Sunday, December 27, 2009

So long! Farewell! Auf wiedersehen! Goodbye!

Peace out heparin shots! Now that I am 36 weeks I no longer have to give myself shots twice a day! Yippee! If you remember this post , you would know that I have had to give myself shots to counter act my antiphospholipid syndrome that has caused my previous miscarriages. I started taking these shots at about 5 weeks so in the past 31 weeks I have given myself roughly 434 shots! Now that's a LOT of poking, bruising, and alcohol wipes! I won't be missing them, although I am SO grateful that I have had the heparin shots other wise I would most certainly not be this far along! These shots have been part of my routine for so long that I wasn't sure what to do with my extra few minutes this morning when I didn't have to give my injection. So heparin, we will meet again but until next time, so long! Farewell! Auf wiedersehen! GOODBYE!!!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Do I Look Pregnant Yet?

I am certainly feeling pregnant these days! 34 weeks down and only a few more to go. I can't believe I'm due NEXT month already! Other than being really tired and rather uncomfortable I have been feeling great! I'm still working my three 12 hour shifts at the hospital which has been getting much harder, but luckily I haven't had much to do on my days off so I can get some much needed R&R. As long as my Dr will let me I am planning on working until the end so I can spend my full maternity leave with our sweet baby girl but we'll have to see how things continue to go. As of my last Dr appointment, my blood pressure was great, and I have lost a total of 7 lbs during my pregnancy. You read that right ladies, and yes, its ok to hate me! I have not gained one pound over my pre-pregnancy weight in fact I have LOST weight. I actually lost 9 lbs and gained 2 so I'm still down 7 lbs. Maybe I should go on the pregnancy diet more often!
In preparation for the big day we have been working very hard getting the nursery ready. Her bedroom has basically been a really big storage space for us since we moved into our place in August so its been a feat to get it cleaned out. We still have a few things to get but we are just about ready. I will post pictures when the nursery is all finished! I have definitely been feeling the nesting bug lately. Her clothes are washed and some are hung up in her closet and now thanks to Nick's awesome assembling skills, she also has clothes in her dresser!
Not bad for a $180 Wal Mart special if you ask me!
I have been making a list of things that we still need for the nursery and I would love some in-put from all of my lovely readers. I want to know what are things that you;
1. Didn't think about or forgot to get before baby came?
2. You could NOT live without?
3. You could live without?
4. Any luxuries you recommend?
5. Any other advise for us first timers?
Can't wait to read your answers! Thanks for all of your help!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Better Late Than Never

I know it is past thanksgiving but I really wanted to share the things that I have been thankful for this past year.
December (2008):
  • Christmas! To me there is no better time of the year. I love giving gifts, listening to music and spending tons of time with our families.
  • The anticipation of the end of 2008 and the many possibilities that 2009 could bring.

January:

  • A referral from my wonderful Dr to a fertility specialist.
  • Gym memberships and a healthy diet!
  • Having Nick back home full time after his internship.

February:

  • Our first visit to the infertility clinic and the encouragement of Dr. J and his team.
  • Nick's dirt bike. I know that it may sound silly for me to be thankful for him getting a dirt bike but the joy that this bike brought to him was priceless and definitely something to be thankful for!

March:

  • Testing, testing, testing and more testing with Dr. J's team.
  • Great insurance that paid for almost all of the $15,000+ of diagnostic testing we had done.
  • Birthday's! During the month of March 5 of our family members have their special day. So fun to celebrate literally every weekend!

April:

  • Answers. All of the testing came back with answers of why we had difficulties conceiving and maintaining pregnancy's. It was such a blessing to have names to our problems.
  • Clomid.
  • My husband. Annually April 13th is a monumental day, it's his day of birth. :o) I am so thankful to have him in my life and to have one day each year to celebrate him. I love you Nick!
  • Jobs lost and new opportunities, and for the speedy rebound we were able to have after both losing our jobs on the same day.

May:

  • On May 17th we saw with our very own eyes a beautiful pink plus sign!
  • The emotions of excitement, joy, and being completely terrified all at the same time when you find out you are going to a parent!
  • The power of prayer and the feeling Nick and I got after we prayed that everything was going to be ok with this pregnancy.

