November (so far) in a nutshell.

On election night we headed over to my dear friend Brittany's house for a party. Well, it didn't turn out to be the
 party/celebration we had hoped for (as you can see in the pic) but we made the most of it.

About to take their "losing" shots. 

As you can see the "concoction" was pretty disgusting.

Then it was the Marine Corps Birthday week. This was taken at a pageant on base where they show off all the past and
 present Marine Corps uniforms and give a brief history of the corps.

 

Off to the Birthday Ball in Waikiki!

Some good friends of ours (Robert & Sharon) had their Birthday Ball the night following ours so we watched their
little guy, Anthony, for the afternoon/evening. We took him mini golfing (his first time ever). He didn't exactly follow
 the rules but he sure had a great time.

The next weekend was an extended long weekend for Veterans Day. This is a photo of the Pacific War Memorial on
 base.

We started our afternoon off with lunch at Teddy's Bigger Burgers in Kailua. Maybe not the healthiest, but SO
 delicious. We did share our meal though so I guess that helps a bit :) After that we headed to the theater to watch a
 matinee movie! 

That evening we stayed in and enjoyed a romantic dinner for two :)

And just for fun…here is the beginning stages of our nursery. Still have many things we need to add but thankfully
we still have almost 4 months left to do so. We're excited to have our first ultrasound next week where we'll see our
 little peanut and hopefully find out if baby Lodder is a he or she!

Family visits and vacations.

Things have been pretty busy here in the past couple months. I'll do my best to give you a quick summary of all that's gone on.

The second week of October we had the pleasure of hosting my entire family here on our beautiful island. Although we didn't have room for all 11 of them at our house we were able to have a few here and then also rented a lovely villa on base for the others. It was a fantastic week full of sightseeing and good company. I was SO sad to see them go (bawling actually…I'll blame that on pregnancy hormones).

Hanging out

Turtle beach! There were 3 of them relaxing on the shore that day.

Here is everyone on the beach (yay for tripods and camera timers!). Such a blessing that everyone could come out!

A little over a week after my family left we headed to Scottsdale, Arizona to hang out with the

 Lodder clan for a week. We were absolutely spoiled on this trip with the beautiful accommodations.

 This was my first time in Arizona and I loved it. The scenery, company and weather couldn't be 

better. Unfortunately the only pictures I have right now are from my phone so they'll have to do. 

You'll get the idea anyway :) 

Spent a day driving to the Grand Canyon. So worth it. Absolutely in awe of God's handiwork!

The boys rented ATV's one morning and burnt off some steam.

Tons of these huge cacti all over the place.

A little glimpse of the baby bump. 17.5 weeks when this photo was taken