July Recap

July seriously flew by so quickly...it seemed like it was such a busy month for us, but in talking to others, it sounds like it was that way for everyone else, too.

Our family was able to do a lot of fun "summer" stuff this past month, which I loved. The kids are getting to an age where they really enjoy doing things away from home (especially Jaxson). Here are a few highlights:

We finally made it up the canyon for a campfire dinner. I love going up to Mueller Park for dinner...it is nice and close to home, plus there are some good picnic places and lots of shade. Jaxson was fascinated by the campfire and wanted to help Mike set up the fire and cook dinner. He was pretty disappointed that we didn't let him make his own hotdog and s'more on his own. Jax is definitely getting to that stage where he wants to be as independent as possible. We also learned that Aynsley seems to have the makings of being a true camper. She kept putting her food down on the ground and rubbing it in the dirt before eating it. No matter how many times we tried to distract her, she just kept going back to the dirt.

We were able to go for a long weekend trip to Bear Lake with Mike's family, and we had so much fun! It was really nice to take a break and just relax. I was pretty nervous about how well Jaxson would do because he typically won't sleep anywhere besides his crib, but he did great! He absolutely loved being able to play with his cousin and Aynsley became best friends with her Aunt Mandy.

While we were there, Jaxson was able to go on his first 4-wheeler and waverunner rides. He was pretty hesitant at first, but then ended up enjoying both. On his second waverunner ride, he kept looking up at me with the biggest smile on his face; I could tell that he was just loving every minute of it.

While we were waiting to switch out riders, we put Jaxson on the waverunner by himself so that we could take a picture. As you can tell, he was not very happy about that!

Hanging out by the beach...although the shore wasn't too great for playing, we were able to still find a pretty nice beach that worked out really well for the afternoon that we had the waverunners. It wasn't crowded at all, plus there was sand and shade for the kids. We had such a great time and are hoping to be able to go back again!

Recently, Jaxson has been really interested in farm animals. Last week, I took the kids to Wheeler Farm, and he absolutely loved it. I think that his favorite animal right now is a horse, so he was so excited when he got to see one up close. Unfortunately, Aynsley wasn't so into the horses, and she burst into tears while we were up close to one.

One of the employees was really sweet and let Jaxson "help" take care of the pigs. He was able to help spray them off and give them a drink. Later, the same employee helped Jaxson pet and get a few licks from Snickers, which is a pony. His whole face lit up when he was able to be that interactive with the pony. Once again, Aynsley wasn't too stoked about this, but I think by this point she was just ready to get out of the stroller.

Both of the kids really enjoyed being able to feed and look at the ducks. I think Jaxson was enjoying it a little too much, because he kept trying to pet them.

Besides the outings, the kids are keeping us as busy as ever! Aynsley started walking about three weeks ago, and I swear she is already going to be running soon! She can also say Momma, uh-oh, and that.

Jaxson is getting more and more grown up all the time. We have slowly started potty-training, and have even seen a few successes! He is getting very good at following directions, and is always trying to help his sister. He is such a sweet older brother. He loves going to nursery and playing with other kids.

Independence Day

Independence Day has definitely become one of my favorite holidays. I love being able to spend the day with family, while at the same time, enjoying a holiday that hasn't become super commercialized and still has its focus on the actual purpose of the holiday.

This year, we went to Mike's dad's house for a BBQ, swimming for the kids, and fireworks. Jaxson loved being able to spend some time with his cousins, and it was just nice to spend some time visiting and relaxing with the family.

I had to take some pictures of Jaxson and Aynsley in their cute patriotic outfits. Aynsley was easy to photograph, but Jax is going through a little phase of either trying very hard not to smile, just not being willing to sit still, reaching for me, or a combination of the three. Needless to say, it makes taking his picture a little difficult.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Jaxson loved playing in the water...to the point of not being willing to even come eat dinner because he didn't want to stop playing. Pretty much almost all of the good pictures I got of Jaxson are of him playing in the water.

We had to take a picture of these three cute cousins. They were all born within three months of each other. The last time we had them all together at the same time was Halloween, so they have definitely changed since then!

