This is just the beginning

Pregnancy has not been my best friend. I'm not one of those women who love every moment of growing a baby inside their belly...nope, not me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful I'm pregnant. For months I felt the disappointment as the realization struck... not this time. Nothing is more frustrating than the waiting and wondering "when?" game.

Now that I am in this pregnant body, I am thinking...what was the rush? Oh yeah, I had forgotten this first trimester phase that I went through 3 years ago.

BLAH, YUCK, PLEASE NO THROWING UP TODAY PHASE.

Robbie swears it has been worse this time around, but the memories have come flooding back. The toilet bowl never looked so familiar.

Another familiarity is this little friend...

ya know, can't button up the pants anymore so loosen it up with a hair elastic. genius.

Things definitely progress a lot faster with baby #2. Time has already flown by with a two year old to keep my attention! Luckily I've been having more good days than bad with the nausea. I sure hope I'm not jinxing myself!

Now I have to give out a warning to any other fellow nauseous, tired, hormonal, pregnant women...

Dog parks are NOT your friend.

This past Saturday evening Robbie had the idea of getting out of the house and taking Lexi to our neighborhood dog park. Now, neither of us had ever actually been there, so we didn't know what to expect, with the exception of dogs running around of course.

Well well well, they might want to reconsider the name for this so called "park."
It ain't no park.

I came prepared for a park with my large blanket and over sized umbrella in hand. Wearing my flip flops and sunglasses. Taryn being the girly girl she is wanted to wear her newest pair of shoes that went perfect with her cute new sunday dress. Of course I had planned for her to wear the next day.

As we began our journey along the dog park trail I wondered silently, "hmm, when does this gravely downhill dirt road end and the big beautiful lush park appear?"
The trail kept going and going and I began complaining out loud and thinking, "big downhill trail will eventually turn into big UPHILL trail on the way back."

We finally made it to the bottom only to realize their is no grassy area with swings and slides. Just pools of water and dirt for dogs of any kind to soak themselves in and then come shake off right next to you. (which they totally did)

I did happen to find the one and only bench. I plopped my blanket on it and sat down to watch everyone else in their hiking boots, camel backs, and grungy clothes. Then a big hairy soaking wet muddy dog thought that bench looked quite inviting and jumped on up besides me...
Yay, this is SO FUN!

Right after that moment I heard some familiar voices. Some neighbor friends! One of the families happens to have the same dog as us (and the mom, Amy, is totally my kind of gal.) The other friend is one of my best ward buddies, Carrie! They had all their kiddos with them as well, but of course they were dressed to fit the part. "Ok," I thought, "if they come here, I can totally do this." I explained my original idea of the park to them and they laughed saying they both made the same mistake the first time they came. Amy had even worn heels the first time!

The husbands decided to keep on walking and we all followed, I told the ladies about my pregnancy and they said, "well why the heck are you here! This is like the bottom of the list of places you want to come to when your feeling nauseous and tired!"

"I know, I know!" I explained, but I didn't want to be a party pooper.

Speaking of pooper...there was a lot of that going on.

We walked and walked and luckily their conversations kept my mind off of feeling sick and made the experience worthwhile. Taryn was loving the other kids around and held hands and ran along with them, all the while getting her shoes more muddy and non-sunday ready in the process. (which Zout made all better as soon as we were home.) Overall, she was having a ton of fun until she realized dinner time had come and gone and she was starving! The other moms were prepared and had a few cracker snacks for their wee ones. When Taryn realized snacks were close by, she turned into beggar child and would not stop screaming for crackers.

We still had quite a ways to go back which ya know ended with the climb uphill. The moms were feeling sorry for me and even offered to kick their own out of their strollers to push me up the final climb. I almost gave in... but made a personal goal of finishing the climb all by my preggers self.

All in all, it turned out to be a somewhat enjoyable evening...until that is we made a quick stop at McDonalds to ease Taryns starvation and the smell made me dry heave all the way home.

So, note to self: stay away from dog related places until pregnancy passes and I'm back to normal active self.