Sorry I haven't been around lately...

But nothing much has really been happening! Just the normal pregnancy ups and downs :) I had terrible morning sickness for two weeks (weeks 6 and 7) and now I'm almost 9 weeks on Wednesday, and I seriously feel like I'm back to my old self! If that was all the nausea I had to endure, I'm going to consider myself lucky!

We've also had two appointments with our midwife, and she gave me some great strategies to help with the nausea (maybe that's why I feel so much better?) We haven't heard the heartbeat yet, but that's ok; she says it's more around 13 weeks or so. We were really impressed with the birth center (check it out here) where we plan to have the baby; it has a very low hospital transfer rate, and they're really committed to helping women realize their dream of natural childbirth, which is a goal of mine! I love how the birth rooms are very homey and welcoming; not at all like some sterile hospital rooms I've seen.

My parents are here visiting now, which is a lot of fun. Dan and I will head up to the lake this weekend (my dad and brother are already there, and my mom is going up on Tuesday), and then we're all going to the Dells at the end of July. That's one of our favorite summer traditions, so I'm really looking forward to it!

Other than that, Dan and I have just been enjoying the warm summer weather (the girls and I are getting a lot of use out of our pool!) and hanging out with family. It's been a fun summer so far!

We told Tracy, Dan and the girls last night...

And they were so excited! It was great :) We went to Kirsti's middle school graduation, which was very nice (we're so proud of her! I can't believe that the six week old baby I saw for the first time laying on my aunt Chris's floor is now this amazingly intelligent and respectful 14 year old! Where does time go?)

Kirsti literally screamed when we told her; it was so sweet. And Rori was so excited; we went out to eat afterwards, and she wanted to sit by me, like she usually does. She put her head on my arm and her hand on my stomach and said, "Hi little baby!" It was so sweet; she is such a doll. If my little girl turns out even half as nice as Rori, we'll be very lucky!

We are going to tour the Madison Birth Center tomorrow; they have tours every Wednesday evening. I'm very into the holistic, natural childbirth thing, so I think this sounds like a good fit for us. Hopefully our tour will confirm that!

Our weekend!

Well, we went down to Chicago for my cousin's high school graduation, and it was a lot of fun. We found out something unexpected, however; we are expecting a baby on February 17!!! Holy crap!

It was funny; I wasn't due to get my period until this Tuesday (tomorrow) but I was worried for some reason, although I was still kind of thinking, "Nah, I'm not." So I took a test--and I honestly thought it was more of a pre-emptive strike, and I TOTALLY expected it to confirm my suspicion that I was NOT pregnant--and saw just the faintest of a second line. I did a double take and just kept saying, "No, no, no!!!" My heart was racing. I have taken so many pregnancy tests where I was just terrified they were positive, and then they never were (obviously). With this one, I took it but didn't even really entertain the possibility that it was positive; I just assumed it would be negative, and I was thinking, "This will just confirm what I already know--that I am not." Yeah, right!

I went downstairs and asked Dan if he saw a second line, and he said, 'Yes, but it's so light; I'm sure the test is faulty.' Hmmm. So I asked Katrina, and she said the same thing. So I'm thinking, "Ok, maybe they're right."

So later, I took another. Same line, same place. Hmmmm. I told Dan, and he said, "Well, if one test is faulty, I'm sure they both are" (since they came from the same box). So the whole day at the graduation and at the dinner afterwards, I was SO nervous (but yet kind of excited). Before we headed back up to Madison, I went to Dominick's (their grocery store) and got a digital test. I asked the cashier, "Do you have a restroom around here?" She directed me to it, and I took the test immediately.

I set it on the counter, with its little hour glass thing twirling around and around, and washed my hands. I grabbed a paper towel, looked over at the test, and my jaw just dropped. "Pregnant." WHAT?!?!

I went outside where Dan was waiting in the car, and as soon as I got in, he said, "Well, shall we go?" I was surprised that he didn't seem curious at all. I just looked at him. He said, "What?" And I said, "Promise you won't be mad?" and I showed him the test. His jaw just dropped, and he said, "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Whaaaat? Are you serious?" No, honey, I doctored the test as a joke ;) Yes, I'm serious! He didn't realize that I was actually going to take the test in Dominick's; he just thought I was going there to buy it. He even said, "I was wondering what was taking you so long!"