June:

  • Even better than the little pink plus sign, a HEARTBEAT! There's really someone in there!
  • Raglan. (Anti-nausea medicine)
  • The reaction of our parents and siblings as they found out we're having a baby!
  • Meeting my weight loss goal. 40 lbs down! And yes, morning sickness helped with the last few pounds.

July:

  • Getting to take a trek to Utah for Kristl and Aaron's wedding and getting to visit Nick's extended family.
  • Finally feeling comfortable enough to tell my friends the we're expecting and sharing my fertility journey here.
  • Saying goodbye to the first trimester!

August:

  • Our new apartment. Yes I complain about it a little, ok maybe a lot but I REALLY do love saving so much money each month on rent.
  • My new job at the hospital. I love the women and the patients I get to work with and all of the wonderful things I have learned.
  • Wedding Anniversary's. We didn't do much this year but it is so nice to remember to vows we made to each other 4 years ago.

September:

  • Finding out that the little baby I had been carrying for 20+ weeks is a healthy baby GIRL!
  • Fall weather. I was so happy to have cooler days and nights.

October:

  • Football season. The activity of our weekends from Sept-November.
  • Shopping for our little girl and the excitement and anticipation we get every time we buy things to fill up the nursery.

November:

  • Getting to see our baby girl in 4D. What a cool experience that was! We can't wait to meet her!
  • Thanksgiving. I love the food, the family, and the football. Makes for a great day!

Over the past year we have had our share of struggles and triumphs and I am so thankful for all that we have been given. We can't wait to see what Heavenly Father has in store for us as we continue our journey through life.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

4D Ultrasound

On Friday Nick and I made a little trip to Bellevue to get a 4D ultrasound done. It was also a good excuse to go shopping and eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We had so much fun! It is considered an elective procedure unless your Dr does it for medical reasons so we had to pay out of pocket for the ultrasound, but it was worth it. The ultrasound tech spent over a half hour with us to make sure we got some great pictures and she wasn't going to stop until we had plenty! We got 33 pictures printed out in black and white, as well as colored pictures on a CD, and a DVD of the whole thing. They also gave us a diaper bag full of coupons and other goodies. We were happy to find out that we will 100% for sure be having a little girl. She let us get a good shot of her girl parts, in 2D and 4D. To uphold her modesty I won't be posting pictures of that though. We had a great time seeing her, the best part about the 4D ultrasound is we got to get a taste of what her personality will be like. She REALLY likes to suck on her hands and will probably be a big binky baby. She is definitely a very active little girl, and will make very expressive faces. She also liked playing with her hands and grabbing her feet. It was very cute. Here are some of our favorite pictures of our little girl!
This is a great profile view of her, her little arms are up over her forehead. My mom thinks they looks like a bow tied on her head.

I think this one is really cute. It looks like she is resting into her arms. I love that she's making a fist.

This one is probably my favorite. It is almost a straight on shot of her and she's rubbing her right eye. I love her little nose and lips and her chubby cheeks. I think she's going to be a beautiful little baby but I might be a little biased.

This one shows how snug life is for her in my belly. That is her foot that is literally in her face. If you look closely you can see that she has super long toes! She definitely gets that from my side.

This one is really funny because she is sticking out her tongue. Yum, Amniotic fluid!

She is taking a nice little stretch with her arms in this picture.

She's sucking her thumb!

I hope you enjoyed this pictures of her! This makes us Nick and I so much more excited to meet her! Only 11 weeks to go!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Long time, No blog

Sorry it has been over a month since my last blog but we have been a little busy! Here is what we have been up to the last month or so.
We went to watch Garrett and his friends, Kevin (left) and Carl (middle) in battle of the bands during the high school's homecoming week. Garrett wrote the song they performed. It was very impressive.

We went to visit Nick's family one weekend and got to see Nick's little brother Taylor (#87) play in his junior league football game. He did a great job!

Jared and I made "pumpin" shaped sugar cookies, and we had a great time doing so.

