Roadtrip Adventures

This past week Charles and I drove up to New Jersey. The "reason" for the trip was that Charles was invited to teach a GMI 3-day conference at a church in Ocean County (central Jersey). We then took a week to visit with our families in North Jersey, which we have not done since last winter. It was very very good to see everyone, and it was fun to show off my little belly. I let my moms spoil me as much as they wanted from maternity clothes to a massage and pedicure. You know, sometimes you just have to accept the love! And I loved every moment of it.
I got to go for a nice morning walk on the beach while Charles surfed. I got to attend my favorite Grace Ministries conference so far. I got to go out for ice cream with my brother and his wife Heather and my neice Hailey. Heather is due with their second in May (only 7 weeks after me!) and so it was very fun to talk with her about all of that. I got to spend time with my grandmother who is recovering after another episode of pnuemonia. I spent severel days with my mom and had some great conversation.


Here are some pictures of Hailey. I got my camera out and right away she tried to smile. So, to relax her, I asked her to make silly faces for me. She looked even more like my brother with all of the faces she made!

















Our drive home was quite the adventure. Our first stop was VA Beach to see my childhood quasi-sister Karen and her family. We went to the beach and did some pictures of them.






























Sunday, we headed a little out of our way to visit with Charles' childhood quasi-brother Jonathan and his family. We had to take a picture for the cover of Grace Ministries brochure and Jonathan turned out to be our perfect model. We also took a few family pictures of them.




Oh, and new in baby news...the baby has been kicking quite stronger these days, and last night for the first time I felt the kicking with my hand on my stomach. So I called Charles over and he too got kicked. It was very exciting.

Anniversary

This weekend we celebrated our 5th anniversary. We went for a mountain bike ride in the morning, and tried to get sushi for lunch (the baby must love sushi, because I crave it all of the time), but couldn't find any sushi restaurants open, so we ended up at Waffle House (just a little step down). At night we went to the Shakespeare Tavern for dinner and a play. We had our studio set up from a shoot in the afternoon, so I got Charles to pose for a few pictures with me, and also try to record my little belly. It doesn't show very well right now- just give me a little time, I'm working on it.