13 Weeks

Today marks 13 weeks in this pregnancy. I haven't talked about it a lot on the blog yet because I wanted to make sure we were out of the most dangerous zone plus I like to be positive. I will give a couple of comparisons. In the beginning, this pregnancy was almost exactly like when I was pregnant with Sydney. Now some differences have developed.

Similar symptoms:
Exhausted
"Fart" Brain... I don't know any other way to put it
Nausea... significantly worse in the evening
Cravings
Acne
Heartburn
Emotional Rollercoaster

Things that have been different:
By this time with Sydney, I was completely better... haha. I am getting better most of my symptoms don't start until about 6 PM now when it it used to be noon. Its been getting later and later. Also I feel like I'm a ton more emotional this time around, but I think the move and new schedule and the fact that I have a toddler this time around makes a big difference.

Anyway... I took a pic about half through this week. I'm showing just a tad bit more than I did with Sydney at this point. I feel like my belly is higher up but not really sticking out more. Also I'll post some pics of my ultrasound at 10 weeks. The tech kept saying she just couldn't believe how well developed and long the fingers were so early on. Sydney has long fingers too. Even at 10 weeks the baby was kicking its legs and rubbing them together which I guess is unusually early.

Fishing Trip

Amy let me go fishing last saturday with some guys from the ward. We had a lot of fun, and saw a ton of wildlife (even though we didn't see a whole lot of it in the boat). We saw whales, sea lions, seals, porpoises, eagles, and a black bear. We saw the bear when we were driving home. It crossed the road in front of us and started to go down a little hill towards the water. We saw a man jogging on the same side of the road as the bear and we were thinking "should we tell him that there is a bear by the road ahead?" but we decided not to. That gave me a wonderful idea. Whenever Amy and I are driving and we see a runner or hiker we should roll down the window and warn them that there is a bear in front of them, just to keep them on edge.

Anyways, back to the fishing report. It was an overcast day, but it was beautiful. We caught a small (9 lb) halibut and a bunch of dungeness crab. I didn't remember what crab tasted like because it had been like a billion years since I ate one, and it tasted good.

Downtown Juneau

We've gone downtown several times to see the cruise ships, walk around the streets, and attend the Juneau Maritime Festival. When there are cruises at dock, downtown is bustling and full of life... when there's not, its a ghost town. Its kind of frustrating as well as freaky looking to see the empty shops. One day we were there about an hour before the cruise docked and got to watch everyone running around like mad trying to get the shops ready just in time for people to start walking off the boat. The shops right next to the cruise terminal don't even have stuff in their windows when they close. We were shocked to learn that these stores don't even have regular hours. They just are open when a cruise is in town, which at this point in the season is practically every day from about 8-4. Juneau can hold up to 5 cruise ships at once, one has to be smaller one though. I think the most we've seen yet is 3. Apparently when there are more than that, they have boats to bring people to the docks from out in the channel. The moral of the story is, downtown Juneau is a lot of fun. But if you're into shopping, trendy restaurants, and all that... make sure there will be a cruise in town when you come, otherwise you might be disappointed. BTW, I have to mention Sydney's favorite part of downtown is running up and down the cruise terminal dock and watching the seaplanes take on and off. She loves it, and they are really close. At the Maritime Festival, the Coast Guard came to do a water rescue demonstration and were really close off the dock. We were being sprayed with water they were so close. Sydney loved watching them drop a dummy and then go in and get it. It was cool to see the demonstration so close :). I'm sure there will be more posts abt downtown later. Goodnight!

Anniversary

Last Friday was our 5th anniversary. To celebrate we rode the tram up to the top of the mountain over downtown Juneau and had lunch. Downtown Juneau is the pinkish box with a circle by it on the map. Sydney was lucky enough to join us :). The view was beautiful and it was a nice sunny day. We enjoyed being able to do something special together. I tried to give you the effect of us going up in the pics :)

