Rocky Mountain High

Here is my belated Colorado trip post! So fortunately for Charley and I, we were able to get some last minute (albeit expensive) plane tickets to Denver to join my parents and our long time friends the McClellands at a condo in Keystone, Colorado. We flew out on our one year anniversary and had a great week in the gorgeous Rocky Mountains!

Keystone is a ski resort a little more than an hour away from Denver. Before we left, I made the mistake of googling "pregnancy and altitude" and found out that doctors recommend not going above 8,000 feet above sea level. When pregnant, your body's respiratory and circulatory systems already work harder, and this also happens in high altitude. Well, Keystone sits at approx 9,000 feet. Eek!! So I was a bit nervous about how my body would handle the change, and if it would freak me out. Although I had never had a problem with altitude before...even at 13,000 feet at the top of Mauna Kea in Hawai'i.

Upon arrival, its hard not to get swept up in the sheer beauty and massiveness of the Rocky Mountains. Everything in Colorado feels so clean and healthy. This was a nice distraction to the altitude change! I did feel winded and light-headed a lot easier, especially the first two days, but once I convinced myself all the blood vessels in my body wouldn't burst, it was smooth sailing. :)

Everyday, the guys (Hugh, my dad, and Chach) went out and fly-fished the various rivers and lakes in the area. The gals (Linda, mom, and myself) went out to little ski towns and shopped! In fact, due to a nice outlet mall, we got Fisher outfitted for the first three months of his life....including an adorable onesie with a fish on it that says "nice catch." :) At night, we would all join up for a nice dinner. Charley and I also made sure to get some alone time by walking to a romantic dinner one night. It was a relaxing trip for myself and a fishing success for the hubs...and great quality time with friends and family!

We LOVE Colorado, the way the mountains thrust into the sky, how crisp the air feels, and the abundant beauty that constantly surrounds you. In fact, everytime we visit, we talk about how we'd like to move there. Don't worry though folks....our jobs, family, and fear of long winters, will keep us in Alabama indefinitely! :)

Our First Anniversary and a "Surprise" Trip!

All last week, Charley and I had been wracking our brains for a plan for our one year anniversary. We wanted to do something special, and I had been begging all summer for us to take some sort of vacation. Vacation was definitely not in the cards for the time being, because Charley had the trial of his lifetime set to begin on July 20. We couldn't think of anywhere to go after the trial as well, since I would be nearing the 3rd trimester...and tropical vacays don't sound as good when you are large and in charge and can't drink. So it was on the backburner...or so we thought.

The Thursday before our anniversary, I had made reservations at Bottega for us and figured we'd do a nice dinner that Saturday. I was planning on going shopping that afternoon, but knew that Charley had already been to a jewelry store but didn't find anything reasonable, and had no more time to shop with his busy schedule of pretrial depositions. Suddenly I realized I had two missed calls from my hubs and a voicemail. The news on the message made my draw drop!! The trial of the decade had been postponed by the judge till DECEMBER!! We knew immediately what we were going to do. My parents and their best friends had access to a condo in Keystone, Colorado that next week and had invited us a long time ago to join them, but with the trial we figured it couldn't happen. My dad and I immediately got on every airfare website we could find. What a perfect 1st anniversary "paper" gift....plane tickets!

The Saturday before we flew out we had a nice Italian dinner at home and pulled out the top tier of our wedding cake. It fared pretty well and tasted not too bad. We toasted with our silver champagne flutes, used our monogrammed cake cutters; I wore my tiara and Charley wore a green shirt to represent one of our wedding colors. It was a nice ritual and good distraction from Lola not being there with us (I had to drop her off at the boarders a day early and was a bit teary about it haha). On our actual anniversary we flew out to Colorado! So thankful for the way things just tend to work out. :)

I'll post more about the trip later, since this post is already long. To end things, I just want to get a bit sappy for a moment. Our wedding day was truly the best fairy tale day! I love my husband more everyday, and we feel so blessed to have found each other. Especially now that our family is growing. I spent the last couple of weeks finalizing our wedding photo orders (nothing inspires me like a deadline) :) and its been so nice to look back at that magical day. Here are some of my favorite shots:

Happy Birthday America!

