At 40weeks & 3 days I was induced after a non stress test showed low amniotic fluid levels. After enduring 36 hours of labor our sweet boy, William Hayes Dorsey, made his debut last Friday 4/27 at 6:34am. We are so in love with our little guy. He was under stress throughout my labor & spent the last week in the NICU, but I am thrilled to report as of Friday we are home with a happy healthy boy!
It’s hard to believe nearly a year ago we were strolling through Lisbon, eating cured meats, drinking wines & eating delicious seafood. A lot sure can change in a year! It’s taken me so long to sort through all our photos on various memory cards from our trip to Portugal and Spain but I’m finally all done. I mentioned in a previous post that I really wanted to finish our 2017 photo book (which I did on Friday!!) So now I have all the photos sorted so I thought I’d finally publish some pictures from our time in Portugal. If you ever find yourself in Lisbon I 100% recommend the restaurant SeaMe. It’s a Japanese / Portuguese fusion seafood & it was hands down the best meal we had. We randomly decided to go their the night of our anniversary & it ended up being so good we had our last meal in Lisbon there too! In the past few years we’ve usually gone on a fairly big vacation in the early spring & this spring we’re just waiting for our babe to make his or her arrival & I wouldn’t trade it for a minute. Hope everyone is having a great week!
San Francisco has been experiencing some of the most beautiful spring weather for the last week, late into the afternoon you can still comfortably walk around in shorts & a T-shirt. It’s been amazing, & we’ve definitely been taking advantage. Here’s some photos from the past week in all this beautiful weather! My little baby is officially the size of a pineapple which seems SO big. I haven’t been doing serial bump shots in the same outfit or anything like that, but I occasionally get inspired to document the bump because I know it’ll be gone before I know it. So today I got some photos to commemorate week 29, the pineapple week, Juno was very intrigued as to what was happening. This past week I’ve started to feel really pregnant. I’m way more tired after a standard day & notice that it’s just getting harder to move around. The nurse in me knows it’s my bodies way of telling me I shouldn’t be trying to do quite as much. So I’ve been trying to my best to listen & slow down a little bit. I’ve been trying to find easy ways to get Juno exercised & the beach is definitely a fail safe. So yesterday we spent the afternoon at Ocean Beach, I was able to sit on a blanket & let the bump get some sunshine while Juno chased after a ball. Along with feeling more tired, I’ve noticed that my cravings are coming back & once I have my mind set on something I have to have it! This morning it was a sourdough bagel with the honey almond shmear from Noah’s Bagels. Juno & I walked 2 miles round trip in order to get this & it was SO worth it! I’m spending the next five out of six days working, so needless to say we don’t have anything exciting planned this weekend, but next weekend we’re going on our second mini babymoon & I’m super excited!
Happy Friday ❤
Here are some photos from our babymoon this weekend. We rented a little log cabin & stayed outside of Tahoe for two nights. I know most babymoons take place by a pool, with a mocktail in hand but given that we live so close to Tahoe & that my pregnancy is primarily taking place in winter this seemed like a very fun & romantic choice. It was so nice to unplug, be out of cell service & just enjoy each other’s company. I told Chris how happy I was to make once last trip up to the snow before the baby because I know each consequent trip from here on out is going to look a lot different.
The resort we stayed at, Sorenson’s has a little cafe that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They deliver firewood to your porch daily & are dog friendly (pretty much checking all our boxes haha!) We packed some of our own food because our cabin came equipped with a full kitchen. I brought some homemade chili that just needed reheating & I brought some buttermilk pecan sticky buns. The sticky buns turned out SO good, here’s the recipe . Then we grabbed dinner at the cafe our second night.
Each day we strapped on our snowshoes & went exploring. Even though snow shoeing may sound terribly bland it’s actually a lot of fun. It’s basically snow hiking so you can stay on a trail or off road & climb up the mountain. It’s the perfect, free, activity for people who aren’t into skiing or snowboarding but still want to enjoy the scenery. We had Juno with us so she was off exploring or chasing after her ball & we were able to keep up with her.
We are planning a little warmer of a babymoon next month, but we’ll still be driving there. Chris & I have always loved going on road trips & driving together in the car. We spent a lot of weekends early on in our relationship driving the Pacific Coast Highway, so it seemed appropriate to pick babymoons that we could drive to. Especially since car rides post baby I’m sure will be less leisurely haha.
Hope everyone had a great weekend ❤
I can’t believe Christmas is upon us! We are leaving today to spend Christmas in Austin with Chris’ family. Even though we won’t be spending Christmas day at home we decided to get a tree anyway. I love how festive it makes the house look. I feel like I blinked & autumn disappeared. This Christmas feels extra special since it’s our last one before baby arrives. This week I hit the 22 week mark & I feel like each morning I wake up & my bump is bigger than the night before. I told Chris I definitely wanted to get some bump pictures in front of our gorgeous tree & I’m so glad we did. I feel like I’ll always look back on these & remember this in-between time of life, waiting for our new family member. We started feeling baby from the outside now & it’s so crazy! I’m excited for a getaway to Austin. It’ll be nice to just have some downtime with family. I’ve already compiled my list of places I want to eat while we’re there. Once we’re back in San Francisco I know it’ll be go go go. I’ll be working a bunch in January & we have a few trips planned & some serious nursery work to do!
Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!
