Baby Update

So far everything has gone smooth with Ava's pregnancy. We are currently (1/25/2006) sitting in the middle of week 16. Thankfully, Ava has not had any of the 'bad' symptoms that sometimes come along with being pregnant. Occasionally she will feel a little tired, light headed, or weary...but after she gets something to eat or relaxes a little, she is all better.

Our last visit to the doctor, 1/10/2006, we got to hear the baby's heart beat. The nurse said that the heart rate was between 130 and 140 bpm. Everything is looking good.

We are scheduled for an ultrasound on 2/17/2006. The doctors believe we should be able to figure out the sex of the baby at this time. That is, if the baby cooperates. Please come back to our webpage to find out the results.

Anniversary/Baby-moon Cruise

This past December, we celebrated our 5th year anniversary. In conjunction with one more nice trip before the baby arrives, we decided to go on a cruise. We sailed with Royal Caribbean, on their newest ship, Jewel of the Seas. Our room was small but more than adequate. The entire ship was beautiful. Ava was the self-proclaimed 'King of the World!' They even had Putt-Putt on-board the ship.


We had a wonderful time and would highly recommend a cruise to anyone. Our cruise left out of Ft. Lauderdale, FL and we made stops in Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, and Key West. We were also suppose to go to Cozumel, but the weather prohibited us from making that stop.

In Grand Cayman, we took an excursion to swim with the Sting Rays. Couldn't get many pictures of this since my camera doesn't seem to like the water. But this shows you how big they were and how blue the water was.


At Costa Maya, we got to explore some Mayan ruins. We explored the recently discovered city of Chacchoben. There were 3 uncovered Mayan pyramids, and many other walls and stairways. Our tour guide said there was still many other objects that needed to be uncovered throughout the city and the immediate area. Costa Maya also had a beautiful shoreline.

Our last stop was Key West, FL. Allthough we didn't do any excursions while in Key West, we did have a great time. We just did a lot of exploring. While there, we were able to see Ernest Hemingway's house and President Truman's Little White House. This was our view when we looked out our room's window while we were docked in Key West.

Hot Springs Trip

For Ava's birthday this year, we went to Hot Springs, AR with another couple from our Sunday school class (Chris, Neala, and baby Adelin). Hot Springs is a National Park that of course has natural hot springs running underneath and throughout the area.

We stayed in a really old hotel called the Arlington (pictured left). This particular hotel has been built and rebuilt a couple times due to fires. The building we stayed in was actually built in the 1930's. Very interesting building and very unique in this day and age.

Here are a couple pictures of the hot springs steaming. I think when we were visting, the temperatures were in the 50's. As you can see, when they say hot springs...that mean HOT springs!




Chris and Neala had been here many times before and gladly showed us the ropes of the town.





We also found out some really great news about Hot Springs while we were there. We were all so happy. (not really, of course)