Parental visit long time ago

A long long time ago, like back around Easter, my parents drove down to see us, and the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant. We had a great visit, were able to do some fun things and then I drove back with them to attend my cousin's wedding. 

One of the things that we were able to do is take a tour of the University of Phoenix stadium where the Arizona Cardinals play. It was so much fun! It was fun to see how excited my parents were as well.

After a few days of playing here, I drove to SLC with my parents. I felt like a kid again, hanging out in the backseat and my mommy buying me treats. It was fun. He stopped in Page, AZ and saw Lake Powell, it was so pretty. That's one of the things that I like about roadtrips is being able to see things like that.

 

 I was able to spend time with family in SLC. I even got loved on my by sister's doggies, love those dogs and they love me.

Then the highlight of the trip was getting to see my cousin Laurel celebrate her wedding. Laurel lived with us for a while when I was young and she became a role model to me, we've always been close and I'm so happy for her and her new life as a wife!

 

 

It was great to spend some 1 on 1 time with these 2 kids as well.  Family time is a lot more special now that we live away.

Business Trip

A couple weeks ago, I had a conference in St. George. I was able to take Scott with me which was great. We started the weekend by driving all the way to SLC. We spent two days there and then left Cosmo with my parents and traveled to St. George. We were there Monday-Friday. I had days of classes but we had some down which was nice. It was a mini-vacation for us which was much needed. Friday we drove to SLC, got Cosmo and drove to Price. We stayed there overnight and then drove home. In that week we traveled 2000 miles and spent approximately 30 hours in the car. Here are some fun pictures from our trip.

Different pictures from the road, including a very full truck bed, the windmills at the bottom of Spanish Fork Canyon and Cosmo's footprint embedded on my leg after he got out of his harness and jumped in the front seat.

Cosmo at his old house. It was like he had never left, he made himself right at home. He was so happy to be there and to see what was going on outside his window.

Monument Valley. I had never driven through there and it was stunning! The pictures don't do it justice. We drove through there the week before they started filming Transformers 4 at this location.

And of course one of my favorite parts of the trip.

 All in all it was a great trip filled with lots of car time, family, co-workers and relaxation. But I'm kind of glad that my next trip to SLC (for work again), I'll be flying. :)

Cinderella

Cinderella has always been my favorite princess. And my mom, knowing that, made this beautiful stitchery for me. If you see it in person, you can see all of the added detail that took so much time, it's stunning. I knew she was working on it and I watched it's progression, but I didn't know she'd be giving it to me! She hadn't finished it when we moved, so she brought it when they came for Christmas. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's so special to me. I have such a great mom!

Infertility- the forbidden word

I hate that word. The word "infertility" makes me cringe, for all those that suffer from it... including myself. I'm sure there is lots of speculation from family and friends, and I'm sure a lot of you already knew.  We've been married 5 and 1/2 years and are almost 31... and are active LDS.  And sure I have a career that I enjoy but that is not holding us back from having children. For a long time I wanted people to think that was the case. I didn't want people to know the heartbreak we were going through behind closed doors. But Scott and I both feel strong that after three years, we are ready to be honest with those around us and not hide behind this. We think it will be a strength to us.

I am not going to give lots of details because that is just not our style. But I will give you a brief summary of what we've been through. We decided it was time to start a family almost 3 years ago. About 4 months later I found out I was pregnant but I didn't feel quite right physically. I think I knew I was going to miscarry, and about a week later I did. Although I thought I was probably going to miscarry, it was still horrible and heartbreaking when it happened. We continued on with our lives and nothing happened. Needless to say, we've been to a series of doctors, I've had a few surgeries, been on different meds, and are now waiting on another physical issue to hopefully resolve itself so that another surgery isn't required. It's a frustrating lonely journey and moving to Phoenix I've felt like we've had redo a lot of what we did in Utah before we moved.

In the future, I won't be giving you every detail of this journey. That to us is personal, but we'll be open to telling the basic details to our family and close friends. So if you are one of them, don't be afraid to ask. We'll share as much as we are comfortable with.

If you want to know how to help, please pray for us, that's all we can ask right now.

This is not an easy journey and I'm sure there are some journeys that are harder. But this is ours, and we are trying to endure it well. We know we will have kids in this life one way or another, we've been promised that. But for now we're just parents waiting for a child.