The gender is...

It's a GIRL!

We found out yesterday at the 20-week ultrasound that we're *probably* having a girl. The tech wasn't 100% confident but said she saw no evidence of boy parts. I think she was reacting to an earlier patient she told us about who had come in at 16 weeks and was told it was a girl only to come back at 28 weeks and find out it was really going to be a boy! I know these things happen so we'll definitely pack two names with us to the hospital just in case. Otherwise, I'm very excited for Gianna to have a little sister to play with and eventually torment as only big sisters can.

Waikiki Trip

Our big summer trip to Hawaii as a family was a blast but way too short! Living in the foothills has its disadvantages when it comes to air travel. We chose to take a direct flight to Oahu out of SFO instead of a connecting flight out of Sacramento that would have entailed a 6 hour layover in L.A. or some other city. Our choice meant we had to take an extra 1/2 day to travel to San Francisco, stay overnight in a hotel and then catch our flight the next day. It also meant we had a 5 hour drive home in rush-hour traffic to look forward to when we returned. We were not a pretty sight after having to get up at 4am to catch our flight out of Honolulu. But, the actual stay on the island was smooth sailing and we all soaked up every bit of sunshine, sand and surf we could!

Gianna had an absolute blast playing in the ocean, even took a few waves and went under but always came back up smiling and laughing. She was very sad to hear we had to say goodbye to the ocean when we left but we were able to stave off the tears by promising a few trips to the California coast this summer--which even I will be looking forward to since I'll need an escape from the hottest months during my third trimester.

Some baby news of note: at 19 1/2 weeks we were actually able to see the baby kick! He/she is getting stronger with every day and I am just amazed at how quickly things seem to be progressing. In just a few short days (Monday next week) we should know the gender! And there are only 20 more weeks to go before we meet this little person!

Now it's back to the grind of those usual post-travel chores, unpacking and doing laundry.