More Pictures!

More pictures!! Papa and Anabelle in her Florida dress (from Great Grandpa & Grandma Schuler)
Her adorable new swimsuit that Mimi and Auntie Abby got her. She loves it and looks so cute in it!

Showin off her dress from Mexico (sans hairbow). She looks pretty stinkin cute in it, even if it is a tube top!

I bought the front to back carrier so daddy can also enjoy having her snuggled up against him. He thinks it's similar to being pregnant... he has no idea! (Can I get an "Amen?") He loved having her so close, and clearly she loved being there! Plus, the view... who doesn't love that?

Mommy and Anabelle at the beach. While we were down there, we saw a momma dolphin and her baby. We named it Anabelle! She had her very own dolphin come to greet us.

All of us out to dinner... the sunset was gorgeous but not very well captured.

I'm sure there will be more photos to come. She may be the most photographed child, EVER! We tell her every single day that she's the cutest baby EVER MADE. :)

Florida Pictures

It's been a fun vacation!! Anabelle has loved it, and Papa & Mimi have loved it even more! We've been pretty relaxed the whole time and have gotten in a little sun time, too. It is so wonderful to spend time as a family and get good quality time with my parents.

The Macks and our sunglasses!
Daddy & Anabelle checking out the beautiful view from the condo.

Daddy gave Anabelle a bottle for the first time by the pool. She did great! And he absolutely loved doing it. I've gotten extra freedom this week as a result.

Me and my love.

Baby bottoms!

Anabelle's first dip in the pool. Toes only! No sun or chlorine on that skin! But she LOVED it!

Anabelle is changing so much, right before our eyes! She loves going from laying down to sitting to standing up! She does it all the time now (with our help, of course). She holds her head up all of the time and tries to sit up when she's laying down. She's smiling constantly, giggle often and just making our lives so wonderfully sweet. She also took her first shower this week! After us swimming and holding her with sunscreen and chlorine, I decided a bath before dinner would be best. I took her in the shower with me, and she loved it! She enjoyed being under the water and didn't mind splashes on her face at all. It's going to be fun to begin those with her... daddy's turn is next.

Stay tuned for more pictures

MARCO... POLO!

We are in Marco Island, Florida, taking Anabelle on her very first vacation! It's hot, hot, hot! But it's wonderful! We've spent a few hours in the sun, a lot of time laying around and even more time doting on Anabelle. We're down here with her Mimi & Papa (my parents), enjoying our alternative to a Jones trip this time around.

Here is one of the greatest moments of the week, and perhaps the last 12 weeks... Anabelle giggling! If you listen closely, she laughs after each time Mimi tickles her. Such an incredibly sweet sound!

Stay tuned for more pictures of the trip...

Winner's Circle continued

This is the coliseum pool at our resort. It is 136 feet in diameter, covered entirely in hand-laid Italian glass tiles. Just look at it!
The elevator is larger than our nursery, I swear. I could literally do cartwheels in it. What you're seeing is just the opening through the doors... it's even wider than that!

For the awards banquet, I hired "The World's Worst Waiter" to provide some entertainment. He did everything a waiter shouldn't, especially at a 6-star hotel! He filled water glasses over the brim so it was impossible to pick them up, handed out rolls one at a time with his hand, talked on his cell phone while serving, ate bread while walking around the room, etc. etc. Here, he filled Mike and Dave's wine glasses over 3/4 full. Basically, half a bottle of wine is in his glass. The guy was a riot!!! He made the night.

Winner's Circle

My event for work, the Winner's Circle, went wonderfully! It was an incredible four days of luxury at this six-star property that is only three months old. Our customers had a great time, my general manager was thrilled, and Mike and I managed to have some down time somewhere in there, too. What a relief for it to have gone so well and to be done with it for a year!!

Here are a few highlights from the trip:

We took a boat trip for dolphin/whale watching.

We managed to see several sea lions.

And really cool clouds.

And some beautiful boats. And just as we were headed back with no dolphin or whales in sight, the captain heard dolphin on his hydrophone! So we headed that way.

They were incredible! We saw probably 25 or 30 of them. They just swam with the boat over and over. Some of them even performed for us.

This boat is the only one in the world with an underwater viewing area. It was tiny, just big enough for two of us, but we were swimming along side the dolphin under water! I absolutely LOVE dolphin (thus our perfect engagement), and this underwater viewing area was too much!

The sunset on the second evening was unbelievable. Here it is, overlooking Catalina Island.

The Californian sunset with my gorgeous husband and my ever-expanding belly.

Californ-i-a

Our first morning in California began at 4AM when we were wide awake because it was 7 at home. I managed to sleep longer, and Mike got up to study for a while. Since we were awake so early, we took advantage of the morning by ordering room service and lounging around our luxurious accommodations for a while. It was a wonderful morning!!!

