on my wish list: fogo island inn

i have a little goal to visit as many hotels on newfoundland as i can. the fogo island inn is absolutely at the top of my list.

we have been to fogo before, and loved it. fogo is a few hours drive from gander, then you take a short ferry to the island. when we visited last time, the inn was still under construction. now it is all done, and it looks amazing.

we were going to take a little babymoon to the fogo inn, but decided against it for a few reasons. staying at the inn is very expensive. j and i stayed at some very fancy hotels on our honeymoon, and the fogo island inn is comparable. the cost of a night stay at the inn includes three full (probably amazing) meals, unlimited snacks, unlimited alcohol. i knew i wouldn't be able to enjoy the alcohol, so it seemed like kind of a waste for me. also, there are apparently hot tubs on the roof for stargazing. sounds perfect. though i have been avoiding hot tubs due to baby, so another cool thing wasted on pregnant me.

hopefully jon and i will get a chance to check out the fogo island inn after baby comes.

6.5 month bump

we get to meet this baby in just a few months! 10 weeks or so! i am finding that time has been going by really fast. a few things about life as a pregnant lady lately:

- i try to go for a walk every day. i am totally exhausted within 20 minutes. i used to run for 30 minutes a day! also, i walk really slow now.
- i seriously want ice cream twice a day. i have already lamented that this town is really lacking for ice cream options. i am really excited that some of the convenience stores will be opening their ice cream counters. i see cotton candy, moon mist, and hoof prints in my future. for now, there is always mcdonalds
- baby is coming right in the middle of triathlon season. at first i thought we would have to bail on the triathlons, but after talking to lots of moms i realize how portable babies are. i will be welcoming j at the finish line with our 2 week old (if baby comes on the due date), and i am pumped.
- baby's movements are starting to feel different. sometimes j and i can feel a heel or an elbow jutting out. love it.

hotel review: the wave hotel, clarenville, newfoundland

we stayed at the wave on sunday night. j surprised me by booking us a night here in the jacuzzi suite. i am always wanting to take baths lately, but our current bath in our apartment is pretty small and sad. also, it was so cold and snowy this weekend, a night away was welcome.

price: $180 per night for the jacuzzi suite. i think the regular rooms are around $120 per night
bathroom: nothing special.
pool: there is a huge pool. it has no real deep end, and it is open to the public sometimes, so expect a ton of kids around
breakfast: there was a continental breakfast, but we totally slept through it. the breakfast was located in the pool viewing room, which was sort of weird
wifi: yes, perfect
tv: yes, perfect. we watched a marathon of millionaire matchmaker. addictive.
location: really good for clarenville. close to everything.
parking: free
notes:
- the hotel reception was also the reception where you check in for the public gym, the public pool, and tanning. there is no real lobby. kinda weird
- the jacuzzi took forever to fill up. like, after 25 minutes of the water running full blast, there was maybe a cm of water in there. i went to the front desk (slash tanning check in), and asked them about it. they said it was because they ordered the wrong faucet for the jacuzzi. they gave us a free night's stay to use once the faucet is fixed, which i thought was really good customer service. then j solved the problem by filling the jacuzzi with the water from the bathroom tub and a bucket. he sorta saved the day. my favourite thing was watching tv from the jacuzzi. hehe.
- i would stay here again for sure, but it is really basic. there is absolutely nothing fancy about this place

snow and the long weekend

(a tiny bit of snow saturday morning) 

(our vehicles on sunday morning) 

(driving through the blizzard sunday afternoon)

when we woke up to a bit of snow on saturday morning, it was almost a novelty. i thought it was pretty crazy to have snow on the may long weekend. and then a full blizzard came the next day. we got 25 cm of snow here, and some areas got a lot more. winter really does last 6 full months here. summer can't come soon enough!

sunday afternoon bike ride

we got my bike out of winter storage for the first time of the season yesterday. it felt so great to be back on the bike. i have read all kinds of different advice about biking while pregnant, but i have decided to listen to my body when it comes to physical activity. riding the bike felt great, though we went slow and stayed on the trails (hence the lack of helmets). we biked to get ice cream and magazines, then back to our house. such a perfect afternoon.

what i'm wearing: my amazing j brand mama j skinnies. also, i am finding toms to be the best shoes for pregnancy.

6 month bump!

i am about 27 weeks pregnant now, which is 6 months. crazy how fast time goes by. i can't believe i am in my last trimester. now, it feels like my body changes so much every single day. lately, i feel huge!

thoughts on my 6th month:

- baby has been moving so much! sometimes j and i just watch my belly for a few minutes, because there is so much action. feels so cool and weird.

- we went for our fourth ultrasound the other day. usually you only have one, but baby has been in the same position every time, so they couldn't get a good pic of the back. the technicians are really amazing, and have been showing us the 3D images of baby's face. crazy how much baby looks like jon already.

- i have been wearing my fav maternity jeans nonstop, and am soo looking forward to warmer weather so i can wear all my stretchy maxi skirts. also, i had to switch to shelf bras because regular bras are so uncomfortable for me lately.

- we are debating getting photos done. i love shakira's bump pics, but i'm not shakira.

life lately...

(a kitty hiding in some towels at the local SCPA)

(energetic pound pup)

(first iceberg of the season in Twillingate)

(first lobster of the season)

(beautiful birthday flowers from my parents)

life seems to be smoothing out a bit. i have a feeling the next few months will fly by. 

on turning 29

(5 month bump)

something that i am learning about life is that opportunities aren't handed to you in a perfect order at the perfect time. sometimes life is a bit messy. my life is a bit messy. up until a year or two ago, my life was steadily heading down a certain path. i was in high school, then went straight to university, then right to grad school, then right to the best job opportunity i got at graduation.

now, life is getting a little crazy. i am 29 years old today. i am 6 months pregnant, 10 months married. we are moving in 2 months. we got new jobs. we are in the process of buying a house. i am really happy, and really overwhelmed. these past few weeks have been really tough, i think partly because i am more emotional due to hormones, and also because we are changing our life so drastically so quickly, i can barely keep up.

i will definitely write more about all these changes as they happen. all i know for sure right now is that this next year is going to be amazing. i am so excited to meet our baby, to move into our very first house, to go through all these things with jon.

another weekend in st. john's

(i wish we had fancy coffees in gander) 

(enjoying a virgin margarita at zapata's) 

(cohen concert)

j and i had a sweet weekend in st john's when i returned from vegas. we stayed at the sheraton, our usual. they renovated the pool area, so it is much brighter and nicer now. one thing about sheraton: their cable makes it really, weirdly difficult to change the channels. you have to go through this whole thing to flick through each channel. super annoying for someone who wants to flip from house hunters international and kardashians. ha. 

we went on a big baby shopping spree. we got the stroller, the rest of the baby furniture, some reusable diapers, an ergo. sooo fun. more fun than shopping for myself, for sure. we also went to see leonard cohen at the mile one centre. this is really not the ideal venue for a concert. soo huge! but leonard was amazing, and we loved it. he played for close to four hours! such a good weekend.