My 15 week appointment yesterday was disappointingly uneventful and short. The Dr. was able to listen to the heartbeat through my belly (which was highly desirable compared to the alternative method I had to endure last time). It took her about 4 tries to find it so I was starting to get a little nervous, and very relieved when she finally found it. She only listened for about 10 seconds but we heard it kicking around (although I'm not feeling it yet). The heart beat was at 158.

I also had blood drawn for standard testing for genetic diseases. We won't get the results back for about 3 weeks, but we're not too concerned. The blood is sent to San Antonio and Keesler (of all places).

My next appointment is in 4 weeks and it shouldn't be too long after that that we find out the gender. The Dr. said they do it around 20-22 weeks. So while that seems like an eternity, we are looking forward to finally being able to start decorating and stuff.

I do have a slight bluge and you can see from the picture, but some of that was still left over from a rather large dinner I ate. :)

Czech Republic: Cesky Krumlov

This was a cute little border town. There's a river that encircles it, making the town like an island. There were a ton of shops, restaurants, and another "castle". I think the colorful tower in this picture was a part of the castle. It took forever to get our food at lunch (I had vegetable soup in chicken broth with homemade noodles--very good and Mike had a trout with french fries), so by the time we were done, we didn't have a whole lot of time for anything else. We took a quick run through the "castle". It was built into a rock hill. It was long and we basically just went through the courtyards; in one side and out the other. This bridge spans the gap between one rock hill and the other. We took this picture of the city from that bridge. We basically followed this walkway all the way through the castle (it was much bigger than what you see in the picture).
This is one of the churches in town. The bottom, right picture is just some colorful buildings along the river. In the next picture I am standing in front of the fountain (but you can barely see me) in one of the castle courtyards. I'm not really the focus of the picture. :) You can tell by the number of pictures we have of the tower, it was the prettiest thing in the city and it dominated the skyline. At the end of the castle walkway, we found ourselves on a bridge over the bear habitat. You probably can't tell a whole lot about his size, but let me assure you, he was a big'un.
Truth be told, I might have enjoyed this little town more than Prague. I don't think Prague quite met my expectations. I mean it was pretty cool, just not as "bohemian" as I had hoped.
We stopped for supper in Austria and I had some goulash. It was awesome! Not like Meme's "Garrett goulash", but good nonetheless. ;)

Czech Republic: Prague

This weekend we went to the Czech Republic. We left about 10:15 pm and drove through the night. Because the country of Italy takes almost the entire month of August off, we ran into some traffic. In addition, we made 5 or 6 stops. We didn't meet our tour guide until about 9:30 on Sat. morning. So after sitting for so long we were pretty happy to take a walk around the old city. Did I mention I was throwing up all morning? Yeah. Not a fun bus trip for Erin.
Above is the Church of Our Lady Before the Tyn. The right tower (called Adam) is slightly larger (39 cm) than the left tower (Eve). Across the square was the Old Town Hall and Orloj (clock). On the hour, the bell tolls, and the 12 son (apostles) figures pass by the windows that open at the top. There was such a crowd, we couldn't see very well. This clock dates from the 1400s. It is on the wall of the Old Town Hall. The Old Town Hall was the only building the Nazis destroyed in Prague. You can see how the building looks chopped off on the right side. They did it on the way out of town after the war was already over.
This is the far end of Wenceslas Square. It's a really huge pedestrian area with lots of shopping. It is actually is less of a square and more of a "T" shape. This is the bottom of the T. We were in the top of the T when we ate at TGIFriday's. Yes, Prague has TGIFriday's. No Hard Rock, but it was soooo good to have American food. Remember, my stomach was still a little on edge, so I wanted something non-experimental. This is the National Theater. From what the tour guide said, Czechs love theater of all kinds.


This is King Charles Bridge and the Prague castle. The spires that you see are in the castle complex, but it's really a cathedral. Prague Castle is less of a "true" castle and more of a series palaces and old government buildings, and of course the cathedral.
This is the tower at the entrance to King Charles Bridge. The tour guide said that King Charles was their most influential king. I think he commissioned over 20 cathedrals and lots of other stuff. The bridge as it stands today was finished in 1402.
This is at Prague Castle. It is the first courtyard of the castle and behind it is the palace. It is where the president of the Czech Republic currently resides. The gate is guarded by 2 guards that can't move or smile or anything-- kinda like the guards in London, only with better uniforms.
This is the cathedral in the castle complex. It's called St. Vitus. And this is where our camera battery died. However, there's not a whole lot more at the castle we would've taken a picture of anyway.

We also visited the Jewish Quarter of the city. We peeked in the graveyard where the graves go 12 people deep. There are 144,00 people buried in a very small space. The gravestones where practically inches a part.
I didn't include a picture of this, but I think it bears mentioning that while we did not see him, our tour guide told us that Johnny Depp was staying in one of the hotels on the river because he was filming a movie in Prague. She didn't know the name of it though. She said she met him on King Charles bridge one day. She said he was nice, but really skinny. I said it was probably because he smokes so much. Ha. I took a picture of the hotel. :)
The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and headed for Cesky Krumlov. Please see the next blog.