Our trip was overall stupendous! We concluded our trip with a ride out to New York City, so Ava could meet her Godmother for the first time. Her godmother also happens to be my older cousin that I haven't seen in 4 months. It was nice seeing her again and having her see Justin for the first time in over a year. New York City was CRAZY busy! We were in stand still traffic, paid a toll that was almost fifteen dollars, and people were walking in the middle of the street like there weren't tons of cars driving by. It was definitely a different experience. We saw the statue of liberty, the 9/11 monument, Brooklyn bridge, etc. The skyscrapers were HUGE! I don't think buildings are even that big in Seattle.

                                 (This was a shot I got on our way into the city)

I tried to get as many pictures as I could, but there was always a building in the way, or people, or traffic! Parking was impossible and the parking garages were all valet. It truly is the busiest city I have ever been too. Great experience for our little family though! How many 9 week olds can say they've spent time in Manhattan? After our time in NYC we started our journey back home! After 14 hours of being in the car, we decided it was time to stop. I love technology sometimes. I was able to use my mobile hotspot on my Verizon cellular device to use my laptop our entire trip. I booked a hotel room for our family at the La Quinta Inn after researching the area of Raleigh, North Carolina on yelp. We had a fantastic experience. No pet fee for our dog, Cooper. The area around Raleigh had a great city feel, and the room was very decent. They even give out military discounts, which is always appreciated.

We took our time on the way home and stopped at some special places along the way. Ava was even better on the way back down. ZERO fussy moments. She was more awake this time around, but she was cooing and full of smiles, like always. The biodegradable diapers we used were a HUGE success for us on our trip, including her chemical free wipes.

NO leakage, Ava has had ZERO diaper rash in her 10 weeks of life, and they were super absorbent. Since we've been home she is back in cloth and Justin and I are happy about that. It's so weird, on vacation, my husband made a comment about how he missed her cloth! That made me so happy to hear! We've still quite a few days of Justin's block leave, so our vacation isn't quite over yet! We haven't made up our mind for our next destination. Atlanta or Florida... Either way I'm excited to have all this exploration time with my husband.

3 weeks

It's 5 a.m. and instead of sleeping I am up snacking on leftover macaroni and cheese. It's true what they say about pregnancy cravings, when you are craving something, it's best to just go get it ! I laid in bed for about ten minutes thinking about it before I actually got up. I bet you're probably wondering why I'm even up this early, right ? The answer would be my husband. Needs of the Army was the reason for a 4 a.m. call. I have to say his dedication to his Army goals are such a motivation for me. He never complains, even when he faces really hard days. He doesn't make excuses for short comings and he strives to be better every single day. I really hope our daughter carries on some of those strong characteristics.

Speaking of which, I'm 36 weeks pregnant today and I'm three weeks away from the induction date my o.b. gave me. I have another growth scan for Miss Ava in just 5 days, I'm anxious to see how much bigger she's gotten. I've been thinking a lot about my pregnancy this past week. I keep coming to the thoughts of how miraculous this journey has been. Pregnancy is the most natural feeling I have ever felt. A few things I haven't listed on my blog that I've done during my pregnancy that have been really great milestone reminders are:

• downloading the baby center pregnancy app for weekly updates
• maternity photos
• writing letters to Ava

As promised, here are a few photos from my maternity session:

Photo Credit: http://www.victoriasimmonsphotography.com/

My three main goals these next few weeks are: 

• small work out regiments. I walked 1.17 miles yesterday and did a few reps in the weight room. I want to tighten and prep my body for labor the best I can.
• redeployment is coming up ! taking the necessary steps to help for a smooth home coming for Justin. 
• NO STRESS. I can't even stress this enough, ha ha. I made a funny, but seriously no stress. I have some final decisions to make about my L & D plans but other than that, I'm trying SO HARD to keep my stress levels down. 

Alright, It's now 5:30 a.m. I need to get back to sleep. It's just been awhile since I've updated so I thought when falling back asleep seems impossible what better way to use my time than to blog ? Have a Fabulous Thursday blog readers !