Honeymoon Ending and Transition

We are back home now in Oregon. It's quite a transition to come back to real life post-wedding and honeymoon. Both of us feel kind of emotional, discombobulated and like hibernating.

To catch up from the last post when we had the argument... everything was fine. lol He apologized for being reactive, and we went on to have a great day at Butchart Gardens. It's an amazing landscape and design! I will recommend that, if you go, you go during the late Spring and Summer when you can experience the flowers in full bloom. One of our favorite attractions was this fantastical carousel with every wild animal you can imagine. We rode it twice and had a lot of fun making videos for the nieces and nephew back home.

On St. Patrick's Day, we took the bus to Craigdarroch Castle in the morning. They restored many of the rooms to their original state when the Dunsmuirs lived there - well, the Dunsmuirs minus the patriarch, John, who died months before it was finished! I felt like we were taking a trip back in time, and the architecture and views were very unusual and cool. Then, we went back downtown for lunch at the Bard and Banker pub, a very large and beautiful English/Scottish/Irish pub, which, on this day, even offered Irish dancers. 💚

The last couple of days there, the weather warmed up considerably, and we could walk around in shirtsleeves. Our ferry ride back to Port Angeles went smoothly, as did our drive back down to Oregon. Wonderful to see our fur children again, and they were excited to see us, too, though I think they'd been pretty spoiled by the pet sitters. So now, yes, adjusting, transitioning, trying not to worry too much about little Pudge, and counting the days to our next ultrasound on the 1st.

Last bit of news: I collected the blood sample for our gender test yesterday morning and sent it off. At one point, it looked like the scene of a massacre! I clearly am not skilled in the ways of collecting blood. But, eventually enough blood spilled from my poor fingertips into the bottom of the tube, and here's hoping I didn't contaminate it in any way. I imagine we will hear back tomorrow or the next day.

Both of us are hoping for a girl, but RC's record is all boys, and my food aversions and lack of morning sickness supposedly indicate boy, as well. I'll be over the moon, either way, but it would be nice for RC to have the experience of having a daughter, and, in some energetic ways, I feel like a girl would be easier for us introverts. Boys can be so incredibly sweet, though, and they say boys take care of their mothers. 😃 I'll let you know when we find out!