Family Reunion in Gunnison

Last weekend we headed to Gunnison for the Hulsbos family reunion. 18 of us spent time at my parents house eating, telling stories and taking advantage of all Eagle Ridge Ranch has to offer. Mom even threw us a baby shower for Baby Slease!


On Saturday everyone (except for me (prego), Stella (4), and Grandpa (89)) went for a horseback ride around the lower ranch. Here is Brad on Layla. As much as he really doesn't like horses, he actually enjoyed riding her. :)

Gearing up to go. . . Brad, Jenny, Carol, Ellen and Zana.

This was round 2 of the riders. Only 8 could go at a time. Dad ended up going twice so his horse didn't have to be left behind.

What summer at the ranch would be complete without going for a canoe ride around the pond? Brad and I ended up fighting the wind the whole time but it was fun.

Brad fished the pond as well and while he 'caught' 3, he only landed one of them. Those are feisty fish in that pond! He lost 2 flies in the process.

This is a crummy picture, I know, but on our way home we took Kebler Pass from Crested Butte to get to I-70 and on our way we saw a Momma Bear with 2 cubs! They were off in the forest a ways away from the road. It was so neat. However, we were driving past lots of campgrounds and it was 2 in the afternoon. I was thinking I might not want to camp around there.

We had a great time with the family and it was nice to get out of town. With only about 5 weeks left until Baby Slease gets here, it wasn't the most comfortable car-ride (especially because it took us 7 hours to get home because I-70 was closed and traffic was moving 1 mile an hour for about 15 miles! Luckily we did find a dirt road to take around the accident, but it still took a while!). I think I'm not interested in any more road trips until after this baby comes out!

Baby Slease at 34 Weeks!

The Dr. says the baby has turned head down and will probably stay that way. Regardless, the movement has not slowed a bit! The baby is constantly shifting butt to the right and then butt to the left. I've also felt parts sticking out that feel like the shoulders, the foot or maybe even a little knee! How cool!

We started another series of birthing classes. This time they are actual natural childbirth classes. It is the Bradley Method of birthing, also known as Husband Coached Childbirth. It has been really practical. We are, however, squeezing a 12 week class into a 5 week series. We've enjoyed the private classes to ask whatever questions come to mind and we are feeling a little more confident to do this without drugs.

I also bought a small load of cloth diapers yesterday. If you are picturing big white pieces of fluffy fabric magically wrapped around a baby with a huge safety pin, check out www.modernmommygear.com and click on modern diapering. The new cloth diapers are really amazing! They basically function like disposables but you wash them and use them again. When I was wrapping up choosing the styles I wanted, I realized I was buying diapers for OUR baby and I kind of freaked out. :) Is it possible to be so close to delivery and yet have no real sense that we are actually about to have a baby?! YES!

Neighborhood BBQ

On July 11th, our neighbors, Pat and Kesa, organized a neighborhood BBQ in the greenspace behind our house. We had a really good turnout and TONS of food! The weather also cooperated and we didn't have any rain ruin the party.

Here are some pictures of the event. . .

We really enjoyed getting to meet new neighbors and the food was great! We love our neighborhood!

Crazy Fourth of July

Friday morning at 10am, I noticed I had a phone message from mom. Basically, mom was letting me know that she really thought we should drive down to Albuquerque for the Fourth of July to spend time with my grandpa (Papo). She gave the 'no pressure' plea. :) So, by 11am, we were on the road on our way to Albuquerque.

We considered going a few weeks ago but Brody has been so weird lately, and kennels are so expensive, that we decided it would be better if we stayed home. So much for that. We took Brody's kennel along and planned to banish her to the kennel as soon as all the other dogs, kids and food showed up.

Unfortunately, I-25 was closed at Walsenburg for construction (of which there was no evidence of except for the orange cones blocking the highway!) and all 10,000 cars heading south were routed through town. What normally takes us under 7 hours took us 9!! What a day!

Saturday morning we had breakfast with Papo at the restaurant in his new assisted living place. We got to see his apartment and all the neat activities and people there. After breakfast, we headed back to his house to go through all the stuff he wants to get rid of now that he won't be living at home anymore.

Papo has such amazing historic treasures tucked away here and there in his house. If they were related to cars/trucks, he remembered the stories behind them. But everthing else. . . we're left to guess where they came from. :) After the major sorting, we took naps to gear up for the big event!

