Lydia's pregnancy is moving right along.  In the beginning, the weeks seemed to creep by, but they seem to be going so fast now.  We are now up to doctor visits every two weeks, and before long it will be every week.  The belly keeps getting bigger, but Lydia is doing really well.  She is definitely growing more tired and she does not move around as quickly as before.  But other than that she feels great, and we are both so excited about seeing little Elijah.
Here's Lydia in her maternity uniform.  It does not look as good as the regular uniform, but it is much more comfortable and actually fits.

Here's Lydia getting ready to go watch me play some ball.


We went to Albuquerque last weekend for our last weekend out with just the two of us.  We saw a movie, got to go out to eat, and enjoyed sleeping in.  We also picked up some stuff for the nursery and made a big trip to Best Buy.  My laser printer officially died on me, so Lydia bought me a new one.  We also picked up a video camera so we will be ready to tape everything Elijah does.  Videos will get posted as soon as he arrives, trust me.  We also got to meet up with our friends Joel and Liz and had dinner with them at a Mexican restaurant called El Pinto.  This was the first time we really had to sit down with them since they got married, so we had a great time.


I have been playing basketball for 2 weeks now with a group of guys.  It has been some great exercise as we go 5 on 5 full court.  It has also been really good to meet some new people.  Charles and Christina Chong have been the driving factors behind us playing, and we hope that they will become good friends.  Christina is a doctor at the hospital.  Actually, she is my doctor.  Charles is a teacher at the middle school with Joel, which is how we first got together with them.  Charles and Christina coach the high school girl's basketball team, and Christina played ball in college.  Somehow I've gotten stuck guarding her several times and she is far too fast and talented for me.  My inner Nathan comes out in those situations, although I try not to foul too hard.  It looks like basketball is going to become a twice weekly occurrence, which I love.

The dogs make the games very interesting as they choose random moments to join us on the court.  But the dog is super friendly, and after about the first game, he tends to calm down and just lay there.

Another bonus from hanging out with the Chongs is that he is an english teacher who likes to read science fiction.  I am hoping to talk him into reading over my book.  It is nice getting to meet some more people who actually like to read the same stuff that I like to read and write.  As for the book, it is going well.  I have decided to spend the time between now and the baby arriving working on rewriting the book.  I won't try to send it out until after Elijah is here and things have settled down a bit.  That will give me time to go through the book some more and to get a few more people to read over it for me.  I just keep trying to be patient and not get too rushed in trying to get it out.

In Westport news, this week I talked to Keith and we are trying to work out a possible mission trip next summer.  I had dropped the ball on it, but Keith has gotten me back in gear.  I would so love to get Westport connected to our church out here.  I think it would be great for both churches.  As we get more details, I will be sure to let you know.

Well, back to the writing.  We miss you all and cannot wait until we can introduce Elijah to everyone.

As most of you know, we are heading to Kentucky on Friday.  I just wanted to let everyone know that we will be at Westport Baptist Church Sunday morning, and we will be there for donuts and coffee.  Donnie should have no problems talking Lydia into eating a donut now (random fact for you, Krispy Kreme goes with doughnuts, while the other biggie goes with Dunkin' Donuts, I prefer Krispy Kreme, but whatever).  For everyone else, I hope we get to see you at one of the showers.  For all of the OCHS 1999 grads, we will not be going to the reunion, and we hate that we will not get to see you all.  And now, back to work on the book.  I promise we will put up plenty of pictures once we get back from Kentucky.  I hope we get to see a lot of you next week.

Sorry to take so long to post the pictures, but I finally got them up.  All of these were up on Tuesday night in case you already saw them.

So the ultrasound went great and we found out we are having a boy.  Elijah James weighed 1 pound 4 ounces, and Lydia will be 23 weeks pregnant on Friday.  He is healthy and everything is looking good.  We were not allowed to take a video of the ultrasound and the guy only printed out two pictures.  Lydia is not happy about it, but our baby's healthy and that is all that matters.  This should be our only ultrasound unless there are complications in the future.  And for those who are wondering, the hospital does not have the 3D/4D ultrasounds, so it was not even an option.  The first picture is of Elijah's head, no word on whether it will follow in the tradition of most Winters males.  (For those that don't know, we tend to have large heads)
The other picture is of little Elijah's face.  Lydia is convinced that our child will have dimples, and has been trying to see if the ultrasound reveals anything.  I don't think it does.


