Back from vacation

Hi folks! We're back from our babymoon (aka Farewell Tour) - our week in Key West. Though we had a good time, I am SO happy to be back home. I'm usually pretty much a trooper but any vacation that requires more than just walking out of your hotel room and lying by a pool should be seriously reconsidered during the 3T ;). Live and learn, I guess!

A rundown of our past week:

Key West:
It was 90 degrees everyday in Key West (not a shock) with 90% humidity (a shock). Walking out of the air conditioned hotel room was like walking into an Easy Bake Oven. To top that off, for those of you that have never been to Key West, the main activity is walking up and down Duval Street, a strip of restaurants/stores/bars a little over a mile long. We did this everyday, twice a day - in the morning for brunch and then for dinner. So that's me, the 7-month pregnant lady walking 2.2 miles roundtrip in 90 degree/90% humidity weather TWO TIMES A DAY! 4.4 miles bascially swimming through the streets, in blazing sun. Not fun. All day I'd be battling what NoodleGuy and I called "pig hand", where my hands (and feet) would swell to epic proportions. I made sure to stay super hydrated (and became well acquainted with every bathroom on Duval Street) and pop into AC whenever possible, but it was definitely hard to stay excited about the vacation under these conditions - I was exhausted with aching feet and legs by 8pm every night. Mental note to self: no more traveling during tis pregnancy and if I ever get pg again (snowball's chance, but still), I will not take vacation during the 3T.

Anyhoo, on to Key West itself... we liked it but didn't love it as much as we thought we would. I can definitely see the appeal -- if you're there with a bachelorette party or college spring break or a Parrothead, etc. But DH and I are not partiers by nature these days, especially with me growing a human, so it didn't really click with us. Don't get me wrong, the architecture is really nice and these are some really good restaurants (and some really crappy ones). But we were expecting to fall in love with it, like we did with the Big Island of Hawaii and it was nothing like that, so it was disappointing.

We're glad we went, we've always wanted to, but pretty much feel no desire to ever go again. If anyone considers it, I'd recommend a long weekend over a full week, it definitely gets repetitive. Another note - it was SO expensive. We spent @ $60/day on food each, which consisted of a brunch (pancakes, fruit & turkey bacon, for example), skipping lunch and having a moderate dinner like a burrito. Somehow we were hemorraghing money without having much to show for it, which is frustrating.

I know, boo hoo, poor us. Even a not-perfect vacation is still awesome, I just wanted to share our two cents about Key West since it seems to be on everyone's short list as a destination.

Back at home:
It was great to get away from work and out of the routine for a week, though. And now I'm happy to just settle in and hunker down for the summer. We put in our AC units yesterday (by "we", I mean DH of course ;) and thank goodness we did because it's been toasty here too. A definite on the wishlist for the next house is central AC, though. Not only do I hate losing windows to ugly AC units, but it's such a hassle for poor DH to put them in and out of the windows each summer.

We went to a BBQ at my BIL's house on Saturday for Father's Day, which was really nice. And the BIL was on good behavior because he had invited a girl (ok, woman) to attend, so that was even more of a bonus! And we really liked her!! Of course we're totally jumping the gun, but all of us are hoping it was more than a "friend" situation - I want a sister in law!!

Work:
Ugh, so hard to motivate to care about work when you first get back from vacation. I have all these histrionic emails (alot of which resolved themselves while I was out, thank goodness) and it's hard to work up the motivation to care again. Just gotta keep putting one foot forward...

Bug:
The little fella is doing well these days. He scared me on the first couple of days of vacation as he was way, WAY mellow. One day he barely moved at all and I was panicked that all the travel and heat had affected him somehow. If I had been at home, I definitely would have called into the doctor. But I did all the usual stuff - drank iced water, laid flat, etc and by that night I got him to do a little boogie. I do think he didn't LOVE the heat, he usually was much more active once we came back into the air conditioned room.

One really interesting physiological thing: on our first day there, I got a little suburned on my tummy and chest. I was wearing sunscreen but also a bikini and was planning on staying covered with a tank top, but it was toasty and I was feeling more comfortable disrobing than I thought I would, so I took off the tank. We were under palm trees, in the shade, so I didn't think to apply sunscreen to the newly exposed areas. Anyway, the burn wasn't bad and I wasn't concerned about Bug or anything. But that night, I sweat like crazy while we were sleeping, I had to get up and change my shirt because it was soaked through. And in the morning, the burn on my tummy was 100% gone, though my chest still had its burn. It was like my body was protecting Bug and totally rejected an outer layer of burned skin, it was pretty neat.

Since we got back home, Bug has been going NUTS. On Friday night, it was like a scene from Alien. For 5 straight hours, he was kickboxing -- DH could see my tummy rippling and jumping from across the room. He's definitely getting big enough that the amount of room in his condo is getting tight -- if he keeps punching in the same area, it starts to hurt a bit, so I try to shift him a little bit. Plus, now I can actively make out certain body parts -- I'm not necessarily always correct, I'm sure, but I can tell if it's something like a foot or elbow vs skull. And when he spins, I can see the ripple of it run across my stomach, which is pretty cool.

I have an OB appt this Wednesday and after this one I go to biweekly appts. Crazy! I should probably order a crib mattress one of these days ;).

Classes:
Thanks so much for all of your class input, you guys were a fountain of info! I still haven't 100% decided what we'll do, but I definitely feel more armed to make decisions now. It's on my MUST to-do list for this week to register, I know I'm already late on this one!