This is everyone (minus Brody - who was locked in the bathroom! and Pixie - Papo's pug that seems to be MIA) who came over for dinner and fireworks. As always, there was way too much food and the fireworks put on by Rio Rancho were fantastic. (That's not to mention the firework display grade fireworks being set off by all the neighbors! They are totally illegal but . . . it's New Mexico!) We did have a crazy thunderstorm right before the fireworks started but luckily the downpour stopped in time for the show. We had a great time with the family and really enjoyed seeing and talking to Papo.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed north. We did make it home in 7 hours (having to stop every couple of hours for Brody and me to go to the bathroom makes road trips LONG!). As soon as we got home we flopped on the bed and took a 3 hour nap! So much for our planned relaxing 3-day weekend at home! :)

4th Anniversary Dinner at the Brown Palace

Thursday, July 2nd, we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. Brad was in charge of picking the place for dinner and when he got home from work, we were off. As is Brad's style, I didn't know where we were going, but as he headed for downtown, I began to wonder. . .

As it turned out, Brad made reservations at the Brown Palace Hotel for dinner! The Brown Palace is a really fancy place (as well as historic) in downtown Denver. Neither of us had ever been there before for dinner so we were in for quite a treat!

This is the room we had dinner in. The food was AMAZING! It's always hard to eat at fancy restaurants like this because you are reminded that you are not a very good cook and that really good food really is hard to come by.

The funny thing was that we ordered the Chef's taster menu so we just got samples of an appetizer, soup, main course and desert. When the waiter brought out each course, I was disappointed at how little food was on the plate - even though it was beautiful. I got 1 crab cake (Brad got a sample of an artistic beef wellington), we both got about 1/2 cup of cauliflower soup, Brad got a Caesar salad (actually a full portion!), then I got 2 scallops (Brad got a 3in x 4in Bison steak), and for dessert, I got a 'sundae' that was the craziest looking dessert I've ever had and Brad got banana's foster. Even though the portions were so small, by the end of my first scallop, I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish! I guess because the food was so rich or something, but it was more than enough food! Weird! It was the best food I've tasted in a long time. The 2am heartburn that showed up is another story! Grr . . . pregnancy!

We had plans to spend Friday at the recreation pool down the street to finish off our anniversary celebration but Friday morning, everything changed!

30 Weeks!

Ok, at 30 weeks, this is me in the same shirt as before so you can see the difference. I'm really feeling pretty good and the baby is moving around my belly like a champ! The movements are really strong and quite frequent. Some of them are really causing pointy spots or hard bumps that you can see from the outside.




We've been busy nesting lately and trying to get ready for the baby. My mom came into town and we did some work on the nursery. We got a crib, painted the closet and got all the furniture arranged. We even did a baby registry at Babies"R"Us and REI. Here's mom paining. :)



Brody is not very happy about her room being taken over and converted into the baby's room. By the way, Brody is still on her steroids. We tried to take her off of them last week by reducing the dosage and we found that she was really struggling to walk and use her back legs again. We don't really know what to do at this point except keep her on the full dosage. They aren't good for her system though, so we're not sure how long this can last. :(





Brad and I have also been taking some classes at the hospital to prepare for the birth. We realized through the classes that we really do want to have a natural childbirth, free of as many medical interventions as possible. In order to prepare for that we're going to take another set of birthing classes that teach the Bradley Method of birthing. The purpose of that method is to train the dad to coach the mom through the pain and stages of labor. We'll see how that goes.

Now that I'm into my third trimester, I'm taking pretty long naps each day. It's really strange to be able to sleep so much during the day and to have no trouble sleeping at night too. It's kind of frustrating though because it's easy to over-do it and then I end us sleeping for 3 hours during the day! I'm not nearly as productive as I want to be. I guess the Lord is preparing me for motherhood. :)

We did go for a 'hike' on Saturday morning in Waterton Canyon. It was more like a walk and after about 1 1/2 hours I was pooped! This is on our way down. I don't have any maternity tank tops so this one is my regular work out one. It just barely covers my belly!

We are really enjoying the summer and I'm so grateful that God timed the birth of this baby to be several months after school let out. I'm really spoiled to have the time to get everything ready and to relax before our life changes forever!

We're also about to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary (July 2nd). Yeah! What an amazing 4 years we've had.

Happy Fourth of July!

Hail Storm

We had a great hail storm this afternoon. This will probably be called a Cat storm by several companies. A tornado touched down within in a couple of miles of our house. Kim took some good video of how fast it was coming down. I've always seen the effects of a hail storm on the back-end so I was really interested to see it live. I have had customers save baseball sized hail for me. I now have a better appreciatioon of the sound they must have heard during a storm of that size. You can see the size of our hail in Kim's hand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIEldr3Zc9w This is the hail video.