NATURE!!! It's Why I Come Up Here! Gou-let!

    So this post isn't an homage to Robert Goulet, or Will Ferrell's impersonation of him, but it is to show y'all how stinkin' cool our new neighborhood is! We've been hearing since we started looking at our house as a perspective home that our neighborhood had these awesome nature trails, but we couldn't find them to save our lives! North Augusta, has this awesome Greeneway, and while the town wasn't built around it, it certainly has been rebuilt around it. Right now the Greeneway is over 7 miles of gorgeous paved paths and it is still expanding to run through the entire city and all of the major neighborhoods to connect them to the beautiful Riverfront Park overlooking the Savannah River. Right now the paths in our neighborhood don't connect but they were made to eventually have that purpose and be an extension of the Greeneway!
      At this point in my pregnancy I've been feeling pretty much terrible as far as body image goes. I don't have this totally obvious round pregnant belly yet, so I just feel fat, and no matter what anyone can say about there being a baby in there, it doesn't change how uncomfortable and bad I feel about myself. I have always been super self-conscious when it comes to my weight and right now my insecurity is at an all time high. I normally love to exercise, but there is one little problem.... 
     The weather has been gorgeous of late and seems to be staying that way the further we get into Spring, but I have some of the worst allergies of anyone you'll meet. My allergist is VERY insistant that I'm not supposed to be outside without a surgical mask on to prevent me from getting sick when the pollen levels are like they are. This is humiliating, but I do it as often as I can. A few weeks ago when the pollen first hit I had the mask on when I rolled down the window to pay in the McDonalds drive-thru and the little boy yells "UEWHH!! YOU SICK?!" It was a great start to my morning. I felt like taking it off spitting on him and saying-yep, and now you are too! Regardless of that incident, it is a little hard to get motivated to exercise on these awesome trails knowing that I'm supposed to be wearing a mask while I do it. I recently got so down on myself I decided that I would rather be sick and atleast feel like I was making an effort to be healthy than to not exercise. So Momo and I have been walking in the afternoons a lot lately and I love it. It does require extra medicine and causes headaches, the sniffles, etc. but I feel so much better mentally, emotionally, and physically knowing that I'm working out and not being a lazy preggo fatty. I did P90X one day with Chad a few weeks ago and couldn't walk the next 2 days, so this is definitely the better alternative! Morris loves it too, and we talk about how we can wait to be pushing Noah in a stroller with us! Yes, that's right, Morris talks to me. I'm his mother, why wouldn't he? Here are some pics I took with my phone on our walk yesterday! I hope that y'all are able to get out and enjoy the spring weather, too! Love, Layne



this trail runs through a park with a play area for kids




boardwalk over a creek