I know how much you love a good before and after

So peaceful, so happy, drifting off to dreamland...picture perfect.

Aaaaannnd...1 hour later

"The Lake People" head to the beach

As part of his resume for Dental School, Adam is volunteering at various "MOM" clinics around the state. The Mission of Mercy opens up these clinics to provide free dental care to anyone in need. It's really a wonderful organization and I know Adam is thrilled to be a part of it. Not only does he leave with a full heart but also quite a bit of experience. He was ecstatic the first day he came home after actually getting to work in people's mouths. Don't worry, he wasn't doing anything too risky, but just getting to hold the spit sucker (at this point in his journey) was an absolute rush!

Any way...this all brings me to the purpose of this post, and that's to share with you our first beach trip of the year. Adam had a clinic to attend in Wilmington, and we are lucky enough to have awesome friends with an even more awesome beach house. They were kind enough to let us stay there so we could all have a mini vacay together and enjoy some much needed R&R. Now, as stated above, and in probably 2 or 3 other posts, we are definitely "lake people". This being said, we all still enjoy the view, the breeze, and just the overall mojo at the beach. We relaxed, ate, walked, went to 2 different street festivals, ate, and even did a little kite navigating. It was a full 3 days and we loved it all. Thank you so much Jim and MJ for your generosity and the use of that million dollar view.

Oh, did I forget to mention??

Just in case there's someone out there who doesn't know. Someone who must not share the same moon, considering nothing stays private these days between Facebook and or our family's own personal information hotlines (ie: The Grandmothers). The Browns are expecting!! Expecting what you say? That will be determined only come the birth of our sweet little darling. That's right, we are NOT going to find out this time, and now that I said it out loud and put it in writing...we will stick to it. This is, of course, much to the dismay of a few people, but we know they will all be at peace with it when the time comes. We, in no way, regret finding out with Harper. I had been waiting forever to get my hands dirty decorating my own nursery, so waiting really never stood a chance. Not to mention all the showers you have plus your own itch to start buying stuff. This time around, we absolutely don't care in any way what we have, we don't have the time or really the money to do up the nursery like the first, and I have all the girls clothes I could possibly need so (just in case God doesn't get my memo) it would only be if we have a boy we would need to grab some things. We are really excited about having the opportunity to do it both ways!!
I will say, out of sheer intrigue, I have checked out the Chinese birth charts to see what the stars say. I did the same thing with Harper and they ALL said girl. This time, no matter which way I add it up they ALL say boy!! Harper has also shared this opinion. She is very excited about the baby. She talks about, kisses, feeds, and hugs the baby every chance she gets, and if you ask her what it is she instinctively says "boy". At this point she has added a little annoyance to her tone since she has told us so many times and we obviously aren't listening. I have definitely voiced, a few times, my slight fondness for girls, and that (if given the choice) I might lean in that direction, but when it all comes down to it we will be completely thrilled with either and are just excited to be growing as a family.

We are due in October (the 25th to be exact) so I am 16 weeks right now and feeling good!