Last year when I was in Madison for work I found the greatest blue Dansko Lolita sandals–but they were all sold out of my size because their mega end-of-season sale had been the week before. I was totally bummed, and this year I was determined not to miss any more end-of-season shoe sales. I’ve been thinking of getting some new Birkenstocks, since my wonderful blue suede ones from my high school days have definitely seen better days. (Although I still love them and forever will.)

So a few weeks ago I contacted a local comfort shoe store and found out when their end-of-season sale would be and put the dates on my calendar. I didn’t know the details of their sale, but I knew it started today at 9 a.m. and was called their Three-day Door Busters Sale.

I took an hour off work to go. I got there about ten past nine and already it was a madhouse. The store is small, and it was cramped with tables piled high with boxes and narrow aisles and women, women everywhere, their purses dangling off their elbows, carrying three shoe boxes at a time and precariously balancing on one foot to try on a fourth pair. Crazy as it was, I felt kinship with them. These were my people–people with an eye for good, comfortable shoes at a good price.

I beelined for the Birkenstock table, which was a good thing because they were featured in today’s Door Buster sale and the boxes were being eaten away quickly. I followed the example of the women carrying three boxes at a time: If I found something I liked I picked it up and held onto it, even if I wasn’t sure I would buy it. As kinsfolky as I was feeling, it’s still every woman for herself at a shoe sale.

I finally decided on two pairs: One Cozumel Navy Blue Silky Suede

and one Orlando Golden Brown Birko-Flor.

The Cozumel was $60, marked down from $110, and the Orlando was $40, down from $80. So I saved about 50% overall.

I haven’t told John yet, but I know he’ll read this blog post and hopefully he’ll take note of how much money I saved in the long run and possibly remember that it’s my birthday next week.

Just returned from a routine doctor’s appointment. It was routine right down to the annoying hour-plus wait. The good news is that everything seems normal and healthy. The bad news (and, okay, I know deep down it’s actually good news) is that currently the baby is one-third as big as he’ll be when he’s born in twelve more weeks. That means that he’ll triple in size by then! And that means that I . . . well, I’ll be getting a bit bigger, too.

The funnest part of the visit came when I asked the doctor how my baby was positioned. I asked because I usually feel the baby kicking me hardest in the upper left side of my stomach, and less hard in the lower right side. But sometimes I feel him what seems like everywhere. And today in the waiting room I suddenly felt a hard bulge in the upper right side of my stomach and wondered what that was.

The doctor had me lie back and in about two seconds he could tell where the baby was positioned and show me. The head is really low in the middle of the pelvic area. The legs are in the upper left side (no surprise there), and the rump is in the upper right side.

So the bulge I suddenly felt in the waiting room was more or less the baby sticking his tush out into the world. The little movements in the lower right side are probably little punches and elbow pokes. And the hard ones in the upper left side are good ol’ fashioned kicks.

It’s hard to believe there are fewer than twelve weeks to go. It seems more real all the time. You’d think this would motivate us to actually clean out the room where the baby will sleep, or start stocking up on baby supplies, or something. But we’re still chillin’. Just enjoying it.

Who knew Stewart Falls had so much history to it? I don’t mean the history of the falls. I mean relationship history.

We hiked up there this morning with my brother Josh and his wife Hannah and their boy Logan. Turns out that Josh and Hannah’s first date was hiking Stewart Falls. And another lady I met there today had her first kiss (pre-current husband) at Stewart Falls.

John and I have our own history with Stewart Falls, which is:

In August 2001 I had only known John a short time. He was my home teacher and we had some mutual friends in our BYU ward we would watch movies with. The more I talked with him the more he reminded me of my old roommate Melissa, who was one of my all-time favorite roommates. It so happened that my brother’s roommate Clint knew Melissa, too. As Clint and I talked about John and Melissa we contrived that it’d be awesome to set the two of them up. But we weren’t sure if John already had a girlfriend. So we asked a close friend of John’s, Carrie Grant, and she said she thought he was single.

And thus our first hike to Stewart Falls was born.

We arranged a group to go up there one evening later that week. It was a large group, but I know it included me, my brother Josh, his roommate Clint, Carrie, and, of course, Melissa and John.

I’d never been to Stewart Falls and thought it was beautiful. Josh had a lot of fun jumping underneath the waterfall so I could take his picture. I really enjoyed getting caught up with Melissa, since I hadn’t seen her in a while. We had a blast walking and talking together.

The hike was great. But the contrived set-up between John and Melissa?

Well . . . let’s just say I remember hiking with Melissa at my side and John being just behind us. Melissa and I talked loads. John and Melissa, not so much.

The plan failed.

But, on the bright side, within a week John and I were dating each other and four months later we were engaged.

