'lil bro 24 weeks

Time for another update on baby 2! I have been feeling pretty good and even joined a #healthyfitmamas challenge to help keep me on track and accountable for eating right and working out. I'm learning some good tips and tricks, mostly that my legs get tired and sore super fast these days and I need to get more weight workouts back in my routine! So it was a complete shock when I went to my 24 week check-up and stepped on the scale for it to tell me I gained almost 10lbs! I know I'm pregnant, but that seemed like a lot for a month. I'm a few pounds shy of what I weighed when I had Carson. Thankfully the NP re-assured me that I just went through the weeks where you see the most weight gain and that it should taper off from here. Phew! I guess I just feared I was gaining weight in an unhealthy way, which is not what I want to happen. But to go along with this "massive" gain, I do feel like my belly has grown so much in the last couple weeks and my ligament pains are setting in when I go walking :( I had hopes to walk in a Mother's Day race with my moms group, but I know my body won't be able to take the 9K length. Something that's different with this pregnancy is random pelvic pains. The nurse confirmed this baby is sitting much lower so I'll probably feel more of that. I'm starting to also feel lots and lots of Braxton Hicks. I'm not sure if it's because I know what's going on this time around, but I can clearly pick them and monkey's movements out. Which this kid is always on the move! Should be fun when he starts to run out of space in my belly.

How Far Along: 24 weeks
Best Moment This Month: Picking out a name, but it's a secret until he's born
Have You Told Family and Friends: Yes, everyone finally knows!
Miss Anything: Sleeping on my back and not tossing from one side to the next all night long
Movement: I don't think he ever stops! Reid got to feel him for the first time this month
Food Cravings: Mango smoothies, lemon sorbet,
Anything Make You Sick/Queasy: Leftover chicken and salmon are the two we commonly use to eat
Gender Prediction: IT'S A BOY!
Looking Forward To: Keeping up with a healthy lifestyle while I have the energy!
Fun Fact of the Month: XC skiing while pregnant. Never, ever thought I'd do that one!
Comparison to Carson: http://reidntara.blogspot.com/2013/01/carson-24-weeks.html

Bump picture with Carson since it wasn't showing on the blog post

Mini Mountain Get-Away

Last Sunday Reid got a text from his boss asking if he could fill-in for depo's all week in Edwards, Colo. Of course I wanted him to have the opportunity, just stressed we had a 12 hour notice of me managing the house, dog and Carson for a week alone! Thankfully my boss was generous enough to let me have Friday off, so Thursday after work I picked up Carson from daycare and we headed up to Edwards for the weekend. It only took 1hr 45 min to get there, so we met Reid at the Smiling Moose for dinner. We returned to the hotel just in time to catch a sunset from the hotel balcony.

Now let's talk about this hotel. We stayed at the Riverwalk Inn and Suites and it's going to be really hard to stay in a normal hotel again! It was a true 1 bedroom that was completely separate and could be closed off from the living area with it's own bathroom. Then there was a full kitchen and separate bathroom in the living area. It was so nice having that bedroom separate for Carson at bedtime. Now onto the weekend...

Friday: Reid had to work again today, but too our surprise he was done by noon. Trying to fill the day with as much as I could, I started with a walk on the trail behind the hotel. Unfortunately Carson was still tired, cranky and would not walk! Yikes considering I didn't have the stroller. Thankfully my belly isn't too big yet, so I was able to cradle him with two hands. We crossed a bridge where I stopped for a break to listen to the water then decided to keep walking. I saw a small hill which I decided would be my turnaround as soon as I got to the top, but when I got there I realized we were at the dog park :) Perfecto!! Thankfully Carson wanted to walk around the park while Snyder got some off leash time. I tracked the walk later on and it was about a .6 mile walk to the park. A good work out for walking while carrying 30lbs. After our walk I decided to take a drive into the mountains for "nap time" so I went off towards Leadville. Not very fond of the road I had to take to get there, but I put my fears aside and we drove to Tennessee Pass then turned around. By the time I had gotten back to Edwards, I had a missed call from Reid to let me know he was done for the day. Yippee!! We walked over to Old Forge Pizza for lunch then decided to meet up with someone we knew from the area so Reid could go rock climbing.

The trail followed the Eagle River

Freedom Park

Watching Snyder have fun at the dog park

Mountain views on our walk

Views on my drive to Tennessee Pass

Reid's friend Brandon wanted to show Reid some climbing in Wolcott which is about 5 miles west of Edwards. The trail we took to get to the crags was actually an abandoned railroad track. We hiked up to the wall and unfortunately there wasn't much roaming room for Carson. He wanted to be adventurous and walk around, but it was slippery dirt and he was not letting us help him. So Reid had to take us back down to the tracks where Carson and I hung out while Reid did some climbing.

