disneyworld: epcot!!

the next morning, as we turned around the hotel corner towards the car, jon said "okay guys, i can only blame myself for this." we all looked over to see what he was talking about: the three boxes of CPK pizza sitting on the roof of john and kat's car. all night, in the rain. i guess jon had pulled them out of the trunk and put them on top of the car and then forgot to take them inside!

we were sooo bummed, as our whole plan was to have leftover pizza in epcot all day long! the pizza was mostly soaked, but i ate a piece of mine that was a bit dry and almost immediately regretted it. we threw it all away!

it didn't damper our mood too much, i mean how grumpy can you be at disney world? we were so excited to go to epcot because john and kat raved about it and said it was all about innovation and culture! two things we're totally into, but mostly cultural foods/accents.

 a couple hours into the day, it started POURING RAIN! it came down hard and fast! it started raining while we were on Rocket to the Red Planet. full disclaimer: there are two parts to this motion simulator ride. you can either go on the side that isn't so thrilling, or the side that is very thrilling. john and kat had been on the side that wasn't as thrilling since john gets motion sick. our friend jason told us the day before that we needed to go all in and go on the one that is very thrilling. i think all of us knew we were in line for the very thrilling side except john. RIGHT before we got into the very cramped 'space ship', kat told him that they had never been on this side of the ride and its supposed to be more intense than the ride they went on! we all watched his smile fade into a look of panic. there were so many signs everywhere saying "Do not ride this ride if you are prone to motion sickness!" another unsettling sight was a group of four teenagers getting really pumped up, jumping around nervously and screaming before getting into their space ship. kat and i exchanged very worried looks. we got in our space ship, the doors closed and we were looking at a screen that showed us getting boomeranged into space with major g force. kat was sitting next to me screaming "john i hate this! i hate this so much!!" totally freaking out! i finally yelled "KAT YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE." the four of us rode the rest of the ride in complete silence. i was sweating and talking myself out of throwing up. my eyes were closed and i was riding gerry in san diego, going over jumps and cantering around the arena. jon was holding my hand and i was careful not to squeeze it because i knew he'd already be really worried. the ride lasted way too long and when we finally finished and stepped off of the ride kat started profusely apologizing to me. it wasn't her fault and we were all very, very sick haha! the night before, at cpk, i told them i was really nauseous and they watched me take a zofran. immediately after taking it i said "i'm healed!" kat teased me saying it couldn't work that fast. after this simulator ride, i offered a zofran to kat. she took it and said "wow, that really does work fast." luckily the rain was coming down so hard that we had time to sit inside the gift shop waiting for jon to buy a poncho. it gave our stomachs time to settle. i decided to take off my shoes while it was raining, i felt like a sicko walking around the park barefoot, but i was happy later when it cleared up and i had dry shoes to put on!

the best part of epcot is obviously the food. we got chocolate in the UK, stopped in France and ate sweets and sandwiches. in japan we watched the drummers, in the US we listened to the presidents and the choir sing about america and just all around loved where we are from.

7 weeks 4 days.

Morocco. 

we stopped in italy and had the greasiest pizza. this is about the time that my cousin said "a.j., i'm really trying to keep up with you." (eating wise) in germany we got jon's favorite food: bratwursts. he said they were eh but still enjoyed the experience. 

in china we stopped and watched flexible chinese girls and strong chinese boys flip around and hula hoop. everyone else was more impressed than i was, but i loved the terra cotta warriors they had on display! i wrote a paper on them at San Diego State, so i loved seeing the replicas. these are the only replica of the original 8,000 warriors discovered in 1974 by a local chinese farmer trying to drill a well in Xi'an, china. i'm standing by a tall one, but in the room they had all the tiny warriors!

 jon loved norway because it reminded him of sweden! we rode the ride that wasn't great called the maelstrom. some parts were cool, but it was over all kind of weird. we heard that it was going to be turned into a Frozen ride which will probably be awesome.
our last stop was mexico! i love mexico and the little mart reminded us of old town san diego (haha). the ride was super cute and the atmosphere was really fun. we were pretty done at this point, so we didn't eat here and just headed home. i hadn't been sleeping very good since i got pregnant, but this weekend i didn't wake up hungry in the night once and i slept hard every night! it was awesome!
our last day was spent at the magic kingdom!!!

i want to go back: universal studios!

