I had been counting down the days until my 20 week ultrasound appointment especially after the let down of not being able to find out the gender early at 16 weeks like I had hoped. I kept joking with Brett that we were going to be part of the 5% who never find out the gender of their baby ahead of time simply because the baby is never in a good position.
Our ultrasound technician was awesome! She was so thorough, explained absolutely everything, and I mentioned that Brett and I both studied life sciences so she was able to explain things in a little more detail with scientific terms which I really enjoyed. I'm always scared of coming across as a know-it-all or the stereotypical mom that has googled everything to do with babies, but I like when doctors feels comfortable talking about little things like the femur instead of just thigh bone and the atria and ventricles instead of just the heart. (She spent a ton of time on all the parts of the heart because it was it such good view)
So the gender... right well my nightmare seemed to be coming true because our wonderful baby was curled up in a super tight fetal position. The technician kept checking and then looking at other stuff and then coming back to see if anything had changed... and it hadn't. She tried poking my belly for about 10 minutes.... nothing. Then she had me get up and do jumping jacks, dance around, and go to the bathroom. (The tech told Brett that she only asked me to go to the bathroom because she could see that my bladder was full on the ultrasound haha) - all of this... no change. The technician was so nice though, she said that we could leave for about 1/2 and hour and come back and try to look one more time so we did. We went and scarfed down some lunch and came right back. FINALLY! there was just enough space between the legs to tell that we're having a girl!!! We don't have a name yet and won't make the final decision til we meet her, but as of now we really like the idea of naming her Elizabeth and calling her Ellie for short.
Adventures in Montana & Canada
Our trips to Montana & Canada are always fun. I think Brett had an especially good time since he went up a little early got to spend some man time with his high school friend Scott. (lots of basketball video games were played apparently) While in Canada we stayed out at the ranch so we got to see all the animals. Cosley was happy to see us up at the house. Brett milked a cow for the first time and we got to see Justin's new rabbits. They also have a heard of cats out there since Justin leaves out the extra cream for them.
While we were in Canada, I also experienced my first legendary grandma sleepover. We didn't actually sleepover, but Grandma & Grandpa Shaw made all the grand kids a huge turkey dinner and then we watched lots of old videos. Brett was kind of a violent child I found out; he kept hitting his cousin in the face (given he only looked about a year old at the time).
Then we made our way down to Montana to spend some time with Rod & Joan. We had a bit of an early Christmas since we'll be in Houston for the end of December this year and Brett's parents got us a new camera. We went up to the ski resort to test it out a little and it was beautiful up there. That night they treated us to a Shaw steak dinner (if you have ever had one of Rod's steaks you know why we look forward to them so much).
Detour to Minneapolis
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| Lego Land |
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| Mall of America Giant Christmas Trees |
So we packed up and went to the Kalispell airport on Monday (Dec. 2) to head back home for school & work. When we checked in, they alerted us that our flight had been over-booked and they were already asking for volunteers to stay behind and accept a $400 voucher with Delta Airlines for future flights. We didn't think too much about taking the offer though because the only other flight from Kalispell to Salt Lake City that day was full and we both had commitments for Tuesday. It turns out that nobody else thought about taking the offer much either though because as others started boarding we heard "Shaw, party of 2 please come to the front desk". We were notified that even though we had tickets for this flight and did not want to accept the offer to stay behind that we would not be permitted on the plane because there were not enough seats.
We were very frustrated with this response until the stewardess explained our compensation for the inconvenience. Apparently, when you are involuntarily removed from a flight they want to do a lot to keep you happy. They gave us twice what our plane tickets cost in cash (not just vouchers), payed for our hotel for the night, gave each of us 3 meal vouchers, and let us fly home first class.
The odd part was that all flights from Kalispell to Salt Lake City were full for Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday (Kalispell is a small airport and there weren't too many flights to begin with) so they sent Brett and I to Minneapolis to catch a flight for Tuesday at 5:30 PM instead (all the earlier flights from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City were full already... i'm sensing a pattern). Ironically enough, Minneapolis is known for the Mall of America, and we had an entire day to kill as well as a bunch of unexpected funds. Needless to say, we had a good time shopping that day and we just bought ourselves a new TV. Thanks Delta!!
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| Thanks Delta! |
