Our Favorite Vacation Memory of All....

So in the tradition of saving the best for last, I thought I would finish posting about our summer vacation with our favorite memory of all - something that will forever change all of our lives. We haven't made this a secret in any way, but I know there are several people who I don't speak to on a regular basis who like to keep up with our crazy lives, so I figured now would be the perfect time to get everyone up to speed. Right in the middle of our vacation in Toronto we found out something HUGE .......

WE'RE PREGNANT!!!! Its funny b/c I didn't even want to waste the $16 for 1 test while I was in Toronto - I figured what was the point - there was just 'no way' possible. But I had been battling a bad cold/sinus infection and had been popping Aleve Cold & Sinus daily like candy for the last month, I thought maybe I should just double check.....just to be on the safe side. Well let me tell you - I just about fell over when the test popped up and said PREGNANT......I had to keep looking at it to make sure I wasn't imagining it (I thought for sure I was reading it wrong and missing something since I was drugged up from all the aleve...hahaha).

To say that we were shocked was a huge understatement......we just were not expecting this again right now. Obviously we are beyond thrilled and so excited to add to our family, but wow - I think it still hasn't set in. After all we went through for over 2 years trying to get pregnant with Brookie, we had no idea what to expect and we had just begun talking about adding to our family maybe towards the end of this year or beginning of next year. So for this to suddenly just pop up.....we were SHOCKED!! We are expecting our special present from the Easter Bunny next year - yep - my due date is Easter Sunday (April 4th, 2010) so we are about 12.5 weeks along right now. So far everything is going well - and so far I haven't been as sick as I was with Brookie (knock on wood). I have my good and bad days, but so far its nothing I can't handle. It all still feels like a dream to me most days......very surreal.

We went for our 2nd Dr's appt last week and had our 2nd ultrasound. It still amazes me how fast they grow and develop at this stage.....(sorry - they came out really small once I scanned them in - just click on them to see them larger)

This ultrasound was taken back in August - I was about 7 weeks along....and yes...there is just 1 baby in there....lol. (above)

Another shot of the 7 week ultrasound (above)

This is our ultrasound from last week - just short of 12 weeks along....looks like a baby now (with a huge head since the body hasn't caught up yet..lol) - has arms and legs that were moving around like crazy.... (above)

Another shot of the 12 week ultrasound. (above)

So thats our crazy lives at the moment.....I even made Brookie a shirt for the special occasion - even though she has NO CLUE that her world will be turned upside down in just a few months.....

She's trying to figure out what her

shirt says???? (if only she knew....)

Summer Tourists - Part 2

So as I mentioned before, our last sightseeing spot on our trip was Niagara Falls. No matter how many times I have been before, (believe me....living only 1.5 hrs away from it for years - its pretty much a given we went A LOT) this place still just wows me. It is just so beautiful there.



We ended up changing our plans around a little to make our traveling make more sense. We ended up saving Niagara Falls for last and going on our way home. We left my Mom's on Thursday morning after taking our time getting ready and drove the 1.5hrs to Niagara Falls. We spent the entire day just walking around taking in all the sights. We managed to do a few fun things as well. First we did the Journey Behind the Falls where you go down a long elevator and walk in the tunnels behind the falls and actually come out from behind the falls. I did that when I was about 13 years old with my Dad and my friend Natalie when she came to visit me from Houston for a month. It is exactly how I remembered it...very neat. They make you wear the plastic garbage bag raincoats b/c there is a point you get to go outside and you get drenched from the mist b/c you are standing right beside the Falls.

Here we are waiting for our turn
to go under the Falls.




This is what I was talking about - look how
close you actually get! My poor camera was
soaked - glad it didn't get ruined...



This is a shot standing directly behind the falls
in one of the lookouts from the tunnels.
Excuse the awful quality - my camera's flash
had no idea what to do - really dark in the tunnels
but blinding white light from the water.
There is probably a setting I could use - but
I'm clueless - I pretty much leave it on auto..lol



And of course a family shot of all of us
in front of the falls....


