Baby, you're 3 months old!

The three month mark (February 21st) was a good mark. All of a sudden something clicked, or should I say, so many things clicked. Deacon started sleeping longer stretches (still not his strong suit but he's improving), I pretty much figured out how to live life with a baby in tow, his little personality really started shining through, things just seemed easier and more fluid. And I fell more in love with him, while he got pretty attached to me as well. I think we have a Momma's boy on our hands. In month 3 he-

Started laughing! Cutest thing in the world. Mckay & I are constantly bending over backwards just to hear his sweet giggle. I hate to admit it, but the thing that really gets him going is when Dad burps. It's so gross, but Deacon must think it's hilarious because he will just belly laugh so hard. Boys.

Became noticeably attached to certain toys. This is Mr. Bear (we are so creative), one of the many "toys" that Deacon loves. He likes to hug this little guy and chew on his ears or blanket. It's sweet. 

Found his toes and hands! I haven't captured it yet, but he's fascinated with his toes (hasn't found them on his own, but sure likes to examine them when we hold his foot up) & hands. I'll look over and he'll just be watching his fists dart back and forth in those jumpy baby movements. It's so funny.

He sent Daddy to Peurto Rico on a boys trip.  Neither of us were happy to see him go, but he had a fun time with his brothers for 5 days in the sun. It's not like he left us to fend for ourselves in the dead of winter or anything... oh wait, that's exactly what happened! Well, we were both thrilled when he came back -I was nursing Deacon in bed that morning and he kept looking over my shoulder, finally I told Mckay "I think someone wants to see you!" and Mckay popped up over my shoulder and said "Good morning, buddy!" & you should have seen baby Deac light up. It was so sweet, just the welcome home every Daddy wants from his baby son.

Helped Momma celebrate her 25th birthday. Auntie Regan was in town (while Daddy was gone) and she made us a [delicious] vegan birthday cake. It was sure nice to have her around, the countdown is on until she comes back to see us in June!

Cut his first tooth! It took me by complete surprise, even though my Mom kept telling me, "I bet he's teething...". I just couldn't believe that my 3 month old could possibly be cutting a tooth. Turns out the poor sleep, cranky days, drool and constant hands in his mouth really were signaling a tooth. We were sitting in church last Sunday and I let him chew on my finger and voila! Sharp little tooth. Poor baby. Now I'm armed with teething tablets, teething rings, camomilla, and an amber necklace to ease the little guy's pain & he's doing much better. Tooth #2 is not far behind...

Made a best friend! Liam is three months older than Deacon and they are little buddies. It's definitely an arranged friendship, since I just adore Liam's Momma, but it works. I think they actually recognize each other because they get pretty excited when we put them together. [^^We'd just had dinner with the Castro's and had these two face to face, they were shrieking, flapping arms, kicking legs, smiling, laughing and talking to each other, it was such cute baby communication!]

Month 3 has been the most wonderful month. I love this little guy more and more, and when it seems that there can't possibly be an ounce of love in my heart that isn't his, something new happens and I pull a Grinch move and my heart just gets bigger. It's so incredible, it makes me wonder at how it must be to love multiple little ones the way I love him. 

And I guess as a disclaimer, because it's important to be honest (Juan Pablo), although I paint roses and rainbows above, there are rough times too. The night when it's the 5th time he's woken up, the umpteenth blow-out and ruined outfit (seriously, how does he do that?!), the time with Mckay cut too short because I just need sleep. That stuff happens too. But I'm learning that motherhood is basically the end of one rope turning into the beginning of the next. It's also fun and exciting and fulfilling and humbling. So I'll take what little bad there is with all the good and thank Heavenly Father for this pretty imperfect, perfect life that we have.

A little bit of life lately.

On December 22, 2013 Deacon was given a name & a blessing by his Daddy. It was a beautiful, unusually warm winter day. We had a slight drizzle of rain and everything was green, the snow hadn't arrived yet and we didn't even wear coats to church that day.  Mckay did a beautiful job and sitting there listening to him bless our little son was such a special moment, one I will never forget.  I love my boys more than anything. (*We tried to move his little arm down, because it just looks kind of awkward but he moved it right back up! So he won and now we have these great pictures with his awkward arm placement!)

