You Stay Classy San Diego

Alex and I spent this past week in sunny San Diego, California.  I had an opportunity to attend a conference and thought San Diego would be a perfect place for a last vacation before the baby.  The weather was amazing with sun and warm weather every day.  We rented a house in Ocean Beach with several other residents from my program.  The house was awesome with beautiful views of the beach and, my favorite thing, a hot tub on the roof!  It was fun exploring the city and eating amazing food with good friends. 

   

 We arrived!!  The house was absolutely amazing.  The windows stretched from wall to wall.  The views were gorgeous.

  

 Once we all made it to the house, we walked down to the pier to explore Ocean Beach.

  

 Lindsay and Matt

  

   

  

 The view from the end of the pier

  

 We drove over to Sunset Cliffs with Lorene and Bret to watch the sunset our first night in town.

    

We sat on the cliffs and enjoyed the beautiful views.

  

   

   

  

We spent Sunday morning hiking Torrey Pines.  I did this hike last year with Chancy and it was gorgeous!

  

 Alex on the edge!

   

 We love hiking!

   

  

  

 The views were spectacular.  These cliffs are 45 million years old!

   

  

  

 Torrey Pines are only found here and in one other place on Earth!

   

  

 We walked back on the beach.

  

 After hiking, we went out for lunch at the Cliff Hanger Cafe and watched the hang gliders.

   

  

  

 We took a trolley tour of San Diego on Monday.  Hotel Del Coronado was our favorite stop.

  

 Kita, Patty, me and Lindsay after a fancy drink at the hotel.

  

 Later that night, we drove to La Jolla for dinner at the cove.  We made sure to visit the seals and sea lions.

  

  

 Alex always wants a closer view of the wildlife. 

  

 This guy stayed in this position the entire time we were there.  He is going to have a sore neck!

  

 We watched the seals slide down this cliff into the ocean!

  

 Alex and Kita at dinner on the roof!  We were able to overlook the ocean and watch the sunset.

  

 We spent Tuesday at the San Diego Zoo!  We loved the polar bears playing in their pool.

  

 Giraffes

  

 This elephant is fifty years old!

  

 We met up with Dr. Bliss and her husband at the zoo for lunch.

  

 We rode the sky car to get a better view of the park.

  

 Our zoo bunch!

  

 Alex's first time seeing a panda!  I remember this little guy being a ham last year too!

  

 So cute!

  

    

Such a ham!

    

He has always wanted to ride a lion.

  

 We took a rode trip to visit Aunt Janet in Palm Desert, only two hours away from San Diego.  The city was beautiful with even nicer weather than San Diego!

  

  

 We drove through the mountains on our way back to San Diego.

  

  

   

  

 So pretty!

  

 We spent several nights on the roof watching the sunset from the hot tub.

   

 After dinner one of the nights, we went to Ghirardelli for gourmet ice cream in the Gaslamp Quarter.

  

 We got cherry ice cream with hot fudge and whipped cream.  So tasty!

  

 Morning coffee on the roof with our beautiful view :)

  

 Our last full day in San Diego, Alex and I went to Balboa park to walk around.  We met Jon Copp for lunch at an amazing burger place.  We had not seen him since the wedding!

  

  

  

 So many varieties of cactus!

  

  

 It was an amazing last vacation for just the two of us!  It is sad to be back in colder weather, but we are happy to be home.  Since we moved in, I have either been working, sleeping or out of  state.  It is about time we start working on the new house!

Closing Time

This past Thursday, Alex and I closed on our first home!!  We brought our blow up mattress and camping sleeping bag so that we could stay over the first night.  We moved in this weekend with the help of friends and family.  We have no furniture for about half the house, but it already feels like home.

  

Finally ours!

    

    

I love this tub :)

  

 Our sleeping spot the first couple nights was very cozy.

     

We love the kitchen!

     

The first thing we unpacked was the coffee maker, of course.

Harper Eden

Although we have known the gender for quite some time now thanks to my sneak peaks, we can officially say that LB is, in fact, a girl.  I had my anatomy ultrasound yesterday which was thankfully very normal and showed one very active little girl.  Her name will be Harper Eden :)

 

So happy to buy baby girl shoes :)

 

LB

Lovebug

We are super excited to finally talk about baby lovebug now that the news is out!  We have been keeping this little secret since October!  LB is our special surprise who we can't wait to meet this summer.  His or her due date is 6-23-15, but fingers are crossed for July.  The first trimester went perfectly smooth with no problems.  The second trimester has gotten off to a bang starting with the flu :(  So much for my flu shot.  Being an OB certainly has its advantages, as I usually know the answer to my own questions.  It definitely makes me worry to know all the things that can go wrong, hence all of my ultrasounds.  Good thing I am usually only a hallway away from an ultrasound machine :)  We are excited to watch LB grow and are happy for our expanding family.

   

 My first look at LB's heartbeat!  It was just a tiny little flutter at 6 weeks.  That small dot is LB!  Apparently you cannot scan an ultrasound into the computer.  Luckily I had these on my phone!

  

 LB sporting a tail!

   

 3D ultrasound

  

 Already sucking his or her thumb :)

Ob Gyn Christmas Party 2014

Dr. Higgins and his family hosted the 2014 Ob Gyn Christmas Party for residents and faculty.  It was nice to see everybody so dressed up! 

 

 Kate, Courtney, and me with our spouses!

  

 A few neighborhoods down from the Higgins', we found a beautiful Christmas house.  We just had to drive by!

  

 There was a lot of Christmas spirit in this neighborhood.

Gingerbread Party

Tessie and Katherine held their annual Gingerbread Party tonight.  They squeezed over twenty people in their house for a gingerbread making extravaganza!  There were gingerbread firetrucks, boats, and teepees.  We had a judging contest after everyone was finished and Alex won best overall!  Alex made a gingerbread Notre Dame and I made a pirate ship :)  Lisa and Samantha drove over from Chapel Hill, Aki came from Boone and Kaylyn from UNC-C.

  

 Creating gingerbread masterpieces!

  

 Alex the architect

  

 Kaylyn used an intermittent cooling technique in the fridge.

  

 Lisa and Samantha

  

 Ahoy mate!  My pirate ship had a plank for the naughty Sour Patch Kid to jump from.

   

 Eye patch

   

 This is supposed to be a mermaid figurehead: half Swedish Fish, half Sour Patch Kid.  Nailed it :)

   

 This guy had real fire coming out of his chimney!

  

 This was an awesome teepee!

  

 Alex's Notre Dame!  He made stained glass windows out of Smarties and had gargoyles out back!

    

Lisa made the UNC Bell Tower and Samantha made a log cabin.

   

  

 Our table!

   

   

  

 Aki and Bryce

  

 Announcing the winners!

  

 Our gingerbread group

  

 Noah's Ark

  

 Cousins are the best!