As you can see, they were finger lickin good!

Nick had a guys weekend with this crazy guy, Brian. They spent the weekend goofing off in Seattle and going to football games. Nick said they had a great time!

My family had our annual pumpkin carving contest and here are the winners, 1st place was Nick's wildcat on the right. 2nd, my baby girl on the left, and 3rd Garrett's guitar hero crazy demon cat dude.

Our beautiful niece Allyson turned 1!

She had a good time scootin' around in her wagon.

Of course you have to show off the cake pictures!

Her new stuffed Panda we got her was a big hit!

Some of the crazy party go-ers!

A very handsome police officer came trick or treating,

So did the worlds cutest lady bug!

Nick and I were the baker and the bun in oven. :o)

And my Belly has been growing, (24 weeks)

And GROWING!!! (28 weeks)

Speaking of that little girl growing in my belly things are going great! The last few Dr's appointments she has measured about 2 weeks larger than actual dates, I'm hoping that doesn't mean I have giant baby growing in my belly. Yikes! My gestational diabetes test came back negative, woohoo! Other than the occasional heartburn and hot flashes, I have been feeling great! I'm noticing its harder to breathe when I do simple things like tie my shoes. It's quite the reach when you have a basketball sitting out in front of you and squishing your insides. Other than those minor things I don't have a thing to complain about! We have another busy week ahead. I hope I have time to write another blog next Sunday about our fun events!

Friday, September 18, 2009

I love freebies!

Thank you to my dear friend Angela's post I found out about this awesome $32.00 freebie and now I'm passing it on to all of you! Click HERE to order your nursing cover. Pick out the cover you want and enter the promotion "backorder" and only pay $8.95 for shipping. :o)
Happy Friday!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Drum roll please....

We're having a baby girl! We are so happy we don't have to call our baby IT anymore and we now get to call our baby HER/SHE! One of these days she'll have a name too! We didn't get see very clear girl parts but we saw between the legs and a flat legged profile and there are no boy parts to be found. But because our Doc didn't see super clear girl parts he couldn't guarantee 100% that it is a girl but he said I would buy girl stuff and maybe one boy thing just in case and well, that's good enough for me!
She is growing right on target, and as you can see in the photo below, she has a very cute profile. Looks like she has her Mama's chubby cheeks too. :o) Our little girl was moving her little hands around, and wiggling all over the place. It was so fun to see her. My due date hasn't changed but she did measure a couple days larger. Thank you all for participating in the gender poll and congrats to the 25 of you who guessed right! It was so fun to check everyday to see what the count was up to. Not only were the 25 of you who guessed girl right but so were Nick and I! We were both pretty proud of ourselves!
A lot of you have been asking if we have picked a name yet and well, we have like five. One of these day's we will narrow it down to maybe two names, but I think I want to see her before we give her a definite name but who knows, maybe I'll change my mind. Here she is, our sweet baby girl!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Half Way There!

20 weeks today! I can't believe we're half way there already! I hope that this pregnancy continues to fly by this fast. Thursday is our big ultrasound. We are hoping the baby doesn't decide to be modest, we REALLY want to know what we're having. If you haven't voted in the poll on our side bar please do so! So far girl is winning but we'll have to wait until Thursday to see which gender wins.

I have been feeling pretty dang good lately. I am still tired a lot of the the time but that's to be expected. Growing a baby is hard work, dang it! The baby moves around a lot more now and I can tell the difference between kicks, rolls and nudges. It is so fun! I absolutely love being pregnant!

It's Labor day weekend and in Ellensburg that means the fair and rodeo come to town. Nick and I did our usual festivities this year. We went to the rodeo parade on Saturday, in the rain and all. Even though it seems to be the same parade every year we go anyway. Its a tradition! Nick isn't a huge fan of the whole rodeo but he likes the bull riding, so we like to go to the Xtreme Bull riding event where it is just bull riding all night. We had a lot of fun! I forgot to check the battery on my camera before we got there and went to take a picture and you guessed it, it was dead! So I apologize for not having any pictures.

