The Tiniest Hiccups, a Polydactyl Cat, and Arches National Park

So, for starters, little Quatro (or Rolly (like - roh-lie) as I've started calling him - it was as good as a nickname for "Herald" as I could come up with) has been kicking and rolling quite a bit lately. Seriously though, if his kicks continue to increase in strength as time goes by, he'll probably manage to kick his way out! About a month ago I started noticing tiny, extremely rhythmic movements he was making. I couldn't quite figure it out, and told Paul that Rollie must already have an impeccable sense of rhythm. After thinking about it and doing some research, and then noticing the sensation repeating a good number of times throughout the week,  I realized he simply has teeny tiny baby hiccups that last for ten minutes or so at a time. That's pretty fun and a good addition to his punching/kicking/rolling repertoire. We've been thinking about what crib/carseat/other baby stuff we're going to need, since we don't want to be taken by surprise *just in case* he ends up coming early. If anyone has suggestions for baby items/things we should prepare for, just let us know!

Here's a preggo picture from our trip to Arches. I'm lookin' even bigger now, of course. At this point, Rolly is about 14 inches and weighs 2 pounds.

We went to Arches National Park in Utah with my sister Brooke a few weeks ago, and I was soooo glad we went. It was right after Winter semester had ended and we had just a few days before we'd start working and going to school again, and it was perfect to actually get outside and go camping with what little time we had. It's about a three hour drive from Provo to Arches, and when we arrived we realized that the non-reservation campsites had apparently filled earlier in the day. Darkness was creeping in fast, so we drove around trying to find a campsite. Thankfully, Paul had found one that was *kind of* legit seeming, and we went down and asked the campers around it if anyone had claimed the site already. There was stuff nearby, but not in that particular camp, so we decided to chance it. The site was down right near a river, and tucked in a canyon with two large rock walls on either side. We set up camp and Paul and Brooke made a small fire upon which we made s'mores. There was almost a full moon so it ended up being very light in the canyon overall.

The rapidly falling night in the canyon as we finished pitching our tents and attempted to set up a campfire.

Brooke and Paul are great at building fires. Paul clearly retained his Eagle Scout training.

The first is our view from our campsite (the blue is the tent) and the second is the river - our campsite was right by the yellow tent.

We found a bunch of fun desert flowers while we hiked around - that was probably one of my favorite parts. I've never seen flowers like those back East. We also saw a jackrabbit, some mule deer, several tiny chipmunks, and some small pika/marmot type thing.

That's Paul way off under the arch.

Paul in a very sandy area, it was fun to walk in such perfectly find sand - it was very different from the beach.

Generally, Brooke and Paul were more daring this time than I was when it came to hiking around the arches and such :)

Balancing the balancing rock.

This was my very favorite arch - I think it was called Delicate Arch. Very majestic.

Hershesy - buy one get one free! Saw this at a gas station we stopped back on a nearby town to Arches. I feel like Hershesy is actually someone's rap name.

This is somewhat out of order, but we also had a very wonderful Easter. The traditional meal we make every year in my family on Easter is creamed eggs and cornbread. We also died eggs with some friends in the ward, which I haven't done in many years, so we enjoyed that. We added bacon because... bacon is delicious. 

We also went to the Utah Humane Society this past weekend which is up near Salt Lake. It's one of my favorite places because they have a part of the building called "Kitty City" where they have large jungle gyms with tons of cats sleeping and playing on them, and you can just walk in and pet/play with them. They had a lot of friendly (and not so friendly) cats, and Paul learned some more cat language tips from being around them. He's not in love with every single cat like I am, but he's becoming more and more open to the idea of owning one eventually (although they were running an adoption sale where the cats were only $5 to adopt when we were there - talk about temptation!)

The polydactyl cat and his awesome paws.

While we were in one of the cat rooms, I started petting a friendly cat who had chubbier cheeks and larger ears than most cats. I looked down and saw he also had more toes than most cats - a polydactyl cat! The last picture is an image of a normal cat's paws with only four toes. This cat had 5, and very long pronounced toes on his back feet.

