Vacation from vacation?

Have you ever felt that after a vacation that you need another vacation to recoup? That is totally how I felt this time around. Last week Cory and I went to Boston on an incentive trip we earned through one of our blind suppliers. I had really been looking forward to the trip before I found out I was pregnant. In fact, Cory didn't really care much about going to Boston, but picked the trip because he knew it was one of the few places in the United States I REALLY wanted to go, but had never visited. (My family went to Boston and the New England area for their first family trip after we got married...without me...I've always been a bit sad that I missed that trip - it really meant I was growing up)

Anyway, after realizing that I would be ENORMOUSLY pregnant at the time of the trip, the novelty of it started to wear off. Everything I researched about our trip pointed to the fact that Boston is a "walking city". Yup - you can get to anything if you walk to it. Between the heat, my back, and the lovely job of swelling that my body does - I was pretty miserable. I felt bad that Cory had to be there with me while I was so crabby. Mostly I was just upset that I couldn't run and run around like I wanted to. I hated having to take breaks, put my feet up, and deal with swollen feet/legs/hands at the end of the day (or all day really).

We did see some great stuff though. The highlight to me was probably a whale watching cruise we took. I had never seen whales in the wild, and it was AMAZING! We took a boat out about 1 hr from Boston, and then watched the whales for about an hour - seeing TONZ! I'll get some pictures up soon. It really made me grateful for the beautiful world Heavenly Father has blessed us with - so awesome to enjoy something new like that!

Gabe had a GREAT time while we were gone. He stayed with his Mullen cousins for a couple of days, and then Grandma and Grandpa came down to pick him, and his cousins - Lexie and Lincoln to come up to Logan to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple of days. He had so much fun with his cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. He keeps talking about them with the biggest smiles on his face. He got plenty spoiled with attention, loves, and fun books.

Speaking of Gabe - what a character! He just says and does the funniest things. I can't wait for more of his antics - becuase I'm sure that they'll just keep getting better as he works on putting sentences together.

• Today I was talking to Cory on the phone. Cory was at Walmart and was picking up some stuff. I looked at Gabe and said, "Do you need anything else at Walmart? Can you think of anything you'd need if you went to Walmart to go shopping?" He looks at me with a huge smile on his face and yells out, "MONEY!" So either he wanted Cory to pick him up some money, or knows that we always end up dropping a lot of dough when we hit Wally-world. (speaking of money - Gabe LOVES change. One of his favorite things to do is sit down with a pile of change and his piggy bank to play. He loves the sound it makes when he places money in the bank - he is his father's child...)
• Yesterday he kept telling me that he wanted to wear "alligator shoes". I could not figure out what he meant. Then he went into my closet and bought me out a pair of my "CROCS". They have a little picture of a crocodile on them - but seriously, how can you tell the difference between aligators and crocodiles? I even have a hard time. So I pulled out his pair of crocs we bought him a while back - but they're still too big. He insisted though, and actually figured out how to put them on himself. He was pretty proud of them as he sloshed around the house trying to keep them from falling off.
• Colors. Gabe is really getting a hang of his colors. He goes in phases where he'll point to a color (orange for instance) and know what it is - then a week later if you ask him to point to something ORANGE - he'll look like you're crazy. But for a few days at a time he knows colors really well. The color of the day has been green and brown. Oh, and I asked him to pick up the BLUE crayon and he handed it to me and said, "Wager" (water). So he's catching on! He loves crayons, but more than that he loves to draw with pens. In fact, I can't even take a notebook and pen with me to the grocery store with my list becuase he insists on checking off things on the "wist" with the pen. He loves lined paper and pens. Maybe he'll be a list freak like his mommy. Gotta keep an eye on the little guy!
• On the night we took Gabe to Ashley's house - before we flew out of Salt Lake City on Thursday - he would NOT sleep! He wouldn't go to bed at all. Finally, since Ashley's kids were all asleep we settled him down with us on the airmatress to watch a movie. We don't have Peter Pan yet so I thought that he'd go to sleep. But as soon as it started Gabe yelled, "Pan! Pan!" Then I realized that we'd read Peter Pan books - so he was 'hooked' and had to watch most of the movie before going to bed. (And then later woke up for most of the night...little stinker!) It did make me happy that he's remembering the things we're reading though.
• On our trip up north we took Gabe to Thanksgiving Point in Lehi to go to their petting zoo/barn. He loved seeing the animals. I think his favorite was the Donkey - he thought it was like the donkey from Shrek. He also go to go on a pony ride and loved that. I felt bad that our trip there was probably his "summer vacation" (with the baby coming and all) - but he had a good time. Plus we ended the time by letting him pick out a tractor and dump truck at the gift shop, so what could keep him happier? That kid loves any kind of farm equipment - must get it from Uncle Coby. He loves his "umper" (dumper), "woader" (loader) and the multiple tractors we have running around the house. He is really all boy!

Well I will work on getting some pictures up to share up on the site shortly.