August Recap
It’s crazy to think that it’s time to do a recap of August already!! I honestly have no idea how August went by that quickly! It was a fun month, though, and I’m excited to share this personal life update today.
RELATED: August // What I’m Looking Forward To
August Recap:
Like I mentioned in this post at the beginning of August, I really wanted to wring every bit of summer out of this month! And I think we’ve accomplished that, even though we didn’t go all-out with a summer bucket list or anything! 🙂
^^ On an evening walk in our neighborhood ^^
We’ve definitely enjoyed some sweet times with friends, family, and fun summery outings, including some good relaxation time…which is exactly what I would’ve wanted from August this year. There have been Dairy Queen ice cream dates, sunset walks in our neighborhood, swinging on our front swing…I love these kinds of summer activities!
^^ The guy who does all the work while this pregnant lady just enjoys the cruise 😉 Thank goodness for our 2-person raft! ^^
Bjorn and I had purchased a couple rafts on sale at a sporting goods store this summer, after his family had purchased a couple rafts themselves! So now we feel like we have a whole fleet! 🙂 It’s fun to go on outings together. We took our rafts out a few more times this month. Even though it may look like all fields around here, there are actually some really great lakes (man-made and natural) relatively close by that we love.
^^ One of the lakes we rafted at in the area – isn’t it beautiful and peaceful?! ^^
One of the bigger events this month was our babymoon! Bjorn and I spent 4 days (3 nights) in the Wisconsin Dells. We had so much fun together – we love special times like these to explore, adventure, and relax as a couple. Some of our favorite things were the Timbavati Wildlife Park, the Mt. Olympus Waterpark, and the Wisconsin Ducks/Boat tours. I went into a lot more detail in our babymoon post, so head on over there if you’re curious about what all we did! 🙂 I am so glad that we did the trip when we did (I was about 32 weeks along), because I did get quite tired walking around. And I’m getting a bit more tired each day now days, so I’m grateful we fit that babymoon in before this point of pregnancy!
On our way home from the Dells, we also had the chance to grab breakfast and hang out with our friends Josh and Kayty, and their precious baby girl! (Kayty blogs over at Simply Sheard – definitely check out her blog!) We then spent some time with Bjorn’s aunt and with his sister on our way home! How fun that the journey home could be filled with friends and family along the way!
RELATED: Our Wisconsin Dells Babymoon
You’ve probably heard that instead of owning a TV, we have a big fish tank in our living room. Bjorn and I really enjoy our African cichlids! But since they’re aggressive fish (and we’re down to only 4 big ones), we didn’t feel like spending a lot of money on bringing smaller cichlids into the tank only to be (ahem) eaten by the larger fish! It sounded like an expensive snack… So, we opted to try a new way to purchase fish and we actually bought some at a much lower cost online! (It’s less sketchy than it sounds — they were guaranteed to arrive alive, and to stay alive and healthy for 14 days after delivery!) The new little cichlids arrived via the UPS truck only a couple days later, which gave Bjorn time to rig up a neat screen-type tank separator. So, now we’ve got about 19(?) smaller African cichlids on the left side of the tank, with our larger ones sequestered away on the right. The hope is that we can feed the smaller fish more often and allow them to grow bigger quickly!
My brother, Tyler, came down for a visit after we got home from the Dells. It’s always great to have him around for a few days. I love how well he and Bjorn get along – they always have fun topics to talk about and neat new projects to accomplish together!
Something I’ve been hoping to do ever since we found out we were pregnant is get maternity pictures done! Photography is meaningful to me, not only because I love photographing life myself, but because capturing memories is so important! We were able to snag a mini maternity session this month, which I am SO grateful for! It almost didn’t happen, because it is hard to work around Bjorn’s teaching/army/mayor/coaching schedule (uffda!). We got photos done with Kaitlyn C Photography – I loved the sneak peek and I can’t wait to see the rest of them! 🙂 It’s crazy to think that our baby girl will be here in about 7 weeks OR LESS, so it was wonderful to get photos done now!
Speaking of photography, I’ve been trying to get into an amazing photographer’s online class for years and I finally got in!! Let me explain. Summer Murdock is incredible! Check out her work here. She offers a well-known class called Magic of Light and it literally sells out in seconds. I’ve tried for a long time to get in and it finally worked out! I can’t wait for the class to start in September! The way Summer captures light in her photos is so beautiful, and light is something I’m always watching for and striving to capture better in my own work.
A fun highlight of this month actually happened yesterday! You may have seen me post about it on Instagram, but at my doctor’s appointment yesterday, my stomach was measuring just a tad bit smaller than average, so they had me get an additional ultrasound. Long story short, baby is totally fine and all is well, but it sure was special to get to see her on the screen again!! We basically just learned that she’s not a huge baby, and that I’m apparently hiding her well, haha. I loved learning that she has chunky cheeks already, and a little bit of fuzzy hair! Pregnancy is incredible, isn’t it? It’s been a special season of anticipation. 🙂
This last week of August has been a transition into a whole new schedule and routine for Bjorn and me. I am taking this school year off from teaching, so this week of back-to-school teacher workshops has felt a lot different for me, since I’m not there! I’m used to carpooling with Bjorn to and from work each day, so this is an entirely new routine for us. I’ll be working on transitioning to this new rhythm of life as the months go on!
My dear friend Jordan hosted a lovely baby shower for me last weekend. What a blessing that was! It was a really special morning and I am grateful for each person that came to celebrate with us. Jordan did a “Miss Rumphius” theme – it’s one of my very favorite children’s books – and it was so cute! I loved every little bit of it. I’m so grateful for her friendship — and for the friendship of those who attended (in person or in spirit)! It was so wonderful to realize just how loved this little girl of ours already is. I was so touched!
^^ Jordan and me – and our baby bumps! 🙂 ^^
^^ My mom and me — 3 generations in this photo! 🙂 ^^
^^ What a fun, sweet theme! ^^
It has been a lot of fun post-baby-shower to start washing and sorting baby clothes, and putting the gifts away. We’re getting closer and closer to meeting baby girl! 🙂
We’re looking forward to hosting a bunch of friends this coming weekend for Labor Day! It’ll be a great group of people – we’re grateful to have each and every one of them in our lives!
August was full of beautiful memories and special moments — even though the month flew by, I’m grateful for every second of it. 🙂 Keep your eyes open for a new post soon about what I’m looking forward to in September!
** To catch up on past personal life updates, check out any of the posts below!