And the Verdict is In:

It's a boy!!

Long walks on the beach

We decided we had to take Grant to the beach at least once while we were in VA, what with only a 40 min. drive, you can't beat that. We went a couple weeks ago on a Sunday evening when my brother Ryan was in town, and my parents came along too. It ended up being a great idea to go in the evening because it was so nice out with a cool ocean breeze. We mostly just walked around a bit and let Grant play in the sand. He wasn't too keen on getting in the water, whenever the wave broke he would high-tail it to the shore. Being out there reminded us of how relaxing and fun it is to be at the beach. Anyone up for getting together and renting a beach house again?

Grant loves playing with his grandpa and has decided my dad's name is "Papa". He spends all day asking for his "Daddy" and "Papa". I have to continue to tell him they are at work and he will see them later. He doesn't quite have a name for my mom yet, Grandma is a little hard to say. And I guess he wouldn't ask for me when I'm with him all day. Still, I don't feel quite as popular with Grant as the men in the family. Although, one day when I was out my mom said Grant asked for "mommy" several times, that makes me feel a little better :)

What's a trip to the beach without posing on the lifeguard stand? You get a great view of the ocean from up there.

Here's the back of Ryan, Grant, my mom, dad and a little of my bro. Ryan. At least you can see the waves.

This is what Grant really preferred to do at the beach. Good thing my parents had some old sand toys lying around. It's quite surprising how covered with sand a baby can get when only playing in sand for a short while. The tub was full of sand after his bath.

Happy Anniversary!

Four years and I couldn't be happier. I love you, Ryan!

Numero Dos

As you may have guessed by the little baby floating around on the right of the screen we are expecting another Nicker-Wood to join our family. We are very excited and the little guy or gal is due to come in February. Now if only this nausea will go away...

Time for an update--Part 3

I promise this is my last update for the day but I couldn't leave out our Utah trip. For the first weekend of our CO trip we flew up to UT for the Wood family reunion. We stayed in a beautiful, humongous cabin in the mountains of Heber City. There were lots of activities planned to keep us busy but we also had fun just hanging out with the family, playing games and catching up.

On Friday we spent time in Park City, going on a crazy scavenger hunt, looking through shops and having a picnic lunch. Yes, we stopped in the fur shop and yes, Ryan tried on the fuzzy hat, he said it was comfy.

The best part of the cabin for Grant was this large stuffed bear. Grant would squeal with joy every time he saw it and run and tackle it. The bear, being rather large, could hold his own in a wrestling match and Grant left with a few head bruises from knocking into the bed frame. I guess it's a risk you have to take when bear-wrestling.

Friday night became guy night as all the Wood-men ended up in the hot tub for a couple of hours. I guess they had a lot of man things to discuss while their toes and fingers turned into shriveled raisins. Us ladies spent the night playing games and getting to bed before midnight.
On Saturday we headed down to Pleasant Grove to hit up the Strawberry Day's fair and rodeo. The fair was a little ghetto (as to be expected) but the rodeo was tons of fun. Grant actually did pretty well at the rodeo, especially considering it wasn't done till after 10pm. We made sure to get some of the famous strawberries and cream, which were delicious. If you haven't tried them I would make it a point to get some. At the fair, we wanted to let Grant try out his first carnival ride, so we figured we couldn't go wrong with the carousel, right? I'll let the picture answer that one.

Granted it was a very rickety-old carousel and it jerked around a lot. I think the carnies were getting to him. On Sunday we went to church, took a family picture (which I hope to post next time), had a delicious lunch and said our goodbyes. Ryan had to leave that night to go back to CO to start work on Monday. I decided to stay a few days with Grant at Nana's to visit and since Sam, Christine and the kids, and my bro Ryan, were all in UT for the summer.

We had to block the stairs at Nana's with this chair since Grant refuses to go down the stairs like we teach him, he wants to go down like all the adults. The kids made the turned over chair a coveted seat and would actually sit there for awhile. I think they were probably just staking their claim on the seat.
We had fun in Utah and hung out with Christine and the kids each day. One day we went to Gardiner's Village and another day we went down to BYU. It was all fun and games until on Wed (we were flying back to CO Wed. night at 6pm) I got horrible food poisoning, I think from the previous night's Panda Express. Let me just say it was one of the worst days of my life, especially since I had to go on a crowded airplane and the guy who sat next to me would not stop talking, even though I told him repeatedly that I had been sick all day and still did not feel good. I definitely puked on the descent, but at least it was the final puke of the day. I started to feel a little better the next day but I'm not sure if I can trust Panda Express ever again.

After all our trips this summer Grant was excited to be home and see all his old toys again. That lasted until Monday and he was bored with them again. So we're back to our old routines and are here for another month until the next rotation in Virginia. I think I am done posting for the day:)

Time for an update--Part 2

We had a lot of fun in Colorado and are glad we were able to check it out, since we are considering it as a place to live after all this schooling is out of the way. Every weekend was full of sightseeing and hanging out with visiting roomies and their husbands. Bri and Dave came down one weekend and Jenna and Drew came 4th of July weekend. And of course we got to hang out with Robyn and Aaron since they're not too far from Troy and Tracie. It was so good to see everyone again and have fun together!

This is a cool hike in Boulder that we started and then came back (can't get too adventurous in flip-flops and with a stroller). Another weekend we went to Estes Park which is a really cute town way up in the mountains that had pretty rivers and lakes and a fun little main street with shops and touristy things. Estes Park is where the hotel used in The Shining is located, that would be scary staying there.

Grant would have loved to swim down the river rapids, but once again I had to restrain him, I'm such a mean mom.

One of Ryan's highlight's of the trip was finding this Cabella's-like store (I can't remember what it was called). It was pretty neat inside, almost like an animal museum. We were on our way back from Boulder when we drove by the store. Robyn and Aaron pulled over since Ryan got so excited and we spent some time looking around. Pretty big bear, huh?

This is how I kept myself busy when Ryan started looking at the guns. The deer wouldn't leave me alone, I had to give in.

During the weekdays, Grant and I would often head over to the neighborhood pool or park, which were both awesome. We had to live it up because I don't know when Grant will be able to go back to a pool that fun. It had a great kiddy-swim area, a big slide and two separate lap/swim pools. It was a great in-between nap activity.
We were sad to go but Troy and Tracie definitely deserve a week or two of quiet before their baby arrives. I know the one saddest of all to see us leave was their cat, Lexi. I think she really liked us in spite of trying to act like she didn't :) I guess soon enough there will be another baby to chase her around so she won't feel lonely. Thanks again Troy, Tracie, Robyn and Aaron, we had a lot of fun!!

Time for an update--Part 1

As you can see I have not updated our blog in quite a long time, even for my standards. This past Saturday we got back from a month long stay in CO with our friends Troy and Tracie. Ryan scheduled one of his rotations in Colorado Springs and Troy and Tracie were nice enough to let us stay with them and show us around CO. I will put more about the CO trip in Part 2, first I've been meaning to post these pics since before we left.

Grant has his first major scrape up in the beginning of June when we was running down a sidewalk hill, tripped, and rolled around a few times. It looked a little worse in person, especially when blood was oozing off his face. We had to document it now so we can realize how minor it was when he gets older and really hurts himself.

Here he is now with no major residual scars. I guess you can't really see in this picture but he does have a slightly elevated pink circle on the top of his forehead where the major scar was, but we're hoping that will eventually fade. If not, he can add it to his collection of battle wounds.