February instagrams (photography).

February was a busy month for us. My mom and step-dad were out to visit, we had our baby shower, we found out the gender of the baby (on Valentine's day!), and we both had birthdays. Whew! That's a lot to pack into a short month. Next month Matt's brother and sister-in-law will be in SoCal, and we are looking forward to seeing them! You can follow me on Instagram at MdoubleMcrafts

Even though the weather was a little grey and cool (compared to what we're used to), it was much warmer and sunnier than upstate NY at this time of year, so my mom and step-dad wanted to spend as much time as possible outside. We took a wonderful afternoon hike at Torey Pines through the trails, and then down to the beach.

On Saturday, our friends Adriane and Rhys threw a small baby shower for us (it was early for a shower, but we wanted to do it while my parents were out here). One of the activities involved tying all of our wrists together with a long piece of string; then we cut the string between our wrists, so that everyone has a small string bracelet that they keep on. Whenever anyone notices the bracelet, they send positive thoughts to the baby.

Matt's mom stayed in San Diego after the baby shower, and the next day we all went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The cool weather meant the animals were all quite active. It did start raining at the very end of our visit, but we were all ready to head home at that point anyways. There was a sweet little baby elephant who kept nuzzling in underneath his mom.

On Valentine's Day we finally got to see our baby on the ultrasound. I can't think of a better way to spend Valentine's! We are expecting a precious little baby boy on July 19th. That evening we went out for a delicious dinner, and I talked Matt into ordering the lobster so that I could sneak a few bites of it. I got him to wear the bib too, so that he could be sure to get the full experience.

Later in the month we had some beautiful warm (almost hot) weather and blue skies. I have to get at least one picture of the beach in every month. These stunning white flowers are blooming on trees all over the city. After a quick google search, I believe it is an evergreen pear.

Matt brought me these beautiful tulips to surprise me one day. Tulips are such cheerful harbingers of spring.

This sweet puppy belongs to the family I nanny for; he is an 18 month old weimaraner who thinks he's another one of the kids. The seagulls were staring us down while we had a little picnic by the ocean. I love the way the sun halos the adult one.

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