Yellowstone

Brigham, Lydia, and I just took our first family vacation (besides to visit family) to Yellowstone. We had a great time! We met my family and stayed in a fun house in Island Park just outside of Yellowstone. We covered Yellowstone in two days and then we spent a day doing fun things in Island Park. It was so fun and just what I needed to get away for awhile. Here are a few highlights from the trip.

Here's the outside of the house we stayed in.

This is everyone eating ice cream after a hike. You used to be able to hike to the bottom of the falls we were at but they closed it off halfway down and I was so angry! It was a hard hike for nothing!

My brother, Scott, prepared Brigham's side of the bed with the baby mobile. Haha, it was pretty funny.

Some of the awesome scenery.

This buffalo (technically bison) was RIGHT next to us on the road. It was just casually walking down the side of the highway. Brigham rolled down the window to take a picture of it and I was ok with that, however, I warned him, DO NOT TALK TO IT. So, what did he do? The second we were next to it (and we were so close he could reach out and touch it if he wanted) he said, "Hey buddy!!" The buffalo turned its head, looked at Brigham and flicked its ears back. So... I drove off as fast as I could in a panic it was going to charge our car. Brigham was furious that I ruined his optimum picture shot and I was mad he talked to the buffalo. Sigh. It was AWESOME!!

Lydia with her feet up, enjoying the ride outside of Old Faithful.

Our family picture in front of Castle Geyser. It's a surprisingly good shot for our family.

Brigham and Lydia on the Coffeepot trails hike (thanks Sam and Caitlin for the idea for the hike, it was beautiful).

It was Brigham's first time ever to Yellowstone and I think he had a good time. I was grateful we made it through with no car troubles, no screaming children, and no sickness. We really had so much fun. Especially on the boat float down the river in Island park where the water was so shallow my mom got out of the boat and ended up dragging everyone until it was deep enough to float again. Yes, we all sat there laughing- we are bad children. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of that. My mom really spoiled everyone this trip just like she usually does on every family trip. I hope I can plan vacations as well as she does some day. My dad kept proudly saying it was the first "Nelson family reunion" and that was a fun thought as well. What a good time we had :)

It's a Boy!

We recently went to have our ultrasound to check up on our new little one. We also decided to find out what we were having this time, after keeping our first one a surprise. I LOVED keeping our first baby a surprise. It made it so much fun. However, I was so sure we were having a boy this time there was really no point in not finding out. Immediately when the technician put her magic wand on my stomach and we saw the profile of our baby I wanted to say, "He's SO cute!" But I stopped myself because she hadn't confirmed it was a boy yet. But then after, "Oh yeah, this is a boy," "clearly a boy," and, "this is DEFINATELY a boy," I knew I was good to go. It's weird how strongly I knew this time.

He really was quite adorable and I loved every second. I always lay there with a silly grin on my face throughout the entire ultrasound. The ultrasound technician pointed out he's using my bladder as a nice little pillow, even though I didn't really need her to tell me that.  Also, I was supposed to be a little over 20 weeks, however, the baby measured a week behind, as did my stomach so my due date is now moved to 1/15/2010 which is a week later.

All in all, everything looked good, a four chamber heart with a great heartbeat, two healthy sides of the brain, etc. Here are some of the ultrasound pictures....

A cute profile picture of the face

Another face profile with the arm stretched above the head

One of the arms

And a little foot :) So cute

And I would put the picture proving he's a little man but I just don't feel like exposing this little guy online. You can ask for the hard copy of the picture if you don't believe me.

Now I've got to figure out how to raise a little boy because I have no idea. Any advice is welcome!

Preparation

So with a new baby coming, obviously there are some things that need to be done to get ready. Brigham and I have a lot to do to welcome our second child. Apparently, Lydia has also decided she needs to prepare herself. After receiving some pregnancy magazines from my doctor's office, Lydia found them and has grown strangely attached. You can find Lydia carrying these magazines around the house or sitting down and reading them, surrounded by others. She doesn't just turn the pages and look at pictures, she sits and stares at each individual page and studies.

I had to take a picture of her doing it one day because it's just so strange and funny. If you click on this picture and look at her face up close, you can see the concentration. I have other magazines that she completely ignores and throws out of the way to get to the pregnancy ones. Sometimes Lydia will even carry them to me, put one on my lap and point to objects on the page and talk to me in her baby babble. She talks knowingly like she's coaching me on what to do and what to expect.  Maybe it's because she so recently went through it herself. I don't know. All I know is that it's pretty entertaining and that I wish I could see inside that cute little head sometimes. I think she's going to do well as an older sister with all this preparation :)