I survived my first week at my new job and I am LOVING it!!! The Nurses, Dr's and aids that I get to work with have all been so welcoming and patient with me as I am learning. I have learned so many new things this week but I know that it will take me a while to get everything down. I got to witness an epidural being done, an episiotomy, and a delivery all for the first time. Not to mention I got to hang out with lots of cute babies this week. :o) I loved getting to view the delivery, it was such a miraculous thing to witness. It's a miracle in its self to even get pregnant but than to have that pregnancy progress to full term is a miracle! Especially since statistics show that 1 out of 3 pregnancies end in miscarriage. To see the things a woman's body can do get that baby out is also amazing! It was really a testament to me that the body is designed by Heavenly Father. I don't know how anyone can witness a birth and see that beautiful new baby and still not believe in God or at least a higher power. Life is a miraculous thing!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

I would die for that

I was sorting through old emails today and found this video my mom sent me when Nick and I were right in the middle of our fertility struggles. Get your kleenex ready ladies! You may need them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqfGqOx2iDQ

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

News News News!

So first of all, I got a new job! I will now be working at the local hospital in the family birthing center also known as the OB department as a nurses aid and my official start date is tomorrow! I am so excited! I can't imagine a better place for me to work! Not only do I get to work with an amazing team of women and Dr's but I get to take care of cute new babies. How bad can that be right? My job will be cleaning up the babies when they are first born, drawing their blood, resuscitation if necessary, giving them their first bath and making sure the babies are in good health before the go back to their mama's. So all of you ladies having babies in Ellensburg soon, I just might get to be the one taking care of your sweet new baby!
In other news, I am now 18 weeks pregnant! Can you believe it? We are almost halfway there! Here is the latest picture of my lovely ever growing baby belly.
I had a Dr's appointment yesterday and everything still looks and sounds great! We got to hear the heartbeat again. Which is always reassuring, I still have my freak out moments every once in a while and that definitely calms my nerves. We are getting very anxious to know the sex of our baby. Only two more weeks! Sept 10th is the is the big day, that's if the little bambino decides for show off it's parts. We should have a good pep-talk with the kid before then, maybe that will work. :o)
So in honor of that momentous occasion that will hopefully be happening I added a poll to the side bar on the blog. Please vote on what you think our little one will be before September 10th. I would love to see what everyone's guesses are.
Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. 4 years flies by fast when you're having fun!! Last year on our blog I told our story. So if you didn't get to read it last year, please do! I'm not sure what we are going to do tomorrow but something fun I'm sure. I'll let you know all about our date after tomorrow.
Don't forget to vote!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

16 weeks and counting!

In the last 3 weeks since my last blog we have had many things happen! First of all, we've moved! Our new place feels smaller than we thought it would, and it we really miss our old apartment but I'm sure we will quickly get used to it and saving $400.00 a month on rent will make it worth it. The move went really well and fast! Mitch had several of his friends come and help us. The only bad thing about having several 20 something guys help us it that they just hauled and dropped so we had a quite a mess to sort through but we can't complain! They were a huge help!
Just a couple days after we moved we went to visit Nick's family for the weekend. We had so much fun! We wish we could have stayed longer though. While we were there we celebrated Nick's dad Larry's birthday. I beautified everyone of course and well, I must say the boys definitely needed it! I cut at least a two inches off of Brook and Taylor's hair, they both usually keep a nice, clean, SHORT haircut. They waited for me to visit before they got haircuts and it obviously had been waaay too long since I've seen them!
As of today I am 16 weeks or 4 months pregnant! I must say that things are going so much faster now that we have told everyone. I hope this pregnancy continues to go so quickly! Two weeks ago I had a regular OB appointment and everything is still going great! We heard the heartbeat for the first time which was amazing. Whenever we have a new milestone to reach I always get a little nervous that something bad will happen probably due to my prior pregnancy losses. Obviously I'm worried for nothing because things continue to go swimmingly, I just have to keep telling myself that.
At my doctors appointment, my Dr. gave me a 25 pound weight restriction. As of right now I am on leave from work because people weigh much more than 25 pounds. I'm still fighting the company I work for to put me on light duty but they aren't having it. I think its ridiculous that they won't honor a Dr's order but we'll see what they have to say later this week. As of right now I am looking for a new job because I'm afraid that things may not end in my favor and well we need as much money as we can get right now. If you hear of anything let me know!
Yesterday I felt the baby move for the first time. It was such a strange yet wonderful feeling! To know that my baby really is there brought me to tears. We were at my parents house at the time so we were able to share that special moment with them. They were both so excited! Now I can't wait until Nick can feel the baby move so he can feel more involved in things. I'm loving all the firsts of this pregnancy. Everything is just so special to me!
It is now that time again! More belly pictures! These were both taken today, one is a better picture of me but the other shows off the girth better! Hope you like them!

