Fishing Trip

I survived the camping trip. Not only that, but it was a great trip all around. We stayed at Garden Creek Campground on the East Fork of the Big Lost River, and it was pretty amazing. Basically just followed Trail Creek road, up over the pass and about 4 miles past the turnoff for Copper Basin (Wildhorse Road). Ended up being 29.9 miles from the stoplight in on Main and Sun Valley Road in Ketchum.

The campsite was killer, right on the river and no one else around. Here is a pic:

After getting there and setting up camp we set out to fish. We caught about a dozen fish in an hour and a half which was a great start. That night we cooked up some chicken burgers for dinner and gutted some fish for breakfast the following morning.

After having breakfast, bacon and cutthroat, we headed out to fish the main waters of the Big Lost river. We started just below the dam of Mackay Reservoir and did really well. Caught another dozen or so fish, almost all on dry flies (orange stimulators) and then headed to the upper waters above the reservoir. Did not fair as well there, as Uncle Matt pulled just one fish out and other than that we were stifled.

We decided to head back to fish around camp, and the next couple hours were pretty dead. After that the fishing picked up, and while your uncle went for a hike I pulled 4 rainbow trout out of the river just south of the campsite. Overall is was a success. Here is the biggest fish from the trip:

Rocking Chairs

Mom has this weird obsession with the south. She loves plantation style homes, the big trees, the culture and the large lot sizes. She wants us to move there and has for some time. When we were looking to leave San Diego, she was sending me jobs daily in places like Charlotte, Atlanta, New Orleans, etc… and asking me to apply. I of course obliged, but the jobs were never really specific to what I do. The funny thing about it is that mom has never really been in the south for an extended period of time. She has never been to Atlanta, Charlotte, Charleston or a number of other places that she wants to pick up and move to. I cannot explain how she came to have this fascination and love for the area (although I am pretty sure that Young House Love had a lot to do with it), but regardless she feels a connection.

With that in mind she came up with the idea of how to tell our extended family and friends about you when the time comes (which is only about 10 days away now). We ordered some rocking chairs that were delivered last week and we will be taking a picture on our front porch with Layla, your mom and I. We will be holding up signs that say the due date and that we are pregnant. The signs will be blank and I will photoshop in the text later on. We will then be sending out an email with the news, as well as posting it on Facebook and Instagram (really curious to see if these social medias still exist when you are old enough to be online). We will of course contact directly our immediate family that doesn’t know and tell them before posting it anywhere, but this way we can hit everyone we know and care about.

One thing that you will learn about your dad is that he is good at a lot of things, but handyman tasks are somewhat of a weakness. It is weird, because MY dad is great with these kinds of things. He actually built the first house I ever lived in from the ground up. Unfortunately I was too busy with other things growing up to learn from him (although he will tell you I never took the time to learn despite his best efforts). Anyway, I will be assembling the rocking chairs this week all by myself as your mom is still gone for another 5 days, so if the picture is missing the chairs it is probably because the assembly did not go according to plan. 🙂

We have another doctor’s appointment a week and two days from now and get to see you again in the ultrasound and I am counting down the days. Cannot wait to tell EVERYONE about you next week either. Enjoy your time in that womb of yours, because once you get out of there you are going to be smothered by people who want to be around you and love on you.

Love, Dad

When you find out you are pregnant, planned for or not, your life changes in a variety of ways. We talked already about the drinking and hanging with friends, but there are also plans that must be amended and people that have to find out.

Mom has had a trip to the Caribbean planned for a few months, and while she is still going, she had to tell her friend Laura (not the same as the Seattle one) about you. We have had to back out of a couple boating and camping trips with friends, as well as a few nights out. It makes people a bit suspicious as well as put off, but once we can share the news all will be cured.

One of the fun parts was telling Mia about you, as she was actually the first person we told just a couple weeks after finding out. Mom wanted some advice and another woman to talk to about the pregnancy so we went over to Sun Valley and told her the news. But telling people is actually really fun for us, so we wanted to do something kind of cool.

We got into SV that evening and stopped by Atkinsons (I am assuming you will know SV well by this point but just in case) to pick up a ribbon and a card. We got to Mia’s house and wrote on the card. We then tied the ribbon around Layla’s neck and attached the card, knowing full well she may just devour the card and we were taking a risk. The card spoke to the fact that Layla was about to be a big sister.

