Is this Heaven?

No, it's Iowa.

Mom and I took our annual October trip out there to see my grandparents and other extended family. Highlights were Amish people, my last baby shower with my aunts and girl-cousins on the Dieken side, and 16 hours in the car with my mom blabbing about pretty much everything on the planet (we usually don't stop yapping the whole way there and back).

Jono always makes fun of me when I say "We went to the Amish." It's how we've always said it. What we mean is we're driving 35 miles out to Jesup to farm-hop and buy their delish cookies, pies, pickles and jam. We went in a small caravan made up of my grandma, Mom, my aunts Brenda and Bonita, and my cousins Nick & Kristle with their two kids, Devin and Eden.

At one point we were in a barn digging through a bunch of vintage stuff sitting out on farm trailers. The Amish Mom came out and asked when I was due, how old I was, and if this was my first. She told me she'd just had her seventh child. Amish Pops was away at the horse sale, and she wouldn't sell me an unmarked red vase I wanted because she had "gotten in trouble" with him last time for selling a valuable item for a few bucks. It was a cool vase, but I didn't want to push it with her and start begging.

At another farm there were three Amish kids hanging around staring at us - two little girls and a tiny boy. We learned the tiny boy's name was Wilbert, and I about died. I wish you all could've seen him with his blue shirt and suspenders and big straw hat. He was about two feet tall and had huge brown eyes and a little mouth that was puckered into an o-shape. There are certain little boys that I find irresistable, and the fact that his name was Wilbert put me over the edge. He waved at me once.

Mom got her first whisk ever at one of the Amish general stores and replaced her measuring cups and spoons, of which she has lost half over the past ten years. I kept grabbing basic kitchen items I knew she didn't have off the shelves. We took a picture to commemorate this grand moment for her. (Mom = not a shopper. We had to explain to her why a whisk is more useful than a fork for stirring up eggs and the like.)

Last stop out there was the "Bent n' Dent" grocery store. Though Grandma kept saying "Scratch n' Dent", like it was a place to scratch n' sniff canned goods. (I love her!) It is what it sounds like. Canned and other packaged goods that are bent and dent, and therefore cheaper than Aldi's (it's possible, but probably overkill).

My aunts are hysterical. I laughed so hard on Amish Day that I was afraid I'd go into labor while Gordito's daddy was eight hours away in Michigan. We talked about so many inappropriate things it was unreal. The next day all of us had sore throats. We were worried we were getting sick, but as it turns out we were just laughing too hard.

This is the last trip I'll be taking in awhile, so I savored it. Pics below. The baby is my second cousin Eden, and I think she stole the show.

Sleeping Bear Dunes

We went on a mini-vacation to Sleeping Bear Dunes in northern Michigan this year, instead of the usual ten-day trip out of state. (We're saving up our vacation days for you-know-who.)

Not much to say except that it was fun, we slept fine, we had some really good Michigan cherry pie in a nearby small town, and we only got rained out once. Here's a slide show for y'all. We are tiny in some of the shots. You can click on the photos to see a larger version.

One of them is of me on top of a huge dune. I felt pretty tough topping that sucker when I'm this far along, but in reality I stopped a whole bunch of times to let the blood flow back into my legs ( = not that tough).

Chi-town!

Grant and I went to Chicago to surprise Tyler while he was on tour with Ten out of Tenn. When we got there Tyler was *surprised*, and he gave us a tour of his home: Willie Nelson's old tour bus (it has a little neon sign in the "living room" that says PARTY - ha.) We had some trouble getting Grant into the venue -- turned out it wasn't an all-ages show -- but in the end we got to see them play. We stayed overnight at my friend Sarah's apartment (thanks Werf!), met her cat Jordy, ate her cookies, had breakfast with friend Becky the next morning, and drove home.

With the move and everything this month I knew I wouldn't see much of Grant before he goes back to Seattle in September. So it was our chance to hang out for awhile.

The Big 6

Jono and I have been married six years today. My friend Annie called and asked how long it had been. When I answered, she started laughing and couldn't believe it. Yep, we got married right after college and we've been out of college for a LOOONG time. I get it...

We did most of our celebrating yesterday because more things would be open (today is Sunday). Originally we had these big plans to go to a winery down south etc. etc., but when we woke up Saturday morning we opted to go out for breakfast at the Schnitz by our house and then bike the White Pine trail to Rockford and back - about 16 miles total. It was low-key and fun.