We are now counting down the days until September 10th, our BIG ultrasound is scheduled for that day. Hopefully our baby will cooperate and decide to show off its parts so we will know if we are having a baby boy or a baby girl! It will be so nice to be able to start shopping and narrow down names. We can't wait!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

12 Week Ultrasound and More!

Last Tuesday we had our twelve week ultrasound. It was really fun! The baby is growing right on target and everything looks great. It was moving around all over the place. The baby kept opening its mouth and then swallowing, and we got to see all of its important parts like the umbilical cord, the spine and so on. It was so great to see the baby growing nicely and still having a good strong heartbeat at 166 beats per minute! It has long skinny legs which unfortunately you can't see in the picture, but the dark spot where legs should be, its legs go all the way to the end. My scanner decided not to work for me today so I just took a picture of the picture (I know super classy right?), its not great quality but I wanted to post it anyway! So here it is, our baby at 12 wks 2 days!
Many of you asked how I have been feeling and I have been feeling pretty good. I have my good days and bad days. From about 5 weeks until 10ish I was sick almost everyday but I never threw up I just felt like I was going to all day. I started to feel a little bit better but now that I'm out of my first trimester is evidently when I get to deal with the throw up. NOT FUN! Its only been 3 times so I can't complain too much because I know there are some of you Mama's out there (like mine!) that threw up everyday for 9 months and my heart goes out to you! Next Tuesday the 28th I have my next prenatal visit. I will blog about it but it may take me a while to get to it!
So next week we are moving again! Ugh! My friend Greg says that we are worse than a military couple. This is our 4th move in 4 years. Oh well! With the baby coming we decided that it would be best to not renew our lease at our beautiful yet very expensive apartment and find a more reasonably priced apartment. We will be moving into a 2 bedroom townhouse with 1 1/2 baths and just as much square footage. We will however be losing a bedroom and a shower but it will worth it to save just shy of $400.00/month on rent! This week will be a lot of packing a cleaning to get ready for the big move, thankfully I have great brothers that have been willing well slightly bribed to come help us pack. They have been a huge help and so far we have gotten a lot done!
Lastly I wanted to thank everyone for the overwhelming response we had to my last post. I was really hesitant to share our very personal story but as I thought about it I knew that in order to really know our excitement for this pregnancy you had to know what we have been through. It was great to hear of others stories and struggles that they went through to become parents as well. If I touched just one person going through the same thing than I feel like I did my job. Nick I want to thank you all for the prayers, love and support. We have been truly blessed with the BEST friends and family in the world and we love you all dearly so, thank you!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Excitement, loss, hope and joy!

After 2 ½ + years, 2 miscarriages, 1 fertility specialist, 1 hematologist and 1 clomid cycle later Nick and I are delighted to announce that we are expecting our first child in January!!! January 26th, is my official due date and that makes me 11 weeks and 4 days pregnant. It has been a long emotional rollercoaster ride to get here and we couldn’t be more excited! I would like to share our journey from the beginning.

In October of 2006 we decided we were ready to start a family, we were so excited and like most couples never thought it would ever be a challenge to get pregnant. So, much to our disappointment month after month went by and I still wasn’t pregnant. Our excitement quickly started to fade into what if’s and frustration. After about 9 months of trying we decided it was time to talk to our doctor. We all agreed that it would be a good idea for me to try a drug called metformin. After first cycle with metformin I was pregnant. We were so excited and we couldn’t help but tell EVERYONE.

