It's been a busy January. My aunt passed away on December 29th after a 2 month illness, so I flew to Ottawa to spend time with my uncle and attend the funeral. It was a really nice week in spite of the circumstances, and I enjoyed spending the time with two of my three uncles and my dad. It wasn't even that cold! The day I arrived it was bitter cold, and then it was about 50 degrees (F) the rest of the week. That did cause some unexpected issues, though. The fog was so bad that the airport was closed for 2 or 3 days. My one uncle ended up taking a bus to Montreal and flying home from there a day late, and then I ended up flying home a day late as well. It all worked out in the end, but we were wondering if we would even get out when we did!

Then we went to the big island of Hawaii for a week to celebrate a friend's 60th birthday with him. It was a great trip, especially since he flew us over there and put us up at this fabulous all-inclusive resort for 3 nights. Incredible place, and we had a ball celebrating with him. Then we went into Kona for the remaining 4 nights we were there and had an ocean view room in a big hotel. Not nearly as nice as the resort, but we didn't care because we were hardly in the room. We drove to Kilauea to see the volcano and Moana Loa, and drove to Hilo and up and around the entire island one day - it was great fun, and I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I could barely taste my dinner. Well worth it, though.

Another day we went on a snorkel trip, and took the boat from one bay to another (about an hour) and then snorkeled in this gorgeous turquoise water for a while, had lunch, snorkeled some more, and headed back to the dock. The snorkeling was fantastic, and even better than that was the whale watching! There was a mama and a baby about 100 feet away from the boat, and we got to see fin slaps, spouts, dorsal fins, and whale tails. I got some GREAT pictures. It was just breathtaking!

I hadn't gained but about 4 pounds thus far in this pregnancy, until I went on this vacation - and I gained 4-5 pounds in a week! I was more active than usual, but I was also eating bigger meals than usual. One morning at breakfast I had scrambled eggs, oatmeal, a glass of guava juice, and an entire papaya. Gordon could not believe how much I ate!

Now that we are back in town and settling back into our routines, I am going to try to eat more regular meals now that I am feeling better. Not as much as I ate during vacation, but I often graze and I don't think it has been helping me much lately.

I've been feeling the baby flutter around the last couple of weeks, and the flutters have been getting a bit stronger - almost a thump, but not quite. Exciting! I also had a quad screen test, and I know that the results are 'nice', but not much else right now. I'll get more specifics from my OB when I talk with her on Wednesday. Oh, and we have the big structural ultrasound next week to see how the baby is developing.