The Craven clan spent Christmas with us! They stayed 9 days and we were so happy to have them. They spent some time in New York City and did a little Connecticut exploration but most of their vacation was spent staying cozy with us in our little apartment. It was basically 9 days of 8 adults who couldn't get enough Deacon time. This picture was taken right before we were headed out the door on Christmas Eve to eat Thai food! Such a fun memory. I love my sweet siblings and I'm so glad they all got to bond with Deacon.

Deacon loves to grab on to stuff when I put him to sleep. It's usually my shirt collar or a necklace I'm wearing but this night it was my cheek. It was the sweetest thing. I know the rule is "lay them down sleepy but not sleeping" but I just can't bring myself to do that! He is so sweet & so peaceful nuzzled in my neck and warm in my arms. It's always hard to lay him down in the bassinet.  The only plus side to him sleeping in his bassinet is that I can watch his sweet face and give my back a rest. It's almost not worth it though.  He is such a cuddle bug and would be so thrilled if I just let him take all his naps in my arms with his face pressed right up against my neck... sometimes I wonder how he breathes like that!

My Mom calls these socks his "lumber jack socks". Haha. We love them. He is always so happy in the mornings after his breakfast. We usually get at least 10 or 15 minutes of pure smiles, leg kicks, arm waves and funny un-developed baby laughs from him.

He loves bathtime. Every time I get him out of the bath and wrap him his towel he gives us a big smile or a funny little laugh. I don't know what is so amusing but we love it.  He is less enthused when the towel comes off and his clothes go on. 

If Mckay could have these two betrothed he would. Sweet Tillie Rose meeting Deacon. She kept saying "it's Deacon (Dee-on!)" in her sweet voice. She was so gentle and gave him lots of kisses and pats on the head.  

He's pretty happy in the mornings.

He loves his new mobile that Mommy got (and set up!) him. Find it here.  

Also note the crib sheet and matching quilt that my talented Mom made him!

Recenetly, we've stayed for all three hours of church! I was nervous about it, and hadn't been staying for the entire thing for various reasons (that's a story for another day), but we braved it and this little guy was such a champ! He started out quiet and just observed everyone and everything from my arms, then he went to Daddy to who got him to take a 1.5 hour nap, then back to Mommy for lunch & happy and smiling (& quiet!) for the last 30 minutes of church. We were so proud of him. He got a lot of attention in his cute church outfit too.

When he still wore size "NB"

Time is absolutely flying. I can't keep up with it. I keep up with the diapers and feedings and naps and snuggles and even the occasional crying- and I manage to keep up with daily showers and maybe mascara on the lashes a few times a week... but the TIME! That I cannot keep up with.  Looking at these pictures, I can't believe how much he's already changed. He's so different now, so alert and inquisitive and happy.  

Here are a few of my very favorite pictures of him when he was just a little tiny who spent his days sleeping and snuggling. 

"What is this new place?"

One of his first times sleeping on his tummy, he absolutely loved it and so we let him sleep this way now. 

Nap with Mommy. 

Meeting Grandpa Craven, he was almost 4 weeks old. It was so sweet & made me incredibly happy to have my hero Dad hold my angel baby. 

Newborn photos & things I don't want to forget.

I had Deacon's newborn photos taken when he was exactly 2 weeks old.   Of course the timing was off & he was wide awake when the photographer showed up. Luckily she was patient and so good and waited around for an hour before he drifted off into a light sleep (which made getting pictures difficult, with every click of her camera his arms would fly up with a jump!). Nevertheless, we got some beautiful pictures to freeze in time our sweet newborn Deacon. 

He will be 7 weeks old on Thursday and I am just astonished. The time flies by- although there have been some excruciatingly long nights.  We are finally settling into a "routine" (used so loosely it's probably the wrong word) that works for us. He naps for a few solid hours 2 or 3 times a day and we're working on getting some longer stretches of sleep at night. This week he started really smiling and getting excited to see us. It is the sweetest thing and it absolutely melts my heart to see him wave his little arms and give me a big open mouthed grin as he tries to let a "coo" out. 

To remember-

He smiled for the first time when he was 4.5 weeks old, first for Mommy & then about 5 minutes later for Daddy one morning in our bedroom when Mckay was getting ready for work.

