28 weeks
We got to see our baby today! It's growing at a good rate (it's in the 64th percentile for overall size), and everything looks healthy. We also found out that Karianne does not have gestational diabetes, which is a relief. Here are the latest pics:
This is from the side -- the baby's feet are way up by its head in some kind of pre-natal yoga position.
This may not be too clear... it's the baby's face, with its left arm up over its head.
The coolest part of the sonogram (for me, at least) was seeing the baby's hands in detail. We didn't get a still image of that, but it was just amazing, and it was moving its hands as we watched, so it looked like it was waving at us :-D
We're not in Kansas anymore...
...but we were last week! On Saturday, July 2 we headed up to Hays, Kansas to celebrate Karianne's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. On the way there, we stopped in Alva, OK to see the cemetary where my grandparents (Dad's side) are buried and to see some friends.
After that, we drove to Kinsley, KS, where Grandpa Howard's sister Loretta lives. We visted with her for about an hour, and before we left we took this picture:
Then we went up to Hays. The celebration was great -- wish we'd gotten a picture of Karianne with her grandparents, but we did get some good video of the event, which we'll hopefully post here sometime. Our second night there we ate dinner at a brewery, which was very fun... until about 2:00 the next morning. Something Karianne ate there gave her a terrible case of food poisoning, and we ended up going to the emergency room and spending our 4th of July in the Hays hospital! The doctor and nurses were great, and Karianne started feeling a lot better in the evening, so we headed out and drove to Salina. We saw some fireworks from the highway, so it wasn't a total loss!
In Salina we visited with Karianne's Mom's Aunt Mary. She cooked up some wonderful french toast and showed us a lot of crafts she's made. Right now she's into restoring old lamps ("parlor lamps," aka "Gone With the Wind lamps"), but she also has a kiln and makes a lot of ceramics and other things. Here we are with her (in the green shirt) and Aunt Lenea (not sure if I'm spelling that right):
On the way out of Salina the next day we picked up some
cozies from The Cozy Inn, a 6-stool diner dating back to 1922. Cozies are little hamburgers, and they taste great!
Oh yeah -- we also went out to Lindsborg, which is a Swedish town (sort of the Swedish equivalent of Fredericksburg, for Texas folk). Here's a picture of Karianne and Joshua (riding an enormous Dala horse):
We drove to Lawrence and stayed with Karianne's uncle Richard and his family (fun, but we parked on the street and our car got egged for no reason!), and the next day we all headed to St. Louis, MO. When we got there, we drove straight to the headquarters of the
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS), where we met with Pastor Larry Krueger. Pastor Krueger (aka "Rev K") was our pastor at Texas A&M, where we met. He wanted us to meet him at work so he could introduce us to his boss, Gerry Kieschnick, the president of the LCMS. It's a long story, but a while back I wrote a song for Pres. Kieschnick called "There Ain't Been No Trash in My Trailer Since I Threw You Out Last Saturday Night." (You can listen to the mp3 if you click on the "Music" link at the top of this page.) So Rev K wanted him to meet us in person. Here's a picture of us with him:
We had a really nice visit! I also have a letter that Pres. Kieschnick sent a while back about that song, which you can see
here.While we were in St. Louis we stayed at the lovely, flamingo-adorned "Krueger Dew Drop Inn," which we can highly recommend! If you ever stay there, and you ask them nicely, the Krueger's may take you to Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard -- you would not believe how many people show up at this place every night. We were there on a week night and there were people almost spilling over into the street -- on a really busy night, people DO spill out into the street! The custard was great :)
And of all the odd coincidences: the one day we happened to be in St. Louis, our good friends Dustin and Michelle Gooding and Jesse Carter were also passing through on the way to a wedding in Chicago! They called Rev K and we decided to all get together for lunch. Here's a pic from outside the Pizzaria Uno:
So that couldn't have gone better :) In St. Louis we also saw the zoo (most of the animals were standing in the shade facing away from us... It was like a tour of animal butts), we visited Concordia Seminary (and of course the bookstore there), and we drove by this big Arch they have there. It's cool, it's like, made of metal or something. It's pretty tall, too. You should definitely check it out if you're ever in St. Louis, just ask somebody about "the big metal arch thing," I'll bet they'll know what you mean.
We left St. Louis on Friday (the 8th) and drove to Tulsa, where we had dinner with Karianne's uncle Scott, Iva, and their son Scott. That was really fun! The next day we headed home, stopping in Purcell, OK to visit my dad's Aunt Eulalia (another of Grandpa Howard's sisters). She made us a wonderful lunch and we had a really nice time visiting. Here's a picture of us with her:
All in all, it was a great trip, and we're glad to be back!