This was another one of my favorite cats - you can't totally tell from the picture, but she had little black eyebrow markings right above her eyes.

We went and visited the dogs as well, but it was a little more sad because dogs don't take to an environment like the pound as well as cats do. A lot of them were pretty sad to be in there, but fortunately that particular humane society has a very good adoption rate for all their animals.

In other news, (heh) I had a lot of articles published in BYU's newspaper this past semester, and this photo on the front page of one of my friends with some blooming branches. I'm actually suuuper glad the particular class I was writing those articles for is over (probably the hardest class I've taken at BYU) but at least there were some fruits for my labors.

We also went shopping at Trader Joe's while we were near Salt Lake City since it's Paul's favorite grocery store. We got some strawberries and found this cute little baby and mom strawberry hooked together. 

We've had a fun time the past few weeks, and currently I'm working at an internship for school credit (and it's paid, fortunately) and taking one class. Paul is working full time - both our jobs are the same ones we had during the school year which is nice. I'm just hoping to keep on pushing through and that the baby doesn't come early so I can get all the required hours for my internship!

Snips, snails, and puppy dog tails.... that's what our baby is made of!

When I was young, we had a little book of Mother Goose's Rhymes, and included was a poem about the origins of boys and girls:

What are little boys made of?

Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails

That's what little boys are made of !

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice and all things nice

That's what little girls are made of!

For the record, "snips" actually means pieces of eel according to the original early 19th century context of the word. Based off what we saw on the ultrasound, I think that our little boy is probably not made of any of those things since I haven't eaten eel, snails, or puppy tails recently, but I'm sure he will probably love all those things once he starts living life in the outside world.

Paul and I both thought we were *probably* going to have a boy. Call it intuition or whatever you want, but we were functioning somewhat under the stronger assumption it was a boy as opposed to a girl.  This is highly convenient (and, of course, exciting) for us as well, because we already had a boy's name picked out, but were somewhat at a loss for a girls name, partially because there were more choices. We had sort of decided early on in our courtship that it would be fun/appropriate for Paul's first son to be named Paul Herald Risk IV because Paul is actually Paul Herald Risk III. So, since we anticipate that being a little confusing, but we've got a few good nicknames lined up so it doesn't get too bad.

Potential nicknames:

Cuatro

Paulo

Pauly-wog

Or possibly "Ollie" as a play on Herald, although obviously it's a different spelling from the traditional "Harold" and thank goodness for that.

And the list goes on. Currently we've been generally referring to him as Cuatro though, and that one may stick - although neither of us are exactly fluent in Spanish, we can both understand it okay/speak a smattering of it.

Anyway, when we got the ultrasound everything looked great, and the OBGYN showed us where the baby's brain, kidneys, stomach, heart, ears, and hands were. We *kind of* saw the face, but not very well. He even showed us where little teeth are down in the jaw which obviously won't be out when little Cuatro is born, but will eventually come out. That was pretty fun - I didn't know babies had teeth at all while in the womb.

We're excited to meet this little boy and can't wait for the opportunity to be his parents!

I think this kid kind of looks like Paul :)

We are definitely reaching the point in the semester where Paul and I are feeling pretty burned out from school. Still truckin' though, because the end is very much in sight. I'm excited to go and do outdoorsy things like camping and visiting local festivals this summer, and we're both excited for the break, and the impending baby birthing (the due date is somewhere between August 8th and 11th, and our first anniversary is on August 1st - impeccable timing, haha.) Once we have something more exciting to report than school, I'll write about that, but for now, baby Cuatro is forefront in our minds.

Pregnant and Still Pluggin' Along

Just in case anyone missed it, Paul and I are expecting, and the baby's due date is in August! We couldn't be more excited.  This blog may alternate between being somewhat of a pregnancy tracker for the time being mixed with all the other things we do - but this is probably one of the most exciting things we have going on right now.

