Growth

This week marks the end of the second trimester of Bekah's pregnancy.  We continue to take weekly pictures to track the growth of Bekah's belly.  Although tired (to be expected, right?), Bekah is healthy and doing well.  We are both enjoying the months of pregnancy and are doing a good amount of "nesting" before our little guy comes in just under three months.  Stay tuned for updates!

Arizona

As a last adventure before the baby arrives, we took a trip to Arizona to thaw out from the New England winter.  We and our friends Todd & Kari and Dan & Laura were graciously offered a beautiful house to stay in while we were in the Scottsdale area for the long MLK weekend.  The Scottsdale weather was beautiful and allowed us ample opportunity to relax in the sun, hike up Pinnacle Peak, and even go on a bike ride through the desert.  We got a good taste of the Southwest by eating some authentic Tex-Mex and barbecue cuisine, watching bull riding, listening to live Western music, and even taking a trip to the shooting range.  Feeling adventurous, we drove up to the Grand Canyon on our final day.  To our surprise, we encountered blizzard conditions on the drive there and arrived at a snow-covered Grand Canyon National Park.  The views were spectacular and were made all the more gorgeous by the light dusting of snow.  We had a wonderful time and took plenty of pictures.  We then got back into the car for the 4 hour drive back to the airport so we could catch our red-eye flight back to Boston in order to be at work on time the next morning.

Preparations

With a baby on the way, we have been hard at work converting the 4' x 5' area at the foot of our bed into a nursery before the impending birth of our firstborn son.  First, the bikes had to be moved into the living area, to make room for Mitch's new pride and joy.  We were able to get most of our big ticket items like the stroller and car seat through Craigslist.  Since we needed a way to organize everything, we took a trip to IKEA to buy some shelves for storage and Lowe's to get wood for a bassinet stand and a rod for hanging clothes.  Mitch masterfully pieced everything together and Bekah lovingly organized all our baby loot.  To see pictures of the handmade baby quilt and other preparations, click here.

Holidays

For Christmas this year we headed over to Indiana to visit Bekah's family.  The week went quickly.  We arrived on Christmas Eve and spent several days hanging out with family, outlet shopping for baby clothes, and working on the baby quilt.  Mitch even had a chance to see Indiana's longest train tunnel which was way out in the middle of nowhere.  We also enjoyed meeting up for dinner with Bekah's high school friend Rachael and celebrating the New Year in Cincinnati with friends from Calvin.  Despite all the fun we had, we also succumbed to a violent stomach bug that was going around the area.  Lucky for us, our immune systems were able to overcome the horrid disease in just 24 hours.  As always, we posted some pictures.