Week 13, 27 to Go

Yesterday marked the start of week 13 of my pregnancy. So far so good, I have felt pretty well the entire time, and have successfully crossed over to the second trimester, which means all the bad stuff is supposedly behind me. I am not showing and in fact have lost a few pounds, but everything seems to be going well. We had our 12 week check up last week, and both Doug and I heard the baby's heart beat for the first time. The doctor said it sounded strong and healthy and had a heart rate of 165 bpm. As far as I know it is a little too early to determine the sex based on the heart beat because it continuously slows down, but all you old wives tale believers, feel free to start making your guesses. We are planning on finding out the sex and will share it with everyone when it comes time. Probably about 8 weeks from now. We have not had an ultra sound yet so I don't have any fun pictures, videos etc., but when we do I will do my best to post them on the blog as well as the ever popular belly photos.

The Next Generation

Well as most of you are aware, we have big news for everyone's holiday season, we are expecting our first child in June 2006. The big announcement came out over Thanksgiving week, while we vacationed to Oregon. We had a great trip and couldn't have had better weather, which is pretty remarkable for Oregon in the winter. The following week most of Doug's family found out the good news, as we travelled to Steamboat Springs, CO for Amber and DJ's wedding, which is where the above photo was taken. It snowed the entire time we were there, the boarding was great on the Champagne Powder for Doug and others, but pregnant women were not allowed to join in on that fun! Both Doug and I are very excited along with a little nervous about becoming first time parents. We already know that this baby will take a lot more responsibility than our current dependents (fish). The upcoming addition to our family was our real reason for starting this web page, so from now on it will probably take on a little different form, but we hope everyone will check back often for updates as we go through this little adventure.

Happy Halloween

Our carved pumpkins, I did the ghost house, with the ghost in the back and Doug did the other two. Happy Halloween to everyone.

Trip to Los Angeles

As many of you knew, our trip to the Cayman Islands for our honeymoon had to be rescheduled at the last minute due to hurricane Ivan, and as a result we had flight vouchers to use before the end of the year. After much debating we decided to make a trip to L.A. to visit a couple friends and catch our one and only Beaver game of the season. The trip started out pretty good, the sun was shining, and hey we weren't working :) We spent most of the day driving down the coast from LAX to Huntington Beach, where John Sanders lives, stopping at the beaches and other sights that caught our interest.

The following day we drove north to Hollywood, to see some sights and eventually make it to the staples center for the Nuggets/Lakers first
preseason game. We mad a quick stop at the Mann's Chinese theater for some poses with famous footprints and autographs. Photos at left are Carmen by Mel Gibson and Doug by Johnny Depp and if you have really good eyes, both of us with the HOLLYWOOD sign on the hills behind us. After a moderate hike to the top of Mt. Hollywood (where the Hollywood sign is), we made our way through the fancy houses to downtown LA. We were amazed how many downtowns there were, when you looked out across the Los Angeles area. As you can tell in the pictures Doug was sporting his Melo shirt all day, luckily I don't think many people caught on to the Nuggets significance until the game,

On friday we drove north again, up to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Here in Colorado we bought season passes to a six flags park, which meant we could go to any park in the country for free. I had been there 12 years ago, although not much was the same, and it was a first time for Doug. The weather was beautiful up there and we breezed right through most of the lines, until we couldn't go on any more rides.

Saturday brought a turn for the worse, along with the Beavers pathetic attempt at putting a football game together, the sun rarely came out for the rest of our trip. The sunny southern California atmosphere became a lot more like the dreary drizzly Oregon coast in the winter. We had fun, although the game was a blowout, and Doug met up with Andres, a guy whom he played soccer with at OSU, who he hadn't seen in 3 years.

Due to the weather, the rest of the trip was somewhat uneventful, we caught part of a surfing tournament at the beach, and watched some NFL at a local bar just off the beach, and just relaxed for the remaining days. Unfortunately, when we got to the airport we found out our flight had been cancelled, and the quickest way home was a reroute through Atlanta. So we spent 12 hours flying across the country and back again for the conclusion of our trip.

1 Year Anniversary

It has been a year since we have seen many of you, in that time we had a winter season full of weekend trips to the mountains for some of Doug's extreme snowboarding and Carmen's beginner, but improving skiing skills. We started and completed several new home owner renovation projects, including a complete gutting and remodel of the basement bathroom and construction of a new brick patio and landscaping around our hottub in the back yard. The summer season brought a new job for Carmen in the Town of Windsor doing boat patrol on Windsor Lake, which then moved into a front desk position at the new recreation center. We tried to make as much use of the boat for weekend camping and wakeboarding adventures that we could. In August we welcomed our first guests, as John, Jennifer and our new niece Anna came to visit for a week enroute to Seattle. (Check out the Caplinger Family link on the left for pictures of Anna) Two days later, Carmen's brother and sister, Joel and Erin came to visit from Oregon for a week and a half. It has been an eventful and great first year for Doug and I, we look forward to several more years of adventure and great times with family and friends.