This was Jaxson's first sparkler. He was so excited when Mike was helping him with it. 

We ended the night by walking over to Sugarhouse Park for the fireworks show. Fortunately, both kids did better than we were expecting and seemed to enjoy the fireworks. We had such a fun time and it was so great to see everyone! 

Summer Lovin'

I am FINALLY able to get caught up on the blog...our internet has been out for a few weeks, so I definitely fell behind.

We have been having such a fun summer! My kids have definitely loved being outside and enjoying the sunshine. Here's a little peek at a few adventures:

Back in May, my grandparents came out for a visit. They live in California, so we don't get to see them very often. In fact, this was the first time that they had even seen my kids. Looking back, I am especially grateful that they were able to come out, because my grandpa was just diagnosed with cancer.

Four generations of women: my Grandma Hitsman, my mom, me, and Aynsley. I am fortunate to have such amazing women in my life. 

I think that one of our favorite activities has been going to the zoo. We got a pass for Christmas, and it is seriously one of the best ways to spend a summer morning. We love to go in the morning before it gets too hot and then we are usually home in time for lunch. 

Jaxson LOVES to see the animals. He gets so excited and will just stare and point at them. Some of his favorite animals are the giraffes and the seals. Thanks to his love of Tarzan, he also loves the gorillas. He got so mad when a kid kept getting in his way of seeing the gorilla move around. This last time we went, we were finally able to see the polar bear, and that may be a new favorite. Aynsley is a good sport...I don't know how much fun she has in the back seat of the stroller, but she is still happy and smiling. 

Besides the zoo, we are having fun playing in the water, going for walks, and starting our new adventure in potty training! Jaxson has been showing all the signs that he was ready to start potty training, so I decided we might as well try. We have been taking it pretty slow, but finally had some success the other day! Hopefully he will keep learning and progressing. :) Aynsley is getting so grown up and is very close to walking. She also says "uh-oh" and will say "mama" when she wants me to pick her up. There have been a few times when I think she said "no", but I am not positive yet (can't imagine where she picked up that one). I have a feeling that she is going to be a little chatter box!

St. George!

Jaxson loved playing in the sand with his cousins.

Our family was able to head down to St. George to spend some time with Mike's family over Memorial Day weekend, and we had such a good time! It was so fun to just relax and spend time with everyone. Jaxson LOVED being able to spend time with the other kids that were there; he is such a social little guy, so he was in heaven.

I was surprised at how well the kids did in the car...this was Aynsley's first long car ride, and the first long trip Jaxson had taken since he was about six months old. Fortunately, both kids were great! Even though they didn't sleep for too much of the drive, they weren't too restless. Having the portable DVD player was a huge help on the way home, although we did realize that Aynsley is a little frightened of 'Beauty and the Beast'.

We spent most of our time playing in the pool, going to the park, and exploring the desert. Jaxson loves to play in the sand, and the house backs the open desert, so Jaxson loved playing in "nature's sandbox". He got a little frustrated when he couldn't go outside to play whenever he wanted.

Mike and Aynsley are all ready to head out for a walk. 

Jaxson loved hanging out with his Grandpa...they would go for walks in the desert, and Jaxson just loved to explore and check everything out. 

On Sunday, we took a picnic to the park. Jaxson got so excited when he saw the playground equipment...too bad it was a little too hot. He kept trying to go down the slide, but as soon as he sat down, he kept saying "hot". 

At first, the kids were a little nervous about playing in the pool. This surprised me, because they both absolutely love playing in the bath, and Jaxson really enjoyed his swim lessons last year. After a little while, they both warmed up to the idea of playing in the water, so we will need to plan some more trips to the pool.

Aynsley loved lounging around in the float. She was so relaxed and looked like she was trying to lay out and get a tan. 

