Summer update

Hi everyone!

I decided that I shouldn't wait too long to update everyone so that this post can stay relatively short :)

Things are going great for us! We just celebrated Fourth of July and along with that, Adam's 26th birthday :) I really wanted to make it special for him so most of it we (me and our friends Steven and Kayla) kept it a secret from him. It made it fun to have him try and guess what we were planning on doing. I was excited and only hoped being pregnant wouldn't get in the way too much. So the night of the 3rd we went camping up Hobble Creek canyon with our friends as well as Kayla's brother and his wife. It was fun staying up playing games and just talking. And miraculously I slept well! I was worried about sleeping on an air mattress but I slept great :) After we woke up, we went back home to make a proper gigantic breakfast with waffles, hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, etc. It was delicious :) Then we played the new Ticket To Ride Europe game I got Adam as a present for a bit before heading over to Kayla's brother's apartment complex to go swimming.

Boy did that feel nice! It was amazing to have my big belly feel weightless and it was great to cool off. I DEFINITELY want to go swimming more often for the rest of the pregnancy :) Then we went to dinner at Red Robin so Adam could get his free birthday burger before we headed to Stadium of Fire!

This was very cool because in both of our time at BYU, neither of us had been inside BYU's football stadium. Journey was headlining which made us even more excited because we knew quite a few of their songs. The fireworks were fun and the baby kicked to the beat of the music (maybe he'll be a drummer? haha). Walking to and from the stadium wasn't fun but I survived :) We ended the night with yummy ice cream cake!

Overall a great day and Adam thoroughly enjoyed his birthday :)

In other updates!
Adam has been working lots this summer which will be great for when the baby comes. Boy does he have A LOT on his plate. He has been helping his boss at BYU Online with a research paper she is working on, working on creating a new Humanities of Asia online course for his master's project, working on his prospectus for his project, and he just started co-teaching a BYU class about technology for education majors! All of this he does while taking excellent care of me running to the store to get certain foods I'm craving, helping me clean the house, and practicing our Hypnobirthing relaxation exercises. He is so amazing :) And as if I don't have enough to gloat about, he just found out that he just got chosen for a panel at an educational conference in Seattle next year!!! He will be presenting the work that he has been doing for his master's project :) This is a huge honor and will be an awesome resume builder. The professor that he is working with also said that she wants to turn this project into a paper to be published! For those who don't know, presenting at a conference and co-authoring a published paper are big things in academia :)

As for me (and baby boy as well), we're doing well. I am just continuing to work part time and prepare for baby's arrival. Third trimester is in full swing and it's hard to believe he could come in as little as a month! I'm adjusting to the changes in my body as much as I can which involves lots of putting my feet up and baths. We've been practicing the techniques we learned in our Hypnobirthing class a lot which has really helped with my anxiety as well as Braxton Hicks contractions. I can tell that my body is being trained and its easier every time to fully relax and get in that "zone" :) Baby is healthy and loves to kick and move. It's amazing how much he's grown!

We've now gotten to the point where we're going to prenatal appointments every other week. At our last appointment, I actually scheduled the rest of my appointments up to the due date! We've also got some of the big things like a car seat, stroller, pack and play, and a swing, which are all haphazard in our second bedroom. All of this is a bit surreal :)

We are enjoying our summer and so looking forward to meeting our son :)

<3 Ashley