Seattle...Home of Skinny Trees, Crabpots, and Twilight

This past week Matthew flew me up to Seattle to visit since he has been working there for over a year now. Once you get past the five hour flight, it is a great place to visit. Beautiful waterfront views, a giant mountain constantly in the background, and hippies everywhere! The only issue is that it is still freezing there, and I was stupid enough to only pack one cardigan; you live and learn I guess. My first day there I was on my own since Matthew still had to work. I headed to the Seattle Museum of Modern Art for the afternoon and got to view two special exhibits. One was on Andy Warhol, the other was a tribute to Seattle's own, Kurt Cobain. The silver Elvis by Warhol was my favorite; the Kurt Cobain stuff was stupid. Personally, I think any moron can get an old 90s boom-box and play a Nirvana CD, that does not make it art. Anywho, I met up with Matthew later that even and we went for burgers at The Red Mill. I saw this place on the travel channel, the show where the guy eats insane quantities of food, and it was delicious. Next, we hopped on a ferry and went to a little island across the harbor. Here we are on the boat with the skyline behind us. We spent the day walking around and window shopping. I did make my first baby purchase though; an adorable little hat to bring baby Vera home from the hospital. Here is a picture of Matthew goofing off with the local art displays. These rock people were everywhere.



Then we headed off to the Crabpot for literally a bucket of crab. It was a ridiculous amount of seafood! My favorite part was the snow crab, but the shrimp as big as your head were good too.

Next, we took a tour of Seattle's underground. It was pretty interesting to know that when you are walking on the streets, you really are walking on the former second story of all these buildings. Interesting stuff, but I was a little disappointed that we didn't see any ghosts down there. On our way there we passed the Seattle Pride parade and got to see home very interesting floats. After a day of walking around the city, Matthew and I headed to Ray's for a nice, early anniversary dinner. It was amazing! The concierge at the hotel set it up for us and even sent over a great appetizer; I couldn't eat the raw fish, but still, wonderful gesture. Here we are enjoying the view of the harbor and just loving each others company. Please note the bird on the water thingy outside.
Our last day Matthew had to work again, so I headed down to the fish market and walked around. I couldn't resist all the fresh produce they had, especially all the homegrown stuff. After a splendid lunch with Matthew and one of his coworkers, I headed out for more window shopping. When we finally met up again, we went outside of Seattle for some serious clam/crab chowder. The views were amazing and so was the trip! What a way to celebrate the summer and our first anniversary...a week early.

Just a few wedding pics...

The other weekend Matthew and I headed to Anderson for our friend's wedding. While there we had the opportunity to take some great photos. I must say though, the Carolina bird thing is sad looking; he just looked greasy. Kamdyn was right to be afriad of him.

No matter how many times we get our picture taken with the Clemson Tiger...it still rocks! I wish IU had a moascot.

One good lookin' family!

Wedding Bells

Matthew and I had the pleasure of attending our friends Sean and Lauren's wedding last night. Sean was one of the first people to befriend me when I first moved down here to Georgia. Now he is married to a wonderful woman, and we wish them all the best! They tied the knot in an outside ceremony with black and white as a theme. It all went off without a hitch, and then we headed back indoors for great food, dancing, and the photo booth. Here Matthew and I are taking full advantage of the mustache props. I decided that a handlebar mustache is not the best look for me, pencil-thin on the other hand...

The Size of a Plumb

We've been spreading our news slowly until we got to the 12th week, but now our news is blog worthy. We're having a baby!

We had our 12 week ultra sound today and got a good look at baby Terry. He/she is the size of a plumb according to the chart. The kid is already being difficult. He/she wouldn't face the right way for the ultra sound lady so she could get all the measurements she needed. After poking Holly's belly for 10 minutes, Holly rolled on her side and got baby Terry to flip for 1 good picture before turning back over. The good part of the extended ultra sound session was we got to watch the baby move around in responses to the pokes by the technician. Just like his dad, baby Terry didn't seem too pleased to be bothered that early in the morning.

Here is the one good picture the baby reluctantly provided us this morning. The technician was quick on the trigger to snap this one before he/she rolled back over.


Click play below to hear the heartbeat. I think we were about 155 beats per minute today which was normal.

You'll have to look at this one for a few seconds, but you can see the baby's arm trying to communicate with the ultra sound lady to stop poking so early in the morning. Click on the picture to see a larger version for more detail.

This was one of the earlier pictures before the baby flipped over for a second. You can see why the technician prefers the other direction for blog pictures, but she was nice enough to label the parts for anyone having trouble seeing what's what.









Our technician has been doing ultra sounds for 20 years. Seems this trick is a hit with new parents. Notice she drew the eyes and mouth in.

You can start to guess the gender at 12 weeks, but it isn't a sure thing until 16-20 weeks. However, she said if she had to guess today, it's a girl. We won't know for sure until the next ultra sound in 8 weeks.

30th Birthdays

This year, a good deal of our friends here in Atlanta have turned the big 3-0, and this weekend was no exception. Matthew and I headed over to Jason's to celebrate our friend Otto's thirtieth. It was the perfect afternoon, great food, and good friends. Here we are relaxing on the back porch; I seemed to have gotten bitten by a million mesquitoes.





Jason even challenged Matthew and I to a game of beer pong. I can honestly say I am the worst beer pong player ever; I even stunk in college. Here is a shot of Jason midtoss; he caused Matthew and I to loose terribly. Unfortunately, those are all the pictures we had on our camera, but it was a blast; happy birthday Otto!