Evening on the beach, 37th week

This past week one of my oldest and dearest friends, Larissa, was visiting us. We couldn't remember the last time we had a whole week to spend time together, it was a treat especially as I am so close to having this baby and there are so many things on my mind that were good to talk through with an old friend.

We had to take things slowly since I'm still recovering from my Pneumonia, but we were able to spend some spectacular evenings on the beach, and she took some great pictures of us...and we worked on the most dreamy sand castle!

Maternity photoshoot on the beach

One night last week, after dinner, we decided to head to the beach at sunset to take some quick belly pictures. I've had this idea of taking more pictures of the end of my pregnancy this time, so off we went to capture the golden light.

We had no idea that the sight that would greet us there on the sand would be truly out of this world. Jasper shouted, "there's a rainbow!", and we all turned to see this HUGE, double full ark rainbow stretching from the sand out into the ocean.

As we stood there the light was changing every second and with it the rainbow changed, parts of it getting brighter, others fading.

Glorious is the only way to describe those moments. Just such a treat for us to share as a family.

 

These will be pictures I will always treasure!

26th Week

Hello and happy May Day! I wanted to take you along on our favorite new walk to the beach today. I'm in my 26th week now, feeling bigger and bigger but since I've been keeping so active physically with this pregnancy I feel good and have not been having any of the swelling that is one of the things that I struggle with in my last trimester. I'm entering my last trimester next week, so I'm hoping to keep feeling great!

We discovered this cool hidden beach walk a few weeks ago, we park next to some mail boxes, and right there along a large hedge there's a dirt road,

We wander along it towards the ocean,

Enjoying the Honeysuckle bushes that grow everywhere and are blooming right now. Have you ever sucked the nectar out of a Honeysuckle blossom? It is very sweet, I remembered doing this as a child, so I taught our kids how to pick the blossom and suck the nectar out of the back of the flower and now they can't get enough, especially Carys my little flower girl.

After a few minutes the dirt road turns into a boardwalk that leads right out to the beach,

Where we walk and look for shells. The weather here has turned suddenly summer, in the 80's everyday, sunny and gorgeous. I can't say that I'm ready for summer just yet as I feel like I've got a long hot one ahead of me as I wait for baby to arrive, but I really can't complain about how energized sunny warm weather makes me feel!

Thank you so much for all of the support that I felt from you in my last post. I love to keep this space about the best and brightest parts of my life, but I also really feel like it is important to share honestly here even when I am struggling with big issues.
Thank you for your honesty too!

xo

Magic Hour

The other day I managed to get to the beach for my morning walk extra early, I was the only one there and it was a super low tide so the beach was wide, quiet and glowing with golden light.

That one magic hour made my soul sing all day.

Wishing you a beautiful start to your week!

xo

 "When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused."
- Rainer Maria Rilke

Mexico: Lounging Around

That's what a big part of this trip to Mexico was for Frank and I, taking time to relax while the kids played or playing right along with them in the pool or at the beach.

Enjoying the breeze in the trees, and the sun on our skin. Few things relax me the way a day in the sunshine can!

Traveling with kids can be tricky if you want to relax, we've found that out the hard way when we get frustrated that they need our attention when we want to sit and read. So, on this trip we chose to stay at a resort (our first resort experience) that had a kid's club and lots of activities for kids...it seemed like that would strike a good balance for us and we wanted to try it out. Usually when we travel we like to be independent, usually renting a small apartment through VRBO, but we especially enjoyed that at the resort all of the meals were taken care of and all we had to do was show up when we were hungry!

What we found was that even though there we organized activities for the kids they were happiest just playing in the water.

Jasper tried snorkeling for the first time and loved it, so he spent hours perfecting swimming with his mask on,

While he spent hours searching for things in the water we relaxed on chairs nearby, I even got to read a whole book (Stephanie Meyer's The Host, totally recommend it as a beach read).

Another reason that I chose the place where we stayed was because it was in the jungle, with natural pools (called Cenotes) through out the property, lots of jungle trails and even Mayan ruins right on the hotel grounds.

In the evenings animals would come out in the jungle and it was fun to look around for them, we saw turtles, Spider Monkeys, Coati Mundis, Iguanas and Macaws. 

Finding Sand Dollars

When I started my morning walks on the beach in January, I also unintentionally started a new collection....sand dollars. They are shells that I've always loved, I remember searching for them for hours as a child on the beach in Florida, but had only ever found one whole one before, on my birthday last summer. So, imagine my surprise when I started finding them, many of them, as I walked on the beach each morning.

They would appear in the shallow waves, washed up in the retreating tide, embedded in the sand. My friend Marianna who walks with me sometimes said that she has never seen someone find so many of them. It was as if they were appearing for me, or maybe I just tuned in to them and began noticing them at every turn! 

Now I've got a pretty large collection of them, in every size and with soft variations of color.

For now I've lined them up on the window sill in my studio, along with my grandmother's green glass collection,

And along shelved through out our house, sprinkled in with other treasures. I'm hoping to make something out of them for the baby's room, it seems like they are meant to be for him somehow. I'm still deciding what to make, possibly putting a bunch of them in a pretty window box mounted on the wall? I'd love to hear ideas if you have them!

Happy Weekend! xo

Belly

I thought that it would be fun to finally post some belly shots, so I snapped some the other day just out of the shower, these are the first ones that I have taken this pregnancy. I'm in my 18th week now, almost half way!

I am feeling worlds better now than I was even a couple of weeks ago, I have definitely turned the corner with my morning sickness and it feels so good to have my energy back and to be feeling good! I've also started a great prenatal yoga class that is kicking my butt in a good way and helping me to meet other mamas. The class welcomes pregnant mamas as well as mothers who want to bring their babies to yoga, this is especially fun for me right now as being around babies gets me excited for what is to come, its all feeling more and more real each day.

Here are a few other shots of life around here these days....

fort building in the family room happens more often than not here,

The vacationing tourists on spring break have started to become a part of my morning beach walks, the ocean water is still cold but they are out there playing and we've been having a string of great weather in the 70's, feels like spring has sprung.

Carys usually has one of the kitties in her arms, its love all around,

Our kids recently asked for their own rooms, which has been a project that I've been working on, I'm looking forward to posting pictures of that soon. Since they have always shared a bedroom, it has been fun for me to now decorate a specifically "boy" room and "girl" room for each of them. Jasper has chosen a safari theme and Carys wanted a mermaid room, both of which have been really fun!

Sending a bit of the sea to where ever you are! xo