eighteen weeks.

and surprise!!! it's a darling, precious, itzy baby :

g  i  r  l  !!!!!

i visited jack at his miami externship for my 17th & 18th weeks of pregnancy. i got to spend 9 glorious days with him.
man, i sure do miss my best friend.

i just couldn't stand the thought of finding out the gender of our baby without him at my 20 week anatomy scan at the doctor's office from a grumpy, rushed ultrasound tech {yes, we've met her and she stole all the magic of our 8 week ultrasound scan when we saw our little frog baby for the first time to confirm the pregnancy}.

soooo...i decided to google private 4D ultrasound clinics in miami and i made an appointment at a cute little place for an hour after he picked me up at the airport {after my awesome red-eye from seattle, ugh}. we stopped and had a bagel for breakfast and i got a decaf coffee to create the illusion of getting some extra energy after all that traveling. to be honest, i was so excited to see jack and the baby, it didn't matter.

naturally, when we got there, i was really nervous that we were going to find that baby didn't have any arms or legs or something crazy. i guess the worrying will never stop from this point forward!

let me tell you...SHE looked perfect!!! of course, we will find more details at the anatomy scan in a few weeks, but she was so active and joyful looking...with all ten fingers and all ten toes! she was flipping and drinking and stretching and even showed us her smile:

are you absolutely melting yet?!?! you guys, she did this the whole TIME we saw her. the tech said that we got some of the best shots she's ever captured of a 17 week fetus. 

it. was. magical.

i cried tears of joy and you can't imagine our surprise when we learned baby was a she. everyone totally thought we were going to have a boy...but deep down inside i just had this weird raw gut feeling i was going to have a girl.

and ps: don't judge her fontanel. it's not closed yet and that is totally normal. she still looks completely underdeveloped, but remember she isn't even halfway done baking. 

we are absolutely in love.

{we celebrated news of our daughter at this cute little beach front restaurant on the patio. we split the restaurant week 3 course meal for one...gazpacho, swordfish on mashed sweet potatoes, and key lime cheesecake. food is all i have now, so yes, i remember what we had. it was delish.}

the last weekend i was there, we hopped in the car and drove 3.5 hours south to the southern tippy tip of key west. we stayed two nights at a hotel that not only had a fabulous beach out front to lounge on under umbrellas, but also complimentary virgin mojitos {of course i opted for the non-complimentary virgin pina coladas the whole time i was there oops}, and a complimentary shuttle to duval street in town where all the shops and bars are. it was a magical weekend, especially after not seeing jack for two months in such a relaxed setting. of course i was the palest one at the beach, and also the roundest fe-whale {i mean female}, but i didn't care. ok, maybe i did a little.

{i had to document my 18 week belly...this is what i wore that day to the beach, so this is the outfit i went with}

{our key west beach spot in front of our cute hotel. the ocean is right in front of us.}

{...and we will finish with my handsome husband in the miami operating room}

only a few more weeks until i visit him in denver!! i already can't wait. good thing i have a few weeks between these trips so i can "try" and recover some of my energy...phew!

our birthday week.

rachel came to visit in july. we had way too much fun and didn't take many pictures. this was one of our many toasts from the weekend {since jack had just finished the worst three months of our lives [said may, june, july = studying for and taking finals & boards + hardest two rotations of the year + full blown waiting-for-boards-results-purgatory], he got to come and enjoy this frosty beverage, too}.

{picture by me: view from our room at the spindrift in on cannery row in monterey bay, california}

ok so get this. we were in waiting-for-boards-results-purgatory during the last week of july....which made it really hard pretty much impossible to plan anything {story of our lives, right?} for our birthday on august 3rd {yes, we have the same birthday, same year, too. we turned 25 again, yay!}. we would hear boards results any day now. was he going to be super depressed about bad news? was he going to be tired from his back to back boards/july finals? were we going to be ecstatic & relieved?? when i asked him what his vision for our birthday weekend was, his answer was, "i don't care, i just wanna get the heck outta here."

since he had a final that friday, and started a new rotation on monday, we couldn't go far. so, i chose...a weekend in monterey bay. as our birthday present, jack's parents helped us with our expenses that weekend. beyond grateful. 

here was my planning process: google monterey bay. click on tripadvisor. sort by most romantic. book number one. 

the spindrift inn right in the middle of cannery row. 

woodpile outside our room for our wood burning fireplace.

chowdah sample.

birthday hef.

rom bomb by our fireplace on the ocean.

our adorable bed.

 window seat.

my old man watching the seals and the waves.

 underneath our window seat.

 so, myyyy activity choice for our birthday was easy: birthday shopping {surpriiise}.

tourists.

