Belly henna and afternoon kayaking

Yep. Still pregnant. I don't even think my doctor can explain how it is possible, but here I am, 2 days later, contracting every 30 minutes and in a lot of pain.  

This afternoon I went a little crazy. I couldn't be a slave to the labor clock any longer. 

Corbin and I picked up the girls from school and went over to Jocelyn's house for a late afternoon of kayaking, shell collecting, swimming, and playing in the lake.  

It was sort of a magical afternoon.  

Even though school has started, I just couldn't deny the children of a little summer fun on such a perfect day.  We squeezed in what we could into 2 hours, then went home, raced through showers and shoveled down some frozen pizza and fresh peaches and all three children were asleep by 7pm.  

A simple change of scenery, but it was just what my kids and I needed. They had a really great time.  

Corbin and I sunk our kayak. 

Jocelyn's beautiful daughters came out to visit and we sat on the shore eating chocolate covered pomegranates and talking while the kids played and Elyssa did a giant henna tree on my belly. 

Here it is all inked up.  The ink dries like piped frosting and brushes off, leaving a skin colored design stained on the skin for about a week. The skin on my belly is stretched so thin that the dye hardly took and the design is barely visible without the perfect lighting, but here is a picture with the henna still on, right as some of the dry sections were starting to flake off.  Pretty awesome, right?  I told Elyssa I wanted a tree and maybe a nest with 4 eggs in it. (can you spot them? The henna is brushed off on part of the nest already in the pic...it looked SO much better in real life and I wish we'd taken more pics before it started to dry) She also included some flowers (for good luck) and two little birds to watch over the nest. 

 It was pretty fun to get covered in stinky herby dye, be pampered by the beautiful Peterson women, and have the giant canvas I grew covered in paisley and henna swirls.  The baby kept moving and every now and then a foot or knee would stick out an inch or so and the tree would just look freaky (because having a painted up belly isn't freaky looking enough. haha!).  It will look super gross for a couple days once I have the baby before it washes/wears off and it's all shrunk down and disfigured...but really, with all the stretch marks and blue veins and general preggo belly fuzziness, it already looks pretty freaky, so whatever. It was a fun afternoon, a perfect distraction, and a lovely way to celebrate the beautiful habitat I grew for my baby. 

I can't wait to welcome him to our family tree.  

Come out when you are ready, baby brother. Our nest is waiting for you.