The Summer Tour of 2007 . . .

Okay, so I have been a little bit of a slacker on the blog lately, but I promise that I will get better now that I actually have some free time. Yeah right, what's that?!? I recently just completed several faculty contracts that I've been working on over the past few months. As much as I love teaching, three classes at once in addition to some additional contracts is a bit much! I think it might be time for a little break so I can begin to focus on some more important things like, um, . . . getting organized!

In addition to a very active work schedule, we've also managed to keep ourselves busy with the our ever-increasing summer travels. We're actually referring to it as The Summer Tour of 2007 -- we'll be selling T-shirts if anyone is interested. We kicked off our tour a few weeks ago with a visit to the Detroit area. We had the opportunity to spend time with both family and friends and especially enjoyed meeting the Suggs' latest addition to their family, Kylie. We were so excited to meet her and see our friends take to parenting so naturally. Congratulations, Christy and Chris! Below are some pictures of little Kylie . . . and I mean little since she was born a month early! I especially love the shot where she's hiding her face from the paparrazi.




The following weekend continued our travels to Chicago to visit sister Sarah. We had a relaxing time visiting with Sarah and enjoyed being able to see her new condo in the heart of Wrigleyville. We even got to take in a little sight seeing with a visit to the Museum of Science and Industry. A little bit of fun and education at the same time . . . you can't beat that! Our excursion went well until we were almost escorted out by a security guard. Toward the end of our visit, we stumbled upon the Prenatal Exhibit. Unfortunately, we only had a few minutes before the museum was set to close and we got stuck in line behind a 10-year-old who was a bit overeager and decided that she needed to read every word of every display of the 40 week journey. Needless to say, we didn't get through the whole exhibit, but what we did see was amazing! Despite the security guard's threatening demeanor and intimidating fake walkie-talkie call for backup, I appreciate Brad's valiant efforts to stay put with the exclamation, "My wife is pregnant and we're here to learn!" Nice try, honey!

The next weekend we actually returned to Detroit for Christy's surprise 30th birthday party. As much as we enjoyed being able to visit once again with friends and family, we had to quickly return to Grand Rapids on Saturday for another friend's birthday. We simply couldn't resist a little Cinco de Mayo celebration! I think Nathan was in agreeance as he got an early start on the celebrating. Check out the hungry man below.



This brings us to last weekend which consisted of our long awaited return to the Valley of the Sun. I was awarded "Top Performer" status in our company and, therefore, we were able to enjoy an expense paid visit to the Desert Ridge Marriott resort. We enjoyed our time spent with colleagues, friends, family -- not to mention that we even had the opportunity to relax in the Marriott's very own "lazy river" (think UOP meets MTV Spring Break). Anyways, a good time was had by all. The highlight of my weekend was being able to see my girlfriends again - especially being able to join the gang to celebrate Orla's birthday. Not only was I able to visit to some of my old favorite hangouts, but I was able to witness the interesting progression of the night which ended with some of the girls talking to the baby through my belly button and some very not-so-flattering pictures (see below for example of Vogue-like picture of me with the birthday girl).
As much as we enjoyed our time there, can I say that it was so HOT that I'm not sure that I'm looking forward to my return trip in July. My body has definitely adjusted back to the more moderate Michigan temps and I'm not sure how I will handle even hotter temps (100+ degrees) when I'm even more pregnant (6+ months). I guess we'll just have to wait and see! We will most certainly keep you updated as the adventure of The Summer Tour of 2007 continues . . .

In pregnancy news, we had another appointment a few weeks ago and were able to hear the heartbeat. No hiding from us this time! It was so wonderful to hear such a strong and fast heartbeat and, more importantly, to know that everything is progressing normally. We are so grateful that everything is going so smoothly!! We'll be sure to keep you updated as we have our next appointment right around the corner which will include the big ultrasound. And, for those of you who might be wondering, we are NOT finding out the sex of the baby! After all, isn't that the way that God intended it ; )?!?