Happy Valentine's day, baby's the size of a pea pod!

I must say, this pregnancy gig hasn't been too bad yet. I only had nausea during the first trimester if I went more than 2 hours without having eaten something, so I never got so nauseous that I threw up or anything.

We had a little bit of a scare - and trip to the emergency room - in the second month, and after an ultrasound where they established the baby was looking good and there weren't any major problems, the doctor said I likely had a minor subchorionic hemorrhage, which is apparently relatively harmless if it doesn't continue to grow. I went to the OBGYN the next day, and thankfully he said that he couldn't even see where the hemorrhage would have been on the ultrasound, so it must have been in the process of simply bleeding itself completely out (which is what you want to have happen.) Since then, there haven't been any problems, and at our most recent appointment the baby's heartbeat was going strong.

Here's the only ultrasound we have, from pretty early on so it's not very high quality nor easy to see. But there's definitely a little one in there!

Over the past week or so, I've been feeling some tiny but definite kicks and wiggles. That's been fun, and of course they're still too small for Paul to feel, but it's nice to know our little tyke is feeling at home. We won't know the gender at least until our next appointment in 5 weeks, which may or may not tell, us, but we're going to be excited no matter what happens. It might be a bit easier if it's a boy, though, because we'll already have a name picked  out.  Perhaps not everyone knows (although probably most do who know him well) but Paul's full name is actually Paul Herald Risk III. The second is his grandpa, and the first was his great-grandpa. So for a boy, we'd like to name him - you guessed it - the fourth. For a girl, we're still a little more unsure, so that would require a good deal more thought.

Not too much else to report, and I'm not showing *that* much yet which is awkward because I kind of just look fat right now as opposed to pregnant, but apparently my weight gain will be escalated now since the baby should be doubling its own weight about every week now.

Here's to hoping Paul feels some baby kicks soon or himself!

In other news, Paul is really smart (no news there), and has been doing well on the many tests he's been taking for hard business classes. I've been taking photos for a photojournalism class, and doing about 6 interviews a week for my reporting class and then writing up two articles a week for BYU's newspaper. That's been eye-opening for me, and so far no one's slapped me across the face for any question I've asked them so I assume it's been going well.

We're about halfway through the semester, and we both have a strong hankering for springtime and summer. We're going to miss Virginia this summer (the prettiest place on earth, really, it is) but we feel it's best to stay out here for the actual birth, and we'll make getting back to VA our first priority for next Christmas most likely. It's starting to look more like spring every day here in Utah, and Paul even spotted some buds on a tree recently!  After 2 weeks or so of straight snow, all we want is the warmth right now, and we've been getting some this week which is a HUGE relief.

Bring on the shorts! Bring on the flowers! Bring on the warmth!  We're ready and waiting.

Exciting Christmas Adventures to Salt Lake City, California, Catalina Island, and Arizona - And a Few Dates

We have had quite an amazing time the past few months, and I have some pictures and commentary to show it. Quick rundown: Christmas concert in Salt Lake, Christmas with my family and getting snowed in, an awesome trip to California, then to Arizona, and back home.

 For starters, before Christmas, we went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert with some famous opera singers who also performed.  It's always fun to go see the lights at temple square.

We visited this awesome tree in Draper, UT. They completely light it up with a toon of strands of lights.

Us in front of the tree.

Paul made chocolate cheese pie, which is apparently a family favorite of his. It's pretty good!

A cute picture of Grandma Larsen and the newest addition to the Larsen family, Elliott.  We went to my brother Gerrit's house on Christmas eve to spend the night because we had a very white Christmas and were afraid we wouldn't have made it over for Christmas morning had we not slept over.

Christmas eve, with the snow falling beautifully outside.

Paul went outside in the snow - in shorts.

The snow on Christmas morning!

A beautiful shot of individual snowflakes on a railing.

