Kicking Like a Champ

Don't freak out mom.  The baby is fine.  I'm fine.   The baby just took a little break from kicking most of the day yesterday and I started to get a little worried.  So we took a little field trip to the hospital last night to check things out.  Not long after I got all hooked up, our little one kicked and then kicked some more.  The doctor also ordered an ultrasound so we got to see our baby, super cute and moving around.    

So here's a little cell phone pic of last night's excitement. We were happy everything was fine.

A New Start

So, we're back.  Where have we been?  Oh, you know.  Around.  Maybe we've been a little lazy, not taking pictures to share or wanting to take the time to sum up all our activities.  Or maybe we've had less to share.  Life gets busy and not everything is super interesting or blog worthy.  Needless to say, we're going to forget the past year and a half of non-blogging and just move forward.  And, we're about to have something really interesting to blog about.  We're having a baby!  Most of you probably already knew that, but we thought we'd publish the big news to make it official.  Little Baby Bristow is due July 23rd.  Only about 7 weeks to go.  

Our First Anniversary

To celebrate our first anniversary, we decided to return to the little town where we got engaged. We had never really seen Cambria in the light of day since our car broke down there after dark. We wanted to stay in the hotel where Richie popped the question, eat a nice dinner (instead of gas station food like last time) and explore the quaint town. We first stopped in Morrow Bay, a small harbor town south of Cambria, and enjoyed the boats out for a sunny day on the water.
While in Cambria, we visited some nice shops in the town, but perhaps our favorite part was the walk we took along the bluff trail. There were some beautiful views, interesting plants and lots of wildlife.
We had a fabulous time in Cambria and I think it is now officially our special little place to visit. We'll always have Cambria.

Merry Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve at Andrew and Linda's house and were treated to a fabulous multi-course meal. Needless to say, we ate a lot, but it was all delicious. I'm pretty sure, hands down, the favorites of the night were the little smokies, wrapped in bacon, covered in brown sugar and baked in the oven until they were caramelized and so yummy. We had fun with the kids, read some stories and ate some more.

Mom is addicted to foamies and made foam cutout projects with the kids.

Merry Christmas part 2

More pictures from Christmas Eve at Andrew & Linda's house. On Christmas morning Richie and I were the first ones up.

All Chained Up

On our drive back to California, we hit a little snow in the Siskiyous, just south of Ashland. Chains were required and luckily we were prepared. It was slow going, but at least the snow was pretty.

Christmas with the Bristows

Here are some photos I stole from Paul and Kari's website. We caught some time with them in Fremont just before they left. We opened another round of presents, played some games, watched movies, went to the park, and, of course, ate delicious candy bar cake.