The Ritzy Ritz and Other Relatively Exciting Stuff

Whew! Will and I just returned from an overnight stay at The Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Reynolds Plantation. We went as part of a company meeting/getaway for Will's work. As two who have never stayed in super nice hotels before, it was quite the experience. It was AWESOME and we're excited to return, hopefully soon. The rooms were spacious, the bed was super comfortable and the bathroom was huge. The service was impeccable, the staff friendly, and don't even get me started on the food - YUMMY!! We had an amazing sit-down dinner last night that was so good - spinach and ricotta ravioli, seared beef, chicken, veggies, potato cake and dessert - creme brulee with a berry compote. I was in food heaven! All in all, it was a lovely little trip and I'm so thankful to my mom and Paula for watching our little man so Will could attend his meetings and I could simply relax. I know we won't have another opportunity like this for awhile, what with Juliana's entrance into the world rapidly approaching and such, so it was a wonderful 24+ hours.

And to cap off my relaxing day, I'm proud to say that I finished my very first Sudoku puzzle! I've been wanting to try my hand at these puzzles for quite sometime, but I've simply been too intimidated to try (I know, silly, right?). I'm not good with numbers and logical-type problems are not exactly my forte these days. But with time to kill and pen in hand, I gave it a go and here's my proof:

As you can see, it was not a flawless attempt, but I was using pen and I was so thrilled with my success that I gave myself a check mark when I finished. Yippee!!!

In other news, I finally got my hair cut. I've been planning to for awhile since for the past couple of months I've felt rather dowdy and too mommy-ish. I told my stylist that I didn't care how short she went (I figure hair always grows back), and this is what I ended up with (this is me with the haircut and me at 36 weeks):

And for a close-up:

I'm pretty happy with it and Will likes it too. He was shocked at how short it was! I've had it this short before (for those of you who remember Freshman year of college), but that was quite awhile ago. As a side note, it took her an hour to cut it and during that time THREE different people came by to sweep up the hair. Each time the sweeper commented, "Wow, that's a lot of hair on the floor!" Yes, it's true, I have a lot of very thick hair.

As for Everett, he is awesome! He's at a really fun stage where he is just oozing with personality. He knows that when he's in trouble he has to go sit on the fireplace until we tell him he can get up. His vocabulary is increasing everyday (In sacrament meeting on Sunday he dropped something on the floor. Once he picked it up, he showed it to Will and excitedly exclaimed, "I got! I got!"). He still fighting through some tantrums, but overall, we're just so happy with how well he's doing and how much he's learning. Here are some recent shots of the little man:

With his cousins, Max and Marissa

And here, for whatever reason, absolutely LOVING the fact that my mom made him look like Little Red Riding Hood: