Oh yeah...we went to Europe one time. (the third)

Since we loved Ireland so much, it gets a little bit more attention here. We had some really nice weather there and got to see some beautiful parts of the island.We were there for 3 sun-filled days, which my cousin Matthew said is more sun than he got in 2 years while he was there! The luck of the Irish rubbed off on us a little bit.

We flew in to Dublin, but then rented a car and headed straight to Northern Ireland to spend a couple of days on the northern cliffs. This was one of the first views we got of the sea. We parked the car and then just wandered around the edge of the cliffs.

Later that day we went to see the Giant's Causeway. It's a natural formation of hexagonical-shaped columns formed by volcanoes (if sloggy is a word, then so is hexagonical). It's one of the strangest natural wonders that we've ever seen.



The next day, we made a trip to this crazy rope bridge that fishermen have used since Finn McCool formed the Isle of Man with a fistful of mud. It probably cost more than it should have, but we enjoyed crossing and then exploring the little island that it connected to. After this we went to see Dunluce castle. There's a lot of pictures from Northern Ireland to check out on the web album.

When we say we enjoyed Ireland so much, we really mean Northern Ireland. One of us (who will remain nameless, but who has 67% of a girl growing inside her) did not enjoy regular Ireland quite as much. It's partly because of how difficult it was for us to get rid of our rented car after getting lost and then arriving at the rental shop a few minutes after they closed. We still did some fun things in Dublin, though: visit Dublinia, Dublin Castle, Temple Bar and have good ole fashioned Irish Stew.

Probably the main draw to Ireland for us was this little place. We just wanted to try some truly authentic Irish food (pizza) from the locals (the Apache). We actually didn't eat here. We just saw it on the bus ride from the airport--where we eventually had to go to drop off our rented car.

Oh yeah...we went to Europe one time. (parte deux)

Hey! So here are some more pictures from our trip. These ones may actually be pretty, since we were in Wales and Scotland and not gloomy, sloggy London. I'm not sure that "sloggy" is a real word, but it sounds like it fits.

In Wales, they speak gibberish, but they call it Welsh. For cute!

Sometimes I like to hide. From the world. I can't see them, they can't see me. (This picture was taken at Edinburgh Castle.)

Look, it's a pig! Playing the bagpipes! Those whimsical Scots! I don't know where they come up with this stuff.

Anyway hope you enjoy our pictures.

Oh yeah...we went to Europe one time.

I was looking through our pictures from our recent trip to Europe this afternoon and found this little gem. It's from our last day of sight-seeing, and we are perched on top of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. We look kind of confused by it and annoyed that our picture is being taken once again, which makes no sense since Jaime is the one taking the picture. And look at that face mange! Anyhow, seeing this reminded me that there are so many pictures of our beautiful faces that we wanted to share with family from this trip. So we'll be adding some links to pictures for you to see how we got to this point.

Our trip started in London. We only stayed there two nights and tried to cram in way too much. It also rained on us the whole time. We had no luck with that. The sun usually only shined when we went inside a building for a tour. Then as soon as we came out, the rain and clouds would come back out. Luckily, the weather for the rest of the trip was pretty nice.

Outside of London our luck with the weather got a little better. We went to Stonehenge, Bath and then spent the night in a place called the Cotswolds. Jaime found the last place, and it was a nice change from the big city. To get to all these places we rented a car and were fortunate to get the only automatic left...a Mercedes. I had a hard time following any sort of speed limit in that thing. Driving wasn't too bad on the left side. It was just horribly nerve-racking getting on small roads with hedges on one side and giant trucks on the other. And paying for gas almost wiped out our bank accounts. The price of gas is so much worse in Europe than here. Still, that won't keep me from complaining about the price here! Anyway, just click on the pictures to see the rest of our photos from England. As a warning, we basically took 17,000 pictures during our trip. For the web albums, we tried to limit the amount, but there are still more than will keep the attention of most people.

We'll post more from the rest of our trip later.

Kickin it old school

Our baby kicks now. Well, if she's normal, she's been moving and swimming the whole time, like any typical amphibian. However, Jaime just recently started feeling her kicking, punching and jazzercising.

Last night I got to feel her kick for the first time. Jaime has noticed a lot more activity from the baby after eating cookies, so we made a deal with her where Jaime would eat a bunch of Keebler mint grasshoppers (a treat for both of them), if the baby agreed to perform. Jaime definitely upheld her end of the bargain, and I helped too, just to be supportive. And after a while, Jaime put my hand on her stomach and there was this little tap of gratitude. The kick was a little too weak to show any promise on the soccer field, but we'll work on bending it like Beckham when she's a little older...like 32 weeks. Right now she just needs to be a kid.

Overall, I felt like I bonded with my baby a little knowing that she is just as easily motivated by cookies as her dad!

Our Little 3-boned Hermaphrodite

Our doctor visit today seemed very fitting after some of the conversations we've had before the ultrasound. When we first got pregnant, I was convinced it was a boy. That is until I called my mom one day and she told me that she had prayed it would be a girl. So I started telling people that the baby definitely was a boy until my mom had to go and have her little prayer. After which, the sex miraculously changed. When I told this to Jaime's brother-in-law, he said, "Well, let's just hope her faith wasn't wavering and it got stuck somewhere in between!" Which then started a long run of jokes about our hermaphrodite baby.

Today we excitedly went for Jaime's monthly check up which included the ultrasound. It was one of the most amazing experiences ever, especially when the little princess flipped the doctor the bird. For some reason after seeing other ultrasound pictures, I didn't think it would be as great as it really was. However, the baby was pretty active and moving its arms and legs. Just amazing. There really is a live being inside my wife. So weird. The doctor's participation in the whole thing was a little less exciting. He kept quizzing us on human anatomy. At one point he pulls up this image of the baby's leg. Then he says, "You see here, one part has one bone, and the other has two. So what does that tell us?" We were dumbfounded at how dumb a question he would ask. Finally Jaime proclaimed, "Our baby has at least three bones!" Then we high fived, gave a resounding "What! What!" and both looked back at the screen with pride. I mean who else's baby has at least 3 bones after only 19 weeks of development?

Finally, after viewing the head, chest, spine, ventricles, heart and other organs, we moved on to what we were all there to see...the goods. The doctor tried to get a good look between the legs, but like any normal human who senses someone staring at its crotch, our baby crossed its little legs and then mouthed the words, "My eyes are up here perv!" After staring at this area for quite some time, the doctor explained that he couldn't find a hot dog, but there seemed to be a hamburger there. He said he was 67% sure that it was a girl. That percentage isn't as great as we would like, but we're going to go ahead and announce that we're having a girl!

Jumpin on the Bandwagon

This is us jumping on the blog bandwagon