Gordon Fruits Memorial Weekend

Mr. Mitchell's grandfather, Gordon Fruits, passed away in October. With all of the family so spread out the decision was made to have a memorial service for him later when most everyone could make it. This past weekend we drove up to Merrill with Luke & Liz for a portion of the memorial week. Mr. Mitchell requested that I take a lot of videos, which I did, but I will not be posting any of them on the blog. I will, however, send a DVD of the videos to Mr. Mitchell's mom and we can go from there.

A few of the Fruits' great-grandchildren.

Some of the picture-takers/documenters.

Rachel getting angry because I took her picture.

Rachel's boy.

Luke's boy.

Rachel's boy.

The gang minus Robert and Anthony.

The river where we sent Gordon's boat out.

Everyone watching the boat.
(Except for Danny and Mr. Mitchell - the stage crew.)

Mike and his mom.

Another view of the river.

They were more interested in throwing rocks.

The evening entertainment - mostly silly songs and stories.

Mr. Mitchell and I had a pleasant weekend and it was fun to see all of the Fruits siblings together. I hope they can have more opportunities to enjoy each other's company.

Baby Update

I've been blog-post-happy since I managed to get things going with pictures; here's the third one in two days, and then hopefully I'll be done for a bit.

I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and we did an ultrasound to verify the due date. The due date has been pushed back to Sep. 28 and our little boy is looking healthy. The new due date puts me at 24 weeks today and means that all of my belly pictures are a week earlier than stated...except for the darn blueberry picture. That one's spot on. Here's the picture we thought we were taking at 24 weeks, but is actually 23 weeks.

I conveniently blend in with the wall.

Since this was the first appointment I had that Mr. Mitchell couldn't make it to I was allowed to take a video of the ultrasound so he could watch it that night. We were also given a USB drive with the ultrasound pictures on it. Since the purpose of the ultrasound was measurements there weren't many shots I cared about (i.e. Sprout's bladder), but the doctor did catch a great one of the baby's profile.

We love him!

I love the video because I can see Sprout practice his swallowing and he has his little hand up by his head. It seems to be where he likes it because it's always there during the ultrasounds. The doctor said he's still breeched, but not to be worried because he'll change position many times before his big moment comes. His love for being breech explains why all of his kicks are so low.

My favorite part is 0:55-1:45.


Sprout seems to have decided to let my bladder rest for a bit, but he's still pretty active. Mr. Mitchell could finally feel him kick a couple of weeks ago and a couple of days ago we noticed that his kicks are visible from the outside. He's getting strong.

And there's the baby update.

Jury Duty

When we were in Boise during the week of the numb-bum I received a jury summons notice (for Ada County since that's still technically my permanent address). Nice. My second one in four years. I had three options: postpone it (which would just mean I'd have to do it while super pregnant rather than medium pregnant), get an Oregon driver's license, or suck it up and report for jury duty. Since Mr. Mitchell and I have no idea where we're going to end up, ever, we decided against getting a new driver's license and figured I should do jury duty now.

My mom was pretty stoked about the idea because that meant I'd be staying with them for a week and most likely wouldn't get called in because my number was so high. I'll let you decide, based on the following pictures and accounts of events, how my week of jury duty went.

My nephew, who is one of the funniest kids I know, 'graduated' from kindergarten. My brother Ryan and his daughter also happened to be in town for the day so we made it a mini-reunion. The 'graduation' was short and sweet and focused on the kids. Not bad.

Waving as he walks in.

After he received his 'diploma.'

My nephew with the Holdaway side.

We went to a movie almost every day.
Monday: We Have a Pope - an Italian film with English subtitles. I enjoyed it until the jarring end. Not what I was expecting, which I imagine makes it a fantastic movie to some.
Tuesday: The Artist - I loved it! Unique and refreshing.
Wednesday: The Hunger Games - my second time and I still enjoyed it. I thought they did a good job of making the book into a movie.
Thursday: Dark Shadows - stupid. Maybe if I had watched the TV show I would have liked it, but I don't know.
Saturday: The Avengers - my second time and I still loved it. I loved the interaction between the superheroes and the funny one-liners ("You humans are so petty...and tiny.") and I always get a thrill when good kicks bad's butt.

Meridian's movie theater.

My sister, Jayme, and her four kids came into town for Memorial Day weekend and we got to play.

We did lots of shopping to get Jayme's VIP party ready.
Go here if you're curious. I promise it's good stuff.

Jayme was cranky...and it wasn't because of the hat.

My niece reveling in her wig.

I was Jack, not Joker. Don't get confused.

My niece was the king (it was her birthday, after all)
and my nephew was Indiana Jones.

I got to be queen!

She also reveled in being Jack, not Joker.

My mom embracing her gray hair.

My cup was labeled 'The Pregnant One.'

 

Were you wondering about the hats? We were playing a version
of Scum inspired by the east coast Holdaways.

This is how my nephews spent most of their time.

It was my niece's birthday and that week I had decided I must become excellent at baking things. I made cheesecake pops in place of a birthday cake. They tasted good, but they turned out ugly the first time around. She was a good sport about it. The second round looked much, much better. I should've snagged a picture of one of those babies.

The baker and the birthday girl.