All in all, this was such a great trip, and the perfect "first vacation" for our little family. We really enjoyed just being able to spend quality time as a family. It is so easy to get wrapped up in everything that is going on in everyday life, so we really appreciated all of the family time we had this weekend. Now, I just need to convince Mike that we can handle a trip a little further from home... :)

Welcome ICLW

ICLW stands for International Comment Leaving Week, and it is something I used to participate in pretty regularly when I was writing on my other blog. Basically, it is a way for people who have/are affected by infertility to network. You can learn more about it here. I stopped participating for a few different reasons, but decided I wanted to give it one more try this month. Funny that this would be the month that my family would actually end up being affected by a pregnancy loss.

Anyway, if you are visiting my blog because of ICLW, welcome! Here is a little snapshot of me, my experiences with IF, and my family:

We started TTC in December 2008 and I was able to get pregnant immediately. Unfortunately, I ended up having a miscarriage at about 10 weeks. Fast forward to spring 2010 with no real success, and I decided to see an RE. I was pretty quickly diagnosed with a chromosome inversion, and my husband and I decided to pursue adoption. We were blessed with a very quick wait to adopt, and we welcomed Jaxson into our family in November 2010. After a month or so, I noticed that I wasn't feeling too well, and was surprised to get a BFP when Jaxson was only six weeks old! We welcomed our daughter, Aynsley, into the family in September 2011. Jaxson and Aynsley are only 10 months apart in age. Since that time, we are taking a break from TTC, and I am sure that we will wait quite a while before looking for baby #3. Right now I am just enjoying my role as mommy to these two sweet kids!

A Hard Weekend

I have realized that dealing with loss doesn't seem to get any easier over time or with experience. If anything, new loss brings up some of the feelings that you had thought you had forgotten or moved on from.

On Thursday, my sister, Kristin, went to the hospital because she thought that her water had broken. She had been feeling the baby move, so she was stunned to learn that her baby boy no longer had a heartbeat. She had just had an appointment the previous day, and the baby seemed to be perfectly healthy. She was just over 36 weeks pregnant.

When my mom called to tell me the news, I was stunned. This was the last thing that any of us were expecting. Mike and I immediately got ready to head to the hospital, and I ended up staying with her through the night and part of the next day. Fortunately, Kristin was blessed with an "easy" labor. They induced her at about 10:00 pm and she delivered her son at about 4:25 the following morning. She named her son Braxton David Rice. It was very surreal to see him be delivered, but not hear any of the typical sounds that you would associate with a delivery...no heart rate monitoring, no baby crying, no oohs and aahs about this beautiful new life.

What makes this story even more difficult is the journey Kristin had traveled to get to this point. She is expecting her divorce to be finalized any day now, and had chosen to place her baby for adoption. We had just had a family dinner with the couple she had chosen to place her baby with last week, and it had been so fun to see how excited they were...they told us about the nursery, baby showers, and a countdown chain they had. It is heartbreaking that this tragedy has to affect two different families.

Unfortunately, this has not been the only hard blow my family has been dealt this weekend. Yesterday, we learned that my grandpa has been diagnosed with an aggressive and invasive form of skin cancer. We are still waiting to learn how much the cancer has spread, but it sounds like it is not going to be an easy road. What makes it even more hard is that my grandparents live out of state, so it is hard for family to be accessible to them.

It has been amazing to see the kindness and tender mercies that come out of hard times. My family has been so blessed by the kindness of strangers, friends, and ward members. Some of my mom's friends stepped in and set-up meals, purchased clothing for Braxton to be buried in, and made all of the mortuary and cemetery arrangements. My cousin arranged for a professional photographer to come take pictures of Braxton and Kristin, free of charge. Another cousin went to my parent's house and spent hours cleaning, and there have been, and continue to be, many other kindnesses that have been extended to us. It makes me so thankful for all of the amazing people that we have in our life. I am also so thankful for my knowledge of the plan of salvation; even though this hurts right now, it is going to be okay eventually. 

Bon Voyage!

A few weeks ago, Mike and I were able to escape on a fabulous Eastern Caribbean cruise! The past few years have been crazy busy, so we were definitely ready for some adults-only relaxation. We headed out with some good friends and had such a fun time!

