Tyler is Athlete of the Week at SVU!

You can read the little blurb that was on the Athletics page here.

The soccer team has been having a great season and Tyler has been playing really well. He claims it is only because he is wearing his number this year (he is #4, but had to be #26 last year).

The baby and I are doing well and I am enjoying pregnancy. I promise I will take a picture soon!

Soccer!!!

SVU played two games this week and Tyler scored in both of them! In Saturdays game against Bridgewater Tyler scored the 1st goal and the winning goal in double overtime. I could only stay for part of the game, as I am helping with SVU's play had had to get back in time, but I did see his first goal. His first goal was a header off of Dax Farnsworth's corner kick. It was a beautiful header and I was so excited to see him score! The whole team played really well and they are such an awesome group of guys.

You can read about the story here.

Besides soccer, we are busy with school and work. The first week of school was a lot of fun and I am going to really enjoy my last semester of classes.

Our baby is doing great and I love feeling the baby move around inside of me. It is really such a strange, but very cool experience.

Oh, and remember to vote for me so I can win the bike, you can vote here!

I would like to win a bike...

I am a finalist to win a bike online! Visit this website to vote for me: http://cycleandstyle.com/2010/09/vote-in-the-campus-cruiser-contest/. You can vote everyday from now through Sept. 13. Please help me win this bike!!!

I will do a real post soon, a lot has been going on around here in the Laurent family.... Such as Tyler scoring some awesome goals in the last soccer game.

Until next time!

23.5 Weeks Pregnant

Here I am at today at 23.5 weeks. I will be 24 weeks on Wednesday.

Tyler and I are doing great and life is just starting to get busy. School starts next week, soccer has already started and so has work for both of us. Tyler has a new soccer coach and he really likes him. We are hoping they are going to have a great season. He has a pre-season game tonight against Randolph College in Lynchburg. It should be a good game and I am excited to go.

I am doing really well, and have not had any problems with this pregnancy at all, which is lovely. I have been busy getting ready for my senior project and re-writing my advanced writing paper. They are both due before I graduate this semester. For my senior project I am directing a few acts from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The show will be on Nov. 10. I am trying to finish up my paper soon, before school gets crazy...

Well, that is about all that is going on with us!

A few more pictures from Oregon

I unfortunately did not take as many pictures as I hoped I would. I often forgot the camera and Tyler and I were sometimes separated as he went on work trips, and I went to Utah.

Here are the only two pictures I took in Utah... We had a great trip though and I loved spending time with the McKees! I was also able to make a quilt and bumpers for the baby with the help of my mom, Aunt Terri, Julie and Susy. Thanks everyone!

Me, Mom and Ian in front of the SLC Temple

Me and Ian with the original tabernacle behind us

Here is a picture of Tyler out on a boat for work holding a sturgeon:

Lovely fish, eh?-- He had a great experience though and this should hopefully help improve his chances of getting into grad school for Natural Resource Management.

A few reason why I love Oregon....because I feel like sharing:

-Although I am loving being back in Virginia, the weather in Portland is just so pleasant. It is is warm and sunny, without being too hot and it is not humid. Falls in Virginia are colorful, but not crisp and windy like Oregon falls. Sweater weather starts much sooner in Oregon, which is a plus.

-I do love being around family and all of our family is in Oregon

-Compared to BV, the grocery stores in Oregon are so much better, with so many more healthy choices and organic food.

-I like being close to a large city, yet close to the wilderness and some of the most beautiful country in the U.S.

I think these pictures show why I love Oregon:

The beautiful Columbia Gorge! This is on Dog mountain and I did not get to go on this hike because I felt sick that day...(Erik took this picture, which is why it is so good)

The view from my parents house

My parents house/my home/a really wonderful place

The end for now.

.....well, we are having....

A GIRL!!!

Profile! (sorry about finger prints)

Her little feet!

We are so excited about having a girl!

Oregon Adventures continued...

Lately, Jessica came and visited and we went to the beach. We also briefly went down to Utah for my cousins farewell. It was so brief in fact (one day, two nights) that we are going back next week to pick my brother up from EFY and visit with cousins more! Here are a few pictures from the beach and one of my growing belly. I don't have any Utah pictures, but will take some next week.

Jessica and Erik

The Beautiful Oregon Coast

Erik as a mer-man

....from the back

Ian is going out to surf and dad is going kayaking

The beach was awesome! I had not been since last summer when we came back for Jessica's wedding. I love the ocean.

Here is the belly picture:

This was taken today (19 week belly).

