A Month Of Good Times!

We spent the month of August traveling and seeing all kinds of new (and old) places and friends. I think I already mentioned that we went to Charleston, South Carolina, during the last week of July with my husband's family. We rented a huge house near the beach and had a great time swimming in the Atlantic, sight-seeing around Charleston, and eating all kinds of seafood. I think we ate a record number of shrimp that week, too! The Atlantic around South Carolina is so warm and beautiful, if a bit choppy. Our house had a pool, so we had lots of fun in the water. We even took a historic carriage ride and a ghost walking tour around downtown. It was a relaxing trip for all of us, which was exactly what B and I needed after his first year of practice. About a week and a half after South Carolina, B and I made our annual trek to Indy for Gen Con. V stayed with my parents, so that we adults could play and have some time alone. We rented a hotel this year that was attached to the Indianapolis Convention Center via Circle Center Mall. So, really, we never had to go outside if we didn't want to. We also decided to try out the "Very Important Gamer" package. It cost a lot more than we usually spend on badges, but we got all kinds of perks like our first choice of hotel at the Gen Con discounted price, a swag bag with probably $150 worth of great products, the chance to get into the exhibit hall an hour earlier than everyone else on the first day of the con, and choice seating at some of the big events. I even won tickets to "Hickman's Killer Breakfast", a Gen Con tradition that is so funny, I left with a headache and an achy face from laughing so hard! We also tried out the True Dungeon this year. It was a lot of fun, and afterward, we caught the Zombie Walk leaving the Convention Center. The best thing about the con was my costume on Friday. I had advanced in my sewing lessons enough that I was able to make a fantasy dress like the dresses from "Lord of the Rings" and a cloak to go over it. It turned out great, and I really enjoyed wearing it around the exhibit hall and getting my photo taken by various con-goers. It wasn't too long after we got back from the con that we packed our bags again for a quick trip to Seattle, Washington. Our friend, Ben, has written and organized a murder mystery party for the past couple of years, and this year, he invited eighty of his friends to attend and participate! We decided to join in the fun, and we had a ball. I even managed to make a satin 1930's style gown just for the party. While in Seattle, we spent time with friends of ours from other parts of the country who we only get to see at game conventions. Two of those friends spent a day and a half with us sight-seeing around the city. V enjoyed spending time with them, and he was a real trooper while we traveled around Seattle seeing various "touristy" locations, and then, spending time at a very large party with lots of people milling about acting like mobsters from the 1930s. We just got back from that trip yesterday, and this morning, both V and I slept in until 8:45 am! Even though we were really jet lagged this morning, we had so much fun in Seattle, and I would love to go back and do it again next year. Now that August is over, I look forward to the coming months and what they'll entail. B and I are officially working on getting pregnant, so I'm excited to discover how quickly it will happen. It only took a month for me to get pregnant with V. I guess we'll see if the next one comes along just as fast!
Here are a few of the many pictures I took of our travels over the past month:

Happy Birthday to V and Happy Anniversary to Me and B!

Yesterday, we celebrated our son's 3rd birthday and my and my husband's 8th wedding anniversary. V was due on August 8th, 2006, but because he was breech, we went ahead and scheduled a C-section/external version. My husband wanted to schedule it on a Friday, so he could have an entire week at home with me, and it ended up being scheduled on our 5th wedding anniversary! The night before, I remembered that I hadn't bought anything for B for our anniversary. When I mentioned it, he pointed to my belly, and said, with a smile, "What do you think that is?". So, V was our big present to each other! On the morning of August 4th, 2006, we went up to the labor and delivery floor of my husband's hospital. The nurses strapped monitors on me, and we found out I was actually contracting every two minutes, but I wasn't laboring at all. Because V was breech (head up, feet down), my OB/GYN tried to turn V around by pushing on my stomach, but the little guy just wouldn't budge, so we went ahead and did a C-section. He was born at 9:44 am, and he was 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and 20 1/4 inches long. He came out with a full head of black hair, and I immediately thought he looked like my husband. Both of our families were at the hospital when he was born. Though I was full of drugs from the C-section, I still remember that those first few hours were very happy ones.
Yesterday, I decided to take V to the local mall. He always wants to run into the "Build-A-Bear" store to push the buttons and play on the computers. I thought it might be fun to actually make a stuffed animal for his birthday. We went to Subway for lunch first, and as we were eating, a massive thunderstorm blasted through our city and took out all the power in the mall! We waited and waited, and after two hours, I was about to leave the place, when the power suddenly came back on. We went back to the store, and V and I made a stuffed cat. He was more into the buttons and computers, so I ended up dressing the cat (named "Cally"). We went to Target, too, because there was a set of Matchbox cars he wanted. When we came home from our shopping trip, we discovered that the power in our house had also gone out during the storm. It didn't come back on until around 7 pm! I made dinner on our grill, which is luckily hooked up to a gas line. Then, B, V, and I sat around and caught up on things we couldn't do without power. I was working on a sewing project, and around 9 pm, we were going to have V blow out candles on a cupcake, but he had fallen asleep! He was just worn out from all the excitement of the day. B and I decided we'll celebrate his birthday with candles later today or tomorrow, when B can be there, too. B and I really didn't do much to celebrate our anniversary. We're saving that up for next week, when we get to spend four days at Gen Con (and at a hotel) alone! ;)
We had an awesome trip to Charleston, South Carolina, last week, and I'll try to post pics of our trip later.

V celebrating his birthday while in Charleston, SC

V and his new friend, Cally

Happy Anniversary, B! I love you!