He's here!

Weston Lawrence Uplinger arrived on May 18, 2014 at 6:25pm.

He weighed 8 pounds, 1 oz and was 20" long!

35 weeks, 4 days...and counting!

Happy Easter! 

This year we went to church with Stephen's parents in the morning, got coffees at the espresso stand, and then lounged around at home for a few hours before going to my Uncle's house for an Easter feast and great family time.

Here is my Easter day outfit, the dress is actually a maxi I've had for years that is stretchy enough to work with my big bump. The cardigan is from Target.

How far along? 35 weeks, 4 days
Total weight gain: hovering around 10 lbs
Maternity clothes: Yes, definitely. Still able to use a lot of pre-maternity pieces though.
Stretch marks? Yes :-(
Sleep: Terrible! Getting comfortable is difficult, and the waking up 1-3 times every night to use the bathroom isn't the most fun!
Best moment this week: I think the best moment was when I was in church this morning and he was kicking so hard due to the loud worship music - It was easy to get over the pain as I was just imagining him dancing and turning in there praising the Lord.
Miss anything? Being able to bend over easily
Movement: Tons.
Food cravings: No real cravings
Anything making you queasy or sick? No.
Gender: BOY!
Labor signs: Braxton hicks for sure
Symptoms: Lower back pain & elevated blood pressure (not fun)
Belly button in or out? In, I thought it was getting close to popping out at 26 weeks but it's even closer now!
Wedding rings on or off? On.
Happy or moody most of the time? Happy! I think Steve will agree though, the last few weeks have been the hardest on me emotionally and physically
Looking forward to: Meeting our baby!! Could be very soon :-)

26 weeks

Haven't done one of these yet, thought it might be fun :)

How far along? 26 weeks
Total weight gain/measurements: 5lbs
Maternity clothes: Yes, definitely. Still able to wear most of my pre-maternity cardigans and some shirts too.
Stretch marks? Still no new ones.
Sleep: Decent... Waking up 1-3 times every night to use the bathroom, I've heard it only gets worse!! :-O
Best moment this week: Ultrasound on Thursday, got to see Baby in 3D, watched him moving around. So cool.
Miss anything? Being able to bend over easily
Movement: Tons. He's been moving a lot now and you can see my belly moving as he does, it's cool and freaky!
Food cravings: No real cravings
Anything making you queasy or sick? No.
Gender: BOY!
Labor signs: none yet
Symptoms: Mild lower back pain, fatigue, and frequent bathroom visits
Belly button in or out? In, but it's getting close!
Wedding rings on or off? On.
Happy or moody most of the time? Happy!
Looking forward to: First baby shower in a couple weeks, and finishing the paint in his room.

...Surprise!

Yup, that's right!! After trying to get pregnant for almost one year we finally conceived and are going to be parents in May 2014! We seriously couldn't be any more excited. 

Steve was out of town on business in Pennsylvania when I found out, but I couldn't wait to tell him when he got home a few days later so I called him at 4am in the morning our time (7 in PA) and asked him if he was gonna be by his phone for a while cause I wanted to send him a picture. 

Once he said he'd be at the hotel for another 30 minutes or so, I sent him a picture of 3 of the 4 at home pregnancy tests I took with 2 little positive lines. I think at first he didn't know what to think, since we'd been waiting so long to see those lines! It was the best way to start my day out and was so hard to keep the news a secret! After confirming pregnancy with my general practitioner we started thinking of ways to tell our parents the good news. My mom was kind of expecting it, but Steve's parents had no idea. 

We ended up telling our parents by putting the above picture in a frame and handing it to them. My mom immediately responded "I already knew! I could tell when I saw you last week and your chin was broken out!" (I normally don't have acne, and apparently it was something my mom got during her pregnancy as well!) Everyone was super excited, and we couldn't wait to keep telling everyone we knew.

We waited a while longer to announce to everyone, until a couple weeks after our first ultrasound on October 10th. We got to see the little embryo, confirmed conception date and saw the little heartbeat on the screen. It was the best feeling in the entire world!  We told most people in our family by sending them a picture of the ultrasound. It was great to share the news fnally!!