Here we are looking a little sweaty. I am wearing my "nerdy helmet", which reminds me of the half ping-pong ball Ralph the mouse wore in "The Mouse and the Motorcycle". No good excuse to throw it out.

We saw some cool native plants on the way there. There wasn't a lot to see in Rockford, but it's a cute town. We walked on the dam over the Rogue River and got ice cream, then had a late lunch and biked home.


























































We spent most of today holed up at home, since our next three weekends will be spent packing and moving. It's been nice.

I keep meaning to make it through the next chapter in "What to Expect When You're Expecting", but every time I sit down to read it I fall asleep. I took two naps yesterday and a big long one today, so I've been on the same chapter for three days. I haven't made it through Saturday Night Live in months.

Overall I've been feeling great, other than some leg cramps, mild heartburn, and the fact that my tummy hurts whenever we go on a long walk -- apparently it's those lower abdominals stretching with the weight of a little human being. They've got it coming: I just read that in a month my uterus will be the size of a basketball. Seriously?! I still can't get over how weird it is that he is just hanging out in there :)

Lately

Not much new is going on with Gordito, as we're calling him ("little fat one", in Spanish), other than he gets bigger and more active every day. Therefore this post isn't really about him, just things we've been up to lately.

Cadillac...
We went up to Cadillac to see Jan & Dad Klooster (Jono's dad and step-mom) a few weeks ago. In stereotypical fashion, Jono and his dad put in a fence around their backyard while Jan and I went garage saling ;) Jan got a kiddie camp chair so that the little guy can eventually sit with us around the fire, and I found sweet tie-dyed onesies with matching socks. Here we are with Jan and the two huskies. Dad K. took the pic.















One thing that was monumental that weekend is it was the first time someone asked me if I knew what I was having without asking me if I was pregnant first! Risky business, but I was pretty happy about it. As I've said before, the beer gut look ran it's course with me pretty quickly and I was ready to look pregnant.

Nordhouse...
A couple of weeks ago we went camping with a big group at our favorite spot in Michigan, Nordhouse Dunes. It's 12 miles of state wilderness along the big lake. This trip was in honor of our friends Rhoda and Johan, who were home from Korea for a couple of weeks.

We backpacked out a couple of miles and set up camp in the woods a couple of dunes from the lake. It was a little rougher going than usual because a tornado had come through the area two weeks before and we had to crawl over downed trees to get to our spot.

We spent the next day on the beach lying around, swimming, and sharing a trashy mag. It's a tradition of Nordhouse females to take at least one of them out there for "lite" beach reading, but it's funny how often one of us is looking for the communal mag and a guy has it. Once one of them picks it up, it's really hard to get it back.






























































We see unbelievable sunsets out there, sitting on the top of the dunes or on the beach, usually sipping red wine (or the latest drink I'm making hip again, apple juice). It's almost always completely isolated. We go a few times each summer, and we like it so much that we haven't really camped anywhere else in Michigan over the past couple of years.

I'm sure we'll get back there at least once more before the little dude arrives. Although we may have to shorten the hike a bit and camp closer to the trail head when I can hardly waddle down the beach anymore.




















Holland...
My cousin Jenna came up for the night on business, so I went down to Holland to see her and the rest of the fam for an evening. We went to the beach and got ice cream at Captain Sundae's, which apparently was visited by George W. Bush a couple of years ago, and he is plastered all over the place for your viewing pleasure while you're picking out the flavor you want. I guess I don't blame them. He was kind of a big deal.















I knew Mom would love it if I took this pic. These two are in Haiti right now working with teachers. Mom gets to go to an orphanage where some of the kids her work is placing live.










Jenna always cracks me up. We laughed a lot while she was here. And Mom felt Gordito move for the first time.

Brett just moved to Phoenix! He took a PE teaching position in Scottsdale. So this was one of the last times I hung out with him before he left. The next time he sees us, there will be four (counting Mona).

The last night I saw Brett, my family was over and everyone was trying to get a turn feeling the kid kick. Not much luck until the end of the night, as they were about to leave, I laid on the couch and UNDER PRESSURE tried to coax him into kicking or punching me. I was so happy when he did, and Brett and Grant both got to feel him. (Way to go buddy!)

Now that you're sick of all these beachy, sunset pics, here's a classic 70's silk screen shot to wrap this up: