No Baby :(

No baby yet. My due date was August 26th. Looks like I'll be induced .

I'm trying to keep busy. Mom is here. We're both a little stir crazy.  She thought I'd be more helpless and there'd be more for her to do. So, she's keeping busy by attacking some of our neglected perennial beds.  We've gone for short hikes and even canoeing.

Can you see where he's poking his foot out?

Summer 2010

This summer hasn't been as full of adventures as usual do to my pregnancy. I'm due in less than a month. I've haven't climbed, biked, camped or really even hiked for at least 3 months. Those things are rather hard when bending, twisting and sometimes even breathing is a chore. We went to Squamish, British Columbia for a week in July. We went with our friends Mara, Adam, Chris, Kathy and Parker. They had a lot of fun climbing and biking. I did a lot of relaxing. I was surprised by how quickly time passes when you don't do much.  We didn't camp this year since that didn't sound like much fun to me. We rented a yurt- which wasn't too rustic, it had electricity, kitchen, bathroom, etc.  Here are some pictures from the Squamish trip.

We went to Whistler one day. Mara and I rode the peak to peak gondola. While relaxing at the top a bear wandered nearby.  Don't worry, we were sitting on the deck of a lodge and there were lots of people around.

Here are the boys post bike riding.  Adam, Rich and Chris.

Here are some climbing photos.  This is Chris.

Rich and Chris about 8 pitches up.

Alice lake.  

We've been enjoying home. Summer evenings usually finds us out on the deck, grilling dinner or in the garden.  Most of the these shots below are curtesy of Parker.  Our garden provided us with tons of greens, broccoli and peas this spring.  We're now starting to get tomatoes, basil and zucchini. Green beans should be ready next week.  As usual, our beets are struggling. We never have luck with them, but we always try since Rich loves beets.  We've been gorging on the in-season fruit; cherries, peaches and nectarines.  I made raspberry jam from Mara's bumper crop of raspberries and will be canning peaches and nectarines in the coming weeks.  We'll also dry a bunch of fruit.

A recent sunset as seen from Omak Lake.  For the first time ever, I'm feeling warm enough to actually get in some of the local lakes and enjoy it.

Rich cooling off in Bank's Lake.

I'm due the 26th. It'd be nice if I have the baby 1-2 weeks early, but we're not counting on it. We haven't decided on a name yet.  We just hope the delivery is uncomplicated and he's healthy. I'm hoping for a red head.  The nursery is coming along and we've got most of the essential baby things.

Spring Time, and the Livin' Is Easy

We haven't posted in a while. This spring has been filled mostly with small outings around Okanogan County.  The weather's been so nice, and everything is still green and no mosquitos yet, so we try to take advantage of this time of year before the heat chases us to the mountains.

Bouldering at McGlaughlin Canyon with Kathy and Parker. The snakes weren't out yet, but now we can't go back until fall do to the high rattler population.

River walk.

Conoeing. 

 Last spring we started canoeing one evening a week. We go to a different lake each week. We usually go with Kathy and Parker, but sometimes other friends join us to. We're not too serious about the paddling part of the evening, it's more about watching birds, socializing and eating a picnic dinner.  I don't usually bring a camera because I'm too worried Maggie is going to capsize our canoe, but last night I brought our old point-and-shoot.  We saw tons of yellow headed black birds in the reeds, and countless other birdies.

Zion.

Rich went to Zion, UT with Chris Bowman and climbed some crazy, dirty, 18 pitch off width. But I don't yet have any pictures to prove it. Here's all I got.

I think they climbed the line behind Rich.

Growth.

Everything grows in the spring, apparently my belly and baby as well.

6 weeks, January.

8 weeks.

11 weeks, February.

19 week US, early April.

20 weeks.

22 weeks,  Early May.- Check out our garden, too.

24 weeks, mid May.

I'm due late August, and I'm gonna be huge!  And yes, there's only one, and it's a boy. We don't have a name picked out yet. I've always thought boys names would be harder, and Beukema isn't the easiest name to pair wth a first name.  We're open to suggestions, but want it to be something fairly normal.  My third trimester starts in a couple weeks. I feel fine, just looking forward to the hot, summer weather. And then we'll be swimming in lakes, not staying dry in a canoe.

Spring Climbing near home

Thanks to Parker and Kathy, this epic pitch was climbed.  Just to make sure I had a reason to come back, I made sure to fall after the last bolt (13th). 

Miranda and Becca go to Cabo, Mexico

My sister, Becca,  and I decided last year that we wanted to take a warm, winter vacation this winter.  We talked about various places, such as Belize and Costa Rica, but ultimately settle on Cabo, Mexico when a dear friend offered her time share for a ridiculously low price.  For those of you who don't know, Cabo is at the very southern tip of the Baja Peninsula.  It is a huge vacation destination because of it's near perfect weather and location on the Pacific Ocean.  For sport fisherpeople, it's the ultimate destination.

Becca on a panga taxi, heading out to parasail.

Doesn't she look like she's on the end of a fragile string, that could break and she'd float away?

View from the hotel roof-top bar near sunset.

Our time there consisted mostly of relaxing on the beach and poolside. There are lots of great restaurants, and we enjoyed sampling a few. Becca was able to enjoy a few cocktails, but I had to be satisfied with non-alcoholic beverages. Turns out I really like limonadas, and had several each day.

We rented a kayak one day and paddled over to a more remote beach, where Becca snorkeled. The water was too cold for me, about 68 degrees.

Becca heading off to snorkel.

Sassy snorkeler!

She dove off this rock a few times.

I had lathered up with sunblock that morning of kayaking, but turns out I either missed my feet or it got washed off. I got the worst sunburn of my life (and I've had quite a few). My feet actually swelled up, and were purple in color. They hurt and walking barefoot was difficult, much less with shoes. This put a cramp in my week, but I just had more time to read. I finished The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes, Volume I, which is 900 pages (anyone have volume II?), and another book. This picture here of my feet is actually 2 days after they were burned and they looked better at this point.

There were some rocky cliffs called Lands End, with a famous arch. We took a sunset dinner cruise one evening past it and I got some great pictures in the soft light. We also happened to see a whale shortly afterwards which was so exciting!

We rented a car one day and drove about an hour up the coast to a little town, Todos Santos. It's a town where a lot of artists have settled and so we had fun browsing galleries and shopping.

Chic woman.

Yummy, iced coffee refreshment.

Hmmmm, which tequila to buy?

Towards the end of our week, we took a little tour on a partially submersible submarine. We saw a few fish, but honestly not as many as we'd hoped. Our consolation was seeing a colony of sea lions.

One of two pictures in which I appear from my camera (Becca send me yours soon, please!)

A last few parting shots of Mexico...

Baby update:

For those of you who haven't seen me in the last few weeks...  I now look very much pregnant.  When Becca sends me some photos (with prominent belly) I'll post those.  I can't believe how big I already am at only 18 weeks! Rich is predicting an 11 pound baby. I've been feeling baby move for about 2 weeks, which is fun. Other than my belly, which is starting to get in the way, I'm feeling pretty good. Now if I could just find some cute, petite maternity pants!