So, we went through Las Vegas on our way out to California, and we saw that they had a really cheap buffet inside one of the casinos.  So we went in, and ate some delicious food, and marveled that people would actually waste money to gamble on these.  At one point, Paul was standing kind of near one of the machines waiting for me to get out of the bathroom, and a security guard approached him and said, "I'm sorry, but you're only allowed to be on the floor where the machines are if you're over 21." and Paul was like, "Oh yeah, I wasn't even planning on gambling. I'm here waiting for my wife. I'm 22, though." and the guard was like, "Oh, I'm sorry man, you just look like you're 16..." and he awkwardly walked away, probably trying to figure out how Paul was also already married.

Once we got to California, we stayed at the very nice house of some members of the Church who Paul knew while he was serving his church mission there.  They were super nice, and this was the view off their back porch.

This was a pier at night in San Clemente which Paul and I took a walk on. 

Ghostin'.

My favorite part of the trip was our time on Catalina island, off the coast of Long Beach. This is the ferry we took to get over there, it was about an hour ride over the open ocean to get over there.  We saw dolphins in the open water swimming and jumping alongside our boat, which was super fun - I'd never seen dolphins in the wild before!

The wake from our boat, leaving the city behind us.

Catalina island!  There are a lot of little boats there and fishing boats.

It's truly a beautiful island.

My aunt, uncle, and one of my cousins went with us.  We ate at the Lobster Trap, an interesting restaurant for our first meal there.

Although Christmas was over, they still had fun lights up around the palm trees.

As we walked along the beach, we noticed something - intriguing on the sand.  There were THOUSANDS of these just washed up on the beach, dried out and mostly dead on the sand. In the morning, the seagulls had a feast.

This is a shot from the roof of the hotel we stayed at.  All the pretty lights belong to a church just down the way from us.

They offered tours around the island on these big jeep things, and we were pretty happy that they looked like the ones from Jurassic Park. It was worrying at the same time though, because we were on a touristy island that had these jeeps - I started to expect dinosaurs to jump out at me at any second.

A very beautiful golf course and mountains.

This is a view from a monument we hiked up to.  The monument was for the founder of Wrigley gum, who had a lot to do in the 20's and 30's with the development of the island as both a nature preserve and tourist attraction.

The monument.

A cool door on the monument.

We hiked to the top of this mountain, and the view was incredible of the ocean! Really, it was a dream.

Seriously.  I can't get over how pretty it was.  Made me miss the Philippines a lot.

The "Casino" is on the right, which doesn't have any gambling inside but is just a fancy building where they held social gatherings back in the day, and they still have fancy events there today.

This is the inside of the Casino's movie theater, and it was truly spectacular.  The inside was all hand painted in art-deco 1920's/30's style, with real gold painted on the walls.

The view in the evening from the top of our hotel of the ocean and cute town.

Paul let me borrow his sweater (the grey one) for most of the trip since I stupidly assumed that it was California and everything should have been warm, right?  It was certainly warmer than Utah, that's for sure!

This is our little bird friend, a black crowned night heron. We watched him catch fish after fish in the ocean as he diligently perched and observed the dark waters.

We sure miss Catalina Island!  Paul took this cool panoramic shot.  We'd like to go back there someday and enjoy it even more thoroughly.

This was back on mainland California, in San Diego where my aunt and uncle live.

The view outside our window at my aunt and uncle's house!  We left California shortly after this picture was taken, and boy do I miss it.  I would not be sad if Paul and I ended up back there, and he super enjoyed the trip and being able to see so many nice people that he taught on his mission.  I must say that I was blown away with how excited they were to see him again, and how appreciative they were of the work he did while he was there as a missionary and how hard working he was.  That's what every young wife likes to hear about her husband :)

After California, we went to Arizona to stay a couple of days with Paul's maternal grandma and meet some of his extended family. I found some photo albums, and the adorable photos were so cute!  That's Paul on the right and his sister Becca on the left.  They were completely adorable.

