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:

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?

I mentioned recently my new-found appreciation for craigslist.com. Well, tonight I was browsing the “wanted” section, where people post things they’re looking for. Usually very sensible things like a used sofa in good condition or possibly an area rug.

Here’s what I came across tonight. Does this freak out/crack up anyone else?

Massage Wanted-

I just want a massage. Mostly back, neck, and shoulder- the usual. I’m a professional male (mid-20’s). If you have a salon that is great- or your house is fine too. Don’t worry, I’m not some sicko/crazy/nasty hairy guy. I’ll pay between 25.00-100.00 depending on your experience, and the quality and length. Please email if you are interested. A short bio/pictures/etc. are good. If I like you this may be a weekly or semi-monthly job. Thanks.

I was worried when he asked for pictures of his potential masseuse, but he must be perfectly safe since he says he’s not some sicko/crazy/nasty hairy guy. I totally trust him.

Our blog has been down this past week. But it’s up and running again! So here’s a post I meant to put up last week while the blog was unavailable.

Yesterday after my aerobics class I stayed to ask my instructor some questions about exercise during pregnancy (her answers, by the way, were “your body knows what to do, so listen to it” and “do reverse crunches instead”).

As I was finishing my chat with her another class member, an Asian girl even shorter than me, smiled widely and asked if this baby was my first. I said it was. And she said, “Can I touch it?” Without waiting for my response, she started rubbing my tummy. She rubbed it not once, not twice, but about six times while I told her when the baby was coming and that it’s a boy. It didn’t bother me, just surprised me. It was like a Buddha belly rub, except I don’t think rubbing my tummy brings good luck. It probably just aids digestion.

Last week I tripped off to San Diego for a conference. I went a couple days early so I’d have time to see the city, since I’d never been there before.

San Diego is a nice place to visit. I spent the first half of the week in the downtown area, and the last half on Coronado Island (that’s where the conference was held). Here’s an overview of my adventures.

Here’s the city, viewed from Coronado Island (which isn’t actually an island).

San Diego Skyline

Monday and Tuesday night I stayed at the Embassy Suites downtown. The lobby was nifty. It felt tropical with the foliage and goldfish ponds. And they served a sweet free breakfast there every morning. Biggest and best hotel breakfast I’ve ever had. This view is taken from the sixth floor, where my room was.

Embassy Suites lobby. See the goldfish?

Monday night I walked about six blocks to the famous Gaslamp District. It used to be pretty seedy, but about 15 years ago the city fixed it up, and now it’s a hub for dining and shopping. I had a sundae at the Ghirardelli Ice Cream Shop (where I also bought my husband a Mint Bliss chocolate bar). Then I headed over to Horton Plaza, an outdoor shopping plaza.

Horton Plaza

I bought a couple things from Gap Maternity on clearance. The Gap in Orem is always totally picked over for clearance maternity clothes. Not so in San Diego. There were tons of cute things on sale.

Tuesday I took a cab to the “World Famous San Diego Zoo,” where I spent about a half day.

Here’s Jabba the Hippo, who was hanging out on a rock underwater and, despite him not doing a whole heckuva lot, was pretty interesting to watch.

Jabba the Hippo

The highlight was the polar bears. You can watch them swim in their pool through a glass partition. One of the bears was super playful, and splashed around near the glass wall so I got an up-close look at him.

Checking out one of the kids

Trying to eat one of the kids?

The other polar bear just sat on a rock and lazily munched on his carrot.

‘Course, some aspects of the zoo weren’t so cute. Like this bucket I passed near an aviary, which holds a meal for some of the animals.

Do you see the dead baby mice?

After getting a nice and unintentional sunburn I left the zoo and walked through Balboa Park, which the zoo is part of. I liked walking through the Spanish Village, an area where local artisans work and sell their paintings, sculptures, jewelry, and so forth.

Spanish Village in Balboa Park

Finally I headed back to the hotel to relax. That night I walked across the street to Seaport Village, a little shopping and dining community along the bay.

Seaport Village with pedi-cab

I bought a CD of piano music by Giovanni (apparently a local artist) and a cookie from Cookies by the Bay. After traveling alone for a day I found myself way more talkative than usual, and made good friends with the clerk who sold me the CD, the man in the information booth, and a family whose boy had skinned his knee to whom I gave a couple Band-aids from my purse.

The weather in San Diego is gorgeous, but it was even better the three days I spent on Coronado Island, just because I was on the beach and the air smells salty and fresh and clean. I checked into the Marriott Coronado Island Resort (which BYU paid for, thanks very much) and enjoyed my posh room.

Posh room with the best, most fluffy bed and pillows around.

However, this sign on the inside of the closet door did worry me momentarily:

Wednesday afternoon I spent walking around Coronado near the famous Hotel Del Coronado.

Hotel Del Coronado

It was built in the 1880’s, I think. The beach was, of course, a highlight of my visit.

Coronado Beach, looking towards Point Loma

It was lovely to walk along it, feeling the sea breeze and enjoying the warm sun. I got a sandwich from the Hotel Del’s bakery and ice cream from the Moo Time Creamery. The sandwich was 9 dollars, and the ice cream–a “mini moo” with one mix-in and one topping–was 7 dollars! Thank goodness for per diem.

I lusted after some Birkenstocks at the Coronado Birkenstock shop, then sensibly returned to my hotel and lay by the pool with a book.

It was so nice because the lounge chairs were padded and comfy, and you could hear the waves hitting the bay shore behind the hotel. It was very close to paradise.

Thursday and Friday morning were consumed by the conference (the actual reason I was in San Diego), which was generally very good. Thursday night I walked down the boardwalk with my coworker and got the only picture of me from the whole trip.

That’s Coronado Bridge in the background. The black shirt is slimming, but it’s also maternity, as is the skirt, since none of my regular clothes fit properly anymore.

San Diego and Coronado were fun to visit. I got to do and see pretty much everything on my list for the five days I was there. I’ll go back again someday, but next time I’m taking my husband and kids, and we’re going to for sure hit Sea World.

On Friday John and I went to the doctor’s for a 16-week gender ultrasound. The only other time we’ve seen the little one was at 8 weeks 5 days, when the baby appeared to be the equivalent of a gummi bear.

This time the baby was like a real person. Not just any person, but a little baby boy person. It was pretty obvious, and I recognized the little man parts before the technician pointed them out to us. It’s a good thing the baby is blissfully unaware of all the attention given this weekend to the parts of his anatomy that he’ll later come to believe are his “private parts.” We’ll have to keep confidential the fact that we’ve passed around pictures of him in the womb with an arrow pointing to his boy parts to dozens of people already, and it’s only been two days since we found out.