Aaron and Bryan drove to Philidelphia on Saturday and came back on Sunday. They went to visit Gray and Pam, who are from Nash County but moved to PA a couple of years ago after they got married. Gray is studying there to become a dentist. The guys also went to run in a 10-mile race together on Sunday. It was a long trip but definitely worth the fun. Aaron took a lot of pictures to show me what it was like (I stayed behind...let the men have their male bonding time!).
They just hung out for a while at Gray and Pam's apartment when they first got there...tired from the traffic they endured on I-95.

And then they made the venture to downtown for a famous Philly cheese steak. Gray and Pam knew exactly where to take them.Ahh, the big city. They drove around for a while (sort of purposefully, to see the city, but also looking for a parking spot).Wonder why he took a picture of this? :) This is a picture of City Hall that Aaron took because it looked so cool. I agree that it's awesome.
This was taken at lunch on Sunday, after the race. They both ran well- I don't know Gray's finish time, but Aaron finished in 1:45. Bryan went to church instead with Pam to help with the kids.

Aaron and Bryan took turns driving. Both of those are scary thoughts. The Lord is merciful.

One end of the tableThe other end

Thanks for driving down to eat with us, guys!

Aaron and I decided not to take the labor and delivery classes for this pregnancy, but this past week we did go to a one-time baby care basics class. We learned a lot actually...how to take the baby's temperature, how to swaddle, how to change a diaper if you have a boy, how to wash the baby the first few weeks, etc. A lot of things seemed like common sense, but it was good to get our minds thinking about these things before the fun begins.

and my sweet husband is concentrating on how to be the class clown. Yes, all the dads in the class turned around to look and laugh. How embarrassing.
Our instructor. She was pretty helpful...here must be the part where she emphasized, "never shake a baby".

The anxious but grateful parents. I know you're wondering...what's Aaron doing at the baby shower? It was a couples shower :) There are lots of men in the choir and Sunday school class that we didn't want to leave out! They came for the food and then went off to do manly things while the women helped with gift opening. Aaron was quite the good sport.

Baby is not as excited about these gifts as he/she is about...

all this food!and this gorgeous cake! These three women, including Carissa, are faithful to meet with me once a week to encourage me and each other. We are also studying 1 Peter together. I was glad they could celebrate the baby with us!Ansley, the baby girl, had to eat too! She belongs to Jody, in the brown dress. Baby Fernandez doesn't know it yet, but Ansley is going to be a great friend.MaryLynn, the gracious servant! She was also the one to order the cake.Thanks to Gretchen for hosting us! She is giving me lots of good advice about parenting...she has 5. She's also helpful with nursery decoration ideas!Tabitha and Sarah are continually becoming great friends of mine.Now that baby is satisfied from all the food, he/she says bring on the gifts !

These three girls really blessed me. Cami, Ava, and Gracie were right up front to help move gifts along. I think they were excited about their jobs until their gifts were opened, and then they lost interest and went outside to play.Opening gifts can be so intense :)When Aaron arrived to help halfway through, things started moving more quickly. He is so efficient.The men disappeared from the house after the food was served. Here they can be seen posing for an abercrombie ad (especially Ryan!). Who knows what they're looking at, but I think they spent their time outside or downstairs.

Or playing football.

If Baby Fernandez is a girl, this would be a great 4 generations picture. Aaron and I are blessed to have multiple grandmothers to love on us!
We were glad that Granny and Gene came to be part of the group. Gene looks like he's ready for the buffet line to start.
Uncle Calvin and Elsie came from the Richmond area.

A lot of chatting going on among the women!

On Saturday Aaron ran his 2nd marathon of 26.2 miles in Nashville, Tennessee. He and Bill Cundiff, a man from church, have been training together for many months for the big day on Saturday! I wasn't able to go to cheer him on, but he did great without that. Here are the results from the Country Music Marathon page:

Bib FName LName City State Age Sex ChipTime Overall SexPl

12220 Aaron Fernandez Salem VA 26 M 4:42:15 2770/4373 1734/2463

Here are the few pictures he took of the weekend:

I think they had a hard time finding parking for the Expo on Friday afternoon. Bill looks excited to have finally found a spot. Aaron respects this man a lot. He is a great example of a faithful follower of Christ and a loving husband. And he can run really fast!It was raining early in the morning but stopped once the race began. There marathoners and the half marathoners started together...there were about 25,000 runners altogether!

He said it wouldn't be his last one, and he's already talked to some guys about the next one to race. Anyone interested? Not me!

I've finally finished putting together the baby furniture that we've gotten so far (still waiting on the crib). Here is a picture of baby's dresser/hutch and our first baby outfit that we've received! How adorable! We needed to get the hutch because there is no closet for Baby Fernandez. Thanks to Grandma for such a needed gift, and thanks to Peggy for the cute clothes!

We found out that Aaron's brother Ben is visiting NC from Colorado so we took a trip down there to see him and to hang out with the Fernandez family. We left after church on Sunday and came back last night. On Sunday we caught up on news and then Peggy cooked us dinner. Yesterday the men went for a run and then we went to Raleigh for lunch. We were glad that Grandma joined us at Macaroni Grill, but sad that Brooke had to miss it because of school.

We have 9 weeks left! Baby is growing and moving around a lot. I think I've finally picked up on when he/she has the hiccups...it's funny. According to the books and calendars, the baby weighs about 3.5 pounds and is about 18 inches long. The heartrate continues to be around 130 bpm each time I visit the doctor. I'm starting to waddle a little, but other than that I am very comfortable and healthy. Praise God for such a fun pregnancy!

Last night we went over to Tyler and Jenny's house to play Canasta (an elaborate card game). Jenny and I dominated in the game and beat the fellas miserably. In attempts to cheer up, they played Guitar Hero for a while before we left and pretended to be rock stars.

On Thursday night mom and I went over to the Szuch's house for a ladies night out. Kathy brought some bbq and mom brought the fruit and Vickie brought the dessert and we just ate and hung out. It was nice to catch up (we usually only see them at Christmas!). Mom is holding the front door arrangement that Debbie helped me with...she's very talented about that kind of stuff!

...I ate the whole thing!