Alligator Park, meat pies, and Dallas

David is on the Emergency Room service this month which means he has several days off at a time (a nice change from general surgery). To celebrate this luxury of having time together we headed off on a road trip this weekend. Our first stop was in the town of Natchitoches, LA (pronounced nak-a-dish if you can believe it) about an hour south of Shreveport. Natchitoches is home to the Alligator Park and famous for their meat pies, so our trip included stops to experience each of these.

The Alligator Park was a riot. During the feeding shows they dangled chickens over the water and 20+ gators gathered round trying to get a piece of the delectable treat. It was a sight to behold.

Here we are holding a very menacing teenage gator. Disregard the electrical tape securing his jaws shut…trust me, our lives were in peril! Note how I let David hold the more menacing end just in case our gator friend got a little excited and needed a potty break.

Here are some more photos from the Park...

We stopped at the snack shop for some “gator tots” before we left. They weren’t as yummy as the alligator we ate at the Peach Festival in June, but still pretty good. With our appetizer out of the way, we headed to Lasyone’s Meat Pie Kitchen in downtown Natchitoches for none other than a…meat pie. “What is a meat pie?” you may be asking yourself. Well, if you imagine taking a slab of meatloaf, wrapping it in dough and then deep frying it, you get the essence of these little goodies. They were quite tasty and came with a guarantee to clog your arteries.

After our Natchitoches adventures, it was off to Dallas to hang out with my brother, Cory, and his family. He, his wife, Kerri, and three girls moved there a few weeks ago and we are SO excited to have them only three hours away. While in Dallas, we attended the temple with some people from our ward which was wonderful. We were spoiled in Reno with the temple so close.
We’re back home now and had a great time exploring some of the hot spots of this area…well, everywhere is a hot spot this time of year, but you get my point!

Boy, oh, boy!

Today was attempt #2 at determining the sex of our unborn child. Fortunately, the baby was more cooperative than last time and gave us a nice view of the essential area. As the image was enlarged, David said, “Wait a minute. That’s a hot dog, not a hamburger!” (see post from July 9th for explanation). The ultrasound tech responded, “Well, at this point it’s more like a nugget!” Much to our surprise, we’re having a boy! Never mind my visions (O.K. just very vivid dreams) of having our first child be a girl. So much for my motherly intuition. We are really excited and can’t wait to welcome this special little one into our family.

Here is his adorable profile.

Thus begins a mother's right to show embarrassing pictures of her child. I introduce to you...the boy parts:)

July travels

I spent the last three weeks traveling in Utah and California. It was a great trip complete with time at Bear Lake, swimming in my parents’ pool in Farmington, making raspberry jam and helping my mom can her beans, beets and corn for the year.

Here is a snapshot of me with my two youngest sisters, Caitlyn and Ali, listening to some tunes on the beach.

The baby bump continues to grow.

I also took a side-trip to Palo Alto to celebrate the 80th birthday of a good friend of ours, Dr. Dement. The Dements were like grandparents to us when we lived in Palo Alto and it was great to be a part of the celebration.

Here I am with Dr. D and the Stanford tree (one of the many distinguished guests at the party:)
Good friends Kathy, Liz, and Clarence at the party (thanks for your hospitality, Clarence).Meanwhile, David was holding down the fort at home which Kathy labeled “Shreveport…the other LA.” Kind of catchy, don’t you think?

Definitely, maybe...

The much anticipated Louisiana doctor's appointment was today where we were supposed to find out if we're having a boy or girl. I say "supposed to" because technically the baby is now big enough to tell. However, baby wasn't terribly cooperative. After FOUR hours at the lovely LSU Women's and Children's Clinic (an entire blog post in and of itself) the baby's feet were crossed at the ankles and both legs were nice and tight together. At least if it is a girl we know she doesn't have a predisposition to being a hoochie mama:)

I tried sitting up, rolling to my side, and poking at my belly all in an effort to get the baby to open up, so to speak. But my efforts were to no avail. The doctor got a really nice shot of her booty, though and said, "Well, if it was a boy, we'd be seeing some sacks right there. So if I had to guess, I'd say it's a girl." That's as much clarity as we got.

So why the random pictures? Two reasons: 1-I think blog posts with pictures are more interesting; 2-the doctor said she was looking to see if we've got a "hamburger baby" or "hot dog baby." Use your imagination.

I have another ultrasound scheduled for August 1st and hopefully we'll have a bit more clarity then as to the fast food item with which our baby will most closely identify. I think I'll do some jumping jacks before my appointment so the baby will be spreadeagle in order to brace him/herself. What do you think?

Feed me!

I just noticed how malnourished our little widget embryo appears (on the right side of our blog). Does anyone know of a "feed your embryo" widget you can add to it to beef the little tike up? Of course, maybe that's what baby Ludlow really looks like. We should be having more pictures taken (e.g. ultrasound) next week!

By the way, happy July 4th!