Swagger Wagon

Check out our new digs! I like to refer to it as our new Swagger Wagon.

Yes, yes, you heard right...

I KNOW we don't have any kids yet...

I KNOW that our family, as of now, only consists of two people...

I KNOW that many of you wouldn't be caught dead in a mini-van. They just aren't "cool"...

Well, before you place any judgements let me plead my case and you may feel a bit differently.

First off, it is important to not think of it as a mini-van. Scott and I own a Swagger Wagon, which is TOTALLY different. Just watch the link below and you'll see what I mean.
 (The Swagger Wagon in the music video happens to be a Toyota Sienna, but in this case, we will considering all mini-vans to be a Swagger Wagon seeing that we purchased a Honda Odyssey.)

In case that didn't change your mind about mini-vans, let me continue...

Secondly, the gas mileage is still great. It's not much worse than a car. Sure it would be nice to own a more sporty,  "cool" SUV, but the gas mileage on other SUV's stink!

Thirdly, talk about convenient! Sliding doors on both sides, seats that fold down and provide basically the same storage space as the bed of a truck... I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
Scott and I knew that someday, perhaps when our family doubled or tripled in size, we would want to get a mini-van.  We recognize that this is still many years down the road.

Well, what can I say, sometimes things change. Due to a random kismet of events (such as the Toyota place offering to buy Scott's car back for almost as much as he originally paid for it) and for a plethora of other reasons (such as the fact that we found an almost brand new Honda Odyssey with less than 45,000 miles for below blue book price), we now own a van a little earlier than expected.

Don't be jealous.

Team Allen + 1

Scott finished up his first year of physical therapy school in May. What a great day. Scott worked so hard all year and I am SO proud of him. We celebrated his last night of classes by attending an end-of-the-year, school sponsored bbq at Lake Las Vegas. (Pictured above) The next day was a Saturday and we played ALL day. We started the day out with a great round of tennis...

...followed by some pool time, golfing, dinner and a movie. This was truly celebration time.

We went to a restaurant at Sunset Station, which means we had to walk through the casino to get there. We have to walk through casinos to get to places all the time. I thought it was a little bit odd that this particular walk through the casino left my nose rattling like crazy. I could barely breath from the stench of the second hand smoke. I usually deal with the smell fairly well, but this time, covering my nose and mouth was my only chance of making it through. I looked pretty funny as I walked through briskly with both hands smothered into my face with gagging reflexes appeared periodically.

I thought it was even more strange that my dinner was greatly disturbed by the fish that someone ordered multiple tables away. I like fish, but the smell was SO strong... once again... a few gagging reflexes occurred.

When we walked by a lady on the way out and the smell of her perfume about knocked me over, I knew something was up.

Shortly after that fun weekend, we packed up to make our way to Utah for our vacation. We stopped in St. George so we could utilize our National Parks pass and do some hiking in Zions.

I've always considered myself to be a decent hiker... intense elevation change, trekking great distances or having to hold on to a chain in order to climb (such as at Angel's Landing) are something I revel in, rather than shun away from. I enjoy the feeling of the challenge. This particular trip however, something was different. We hiked to Emerald Pools, which is virtually flat, has a lot of shade and would definitely be ranked an "easy" hike. However, I was huffing and puffing and had to walk extremely slow compared to my normal pace. For those of you who know me well, I like to walk fast... in fact, I have been teased for it my whole life. Something weird was going on.

Something very weird indeed. Where was the "push-it-up-the-mountain" Jessie that I was used to? 

About a week later, after many other "weird" things took place, we solved the mystery!

Okay, so it wasn't really a mystery... we had a pretty good hunch of the cause of so many weird things to take place, but the reasons behind them all were confirmed! We had a little Allen on the way!

Say hello to Papa Scott and Mama Jess! We are so excited to welcome our little one and we will be doing so on January 29th... or thereabouts. This picture of our little one was taken at the end of ten weeks. Still a little alien looking since the head is still the same size as the entire body, but to be able to see the arms and legs was super exciting. The little one was very active. The doctor had a hard time measuring it on the screen because he/she was flipping around and waving at us. The heartbeat was easy to find. What a blessing.

The remainder of our 6 weeks proved to be interesting seeing that my little tummy got a bit more sick and queasy every day. I tried to still get out and have fun, but I had to modify my activity a bit due to pure lack of energy and the feeling or throwing up at any moment.

Scott and I went golfing.

Well... Scott went golfing and I drove him around in the cart.

Scott and I went prairie dog shooting.

Well... Scott went shooting while I stayed in the front seat with the binoculars. I was his spotter.

Scott and I worked on the farm.

Well... Scott worked on the farm and I sat in the tractor and cheered him on.

So while I wasn't the same energetic Jessie that I normally may have been, we still had a nice vacation in Utah and were able to do a lot of fun things. I met up with many different friends...

 enjoyed Arches National Park,

went to San Diego and Sea World,

and celebrated a great forth of July.

The sickness is almost totally gone now and I am SO grateful. The upside of being sick for all of vacation, is that I had Scott there to support and help me.

WELCOME BABY ALLEN!!