He has THE CUTEST little frowny face. I need to get it on camera, although part of it makes me sad, most of it just makes me happy because it's so stinking sweet.

His "maaaa" cry, he always does it with his frowny face (above). Hard to explain, but it's this whimper he does, not a strong cry, just a little one. Every time he does it I imagine him communicating something like, "Mom, I'm feeling sad!"

When he's hungry and I sit down to feed him, the minute I put the burp rag under his chin--before I even have the bottle near his mouth-- he starts smacking his little lips open & closed. It's hilarious.

He really enjoys baths, but screams like crazy when we take him out & he gets cold.

When he falls asleep he purrs, there really isn't a better word to describe it. It's just this content sounding purr that he does.

When he was a newborn he slept with his arms up by his head. He doesn't do that anymore because he startles so easily, but it was so sweet while it lasted.

His eyelashes would make any girl jealous.

His fingernails grown like weeds, it's the bane of my existence to try and keep them short.

We love our little Deacy-boo!

When 2 became 3.

Writing a "birth post" is overwhelming. I haven't even finished recording it down in my journal and baby Deacon is three weeks old today. Holy cow. The time flies, but I also feel like it's been 30 years since it was just me, Mckay and the simple (and in hindsight, so much less fulfilling) child-free life.

So I guess I should start at the very beginning.
(A very good place to start... did you sing that in your head?)

11.20.13
4am.
I woke up to contractions! All along you wonder "Is that a contraction? Is this what it feels like?" And they are right when they say you will KNOW when it's the real thing. I had a contraction every ten minutes for three hours and I was ecstatic. As uncomfortable as they were, I was giddy as I felt each one coming on and it took all of my will power not to wake Mckay and say "Does November 20th sound like a good day to become a Daddy?!".

8am.
To my dismay, they had slowed and then stopped by the time Mckay woke up. I spent all day pretty sad that it wasn't going to be baby's birthday. I rested and relaxed most of the day because I figured/hoped I was getting close to the real thing.

6pm.
Contractions start again as Mckay gets home from work.
Immediately I tell Mckay that we need to go to the mall to walk because this time they are NOT slowing down and stopping. So off we go! We walked the mall for about an hour and Mckay timed each surge (I did hypnobirthing and I'm supposed to call them surges, but the RN in me keeps slipping and using the "C" word), they were all about 7 minutes apart but none were too bad. Some would make me pause and squeeze a dirty hand rail but most of them I just walked through.

9pm.
Stopped at Whole Foods for snacks and drinks for labor because by this point I was convinced it was time! {In my food bag: coconut water which I normally think is pretty gross but I couldn't get enough of it during labor, yogurt, apples, granola bars, almonds & chia drinks).

11:30pm
Contractions are getting more intense. They are all 5-6 minutes apart and require me to move & be vocal through each one. I paced the floor for hours to help relieve some of the pressure because laying down was complete torture. At some point I called the midwife and she told me that until they are 3 minutes apart for about 3 hours I probably won't be ready as I'm a first time Mom. I wasn't overjoyed about that.

11.21.13
12:30am
Contractions are consistently 1-3 minutes apart and lasting 1-2 minutes. They are strong and intense and unpleasant!

1:30am
I have a particularly strong contraction while standing in our closet and think to myself "I am such an idiot! Why am I doing this?! I could be laying in a hospital bed not feeling anything... Next baby I am getting an epidural." Immediately after that cascade of negative thought, I knew I was probably nearing transition and that we needed to go regardless of any advice. I told Mckay to get the food packed up and get me to the birth center.

2:00am-birth.
We arrive at the birth center. It's normally about a 50 minute drive and Mckay did it in about 35 minutes (hallelujah!). The drive was BY FAR the worst part of labor. Stuck in the backseat of a car unable to move was utter misery. I was pretty much screaming through each contraction because that was the only way to release that tension and energy. And after every one I'd say to Mckay "I'm sorry honey! I'm being so loud! I'm sorry I yelled!"

My favorite midwife was on call and she helped me out of the car and into the birth center. She checked me and I was a 7! I cried tears of joy because that meant I was there to stay and we were having our baby!

