birthday surprises

Back when we were still living in the UAE, I began to plan our summer vacation.  I knew I wanted it to be long and relaxed, and to give us a good chance to catch our breath after moving from the UAE to Kenya.  Plus, it had been five years of living overseas, and the longest break I'd had was about 3 1/2 weeks. I was ready to relax! As I began to look at dates, it seemed to make sense that we stay for my mom's birthday on August 4.  So I had us flying out of Boston on the 5th.

And I had no idea what we were going to get her as a present.  I was hoping that "our presence is our present" would be sufficient!  :D

In the end, though, we were able to come up with the greatest of all gifts!

There was joy:

and surprise:

and general happiness:

I'd say this turned out to be a winner of a birthday present, wouldn't you?

And here's a picture of me, about 11 weeks along:

I'm not showing much, yet, and can still (thankfully!) fit into most of my clothes.  Mostly I'm including this picture because of the sunset over Mt. Longonot.  When we move to our new house (2 more weeks?) we won't have these views any more! 

Anyway, so far, all is going well. I feel great!  I haven't craved ice cream or pickles or Taco Bell at 2 AM -- which would be a big problem living in the middle of nowhere as we do.  I am grateful that it has been so smooth so far.

Keep coming back for more updates and "baby bump" pictures as time goes by.