Lydia's due date is still October 15th.  Both sets of parents have already made plans to come out soon after the baby is born and we cannot wait.  Lydia is doing great and is slowly regaining her energy.  I actually fell asleep before she did last night, which hardly ever happens.  Her belly keeps getting bigger, and the midwife says she is right on track for her weight gain.  Like the midwife says, there is still not a bit of fat on her, she is just all baby.

Alaska was amazing.  But the first night was horrible.  We arrived in Anchorage at 12:30 am, and waited about an hour to get our bags and get our rental car.  Thankfully, the guy at the rental car place new exactly where the Air Force base was and gave perfect directions.  Sadly, there was a ton of road construction going on, so the directions he gave us did not prove to be very helpful.  After a short detour through some sort of retreat center, we made it to the base.  Once at the base, around 2am, the guards gave us directions to our lodging and we were off.  Unfortunately, there was road construction on the base that apparently the guard was not aware of.  After cruising around the base for a bit, we found the lodging.  Only to have no clue where the lobby was, as the lodging was spread across several buildings.  One phone call later, we found the lobby, only to discover that they messed up our reservations.  They had empty rooms but none of them were clean.  So, at 3:30am, we were given a list of hotels and told to call one for the night.  Needless to say, Lydia was not happy.  So, we called my parents, got them to look up the Days Inn number, and checked into a hotel about 4am.  As checkout was 11am, we paid far too much for only a few hours of sleep.  Thankfully, after that, everything went great.

We stayed at Elmendorf Air Force Base, and the room was great.  Another wonderful perk of Lydia's job.  Our rooms were right next to their runway, which was noisy, but we got to see fighters flying in and out everyday, which I enjoyed.  We checked out a weekend market in Anchorage where I got to eat halibut, salmon, and reindeer.  All were tasty. 

We hiked along a trail in Anchorage that went right past two moose chowing down on the bushes.  Lydia took two quick pictures, and we moved on.

We traveled south down Seward Highway along the coast to Portage Glacier, which can barely be seen in the background of our pictures.  To get any closer, you needed a boat.  We also got to visit an animal conservation center that had black and brown bear, moose, elk, caribou, muskoxen, etc.  It was probably the coolest part of the whole trip.

We also headed north to Eklutna lake where we were attacked by mosquitoes, and met a moose standing on the road.

The Salmon runs were in full swing while we were there, and we got to see people fishing Ship Creek everyday.  We only saw one salmon get pulled out, but we still had fun.

There were warnings about bears everywhere but we never saw them, or any trace of them, which we were thankful for.

And finally a few pictures of us standing beside much safer versions of a bear and a moose.

Overall, the trip went much better than we could have hoped for.  Lydia got to spend several hours at the clinic, and was able to find out a ton of information about the residency program.  They encouraged her to apply this October, and seemed very encouraging.  We continue to pray about where God would have us go, but if we had to make the decision right now, we would be heading to Alaska next summer.

Needless to say, with everything that has been going on, the book has gotten pushed aside over the past two weeks.  The rest of my week is going to be focused on putting together our baby bead and changing table, and cleaning up our house.  Things got out of control with the trip and all.  And we are also getting ready for Lydia's sister and niece to come visit a week from Sunday.  This will be their first time out here, and we cannot wait.

We are looking forward to our trip home in July and cannot wait to see everybody.  Thanks to everybody throwing the church showers, we really appreciate it, and love that we will get to see so many of you.  We love you all and miss you.

