16 Weeks: Walkin' on Sunshine!

Hey my little love nugget,

What an action packed week it has been for us!  I will start off by saying that you are now the size of an avocado and the tiny bones in your ears are developing so that you can finally hear the ridiculous stuff that your father says to you!  He will make sure that you are never bored, that is a guarantee! You are about 5 inches long and you weigh in at about 5 ounces, you certainly are growing!  You now are rockin' tiny eyelashes, eyebrows, and finger/toenails, its pretty wild!

Now on to my weekly recap.  I don't really know where to start in telling you about Saturday.  The beautiful weather that I had experienced since Tuesday decided to take a little vacation.  A storm system that started in Oklahoma moved in and caused quite a bit of ruckus.  Of course this had to be on the wedding day of my good friend, Christy.  She had planned a beautiful outdoor wedding that had to be moved inside, but that was the least of everyone's worries.  You see, then entire state was overtaken by tornadoes that claimed the lives of too many people and caused complete devastation to even more.  On our way to the wedding our route intersected with the paths of three tornadoes just minutes before or after they hit.  The first was the major tornado that ripped through downtown Raleigh and across I-440.  We couldn't see anything at all while driving and were deafened by the howling wind and torrential rain.  The twister ripped through roughly 5 minutes after we passed through.  The Second one was in Benson off of I-40 at the I-95 exit.  Just as we were about to exit the highway we saw a giant funnel cloud and were pounded with hail.  That was pretty scary but there wasn't much that we could do except for keep driving towards the house.  Thankfully, that twister had just passed and was headed away from us.  The third may have been the closest call.  Just as we took our final exit for the wedding location  our car was pounded by golf ball sized hail.  We were only about two blocks from the wedding, but we pulled over under a shelter to avoid broken windows.  The torrential downpour picked back up along with the massive hail and I was sure that we would witness trees falling at any time.  Thankfully, we did not see the funnel cloud and after a few minutes of coverage we were able to continue the last two blocks to the wedding.  When we arrived at the wedding the power was out with little hope of regaining it.  The aisle to the alter had been lined with vases that contained floating flowers and candles and created the most romantic setting to exchange vows.  Someone recovered a battery operated boom box (throwback!) so there was even music!  The bride was absolutely beautiful and love filled the air, it was awesome.  Just before the reception started the power came back on and the party really started.  Despite the scary weather and terrible circumstances the wedding was an absolute blast!

Golf ball sized hail that we drove through in Benson

Tornado that we saw on I-40

Devastation in Raleigh

Devastation in Benson

Raleigh twister that we crossed paths with

One of the Benson twisters that we crossed paths with

This storm was considered the biggest and baddest in NC history and the third largest storm in the US (it lasted 3 days and spanned from OK to NC/VA).  Storms continued to sweep through the midwest in the days following this demolition derby, it was not good times for all!

When the storms rolled out the beautiful weather returned and my mom and I decided to take off for Wilmington on Sunday.  I had been itching to go to the beach so we took off Sunday morning and stayed until Monday evening.  The weather was literally perfect and we enjoyed laying in the sun, eating my beloved El Cerro Grande, eating delicious Oceanic (where several of my bridal portraits were taken), and I took a swim in the "refreshing" Atlantic.  I had so missed the salty water on my skin and the smell of the beach.  I wish that I would have taken 6 or 7 years to graduate from UNCW because I seriously never want to leave Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach.  I was not able to surf for 2 reasons: 1-I didn't take my board down 2-There weren't really any surfable waves (not big enough to make it worth it to sit in the cold water all day).  

Tuesday morning I woke up to another beautiful day but spent the morning packing and cleaning up my messes before heading back to chilly WA.  We stopped by Best Buy so that I could get my awesome new iPad2 (which I LOVE) and then we encountered the first of the disasters that day.  Mom's car would not start, the alternator belt was loose or broken or something and kept making a horrible screeching noise.  When we finally got the car to start we headed over to Papa Bill's office so he could check it out (he is very car savvy).  The car showed no problems when he looked at it so we decided to drive on to Philly's and indulge in my last craving.  I woofed down my delicious chicken and cheese with hot sauce and then it was time to go home, pack up the car, and head to the airport.  WRONG!  The car would not start again and we had to call AAA.  Thankfully, they came in about 15 minutes to tow the car literally across the street.  Good thing I had AAA, because Mom did not.  Nancy came to pick us up in my old X-Terra (which I miss dearly) and she let me drive, it brought back so many memories.  I think I want to get another X-Terra when its time for a new car, we will have to see if it can tow the boat though.  I made it to the airport on time, checked in, upgraded for First Class for the second leg of the trip home, and breezed through security only to find that my flight had been delayed thirty minutes...then another thirty...and another.  When we finally boarded the plane I was in jeopardy of missing my connection in Chicago.  They assured us that the flight would be quick and even though it would be close we would still make our connections.  After sitting on the runway for about thirty more minutes they announced electrical problems and we were on our way back to the gate.  After another half hour they said they had fixed the problem and we were about to push out of the gate.  WRONG AGAIN!  Just as we were about to push out they announced that bad weather in Chicago (the reason for the initial delay) had caused a ground stop so they let us off the plane.  At this point I knew that I would either be sleeping in Raleigh or in Chicago so I asked to be rebooked the next afternoon.  American Airlines granted my request so I had one more night to spend at home and one more day in the sun.  By the time I gathered my bag and got in the car it was close to 11pm...LONG DAY.  

Wednesday, I woke up early to catch a few hours of sun, showered and repacked, and headed to the airport.    I had a great time at home and was really sad to leave, but it is good to be back.  Everything was fine and I got back to Seattle on time.  I was so happy to see your dad, I missed him a lot.  I was also really happy to see the furry ones, I missed them a lot too. The two days that I have been back the sun has been out in full force, but its not warm enough to lay out, so I will have to settle for looking at it from beneath my sweatshirt.  I resumed my workouts with Sybil and it feels good to get back into the swing of things.  

I was going to do a Flashback Friday this week, but since I already wrote so much I will do it next week.  A lot of big stuff was going on in April of last year, so we will just recap the whole month!  Here is a sneak peek!

Now if that wasn't enough of a novel for you I will continue on to the usual:

Workouts: I resumed my workouts with Sybil on Thursday and Friday.  It felt great.

Cravings:  None

Symptoms: I look  and feel fat

Love,

Your Mama

**P.S. If you have not seen my post about making the blog private and you wish to continue following please send me an email, FB message, or leave a comment with your email address so that I can add you to the list and you can continue reading.  Thanks!**