Off the Grid

So, it's been a while...  Working for an accountant during tax season means coming home from work with my brain fried and the thought of doing anything is a little too much to handle.  That means blogging is the last thing I think about.

This was a couple weeks ago (at 19 weeks)

Well, I'm back... and with a little announcement!  This October, a super adorable little boy will be joining our family!  We already know he's going to be an active little one.  His movements have graduated from little flutters to genuine kicks... and they seem to be constant! (2-3/minute most of the time!)  Ben was able to feel him kick yesterday and that was really fun for both of us.  :)

In other news, Ben finished his second year of law school and I lived through tax season working 6 days a week during my first trimester!  To celebrate (and since Ben's internship doesn't start for another week), we've been taking a number of mini vacations.

Two weeks ago, we decided to go on a two day camping trip and spend some time hiking in the mountains.   Well, one "disaster" led to another, and pretty soon we were back in our living room building a blanket fort, but not before we cooked and ate some delicious tin foil dinners in the mountains while fending off smoke and mosquitoes.  Our hike turned into a cuddled up read-aloud session (you know, the kind where you sit up all night reading...) of Enchantment by Orson Scott Card.

Then this past week, we drove down to San Luis Obisbo to visit one of Ben's law school buddies and check out the amazing farmers' market they have each Thursday night.  It was a wonderful and relaxing vacation, spent swimming and watching Star Wars, in which I forgot entirely that I had a camera until the drive home.  We turned the 3 hour drive into something closer to 8 hours as we slowly wound our way up the Pacific Coast Highway, stopping at all the beaches and just enjoying the scenery.  We stopped at Hearst Castle, but decided to make a special trip and spend more time there and instead went to visit the elephant seals on a nearby beach.  Then we ate pancakes and went to bed early.  All-in-all a wonderful trip!  :)