Visiting our family and grandparents back East

We loved spending time with my family in Michigan and visiting Zack's grandparents in Ohio. We got to sit down with both my Grandma Delgrosso and Zacks Grandma and Grandpa Higbee, and learn about our heritage. How brave and courageous our ancestors were and how we loved hearing all of these stories from our grandparents. Makes you so proud to be who you are and makes you want to live up to your family name and the amazing people that they were! (Oh and now I updated my blog so now they have a place to add captions at the bottom of the picture, sorry to confuse anyone but now the captions for the pictures are at the bottom of each picture...haha sorry)

My 89 year old Grandma! 

My Aunt Laura and cousin Christina. Loved getting to know
them:) So sweet! 

At a baseball game.

Grandma Higbee at Lake Erie

Grandpa Higbee! 

They are amazing examples to us. They are serving a mission in
Kirtland, Ohio and we loved getting personalized tours
and learning all about what a wonderful place Kirtland is!

So grateful for our time that we got to spend with our families and we can't wait to share all those wonderful stories with our kids:)

HAWAII!!!!

Wow!! That's pretty much all I can say:) We decided to take this trip to celebrate our anniversary and to take one last trip before our lives change forever. Hawaii was what we settled on because I had never been there and have wanted to go forever. Hawaii lived up to all of my expectations and more! It was so fun and we tried doing everything we could (mind me being 5 months pregnant). Sorry there are a ton of pictures, but here's a small glimpse of the 900+ pictures that we took:) (Also I think I do things a little backwards on this blog, but I put the explanation at the bottom of each picture, I don't know it just makes sense in my brain, so hope that helps and makes sense to you too:)

Our fun jeep!

Our view from our amazing condo! If anyone is going to Oahu, we know the best place to stay!

We went to a ton of beach's, but here is one picture at Waimea.

Zack jumping off the rock at Waimea:)

We hiked to Maunawili falls and of course Zack jumped off all of the cliffs.

Here's kind of a shot of my belly at 20 weeks and a couple of days!

At Pearl Harbor.

On the memorial for the Arizona.

At the swap meet!

Eating Matsumoto's! Yumm:)

Our underwater camera! We got to see a bunch of cool fish and sea turtles!

Walking/swimming out to China man's hat.

We made it to the top! Bouldering is a bit harder when you have a big protruding belly in front of you:)

The view was amazing!

Walking back.

August 12!! What an amazing day, our anniversary! Words can't even express how in love I am with my husband. He is the best person I know and he makes me soooo happy. These last 2 years have honestly been the best of my life and can't wait to celebrate many more years.

Then we went to the PCC. So fun!

Eating fresh Poi.

At the Luau they called all of the couples up celebrating their anniversary and they sang while we danced. A nice couple who sat next to us took these pictures:)

I love him!

At the amazing show that night, eating our yummy desert!

snorkeling again at sharks cove:)

We loved our vacation and I loved going and experiencing it with Zack. He makes everyday an adventure and so much fun! We can't wait to go back some day!

It's a GIRL!! A couple of reasons I knew it was a girl:)

YAY!!!! Oh my gosh, yesterday was one of the most emotional, crazy days ever!

Our appointment wasn't until 3 o'clock, so all morning I was literally going crazy! I went to yoga in the morning, then we went to lunch, then I went and bought blue and pink shirts for us so I could make shirts once we found out, and then I cleaned our little apartment over and over again. If I stopped for one second, I would go crazy thinking of what we were having and of all the possibilities of what our future would look like.

Then, 3 o'clock slowly came. The hardest part of the entire day was sitting in the waiting room, just waiting and waiting. First I was about to explode! They had me drink 32 oz. of water and with a baby on the other side of your bladder, I literally was bursting at the seems:) Also my heart was beating out of my chest. Zack could feel how hard it was beating and I could not get it to calm down. It was the worst. It was like waiting and waiting to meet someone you've loved and wanted to meet forever. But deep down knowing you're meeting them not for the first time, but reuniting with them.

Then when the ultrasound technician said, "Ok I think it's a girl?" I just knew instantly, YES, that's our little girl.

Then as she took more pictures of our baby, she became more sure. It was just confirming something that we both already knew.

Here are a couple of reasons why we knew it was a girl:

1. Long before we were even pregnant, one day while watching a movie with Matt, he turned to us and just started crying. We asked him what was wrong, and he said, "I'm just so happy." Then we asked why? And he said, "Because I know you guys are going to have a girl, and that I am going to be an uncle again!" We kind of laughed it off and said, "Yes, someday we'll have a girl." But he was so sure and basically just told us, you'll see:)

2. When I was about 8 weeks pregnant, I flew to Utah and this nice, older man sat next to me. We started talking and I had to warn him that I was pregnant just in case I had to use that white, little doggy bag that was in the seat pocket in front of me:) Haha anyways we just chatted a bit, then at the end of the flight we were saying bye and he said, "You're going to have a girl, you'll see." And again I just laughed it off and said, "Ya we'll find out soon enough."

3. As I got farther along, most of my family as you could tell from our poll, thought I was having a boy. But all along, Matt was totally convinced it was a girl. He would even get a little agitated if we even talked about it being a boy, he just wouldn't even hear it. He would ask me, "Afton, don't you trust me?" haha and I would say, "Yes but the Dr. will tell us for sure." But our favorite quote that he said one night was, "I'm not 100% sure its a boy, but I'm 200% sure it might be a girl!" We wrote it down and stuck it on our fridge:)

4. She already loves chocolate, haha and I'm not joking. The thing that gets her kicking and squirming a ton is when I eat chocolate, more specifically a symphony bar! That's what I ate as we were sitting in the waiting room, to make sure she was awake and moving around so we could find out what she was. She's definitely my daughter, she already loves CHOCOLATE:)

5. Then lastly and most importantly, when she let us know she was a girl. It was our favorite moment thus far. So, the night before we were scheduled to find out, as we were laying in bed, Zack was doing his nightly routine of talking and singing to our baby. Then I told him to ask our baby what it was. So he put his hand on my belly and he asked the question. He asked, "Are you a boy?" then he waited a sec, then asked, "Are you a girl?" and as soon as he said "girl" our baby kicked the hardest that Zack and I had EVER felt. It really seemed like a movie, like it was so crazy. His hand was pushed off of my belly! She definitely answered our question. We both looked at each other and could not believe that that really had just happened. We were amazed and then really could not wait to find out if it was a girl:) And it was!

Ultimately, everyone would always ask me what I thought our baby was. I never wanted to answer, because I didn't want the baby to ever think I didn't want it. If it was a boy and I said I wanted a girl, I would feel bad, and vica versa. BUT... deep down secretly, I didn't even say it to Zack, I knew it was a girl. It's a weird feeling and I can't adequately express it, but I just knew.

Here's her proud daddy, showing her off at work!

I love her sooo much already and we really can't wait to meet her:)