Gallstones, Ocean Shores, and Sleeping through the Night

Whoops! Falling behind a bit! Well a lot has been happening the fast few days.

Last week I had two separate visits to the ER for severe back and stomach pains. Both times the pains lasted about 2 hours, and faded off while I was in the waiting room. The first time, they did a simple urine test for a Kidney infection. That was negative so they just sent me home with pain meds. The second time though I asked for more tests, so they did some blood tests. Something (they never told me what exactly) was higher than normal on the test results, so they did an ultrasound. It turns out.. I have gallstones. Yippee.. (Can you feel the sarcasm here?)

Yesterday I went in for some follow up lab work, and I'm meeting with my Dr. later this week to go over the results. I was told to avoid fatty foods, and so far it has been working. (No more attacks!) So I'm hoping this new diet will work, and I will be able to skip surgery. I am absolutely terrified of 'going under the knife.' We are talking scared-so-bad-you-lose-sleep-at-night-and-get-dizzy-just-thinking-about-it.

I know it's a simple surgery, and one of the fastest recoveries. Everyone keeps telling me to just get the surgery, it'll be easier than being on a special diet for the rest of my life. But I don't care. Surgery is surgery.

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On a much happier note, we went on a little mini vacation last weekend. We drove up to Ocean Shores to visit Chris's grandparents. In his family, there are 4 birthdays within a week or two of Father's Day. So they always do a big get-together for everyone all at once. Jordyn did absolutely fabulous for the drive up there. No complaints at all! We only had to pull over twice for a few minutes for a bottle and diaper change.

The weather there was pretty gloomy all weekend. Lots of misty wet air and cold temperatures. So we spent most of the weekend relaxing in the house. Chris went out with his cousins for some mini golf, basketball, and kayaking at the lake. I spent most of the weekend either napping with Jordyn or reading my book. We did get a tiny bit of good weather on Saturday so we all went out for bumper cars and Go Karts on the slick track. (They spray water on the track to make you slide on the curves). I got some great pictures there. I'll post them later today.

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Jordyn has been doing fabulous. She sleeps all the way through the night now, it's fantastic! I still have to wake up in the middle of the night to pump once, but at least I get to go right back to sleep now =D She usually falls asleep around midnight and wakes up between 8-9. We're also starting to get a bit of a routine going. It's fabulous =D

She is 7 weeks old today, I can't believe it! We took some photos a few weeks ago at Nana's (Jodi's) house for her announcement. I absolutely LOVE how they turned out. I tried posting them on here but Blogger is being dumb. I'll post them later today. I'm saving the best photo for the announcement though, so you'll have to wait to see that one ;-)

Send me an email with your address if you want one! anelson726@gmail.com.

Temple Square

On the way home, we stopped for the night in Midvale, Utah.

After dinner, we drove to temple square to see all the Christmas lights.

You just can't drive through Utah at Christmas time, and skip the lights.

It's like a sin or something, haha.

I can't imagine how long it took to do that one tree.. and there were dozens more!

The Nativity was really cool. Definitely worth the 5 minutes.

I wanted a ride.. but Chris said No. =( It was $50 for half an hour. Yikes!

The Perks of Driving While Pregnant

#4 - You don't have to pump the gas. Those fumes are dangerous man ;-)

#3 - You get to watch your sister freeze her butt of while pumping her gas.

#2 - You don't have to wash the windows. You get to watch your hubby do it, and make faces at him through the window.

#1 - You get lots of time napping, while your sweet hubby drives. =]

Vegas: The Visit

I didn't take too many pictures while actually in Vegas. 

I was kinda distracted haha.

The first "tourist" stop was Outdoor World, AKA Bass Pro Shop.

For those of you like me, who have never been to a Bass Pro, it's basically like Cabela's, except with more fishing stuff.

This place was awesome! 

I was too chicken to take pictures inside though..

I thought these parking lines were awfully creative.. couldn't resist taking a pic.

Then it was off to the infamous Vegas Strip.

It was a lot of walking..

My feet were hurting..

But it was sooo worth it!

These penguins were inside the huge Atrium, inside the Bellagio.

This made me laugh. We got off the escalator inside the mini food court (where the french fries are $4 for a small!!) And I saw this guy, dressed as Master Chief from the Halo video game series.

The fountain show at the Bellagio was phenomenal. If you ever go to Vegas, you MUST see this.

We also checked out the Lion Habitat inside the MGM Grand. These gals wouldn't cooperate for my pictures. Sorry it's blurry.

Vegas: The Drive

We actually broke the drive into two parts. Day 1 we drove from Troutdale to Midvale, Utah. We crashed there at my aunt's house. Day 2 we drove from Midvale to Las Vegas.

Yup, we even drove through the corner of Arizona for about an hour.

The first half of the drive was cold, wet, and ugly.

But then on Day 2 we started to hit the gorgeous canyons in Utah and Arizona.

The very last part of the trip (I was driving) was this ugly dead stretch of nothingness in Nevada. Nothing but Cactuses.. Cacti? Whatever.. Dead-looking pokey plants. Oh and tumbleweed.. I had a very hard time staying awake.

Finally!

We finally have an appointment for our ultrasound =]

December 2nd at 2:15. 

Be expecting a post that evening ;-)

I AM SO EXCITED!!!

Seriously... I can NOT wait.

I think I might explode, or implode, either one.

*note* I added a poll over on the left side of the page where you can Vote! Are we having a boy or a girl??

Also, a note to all the Vegas-Dwellers out there.

We are going to be driving down for the Nelson Family Christmas Breakfast.

We will only be there for 2 days though, so it's definitely a quickie.

We just wanted to be able to see all of you before the baby comes.

And I haven't even met most of you yet!

It'll be fun. I'm stoked =]

Skimboarding

Labor Day Weekend we went to the beach with the Stephenson family.

Chris and Billy (Amanda's younger brother) spent a lot of time skimboarding.

Fishing

We took a day and drove down to Tillamook so Chris and Raphael could do some fishing. Andy spent his time 'fishing' for crabs under the rocks. Jodi, Wyatt, and I spent most of the time in the car watching. I spent a few minutes and walked out to take some pictures.

Seaside with the Nelsons

Just a few random pictures from the weekend.

Fort Stevens

A few miles north of Seaside, is Fort Stevens State Park. Chris's cousin had never been here before, so we took him up to the historic site for a few hours. I love spending time here. It brings back so many fond memories of camping with my family. (There is a HUGE campground located in the park, and we often road our bikes out to the historic sites).