So, that was our exciting weekend! We called my mom right away, and she was excited. She was already happy that Roger Federer (she's obsessed with tennis) had won his tournament today, so she answered the phone, "Hello, Roger Federer is the king of the tennis world, fan club headquarters," and I said, "Hello, future grandmother on Valentine's Day." (I originally thought I was due the 14th, not the 17th) She said, "What?" I repeated myself. She said, "No way! You're kidding! You're not kidding, right? Oh my gosh!" She seemed very happy, as did my dad.

Then Dan called his mom, and she was ecstatic. We talked to Nancy, too, and she couldn't believe it :) I then called my aunt Chris (since we had just left her house) and told her that "come February 14th or so, you're going to be a great aunt!" She screamed she was so happy; it was very cool. Then we told my grandma (since we were following her back from Chicago, and we could tell she was having a hard time driving since it was night, so Dan offered to drive her van), and she seemed very happy.

Now the only person we have to tell is Tracy; I really want to do it in person, since we're so close to them (and I can't wait to see the looks on their faces! Rori has been asking me to have a baby for quite some time, haha), so hopefully we'll be able to go to their house tomorrow night or something. It better be soon, otherwise I won't be able to hold out!

And I'm going to see my group of friends (that I used to work with) tonight, and I'll tell them then. I texted Angie last night and told her, so almost everyone knows now! I just need to email my aunts and uncle in Minnesota, and then we'll be set! Crazy, crazy, crazy. I'm completely shocked, since we were planning on 2012, but I'm excited as well!

The Apostle Islands... again

So our vacation was so much fun. It was the perfect mix of sightseeing and doing a lot of touristy stuff, but also lots of relaxing and hanging out. Here are just some more pictures from our vacation:

A view of Madeline Island as we approached it on the ferry:






Another view of Bayfield from the ferry:


waiting for the ferry to leave...





One of our favorite memories is when we biked around Madeline Island. We saw 3 really beautiful deer, and they let us get so close to them before bounding away. :) It was great. It's a beautiful island; the views of Lake Superior that we saw while biking around were absolutely gorgeous! Of course, I was slightly scared that we'd happen upon a bear, but that's ok :) Luckily we never did!

For our anniversary on May 26th, we went to the Portside Restaurant, which overlooked the marina. Here are our views from our table:






And here is just a random picture of my eye that Dan took because he was freaking out that it seemed like my eye was green, instead of brown (I have to agree, it looks kind of green in this picture!)

The Apostle Islands Ghost Walk

So, I'm a sucker for anything supernatural. I'll watch the Travel Channel's Most Haunted Hotels or whatever it's called, as well as anything else supernatural, so when I heard there was a "Ghost Walk" in Bayfield, I jumped at it :) Oh, sure, I knew it'd be just stories, but I still thought it sounded fun. I'm so glad we did it; we heard lots of cool, true stories about the town's history (some of it supernatural!) Our guide was great; he was a very entertaining storyteller! Here are some photos we snapped while on our walk:

Here is a really beautiful Victorian B&B (not the one we stayed in!):





Some gardens I thought were pretty...


The view from a bridge

The Apostle Islands: Our bed and breakfast

We stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast called the Pinehurst Inn. It was this gorgeous Victorian home, and it's known as one of the top eco-friendly B&Bs in all of North America, which we thought was cool! Bayfield is a really cool town. It's small (only 600 people) but very artsy; there were lots of cool galleries and shops there. I was surprised that there was so much there for such a small town!

Here is our room (which was named the Salmo Room):







Here's me hanging out on the porch


The front room, where we spent a lot of time reading and relaxing


The dining room; the food every morning was SO good


The music room


A view from the outside:

The Apostle Islands Tour

When were on vacation, we decided to take a cruise of all 22 Apostle Islands, since the only one we could reach on our own was Madeline Island by ferry. It was a three-hour tour, which was great in that it allowed us to see a lot of stuff! We did end up seeing all 22 islands; very cool.

Here is a view of the marina from the ferry (you can see the windows reflected in the picture, haha).


Us in front of our cruise ship


The town of Bayfield (where we were staying); this is the view from the ferry



Some views on the tour...


These are the sea caves, which we then saw close up











Isn't that cool? These are the sea caves that have been hollowed out over millions of years. If we were kayakers (which we're not!) we could actually kayak in here; how cool.





Again, you can see the reflections of the windows, hehe :)










We also saw a lot of lighthouses on our tour. This is the Raspberry Island Lighthouse, which is known as the most beautiful. It's a duplex-type of structure, and the lighthouse keeper and his family lived on one side, and his assistant and his family on the other. Supposedly, the families would compete for who had the most beautiful gardens.