It's That Time of Year Again...

....the time of year I complain about how bad it sucks to live in the desert during the fall.





I'm officially depressed.


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17 & 18 Weeks

I've had a couple of people from home ask about the "baby bump" so I am going to try to post "the bump" as often as I can remember.  We are trying to take a picture every week.  We started at 17 weeks so we will see how it goes.  Also, just for my documentation, I felt the baby move for the first time on Sept. 2, 2010!  I wasn't sure if it was the baby or gas but it kept happening and has definitely gotten stronger in the past weeks! :)  And as you will see I started "poking out" A LOT between 17 weeks and 18 weeks!

17 Weeks!!

18 Weeks!!

Austria - Part II

After our Saturday day trip to Salzburg we were pretty worn out (especially me)!  So Sunday we slept in and did a little more city exploring on Sunday afternoon.   We ate at a cute little pizza bistro for lunch and then toured St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Katie and I eating pizza al fresco.

St. Stephen's Cathedral.  The architecture was unbelievable!!!

Unbelievable detail in St. Stephen's.

Just an extra little tidbit about St. Stephen's Cathedral:  For forty years, many years ago, any person that died in Vienna was buried in St. Stephen's catacombs.  Katie and I didn't see the catacombs (it cost extra) but we heard about "rooms of bones."  It so happens that I found this picture on the internet, which looks unbelievably similar to the picture that Travis (mentioned in previous post) took with his cell phone.  Evidently the stench got so bad that they had to quit holding church there for a while.  The church still holds services there today and it just blows my mind that people attend a church that has dead people in it..... A LOT of dead of people.

After St. Stephen's we wandered around Vienna even more and came across an awesome shopping center.  Unfortunately, because it was Sunday, everything was closed so we decided to go back on Tuesday.  Late Sunday we walked through a tunnel, then through an archway and stumble upon this:

We learned from our tour book that this where the president lives and this building also houses the Austrian National Library.

Sunday evening I was, again, pretty pooped so I decided to go to bed relatively early and Katie went out with several other State Farm agents.

Monday, the travel agency that planned the trip for all of the State Farm agents organized trip to a small town outside of Vienna called Melk.   In Melk we took a tour of a HUGE monastery that is still active.

Monastery in Melk.  Again, the architecture was breathtaking!

After the tour of the monastery we went on a dinner cruise on the Danube River.  I have to say that this was probably the highlight of the trip for me....just floating down the river and coming across castle ruins, tiny towns with vineyards and even a palace!  

A view of the Danube from the monastery.

Castle ruins.

A quaint little town with vineyards on the hill.

Katie and I cruising on the top of the boat.

A huge palace on top of the hill.

Tuesday was our last day in Austria.  We got up fairly early and went back to the shopping area that was closed on Sunday.  We hadn't done much souvenir shopping so that was our main goal for Tuesday morning.  I am not much a souvenir person so I decided I wanted a Christmas ornament....something that I knew I would use and would be a reminder, every year, of my trip.  Katie and I found a cute little Christmas shop and I picked out a "Christopher Radko-esque" ornament of St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is very much a symbol of Vienna.  I also found a wooden wind-up carousel that played "The Blue Danube" for the baby's room since the baby traveled with me to Austria! :)

After shopping we went to The Belvedere.  It was at one time a palace in Vienna but they have since turned it into an art gallery.  This was also a highlight for me because I had know idea we would get to see original paintings by Rembrandt, Renoir and Van Gogh!  It was awesome.  The main attraction of the Belvedere is the Klimt display.  Klimt was famous for the painting called "The Kiss".  Klimt's art is very much representative of Austria.

I found this picture on the internet.  I didn't get many good shots of The Belvedere because it was just SO big!

I did take this picture.  This is a picture of the grounds on the opposite side of The Belvedere that is pictured above.  The grounds were gorgeous!

Unique statue on the front of The Belvedere.

Tuesday evening we went out to a nice dinner with Stephanie, Kirk, Travis and Pat.  It was a great way to end a fabulous trip!

Wednesday morning we were up early to catch our bus to the airport and thus began a VERY long day of traveling.  I think after all was said and done with traveling home, I was up for over 24 hours and I had to get up and go to work the next day....NOT FUN!  And I think I cried when I saw Preston in the airport because I was just so. tired.

Like I said before, this trip was absolutely amazing....definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me and I will never be able to truly thank Katie for her generosity!  Katie - maybe when we are old and retired we can do this again! :)

Austria - Part I

I'm not sure really how to start this post.  There is so much to write about, so many pictures and so little time and space.  So I have decided to split it up into two posts so hopefully it won't be so overwhelming for you and me!

I had an awesome time in Austria with Katie.  I will never be able to fully express how appreciative I am that Katie invited me on this trip.  Not only was it a unbelievable just being in Europe, but getting to spend a week of quality time with Katie was great.

After an extremely cold, 10 hour flight, with a several hour layover in Houston.  Katie and I finally made it to Vienna around 8:00pm Thursday evening Austria time.  We were very tired with greasy hair so we checked in, unpacked, took showers, ordered room service and went to bed.

Friday morning we were suppose to go on a bus tour of the city but due to a slight case of jet lag we opted to sleep in and explore the city ourselves that afternoon.  We had a blast getting familiar with the area surrounding our hotel.  We shopped, tried our first Austrian cuisine and walked through beautiful parks.

This was the park that was right across the street from our hotel.  It was gorgeous!!

That gold statue is a statue of Mozart as a young child.

This guy was playing as we strolled through the park....it was very picturesque!

Friday evening we met up for dinner with Katie's friend Travis and his friend Pat.  Travis is also a State Farm agent.  Let me just say that dinner with Travis and Pat was a real treat....I don't think I stopped laughing the entire time!

Katie and Travis on our way to dinner.

On Saturday we got up early and took a bus trip to Salzburg.  We were both still pretty tired/jet lagged so we slept a good a bit of the bus ride but it was very cool getting to see the Austrian countryside.  It is absolutely beautiful!!  Once we arrived in Salzburg, our tour guide pointed us in the direction of some tourist hotspots and we took off walking.  We ate at one of the oldest restaurants in Salzburg.  At the restaurant we met up with Katie's good friend Stephanie and her husband Kirk.  Here are some highlights of what we saw in Salzburg:

The garden where "Do Re Mi" from The Sound of Music was filmed.

A fountain from the same garden.  I believe the Von Trapp children skipped around this fountain in the movie.

We breezed by Mozart's home.

This is "The Fortress."  It was built into the mountain and was really a city within the city.  You could easily get lost in this place!

Katie and I at the top of "The Fortress" with a hint  of the Swiss Alps in the background.

After touring through "The Fortress" it was time for us to head back to the bus.  The bus ride back to Austria was HOT and we were all very tired from walking all over Salzburg.  Plus our tour guide played the entire soundtrack of The Sound of Music on the ride back.   That was fun at first but others thought it necessary to show off their singing abilities and me, Katie, Stephanie and Kirk got slightly annoyed.  Needless to say, we were happy to get back to the hotel.  I took a nap the minute we got back (don't forget....I was just 8 weeks pregnant so not only was I "first trimester tired" but I just walked ALL OVER Salzburg).  Katie and I decided that this was another good night for a shower and room service, followed by a movie on my laptop since only two channels on the television were in English.  Stay tuned for Part II!!