Geo-caching with Nick & Becca

Last weekend, Becca, my best friend from high school, and her husband Nick, came to visit us! We had a great weekend with them. For the most part we just hung out and took them around Iowa City to see the sites and walk around downtown. However, they did introduce us to a new activity: geo-caching! In case you are unfamiliar, you use a GPS system to find caches that other people have hidden. It is kind of like a scavenger hunt but you don't really know what you are looking for. The caches are usually in small key boxes or other metal boxes. We went to three different locations but only found one cache - not the best statistics but we had a fun time anyway! Thanks for visiting Nick and Becca!

Here are the boys looking for a very small cache at one of the gates around Kinnick stadium. Unfortunately, we did not find this one and we don't have a picture of the one we did find.

A Weekend for Carrie

The last weekend in July, we headed back to Sibley for a packed weekend with family. While Paul spent a lot of time with his parents, I spent a lot of time with my sister-in-law to be! On Saturday morning we had a bridal shower for her, followed by a trip to the Lakes for her bachelorette party. After spending the night at her sister's house, we drove to Sioux Center and had another bridal shower! She received lots of fun gifts throughout the entire weekend!

On Sunday night we had a wonderful meal with my family - made by my dad on the Green Egg! It was a rare and special occasion to have all of us home in July! As you can see, it's never a dull moment!

Paul then had an interview in Sioux Falls, SD on Monday. He has not received a job offer thus far but we are actually kind of thankful for that as he doesn't interview at Iowa until mid September. Please keep us in your prayers as we go through the job searching process. We were also able to spend some time with some good college friends, Ryan and Pam Klenner, when we were in Sioux Falls. It was so nice to see them!

Growing Tummy!

Definitely growing! I absolutely love it but I will admit that it is the craziest feeling ever! I started feeling the baby move a little bit around 16 weeks. Just some small flutters (that refuse to keep occurring after I feel it once and wait to feel it again... stubborn little thing)!

16 weeks

15 weeks

14 weeks

13 weeks

2nd Annual Baltimore Trip

On July 2nd we flew to Baltimore to visit our good friends Kyle, Katie, and Anika Van Arendonk. We had a blast with them and found lots of fun things to do while visiting. A few highlights: Friday we visited the Baltimore City Aquarium, Saturday went to the Baltimore City Symphony/Fireworks show, Sunday we had our first Crab experience! Thanks Van Arendonks for a wonderful trip! (See their blog for more pictures... I'm hoping the arrival of the baby will help me become a better picture-taker!)

Baby Time!

We are having a baby! and we couldn't be more excited!!!! The due date is Dec. 21st so right around Christmas - my favorite time of year! Everything happens in December it seems... my birthday, Christmas, our anniversary... why not add one more reason to celebrate!

I am already through my first trimester. I've been feeling great and my tummy is already growing! I love it! We are so in love with this baby already and can't wait to meet him or her! Paul thinks the baby is a girl and I think it's a boy... time will tell as we are going to wait to find out!

So... time to get ready for baby! I haven't bought or read a thing so I guess you could say I'm winging it for the time being. We aren't going to paint the baby's room - I love the blue/gray paint that is already there and if it's a girl, she won't mind (or notice!), right?!? I'm excited to start this new journey, especially with my wonderful hubby by my side!

The end of another school year...

Only one day left with my awesome fourth graders. Although I LOVE summer, I will miss this class - they were great! And it also marks the end of my fourth grade career... at least for a little while. Next year I will be teaching third grade. This was not my decision but I'm trying to make the best of it! I will get to go to the zoo next year instead of Old Threshers so that's a bonus (even though it's only one day out of the year!).

I can't believe that another school year is over. It has been a busy one for both of us. Our summer is definitely starting to fill up as well. I will be headed home for a few days in early June and then when I return I will begin a six week session of summer class. Three of those weeks I will stay at UNI from Tuesday-Thursday. Paul will be in the SICU and so we plan on not seeing each other too often. :( However, he officially starts his third year of residency in July and begins with an elective month! We plan on taking a weekend getaway over the 4th of July (hopefully somewhere with spectacular fireworks... destination to be determined!) and we will probably head home again for a few days in late July. That will pretty much wrap up the summer as Cross Country will start the first week of August! Cheers to a great summer!

It's April already?

Ok... so I'm really not so good at this blog thing! I love reading all of my friends' blogs... just am not so good at creating my own posts.

Anyway, I cannot believe it's April already! This means that I have less than two months left of school, 8 master's classes left before summer, track season is here, and Easter has come and gone. April means that chief residents have been selected for next year, which Paul was chosen for, and he is back in the ER after a wonderful month of research.

Over the past few months, here are a few of the things we've been up to:

Hanging with our hilarious and sweet niece, Sydney.

Spending quality time with some dear friends.

Hosting a baby shower (actually, I was the only one who participated in that one!) My friend, Nicole, and I made this cute "diaper cake" -- super easy!

Spent Easter with my parents and sister who came to Iowa City for three nights!