i'm finally writing about our awesome trip to disneyland/universal with my cousin John and his wife kat! we had so much fun and going through all these photos makes me want to go back this instant. 

 here i am at 7 weeks 2 days pregnant. skinny little thing! at this point i could already tell my body was changing. my boobs hurt so, so bad. i usually had to wear a sports bra to bed or else i would wake up in pain from rolling onto them, haha. i also felt very bloated. my morning sickness was in full swing. i'd wake up STARVING in the middle of the night, requiring jon to run downstairs for applesauce or cereal, or me waking him up by trying to slowly open a granola bar. i would wake up and eat almost every single night and i would eat at least every two hours during the day. work was very difficult because i'd have to sneak to the back and eat in the break room or in the bathroom so that no one was suspicious. i finally had to tell my good friend at work i was expecting because she kept commenting on how hungry i always was. we had told our immediate families but none of our cousins or aunts or anything yet, but we knew we had to tell john and kat before going on our trip. they were very excited for us and i'll tell you that they were so sweet about it the whole trip.

here we are in the orlando airport! we flew really early in the morning so that we could spend the first day at universal studios.  

 we decided to go to universal studios because j&k told us it would be a let down if we were to go to disney world first, haha.

 this was the main event for us: the wizarding world of harry potter!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was a tiny section of universal, but it did not disappoint. the shops, the decor, the workers in wizard drab and the butter beer was all amazing. i think it's safe to say that jon's favorite part was the butter beer. i loved the honey dukes candy shop and the wand shop. before we went on our trip, we researched and talked a lot about the rides i would go on. i made the personal decision to go on most rides. i knew our baby was just a tiny bean and had a lot of space to be bouncing around in my belly, the main thing was the motion sickness. harry potter and the forbidden journey is the ride inside the castle and it was kind of like a real ride mixed with a 4d ride and boy did it make me sick. it was really awesome, but i don't know how much i'd like it even if i wasn't pregnant! after that, i had to sit out while the rest of the crew went on a more intense roller coaster (i think it was the dragon challenge). john sat out and ate saltines with me while they rode, he got sick on the castle ride too!

another fun thing about being in florida was my old friend from college, jason stephens, was working at disney world! he had friends in town, so he happened to be at universal the same day we were. it was sooo good to see him, jon and i both think he is the nicest. 

 

the second best part about universal studios was definitely the Jurassic park section. i haven't seen that movie in so long, so i really didn't recognize the scenery. john, kat and jon all loved it though! all i know is the JP ride was amazing.

we walked around the rest of universal, including marvel island. jon was realllllly digging it, he loves those comics and movies. we ate a bit (a lot), got some stretched pennies, and they went on the hulk ride. jon said it was really intense, i couldn't tell if he liked it or not. (when i asked him he said "i can't remember how much i liked it. i think it was fun but really loud.") all in all, it was a fun first day! we were surprisingly not too tired even though we'd gotten less than five hours of sleep the night before. we finished the night at california pizza kitchen, just in time too. i was feeling very, very sick by the time we got to the restaurant. this was all before i had even gone to the doctor, so i am lucky enough that my step-MIL had zofran at the house to send with me. (she's a nurse, she has that kind of thing laying around) zofran literally saved me this trip, it was amazing to feel how fast that stuff can work. john and kat had gift cards to CPK, so they treated us! we each got a pizza so that we could have left overs for the next day at the park…..more on that later. 

the last notable thing about our first day in FL was when john told us about his 'condition'. we were all getting ready for bed when he said "sooooo, let me tell you kids about a little thing called sleep apnea." jon and i moaned and groaned, but i secretly didn't mind at all. my dad has had that forever and has been using a C-PAP machine to sleep with for years. the constant drone of the machine is actually quite soothing to me!! 

next stop: epcot!!!!!!!

when father comes into town!

 my dad came to visit us!!!!!! it was back in mid-march and we had so much fun. jon and i both get along with him so well that we were excited for him to come and had fun the whole time he was there. 

we picked him up from the airport and immediately stopped for mexican. my dad went to mexico city on his mission, so he loves all things mexico. this restaurant was very authentic (even gary said so), it was like we were actually in mexico!! we told him about the pregnancy right before we went into the restaurant and he was so happy. the new baby was the focus of the conversation during lunch as my dad helped us out with planning and joking about telling everyone via social media. he did a good job at keeping it a secret for a couple weeks!