We are heading to Anchorage for a fun filled trip.  We have been looking through tons of books and trying to get people's input on what to do while we are up there.  So far, we are planning to see a glacier, do some whale spotting, hit a big open market, maybe get a peak of Denali, visit a wildlife preserve, see a few museums (if the weather is bad, otherwise I'll be stopping there when Lydia is at her classes), and of course seeing all that Alaska can offer.  We have a list of restaurants to hit, and we hope to eat a ton of fresh seafood.  The salmon will be running while we are there, and we should get a chance to observe some combat fishing.  I hope to spot another moose for Sheila at The Bank OC, and maybe we can even see a bear, but from a safe distance.  The trip should be a blast.  But please be praying for us as we use this time to look further into the residency program up there.  We want to make sure that we are going where God wants us.  Also, pray for our safety as we will hopefully be doing a lot of driving and a lot of hiking up there.

For those wondering, we will have almost 20 hours of daylight while we are in Alaska, the highs will be in the 60s, and the lows will be in the 40s.

Since we should have a boatload of pictures when we get back, you all know us well enough by now, I thought I should get the rest of the cruise pics up before I leave.  These pictures are from our disposable, waterproof camera that we just got developed.  They are all from Stingray city, where we got to feed the stingrays.  There were like 40 of them swimming all around us, and they got a bit aggressive when the food came out.  My niece Camryn was not a big fan of the stingrays, that is why she is being held in all of the pictures.  But she got out there with us, which impressed me.
 


Lydia is now 21 weeks pregnant!  When we get back next week we will have our first ultrasound, and will hopefully find out if we are having a boy, or girl, or twins.  She is doing really well, and has not been as tired lately.  When we get back, we will be sure to post some more pictures of her belly.  Here are two from 20 weeks.



The book is going great, and I hope to get some more work done on it over the trip if I can't sleep on the flight. 

Well, off to get everything packed and ready.  We cannot wait to come home in July and see everybody at the showers.

We just got back from an amazing cruise last week.  We could not say anything about it as it was a surprise for Lydia's sister Dorian, for her 40th birthday.  Her husband Kevin arranged the whole thing, and the trip was so much fun.  The cruise was with Royal Caribbean on the Freedom of the Seas, the largest cruise ship ever.  We went to Labadee, Haiti; Montego Bay, Jamaica; and Grand Cayman.  The best part of the trip was feeding the stingrays at Grand Cayman and then snorkeling along the reef.  The fish were beautiful, and while the stingrays were not beautiful, they were really cool.  There will be many pictures to follow.

On the baby front, we went to the doctor today and got to hear the baby's heartbeat again.  Everything went great and the pregnancy is moving along smoothly.  We will find out the sex of the baby on June 17th.  We had hoped to find out a week earlier, but it looks like our trip to Alaska is going to work out after all.  While we were in town the other day, we registered at Baby's R Us and picked up a Kelty baby backpack which I am so pumped about.  I am now ready to pack our child wherever.

Lydia has been feeling really good, besides being tired.  There was one day on the cruise where she got a little nauseated, but she has always had problems with motion sickness.  After that first day, she did just fine.  For those wondering, I had no problems at all, beyond getting a nasty bruise on my knee from boogie boarding.  More on that later.

Now that we are back from the cruise, I am going to be focusing on editing my first book.  I have gotten back my critiques and I am very excited to start the rewrites.  I am sure my excitement will die off a little, but I truly have been looking forward to digging into it.

Here is a video we took at the doctor's today when they listened to the baby's heartbeat.  I hope you enjoy it.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the cruise.

This is Lydia, Kevin, and Camryn as we were pulling into Haiti.


Quick note on the tie.  So we were all getting ready for the first formal night, when I realized that I had failed to pack a tie.  I quickly went to the row of shops on board and picked out the beautiful tie that you see.  Amazingly it was only $10.  It is not the greatest tie, but it worked.
 
The ship had a new feature called the flowrider.  It was a big ramp that had water shooting up it that you could either surf or boogie board on.  Surfing looked more painful, so we stuck to boogie boarding.  It was fun, but I was not good at it.  And on my third attempt, I got rolled over the top and scraped my knee on the grate.  Needless to say, that ended my short lived attempt to boogie board.