{The Bahamas - Half Moon Cay}

Our first port was the cruiseline's private island, Half Moon Cay, which is in the Bahamas. We were so nervous the night before we landed because it was raining when we left Miami and had been raining on and off all night. Sure enough, when we woke up the next morning, it was raining. We decided that we were going to try and make the most of our time their anyway. Even with the poor weather, the island was BEAUTIFUL...white, powdery beaches, clear blue water, palm trees. Too bad that there was just enough wind to make the rain cold. We decided to still try and go in the ocean and that did help us warm up a little, but it was still cold. We only stayed on shore for about 45 minutes or so before we decided to take a tender back to the ship. 

Our cruising group: Kevin and Lori Olsen, Taylor and Ashley Sanderson, and Mike and me!

The girls! Lori, Ashley, and me

{St. Thomas}

Our next stop was the beautiful island of St. Thomas, which is part of the US Virgin Islands. We were so excited to see that we had SUNSHINE! We decided to take a taxi over to Magen's Bay. In order to get to the bay, we had to drive over a mountain and across the island; the island was beautiful and there were some amazing views, but unfortunately I didn't get a great picture of the landscape. 

After spending some time in the bay, we went to Senior Frogs for lunch. Don't you love our fancy hats? After lunch, we walked around some of the shops that were near the port. Apparently, St. Thomas is known for its shopping, but none of us really ended up buying anything.

The views of the port in St. Thomas were beautiful. These are a few pictures that I took from the boat before we headed back out to sea. I loved the turquoise water, sail boats, orange-topped buildings, and lush, green landscape.

Headed back out to sea!

The sunset was beautiful. I took this picture shortly after leaving St. Thomas, but I'm not really sure which island is in the background.

{Puerto Rico}

Next up was Puerto Rico. This was the island that I was looking forward to the least, but it actually ended up being one of my favorites. Once we got off the boat, we hired a local (Frank) to take us on a tour of the city. It was really interesting to see both Old San Juan and New San Juan from a local's perspective. We all started joking that we needed to buy a vacation home and move to Puerto Rico!

Frank took us to the Capital Building. Apparently they are doing some work on it because it is going to be in a movie. The inside had some really neat and detailed architecture.

After checking out the Capital Building, we drove around the "New" San Juan, and then we went to  see where they do cock fighting. Apparently cock fighting is a big sport in Puerto Rico...they have a lot of arenas built just for it. When we got there, there were a few roosters that were out in cages; apparently that means there was going to be a fight that night.

I absolutely LOVED Old San Juan. I am just a sucker for old cities that have tons of character, and that is exactly how this part of the city was. This is an old cemetery that we drove by...apparently it has been used in several movies. It would have been so interesting to explore it more.

I am So. In. Love. with these colorful buildings and cobblestone streets. Lucky for me, all of the shopping that we did was in this area, because I could have spent hours exploring the streets and taking pictures. I loved it!

This was what was left of an old chapel that was built in the 1700's. 

Kevin and Lori

Ashley, Lori, and Me

{Grand Turk}

Our last stop was Grand Turk, which is part of Turks and Caicos. The water here was GORGEOUS! Exactly what you would picture if you were imagining the Caribbean. Once again, we decided to take a tour of the island. The island was a lot different than what I had expected...it was very dry and arid. Apparently the only palm trees are the ones planted by Carnival at the port.

Our tour took us to a salt museum and the island light house. At one time, the slave trade and salt farming were the biggest industries on the island. They still have salt ponds, which kind of reminded me of the salt flats.

The light house isn't in use any more, but the site offered some great views of the water.

Our lovely cruise ship, the Carnival Liberty. 

Besides having fun in the ports, we also had a great time on board the ship. There were a ton of laughs, sun, trips to the comedy club, ice cream cones, and of course, karaoke! Apparently we were quite the performs...a day or two after we sang, a group of girls saw us, pointed, and said, "Look, it's the girls from karaoke! That's the one that was so drunk that she forgot the words and fell over!" Funny thing is that unless they spiked the diet coke, we were all completely sober. At least we know how to make a lasting impression, right?