Parkes and Recreation: 2019

12 weeks. This was right before we told Mason's parents we were expecting! I think it's the first pregnancy picture I took.

18 weeks, about to go play tennis with Mason!

20 weeks. Baby's first beach trip! Also, note how I'm barely showing. The next two weeks were productive ones for my belly, as you'll see down below.

22 weeks

Showing off the 23 week bump at Time Out for Sistren

The bump, in all it's glory. (Actually this was at like 29.5 weeks, but it's close enough!)

Today marks 30 weeks of pregnancy for me! Overall, I feel like I've been pretty lucky with this little one: we've both been healthy and everything's been normal so far. Here's some of the awesome parts of this pregnancy:

My tummy still doesn't itch or have stretch marks (at least, that I've noticed)
I haven't really thrown up at all
I haven't had to buy any maternity shirts or dresses, thanks to Jenna and Megan letting me borrow a ton of their maternity clothes!
My feet and ankles have only swollen up a handful of times, which is so nice.
My hair is thick and luscious! For the first time in my life! I wish it could stay this way forever!
I feel more motivated to eat vegetables so the little one can get her nutrients, but I ALSO don't feel guilty when I eat ice cream, because I figure maybe it's just a craving thing those people always talk about. Plus, it makes her do flips and it's fun to feel!

I feel her kicking all the time! Sometimes it is so crazy I wonder if she's trying to tell me something, but I think she's just a wiggle worm! It is so fun when Mason feels her. One time he laid his head on my tummy and she immediately kicked him right in the temple! It was hilarious. We both like to watch my belly move as she does her calisthenics. Now that I'm bigger, we are both starting to get more and more excited to become parents.

As far as the not so great parts of pregnancy:

There were a few weeks where my hips and back would kill me every night when I was trying to sleep. Luckily the back pain was only for a couple weeks, although the hip aching has stuck around for quite a while.
I get out of breath fairly easily and feel like I am the most out of shape I have ever been in my life.
Body image is an on and off struggle. I keep telling myself no one else notices the things I do, and that makes it a little better. (Although, sometimes I love the way I look with this bump!)
In the night, I normally wake up around 3 no matter when I go to sleep, and I feel wide awake and it's nearly impossible to go back to sleep. Usually I take a long morning nap after Mason leaves for school.
My gag reflex when brushing my teeth is INSANE
My fingernails grow at a rate of about 1 millimeter per second. I have to cut them ALL THE TIME.
My fingers got too big for my wedding ring at like 25 weeks. I miss wearing my rings!
It's getting REALLY hard to roll over in bed.
Hormones. The biggest challenge for me the past 30 weeks. I have crazy mood swings and find it hard to let things go. Poor Mason.

See? It really hasn't been that bad. Also, two of my dear friends in our new ward offered to throw me baby showers! They're going to throw me one together. Right now it looks like it will be on January 18. I'm excited. Time to get cracking on our registry!

Also, I can't finish this blog post without mentioning that today, Thursday, December 5, 2019, my sister Megan had her baby!!!!! She did great and they are both healthy and her little angel is SOOOO CUTE and I think she looks just like her older brother and sister. When Megan showed her to us on the Marco Polo today it was kind of a shock to me that she was so REAL. Meg was prego just like me for so long, and then all of a sudden there was a real baby! That means there's a real baby inside me too! And she's due to come out in 70 days! I have so much to do! I'm so excited! And nervous! And every other emotion! Pray for us!

We drove from Provo to Auburn, AL in our Budget truck. It took us four days. Mason drove the whole time because he hates being the passenger in any car, and I was the photographer and navigator extraordinaire.

This is us outside our door after we were done with all our packing and cleaning. It's blurry, but I'm glad we documented it. That little apartment was a great place to call home, and we really liked it there.

We hit our first snag about 40 minutes in when the road through Spanish Fork Canyon was closed unexpectedly. I guess they had been having problems with mudslides, and since it was scheduled to rain, they didn't want to risk anybody being in the canyon if there was another one.

SO, we took a detour to Fairview through probably the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. We went up and up and up and up through beautiful mountains full of wildflowers and incredible views. I'm convinced I saw like 3 yaks up there behind a fence. And we saw some deer and some snow!

The road was beautiful, but it added a ton of time onto our route, and we ended up stopping in Green River for the night. We got there and stayed in a nasty room that was wayyy overpriced, but it was better than nothing!

Here's our Travel Log entries from the day:

Day 1- Friday
Provo -->Green River via Fairview, Utah
Total distance: 190 miles
Mason said, "There's no cruise control!" and we both laughed our heads off
Tried to go to Burger king in Green River at 9:05 pm but they closed at 9. So we went to Arby's instead, got there at 9:30 pm.
Checked into Motel 6

Gross. Made me gag lots.
Mason fell asleep instantly
AC was SO LOUD. Sounded like people with velcro rubbing over our door with no particular rhythm, just randomly.

Here's Day 2- Saturday

Green River UT -->Topeka, Kansas
Left Motel 6 at 7am sharp!

Bri saw a gopher halfway in it's hole.
We're driving next to the mighty Colorado River

Mason keeps saying Green River instead of Grand Junction, and vice versa

We passed a sign that said Frisco and I made up a song with Frisco, crisco, and risk-o in it and Mason thought it was real because "You just sang it with such confidence!"
We went through some big tunnels

It's raining outside in Colorado, and our truck is LEAKING WATER on us! Thankfully my purse was stuffed with clean rags, so we used them to catch some of the water, but we both still got really wet.
We're mad there's not mountains in Denver.
We stopped about 3:45 to eat Burger King in Burlington, CO and saw cute old men hanging out there.

Bri is wearing ridiculous clothes and is embarrassed.

Lots of corn and windmills because we're in Kansas!

This truck is not a "quiet cab."
Mom and Dad dropped their truck off at our new house this morning! Also, they got us a motel for tonight! They're so nice!!

968.5 MILES IS THE HALFWAY POINT
Mason almost wet his pants. We stopped in Hays.

Got to our hotel at 10:45 ish.
The last hour and a half or so was terrible and we were so tired. So we listed all the countries we could think of in the car.
Mom and Dad got us our hotel room and it's AMAZING, the bed is huge and it's SO CLEAN.
When we got to our hotel, Mason opened his door in the parking lot, heard the cicadas, got scared, and immediately shut the door again.

Day 3- Sunday

Topeka, Kansas --> Tupelo, Mississippi
We left at 9:51 am.
We got free breakfast! I tried to make a waffle and the thing broke and made a loud clanging noise and mason took FOREVER to come and save me. He finally came and also a nice black guy came to save me. My waffle was burned and gross.
We're on a toll road! There's no traffic
The Elders Quorum President of our new ward texted me about helping us move in. We are grateful.
It rained last night. We hope our stuff in the back isn't getting leaked on.
"We've passed into Hardee's country!" -Mason
It's green now and there's tons of trees!
Kansas has made 1 President (Eisenhower), like 5 astronauts, and Bob Dole. And the Chrysler guy. We know because there's big signs about them.
Missouri looks just like GA.

We've seen 2 dead armadillos (one was a baby)
It rained hard and we got REALLY leaked on
We spent $73 on gas at one gas station
We saw our first Waffle House- Springville, MO
We didn't see deer in Kansas or Missouri, but we saw them in Arkansas, Colorado and Utah

Mason says there's lots of birds in Missouri
Quality of gas station bathrooms has dropped dramatically since we got to Missouri
We got to Tennessee and got on a big pretty bridge