A Busy Summer Week

 

It was another busy summer week. We had something scheduled every night, which made for a busy and exhausting week. It was also a fun week that went by in a flash. While we wait for our baby girl the days feel long and the weeks feel short. Alison has officially made it to single-digit weeks until our baby girl is due. 

On Monday night some of Alison's co-workers threw a baby shower for her. It was exactly the kind of thing she likes - no silly games, just good friends enjoying a meal and celebrating the upcoming birth. Her co-workers were so generous - they wrote lovely notes and gave us thoughtful gifts. We felt so loved. 

This week we started our first class to prepare for our new baby. The class is Prepared Child Birth and it runs once a week for the next 6 weeks. It is a full class - there are 7 other couples all expecting little ones in the coming months. We are both excited to learn more about the labor and delivery process and be prepared for the birth of our little girl. This is the first of many classes we will take in June, July, and August. 

I had Wednesday off work for Juneteenth. Even though I wasn't working I kept myself plenty busy. Tex really needed a bath. I spent 3 hours washing, combing, brushing, and cutting his fur. He hated every minute of it, but he looked great afterward and he has got to feel a lot cooler. I took so much fur off of him. I spent the afternoon working on some projects around the yard. We had a few plants that died and I replaced them. I also needed to rehang the flag that goes on the front of our house. I didn't really stop moving until Alison was done with work for the day. Alison had a work dinner in Tooele. While she was gone I sat on the couch and watched the Yankees game. It was an exciting game, but unfortunately, they lost in extra innings.

Tex sitting on this toy couch, hoping if he is cute enough he get out of taking a bath

Our yard is blooming beautifully right now. I liked watching this little bee climb inside these little flowers.

On Thursday Alison's work had a picnic at a nearby park. Before the picnic, they had a little 5k run/3k walk. It was blazing hot so we did not participate - Alison was too pregnant and I wasn't really feeling like running in the 90+ degree weather. We enjoyed the picnic and spent time catching up with many of Alison's co-workers. She has been at her company so long that many of her coworkers are our dear friends. 

On Friday we went to dinner with Alison's parents. It was impromptu. They wanted to come by and see the nursery. It is coming along. The dresser was delivered on Friday. I also hung a really cute safari-themed mobile this week. It is looking really good. Now we are waiting for the rocking chair, which should be 1-2 weeks out, and the curtains. We ate at Mozz, which is a good sourdough pizza place in Daybreak. So it is close to our house and it is pretty good. After dinner, Blake and Debbie helped us finish off the last of our Salt & Straw vanilla ice cream from last week. 

On Saturday we ran a bunch of errands. We ended up at Ikea because we needed a couple of bins/containers for the nursery. We came away with a few more things, including a stuffed blue whale and a stuffed sea turtle. Alison thought it was funny I bought them, but they will be a great addition to the loft benches. 

Our best errand on Saturday was stopping by Kid-to-Kid. We had no idea how amazing this visit would be. These are the kinds of things that get new parents really excited! We went there to return a few clothing items we bought last week. I might have gone a little overboard buying stuff for our baby girl last week. Once we inventoried everything, we realized we had a few things we didn't actually need. It was about $25 worth of stuff, and we debated whether it was even worth returning, but ultimately decided it was.

After returning our items, Alison wanted to look around for a few more things. We needed some more infant sleepers, so we found those and then started browsing. While we were in line waiting to check out, a guy walked by with an Uppababy Vista stroller—the stroller we've been wanting! Alison and I exchanged excited glances, wondering if he was a dad or an employee. I stayed in line while Alison went to check it out.

Turns out, he was an employee stocking the stroller and was thrilled at the prospect of selling it so he wouldn't have to shelve it. We took a closer look, and despite being a bit dirty, the stroller was in good shape and came with a pile of accessories. The previous owners had purchased every possible add-on: a bassinet, toddler seat, rumble seat, travel bags, snack trays, rain cover, bug covers, cozy ganoosh, cup holder, piggyback, and various adapters—all for just $350! We couldn't pass up such a deal.

The staff at Kid-to-Kid were just as excited for us, mentioning that the stroller had been dropped off only 20 minutes earlier. Our timing was perfect! The retail price for everything would’ve been around $2,500, and we likely wouldn’t have bought all those accessories ourselves. For instance, we wouldn't have splurged on the $ 50-a-piece snack trays, but now we had two! We had planned on purchasing many of the other accessories like travel bags and a cozy ganoosh and now we just have them

When we got home, we inventoried everything. The basket fabric was gross, and the canopy and toddler seat fabric weren't in the best condition either. Luckily, replacement fabric from Uppababy would cost just over $100. So, we stripped the stroller down to the frame and washed everything. With some strategic fabric purchases, we’d have a practically new stroller, fully decked out with accessories, for an unbelievable price. We were beyond thrilled!

Saturday night we attended a community production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat starring our niece Skylee. For a community production, they did a fabulous job. Joseph is a fun show and they embraced that and they had a pretty talented cast. It ran a little long and there were a few things they could have tightened up, but overall we enjoyed it. Skylee was in the choir and did great. She had to sit on a bench with a bunch of other kids for most of the show. I know sitting still for 2+ hours was a bit hard (she told us that much), but she was good and sang beautifully. She had one small solo that she nailed and sang backup vocals on most songs. She was one of two kids who were chosen on merit (all of the other kids were there because their parents were also in the show.) It was fun to support our niece in her musical endeavors. 

On Sunday night Alison and I got dressed up and drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a maternity photo shoot. Before getting pregnant Alison wasn't sure she would ever want to do a maternity photo shoot, but since this baby girl might be our only kid we embraced doing all of the pregnancy things - including a maternity photoshoot. It was a glorious night for a maternity shoot. The canyon is stunning at this time of year and the light was really beautiful. Alison bought a beautiful pink dress for the occasion. Our photographer was great, which is good because she is also going to photograph the birth and our newborn baby girl. So we will be spending a lot of time with her over the next couple of months. We cannot wait to see these pictures. We decided to make a date out of the photo shoot and stopped to get a treat at Handel's Homemade Ice Cream. It made for a fun evening and the end of a really great summery week.