Our first family picture

Tonight, we went to our 4D ultrasound. It was neat, and I think my parents really enjoyed being there. Mom keeps reminding me that when I was born, there were no ultrasounds.
So, Baby Z is still a girl - so that's completely confirmed now.
She has a very strong jaw line - definitely Scott's jaw and chin. Isn't it amazing how you can see things like that this early on?
She has very big Angelina Jolie lips - where did these come from?
We were able to see some hair, not a whole lot yet. But we know she's going to have some hair when she is born.
Her head is down, so we've got that going for us.

Her eyes were closed the whole time, but my mom thinks she's going to have a little bit of asian in her eyes. My dad says he can't really tell at all, but that's just my mom's gut feel. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Oh, and it seems like she had long legs.
Baby Z - Can't wait to meet you!

Fruits and Veggies - is it possible to eat too much?

For over a year now, everytime we went into Costco and walked down a particular isle, I would enthusiatically say "Look, the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer!". It's not that it's just fun to say, but it has always looked like a pretty cool product.

One weekend, there was nothing on TV and an infomercial for the Jack LaLanne Power Juicer came on. Of course, I watched the entire thing (I'm having Magic Bullet flashbacks, which is also a great product), and my desire to own this juicer immediately doubled. So I asked Scott if we could get one for my birthday, but with my birthday being more than 2 months away, I asked if we could get it early. And I promised that we would never have to buy apple juice or orange juice ever again. Thus, I am now the proud owner of a Jack LaLanne Power Juicer Deluxe!

I really like this product. So far I have made:
1 - Carrot, Apple, Pear juice
2 - Carrot and Apple juice
3 - Pineapple, Grapefruit and Strawberry juice (definitely my favorite so far)
4 - Carrot and Cucumber juice
Naturally, I like the ones with fruit in them since they are sweeter. But I also figure that this is a good way to increase my fruit and especially veggie intake. And the juicer came with 2 recipe books, and rather than waste all the pulp that goes with juicing there were ideas of putting it into muffins, or making breads or cakes. What a great idea - what better way to make a carrot cake, right? So my next project will be to make bran muffins with the pulp.
BTW - The info on the box says that Jack is over 90 years old - wow, he looks amazing. If I look like that when I am 90, this is totally worth it.

I hate to sound like a sales pitch - but it also is pretty easy to clean, and it is quiet. The only thing I don't like about it is that the spout only fits our shorter glasses underneath. I would prefer to put a taller glass to catch the juice or use one of my little pitchers. So what we have been doing is holding the pitcher underneath the spout with one hand, and feeding the food and using the juicer with the other hand. And it's up on our 3 inch cutting board to add a little extra height.

Right now, I am drinking concoction #3 from above - and decided to eat the pulp straight out of a bowl. It's just grapefruits, pinapples and strawberries - and it's all mashed up and mixed together - pretty yummy. If you freeze it, I bet it would make a great sorbet like dessert. But then it makes me wonder - is it possible to overdose on fruits and veggies? This means that my breakfast conssisted of an entire pineapple, one grapefruit, and 7 strawberries. Hmmm - maybe no more juice for me today... good thing I didn't do this on the morning of my glucose test last week (still awaiting results)!

Where the ocean meets the pine trees

Last week, we went on our Big Sur Trip.
Check out our picture page, The Z's Story for more pics from the trip.

We started out on Thursday morning, and drove on the highway for a bit, then cut over onto the PCH to do the scenic route. We drove through Santa Monica, Malibu and some other towns. We then found ourselves in Oxnard, which is where Scott spent about 2 weeks on a business trip. He remembered a good deli from that trip, so we stopped and had lunch there. After eating, we got back on the road and headed up through Santa Barbara and reached our first night's destination - San Simeon.

We stayed at the San Simeon Lodge, a motel of sorts, with a beach view. The web site said it was one block from the beach, but it failed to say that the street you have to cross is Highway 1... I think next time we will try to stay in Cambria, or at least across the street at the Best Western which is on the ocean side of the street. We did walk across though, and saw some people surf gliding (I don't know what else to call it), and although it was a windy day it was pretty out there. For dinner we went into the town of Cambria, and ate dinner at Mustache Pete's (very good food), and had desert at Linn's. We had a NYC flashback, where the desert was more than our dinner! But it was an awesome desert!

The next day we started with breakfast at the park/pier, and then toured the Hearst Castle. It is an amazing house - and I can't imagine having that much money to build whatever my heart desires. I'm dreaming about hitting the lottery...

After the tour, we drove up to Big Sur. It's a spectacular drive, and was lots of fun to do in the mini. Highway one curves around the cliffs and I'm glad Scott was driving, because I probably would have been driving 20 mph. We had lunch at Nepenthe, where you definitely pay for the view. We stayed at the Big Sur River Inn, a little place with motel style rooms, and no TV so that you can bee "one with nature", plus the wi-fi they advertised didn't work for us at all. I didn't think it would be bad, but we got a little bored in the room at night. We hung out at the bar the first night, and went to sleep fairly early the second night. It's amazing how dependent we have become on background distractions like TV and internet.
It was amusing listening to the bartender talk about the classes he was taking at the Esalen Institute. This is a school with spiritual retreats and workshops, and the home of hot springs that are only open to the public between 1am and 3pm. Maybe that's why the hotel rooms don't have TVs, they want you to go check this out! Scott keeps saying that the area was very "granola", and I think he is basing it on the conversations we heard at the bar that night.

The next day we started out with breakfast at Deetjen's (Mark recommended this as a place to stay, but they were booked). The food was good, and we told the waitress that we were looking for a good place to go hiking after breakfast. She recommended Point Lobos State Park, and also suggested that we park on the street and walk in to save on the parking fees. What good advice, and this was my favorite part of the trip. I felt pretty good walking and hiking, considering the buddha belly that I am carrying, and some of the best pictures were from this hike. After hiking for a few hours, we did the 17 mile drive (kind of dissapointing, not worth the money to drive through a rich neighborhood), and then headed onto Monterey, and Carmel for dinner. We weren't terribly impressed with those towns, either. They just seemed very touristy, and I guess that is not what I was looking for on this trip. We did have dinner at the Hog's Breath Inn, which was owned by Clint Eastwood at one point in time. I don't recommend it for dinner, but it's a very cool setting to grab a beer and sit at the outdoor fireplaces. On the drive home, we got back to Big Sur just in time to pull over on the highway and take in a sunset.

Sunday consisted of the drive home - again winding back on Highway One for some last minute pictures, and then cut back on the highway to save time and get home before dinner time. Mom stayed and watched the pooches while we were gone (thanks mom!). What a great weekend...

Happy Birthday, daddy to be

Happy Birthday, hon!
It's strange, it feels like this may be our last year where the focus on birthdays are on ourselves. Going forward, I'm sure the birthdays will be about Baby Z and planning parties (I'm sure we won't forget to celebrate those, the way we forget to celebrate Bear and Chewie Bdays). So even though this is a low key birthday, just you and me celebrating tonight - know that I love you and have enjoyed being a part of your life and birthday celebrations for the past 5 years (even the one in which you were in Iraq).
I think the funniest birthday was in DC, when we all had a surprise get together and Charles was there before us. He tried to play it off saying he was meeting a date there that night - what a coincidence (plus no date showed up)... I think it took you 15 minutes to figure out this was your party! Then Billy called, and you couldn't figure out how he had such good timing to call you when all your friends were there to say hi. My silly husband...
I love you, forever.