We let Layla out of the car and she made a beeline for Mia. I mean a beeline, there was no control and absolutely no after thought about the yellow ribbon around her neck. At full speed she jumped on Mia and about knocked her over. She then sped off through the house and we had to track her down. In our minds, naively of course, we pictured Layla strolling up to Mia and sitting nicely before her while we told her that there was a note around her neck. She would read it, Layla would lie down while we all hugged, and it would be out of a movie type thing. Instead Layla was a freaking maniac and turned it into a circus.

Finally, I was able to grab Layla and pin her and pick her up to bring over to your mom. The ribbon was trashed by this point and was all tangled in her collar and neck hair. We finally managed to get the ribbon free, and got your mom the card. She handed it to Mia and her face lit up. Our plan was flawed from the get-go, but the point was made.

Outside of the previous post and this one, there have not been many big items to talk about. No complication thankfully and haven’t told many people.

Today actually marks 9 weeks, so just 31 to go!

Love, Dad

I didn’t start this site until after the first ultrasound, but before we had that we knew about you and there were already some cool things that had happened.

The big question, that I am pretty sure any kid asks at one point or another, is were you on purpose? Without the details, which I am sure you could care less about, let’s get out of the way that you were planned for. What we didn’t expect is that you would be so easy to conceive. Mom had gone to the doctor about 6 months before we started “trying” for you and began taking prenatal vitamins as well as got initial tests to ensure she was healthy. They also gave us tips on how to find the times when our chances were highest. We began tracking what we needed to in order to establish these times months before we really began to intentionally try to create you. A couple weeks after we got into the new house there was a peak time, and this is when you were created. Normally it takes up to a year for a couple to conceive, so we feel extremely blessed (and remember this for when you are at the age where sex becomes something you are interested in, you are extremely fertile whether you are a boy or girl).

(As a side note  one thing that you will learn about me is that I am a planner. I plan everything I possibly can down to the smallest details. I have had a plan since I was in middle school as to how my life was going to play out and have always tried my best to ensure that it did just that. It has not always gone perfectly, but for the most part is had gone according to what I mapped out. Before you we had a few priorities. First being to get married (which we did 4 years ago two days from now), next to find a place to live (which is the aspect that has seen some mixed results regarding the planning as we have lived in 3 places in those 4 years), next to get a dog (sounds stupid but was a great idea getting Layla) and finally to buy a house which we did earlier this year (this being the most important aspect, especially to your mom, as we wanted somewhere to bring you home to that belonged to us). Plans are my thing, to a detriment in some circumstances, but I am sure when you read this you will be well aware of this already.)

So obviously it takes a little while in order to find out if we were pregnant or not. We were waiting in anticipation, but also not really sure if it took or not. From everything that we had been told and had read the chances seemed slim. We had also been together for 10 years and had only had a handful of “close calls” so neither of us figured that it would be a quick turnaround. The end of May was the time we calculated as most fertile, but the odds were not on our favor. Throwing all that to the side, we decided to take a test to find out.

We took the test on June 16, 2013 and found out that mom was pregnant…it just so happened that was also Father’s Day.

I can’t speak for your mom, although I am sure she shares my sentiment, but it was the most excited and overwhelming feeling I have ever experienced. There was no anxiety, stress or doubt but simply incredible pride and love. It was like nothing I have ever experienced, and I am sure will be trumped only by when you come into this world. When I think back on that moment, finding out that way with your mom handing me the test with the biggest smile I have ever seen on her face, and the feelings that were going through me I know that I will never forget that. It is a memory I will have forever.

There are other things that happened before this site started that I will continue on with, but I wanted to end this post here as nothing else we talk about that happened prior can compare to this. We are currently about 9 weeks in with 31 weeks to go, and we are trying to enjoy this as much as possible but both go to bed every night and wake up every day talking about what you might be like. It is fun to speculate, but we can barely handle the anticipation. We are extremely lucky to be in the position we are, have the love and admiration for one another that we do and a healthy baby on the way. Cannot wait to have you here and share our lives.

Love, Dad