Saturday: We woke up and enjoyed some breakfast and coffee before packing up to head home later in the day. We had our skis with us to enjoy some winter activity in the mountains and we ventured off to Cordillera which is a mountain community in Edwards with a nordic center. Unfortunately the snow wasn't deep enough for our skis, and the winter recreation trails weren't clearly marked, so we called it a loss and decided to make the drive to Tennessee Pass where we knew there would be plenty of snow. We got up there and didn't have any service, so we set out on a trail. I later looked it up and we did a 2.5 mile loop on the Powderhound Trail. The snow wasn't ideal, even for the stickiest wax, but I had as much fun as I could and decided this would be my last time on skis while pregnant.

We had a great little mini get-away and enjoyed lots of quality family time together. Now back to reality :(

Carson: 22 Months

This month was a special one because on the same day Carson was 22 months, I was exactly 6 months pregnant! We love asking Carson where baby is and watching him happily touch my belly and give it kisses. He's even starting to learn his brother's name!

If I had to pick a phrase to describe Carson over the majority of the last month it would be "not a happy camper." I feel like he whined, threw tantrums and cried about 80% of the time, and both Reid and I are exhausted from it!! I'm not sure if it's his last teeth coming in, his personality developing more and more and we aren't able to fully understand him yet, being picky about wanting certain things, or a combination of a bunch of things, but we want our happy, smiley boy back. And to top off the crankiness, he is wanting to be held ALL THE TIME and will let you know how dissatisfied he is if he's not. Maybe he senses I'm pregnant and changes are coming so he's trying to get all our attention NOW, who knows! But I'll just leave it as it was a huge mistake not taking a stroller last weekend and trying to walk with him and Snyder on a trail. Whew, that 1.5 mile walk was a workout!

Trying to sit down at the bridge for a break, and someone wasn't too happy about it

The dog park we walked to. Thankfully he walked around most of the park!

He is becoming more and more of a picky eater. He rarely eats meat (although he ate a whole kids cheeseburger from Wendy's on our trip, (yikes I gave him fast-food but yeah he ate meat)) and dinners lately consist of a few bites followed by the "all done" sign and then walking straight to the snack cabinet and whining for food. It's frustrating Reid and I like crazy! He's still not really talking, but seems to be making some progress. He says mama all the time now which makes me smile :) He LOVES being outside and the only way I can get him to come in is by saying, "Let's go watch basketball" which is then followed by him running to the remote saying "Ba-ball." It's pretty cute! We were going to transition him into a toddler bed this month, but the weekend we had planned he got sick so we will have that too look forward to over the next month. Wish us luck!!

Happy Birthday To Me...

I might sound a little conceded, but I love my birthday! Ok, I love people's birthdays in general because it's YOUR one special day out of the year. I generally take the actual day of birth pretty seriously and want no other celebration beyond that, but this year things were a little hectic on my actual birthday (Feb 24). The whole week prior I was out of town and my husband Reid was slaving away to re-do our hardwood floors (that post will come at another time). So when I arrived back at home, we still had to let the sealant dry so all our living and dining room furniture was crammed into our sunroom. So I let the birthday cake slide this year, and Reid had already said he had a surprise planned for me the following weekend. So what I got on my actual birthday was knowing my "surprise" which is the whole purpose of this post.

For my birthday this year we ventured to Leadville, CO to have dinner at the Tennessee Pass Cookhouse. This is a restaurant that sits back 1 mile on a trail where you either cross country ski or snow shoe in the winter and then hike in the summer. This was perfect since I got some XC skis for Christmas! A few weeks prior, I tried to take the skis out because I knew they would have something to do with my birthday, and let me tell you it was a DISASTER! Later we determined it was the conditions of the snow mixed with my ski having no wax on it, so we set up a lesson before dinner just so I knew what I was doing. Great call! I had so much fun and now feel much for confident on my skis.

Having some hot cocoa and cider before my lesson

Beautiful snowy view from the loft

So now for the dinner. We left from the Tennessee Pass Nordic Center, and they suggested you meet around 5:30. You must make reservations as well as pick an entree so they can get everything up to the cookhouse to prepare ahead of time. The weather was the perfect winter setting for our evening. Snow all around, a light snowfall coming down, temperatures just right for bundling up but staying warm on your workout up there. It was so calm and peaceful! We arrived at the cookhouse and I made sure to take some pictures before it got too dark. We weren't able to see the views due to the snow, but I can only imagine there are some pretty spectacular views from their patio. We headed inside to a nice warm atmosphere lit only by candlelight. We sat down and soon enjoyed our 4 course dinner. Oh and did I mention we were kid and dog free on this trip :) So nice to get out just Reid and I and enjoy some time together.

The Cookhouse

The trail leading up to the Cookhouse

Thanks for my birthday present

Mmmm....beer!

Mmmmm....alcohol-free wine!

I must admit I was a bit nervous for the trip back down to the nordic center as we only had headlamps to rely on, but it was surprisingly fun and I got a little bit of downhill practice. We got back to our car about 8:45p and still had to make the drive back to Denver. Unfortunately the weather picked up a bit so our drive home was a little more cautious than we would have liked. But we made it back safe and sound with our sitter telling us how perfect both Snyder and Carson did. Definitely a birthday to remember!!