10 Days with Family

Mom and dad came for a visit... and man were we busy!

I have a problem thinking that "we didn't do enough," "they didn't get too see enough of the island," "we forgot to ____ & ____." Luckily, my husband knows I do this so he keeps an itinerary of the things we HAVE done, so inevitably after our guests have left and I start playing the "we didn't" game... he pulls it up and shows me all of the wonderful adventures we had.

This post won't cover every adventure, because that would just be FAR too many photos... but we had plenty of fun at the beach and spent the evenings relaxing and playing board games.

To celebrate 16wks (four months?!) of pregnancy, we hiked 5.5mi to view beautiful Ka'ena Point, the westernmost point on the island of Oahu. Of course we had to finish that adventure with some yummy pie from Ted's Bakery!

We hiked up to Makapu'u Lighthouse since mom had never gone, then later that night we treated them to a sunset dinner at Top of Waikiki as a belated anniversary gift.

We toured the Macadamia Nut Farm and Chief Tama was a riot! I think we laughed enough that day to skip any core workouts...

Quinn had only been to one luau and my parent's hadn't been to one since I was oh... 6mo old... so we chose Chief's Luau, which was excellent! It is actually done by the same family that owns and operates the tours at the Macadamia Nut Farm, so once again it was hilarious, but a very nice representation of island life and culture. Mom and I got tattoos (airbrush, no need to panic everyone), the boy's started fire with hibiscus wood, we all learned how to weave banana leaf headbands, and man was the food delicious!

 Our last adventure consisted of a sunset dinner cruise. Sadly, due to pregnancy enhancing my seasickness... I didn't get to eat very much. However, I will say that the tastes of mahi, garlic mashed potatoes, and coconut cake I did have were yummy! It was really fun to be out on the water for sunset, plus our boat (Navatek) is the only one rated to go out past Diamondhead, so we got some unique views. We also saw flying fish, which I had never seen before! Since we chose a Friday night cruise we were treated to fireworks at the end.

I still can't believe it had been a full year since we had seen my parents. I hope that we don't have such a long gap again in the future, it's always nice to be around family especially when you live so far away.

A little SUP action +15wks!

On Saturday we headed up to Waianae to meet Uncle George at Pokai Bay (aka: The Bay of Dreams). Everyone started trickling in between 8 and 8:30am, it is an hour and 15min drive from our house... once we all set-up our chairs, coolers, umbrellas, etc. Uncle George talked story with us, telling how he started his ministry, to how large it has grown today! It was incredible! He then gave a mini-SUP lesson to anyone who had never done it before or needed a refresher... after that, we were out on the water enjoying the calm morning and chasing fish and honu! It was so much fun to see our friends from our original mini-church, and of course enjoy time with our current one. A small group of us finished the afternoon up with lunch at the seaside bar, then walked over to the mini-mart for some ice cream sandwiches which we leisurely ate while sitting on the retaining wall watching the waves & surfers roll in soaking up the afternoon sun. I am truly truly going to miss living here.

Multiple photos were taken that day:

• Uncle George's Album
• Hope Chapel's Young Married's Album (I took these).

Here are a few of my favorites...

*You may be wondering where my signature orange board is... two reasons: First we had multiple errands to run after the event, and you never know what parking situations might be like. Second, technically I am no longer suppose to SUP according to the midwife, it is considered a "falling hazard" so I used one of Uncle George's 10'6" boards which is a full foot longer than my 9'6" for some added stability.

Finally the photos everyone's really waiting for... weeks number 13, 14, and BAM 15... all of a sudden I have a funky bump!

Certain jeans and shorts still fit me, for the rest I now have a BeBand so I can still wear my regular bottoms just with the button undone. Eventually, I will graduate to the zipper being undone as well, after that I will probably have to purchase some maternity bottoms. My morning sickness is gone (praise the Lord!), however certain smells still have that instant gag, sometimes throw-up affect. Main ones being- trash can (poor Quinn, has to take it out all the time now, haha!), Moku's pee (I'm changing his litter pans every 2 days as opposed to the normal 4-5), and non-breakfast foods in the morning (we had a bad experience when Quinn reheated spaghetti for breakfast). My pregnancy workouts are going really well, I love the DVD set I picked out - Mom's Into Fitness Pregnancy. I know I need to eat better, especially when it comes to the sweets. I have been loving ice cream and dark chocolate reese's but I DO NOT want to develop gestational diabetes, so my main goal at the moment is to keep a balanced diet now that I can eat veggies again without them tasting like dirt, and meat without wanting to gag.

Hearing & Seeing Baby

It's been quite a week for us and Littlest. A week ago we headed into my last doctor directed visit (more on that in a bit). I got to do the ever so fun pelvic exam, but I'm glad to report an "all clear." Then what we we had been waiting 12.5wks for... Hearing the heartbeat.

It was so surreal knowing that it was coming from a tiny being inside of me!

That Saturday we headed down to "Tomorrow Today Ultrasound" in Aiea. With the military hospital unless you are "high-risk" (praise God we aren't classified as that!) you do not receive an ultrasound until 20wks. Not going to lie, despite hearing the heartbeat I was still a bit shocked and had tears when the baby first showed up on the screen! Quinn's eyes were glued to the screen during the entire session, he didn't hear a word the ultrasound tech said, haha! This little one is quite a ninja, the tech had to chase it all around trying to get the specific shots, it kept spinning, flipping, stretching, and waving. If this is a hint at what's to come... I'm going to be one tired momma! At the time baby measured in at 3in long, I'm honestly not sure how something 3in long is inside of me! I was just relieved to see two legs, two arms, a face, the heart, the spine, and the little hands & feet! 

Today, I attended my first "Centering Pregnancy" session. There are 11 women in my group all with due dates within 4wks of each other. We have 2 designated Midwives and one designated RN as well as a Nurse's Aide. The first 45min are spent doing quick one-on-one's with us taking vitals, measuring, and hearing the heart beat. The last hour and 15min is a focused session lead by one of the midwives but directed by our questions, concerns, experiences. Since we met on May 1, which is Lei Day here in Hawaii, each one of us got to make a wrist lei! I think it's a great program that encourages personal growth, allowing you to ask questions relevant to your potential fears, and have an extra support system. The view from our conference room ain't too shabby either!