Category: Travel

Julie, Randy, Travel

Babymoon 2008

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In our last post, I eluded to the fact that Julie and I were taking one, last trip before the baby comes. We’ve been calling it our “Babymoon”. Really it’s just one lasy hurrah before our lives are taken over by the next generation. The term derived from “Honeymoon”, might be a little off, since a honeymoon is taken AFTER the wedding… and this “Babymoon” is BEFORE the baby arrives. All in all…. you get the idea.

Our trip was to Cozumel, Mexico. Primarily for a destination wedding for our dear friends Meghan and Wade, but it was much more than that for us We decided to take a few days before the official festivities started and celebrate our 3-year anniversary together. Little did we know, it was just what the doctor ordered!

Apparently Julie and I had forgotten how to sleep though the night. Our dogs have been waking us up during the night for one reason or another, and it really has taken a toll on us and the amount of rest we get. Most of you reading this would say,”It’s preparation for having children!” This may be so, but eventually you can talk to a child and reason with them… dogs just don’t seem to get it sometimes. Regardless, the first night in Cozumel was some of the best sleep that Julie and I had had in months. We slept so hard that the maids had to wake us up the next morning around 9am. It’s a good thing they did, because the breakfast buffett was only till 10!

The majority of our trip involved, sleeping, eating and laying on the beach. We mixed in a few activities like beach volleyball and snorkeling, but otherwise, if we didn’t have to do it for the wedding, we didn’t do it. We did our best to stay relaxed and fun. The wedding party and the family were a whole lot of fun, so that wasn’t a problem… we had a blast.

It was interesting to be a part of a destination wedding during the same time of the year that we had considered doing the same thing. After being a part of one, it’s hard to imagine that we would have had the same type of experience with our family and the people we knew at that time in our lives. It was truly a blessng that our wedding plans turned out the way they did, because we would not have changed them for the world.

Full Photo Album

-RB

Travel

a tailgate full of firsts and lasts

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Texas A&M hasn’t exacty had a great football season to speak of. Mike Sherman’s first year in the Big 12 could prove to be his toughest. Three teams from South division make up the top 5 in the COUNTRY, and TAMU will play all three in just over a month. The Aggies are progessing every game, but they are the equivalent of “the worst house in a great neighborhood”, so it’s hard to get excited when everyone around them is doing so much better.

Julie’s friends from college have been tailgating together, along with her parents and their RV, since about 2000. After graduation, they have managed to organize themselves for at least one game a year to get back together in the name of Aggie football and good old-fashioned tailgating — If you cook it, they will come.

Nowadays, after all the weddings have passed, they have all settled down (more or less) and started their own families. The scene has changed significantly in a just a few short years. There are just as many diaper bags as there are coolers now, and half the entertainment is the kids running around (or getting passed around). The old classic college stories have been replaced by diaper changing horror stories and discussions about how much daycare costs.

I’ll take this chance to list the attendees and their respective half-pints:
Scott and Summer Keith: Kaitlin (14 mos)
Sapna Pringle: Maya (10 mos), Honorary Rookie
Josh and Lindy Hernandez: Mariana (5 mos), Honorary Rookie
Jim and Sarah Pike: Kate (1 month), Honorary Rookie

The weekend was great and everyone enjoyed the beautiful weather in College Station, but it did end on a sad note. Shiloh, Julie’s Golden Retriever from college and tailgating veteran, has been diagnosed with Lymphoma (cancer in the lymph nodes), and this was likely her last trip to College Station. The news certainly deserves it’s own post and more details, but it put a perspective on the weekend that with every new life, there are those that have come before us that have come to an end.

-RB

Julie, Travel

Alaska

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Last week I was in Alaska for work.  Thankfully it was my last work trip before baby comes.  I truly love Alaska and would recommend that everyone go there at least once in their life.  I have been lucky enough to go 4 times in the last 2 years.  All that being said…this trip is the latest in the year I have ever been.  It was cold, and dark.  The sun came up around 9:45am and then set at 6:30pm.  Each day we lost approximately 6 minutes of daylight.  The temperature fluctuated from a balmy 28 to a frigid 3!!  For me, the cold wasn’t the bad part….it was the darkness.

