Oh Boy!

We FINALLY found out what we are having and it's a boy!  Believe it or not Jay refused to come with me to one of those sonogram places before my 20 week check up.  Since I didn't want to find out without him, I had to wait.  I can't believe he put me through that misery!  Oh well, when the day finally came, I was pretty sure I was having a boy.  When the technician asked us our thoughts, Jay said girl and I said boy.  As usual I was right.  (In all honesty, I'm not actually right most of the time but don't tell Jay). 

We (meaning me) thought it would be fun to let out family members know by having a dessert with either pink or blue inside the dessert to reveal the baby's gender.  Thankfully for us our good friend Sarah Calvert makes amazing desserts.  She was able to make us delicious cupcakes with blue frosting on the inside.  She was also the first to know and was great about not telling anyone.  Clint did his best to get the secret out of her but she claimed baker client privilege.  Gotta love it!

The adorable cupcakes!

As you look through the pictures below please know one thing.  Our family doesn't normally eat dessert standing up.  We also don't normally eat dessert before dinner.  However, out impatient family couldn't wait until after dinner to find out and they basically attacked us to get to the cupcakes when we walked through the door.  I barely had time to get the camera out!

Henry was the first to see the blue.  He was so excited!

Even though Sumner wanted a girl, she wore blue for the occasion.

Delicious!

John Henry didn't really understand what was going on.  However, he did enjoy feeding Grandma her cupcake.

Our family of three - soon to be four.  Boy will I be outnumbered!

The Hat

John Henry is enthralled with Jay's hats.  And since Jay has no hair, he constantly has a hat on when he's outside.  There is one hat that John Henry really loves.  It's Jay's work/pool/beach hat.  It's huge, dirty, and smelly but that doesn't stop John Henry from trying to steal it.

Costa Rica

WARNING - In this post I'm going to shamelessly brag about our trip to Costa Rica.  If you don't want to hear about it or haven't had a good vacation recently, I wouldn't continue reading.

We are lucky.  I mean really lucky.  My brother (Josh M) works for a company called Exclusive Resorts.  Part of being an employee (a very good employee) is that he gets to stay at incredible properties around the world.  We have been fortunate enough to visit some of the properties with him and it's always an amazing first class experience.  The more amazing part is that he always invites family to join him on these trips.  This year he invited us to Costa Rica and we were able to say yes.  We joined Josh M, my other brother Josh S, and our cousin Chelsey.  We stayed in Peninsula Papagayo (Guanacaste) which is 30 minutes away from the Liberia airport.  Once we arrived we had a private villa (4 bedrooms 4.5 baths) on the side of a cliff with beautiful views of the water.  Our villa had its own private pool and hot tub and our golf cart allowed us to wander around the property and visit the private beach club, beach, and other resorts on the peninsula.  I did my best to take pictures but I had to borrow a few from the website.  The first four pictures are pictures of the villa we stayed at.  The pictures I took of our villa aren't quite as good as the web site's, which is why I'm borrowing them.   

Our living room.

Our dining and kitchen area. To the right you see the patio doors to the outdoor dining/grilling area.

 One of two master bedrooms.  This is the one we stayed in.

Our bathroom

I promise the rest of the pictures were taken with our camera.  

Our first picture in Costa Rica.  The happiness and relaxation was already in full swing.

Josh S. the man himself Josh M., and Chelsey.

Looking out from our patio...

Part of our back deck. 

View from the pool.

Getting silly.  That's what happens when you leave your child at home and go on vacation with your family....

The first morning breakfast was served at 10.  (And when I mean served I mean two lovely ladies showed up at our villa every morning and made a huge breakfast and then cleaned up afterwards).  Since we are used to getting up earlier with John Henry I was hungry before breakfast so I had my pre-breakfast on the lounge chair while enjoying the views.  It was a rough way to start the day.

We spent our mornings at our pool

And our afternoons at the beach or beach clubs.  Below is part of beach club number one.

Jay got to have plenty of snorkeling time.

And all the boys enjoyed the boogie boards.

This is one of the beaches on the peninsula (accessible from beach club number one and where the boys used the boogie boards).  It was just so crowded...

Maybe it was the crappy sunsets that caused the beach to be so empty.

I loved when the sky turned purple at night.  This shot is from our master bedroom patio.

In the middle of the week our crew (minus me) had an adventure day.  They went horseback riding, rafting, zip lining, and ended up in the hot springs and mud bath.  Here they are before heading out.   

Since I was pregnant I wasn't allowed to partake - so I went to the Four Seasons Spa and then spent the rest of the day at private beach club number two (below).  The picture below proves I was the only one there.  The poor waiters were so bored they started bringing me free smoothies and desserts.  I guess it gave them something to do.

There was a short walk from beach club number two to the beach.  The path was a little rugged (see below).

But so worth it once you got to the beach.

The pictures below were taken on our last full day (which happened to be Jay's birthday).  Not a bad way to spend it!

Enjoying birthday drinks.

Later that night Chef Nicholas came to our villa to teach us how to cook Snapper A La Talla, Picadillo De Papa, and Lava Flow.  

Chef Nicholas did most of the heavy cooking but we did help.  They boys even made sushi rolls with his assistant so we had something to snack on while we "cooked".

The three crazy chefs. 

The end result and it was delicious!  The snapper was cooked in banana leaves to keep it moist.  We licked the plates.

The lava flow aka lava cake.  A perfect end to Jay's 36 birthday!

The next morning we reluctantly headed home.  We had so much fun and the amount of relaxing time was beyond worth it.  John Henry was missed but he was well cared for by our favorite babysitter and our family.  Josh M - we are forever grateful and if you ever need travelling companions we will be happy to join you!