I posted this on facebook to announce, it was hilarious to see how many people missed the point thinking we were just doing another home renovation project, lol!

Playing catch up...

I haven't updated this blog in such a long time, I figured it was about time to get it done! I have a bunch of topics from the last 6 or so months of our lives to catch you up on :)

Alpine Lakes Wilderness - The Enchantments

The end of August 2013, 7 of our group of close friends were privileged enough to spend 5 days and 4 nights backpacking the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. We started at the Stuart/Colchuck Lake Trailhead and made our way through the loop to the Snow Lakes Trailhead, only about 20.5 miles but treacherous and grueling.

I did a lot of research reading others blogs and reviews of the hike before we set out, so I was psyched up for what was in store for us.

The first day we hiked from the Eightmile Trailhead to Colchuck Lake. Swam in the lake before dinner and then rested up for our approach to & hike up Aasgard Pass in the morning.

Beginning of Day 2

The approach to Aasgard Pass from Colchuck Lake is a bit treacherous, big boulders to climb over, under and through but we made it! And this is what it looked like from the bottom. I am pretty sure it was the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life!

Day 2 - Aasgard Pass (2,300' gain over 0.8 miles)

At the top, you first come to the Upper Basins. They are full of rocks, little vegetation and it looks absolutely surreal. There was still quite a bit of snow in areas even being late August.

We set up camp in the upper basin, night #2 and then headed down to the middle basin on day 3. We found a perfect spot to camp for the night between Inspiration and Perfection Lakes. It was high enough up to have a gorgeous view of Prusik Peak. The water was very cold, but still was fun to jump in and get cleaned up a little bit. This area was filled with mountain goats. They were pretty friendly for the most part, but we made sure we carried rocks when going to the restroom as they are after the salt in your urine.

Perfection Lake with Prusik Peak in the background

Inspiration Lake

Billy, the Goat

On the fourth day - Karla, Joey & Steve went on their own and hiked Prusik Peak and then met the rest of the group at the upper Snow Lake. The trail through the lower basin lakes is so gorgeous, the water is so clear!!! From Lake Viviane down to the Upper Snow Lake the trail is basically sheer rock cliffs. Painful on the knees and super scary, if you lost your footing you were going off the edge!

Lower Lake Basin, Sprite Lake

 Our fifth and final day we left early in the morning and hiked at a grueling speed to make it out by lunch time. 6.6 miles with about a 4,200' elevation drop. It was a great feeling when we hit the trailhead and knew we could be home taking a shower in just a few hours!!

Deception Creeks Hike

In preparation of our Enchantments Hike in August we set out on a quick overnight backpack trip a few weekends ago. We had originally planned to take #1059 Deception Creek the full 5 miles to camp at the Creek junction. After stopping at the Skykomish Ranger Station, the Ranger talked us into doing a different hike instead due to the number of hikers that were already camping on the #1059 trail.

We started out at the #1059.1 trailhead (spur to Tonga Ridge) after driving some 14+ miles on a gravel road. There were about 4 other vehicles parked at this trailhead, but we didn't encounter anyone until we reached the junction with #1059 (Deception Creek Trail) - there were a couple of campers there just as the Ranger had . The #1059.1 spur is roughly 0.7 miles, that has an elevation drop of 700'. I knew on the way down that the way out the next morning was going to be grueling!!

We continued on the #1059 across Deception Creek and then  for about 3 miles of relatively light elevation gain to the #1059.2. There were multiple blow downs and creek crossings, but nothing too difficult to get over.

Near the junction of #1059.1 and #1059 - Deception Creek log crossing

Another Deception Creek crossing

The #1059.2 to Deception Lakes is a seemingly endless array of switchbacks and elevation gain before it meets up with the Pacific Crest Trail. I thought I was going to die! ;-) After a quick break, and another 1/2 mile or so and we were at the Lakes. We camped on the "island" between the Deception Lakes and Daisy Lake. Despite the warm daytime temperature, it was very cold at night and there were LOTS of bugs also.

Deception Lakes from the camp spot

Daisy Lake

Nighttime stars!