Not featured in pictures were a pedicure, my mom buying me some maternity clothes, going out to eat, and watching Eureka with my dad. I was absolutely spoiled and it was sooo much fun! Thank you Mom and Dad for a wonderful jury duty week!

(Can you guess whether or not I was ever called in?)

Our 2nd Anniversary

It's for reals. We've been married for two years, and we've really enjoyed them. There have been a few fights, but not enough to make us sigh in relief that the supposed hardest years of marriage are behind us. We recognize, however, that making it two years these days can be considered quite a feat, and for that we are proud of this accomplishment. We celebrated the occasion by taking a little drive to the coast and spending our anniversary weekend there.

We started the weekend by camping in the Jedediah Smith campground in the redwood forest. It was beautiful, and I was completely in awe of how dark it was at night. The trees are so tall they block out any light (i.e. the moon) that would otherwise have helped illuminate the campground.

Harry & Annie let us borrow their tent and sleeping pads.

I watched Mr. Mitchell set up camp.

Tall trees.

Our little campsite.

Campground road.

By the way, this campground was highly expensive and they don't let you gather firewood. You've been warned. Oh, and they also have the swankiest bathroom I have ever been in at a campground. No outhouses there. 

We got to play in a cold river.

More like Mr. Mitchell played in a cold
river while I stayed dry and took pictures.

Mr. Mitchell showed off his rock skipping skills.

He didn't know I was taking this video:

I feel so little.

Some of the trees had crazy holes.

I really liked the bridge.

Some trees were pretty gnarly.

Showing the massiveness of the grandpa tree.

 After camping we went to Crescent City, CA where we stayed in a beach house. It was right across the road from the beach and had a beautiful view of the ocean. It's not really a part of the coast where you can go play in the ocean, but the scenery is very dramatic and beautiful and you can go on very nice walks.

Battery Point Lighthouse
Very quaint and only accepts visitors at low tide.

On the beach.

Our "official" 2nd anniversary picture.

 Here's Mr. Mitchell writing our anniversary message:

Sr. George Reef Lighthouse
It's miles out and difficult to see; just follow Mr. Mitchell's finger.

 This lighthouse has an interesting history. I would recommend you check it out here
.

Using his binoculars.

Our last picture before we left Crescent City.

 We decided last year on our anniversary that we want to do temple sealings every year during our anniversary week/weekend to help bring others the happiness of eternal marriages and families. This year we remembered our camera and were able to document.

Medford, OR temple.

It was a smashing good time. We are very thankful to friends and families who made our anniversary getaway possible.

I Just Want To Share

I like to blog about things in chronological order, but we're in the middle of moving again and it's a pain in the rear to try and get pictures onto the computer at the moment. (Don't ask.) So, hopefully in the near future I'll be able to share about our 2nd anniversary and my week escape to Boise.

At the moment, I want to share something. I don't know if it's because I want pity, or someone to share their experiences with me, or for someone to laugh and share in my joy, or what. Mr. Mitchell and I both decided that we didn't want to announce the pregnancy on Facebook because from our friends' experiences we have learned that people start sharing every wives' tale known to man and every terrifying story they've heard from a friend's husband's grandma's cousin's mom. We're first timers and we'd rather be more selective about who we get advice from. Consequently, I can't share on Facebook.

I just want to say that our little boy is a total wiggle worm. Yesterday he decided that it would be really fun to relentlessly kick my bladder. I was happy and not happy at the same time. (Apparently, it's common to be confused about what you're feeling while pregnant.) I love that it's finally real that our child is in there, but it never stops being surprising when I get a solid *thwump* from my insides. The bladder thing was soooo uncomfortable though. And it's making me wonder, if he's only going to get bigger and stronger, and I'm not even 2/3 of the way through, what is it going to feel like when I'm full-term? Yikes!

While it's uncomfortable to have somebody bullying your bladder and constantly surprising you with nudges and kicks, it's totally joyous. (Like I hinted at earlier, my emotions are conflicting.) It's almost unbelievable that I have a little human being inside of me and that makes it that much cooler. I'm starting to get really anxious to meet this little man that can hardly sit still. How can I possibly wait four more months?

I have to wait until the 20th - and even then he could decide he wants to bake a couple more weeks after that! And I have an ultrasound scheduled in a few days to double check the due date because they think a more accurate due date might be the original - that'll add another week! Can you tell that I'm dying? Poor Mr. Mitchell. Thank goodness he's so happy that I'm pregnant and is very patient with me because I'm a freaking psycho. 

Weekend in Red Bluff

The day we found out we're expecting a little, old man we drove down to Red Bluff to visit Mr. Mitchell's brother and to help with the lawn. They found out the same day that they're also expecting a little boy! Liz is due about a week and a half before I am, and I am so happy that my boy will have a cousin close in age to grow up with.

We didn't get any 'before' pictures, so the next two will have to be close enough.

That's not grass - it's all weeds.

Combination of dirt and tan.

Luke and Liz's kid enjoying the freshly turned dirt.

Using ingenuity to level the backyard.

Romping behind his dad with his mom following close behind.

Luke filling a stubborn hole.

 

While the boys worked hard, Liz and I goofed off with her little boy and watched a lot of AFV.

Besides yard work we all just talked, watched movies, and had a good time enjoying each other's company.