For the July 4th weekend, we went down to our lake house with my brother Jason, his wife Courtney, their ADORABLE daughter Caroline, and their two sweet pups Link and Zelda. We had such a great time hanging out, cooking yummy meals, watching redneck fireworks, sitting by the dock, etc. Caroline is seriously the best baby ever and Courtney gave me a crash course on some mommy tips while the boys went fishing. It was so nice spending time with family! Here are some pictures courtesy of the Lil Z's:



Future Miss America

Boy oh Boy!!!

Well the big day finally arrived! We got to have our ultrasound today and it was soo exciting. Chach and I went into the room at 10am this morning to start the exciting process. I laid down on the bed and my heart was pounding with nervous excitement. She rolled the magic wand around for a bit measuring everything, however just her and Charley could see the screen. After what felt like an eternity, she turned the screen and started explaining everything. We saw the precious head and watched the baby move the arms and kick the legs. The baby turned and looked at us, with its rather alien/monkey looking face! Aww the skeleton face only a mother could love haha. Then she asked if we were ready to look between the legs! She moved the wand and said "Well do see whats between there?" At that point, I just knew it had to be a boy...and boy he is!! We are elated...we're going to have a son!!

We saw the doctor after that and she said everything looks great. Baby Fisher weights 11 ounces and all the numbers look perfectly healthy and on track. He's actually coming in two days early in size, but they said thats not enough to change the original due date. Its funny, I had been thinking boy for awhile and Chach told me today he thought it was going to be a boy too. I had always pictured myself with girls, but as soon as I got pregnant I thought it was a boy, and was totally excited about it. We have a DVD of the ultrasound and some pics, however I don't have a scannner and couldn't get the DVD to save to post, but I'll keep working on it! In the meantime, we are thanking God for the blessing of a healthy little man.

Pink or Blue...We'll know soon!

So at this point, I thought I'd be posting pictures of the finished painting project. But alas, the painters are still here, still working. I'm hoping this is their last day so I can put the house back together again, but we'll see. :) More on that at a later time I suppose!

So lets talk about the baby!! A week from today we'll (fingers crossed!) be able to tell if our sweet Charfish is a girl or boy. I'm so excited to know if we'll have a son or daughter...it seems like a big milestone. I'm starting to notice movement in my belly too, and it is the coolest feeling ever. Its usually when I am still, or when Lola is on my lap, I feel little nudges or "bubbles." I love it! Before I get into the pros and cons of girl or boy, most of all what Chach and I want is a HEALTHY baby. This will be the first time we'll have seen the baby, and mostly I just want my child to have like, you know, one head, two hands, etc. I'm more concerned that everything looks ok and we pray for a healthy baby! The Chach and I have discussed, and neither of us have a gender preference. We know we'll just love the baby the same either way no matter what Charfish is. But still, I'll go into each: team pink or team blue (hehe) (BTW I picked out names long before I was pregnant, informed the husband and he was on board!)

Think Pink: aka Charlotte Mary Grimes
For a girly girl like myself, the benefits of having a girl are a no brainer! If you've seen pictures from my wedding, you know that I love pink! It would be amazing to dress up a little princess and all those fun things that go with it. (Of course, it'd be my luck that I'd have a girl, tell her to get out her tutu and she'd be ready for softball practice or something haha). I think I picked the name Charlotte, from surprisingly that J-Lo movie "Monster in Law" haha. J-Lo's character was named Charlotte and they called her Charlie, and I thought, how cute! If our first born is a girl, she can still carry on the "Charles" tradition in the Grimes family in a feminine way. Plus I just love the name....and don't forget Sex and The City Charlotte, she was the sweetest one! The middle name Mary is for both of our moms who are named Mary. :)

