Visitors!

One thing I love about Eric is how excited he gets when he is going to see his family. I remember when we were flying to Utah for Thanksgiving--the one when we had only been dating for, like, a day--and it was like he was a different person. He was bouncing off the walls/antsy/teasing more than normal (if that's even possible). And it's repeated several times since.

So when people come our direction you definitely know it. It's in the air. And this time was especially exciting because we had a secret. As most of you know, we are expecting, but we weren't planning on telling anyone until we went to Utah at the beginning of Oct. This meant we had to be super careful about not letting anything slip and let's face it, we means me cause I can't keep a secret to save my life...

Kathy got here on Tuesday, the 18th, and Mary the lovely picked her up on her way from home from work as we were both working/in class. Since Mark wasn't arriving for several days, she stayed with us which was great except the joys of Week 7 started to kick in and Eric and I had to develop a code for how I was feeling and if it required "spilling the beans" so to speak because we were sure Kathy was going to pick up on something. 

Our solution was to keep her busy. Eric had her moving around furniture in his office (which had ulterior motives...think crib placement...which Kathy joked about but has since admitted she didn't think was serious), they went to IKEA, we met up for lunch with Eric and wandered around Boston. 

Mark arrived Friday and we headed to a Red Sox game. Too bad they are playing like they aren't really playing right now but our seats were awesome. One of our favorite parts of the game was while we were walking in and we saw a dad, who was definitely a fan, kneeling on the ground across the street from Fenway with his baby girl laying on the ground (I pray on a blanket or something...) changing her diaper. Not sure of the diaper changing options in Fenway he was taking care of business prior to the first pitch. Awesome.

Our new favorite place to sit. Great seats. 

On Saturday morning we picked up doughnuts from a new bakery in Belmont and headed to Newport Rhode Island to explore the mansions the line the coast. We had intended to visit 3 or 4 but unfortunately only made it into 2. Because we were sure that Kathy had picked up some of my odd/green-faced behavior we decided that during the drive was the time to tell them about the baby. Being oh-so-sneaky we had brought paint samples and asked them their opinion about a gender-neutral color for the walls in Eric's office. Kathy dutifully got down to business picking out a color while Mark, perhaps seeing through our ruse, wanted to know why it needed to be gender neural...but of course we had to be gender neutral because we don't know which gender our baby will be...Kathy was so excited she gave Mark a dead arm. It was classic.

Our first house was the Breakers. It was amazing. I think we'll go back when they have it decorated for the holidays (which they do every year). I cannot believe the detail and the money that went into and that would still be required to run this house/estate. It is definitely a way of life foreign to most. And even what is required for the upkeep. I can't even wrap my head around it.

Sunday we had my family over for Eric's birthday dinner. We had salmon, salad, mashed potatoes, and a beautiful Red Velvet Cake. I think all I ate was potatoes...so sad.

When my family arrived we asked their opinions for where we should put the crib and they were equally excited to find out about our new little addition. Mom, Mary, and Emily cried and my dad said something about the game (?).

Everyone was then sworn to secrecy because we wanted to tell all the grandparents when we were in Utah. Eric thought it would be a good test of loyalty--see who would crack first.

Good times!