Tub filled for water birth.
I get into the warm water and it feels amazing. I continue to labor through contractions that I really have no words to describe. They were so intense and I felt them through every cell of my body. At some point my water broke (which I didn't like) and within 30 minutes of being in the water I was at 10cm.

Pushing.
Not very effective for me in the tub. My midwife asked me if I was open to an alternative and I told her I didn't care what I did or where I was, I just wanted the baby out. So it was out of the tub and onto the birthing stool where I gave two big pushes and was able to reach down and feel his soft, warm head. The midwife said, "You were just the first person to touch your baby skin to skin!" And this surreal, tender excitement filled my heart up to the brim.

Change of plans.
I transfered to the bed because he was coming too fast on the birthing stool and that can cause a first time Mommy some damage. I got up, walked over to the bed and laid on my side (people cringe when I say I transferred to the bed while he was crowning but it wasn't a big deal at all). My contractions had slowed to about 5 minutes at this point so between each contraction/pushing sequence I was literally chatting and laughing with everyone, it was great and probably one of my favorite things about this experience, in a funny way, I was actually enjoying it! After thirty minutes of pushing on the bed, a drop in his heart rate, the midwife, nurse and Mckay encouraging me to "give it all you have!" and "get him out!" little Deacon was born at 5:05am. (He broke my tailbone on his way out but I forgave him.)

Birth.
He was warm and wet and his Daddy grabbed him and laid him on my chest. He just wailed and I looked down at him and just remember thinking what a precious, perfect mouth he had! After a few minutes he settled down and just nuzzled on my chest and we held each other. And like that, all the (here comes a naughty hypnobirthing word) *pain* was gone and he was in my arms and Mckay was at my side and this momentous, heavenly, sacred feeling was there and we all just soaked it up for a few minutes. It was surreal and wonderful and I can't even do the moment justice so I'll leave it at that.

5-6am.
We delayed cutting the cord until it stopped pulsing, when they asked Mckay if he wanted to cut it, he declined. Maybe it was anticlimactic after all that had just happened...
Mom & baby get cleaned up.
Dad puts our tiny son in a diaper and hat.
He gets his footprints taken, weight, height, vitamin K, Apgar scores etc. (7 lbs. 8.5 oz.//20.5 inches long//35cm head circumference).
Daddy holds baby for the first time.

6am-1:30pm.
The midwife left, the nurse came in periodically to check temps & BPs and the three of us all got into the cozy, soft Queen-sized bed and just snuggled each other. We called family, took pictures, and just looked at every inch of our new baby. Eventually we decided on a name (Deacon Mckay Dunn) and announced that to our families and friends.

Mckay ran out for a few minutes and brought back a hot lunch that we ate in bed. Eventually I got up and showered and then we decided we were ready to be home so we gathered our things and dressed our sweet baby and we were on our way. Less than 9 hours after birth we were home and in our own bed spending our first day as a family of 3 in the quiet privacy of our own space. It truly was an amazing, life-altering experience. I was so grateful for the midwife I had, she was just a perfect fit for me, and for Mckay's love and support during the labor and birth.

And at 3 weeks:
Deacon is such a great baby. He's so calm & so sweet. He cries when he's hungry or wet and we don't get too much fussing from him. He is such a great sleeper at night (he wakes up, cries, eats and goes back to sleep) and is getting to the point where he's a little more alert during the day. We love him so much and comment constantly on how wonderful, handsome, precious, sweet, perfect, darling (so on and so forth) he is. We are lucky to have him in our home and thank God daily for sending us such a special little boy.

My 7 mile long catch up post, cross that off the list!

We're having a baby in about two seconds! That's what it feels like at least. Not physically though (don't get excited yet), just in every other way. We've been such busy bees getting "ready", although as "ready" as we now are (crib it set up, bathroom is sparkling, baby clothes are washed and put away etc.) I don't know if a couple is ever really ready for what is in store.
Anyway- here's a quick recap on what has been going on over here these past 7 weeks since I last blogged.