Whale Watching - Out the Road

On another sunny day this past week, we took our morning together (Andy doesn't work until 230) and drove "out the road" to look for whales. If you are referring to the map above out the road means everything north and west of the Valley... mostly past Auke Bay. We read online that one of best places is at the Shrine of St. Teresa ruins which is past Lena Cove on the map. The road north of Juneau goes for about 40 miles. We stopped at the shrine at mile 23. In Juneau the most common kinds of whales are humpback whales who frequent the waters year round but most leave from Jan - Apr for warmer waters. There are also orcas and other kinds that I'm not familiar with. Well when we first pulled up, we immediately saw a whale. We were both shocked and like "Did you just see that?" It was a big orca very close to shore. Apparently seeing orcas especially from the shore here is very rare since they hardly venture so far into the inside passage from the open ocean. (A side note: the water you see on the map is still part of the inside passage or channel and there is still one more large channel to the west of it before you reach the open ocean) There were four and then five whale watching boats closing in fast and chasing the orcas away. But as we watched it seemed there were about five in the pod and at least one baby. I have to admit I was kind of angry about how close the whale watching boats were getting to the whales, especially the baby. I think being in Hawai'i and their protectiveness of the whales kind of rubbed off on me. I wish I could report them from getting closer than law allows... haha seriously though. Anyway we watched for about 10 minutes and took pictures until the boats chased them out of our view. After we went back to the car and in search of a beach for Sydney to  play on. Eventually we ended up at Lena Beach Cove that you see on the map. It was kind of rocky but a manmade fish pass at one area had rinsed all the big rocks away, so Sydney could walk easier and play. Enjoy the pics... the zoom on my camera isn't great so the whales look tiny. Some things you just have to see in person to understand... come visit. ;-)

 

The Valley

I'm feeling particularly ambitious this evening, so I'm going to undertake what I've been thinking about for days. I feel like I keep trying to explain to those I've talked to the layout of Juneau and what makes it particularly unique... at least from what I've learned so far. So I've made a map I'll be posting and reposting at the beginning of my Juneau posts for a while so people can understand what I'm talking about :). It's really crude because I did it in paint... but I don't care a lot right now.

Juneau is kind of like three separate areas maybe even four all considered "Juneau." I live in Mendenhall Valley... the northernmost area on the map at the foot of the Mendenhall Glacier. This area is where the airport is, the ferry dock, the majority of the mainstream (not tourist) stores, and pretty much all your everyday stuff is. Next on the map is the star where Costco, Walmart, Home Depot, our church, the hospital and all things medical are located. Then there is Downtown or West Juneau. On a big map this is where the star would be because this is where the capitol building is. It is also where all the cruise ships dock and the majority of the tourism industry lies. There are houses, but its pretty urban and not a lot of regular stores. This area is about a 20 minute drive from my house. Finally there is Douglas Island. You can see the bridge by downtown Juneau on the map and we haven't explored it a whole lot however there are lots of houses on the island and some of the local attractions that we will be trying out in the next while. Douglas Island has roads only partially around it and is home to Juneau's only sandy beach. Okay, hopefully now you kind of understand the area.

Last Saturday we spent the whole day driving around but our biggest event was visiting the Mendenhall Glacier. Its only about a five minute drive from our house and can be seen from everywhere in the Valley given the clouds are high enough and you are not completely surrounded by trees. I was surprised how much Sydney enjoyed the glacier. We looked around the visitor area and then hiked about a mile in to a huge waterfall at the foot of the glacier and head of the glacier's Mendenhall lake. An employee told us that this year has been particularly cold so the lake doesn't have near as many icebergs as it would by this time of year otherwise. In the winter it freezes solid so you can go cross country skiing, snow shoeing or just walking out on the lake to the glacier. The bird life was immense and Sydney really enjoyed see all the birds and throwing rocks in the lake. I couldn't believe even the ducks didn't care how cold that water was :).

Where I'm standing is very wet and windy....

I know this isn't a great pic but just look at how incredibly cold that looks....

She's a maniac...

...and she's dancing like she never danced before.

Castle park

Sydney got to go to a park called project playground the other day. She had so much fun. She spent most of the time on swings. There was also a train to play in and a boat and castle to climb in. Juneau is fun. It is rainy, but there are plenty of breaks in the rain to go play outside.

Sydney was riding the swing in the back yard on her belly, but she leaned a little too far forward and did a nice face plant in the mud. Amy sent a picture with no caption to me when I was at work and I had to text her to make sure that it wasn't poop all over her face.