Honig and I all jazzed up and ready to go.
He does love to chop wood whenever he has an excuse.
Amy and I taking a time out from swatting mosquitoes for a 2 second photo op.
Notice the Citronella (ok, it's actually OFF brand) candle I'm holding. I was DONE with the mosquitoes. They only came out in the evening and early morning. We all but bathed in bug spray the next morning.
Brett and Amy eating their dinner and ours was just getting started. Honig and I did tinfoil dinners but apparently an hour and a half is too long to cook those. They were absolutely charred and practically unedible so we made brats to replace our ash filled dinners.
Amy holding her first smoke bomb. Brett and Amy are from California where it is illegal to even own fireworks so they were like kids on crack once they started doing the fireworks we all bought. It was hilarious to watch.
I don't even know what he is doing in that picture.
No, I do not have a ring of green mold around my hairline. It was a glow in the dark necklace I was wearing.
After getting there Friday evening and eating and doing fireworks, Saturday moring we were rearing and ready to go once our canoes got there.
Awww, first time canoers but you would have never known it.
Brett and Amy basking in canoey goodness.
Just in case you were wondering what the back of Amy's and my neck look like...
So some point throughout our first day on the river, apparently the earth decided it wanted to move 20 million miles closer to the sun within a couple of hours and melt the flesh off our skin. I think we all got a little heat exhaustion and we couldn't find a shady camping spot because there were a lot of other people on the river for the 4th of July weekend and the shady spots were all taken, so we settled for an island that had a sandy knoll on top. Dean and Brett were brilliant and strung a rain fly between our tents to provide shade. If you look at the left side of the white tent right next to the side of it, you'll see me laying down in the shade and I pretty much stayed there for 3 hours to make my body cool down. I was afraid our little peanut was boiling inside of me so I was a shade lizard until the sun went down. 
Loves.
Our peanuts' first canoeing trip. I was 14 weeks along in that picture.
The view from our camp site.
It was so hot during heat exhaustion day and continued throughout the night that one of the streams that we dragged our canoes up seriously dried up during the night so Dean and Brett had to carry our canoes across the island to the closest part of the river. We canoed until noon and then the lady we rented the canoes from came and picked us up and drove us back to the car so we could head on home.
We were all exhausted by the end of our trip from the heat. Just an example of "exhausted face."
Can you tell I was a little too hot and ready to get in an air conditioned car?
~
With the heat set aside, we had an AWESOME time and would do it again in a heart beat (hopefully with a couple degrees cooler weather).
As most people know, I have been having crazy morning and all day sickness. I want to push people who say that 'you're not really sick unless you're throwing up' out a 5th story window because that is so not true. Most days from the moment I wake up until the moment I go to bed I am crazy weak, my upper stomach is distended and bloated and uncomfortable, I have to force myself to eat, and I am nauseous, just to name a couple of symptoms. This past week was particularly hard in the sense that I gagged on almost everything that went into my mouth, water included, and I was not able to sleep at all. I had gone for about a week on 2 hours of sleep per night because my brain was in rapid fire mode and I could not get it to shut off no matter what I tried. So almost no sleep coupled with little food equals 5 pounds of weight loss in 5 days and my body feeling like it is shutting down. Seriously, this past Friday after my 2 seconds of sleep I felt like my body was shutting down and that if something didn't end up changing quick, I was going to end up in the hospital soon. I called my doctor's office and they had me come in at 10:30 to check me out and see if the baby was ok. Sadly, Dean couldn't be there because he was taking his first final at that time and professors don't let you retake finals to save your life so I dropped him off at school and made the trek to the dr's by myself. They did an ultrasound to see if baby was still thriving and thankfully it still is and the heartbeat is a strong 160 beats per minute. Despite feeling like I was going to die right there on the table, it was still an absolutely amazing experience to get to see our little peanut for the first time and to see its heart beating. I would have given anything for Dean to be right there to experience that same joy with me. My midwife said I have a worse than average case of morning sickness and she gave me some pills to help me sleep and said to try that first and then if I don't actually get some sleep that night to call and they'll try another avenue. Later in the afternoon we went to a new chiropractor that was highly recommended pregnancy and his adjustment was wonderful. Thankfully I actually slept that night and Dean literally sat vigil by my bedside until 2AM to make sure I was sleeping because he was so worried about baby and me. He gave me 2 wonderful blessings that I believe made all the difference and I am eternally grateful for him and his priesthood. We were both praying so hard this last week for comfort and rest to come to me so that I can be healthy and so our peanut can thrive and we feel like our prayers were answered on Friday night. It's not to say that each day isn't difficult and a struggle, but Friday was one for the books and as long as I don't have another repeat of that day, I think I'll make it. Pregnancy is a lot harder than I thought it would be but I know one day it will all be worth it when they lay that slimy and goopy baby on my stomach and together we get to see our little miracle.