We had our first ultrasound at what should have been around 8-9 weeks but the baby only measured around 6. It had a very faint heartbeat and my Doctor was a little worried but said that dates may have been off and he would like to do another scan in 2 weeks. Well I never made it to that appointment. Less than a week after that scan I began bleeding, had an emergency ultrasound to find out that the baby had passed away, and had not grown at all since my 1st ultrasound. Needless to say we were beyond devastated! It was bad enough that we had to endure it at all but it seemed much worse that we had to tell everyone about our loss and hear everyone’s opinions. Dr. Herman really encouraged us not to lose hope and told us in a couple months we could try again.

Once again first try on metformin we became pregnant and once again miscarried. This time we decided not to tell anyone until after our first ultrasound. At that scan there was no heartbeat and we knew it was not a viable pregnancy. It was still hard to endure but we had that hope that we could get pregnant right away again.

A year after my 2nd pregnancy loss much to our disappointment we still weren’t pregnant. We tried many different treatments in that time such as increasing my metformin, trying different hormone supplements, etc. We had a visit with my Doctor once again and he suggested that we be referred to a fertility specialist.

In February of 2009 we had our first visit with my fertility specialist Dr. Johnson at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue. Immediately we knew we would like him and his “style” as much as we like Dr. Herman. He was so encouraging and gave us hope that we would soon become parents. Over the months of February, March and April we did A LOT of testing to get to the conclusion that I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and I have a diminished ovarian reserve. Both make trying to conceive very difficult. The fix that worked for me was Clomid.

We also had a course of tests done to find out why, once I finally became pregnant why I couldn’t stay that way and that is where the hematologist (blood Doctor) comes into play. I had an abnormal platelet test result and so I was sent to the hematologist. We found out that my factor 8 platelet count (makes blood clot) was too high and protein S platelet count (makes blood stop clotting) is too low. So when I would become pregnant my body would treat that pregnancy as if it were a virus and would destroy it. My body would begin clotting in my uterus and the clots would get so big because I couldn’t stop the clotting fast enough so the clots would literally suffocate the pregnancy. The fix: baby aspirin once a day, and heparin (strong blood thinner) injections twice a day (yes I have to give myself shots) to fix the factor 8 issue and extra folic acid for the protein s issue.

On May 17th I had a positive pregnancy test, we were both so excited, nervous, and filled with joy that we cried. A few days later, I went to my specialist in Bellevue and had my first ultrasound and of course endless blood tests. All of you mama’s know what I’m talking about, it seems like every time you turn around they need your blood. Those stinkin’ vampires! Anyway my first ultrasound, the baby was so small that they couldn’t even measure the pregnancy, it was only around 4 or 5 weeks. We do have a picture of a little teeny tiny dot from that day.

A week later was ultrasound number 2 at 6 weeks 4 days and this time we saw a small jelly bean baby with the most beautiful thing in the whole world; a HEARTBEAT!!! And a strong one at that! I was so nervous for this appointment because of my past experiences that when the Dr. said “there’s your baby’s very strong heartbeat” I began BALLING, I was so relieved!

Two weeks later we had ultrasound number 3 at 8 weeks 4 days, and this time we saw a gummy bear baby with a big head, little arms and legs, and an even stronger heartbeat! The baby had tripled its size in those two weeks. The nurse was able to count all of its toes (there’s ten) and we got to see the baby move around for the first time. It was so surreal to see the baby move and now know that we are really going to be parents this time. We also heard great news from the Dr. “after three positive ultrasounds you are now released to your regular OB. You have less than a 2% chance of miscarrying. Even with your history, because we have seen the heartbeat twice, the baby IS growing, and you haven’t had any complications. Congratulations!” At the clinic we went to they never say congratulations until it’s the real deal, so that was wonderful to hear!

Here is a picture of me the week my mama belly decided to make its grand appearance. This is me at 9 weeks 6 days

This is me on Tuesday, 11 weeks 2 days.

