Our Annual Trip Out West

At the end of August our family was able to enjoy a 4 night stay out west on Puget Sound in Washington. It is always great to be able to get out there once a year and bum around on the beach, see family and relax. Mario's parents were able to join us this year, so that was an extra special bonus!

Here is the whole crew!

The beach with the fog lifting!

Traci and Nellie

What a devil face...kinda sums it up :)

Sharing with Uncle Tim (as he would like to be called..haha)

It was "humpie" season while we were there. Literally hundreds of salmon jumping out of the water in front of the house while we watched. You would think we that many it would be fairly easy to catch some. It ended up being our quest while we were there. I believe between everyone we caught 3 or 4 total :) Here is Mario proudly displaying his first catch.

kiss kiss...

And Corky with hers!!!

Mario and Jer!

Going out to drop the crab pot!

quite the haul..

Time to get crackin'

And a stop at Pike's Place Market..

Fresh Squid... I believe this is year 3 that we have purchased fresh squid to take home and make our own breaded Calamari. YUM!

Traci and Nellie on the lucky pig.. We were rubbing the Buddha belly saying "Girl, Girl".. but I don't even think the lucky pig can break the Morelli boy streak!!

Mike and Gina

Squid face!! The process of cleaning and cutting our own Calamari is disgusting (no other way to put it), but I believe we paid around $6 for 6lbs of squid. It is worth the pain!

Corky fishing for those humpies!!

Nellie after the great humpie!

Nico running the beach..

Turning over rocks to find little crabs..

Ish.. a big jelly fish that had come up with the tide!

Beautiful sunsets!

Does this necklace make me look fat?

Pics from 23 weeks! I was comparing to when pregnant with Nico at 24 weeks and wow is there quite the difference. Dr. Stealey are you sure there aren't two in there?

Table for 3!

Nico has graduated to the big time. He is now in a seat at the table versus in his highchair. This change is slow going as a lot of the times he does not want to sit in his seat but rather in your lap to eat. Hmmm... also meal time in general has become difficult. He is a SNACKER! Then when it is time to eat a meal he isn't hungry enough to care. He will take one bite and say "downsy".. means either he wants to get down from the table or he is done. Looks like Dad and Ma are going to have to get tough and take away snacks. They are such a good bribe though...

The SLP aquatic center has become a fun relief from the 3 days of warm weather we have had this summer.. haha! Nico is definitely a water baby. He has also become quite the dare devil (gets that from mom).. Jumps off of the side of the pool, the arm of the couch, his rocker chair, the bed, etc... NO FEAR~

Nico is pretending to be a cat. Not only does he like to pretend to feed them by fake pouring the crunchies into their dish, he actually likes to get his face down in the food on all fours and make eating noises while pretending to eat it. Can I use the word "pretending" anymore in this paragraph?

Well hello there little one!

Today we had our ultra sound for Baby #2! Everything is right on track with measurements- number of fingers and toes, chambers of the heart, etc. We are thrilled! Our due date is still 12/18 and we are tossing around the idea of being induced a week early. Since Nico's labor and delivery was without complications our midwife suggested that we induce early so that we can get the little one's birthday as far away from the holiday as possible. I really liked not knowing when I would go into labor. The thought of every little ting and cramp wondering "is this it?", "was that a contraction" is exciting to me. UGH, what to do!!?? I think that we will opt to be induced just for the sake of the little one not having to have birthday's compete with the holiday's.

Oh and ps- every time the ultra sound tech needed baby #2 to do something, like sit still or un-ball the fist, this baby complied. She said "Wow, sooo cooperative".. please oh PLEASE let this child be a relaxed, calm baby :)