Disney World Chronicles #2: The Marathoners

We picked the Mallory's up at the airport on Thursday morning.  They had been flying since 10:30ish the night before... yuck.  

Queen of naps: "Want a little break before we head out to the park?"

Marathoner Mallorys: "Nah, we're okay."

QN: "Maybe just like an hour nap?" (That's short to me)

MM: "How about just a quick Denny's trip and a splash of water on our faces?"

QN: "Are you serious?  Maybe just a half hour? Fifteen minutes?" (I might have been fishing for myself here)

MM: "No... really we're okay."

QN: "Phew... Heaven bless your crusade."

And Heaven did.  We stayed at Epcot until at least 8:00 or 8:30 that night.  Here are the troopers in action:

We tried for a similar pose... but I guess we're just not as trooper-esque.

Or picture ready... 

But excitement?  Oh yep. We had that.

We had lots of that.

Disney World Chronicles #1: The ride that got us to the rides

We decided a few months ago to go to Disney World.  The Mallory's moved to Seattle in October and we decided a reunion was absolutely necessary.  In Florida. Which means a two hour flight for us... and an entire night of flying for the Mallory's.  What good sports!

We stayed at a hotel in the Downtown Disney Area which was great for transportation to and from the parks.  However, they did not offer a free shuttle to the hotel from the airport.  Instead, they wanted your left pinky finger and your right earlobe.  Thus, we rented a tin can.. err.. a car.

Grant loved our little Aveo because of all the head room he had.  Although not very spacious front to back, our little tin can had lots of room for taller Disney goers like Grant.

We headed back to the airport to pick the Mallory's up the day after we arrived but their flight was delayed.  Thus, we spent a lovely morning in this cell phone lot (read: dirt patch).

Luckily, this gave me lots of time to check out the lovely luggage compartment.

This looks like that scary scene in the Grudge 2 when the girl is crawling up the inside of the well... Wow, I'm glad I haven't seen any horror movies since high school...

My hair... is long...

Successfully fits one!

Although movement was somewhat limited...

And somewhat painful...

Glad I could offer your Friday night entertainment...

Oh wait!  This trunk actually fits one + a lemon sized baby!

Luckily, the Mallory's showed up soon after this which means you don't have to look at any other crazy pictures of me.  I would like to claim that that lemon-sized baby is what makes me do all these stupid things... but I'm such a (crazy) saint, I just can't lie!

A Rockin' Honky Tonk Evening

We just got back from the awesomest (yes, awesomest) trip to Disney World.  However, I'm already a bit behind on other adventures and thus, must document those first.  

A few weeks ago, my parents came to visit!  It has been a year since my mom has come to visit and my dad has never been out since we moved to good ole Tejas, so I was very excited.

Unfortunately, I was the puke/migraine queen all weekend and didn't get to participate much in the festivities.  You can read all about that excitement here.

Anyway, on Saturday night we headed to the Fort Worth Stockyards for the concert of the year (at least in my eyes...)

But first we wandered around and checked out the merchandise:

Of course, Mama found the pigs.

Attempt to ignore the pale sickliness look I've got going on.

There have been a few recent additions to the Peterson Family in the last few months, namely, Roosevelt, Hollywood, and Cougar.  You can read a bit about them (and see the cutest baby on earth) here.  It was especially fun to look at all the cowboy equipment with my Dad because he's the coolest cowboy I know.

We also saw a few horses hanging out on the way to the concert.  

The concert was at Billy Bob's Texas, the largest honky tonk in the world.  Despite the ridiculously smoky atmosphere, it was a pretty sweet place.  Grant's favorite part was the giant dance floor.  We might just have to go back & get our boot-scootin' boogie on.

And then... we witnessed the most impressive display of rockin' tunes known to man...

Know who it is yet? (You should be ashamed if you don't...)

Maybe this video will help.  I highly recommend listening to this clip.  However, actually watching might be hazardous to your health...

Styx (in case you haven't figured it out yet) was awesome.  Most of the band were the original members and they sounded as good as they ever have.  Thank you Dad for introducing me to awesome music as a child.  I'm listening to Rhythm of the Rain by Dan Fogelberg as I write this.  Love you.

The Joys of Carrying a Parasite... err.. Fetus

There really are lots of joys of pregnancy!  Hearing the little peanut's heartbeat and getting to see a little sonogram were two of those joys.  Looking forward to the future is certainly a joy (however sleep deprived that future may be), as well as talking about possible names, and picking out our baby's first footed p.j.'s, (the only piece of clothing our baby has, as of yet).

