Recovery

Wow. I have officially put my blog on the back burner for 2 months. It's never been neglected this long in the history of my blog! I feel like I have a good excuse though. A lot has happened since my last update. 

We got home from Thailand 2 days before Valentine's Day/my birthday. I am now in my last year of my youth. 29. Oh so depressing. I feel like after you turn 30, you're a real adult, and kind of old. In your 20's you just kind of pretend that you're an adult. I guess I only have 9 months left until I'm in the with the old crowd.

 In March I took a trip up to Sasebo, Japan to see the young women in our church. They are part of our district even though they are an airplane ride away. It was really fun to see a different part of Japan. It had a much more traditional feel to it and had lots of beautiful mountains. The young women up there were awesome. They are a very talented group of girls.

 My parents planned a trip out here and the day they were flying in, Anderson fell off the neighbor's trampoline and fractured his arm. Bad timing Anderson! Justin spent three hours with him at the ER, while I continued getting ready for my parents to come. Then on Monday we took him in and they put the actual cast on. It was so sad because the whole time my parents were here, he couldn't jump on the tramp, ride his scooter, or do most of the things that he loves to do outside. He was a good sport about it though. It hardly bothered him except when it was time for the bath. You can't get it wet, so we just had him stand up in two inches of water with his arm in the air while we carefully washed the rest of him. He was so glad to have play time in the bath again when it came off.

 My parents arrival was definitely a highlight for us! (I will post more pictures of their trip here later) We feel so far away from everyone and it was so nice to have family here with us. The boys had been counting down the days and could not wait for them to get here. I loved seeing them so happy to have their grandma and grandpa around. 

They were here for Easter, which makes a first for hosting family for an official holiday. We've hosted plenty of friends, but we are always the ones traveling to see family for the holidays. It was really fun to actually have someone come to us! And yes, as sad as this picture is, it is probably the best family shot from the day. Bad lighting and blue lips. Oh well!

 The week ofter my parents left was Girl's Camp. (More pictures to come!) I spent hours and hours painting a gazillion beads for their necklaces. It was a lot of work, but I always love using my creative juices. I feel like I already need to start again for next year!

 Anderson was SO excited to get his cast off. I thought for sure he would freak out when they put those headphones on him and turned on the loud machine to cut it off. But to my surprise he was totally calm and braved the whole thing like it was nothing. 

 He still talks about how brave he was and how much he loves having it off. A couple weeks ago, Justin was laying by him in bed. He turned to Anderson and said, "I'm sure glad that you're my boy." Anderson replied, "And I'm sure glad that my cast is off."

The real reason for my blog neglect is this little jelly bean!

 I started feeling nauseous as soon as my parents got here. I still feel bad that I was sick and not quite myself while they were here. Then the week after was Girl's Camp and I was sick the entire time, trying to fake a smile because I didn't want the whole world to know that I was 8 weeks pregnant. Then the for a couple weeks after that, I was on the couch doing absolutely nothing. I have been way more nauseous with this one than my other two. I still haven't thrown up, but I just feel nasty and exhausted. We have been trying to get pregnant for 2 and a half years, and I keep telling myself, "This is what I wanted. This is what I wanted." It is no fun to be sick!! Last week, I had a couple really good days and thought I was starting to come out of it. But now that I am 12 weeks along I feel like I am digressing. What the heck? I am dying to feel somewhat "normal". My poor family. I know they are all anxiously awaiting the day when I feel like making dinner and be someone who is fun to be around. Oh well. I guess that's their part of the sacrifice. I get to be sick and they get to deal with me. Besides the sickness, we are very excited. We could not believe the pregnancy test had a positive result! It was an awesome moment for us. Now we anxiously await Nov. 22 for this little jelly bean to join our family.

Last day in Thailand :(

 Left to right: Bjarnason's, Jenks, Hurst's, us, and the Carroll's

 On our last day in Thailand, we had a relaxing morning, eating breakfast and hanging out at the hotel. Our hotel was so beautiful. We really lucked out and had a great experience at both.