Paul's grandma lives in Tuscon, and I've never seen so many cacti in my life! I was a super big fan of the saguaro cacti. I've always said to Paul that I might not want to live in Arizona because of how hot and dry it is, but after going to Tuscon I think I could live there and be happy.  There's a lot of cool scenery and it's just a super interesting place that just feels like the essence of "the West." I was expecting cowboys to ride by me on horses from around every hillside.

So we went to a wildlife museum/zoo there in Tucson, and there were a lot of exciting things we saw. There were a LOT of snakes which are indigenous to Arizona.

We found some coyotes in one enclosure - they're pretty cute, and we heard some good racket from wild packs of them at Paul's grandma's house while we were there.

Look at this handsome man - back in his element, since he lived for a while in Nevada and Arizona as a kid.

They're just so cool!  We had a ton of fun in Tuscon and Paul's family really is a blast - they sure know how to play a great game of "Mormon bridge" and a game that made my own dad have fun (which pretty much never happens) which was a game where you'd blow a ping pong ball around on the table and try to not let it go off your side.  We had a great time there and Paul's grandma is extremely nice.

An impressive mountain.

If you're easily bored by scenery, feel free to skim this, but we really found the trip interesting because of all the strange rock formations there were to look at.

We drove through the Navajo Indian reservation on the way home to Utah, which is where my dad served his mission.  He speaks very little Navajo now, but he was pretty excited.  The large piles of sand below were a very strange geological formation we saw on our drive.

So that's been our excitement from Christmas.  This semester has both of us on our toes, and on campus or at work from 9 to 5 most days (and sometimes from 9 to 8 on some days.) I can't remember if I mentioned my new job, but I'm enjoying working at the library as a research assistant studying homemaking books from today and previous eras and writing up a directory on them, and Paul's doing well at his IT job.  I also picked up some extra hours as a teacher's assistant for a journalism class I took last semester as well, so currently we're working three jobs between us!

I'm currently taking a journalism class that has me doing many interviews and writing multiple articles each week for BYU's newspaper which has me extraordinarily busy, and Paul is doing an awesome internship which counts as a class where he's helping develop a business plan for a non-profit organization that is working to stop human trafficking, especially in the sex trade.

Paul turned 23, and we got a really good coupon from Texas Roadhouse and went there to celebrate.  They were super nice and gave us free chili and free ice cream on top of the free ribs we already got.  They made Paul get on a "birthday saddle" they rolled over and ride on it while they sang to him which was pretty hilarious.

Paul also got free cheesecake at Chili's and I got him a new wedding ring for his birthday because his old one is too big for his hand when it's not summer - his hand apparently shrinks a lot in the winter cold, but he'll probably switch back to the old one once it gets warm again.

We went to BYU's Y Ball for married couples!  I really enjoyed it, since the last dance we went to was homecoming and it was a little bit of a bust in some ways.  At this one, they gave us free fancy dinner before the dance. It was fun to get all dressed up, and Paul looks super nice in a tux.

We went to an awesome event at the Shoppes at the Riverwoods on a double date with friends to an event they hosted.  We didn't know this, but turns out it was Star Wars themed!  They had a guy there who was carving the ice into various characters from star wars, and we were pretty impressed with the end results. They also had fireworks, and my favorite part, a bunch of cute dogs just there at the event which their owners kindly let me pet :)

I thought it looked like Darth Vader was holding a GIANT otter pop for a lightsaber. 

Note the matching pants and pool noodle lightsabers.

Yoda ice.

And the awesome Millennium Falcon being carved by the artist himself!

It's been good to go on dates with Paul each week, which has been our goal this semester since we took a marriage survey which encouraged us to do so (which we also got paid for, which was nice.)

We've been enjoying ourselves and married life, even with the busy-ness that comes along with it all. We're looking forward to continuing to slog through this semester with everything we've got, even through the last week of constant snow.  Looking forward to the summer, but to much to get done first!  I'll try to not write about 3 months of events next time I write.