Surprise!!

My doctor wanted to make sure that the baby survived the half-marathon and scheduled a random ultra-sound for the day that I got back. The baby looked great and is growing nicely I mentioned to the ultra-sound technician that my doctor said I couldn't find out the sex of the baby until I was twenty weeks along. She just smiled and pushed a little harder with the sensor, low and behold we are having . . . . . . . . . . . . . a girl! Sam and I were shocked; we were expecting a boy, had only ever talked about it being another boy, and only had a boy name picked out. Our heads are still spinning just a bit. I guess the moral of this story is that if you want to find out what you are having four weeks ahead of schedule, run a half-marathon.

Catch-up in Reverse

So, for all of you avid readers of my blog, of which I am sure my mother is the only one, I must apologize for my long absence. We took a trip back to Utah and just rolled back into town last night. We left town a couple of weeks ago to be in Utah in time to say goodbye to Sam's little brother who went into the MTC on his way to Portugal. Sam stayed with us for a week during his spring break and then headed back to Colorado for classes while Ollie and I remained to be spoiled just a bit more by grandma and grandpa.


We met up again in Moab where I ran the Moab Half-Marathon. I looked and looked, but I am pretty sure of the thousands of people who ran, I was the only visably pregnant woman there. I am now four months along and although it was not my best time, I was pretty proud of myself for running the whole thing. I did get accosted by a lady at the starting line who asked if I was pregnant and then started in on all the reasons why I should not be running a half-marathon. But, despite her skeptical looks and dire predictions I am happy to report that myself and my baby did fine and feel great! (On a side note, I just realized that the only pictures I have posted of myself recently are right after running races. I will try to find a decent pregnant picture soon. I really don't look that bad when I am showered and not wearing sweats :) I promise).

On our way home from Moab we stopped at some sand dunes and let Ollie play. Sam got pretty into it as well and was working hard to dig holes whilst Ollie worked twice as hard to fill them up.


During our stay in Salt Lake we took a trip to Wheeler Farm. Oliver is really into animals and knows all the farm animal sounds so I thought he would love to see the cows, pigs, and chickens. Well, he did enjoy it but the animals had nothing to do with it. He made a beeline for the rocks and the river the second we got there and we spent a good hour and a half throwing rocks into the water. We finished up with a picnic and came home. Oh well, he was happy.
Oliver's favorite pastime at Grandma's house is to feed the animals. He spends all day carrying handfuls of hay to them. He also discovered some unharvested carrots in grandma's garden and begged anyone and everyone within walking distance of a shovel to come and dig them out for him to feed to the animals. In this picture he is out in his p.j.'s, he was so anxious to get outside that he wouldn't even let me change him.

We also visted the Salt Lake Children's Museum. Oliver loved it, especially the water table and the balls, we had a hard time directing his attention anywhere else.