Xoxo
Time Spent: 20 hours
Favorite Food / Drink: Jardines de Zoraya & El Huerto de Juan Ranas
Granada was perhaps one of the best twenty hours of the trip; between taking in all the sights at the Ahlambra & the delicious meals we kept talking about how this was one our favorite stops on our trip! We traveled early in the morning from Seville, (I’ll be posting our whole two week itinerary in a separate post so stay tuned for that). We arrived in Granada mid morning & couldn’t check into our Airbnb so we found a cafe & enjoyed some breakfast. After we checked in, dropped our bags & changed clothes we headed out to catch the shuttle up the hill to the Ahlambra. We spent the whole afternoon exploring the grounds. There’s so much to see, we both agreed the gardens & the guest quarters were by far our favorite. As you can see from the photos the amount of Moorish details throughout is incredible.
After a full afternoon of sightseeing we headed out for some cocktails & dinner. We grabbed a drink & appetizer at El Huerto de Juan Ranas, they have a great outdoor patio with an incredible view looking right at the Ahlambra. It’s a little on the pricey side but definitely well worth it, especially if you’re able to time it at sunset! We walked to dinner at Jardines de Zoraya, which Chris had eaten at years ago when he first visited Granada. They also have an outdoor patio, with delicious food that is reasonably priced. After dinner we walked back to our Airbnb along the Passeo de los Tristes.
We only spent 20 hours in Granada, it was our busiest day with travel & walking, my fitbit counted us at nearly 30,000 steps that day but we had SO much fun!
Hope you enjoy these photos! I’m off to Scottsdale this weekend for a bachelorette, but I’ll be posting more photos from our Europe trip in the following weeks, along with our detailed itinerary.
Time Spent: 3 days / 2 nights
Favorite Places to Eat / Drink: Firebug – brunch, Carlos & Matilda – Cocktail, Babol – quick bite (great Brie Burger!!)
Favorite Sights: Barcelona Cathedral, La Sagrada Familia, Barri Gotic, Parc de la Cuitadella
^Barcelona Cathedral – throwing serious Hogwarts vibes!
^ Barri Gotic love
^^ When you stumble up a pet store / vet right by your airbnb.
I’m finally getting around to posting photos from our trip! The first stop on our two week journey was Barcelona. Neither Chris or I had visited, so we were excited to set out and explore. We had two full days in Barcelona. The first day we set out for breakfast & then headed to La Sagrada Familia. I couldn’t recommend booking your tickets in advance more! It was so easy & low stress, we printed out our tickets in advance & were in line I’d say for less than 10 minutes. The day we visited the weather was drizzly & breezy so unfortunately the towers were closed that day.
We visited the Barcelona Cathedral the next day, in comparison to La Sagrada this cathedral is so laid back, with no entrance fee, a fraction of the crowds, we found this cathedral more enjoyable. The two are just completely different, but both can be appreciated!
Finally I have to say our favorite part of Barcelona was exploring the Barri Gotic. The windy crocked streets are perfect for getting lost. There are tons of shops, restaurants, and little bars to stumble into.
No Matter How Long The Winter, Spring Is Sure to Follow
It seems like the rain in California has just been relentless; albeit great for the drought I find myself rejoicing when the sun’s out & it’s a beautiful spring day. These photos were taken two days ago in Golden Gate Park, but even now as I write this, there’s rain drizzling down my window. I don’t religiously check the weather here in San Francisco because on the whole it’s so mild that usually a look out the window & a few light layers will be enough. However with all this rain it’s been really nice when I wake up & there isn’t a cloud in the sky! The unpredictability of the weather the last couple months have just brought me more gratitude for when it’s a beautiful day outside. I feel like it’s too nice to sit inside & let it go to waste. So rather just walking my dog around our neighborhood we’ll stroll through the park & take advantage of some sunshine because we could wake up to rain tomorrow. This “seize the day” mentality can be so motivating. It’s easy to be focused in on the day to day tasks & think, ugh I have to get the dog out for a big walk otherwise she’ll be a madwoman. But this season change has allowed me to zoom out & actually see the beautiful day & enjoy just being outside soaking up some much needed vitamin D! As a nurse I feel like already have a pretty good appreciation for how precious & unpredictable life can be but it always feels good to find new appreciation even in the day to day things.
Speaking of appreciating small things – this is our last weekend at home before we head to Europe & we’re SO excited! We’re just wrapping things up before we leave, having dinner with some of our favorite people & dogsitting one of Juno’s BFF’s plus it’s supposed to be sunny!
San Francisco in the springtime is so beautiful. I love wandering around the city & taking in all the views. Even though I’ve lived here for nine years San Francisco ceases to amaze me, I feel like I’m still finding new sweet spots in the city. Some of these pictures are from earlier this week when a few friends & I did a little urban hiking around nob hill / pac heights. The rest of the pictures are from this past Saturday when Chris & I took Juno out to Crissy Beach to meet up with some friends for a little dog date! Don’t let the sunshine fool you, it was freezing by the water, barely breaking 50 degrees! Despite the cool weather it was a great weekend hanging out at home & just enjoying this wonderful city. Saturday night we snuck away for dinner at favorite spot of ours in the mission. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! We’re just a couple weeks away from trip to Spain & Portugal! Can’t wait!
^^ no one can throw driftwood for the dog like Chris can 🙂
This weekend we changed up our normal beach routine, instead of heading over to Baker Beach, we decided to venture a little further & hit up Ocean Beach. Baker is super close to our apartment & has sweeping views of the Golden Gate so it’s our usual go-to. The weather this weekend was SO beautiful that we knew Baker Beach would be saturated with tourists and locals alike so we decided to try & find a spot with a little more room for Juno to run around. We went to the south end of beach & it ended up being perfect! I think spring may have finally sprung in San Francisco & hopefully we’re past all the non stop rain. All this warm weather & sunshine makes me so happy & excited for summer! Hope everyone had a great weekend!
East Bay Mama 