Breakfast for 2!Mike and the crazy coffee spread that came complimentary with our room.
Me and our amazing view of SoCal.

Counting Down!

In 18 days we will be shacked up in a wonderfully cozy cabin in the Smoky mountains with our dear friends, the Johnsons, Sabelhauses and Mayers. It's our second annual trip to get some serious R&R, catch up with good friends and do whatever we feel like for a few days. Last year was our first trip, hopefully the beginning of many to come, where we can all get away sans-children for a weekend of fun. This year will be slightly different with two babies on the way... probably no zorbing or hot tubbing (for two of us) and less of Jason's margaritas to be consumed, but it's going to be fabulous! And the outlet malls will definitely be glad to see us!

As I sit here post-Christmas no more rested than last week, I am oh-so-anxious for our getaway!

Trip to Cali

My big event for work, The Winner's Circle, is going to be in Newport Coast, California. Last November, I took a hard hat tour through dirt, rocks and a few beams to try to envision what The Resort at Pelican Hill might someday be. They promised an opening date of November 2008, and I figured it would be perfect for our event in Feb 2009!

This November, I went on a site visit to see the finished product. It wasn't quite ready for opening, but they were within 8 days. The property was AMAZING! Rooms begin at $700/night, and I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

My mom was able to squeeze a trip into her schedule to get to go with me on my site visit, and we had an incredible time! I met with people and took tours during the days, and she and I went shopping, site seeing and out to restaurants in the evenings. We managed to get a ton of R&R in, plus one of my clients met us for a whirlwind tour of Beverly Hills and Hollywood. SO FUN!

Me on the steps of the Kodiak Theatre...

Mom and me in front of Grauman's Chinese theatre where all of the handprints are...
'Ahnold's' feet prints...
My favorite, mom and me in front of the Hollywood sign. (If you look very closely, it's there!)

Weekend in Tennessee

My sister had her white coat ceremony for med school last weekend. We packed up the family and drove down to nowhere, Tennessee to celebrate her. The pictures pretty much tell their own story.

I cried at the ceremony (probably hormones) thinking about how proud I am of Rachel and all she's accomplishing. It's quite an honor.

The rest of the weekend was wonderful with the whole family. As you can tell, we got a little silly once in a while. :)

2nd Anniversary!

For our second anniversary, I surprised Mike with a weekend trip to NYC. It just so happens that our dear friends, the Shavers live in New Haven, CT, so we made it a Shaver/NYC trip! It was supposed to begin with a 15 minute train ride to the city. Turns out the drive to the train station is 15 minutes, and our train ride was 90. So we got up at 5 AM and made our way to Grand Central Station at 6:30!!


First stop: Empire State building at 8AM. NO LINES!!

View from the top.

The Macks on top of the world:

Checkin out the sights.

Next stop: World Trade Center Gallery. Incredibly moving!

Next stop: Wall Street and the NYSE. Mike's mother ship.

Trump Tower.

The bull. Even though it's a bear market. :)

Battery Park.

Biz as the statue. Pretty good, I'd say.

Next stop: Statue of liberty. (Well, we didn't really stop because we're on a whirlwind tour of NYC. But the ride was fantastic)

Lady Liberty, herself.

We DID stop at Ellis Island.

The purpose of our trip was for a Yankees game so Mike could experience Yankee Stadium before they tear it down. So, of course, we ate dinner at Mickey Mantle's restaurant. It sits at the north end of Central Park, which was perfect for our tour of the city.

So, next stop, er, looooong walk: Central Park

Pretty amazing how much we take grass for granted!

Next stop: THE BRONX!!! Here's the BRAND NEW Yankee Stadium, in all it's glory. It looks amazing, but our goal was the historic temple of baseball.

And here we are. We came an hour and a half early so we could see Memorial Park before the game, but the line was SO long, they cut the line off before we even got there.

Mike and the park.

Ah, the Yankees!

The game was a success. Yankees won, and Mike got to see a good closing pitcher pitch. Here, I had to get a classic photo of the baseball hot dog.

After the game, we had one more stop to make. So we rode the stinky, crowded subway to Times Square. Awesome at night! We stopped for a slice of NYC pizza and then ran our butts to the train station so we could make the 12:22 train. Yes, a loooooong day!

Saturday, we managed to sneak in a few hours of sleep. Then Bob and Lea showed us a beautiful tour of New Haven, took us to a lovely breakfast place, and then on a grand tour of Yale University! We ended the afternoon with a stop at the top of the city.

Thanks, Shavers, for wonderful hospitality! We had an incredible 48 hours!!

Happy 2nd Anniversary, my love! It was a crazy, wonderful trip, just like our lives!!