 In the afternoon, we headed to see What Pra That Doi Suthep, which is a mountain top temple. Our taxi driver was driving like a crazy person the whole way up and down and we thought for sure we would not make it home to our kids. She was scaring me so bad! 

 You have to climb up a gazillion stairs to get to the temple. It was a good workout.

While we were walking around the temple, I found my next hairdo. Ok, that's kind of mean. But seriously lady...that is some crazy frizz! I wanted to give her a bottle of mousse.

Ok I'm done being mean. 

 Once again, the temple was beautiful. LOTS and lots of gold.

 I love their Buddha statues. I bought myself a small Buddha head to put in my house. It's interesting though because I always thought that Buddha was big and fat. I asked someone and they explained to me that the Chinese Buddha is fat, and the Thai Buddha is skinny. Who knew?!

 I wished it wasn't so hazy that day because it would have been an awesome view of Chiang Mai.

 We passed this little girl sitting on the steps on our way down. Isn't she adorable? She had the sweetest face. You take pictures of her and then she asks you for money. I gave her some money and my heart sank knowing that her family sent her to sit on these steps trying to earn money for their family. She was just sitting there all by herself. I felt very lucky that we are in a position where my kids can just be kids. They don't have to go out and earn money for us to survive. It makes me feel a little guilty though. Why was I born into the situation that I was? Why are my kids so lucky to have all that they have? We saw houses and people there, that made me want to give them everything I have. It definitely gave me a new perspective.

Overall, this was one of the coolest things we have ever done. The people we traveled with were awesome, our kids were safe while we were gone, and we had a week of uninterrupted conversations about life. Where we are now, where the next few years will take us, and where we want to end up. It was great. And we came home 2 days before my birthday, which pretty much qualifies for the best birthday ever. 

Justin is already trying to decide where we should go next!

Day 4: Tiger Kingdom

 The fourth day we were there was a Sunday. We thought it would be fun to look up the local LDS church and see what it was like. There were about 50 people there attending the branch. The missionaries gave us headphones for translating and we were able to enjoy a really nice sacrament meeting.

After church we headed to Tiger Kingdom. Justin had really been looking forward to this. He's always thought tigers were really fascinating, so this was right up his alley. I decided to just see the baby tigers. They were so cute! Most of them were really sleepy. They said they sleep a lot, just like human babies. Eat and sleep. That's what they are good at.

 Then Justin moved on to the "medium" sized tigers. 

 After that, came the "large" or as I would say, the big scary tigers. Justin thought it was so cool while he was in there. Afterwards, while he was thinking about sitting next to a huge tiger, he realized that it is a little scary. Luckily he came out of the cage alive!

 Justin and I decided to have a little fun in these big bubbles. You climb inside, and then they fill it up with air, seal it up and send you off in to the water. It was really funny. It's actually hard to stand up in those things!

 We played around for a little while and then I started having an anxiety attack. I am SUPER claustrophobic and I felt like I had sucked up all the air inside my bubble. Or an elephant was standing on my chest. Either way, I was starting to freak out. They can't hear you when you are in there, so I was trying to motion to Justin that I needed to get out. Luckily he knew what I meant and he got their attention. The bubbles are hooked to a rope, and the people pulled mine in. I thought I was going to pass out before I made it to the dock. Lucky for me, I did not. It was a little embarrassing, but not as embarrassing as if I had actually passed out. So although the first five minutes was fun, I would not put this on my top ten from the trip.

 We went to the Sunday market after that. There were so many people there! So crowded, but there are a lot of fun things to see and buy. 

We ended the night at a restaurant that had been recommended to us. It did not disappoint! It was right on the river and had a live band. It had delicious food and a fun atmosphere. The perfect way to end a great day. 

(A great day minus the anxiety attack inside the bubble...)