Mckay's good friend Andy & his wife came and spent the last week of August with us. They've been friends forever and it was fun to see them reunited and having so much fun. Andy & Kaylynn went to the city during the week but the weekend they were here we packed in Atlantic City & Philadelphia IN ONE DAY. It was crazy. The guys went to open casting calls in Atlantic City for the Amazing Race and then "on the way home" we stopped in Philadelphia to see the sights. It was a very busy, but fun day. By the end I was pretty drained and when we went to get Philly Cheesesteaks for dinner (my first one!) I ordered from Pat's instead of Gino's and it was not as good as Mckay's (he ordered from Gino's). That turned me into a cranky, tired, pregnant lady. To add insult to injury, I spilled on my belly, which happens a lot. But it's great when you're not at home and you have to walk around looking like a slob; a cranky, tired, pregnant lady slob that is.

We got back to Darien on Friday night and Saturday Mckay had class until 5pm. At 8pm we drove six hours to Rochester, NY with Andy & Kaylynn to see the church history sites. It was my first time in the Sacred Grove & surrounding areas and it was lovely. Minus the mosquitoes that went to town on my legs. Then we went solo for a few days and drove up into Canada! That was awesome. We stayed on the 17th floor of a hotel right next to Niagara Falls & the views were amazing. Niagara has never been a place I've had any desire to go to, but it absolutely blew my mind. It was gorgeous and we spent so much time just staring that that incredible water and walking along the falls. Weather was perfect & I took about 1,000 pictures. We can't wait to go back (we're pretty sure in a few years our little buddy would love to ride on Maid of the Mist!).

Look at that water! It makes me want to jump in. A little.

We've spent many a night with our dear friends and their three baby girls watching BYU games. That has been really fun, as we miss having them next door. We love a little Jensen time! And Mckay just adores their oldest, Tillie. I swear if she only knew how much he loved her she could probably get him to do just about anything. One day he'll make a great Daddy to little girls!

On September 17th we celebrated our 3 year anniversary! We ate dinner at a delicious little restaurant, Match, in South Norwalk. It was a fantastic meal & a perfect night (except maybe the waiter who was a chatterbox, I'm glad we could share our special night with him... ahem.). Sitting across a table from Mckay with good food in between us generally makes me an extremely happy & content lady but this night- this night was just special. We talked about how fast 3 years have gone, but also about how it feels like we've known each other for 13. And all the while, I could feel our little guy squirming inside of me. It makes me teary-eyed to type this! Life has been so good to us. We couldn't be more blessed, and that intense love that I felt for him on our wedding day has only multiplied in the years since we've been married. I can't even imagine what adding our own little baby to the mix is going to do.

After dinner picture. Mmmm, I love him!

Just a few days after our anniversary we flew to Utah for a very quick, 3-day trip to catch up with family. While we were there we relaxed a little, but mostly drove all over to different family things and spent time with our favorite people. It was really great. My Mom threw me a wonderful baby shower and so many of my McAffee family came, as well as good friends from high school & college, neighbors and ward members. This is the picture we took at the end, of just some of the family members. It was fun to catch up, have people rub my belly (I really don't hate it, at all.), eat my Mom's amazing, delicious food & talk babies with everyone. While I was doing baby shower festivities, Mckay golfed with my Dad (27 holes in two days) and then ran down South to meet up with his brother for the BYU game. We were reunited on Sunday and said goodbye to the Craven clan over In N Out. I love this picture of my & my Dad, (although I wish my iPhone wouldn't have been on such a weird setting)-he's gonna be a good Grandpa soon!

That same Sunday was also sweet Delma Lou Dunn's 93rd birthday! Look at that happy smile! This is Mckay's grandma and we both love her so much. She is probably the sweetest soul I've ever met (really) and such a good woman. She sends out monthly, MONTHLY, newsletters to all of her children & grandchildren that have birthdays, anniversaries, announcements  family business etc. & she always includes stories from her and her late husband's life together as well as her wishes for us to be good and choose the right. We love to visit her any chance we get. She's looks more like 83 & acts more like 53 & we were thrilled to spend some time with her on her birthday. (Oh, and that's Mckay's brother Jared, who always lets us crash at his house. We like him a lot too.)

The weekend after we got home from Utah we spent two days in New Jersey (9/27-28) to watch SVU play football! It was almost uncomfortably warm but I was happy to soak up some vitamin D and Mckay was happy to get his yearly fill of Knight's football. He gave the pre-game speech, I wish I would have been there, but that was man time & it probably would have been weird for an 8-mo pregnant lady to be in the locker room with them. Look how content he is!