After we got done with this, we bought tickets to see the IMAX movie about Niagara Falls. Andy & I had both seen it back in 2003 on our visit up, but we thought it would be neat for Andrew to see the history as well. Then we toured through the museum and saw all the actual barrels and things that went over the falls..those are some CRAZY people!

It was a long day with TONS of walking - everytime I go back - I forget how much walking you really do when you are there...but its definitely worth it. Here are just some other random pics as we enjoyed our days at the Falls.

In the pic above...their faces pretty much sum it up!!

And as we were walking back to our car after our long day....this is what we saw...what a perfect ending to a wonderful vacation!

Summer Tourists...Part 1

I guess its better late than never to finally get around to posting our summer vacation tourist pictures. Like I mentioned before, the last week of our trip up in Toronto was spent doing all the tourist things which kept us very busy. We ended up getting a coupon booklet called a "City Pass" that basically had admission tickets for 5 different city attractions at a reduced rate. Since they all sounded fun to do, we figured it would be a better deal to do it that way vs. paying at each place. We had a blast seeing all these places. We went to the Ontatio Science Center, Royal Ontario Museum, CN Tower and the Toronto Zoo. The other place also included on the pass was Casa Loma - but unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could make it there too. I also happened to notice that a lot of the major cities had these passes for sale (including Houston) and thought maybe one day it would be fun to be a tourist in our own city and see the different things. Its a neat idea when visiting different places - and they definitely save you some money - can't go wrong there!!

Our first stop was the Ontario Science Center. Talk about HUGE!!! I had never been there - even when I lived up there. I think you needed a couple of days to go through the entire thing. Now I understand why so many schools go there for field trips - very educational with a wide range of things to see and do. Andrew had a blast seeing all the exhibits and doing fun experiments.

Andrew had a blast on this thing - you pulled yourself along the disc thing and you ended up spinning around like crazy - I was dizzy just watching him. No wonder there were padded walls all around!

After the Ontario Science Center we took the bus and subway down to the Royal Ontario Museum. Again, another place I had never been. This place was huge too - way more to see then we had time to. There were some awesome things there to see - they also had a special exhibit for dinosaurs - Andrew enjoyed that.



There were also tons of exhibts of all different animals and reptiles and sharks. It was so neat to see all these things up close and personal.

We were exhausted by the time we were done with these 2 places - they were tons of fun, but completely wore us out - I can only imagine how many miles we walked that day! Brookie was so happy when we got back home that day....she spent the day having fun and playing with Grandma.


She loves her "Bubba"

The next day we woke up early again and headed back on the bus and subway back downtown to the CN Tower. This time Brookie got to join us. She loved getting to ride the bus and subway - this girl was OBSESSED with all the buses she saw everyday from Grandma's balcony. Plus she got to go on a choo-choo train (ok - it was just a subway, but to her - it was as good as a train!)

Going for a subway ride for the 1st time...

She loved sitting beside her big brother like a big girl....have I mentioned how crazy this girl is for her big brother??? It is the cutest thing!!! So anyway, we ended up waiting in line probably close to 2 hours to go up in the CN Tower. During that time, the weather turned stormy and really rainy so by the time we got to go up, the viewing quality had gone way down. But we didn't really mind - we had all been there before (minus Brooklynn) and had perfect clear weather so we got the full effect that time. We still had a good time though. Of course both kids loved the glass floor...that thing still freaks me out to this day. You are 114 stories up and they have a section of the floor that they have removed and just put glass down so you are looking straight down at the ground. It is the most un-natural feeling in the world. People go around jumping on it, stomping on it, laying and sitting on it - its crazy. Here are a few pics of the kiddos on the glass floor. They are fearless!!

I'll do part 2 of our tourist pictures later this week sometime - we have tons of pics from our trip to Niagara Falls!