The flight itself was very long.  I had to stop in Houston, Seattle, Anchorage and finally Kenai.  Monday morning I spent over 15 hours in airports and on planes.  Then I repeated the same flight pattern Thursday night/Friday morning.  When I left Kenai on Thursday afternoon it was 18 degrees, when I landed in San Antonio on Friday it was almost 80 degrees.  All the climate change and the excessive number of altitude changes have caused me to get a double ear infection.  However, if an ear infection is the worst that happens to me while I’m pregnant I won’t complain.

I’m 21 weeks now and still don’t have much of a belly to show off, but I promise to take a picture tonight and post it in the morning.

Julie

Julie, Randy, Reed, Travel

He’s Alive

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Friday was easily the best day of pregnancy so far.  Not only did we find out that baby Baldwin is a boy, but I when I was laying down to go to sleep Friday night I felt him move for the first time!!!

We were in College Station for the Aggie game and Randy was at midnight yell with his sisters.  Mom, Dad and I stayed back because we had to get up super early to hit HEB around 7am.  We were all starting to fall asleep and I felt this bubble in the left side of my stomach.  I yelled to my parents that I just felt him move for the first time.  I was sad Randy wasn’t there, but he wouldn’t have been able to feel it anyway.

Now that I know what it feels like I feel him moving all the time.  It is so sweet (at least it is now before he is kicking me in the ribs in the middle of the night).  It makes me feel so connected to him.  The best part about all of this movement is that I don’t think I will forget I’m pregnant anymore!!!

Julie

Randy, Travel

costa rica

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Amongst all the anticipation of our first pregnancy, I am going on my first mission trip. There are 12 of us going to San Jose, Costa Rica for a week. The agenda is pretty low-key, as it is an “Intro to Missions” opportunity from our church. We’ll be doing some construction projects, food distribution and vacation bible school at an orphanage.

The bus leaves the church tonight at 6pm sharp. We drive to Houston tonight in order to fly tomorrow morning directly to Costa Rica via Continental Airlines. In Houston we will be spending the night at Foundry United Methodist Church, former home of our own Pastor Adam.

The day is quickly coming when we can spread the news of our pregnancy to our friends and extended family. Immediately after I return home from Costa Rica, Julie will be leaving for Anacortes, WA for work. After all the travel is done we will break the news… until then… “ssshhhhhh”!!

-RB

Julie, Reed, Travel

The lake: julie breaks the silence

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This was a big weekend.

My grandmother is selling the lake property that I have grown up on.  Land is too valuable, and property taxes are astronomical.  The only logical solution is to sell, as much as it might kill me and my family.  My immediate family was at the lake to enjoy it for (probably) the last time.  The lake is where Randy proposed, and the perfect setting to tell my family the news we have all been praying for the last 18 months.  Originally, Diana Beth had stubbornly decided not to come to the lake, so I had to tell her Friday before we left.  Needless to say there were tears of joy involved, and no way was she going to miss me telling the rest of the family.  So she decided to make the trip.

Saturday morning we were all eating breakfast by the water.  I looked at Randy and he gave me the go-ahead, now was the perfect time.  (I also looked at Diana who started the video camera rolling!)  I told mom, dad and Adrianne the good news and it was tears of joy all around.  The first words out of my mom’s mouth were, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you little s*!t!!”

All in all it was a wonderful, heartbreaking weekend.  For those of you that have never been to the lake with us let me describe it to you.  There isn’t a house, just a boat house and 140 feet of perfect waterfront property.  My sisters and I have spent most weekends of our lives at the lake.  We have all grown up there and intended to raise our families up there too.  It is bittersweet that we are losing the property the summer before Randy and I will have a little one to share it with.  Hopefully we can purchase a different lake property and start a new set of traditions next year.

The picture below is the sunset at the lake Friday night.  There aren’t many places on earth that are more beautiful than this.

Sunset at Lake LBJ