On October 12th we went Apple Picking! It's one of my very favorite New England autumn traditions. The men were probably mostly appeasing us, but they came along and smiled & even picked all the apples while the girls watched babies. The three of us (each holding a baby at most any given minute) were quite a spectacle & drew a lot of comments, especially when we would explain that the twin babies were Lizzy's and I would shift baby Clara to reveal my own baby arriving in a few weeks! It was great. Tillie & the husbands picked us some yummy apples, we ate crepes and apple cider doughnuts, watched Tillie play in the corn pit, and held babies in the glorious autumn sunshine. 

(10/18-20) Next thing I know, at 35 weeks pregnant, I'm on a plane to Houston to see the Dunn side of the family! I was really nervous, and almost backed out because I didn't want to risk having my baby in TX. But I am so glad I went because we had a blast. We caught a BYU game (so convenient when these family trips always seem to align perfectly with BYU's playing schedule, right?!) and tailgated with a bunch of the family for a few hours before. That was fun and yummy. BYU won & it really was an amazing game. (Mckay with two of our nieces, Savannah & Alyssa, dancing to the Biebs at our tailgate, complete with RV.)

Besides the football game, we got to spend some wonderful time with Mckay's sister, her husband & their 4 daughters who let us stay at their house, my wonderful sisters in-law threw me a sweet little baby shower, we met two nieces and nephew we'd never met before, we enjoyed a Dunn family Sunday dinner together, we ate too much food,  Mckay hung out with his nephews that he doesn't see enough &  then we were headed back to CT early Monday morning (thankfully baby stayed in my belly)!

We got home & I declare we've hit our travel limit for the year so now we occupy our time with getting ready for baby! Lots to buy & set up... like the crib! What a milestone, to set up a crib for your first child. It was fun & sweet and after it was all set up we kind of just stared at it in awe and held each other for a little bit. My huge belly is constant reminder (like we need one) of this baby boy, but imaging him in his crib is just wild & wonderful to us!

IKEA for a few items for the nursery... where my 31 year old husband reverts to a 7, 17, 27 year old (I don't think the child side of him ever really went away!). He makes me laugh... & we love Ikea.

We installed the carseat last weekend!!! Not as easy as it looks, but after a few read-throughs of the directions and pulling & tugging on the base to try and figure out if it was actually stable (?) we have a regulation carseat ready to go! Although we still want someone to check it for us and make sure we did it right...

(11/3) Last Sunday of teaching our sweet primary class! This is missing two kids! They've been a challenge over the last two years but they make us laugh every Sunday and we love them! This last Sunday (I wore a long black dress to church with a skinny gold belt over my belly) one of the boys said to me, "Your belly is so big you can barely even see your belt!" haha! I will certainly miss these kiddos! And I'm also thankful for a break:)

And lastly, Mckay took this picture of me at my last appointment. I'm a few days shy of 38 weeks here! That is one huge belly! As far as the whole pregnancy thing is going- it's been great! I've felt good and slept well and really don't have any complaints. I'm starting to notice some "practice-labor" stuff- surges (as they're called in Hypnobirthing), some sciatica and other nerve pain, pubic symphasis irritation (to put it mildly), lightening (he's dropped!), all that good stuff. It just gets me excited for meeting our baby! The countdown is really on... 14 days until the EDD!

I have a constant to-do list going, but this morning I packed our birth center bag & we have now hit the any-day-now part of waiting. Although I'm beside myself with excitement to meet him, I'm not going crazy yet. We want him to come when he is ready (although 11-12-13 WOULD be such a cool birthday!) & I want us to enjoy these last few days or weeks of it being just the two of us. 

Signing off with my last post (likely) before I become Mommy Nicki! 

XO

Beautiful

{From YouTube}:
New York City Ballet presents NEW BEGINNINGS on September 12, 2013. Filmed at sunrise on the 57th floor of 4WTC in lower Manhattan, this short film captures an extraordinary and moving performance of Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain. It is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and a tribute to the future of the city that New York City Ballet calls home. 

Just thought this was too beautiful to keep to myself.

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!