McAffee Family Reunion

July 26-31, 2013

Portland, Oregon

We spent five full days in beautiful Oregon! 

I was happy to be able to finally bring Mckay to a family reunion, we've been married almost three years and there were so many members of my family who hadn't ever met Mckay! So weird. So we decided that it was time, plus, Portland is just a fun destination which made it all the more alluring.

We arrived late Friday night and finally got into bed around 2am. We spent the next two days "camping" (the Craven/Dunn family rented a cabin) on coast at Pacific City Beach. It was windy and colder than we bargained for, but still so much fun. We explored the tide pools, cooked & ate food together, sat around in camp chairs and visited, swam in the pool, and had a campfire every night. The scenery couldn't have been more beautiful, Oregon is so green and pretty! We visited Pacific City, Tillamook, Portland, Astoria and Seaside while we were there and every place was as breathtaking as the last. Green, lush and gorgeous!

I honestly love camping, a lot. But pregnant Nicki really appreciated a cabin with an air mattress.

The family with cute Grandpa McAffee.

After the reunion ended, our clan stuck around for some extra family time together, which was so great. We went to the Air Museum nearby in honor of my cute little brother who wants to be a pilot.  Somehow, I ended up 1,000 feet in the air in a bi-plane!!! I was torn between loving it, and praying that we'd land safely and in one piece. After about five minutes in the air I was able to relax and enjoy the incredible views.  My favorite thing the pilot pointed out was the pattern the wind made in the fields, talk about the beauty of the earth!

Mckay, Dad, Kenna & Trevor rented dune buggies for a few hours and had a blast driving way too fast (the owner accidentally had the "performance" key in, as opposed to the "practice" key, so they were able to drive these things as if they actually knew what the were doing... the boys loved it. Kenna, not so much. I heard she just did a lot of screaming, "Slow down!")

We did some "enjoy nature" time. I was hungry so that didn't last too long, but the views were pretty.

We spent a day and a night up North in Astoria so that the boys + Kenna could go salmon fishing.  This was an activity I was sad to miss out on, as I really do love ocean fishing, but some activities don't lend themselves to pregnancy very well. Plus, these guys were up at 4am and Mom and I got to sleep in and shop. They were the only 4 on the boat and each caught their limit and were back before lunch time! Such accomplished fishers. Mckay was happy to be back on solid land. My uncle grilled their catch that evening and we enjoyed a five-star meal together in their backyard back in Portland.

I'm told that the small fish my Dad caught put up quite a fight, they were all shocked to see it was such a little guy (who got to go back). Trevor caught the biggest one! 

We also went to the gorgeous Multnomah Falls, hiked a few miles up couldn't make it all the way to the top due to time constraints, bummer. 

Mckay & I ended our trip with an incredible dinner at Departure, a restaurant atop the Nines Hotel in downtown Portland.  We enjoyed our dinner 15 stories up on the roof top, and it was amazing. I found out while in Portland that I passed my boards and am officially an RN, so we decided to celebrate accordingly and were not disappointed.

Unfortunately, there's so much more we did that I didn't capture. 

Reuniting with my favorite cousins after too many years.

Meeting their wives & babies for the first time.

Shopping with my Mom, Aunt & cousin.

Golf for Mckay, Dad & my Uncle Ivan.

The best ice cream from Tillamook.

The maybe even better best ice cream from Salt N Straw.

McAffee group picture.

Mckay and I's day in downtown Portland, a place I would never want to live, I've never seen more bums or more meth-heads in my entire life. 

Fantastic and cheap lunch at the food trucks.

Relaxing time at Uncle Ivan/Aunt Shaunna's house.

We really loved the area (minus downtown) and we really, really loved the company. 

We'll be together at Christmas, +1 tiny, new addition, which is so exciting. Can't wait!

bump progression

For the record, baby is growing!

The day we found out I was pregnant!

Week 10

Week 12

Week 14

Week 16 

-I remember we were headed out to see a movie and I got dressed and was so shocked that I had a belly! It was the funniest thing, I made Mckay take a picture because I thought I looked SOOOO pregnant. Which is funny to me now, because I hardly look bloated compared to the soccer ball I'm carrying out in front these days.

The big half-way mark!

Week 22

Yesterday- Week 24.

Some notes:

Now that I'm not nauseous 24-7 I feel great & I'm loving pregnancy. I didn't feel 100% back to my normal self until about 20 weeks, which was a real disappointment after counting on week 14 to be my magic nausea-be-gone week. However; that yucky time is becoming a distant memory with every kick and move I feel.

I sleep great, I ordered a ridiculous horse-shoe shaped body pillow that I'm obsessed with. Poor Mckay gets about 1/3 of our Queen bed, but I had a bad back/neck before pregnancy and this has done wonders for waking up pain free. 

Of course I'm wearing maternity clothes. I could probably squeeze into some of my old ones but I don't to stretch them out, so I stick to the very small selection of maternity clothes I do have. Mckay got me a belly band to wear with  my normal pants/shorts which I think is just the funniest thing, but I have worn it more than I thought I would, what's one more layer in this stifling heat?

We both feel and see movement all the time. It's pretty special and every time I feel baby move it never ceases to amaze me. Our bodies are so incredible and I am just filled with gratitude and love for our little one.

No food cravings at all this pregnancy. I loved watermelon when I was nauseous but I think that was just because it was cold and had lots of water in it. I've never had the I need this NOW experience I hear about.

We found out that the baby is a BOY! 

We weren't planning on finding out the gender, but at our anatomy scan we had a bit of a language barrier with our sweet tech & she let slip the gender.

So now we are definitely planning on a little guy come November! We were both convinced it was a girl, and the news really shocked us. It definitely took a few hours to adjust our minds (I don't know why we were so set on it being a girl!) to that piece of information... but we are so thrilled (and a little scared) to have a little Mckay Jr. running around.

Now, I was apprehensive to have a 3D scan, in fact, I was totally against it. Mostly because I think the babies always look freaky in them... but look at our sweet little guy! I think he is the handsomest 1lb.+ baby I've ever laid eyes on. We're pretty sure that's my nose and Mckay's mouth but we'll have to see if he looks anything like that when he comes out.  For now, we just drool over the 7 ultrasound pictures we have up on our fridge and attempt to "get ready" for this baby to arrive... 16 more weeks!