25 Weeks

We are officially ~100 days until baby! Things continue to go well at 25 weeks. I am trying to stay cool despite the heat dome that has planted itself over Madison this week. :( I already have a really low heat tolerance!

Baby is super active and I feel him/her more every day. We are going on a hospital tour tomorrow to check out the birthing unit. We can't wait to meet our little one!

Here is the latest photo of my baby bump.

Weekend in Door County

Dan and I spent our Anniversary/4th of July in beautiful Door County. For those of you who are not familiar, Door County is the finger of Wisconsin that sticks out into Lake Michigan and Green Bay.

On our drive North, we stopped at Wisconsin's most sacred spot - Lambeau field.

There was a couple getting married there that very day. Can you imagine anything more romantic? :)


Our first stop in Door County was Jacksonsport. We checked out the beach, an art fair in the park, and had a picnic.



Here is the beach!



It was hot! So we enjoyed a quick wade in Lake Michigan.

We visited Peninsula State Park. It is the second most visited park in Wisconsin - it gets over a million visitors a year and it seemed like a lot of them were there for the holiday weekend! This is a picture of me in the Park.

Andrea with Green Bay in the background.



There are lots of little islands just off of the mainland.

Here is a photo of the shoreline. It was beautiful!

So - on the first night of our trip, I lost one of my contacts so I had to sport my awesome glasses (circa 1999) for the rest of the weekend. ugh! Nothing like wearing decade old glasses to help keep the romance alive, right? haha!

Daniel and I have an Anniversary tradition - we always look through our wedding album together! I just love looking back on our photos.

We made a quick stop at Al Johnson's in Sister Bay - it is a Swedish restaraunt that has goats who live on their grass roof. Love it!

We spent Sunday on Washington island which is an island just off of the tip of Door County. We took a ferry across.

Here are some shots from the ferry, we were traveling through an area called Death's Door. It is a space where the currents of Lake Michigan and Green Bay come together. It can be very dangerous and there have been lots of shipwrecks there in the past.

A light house on Death's Door.

While we visited Washington Island, we went to Schoolhouse beach. It was comprised of beautiful rocks. They were very smooth! The water was really cold but it felt fantastic in the hot day.

Schoolhouse beach!

Here is a view of Washington Island from a look out tower, you can see Lake Michigan in the background.

We rented bikes and pedaled around the island. It was a lot of fun.

On the 4th of July we went to Cave Point County Park and Whitefish Dunes State Park to explore. The caves were formed over millions of years, they are part of the same geological formation as Niagra Falls. They were beautiful!

We had a great time in Door County, we visited a lot of antique shops, we saw a great fireworks show in Egg Harbor, ate delicious food (including Door County cherry pie!).

Thanks for a great Anniversary weekend, Dan! Love you!

The garden is growing!

Here are some pictures from our most recent harvest. :)



A beautiful summer squash!



Lots of Swiss Chard




An overgrown zucchini

My favorite - sweet peas!

24 week appointment

Yesterday I had my 24 week prenatal appointment! Here is the latest and greatest on our little Papaya:

1. I gained 4 pounds in the last month
2. I am measuring exactly at 24 weeks!
3. Our baby's heartrate was at 159 beats per minute.

Everything is right on track. I am still enjoying my prenatal yoga classes and feeling great! By my next appointment, I will be in my third trimester. Yay!

Happy Birthday Chief!

On Thursday Chief turned 4 years old. We can't believe how quickly our little puppy has grown up! In the past 4 years Chief has hunted in Wisconsin and South Dakota, he destroyed a kitchen floor, and he has spent many hours curled up at our feet or on our laps. We love our dog! Enjoy this montage of Chief photos. :)

Our sweet little puppy pointing in the field.

Smelling the plants

Chief on his training table

Chief's first Halloween in 2007 - the only year that Daniel allowed him to wear a costume!

Drying off after a bath

Playing in the snow in South Dakota

Grouse hunting with Dan

Farmers Market with Mom and Dad

One of my favorite summer activites is going to the Farmers Market in Madison! There are so many fantastic vegetables, fruits, flowers, meats, cheeses, and pasteries. My mom and dad came to visit over my birthday weekend so we made a trip to Capitol Square to buy produce and get pasteries for breakfast. Here are some photos from our trip:




Strawberries





Some onions! Our own green onions have not done very well this year so it was nice to see this cute bundles.

Many varieties of tomatoes. Our tomato plants are growing like crazy! The baby and I can't wait to have BLTs. :)

Crazy looking mushrooms!

It was such a treat to have MOm and Dad over. The boys did a bunch of house projects (Thanks for all of your help Dad!!) and they spoiled the dogs.

Mom and I went shopping for maternity clothes. We also went to the thrift store and spent hours in fabric store picking out great materials for the baby's room. :) It was so much fun.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a group picture! We had a great weekend. Thanks again for visiting, Mom and Dad!

3 wonderful years!

Yesterday Daniel and I celebrated our third Anniversary! I attached one of my favorite photos from our wedding day. :) To celebrate, we spent the weekend in Door County (blog post coming soon!)

Love you Dan! Can't wait to start a family with you this year!

Milwaukee Brewers v Minnesota Twins

A couple of weeks ago I turned the big 3-1. Yep, drinking age plus a decade. :) To celebrate we went to the Milwaukee Brewers versus Minnesota Twins game at Miller Park. We had a great time! Miller Park has an awesome parking lot for tailgating.

We grilled some delicious brats.

The boys played some ladder golf. Here is a picture of my Dad, Karl, and Dan.


Daniel and I sported our Twins gear. I just love my Minnesota Fan on Deck T-shirt! Thanks for the birthday gift, Mallory, Austin, Paul, and Abigail! :)

Shoshana and I at the ballpark.

Beautiful Miller Park

Our seats were right on the foul line.

Joe Mauer warming up!

The best part of the game was that Daniel arranged to have my name posted on the scoreboard on the Happy Birthday screen. Loved it! Thanks, Dan! You are the greatest!

Also a shout to my Mom and Dad for driving all the way from South Dakota to cheer on our Twins! Thanks to our good friends Karl and Shoshana for joining us at the ballpark too. :)

Our little Papaya!

Our little baby is the size of a papaya now! I have to admit, I have not super familiar with the papaya. I am pretty sure that I have not eaten one before and I didn't really know their size. This afternoon Dan and I went to Trader Joe's and we saw Caribbean Papayas for $2.99. Look at how big they are! Only 4 months to go! :)