to roast some hot dogs. 

For the First Time

Alright. I know it's 6:07 AM and that usually I am still asleep. However, this morning has brought about something new. Something that has happened for the first time.

I DIDN'T FALL BACK TO SLEEP.

Okay. So some of you might not understand how incredibly dramatic this is. Ever since I was little, I have slept like a rock. I could fall asleep anywhere, sleep through anything, and go back to sleep in seconds after being woken up. 

For example...

Minutes after buckling into my seat in the family van to go on vacation in the summertime, I am asleep. And will most likely be asleep for the entire drive. Doesn't matter if my seat reclines or not. I will be out. This is still true today for any road trips Derek and I take. He can attest to that.

When I was around five or six I shared a room with Abbie. We had bunk beds. I slept on the top because I was the obnoxious little sister who wouldn't give up on the top bunk, and eventually my incredibly sweet and patient older sister gave in. One evening, I woke up in the middle of the night to my parents and Abbie staring down at me. I was confused. And then I realized that I was on the floor.

Yup.

I rolled off the top bunk while sleeping, hit the floor with a loud "THUD" that woke my parents and sister, and I slept through it. 

I am famous for (and Morgan is too) falling asleep downstairs, and then upon being woken up to get upstairs and climb in bed, I'm stubborn and angry and do not want to move. If somehow my family convinces me to get up and go to bed, I have no recollection of how I got to my bed the next morning.

My mom bought me an alarm clock. When I continually got out of my bed, walked across my room, shut it off, climbed back in bed and went to sleep without any recollection of it when I woke up incredibly late, she bought me another one. This one said, "Extra Loud!" in giant letters on the front. Trust me, it is incredibly obnoxious.

Did I still cross my room, shut it off, and go back to bed without any recollection when I truly woke up? Yep.

Sleep has never been a problem for me. Until now.

I am three weeks (just three weeks) into my third trimester, and already all of the sleeping woes that soon-to-be-moms have mourned about are in full swing. 

I don't fall asleep as easily due to the increasing size of my belly. And it is made much more difficult due to the high activity level of our little girl. The other night I was in bed at 11:00pm and didn't fall asleep until after 4:00am. 

It's become a problem.

So this morning I woke up at 5:00am for a lovely visit to the bathroom, and upon returning to bed I could not fall back to sleep. Thus, I am awake and writing this blog while Derek peacefully slumbers away next to me. 

The worst part about waking up this early and not being able to go back to sleep is that now I'm hungry. Good thing we have Captain Crunch.