Monday, August 31, 2015

yuma trip 2015

Remember how Tim and I first met when we both lived in Yuma, AZ?

Well, Tim's parents still live down there, and I am ashamed to say that before this last May, it had been 2.5 years since we'd been down there to visit.  We went there for Christmas in 2012, right after we'd learned we'd be moving to Utah in two short weeks.  And after that?  We saw Tim's parents, of course, but never down in Yuma.

I'd been telling Tim for months that we just needed to plan a trip down there.  We knew we wanted to save up his time off in case we had a baby, and we kept saying we needed to take time off to get Tim's tonsils out, but I was afraid that those things would mean we'd never get down there.  Ever.  So we just did it.

Thankfully, in May, the temperatures were still in the 80s and 90s, and if we're being honest, we all know that those are some of my favorite temperatures anyway.  It was perfect.  We even got to go swimming with Tim's cousin and his family one day!  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Like I said in our last post, we told Tim's family we were pregnant again within minutes of arriving, and they were all thrilled for us.  After that, I've lost track of a lot of the timing of our trip down there, but I do know that Ellie spent a lot - and I do mean a lot - of time cuddling with her grandma and grandpa.  And as an added bonus, she loved spending time with her aunt and uncle and cousins, too.


On one of the days, we drove over to the house where I lived from ages six to twelve.  (Let's be honest, it was a lot cuter when we lived there.  We even had an actual lawn.)  Pretty cool to think that Tim and I spent six years just down the street from each other as kids!


We also went to one of my dad's favorite Mexican food places - Pancho's Cocina.  He still swears they had the best carne asada burritos he's ever had.


Then we drove over to AWC, where my dad started off his career as a professor.  His office was in this building the entire six years we lived there.  (Now they've turned it into something completely different.)  My memories of Pancho's Cocina and AWC center around the days when my dad would get me out of school because I was feeling "sick," and I would spend my days eating Mexican food out at the college with him.


Then we drove over to one of Tim's favorite Mexican food places, Las Palapas, to have lunch with Tim's parents.  (It was just as good as he remembered!)


We also spent some time wandering around at the Cal Ranch Store.  We were hoping to find some baby chicks to show Ellie, but they had just sold the last of them.


But don't worry, we found plenty to entertain ourselves.



Melissa and Burton came over pretty much every day to hang out with us.  Burton and Ellie loved playing in the sprinklers.  (But Burton was a lot braver than Ellie was!)


I was so grateful she was so much nicer to him than when they visited us in January!  It made me feel better about having another baby in November.


They each took turns sitting on the sprinkler!



And pulling it around the yard...


How unfair is it that Melissa was like six months pregnant in this picture and I was like three months...and yet we look exactly the same in this picture?!


We also spent a day at the Camel Farm!  It was a highlight for Tim and me, since we both had fond childhood memories there, but Ellie could have cared less.  She spent pretty much the entire time digging in the dirt.




Tim and I were happy, though.



Ok, ok we admit it.  Our trip basically rotated around finding really good Mexican food.  Here's another place we tried (and loved).


We spent a lot of time outside.  (Can you tell I was really sick of the rain and the cold at this point?)




Apparently I didn't take any pictures of it (story of my life), but one night, we also went to see the new Avenger's movie with Tim's brother, Billy, while Tim's parents watched Ellie for us.  It was so fun, and it made me wish we could do stuff with Tim's brothers and sisters more often.

On the last morning we were there, Tim, Tim's dad, and I went shooting.




Just call me Annie Oakley!


Both Tim and I were wishing we could go shooting with Wayne all the time!


And then came my favorite taco place.  Oh my, these were the best shredded beef tacos I've ever had.  I'm not saying that lightly, either - I take my shredded beef very seriously.  Even Tim was impressed, and he's usually more of a carne asada guy.


Right before we left Yuma, we met up with one of my childhood best friends, her mom, and her baby at a frozen yogurt shop.  Ashley lived just a few houses down on my street, and we literally spent almost every day together.  Her mom is basically one of the sweetest people on the planet, and it was so fun to meet her cute baby!