we then went to see the ALAMO! my dad is very well traveled, but this was his first time to san antone! he still knew everything about the alamo, though. 

 the alamo is right in the middle of downtown, its pretty cool.

 walking down to the riverwalk. 

this is a view of the buildings lining the riverwalk

 we went to eat at hard rock cafe mostly for the enormous sundae's they have/HAD! we ordered the big one and the waitress had no idea what we were talking about. she brought out a very regular sized sundae with a brownie that had been heated up in the microwave way too long. by the time the three of us had a bite or two each and decided to send it back, she told us that since it was mostly eaten she couldn't give us money back, she could only bring out another sundae. hahaha. the second one was much better although still tiny. while we were eating, we witnessed a mama squirrel carrying her baby allllll the way up this big tree and drop it off in a hole in the trunk. it was so cute! after her trek, she laid out flat by the hole and we could see a couple babies popping their heads up to look out. 

after dinner, we took a river cruise. we love those because the tour guides talk all about san antonio's history and about the buildings lining the riverwalk. one sad thing about this trip was my dad had purchased souvenirs at both hard rock and the alamo gift shop and put them in a bag with our left over food. when we sat on the boat, i put the bag under my seat and forgot about it
:(!! so we lost our food and souvenirs, it was a bummer. 

 beautiful

while my dad was in town, we thought we'd do some business. the two of us hosted a cruise night!!! it was a success if success means handing out ~500 flyers with our info on it, buying a small but yummy array of foods, renting a room at the library, getting 5 people to come (three being family) and no one booking a cruise, then yeah! it was a success! if you're wondering, we've both booked cruises since then so it was actually good experience. it was nice to be able to do a cruise night together since we are usually doing business together over the phone. we book all types of vacations, but as of now, cruises are our specialty :)

the next day we went to fredricksburg for some german food and history and salsa/jams/chipotle spreads/honeys/peanut butters etc, etc, etc. i look unhappy because i am. you always eat way too much at that place.

at this point in my pregnancy (4.5 weeks!!!) i was not feeling that sick yet, but i was so hungry!!!! during the whole trip we laughed about me needing food all the time, eating a little bit of it, and letting my dad or jon finish it for me. my abs also felt really weird. whenever i would move and roll over in the night i would wake up because my abs felt so tight. my dad said i was imagining things, but i wasn't. i was also sleeping very poorly. as soon as we found out i was pregnant, jon bought me an early birthday gift: a fitbit! i love it because it's been helping me track my weight and steps throughout the day as well as my sleep. i would wake up lots of times in the night and have trouble getting back to sleep. it was rare that i slept more than 2 hours straight, i do not miss that. 

 on our way home, we stopped in Luckenbach, texas! we only stopped there because of the song and apparently that's the only reason why anyone does. there is nothing there. 

 while i worked the following day, john, jonathan and my dad went and did boy things. i mean, girls can definitely shoot guns(and enjoy it), but not this girl. they had so much fun! jon and his dad love going shooting and my dad had a good time hanging out with them.

 the PGA tour was being held at the marriott right by our house just a week or two after my dad left!! we wish we would have scheduled his trip a little bit better, but it was fun to go to the golf course and see everything getting set up anyway. we told the hotel staff that we were travel agents and wanted to tour the hotel and they let us roam free. we really want to see the rooms, but they were totally booked!

on our way to natural bridge caverns, i needed food! we stopped at a BBQ place and i got a baked potato with brisket. this photo makes me sick to look at, but it was so good. i ate some and gave the rest to the boys, hehe:)

this was our last event with my dad! it was really crowded, we waited in line to get tickets for about an hour. it was worth it once we got in the caves, they are huge and beautiful!

 lots of people!

 

 this gives you a good idea of the scale. this wasn't even the biggest room!

we had so much fun with my dad in town. i miss him almost daily and wish we could spend more time with him more often. we loved having him come visit because he's easy to please and likes trying new foods and seeing new sights. we had a good week with him working and playing! it was also special because for the whole week he was here, he was the only person who knew we were expecting. it was fun to be able to talk to him about it and make plans for when the baby comes. (we are hoping to go out to utah over christmas with the little one) right now my dad is planning to come help out soon after the baby arrives and we are so glad. he's cute with his grandkids, especially the babies!