Unfortunately, this post is not about those types of joys.  Instead, this post is a short dedication to the other types of pregnancy joys, including: an increase in migraines, a decrease in migraine medications available to me, lots and lots of puke, uncomfortable nights with little sleep, as well as other "unmentionable" symptoms, as my mother would call them.

I had one enchanting evening in the E.R. last week.  Of course, the never ending puke ordeal had to come during the 48 hours that my parents were in town.  The plus: nobody takes care of you when you're sick like your own Mama!

I'm posing the extra flattering picture below.  I don't actually look like that when I'm suffering... hopefully.  This was just the picture to send to Dad & Grant to make sure they weren't having too much fun at the Dallas Stars game without us.

After two months of this lovely yuckiness, it is either starting to get better or I'm getting used to knowing when to take my medication.  I'm guessing it's the latter.

Recent milestones include: 2-3 days without throwing up, 1 day without taking migraine medication, and running a whole mile without stopping.  Really, it was more of a light, light, jog, but man, I've never been more proud of a 12 minute mile!

As far as pregnant belly goes, I don't have too much of one yet.  This picture was taken two weeks ago.  I am now at 14 weeks and I've grown a little, but not much.  It's hard to gain weight when you can't really eat...

But don't worry, I've been on the new and innovative Cheetos diet lately so I should start showing soon.  Perhaps the growing fetus inside me might assist in that growth too...

I'm Married to a Murderer

For this New Year's Eve (can you believe it is 2011?!) we were invited to a Murder Mystery dinner party!  Each party member was given a part to play as we read through the dialogue and clues to discover who committed the horrendous crime.

Caitlin & Jared were Mama Rosa and Marco, the wife and son of the deceased.  Jared was a wannabe soccer player and always said, "I'm gonna be world cup!" in a Mario & Luigi-esque voice.  Best line of the night, hands down.

Zach & Megan were Rocco and Tira Misu, the brother of the deceased and his floozy fiance.  You will be impressed to know that my computer did not spell-correct the word floozy.  All is right with the world.

Heather & Jeremy played Angle, daughter of the deceased, and Father Al Fredo, the priest of the parish the family attended.

Grant played Beau Jalais, boyfriend of daughter Angel, and I played Clair Voyant, Mama Rosa's psychic.  I clearly forgot to control my eyeballs in this picture.

Okay, that's at least a little better.

Caitlin, er.. Mama Rosa made a delicious Italian meal for all the guests and we had a lot of fun reading the dialogue.  However, I think the best part was trying to figure out all the accents.  Grant was supposed to be French, but inevitably ended up being Mexican (of course).  I was supposed to have a deep husky voice... that I also tried to make Italian... not so easy.  And of course, all the Italian accents got pretty interesting all around.  We had some Scottish Italians, some British Italians, and of course, some Mexican Italians.  It was awesome.

Grant ended up being the murderer... Sneaky little bugger.  Unfortunately, my psychic powers proved insufficient as I was unable to figure it out...  But man, I totally had the best husky-Italian-Mexican-fortuneteller accent!

What the Baby?

The rumors are true! (As if you've heard rumors...)  Grant & I are excited to announce that we are expecting a little "Baby T" in July.  This sonogram is a little old so he still looks like a little peanut.  

July is the (only) month for Peterson women to have babies, apparently.  My dad, sister, brother, nephew and I are all July birthdays so Baby T will fit right in.  In fact, I'm due on July 17th, the day before my birthday!

I'm 13-14 weeks along and it's been quite the adventure so far.  Morning sickness and migraines have kept me in bed, on the couch, and even in the ER once.  It's been tough, but we're hoping things will start clearing up in the next few weeks.  And of course, it will all be so worth it to have little Baby T in July.

We don't find out whether it's a boy or a girl until March, but we have both felt strongly that it is a boy.  We refer to Baby T as a "he" so it will be a big shift in mentality for us if "he" is actually a "she." 

Woohoo for babies!

Family Portraits: A Second Go

About a week after I took my first set of family portraits with the Gurneys, I took family pictures for the Koerners, the Gurney's cousins.  

Unlike the Gurneys, the Koerner's don't have any babies.  Instead they have three kids who love the camera, which made my job pretty darn easy.

I am still struggling a bit with my settings, most specifically with white balance.  I got a little more used to using exposure this round with the result that fewer of my pictures turned out over exposed.  Yay.

The Koerner's are moving to Denver soon and wanted to take a few pictures representing what was then their "family secret."

A fence behind them made it easy to line everyone up and to direct each person in terms of where to stand.  The bridge in the picture below offered the same direction and I like the linear aspect of pictures like these ones.

It is a little more difficult for me to "clump" people and not make them look awkward.  

And of course, the girls were regular hams for me.  Love that.

Thanks Koerners for a fun day and for putting up with me :)