Left the ball and chain at home

This weekend I took a girl's trip to the religious capital of the country. It was 10 of us staying in a locals house in the old city. We visited three homes in two days and toured everywhere. It was SOO much hotter than our city and I was sweating like crazy!

This is an old religious school called a medersa. It is super old and ornate and people still study here.

Here is the tanneries where men stand in the blazing sun all day dying animal skins. This is one of the world's oldest crafts. The dyes are made of things such as pigeon poo, cow urine, fish oils, animals fats and brains, chromium salts, and sulphuric acids. YIKES! Yeah, it totally stunk.

Here is one of the hundreds of leather shops. I just like the view of this picture.


This is one of my favorite photos I took. This old man was looking out the window of the old medersa.
A school in the old city.

These winding streets are home to one of the largest living medieval cities in the world. There's like 9,400 twisting streets. Luckily, we had a local friend with us to guide us around cause I surely would have been lost in about 30 seconds.

This is the Hand of Fatima and people wear this symbol and adorn their house with it to keep away the evil eye.

I love all these colors of the scarves. In the summer they wear a lighter head covering that breathes a little better.

Old medina walls. I was surprised how many tourists were already out this early in the season. We have been seeing more and more in our city's tourist attractions lately too.

These are King's palace doors. Unfortunately we can't tour it but we did get to admire the door...thanks dude.

And last of all here is our end of the first trimester belly pic or Garrett Gut as I so affectionately like to call it. At the moment it doesn't look like a baby belly but just like I have had too many french fries the last few months. I can't wait to actually look pregnant and not just fat! This shirt accentuates my little bump. Nobody actually can tell by looking that I am pregnant. I hate this in-between stage!

BabyG Update:
-This week BG has formed fingernails and fingerprints.
-BG is about the size of peach (and now has hair on him/her too :)
-BG has reflexes and will squirm when my belly is touched...weird
-and he/she is forming vocal cords this week (hope BG gets Cody's singing voice and not mine!)

As for me, I am feeling great. With all the travel and time with locals I feel really out of control of my eating habits. I eat so much sweets when I am with local friends but try not to when I eat on my own. Also, CARBS! They eat so much white breads, which is not good for me.

So, sorry there are no pics of Cody this week. Like I said before, he never takes the camera but next week I will have him back up here. Even if he's sitting in his underwear using the computer :)