True blue: aka Charles Fisher Grimes
Oh but to have a sweet boy! There is something about a first born son. To see your husband teaching your boy things like, fishing! haha Since I grew up dancing, it would be fun to do all the different stuff, like sports teams etc. And also Lola would still be the "princess" haha. My husband is the fifth Charles Grimes in his family (all different middle names) so we inevitably have to use the first name Charles, he would be the sixth one! Chach's family actually calls him by his middle name Todd, (he switched to Charley when he was younger haha). So we would call our baby boy Fisher. If he doesn't like it, there is always Charles. I got the name Fisher from Whitney actually, and we just fell in love with it. I know its different, and most people ask if its a family name, but since my dad loves fishing, my husband loves fishing, it just seemed to fit. I also think I'll have an easier time with a boy nursery, because I found lots of cute fish stuff. All the girl nursery stuff I like is too expensive, of course. :)

So a week from today this mystery will hopefully be solved, if Charfish isn't shy. I've gone back and forth on having a "feeling". Starting out, I thought boy for sure, then I kept having girl dreams. Now I'm more leaning towards boy again. But who knows, I guess it could be twins!

I'm going to attempt to post a poll, so please vote! And again...here's hoping for a healthy bambino. :)

The 3 Week Countdown Begins!

Today I had my routine every 4 weeks checkup...and so far everything looks good! The baby's heartrate was around the 150's, and still so amazing to hear. The most exciting part of the whole visit though was scheduling the BIG ULTRASOUND. So in 3 weeks we will finally get to see the baby, and determine (fingers crossed) if Charfish is either a Charlotte or a Fisher!! Wahoo! We will be thrilled either way, and of course what we want the most is a healthy baby. :)

In other news, I have started my prenatal fitness classes. I am going to water aerobics twice a week and prenatal yoga once a week. I have done the water classes twice and really enjoyed them. I am looking forward to starting yoga tomorrow, especially since my sweet neighbor teaches the class. Its nice being around other prego's and getting to move. I am also teaching dance one night a week, and can already tell the difference my big ole belly makes! Touching my toes is getting harder and harder haha.

Other than trying to get my fat arse in gear, we are working on updating the house a little bit. My decorator Whitney helped pick out some paint for us and we are having some rooms painted next week. I will be running a lot of fans and errands during this time haha. I'm also testing my cooking skills since I have more free time, and hope I don't have any disasters. Today I put a dirty glass in a cabinet instead of the dishwasher. I'm claiming baby brain!

My 5 & 1/2 month Summer Break

Since we found out that there is a baby on board, Charley and I have been contemplating on what to do with my work situation. We have talked, prayed, looked at finances, consulted family and friends, and finally came to a decision!

For the past two years, I have worked in the public school system as a dance teacher in a high school. The program has an amazing theatre academy, and I found the opportunity to use both my college major (dance) and minor (theatre) at a full time level. Before this job, I was working at an event planning facility (which I LOVED) and also teaching dance at night. But working two jobs was exhausting as well. Teaching full time seemed to be a good solution! Since I don't have an education degree, I had to go back and take a couple of education classes to work on a teaching certificate. Overall, I found teaching high school to be one of the absolute hardest things in the world, and also the most rewarding. The theatre program like I said is amazing, but it takes long hours to produce amazing work. I worked over 6o hours every week and on most weekends, and found myself to be working just as much as I was before. However, I did get many opportunities to grow professionally as a choreographer which I will always be so thankful for. In fact, my choreography will be featured in Scotland this summer. I also found that the challenges of working with unruly teenagers gave me part of what I had been missing in my life for so long....a backbone! I know that will come in handy as a new parent!

So in conclusion, we decided that we could not put a newborn in daycare till 6:30pm everyday. I am giving up some things, but when it comes down to it, I know now I will always choose to be with my child first. I am also very grateful to have the choice! My husband is wonderful and supportive and will be a great provider.

School is now over and this will be the longest I have not worked, ever. I have a huge lists of projects lined up now, but I am also looking forward to this last bit of quiet and relaxing time left in my life haha. Its strange, since high school...I have always been so busy,and now I appreciate this "vacation." My new job will be here before we know it, come November!