So even though the plan didn’t work, it kind of worked better than expected. Brillantly, in fact.

Today when John and I hiked it again my brother Josh asked us if we had already started to like each other during our first hike six years ago. My answer: “Nope.” John’s: “A little.”

The rest is history.

This past weekend marked a monumental event in my life: The day on which I first set foot in the state of Idaho.

Really. I’ve never been there, even though about half the population of Utah was born there or has family there. But I’ve seen Napoleon Dynamite, which was filmed in Idaho. From the movie I remembered lots of fields and small towns, and that’s what we saw a lot of. Some parts reminded me of my home state, Iowa. Only browner.

We drove up with my in-laws and stopped off in Twin Falls. The city is built right next to a beautiful natural canyon with the Snake River running through it, and a beautiful non-natural golf course built into it.

Then we drove over to see the Shoshone Falls. As the sign we passed on the way there said, “The Snake River falls in thunder 210 feet over a rocky ledge higher than famous Niagara.”

I’ve been to Niagara Falls (twice), and Niagara’s definitely more impressive. But these were still nice.

On our way out of Twin Falls we passed a number of wildfires. The temperature has been so hot and the land so dry, and the lightning storms we saw and the wind we felt didn’t help. Here’s a picture of the smoke near Twin Falls. Notice the American flag near the Days Inn. It’s sticking straight out; that’s how strong the wind was.

Later that night my sister-in-law’s family got stuck near Twin Falls on their way to Boise because they shut down the freeway due to the fire jumping the interstate.

In Boise that night we met up with John’s oldest brother’s family and had dinner at Goodwood and hit the (very cold) hotel pool where I got to break in my new maternity swimsuit.

On Saturday morning John and I had breakfast together at our hotel (which I’m proud to say was a nice three-star place that we booked via Priceline for $45/night when it retailed for $90), then we spent the day together with John’s family at the Boise Discovery Museum. I wish I had taken my camera. John and I walked through a nice downtown park and discovered the campus of Boise State University along the Boise River. We also saw many, many geese and trod carefully over their droppings, which were underfoot everywhere. That afternoon we saw the movie Ratatouille and that night we opened John’s birthday gifts back at our hotel.

Everyone listening intently to John’s brother Robby’s wisdom.

Alec, Tiana, and Jared playing while the adults chat.

Abby and Aidan camping out by the TV while the adults talk.

Overall it was a good trip. I set foot in Idaho, our baby is 27 weeks along, and John turned _ _!

One last photo of us in Idaho:

We just got back from a celebratory stay at the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, UT. The celebration? Our fifth wedding anniversary.

And Wow. We really enjoyed the Stein. It’s a five-star lodge up in the mountains of Park City, which during high-season (ski season) would cost an arm and a leg and probably our first-born child, but during the summer is somewhat affordable.

We had a standard-type room, but it was comfortable and had extra amenities that made it seem really special. Like fresh flowers in the vanity area. CD player with piano CD provided. Tiled bathroom with double-jetted tub and separate extra-large shower. Robes and slippers. Hot chocolate packets in a basket and creamer in the fridge. Plus–this is the best bit–we had our own hot tub on our deck overlooking the mountains. It was probably a four-person spa, already filled and ready when we got there. Some of you know that our house came with a hot tub on our back patio, but have we ever cleaned it out and used it? Nope. Did sitting in the hot tub in the mountains of Park City make us want to clean it up and use it every day for the rest of our lives? Yep.

Sunday morning we enjoyed a brunch that was part of our stay package. Imagine sitting on a deck outside overlooking mountains and ski resorts, feeling the breeze on your skin, sipping freshly squeezed orange juice and tasting delectables like coconut French toast with fresh fruit and whipped cream, tender beef brisket, maple-glazed bacon, chocolate decadence cake. Sound like heaven? It was. Sound like a lot of calories? It was.

Happy Fifth to us!

I had my 24-week appointment on Tuesday and things look good. When I got there all three doctors were out delivering babies, so I had to wait a bit. But when I finally got in the doctor said I was spot-on, measurement-wise, for 24 weeks. She had a hard time finding the baby’s heartbeat “in the Jacuzzi,” as she put it, but she finally got it to register and it was 137 bpm or something normal like that. I’m gaining more weight, too. I think I’ve gained at least ten pounds by now. I get heartburn all the time, which isn’t really fun. But it’s not at all bad like it was during the first few weeks of pregnancy, and at least I’m supporting all those fine employees at the Tums factory.

The baby is kicking a bit. Or, as we say in the Robinson household, is practicing his hockey windups. People have been asking us what we’ll name him, but we probably won’t decide until we greet the little guy in October. Wayne Gretzky Robinson?