We are flying back to Virginia on August 3rd, so Tyler has just one week more of work. He will be gone all week in Astoria (mouth of the Columbia, on the coast). He has been having a lot of fun working on the white sturgeon project and this sort of experience should help him get into grad school....hopefully! I have an appointment when we get back on the 6th and we get to find out the gender!

Does anyone have any guesses of what we are having?

Oregon Adventures thus far

We have been in Oregon for about 3 weeks now and it has been a lot of fun. Tyler is really enjoying his internship with the Fish and Wildlife Dept. He goes out on a boat almost every day doing something with fish and buoys and hooks . I have been doing yard work, helped out with the last weekend of my mom's play, and just got back from a fun trip. Tyler had his birthday on June 16th and was away on a boating trip for work. So we celebrated with my family the day before his birthday and with Tyler's family the day after. He was all alone on his birthday, but hey, he still got to have two parties. Tyler and I also celebrated our 2nd anniversary on June 21st. It was nice to have it in Portland since there is a much larger pool of restaurants to choose from than in BV. We went to a French restaurant called Paley's Place, which was so delicious. I am trying to stay away from sugar (since I'm pregnant) so we had cheese for dessert which was expensive (ish), but so tasty. I love cheese almost as much as I love chocolate. It was wonderful and I am so happy to be married to such a great, funny, silly, handsome, loving guy.

On Tuesday, my mom, brothers and I (Tyler and Dad both had work) went down to Ashland, OR and Redding, CA. We got to Ashland on Tuesday and saw the musical She Loves Me(which SVU did this past fall) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It was really good and the set was amazing! We camped at Emigrant Lake that night (in Ashland) and then left the next morning for Redding. ---By the way, the reason we went on this trip was to find some sun as Oregon is having the wettest spring it has ever had and that is saying something.--- We camped at Whiskey Town Lake, which is about 15 miles west of Redding. We had a lot of fun in the sun....

My brothers are so handsome...

Ian

Erik

My mom out on the lake in a kayak

Erik swimming--We brought two kayaks and my family had been to this lake before and said that on one of the islands there was a nice beach. So Ian and Erik got the kayaks and my mom and I decided to swim. It ended up being two miles! I rather enjoyed it though and was not too tired. The only problem was that since their had been so much rain this year their beach was now 2 feet under water! We found a little spot to eat lunch and then headed back to the shoreline. Except this time mom and I were in the kayaks. The boys did a pretty good job swimming all the way, but they did take more breaks. :)

Such as here at a rope swing they found on another island as we were heading back to the shore.

Whiskey Town Lake--from my kayak

On our 2nd evening there, we headed down to Redding to eat at In and Out---

A most delicious place.... and did you know.....

-They don't have any freezers or microwaves

-Their beef has never been frozen, which means it is fresh

-They own their own farms to grow their vegetables and beef on

-Their buns are made without high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives or any nasty stuff

-The workers peel the potatoes daily for fries

-They also treat their employees super well and a worker starts at $10 an hour and managers can make up to $100,000 (McDonald's managers only make $20,000). Also, all employees get benefits, even part-time employees.

Cool, huh?....and you can taste the difference. I wish we had one in Oregon!

The boys enjoying their milkshakes.

After spending two days at the lake we packed up and headed back to Ashland-- and mind you we all had a terrible last night! We had new camping neighbors and they were loud, drunk, rude, used the f-word more than any other word, besides Obama---whom they really did not like. They were rednecks and were every bad redneck stereotype, racist, extremely right-wing (without being intelligent), bad English, drunk and very loud. It was awful. My mom called the rangers and the cops finally showed up at 1:30 am to deal with the situation. So we did not really get much sleep....

Mom and Ian in Ashland (one of my most favorite places!)

Mom, Erik and Ian in Lithia Park with the Elizabethan Theatre behind them

Me with the boys!

Mom with the Elizabethan Theatre behind her (another angle) and sitting on the Green Show Stage. We saw the play, Pride and Prejudice at two and ate dinner at a delicious restaurant called Sesame Asian Kitchen. It was seriously the best meal I had ever had in Ashland and they gave such large portions! The trip was a lot of fun and the plays were great! I want to go back and see some more in July! Hamlet...especially!

Below is a house in Ashland where I would love to live. I had seen in for sale online and have seen pictures from the inside (yes, I am weird and love to look up houses I would like to someday live in), so I was super excited when I actually saw it! It is bigger than it looks and the yard needs work, but I love it! I am dreaming.... who knows if all my wishes will come true and Tyler somehow gets a job in Ashland....hopefully...