After Yuma, we drove over to Casa Grande, where Tim's sister, Brigette, and her family live. We loved seeing them again - it had seriously been WAY too long - and we loved seeing their beautiful new home.  Tim and I were pining away over the beautiful saguaros all over the place.  Ellie, of course, couldn't get enough of all of her cousins.  She especially loved Brig's oldest son, Jack!

For some dang reason, I forgot to take any pictures while we were there, but here's one Brigette took of us (ha!):


The next day, Tim and I decided that we'd drive the 45 minutes into Chandler and go to two of our favorite places while we were there: Oregano's (the best Italian food) and Bahama Bucks (incredible shaved ice and the location of our first date).  We were in heaven!



Then we drove over to Jeanie's house in Buckeye to have a big family dinner with Tim's parents, Jeanie's fam, Brigette's fam, Angie's fam, and Sarah's fam.  It was so great to see everyone!  (Why, oh why didn't I take any pictures?!)

The next morning, we drove into Mesa to have breakfast before we left with some of Tim's best friends from high school.  The cool part is that I remember Ally from when I lived in Yuma, too.  Tim, Ally, and I were all in the same family ward.  She is one of the nicest people you'll meet.  (And I stole all these pictures from her!)




We had such a fun time seeing them again, and I loved seeing Tim reminisce with all of them!

It was an amazing trip, and we are already wishing we could be back again!  (Now we just need to convince Tim's family to let us move in with them...)

Sunday, August 23, 2015

announcing baby #2

We found out we were pregnant on Sunday, March 8th while we were visiting my grandma's house in California.  I smiled through my tears at the positive test and knew that I needed to tell Tim immediately.  It was a little tricky, though, because he was working at an expo in Anaheim and I needed to hurry and get Ellie and I ready for church first.  We made it through Sacrament Meeting (though, admittedly, my thoughts were mostly on that positive test) and hurried over to the Anaheim Convention Center.  I called Tim and asked him to meet me at the car.  As soon as he hopped in, I handed him two positive tests.  He looked at me uncertainly, wanting to be sure what this meant.

"Yep, they're positive!" I told him, beaming.

"Really?"  His eyes lit up.

There were a few tears and some excited conversation involved, but it was all too short, as Tim had to get back inside the convention center.

The rest of my family arrived the next night, and a few minutes later, I yelled above all the various conversations that we were pregnant again!  Everyone was thrilled for us.  (It made our Disneyland trip a little trickier, since our doctor wanted me to be cautious.) (But let's be honest, we were so thankful we didn't even care.)

Because of the previous miscarriage, we were hesitant about when to announce to the whole world that we were pregnant again.  We heard the heartbeat on April 13th, when I was just nine weeks along.  We knew our chances had just gone up, but we didn't want to announce just yet.  And Tim wanted to wait to tell his family for when we visited them in Yuma, AZ the first week in May.

My amazing friend, Heather, agreed to take some announcement pictures for us on April 20th, and our plan was to get some prints and show the pictures to Tim's family when we got there.  The pictures turned out even better than I could have hoped, and I couldn't wait to show them to Tim's family when we got there.

We had one more appointment before we left for Yuma on April 30th, when we heard the heartbeat yet again, and our doctor told us our baby had a 95% chance of surviving this time around.  We felt good about announcing to Tim's family.

We handed our stack of pictures to Tim's family soon after we arrived, and they were so excited for us!




We took pictures with both pink and blue balloons, just in case, but since I know now that we're having a BOY, I thought I'd just post the blue ones!  (We didn't find out the gender until May 28th.)



Heather also took some other amazingly cute family pictures for us.



















(Heather, we are forever in your debt!)

It's difficult to explain without getting emotional how much this pregnancy has meant to me.  We feel beyond blessed that this pregnancy has gone so well, and that we are expecting a healthy baby boy come November 13th.  I love our beautiful life!