January Down

January is over.  Overall, I am quite happy about this, because by this time of year I am pretty much done with the cold; ready for spring. 

In looking back over the month, I think its appropriate to look at our enjoyment as an inverted bell curve.  The month started out with excitement and high hopes, but took some big dips, and then ended on a positive.

 We were pretty lame New Years Eve.  I was way too tired and sick to do anything other than sit on my couch.  But Sierra and I watched a movie with Briz, it was a perfect lazy evening.  The next day we were a bit more ambitious and took a trip to the beach.

It was a beautiful day there and I felt lucky to have so many other people to entertain Briz so I could just sit and watch.

Briz is kind of nuts and decided she wanted to go in the water, so the moment we got there, she pulled up her pants, took off her socks and shoes and headed straight for the water.  But she loves the beach.  Even the cold Oregon Coast.  And I love that.

She also loves her Papa.  They can be beach bums together.  Papa considers it his job to find seashells and sand dollars for Briz (for what she calls her "collection").

It's hard to explain how amazingly beautiful it was.  At one point I could hardly tell where the ocean ended and the sky began.

A few days after, we decided to do something we had wanted to do prior to Christmas but never got around to . . . Zoo lights.  Briz LOVED all of the lights, and was constantly picking out her favorite display (the Wizard of Oz won out).  Nick and I were a little less enthused.  We were hungry.

And Briz always has fun with Will and Ella. 

She would not stop giving this Polar Bear a hug, and it was starting to gross me out a bit because the bear did not look super clean.

Briz has been working on her reading and writing lately. She was very proud of herself this one day for writing Sam all by herself. 

The Thaynes invited us for a free day at OMSI, which really translated as a chance for Megan and I to hang out.  It was SO nice to be social (don't feel like I've been too social lately).  

Now comes the down moments.  I was feeling hopeful about this month because I felt SO awful about December, and I was getting closer to my 2nd trimester.  I was still getting migraines, but I thought that didn't seem too bad.  Then, I got hit with the nastiest flu of my life.  I was in bed for 5 days straight with a temperature that would not drop.  I was trying to avoid taking antibiotics, but eventually  had to stay out of the ER.  It took another 4 or 5 days after to get an appetite back.  This is me my first day out of bed, and as you can tell I am pretty excited about life.  I am also showing off my exponentially growing belly.  I am 16 weeks here.

Briz and Nick were sick as well, although thankfully not as bad.  Our first night out since being sick was to the BYU/ Portland game basketball game.

It was one of the craziest games I have ever been to.  Triple overtime and BYU ended up losing.  The game didn't get out until 10:30 p.m.  We were all exhausted (possibly from yelling a lot).   

The next night we put Nick's birthday present to use: Jerry Seinfeld!  It was one of, if not THE funniest night of my life.  I truly didn't expect him to be at his funniest, but he was.  I think I peed my pants twice, and at one point I thought I was going to have a heart attack because I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.

Minus the physical complications, it felt good to laugh so hard.  We needed it after a hard couple weeks.  This was the beginning of the uphill slope for sure.  

The best ending . . . Cancun.  But that deserves its own post.