WWIX

The 9th Annual Weiderman Weekend was held at our house this year. We had almost 30 people at our house for the weekend. The weather was crazy again this year (cool and rainy on Saturday and really hot and humid on Sunday). Despite the weather, it was a great weekend. We had lots of great food, which is key for all of us Weidermans, and lots of laughs. What more could you ask for?

Detroit River Ride

Last Sunday we had an opportunity to take a ride along the Detroit River on the Diamond Queen. The ride took us up the river almost to Lake St. Clair, around Belle Isle, then back down the river under the Ambassador Bridge, past Joe Louis Arena and the Renaissance Center.You might recognize the building in the background here since it's been all over the news, especially in the last year. It's the Renaissance Center, which is where the General Motors headquarters are. We arrived at the boat dock early so Russ and I took a walk down The Riverwalk to the Ren-Cen.

We saw the Manoogian Mansion from the river, which became somewhat infamous a few years ago when ex-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was in office and had a wild party there with exotic dancers.

Lake St. Clair
It's hard to see but it was packed with boats and sailboats.

The Detroit skyline with the Ambassador Bridge in the foreground.

This is the J.W. Westcott II. Russ' Grandpa George was a captain on this boat and delivered mail to the ships going along the Detroit River.

Captain Bill allowed Russ to take the wheel for a minute.

Half way there!

I can't believe that I'm halfway through my pregnancy already. The time has gone by so fast. I'm feeling so good that sometimes I have to look down at this growing belly to remind myself that I'm pregnant. Last week we got something even better than my bulging belly to show us what's going on. Here are some pictures from my 20 week ultrasound. I was absolutely, completely amazed by how much we could see. Oh, and for those of you wondering, we didn't find out the sex. We're just going to wait until this little one makes it's grand entrance.

We caught baby sucking his/her thumb.

The baby was really moving around a lot. Legs and arms were moving all the time. Here's a shot of the legs. You can see where the ultrasound tech. typed in "knee" on the picture. The lower leg goes up to the left from there and then there's the foot. I think that's the other leg/foot to the left of that.

And now on to a couple belly bump shots...

My brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first (a boy!) in December. Our due dates are only a week apart (and hopefully the babies will come at least a week apart or my parents will go crazy driving all over to meet new grandbabies). Here we are at my cousin's bridal shower on July 12th. Megan was just starting her 20th week and I was at the beginning of my 19th week.

Here's my bump at the end of my 20th week.

I figured I'd throw a shot of the dads-to-be in here, too. Here they are back in May at my cousin's wedding where we shared our good news with family.

Bridgett's baby shower

Bridgett made it home in June and we were able to have a little baby shower with the Sturgis girls. She was looking great and it was so much fun to see her and the rest of the ladies.

Fieb Fest 2009

In June, Russ and I were able to make it to the 2nd Annual Fieb Fest BBQ Cookoff in Sturgis.

My brother rounded up about 7 cooks for a BBQ showdown of ribs, chicken, pork and steaks.

Here are the seven carefully chosen judges. You might recognize the 3 judges on the right side of the picture. They are all well rehearsed eaters and know good food when they meet it.

Here's the family relaxing and enjoying what was a perfect summer day.

Oh baby!

Here is the first picture of the little peanut growing inside me. Looks like he or she is waving at all of us. We had an ultrasound today and it was moving around like crazy. I'm at 11 weeks and the baby is almost 2-1/2" long.

Chicago Trip

Near the end of April, we spent a long weekend in Chicago to celebrate our birthdays and our anniversary. We did a LOT of walking around (I have plenty of blisters on my feet to prove it!).

Here I am at Navy Pier with downtown Chicago in the background.

We also went to Shedd Aquarium. They're doing some construction so we didn't get to see a few things. Russ was especially bummed about not getting to see the penguins.

We did see a HUGE anaconda though. Well, we saw parts of him. He was all wound up but what we could see was enough to make us glad there was a thick glass wall between us.

We also walked through Millenium Park and stopped by "The Bean" for a picture.

Saturday night we met up with friends, Mel and Stephen, for dinner.