Celebrating Fall

Big Belly at 26 weeks!

John and I took a walk up City Creek Canyon yesterday. It was so pretty to be able to take in all of the beautiful fall colors. I drive past City Creek Canyon almost every day on my way home from work, but we have never actually taken the time to walk up the canyon this time of the year. It was spectacular.

Time to Vote

As most of you know, John and I are expecting twin baby girls on January 22, 1010. We have entered a contest with the radio station 97.1 ZHT (www.971zht.com) called the baby bump contest. There will be 3 winners in all. The grand prize will be a “dream nursery” from Babinski’s Baby and the 2 runners up will get a $200 gift certificate to Babinski’s Baby. The winner will be based on who gets the most votes overall. So we need your vote! Please go to this website: http://www.971zht.com/pages/babywatch09/ Click the button next to ENTRY #68, enter you email address and click on the Vote Now button. I have attached a copy of the picture that we submitted in case you don’t want to scroll through all of the other entries. Thanks for your support and feel free to pass this on to your friends, family, and co-workers. We will take all the votes that we can get. Voting ends on September 30 at 12:00 p.m.

Thanks a bunch!

John & Melissa

Wasatch 100

This weekend John and Mike ran the Wasatch 100 Endurance Run. I think you have to be somewhat crazy to even consider taking on such a task. The race started at 5:00 a.m. on Friday and they allot 36 hours to complete the race. The race consists of running up and down several mountains to take you from Kaysville to Midway. Karen and I were in charge of crewing our guys! We had a lot of fun doing it. John unfortunately had to pull out of the race at mile 53 due to dehydration (down 10 lbs) and big blisters on his feet. Congrats to Mike who finished the race with 21 minutes to spare. I am so proud of John for making it 53 miles. Most people wouldn't be able to run back to back marathons, especially one that goes up and down mountains. Good job guys!

Baby Nursery Contest

So...we decided it would be fun to enter a baby bump contest to win a your dream nursery from Babinski's Baby or $200 gift card for 2 runners up. We thought we would get creative to see if we could persuade your vote. Voting begins on September 18 and ends on September 30. You will be able to vote online at www.971zht.com. I will keep you posted when I know what number I will be listed on the web site. We just thought that it would be funny to share with you the "final project". John did a great job being my makeshift tattoo artist. Maybe he has a new career in his future.

Meet the twins

Meet the babies. John and I had out 20 week ultrasound yesterday and it looks like girls!!! I guess Riley's streak had to come to an end at some point. We are so excited. Now for the hard part...picking names.

Mesquite

So...I know we have been big blogger slackers lately, but I guess we have been pretty busy. Last week, we went on the annual Smart Family Golf trip to Mesquite, NV. We had a great time. John got to golf to his hearts content and I was the big BINGO winner $250!!! Here are a few pictures from the trip. We will try our best to keep the blog updated from here on out.

Tales from Costa Rica

In the mist of cooking up some yet to be determined offspring....John took off to Costa Rica for a week of surf lessons (a.k.a. "surf camp") with his brothers Tom and Joe. Sadly, my skills only improved marginally, but progress was made. The waves were great...small at first and slowly building during the week. The experience is drastically different than our usual day to day grind at the hospital.

So, while Melissa was home enduring lots of what we fondly call "pokies" (shots), John was surfing and fishing. All of this leads me to a new Costa Rican "tale", a superstition if you like. It turns out that if you or your spouse is pregnant...you wont catch a Marlin..a fact that I only found out after the fact when my brothers and I spent a day fishing. Sure...we caught some small stuff, but when we actually saw a large sailfish right next to the boat and maneuvered to get it interested in our bait...it just headed the other direction! That is when the guide let me know this little known fact of Costa Rican lore! My brother Joe reminded me that it is why they call it "fishing" rather than "catching... Regardless, we had a great time.

My only cell service was if I went to a particular spot on the beach in the evening and stood very still so I could talk to Melissa every evening. I would send her these pictures of the sunset and wished that she was sharing it with me. I am ever hopeful that the costa rican superstition holds true..and we will know in a few days if that is the case.