It scares a little me that I’m showing this much already, I’m going to be huge, but hey at least it will be worth it when I hold my sweet baby for the first time. My next ultrasound is Tuesday and I can hardly wait! The other pictures I have probably won’t turn out super well so I haven’t posted them, but hopefully this one will be clear enough to post. We can’t wait to find out what we are having so we can start shopping and narrowing down names!

After all of our excitement, loss, hope and joy we are so thrilled that we will soon be parents. Thank you to our families and friends for all of the prayers, support, hugs, and tears we have shared over our journey to get this far. We wouldn’t have made it without you holding us up. We love you!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Vacation, Vacation!

We had a great time on vacation but I must say that it was WAY too short and we didn't get enough family time! We stayed at Nick's aunt Debbie's house (thanks again!) which was a blast! Her house always seems to be where the actions at, there always seems to be a party even if it is just with Her and Nick's cousin Danny. So after all of the wedding stuff was over this is what we were up to in Utah.
On Friday we went to the open house for the Oquirrh (pronounced Oaker) Mountain Temple. This is the newest temple in Utah and is located in West Jordan Utah (about a half hour from Salt Lake). For those of you who aren't members of our church, when a temple is newly built or remodeled, they open the temple for public viewing before it is dedicated. This is the only time that non-member's of the church can enter the temple. They take you on a tour and explain what each room is used for. If you ever get a chance to go, its a great way to learn about we do in the temple and why it is so special to us.
After the open house we ate at our favorite place in Utah, Cafe Rio! Its a really fun Mexican restaurant, where they serve you almost in a salad bar style much like Taco Del Mar, where you get to choose what you want. It is however 1 million times better than there. Our trips to Utah are never complete until we eat at Cafe Rio!
Nick, Mitch and I went to Provo Friday afternoon to go to visit the BYU campus. We bought some of their famous chocolate covered cinna-bears from the candy shop in the bookstore! YUM!!! Later we met up with Nick's cousin's Danny, LaRae, Mike (LaRae's other half) and Aunt Debbie for dinner at a restaurant called 5 guys. Its a really good hamburger place.
And like we did almost every night, we went swimming at my parent's hotel. This particular night we stopped at a Wal Mart and bought several water toys, like the whale, my killer floaty chair and a beach ball to bring with us. It was so fun! In this picture is me, Garrett, my cousin Jordan, and Nick. And no, Nick is not wearing a shirt, he just has a serious farmers tan! Saturday Nick, Danny and I went to Park City, we first stopped at the outlet stores. Nick couldn't resist trying on these size 19 shoes! They were as long as his shin! We wanted to go into downtown Park City where that have a bunch of cute little shops and fun restaurants but they had some kind of 4th of July festivities and there were roughly 8 bi-gillion people around and no where to park so we decided to scratch that idea. We met up with Nick's Grandma, Aunts Julie, Debbie and Wendy, Uncle Michael, Cousin's Keith, Danny, and LaRae for lunch. Are you seeing a pattern here too? We must really like food! It was great to have a little bit of time to catch up with everyone. That night, aunt Debbie had a forth of July BBQ. It was so fun! We got to see the rest of Nick's family that live down there. She also so graciously allowed my family to come too, so they would have something to do for the 4th. This is the whole clan getting ready to eat!
Nick and Danny did the fireworks show. It was short and sweet! Just how I like it! Here is Danny, Nick and cousin Keith while they were getting set up for the show!
Here are all of the spectators
Mom, Aunt Debbie, Mitch and my dad waiting for the show to begin.
Me and my dad!

We are so happy that not only did we get to go down to Utah for Kristl and Aaron's wedding but we also got to see family! It was great to see everyone. They really made our trip worth it! Next time we'll need to plan a trip just for visiting!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Kristl and Aaron's Big Day

Kristl and Aaron are finally married! They were married in the Salt Lake Temple on July 2nd. It was a beautiful wedding and she looked absolutely stunning and Aaron looked very handsome as well. Here are some of the pictures we took of them on their big day.

Congratulations Mr and Mrs Densley! We hope you're having fun in Cali on your Honeymoon.