Getting Closer

It's hard to believe the baby is due in less than 6 weeks! Being pregnant and functioning like a normal person is definitely a challenge. My belly gets in the way of everything I try to reach, I have frequent trips to the bathroom making all my work meetings interesting, and I'm just tired. It's fun though too. People are so incredibly nice to you when you're pregnant. They let you cut in line, they buy you presents, and everyone wants to talk to you. I know this won't last long so I'm going to soak it up while I can! :-) Recently the girls at work surprised me with a baby shower. It was really sweet I felt very loved!

Though my work is still keeping me busy at record speed, I'm really looking forward to taking maternity leave soon. I finally took the forms to have my Dr. fill out the necessary items. Once my work reviews, and hopefully approves, I'll be able to leave work on the 28th for maternity leave. I'm asking for 2 weeks off before the due date. I'm praying all goes through all right so I don't have to work right up until the due date.

Lately I've been shopping for baby gear and items to have on hand while James is finishing up the baby crib and other things. So far I've been lucky to be able to purchase so much online but soon I think I will actually have to trek out to Babies R Us for a few needed items. I know I've been avoiding it...sigh. I've also been cleaning and organizing everything I can think of. James and I don't want to get too baby crazy so we've been trying to do some non-baby things with our weekends as well. Last weekend we hiked up Griffith Park, and though it took me double the time to get the top it was a wonderful time to relax and chat with my best friend. I'm hoping we can go on another hike this weekend :-) Below is a pic of my baby bump from a hike we did 3 weeks ago.



Last weekend along with the hike, I had a fun opportunity to take some photos of a friend and her lovely baby. See below for some of my favorites. I'll probably post the rest on facebook sometime soon. Have a great week everyone!

Hike

Yes it's been too long...instead of typing a whole big story on why I haven't been blogging lately, I decided I would just begin to post little tid-bits at a time to fill you all in. And of course lots of pics....So a few weekends back James and I decided to hike up on of the mountains at Griffith park to see the famous solo tree at the top. It was very hot. And James told me it would be fun. He lead me along a very narrow pathway with lots of rocks. He assured me this was in fact the best way to go. At first there were some 4 foot tall rock walls to climb up. No biggie but lots of fun. Then we came to 1 of 2 15-20 foot walls. Might I remind you we are not trained rock climbers. James said he did the climb a week ago and convinced me that going up would be easier than going back. I agreed and found myself climbing up this wall with no ropes or helmets. I was so scared I was going to fall. But I didn't and we eventually made it to the top of the mountain for a spectacular view. At the top I noticed the smoother trail to the right and we took that pathway back down. It was a lot easier going down. When we finished I told James I had so much fun....but I was never doing that again! Ha! And b/c every story is better with a picture here is one from that trek. Please excuse the dirty and sweaty look I had going on...it was a really hard hike :-)




These are two pics from the hike. The first on is me in the middle of my climb up the rock wall. The other one is me at the tree on top of the mountain. It was hazy that day so you can't really see the city but it is behind me.

4th of July weekend

This weekend was filled with cleaning and relaxation. James was out of town for most of the weekend working on a film. Luckily he got home Sat. afternoon. We decided to have an early meal and grilled a nice steak dinner with artichokes and corn on the cob. James could barely keep his eyes open during the meal. He was of course exhausted from long days/nights of shooting but after an afternoon nap he was ready to go see fireworks.

We decided to do a short hike at Griffith park to a lookout peak we had not been to. This peak took us higher than the Observatory where we had seen the fireworks last year. And this year we had an amazing parking spot too so we were happy. It was an easy trail, although I did have to take a few breaks since it was all uphill and of course I was wearing flip-flops. (I really don't know what I was thinking!) But it was a gorgeous and sunny day. When we got to the top we found a small group of other people who decided to do the same thing. People even brought their horses. We had an excellent spot overlooking all of LA and this time we could see most of the valley too. It is an amazing perspective to see all these fireworks, going off all over the town. Some of the shows were quite impressive.

As it grew later it became cold and we had to hike back down in the dark. We weren't planning ahead and so we had no flashlight. Although we did have a nice almost full moon. I was a little nervous about seeing coyotes since people had spotted one following them on the way up to the lookout peak. But much to James' dismay we didn't see any coyotes. It was a nice to spend another holiday together enjoying our city. Here are some pics from our 4th of July hike.

Amazing!

Last week James and I celebrated our 3yr. anniversary by camping in the Sequoia National Park and I'm so glad we did. We had planned to camp near the top of the mountain but it was still snow covered. James like the idea of camping in the snow, but....I convinced him that staying at the bottom of the mountain where flowers and warmer weather would make the trip much more pleasant and me much more enjoyable :-) So we camped at a lovely campsite called Buckeye Flat, site 18 which was the best site on the whole lot. It was a small campground for tent campers only. Our lot was more secluded and bigger than the others. There was a rushing river that was behind our site and the sound of it put me to sleep at night. There were spacious bear boxes at each site, The first evening at the site we were able to take a short trail from our campground to the beautiful waterfalls. The temperatures were in the high 60s and surprisingly not many bugs, which is always a great sign to me!

The second day we drove back up to the top of the mountain. We hiked up to see General Sherman one of the largest giant sequoias in the park. And from there we took a short hike in and around the grove. There were snowy patches all around. It was beautiful but that area was a little too manicured with its paved hiking path. We continued to the museum, and then headed out to a  lookout called Beetle Rock. It was a massive rock overlook. We found a great little resting spot and admired God's beautiful work. Afterwards we headed out to Morrow Rock on a whim. It was a fabulous decision! We hiked up stone steps and slowly made our way to the top of this giant rock. At the top we had a full panoramic view of all the snow-capped mountains and the valley below.  It was windy but it was definitely a wow moment. Strangely enough a bunch of monks were visiting Morrow Rock that day as well. 

After that we decided to take a desolate trail to see Crescent Meadow. I thought there might be flowers there. The meadow was only about 2.6 miles from Morrow Rock, so I thought it would be easy. Boy it was tough. There we were hiking through giant sequoia trees and snow getting glimpses through the trees of the snow capped mountains in the distance. We didn't see a sole the whole time! I felt like a mouse in a strange fantasy land. At times James and I would have to check the snow or ground for footprints to ensure we were on the right track. It was beautiful and difficult, but it was worth it. When we arrived at Crescent Meadow there were no flowers, not even grass yet. But there was a lot of water covering the meadow. Instantly James and I heard the frogs. They were so loud it was deafening, really it was crazy! Since there weren't any flowers we continued on and hiked back to the car. We took a different route to ensure we saw the tunnel log where cars drive through the giant fallen sequoia.

We had wine and foil pockets, filled with meat and veggies, for dinner. And the entertainment for the night was the new neighbor camper who sounded like a bear every time he blew his nose. It was quite frightening, and funny!!! The next morning we checked out Hospital Rock with the ascent paintings. Then it was off on another hike where I could see the pretty flowers. It was beautiful! I was a little worried about seeing a bear, as there were some signs of a bigger animal using the trail we were on, but no bear this time. (James was a little disappointed...) We headed home shortly after our hike. It was a wonderful camping trip! Now I'm set on going to Yosemite....I just need to figure out when.

 I'm still editing my pictures, this week has been super busy and we have a ton of them. (Of course!)  But I promise they are coming soon...stay tuned :-)