$100 worth of...socks. yes, just socks.

oops. i got this hat. and i love it.

jack's birthday activity choice: pool with beer & fries.

every morning they served us breakfast in bed. we ate by the window sill and the seagulls came to keep us company.

seal watching.

reading the morning paper like real normal humans. by the fire. on the beach.

lunch stop on the way home from our weekend in monterey in pebble beach. we did the 17 mile drive.

i told jack that all i wanted to do was eat and shop for our birthday weekend. the let down of all the adrenaline from our stressful few months made me want to just sit, bask in our own humanity, and be a sloth. i got exactly what i wanted!

...oh, and a new camera lens (hence all the closeups) from the hubster. 

it's a canon 50mm f/1.8 II lens. i'm still learning to use it...but so far it's been so much fun!

i just love it! thanks babe!

Dover Court.

Every time we visit San Diego, our beach cruisers always end up gravitating towards the Court where we  met as next door neighbors.

Dover Court.

{Looking North towards Pacific Beach & La Jolla.}

I lived at 718, and he was next door at 722. Located in South Mission Beach, two houses in from sand and ocean.

{On my old fence, looking west towards the beach.}

 {718 Dover...my old bedroom window on the right.}

{Jack's old entry door in the middle of the picture, lower floor of 722 next to my bedroom window.} 

I was in my junior year of college at the University of San Diego. He was studying microbiology at San Diego State University.  I sort of use the term "studying" loosely...we were focusing on the investment in a different part of our future...each other. And friends. I think that is one of the most important parts about college, actually. Learning to balance it all. Don't get me wrong...we did spend several all nighters in the library together that year...but mostly because we had to. Studying was not going to happen at home. Work hard, play hard...and we did it well. 

Dover Court was was Sept-May dorms at the beach. Students from colleges all around came down to live with roommates in the cute but equally run down bungalows lining the boardwalk. Priorities included: Surfing. Laying out. Running. Playing volleyball. Rollerblading. Bike riding. Laying out. Surfing. Laying out. Priorities did not include: Eating. Studying {I did make 99.9% of my classes, though!}. Seeing MTV filming the latest reality show next door wasn't really big news. And neither was coming home to a complete stranger sleeping on your couch.

My first memory of Jack would be seeing him walk by my door carrying his surf board towards the beach. He was in an all black tank top and board shorts and all I could think was: He. Is. So. Cute.

Later that night, my roommate Ashley was doing my hair & makeup in our bathroom for a party later. Jack was unusually interested. And wanted to join us later. I wondered why.

Dover is also where I snagged my dream internship at the {imo} best boutique tax firm in all of San Diego, which turned into my dream job after I graduated. So, although after living at the beach for a year felt almost as if I had survived a war {exhaustion from always being on the go, heading to a party, working out, getting to class, working my hostess job to pay the rent-which I would not have been able to do without my family's help}, I wouldn't give up that experience for anything. I still am in contact and love almost every friend I made on Dover Court, and I ended up marrying my next door neighbor. Yes, living here probably did play a large role in the only C I earned in my college career {Operations Management...what even IS that?}, but it was beyond worth it. Hands down, Dover Court was epic.

Some other fun facts:

Jack's parents lived on Dover Court as newlyweds.

Dover Court is the only reason I know how to parallel park like a champion...in any vehicle.

Dover Court is where Jack and I discovered that we have the same birthday. 8.3.1984. It was all over from there...why fight destiny?

Dover Court is where my husband proposed to me {years later}:

{Moments after the proposal. Jack's Dad was hiding with a camera to catch our faces...so that's what the growing crowd on the boardwalk was doing.}

Here's to many more of our generations having memories on Dover. I wouldn't trade mine for the world.

Sophisticated Sheets.

One of my latest projects: to revitalize the random hodgepodge of mismatching sheets from different houses and beds that we {separately} occupied in our college days. I saw these seashore sheets at Pottery Barn and couldn't resist them for our beach apartment in Alameda....Reasons they were my top choice:

• Pattern fills a void left in my soul where leopard print & pink used to be.
• Passes Jack's "Cozy Test" (past winners fall into the category of micro-fleece, jersey,  or flannel...anything ridiculously comfortable and oppositely easy on the eyes...I consider this one a miracle!).
• This view from our bedroom is why they make sense. 
• Neutral brightens up our shoe-box sized room.