Island Park, Leanne's visit, Arkansas (JULY 2014)

Mark's family vacation to Island Park every summer was just after the reunion, but he was still in Brazil. I decided to go without him and take Noah. We had so much fun and did nothing but eat yummy food, sleep, boat, play in the sand, throw rocks, do crafts, and eat some more! We were thrilled that Mark could catch a shuttle to Rexburg from the SLC airport and so Noah and I drove down to get him. We were able to go to West Yellowstone like we do every year. 

Daddy brought Noah a Brazil futbol shirt.

It was a little rainy a chilly on the lake for a couple of days. We didn't mind! It's fun to snuggle on the boat too.

Noah thinks nipples are funny, apparently. 

My dearest elementary school friend Leanne was able to come through Salt Lake for a few days on her way back home to Connecticut from a Vegas trip. We went hiking up to Stewart Falls, played at Thanksgiving Point, ate Indian food, hung out at home, watched shows in mine and Mark's bed, went to the Family History center and Temple Square, and picked up right where we left off from the last time we saw each other (I think it had been two years or so!).

My sister had her baby Bennet on March 10th and I hadn't met him yet down in Bentonville, Arkansas. Noah and I planned a trip there for a few days. Noah did great on the two flights to get there, if I remember right. Changing a two and a half year old's stinky diaper while pregnant in a tiny airplane bathroom is an adventure in and of itself, but we survived!

My parents were driving cross country from Philadelphia and decided to stop in Arkansas for a couple days to see all of us. It was a lot of fun to have them there while we were there.

Bentonville has an awesome little farmers market where we bought this marble machine. Noah was mesmerized for hours with that thing.

We got to play at my cousin's house who also lives there and works for Wal Mart. Noah had a blast with all his kids.

A little Ski Ball competition at Chuck E. Cheese. 

And the whole reason for going out to Arkansas....HIIII BENNY! Perfect chubby little man!

Arkansas really is beautiful! We went on a walk around Crystal Bridges.

We had to hit up the community pool. My sister is such a babe!!! 

The food!! There were two food trucks that blew my mind. One was a crepe truck, the other a BBQ truck.

Clearly, I gained all those pounds back. 

15 weeks

On our last day there, we hit up the food trucks again and played in the fountains 

Thank you Erica and Robbie for letting us come and crash (and toddler-style TRASH) your house for a week! Arkansas isn't so bad afterall ;)

Sick, Run, Reunion (June/July 2014)

We seem to like to get pregnant in the springtime...which means the sickness carries through much of the summer. So now, when I feel the warm weather coming, I get a tinge of that morning sickness and it makes me not want summer to come! I'm so excited to not be pregnant this spring and summer! Here's what my face usually looked like for those first 13 weeks:

LOVELY! 

I think I sent this picture to Mark with a caption like "You did this to me, you b*stard," after throwing up for the third time that day and peeing my pants each time. I get inappropriate when I'm pregnant.

Because of the miscarriage just a few months before, I was extra uneasy around weeks 8 and 9. One morning I woke up and I didn't throw up. I thought something was wrong, so I scheduled an ultrasound. Nope! Little peanut was just tricking me. The minute we got back from the hospital, I hurled in the toilet. 

I took Zofran for probably a week. Can you guess what my side-effects were?

I'm odd and would rather be throwing up than be constipated, so I stopped taking the Zoran. Plus, it didn't help all that much anyway.

I couldn't bear the thought of drinking the water from any of our faucets. The "flavor" made me gag. So, every morning after breakfast I'd load Noah into the car and head to McDonald's and get me two large waters. That's it. It was the only water that I could drink without throwing up. Well, I'd throw it up later anyway but it wasn't because of the water.

Somehow I managed to trek through a half marathon at 9 weeks pregnant--the peak of my nausea and sickness, but I did fine. I didn't throw up during the race, but after the race was rough. I hardly trained, but I love this race and had done it a couple times before. I'm so glad my friend Katie asked me to do it with her.

Another McDonald's run. But this time with fries.

At my first appointment I had my blood work done. I thought I would do better this time around, but like ten minutes after the work was done, I started feeling weak and started crying! It was so embarrassing! Luckily the nurses and staff are surrounded by pregnant women all day so...they knew exactly what I needed:

I got a picture of the little bean, and that made me feel better too.

The weirdest food sounded okay to me.

Wendy's became a staple there for about a month. I never threw up their chili or caesar side salad. So I stuck to what worked for me and we ate there all the time. Noah didn't mind!

Mark left us to go to Brazil for ten days or so the end of June- first week of July. His boss took him to go to a few World Cup games. We missed him terribly.

We had a Clark Family Reunion that whole week and part of the festivities was going to Stadium of Fire on July 4. I remember this was the turning point in my pregnancy and I started feeling almost normal when this picture was taken. I ran that morning the Freedom 5k I think. Or the 10k. I don't remember. We did so many fun things though! Noah got to ride a horse, we had a party up at Brickerhaven in Sundance, we had a pool day at my parents' house, we had a family BBQ at a nearby park with a bouncy house and volleyball...it was so great seeing family that I hadn't seen in a few years. 

Erica, Robbie, and nephew Benny were in town for the reunion. You can see here (below) how skinny my upper body is...I think with all the puking, food aversions, and lack of exercise I lost about 10 pounds, which was a lot for my short body. Fortunately and unfortunately, every pound counts when you're five feet tall!

While Mark was gone in Brazil our Air Conditioning stopped working. I stayed in my swimsuit for three days until the repairman could come and say, "you just need to change your filters"...#firsthomebuyerproblems