Baby Brunch

I can't believe that it is the beginning of February and I am just now getting around to blogging about all of our Christmas Festivities, but I am super excited to get to share this post with everyone!

I have always known that when I became pregnant I didn't want to find out the sex of the baby, but a couple weeks before my 20 week ultrasound I realized that I hadn't really discussed this issue with Mike. Once we started talking I was a little surprised to find out that he wanted to find out the sex and this wasn't really an issue he was going to waver on. So we came to a compromise: we could find out the sex of the baby, but I didn't want to do it in an ultrasound room in front of a complete stranger.

He agreed and the following is the plan we came up with...
Since the ultrasound was going to be a week before Christmas I thought it would be neat to have the tech write the sex of the baby down on a card and we would wait to open it until Christmas Eve were we could share this experience with both families.

Mike's parents hosted a brunch for both families at their house on Christmas Eve morning. After stuffing ourselves with great food, it was time for the big reveal. Originally we were just going to open the card, but when we went in for the ultrasound appointment our tech told us we would get to take home a DVD of the entire ultrasound. So we decided to prolong everyone's anticipation (including ours) and we watched 30-45 minutes of the ultrasound video until finally there it was on the TV screen, 3 words that changed our lives forever...

I'M A GIRL!

Ultimately we didn't care what the sex was, as long as the baby was healthy. But I think Mike would have loved to have a boy and I really wanted a girl. Actually I wanted a girl sooooo badly that I had convinced myself it was a boy hoping it would prevent me from being disappointed. So I was genuinely surprised that it was a girl.

Once we all celebrated and were given plenty of name suggestions:), the Grandparents presented us with books for our little girl. The Grandfathers gave her "I Already Know I Love You" by Billy Crystal and the Grandmothers gave her "Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney. Then, Mike and I gave each family a picture frame with an ultrasound picture so they would remember this special day. I even found a perfect frame for our house that Mike got to open.

This was such a fun and exciting day. I am so glad that we found out we were having a little girl in the presence of the people that love us the most. Hope you enjoy pictures from that morning.

I can not end this post without giving a HUGE thanks to my mom who took all the pictures that morning. There was so much going on I forgot to even get my camera out. Without her we wouldn't have had any pictures of this fun event. Thanks Mom, I love you!

Scotland- Europe 2010

I have finally found time to finish the last of our Europe 2010 Vacation post-

Edinburgh, Scotland!

While in London, Mike and I decided to board a train a travel to Edinburgh, Scotland for a quick overnight trip. We knew we didn't have a lot of time to spend in Edinburgh, so once we arrived we checked into our hotel, dropped off our luggage, bundled up (it was absolutely freezing) and went out to explore the town and do a little shopping! Once the sun started setting, all the stores stared closing, so we grabbed a quick snack and then headed back to the hotel to warm up and rest before going to dinner. We ate at a really great vegetarian restaurant. Unfortunately, I started experiencing "morning sickness" on our way to dinner. So once we were finished eating we headed back to the hotel so I could rest up since the next day would be a busy one. Here are a few pictures Mike took our first evening in Edinburgh.

There were several reasons we had for visiting Edinburgh. Shopping and touring the castle were top on our list, but there was one other place I wanted to visit...The Elephant House Cafe, "the birth place of Harry Potter". This is where JK Rowling did most of her writing on the Harry Potter series. If you click on the link above you can watch an interview of JK Rowling in the cafe that was taped right after the first book was published and the second had already been sold.

Once we heard all this information about The Elephant House we decided this would be our breakfast stop before heading to the castle. Here are a few pictures of the cafe. The picture of the castle is the actual view from inside the cafe...Hogwarts anybody?

After we finished eating breakfast we walked up the hill to the castle gates. The tour of the castle took us a couple of hours. The views from atop the castle were amazing. Once we were finished touring the castle we headed out to eat lunch and do some more shopping before boarding the train back to London.

Here are a few pictures from the train ride home. I mostly read while Mike listened to his iPod and ran around the train taking pictures of the countryside.

Windsor- Europe 2010

Our second day trip outside of London was to Windsor. Since
Windsor is right outside of London we decided to save a penny and travel by bus.

The very first thing we did once we arrived to Windsor was tour the castle. I loved this part of the trip. The tour of the castle was very casual. Since we each had our own audio guide, you were able to explore the castle at your own pace. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside any of the buildings, but here are a few pictures of the grounds and the castle itself.

Once we finished the tour of the castle we were all starving. We found a little pub down the street and stopped in for a bite to eat. The food was good, it was traditional pub fare. While were were waiting on our food, Mike found these 3 signs hanging in the pub.

After we finished lunch we decided to walk the streets and do a little shopping. Even though it was pretty cold that day, we really enjoyed walking around and experiencing Windsor.

Who knew Batman lived in Windsor?

Mike took this picture while we were waiting at the bus stop for our ride back to London.

You think he was cold?