Life was fine in 2009.
For Christmas Ryan's parents surprised us all with a trip! That spring we headed to DC and NYC! I couldn't believe my good fortune. I have some extended family in the DC area as well as two of my best friends ever. It was so fun to be able to see all of them. So fun in fact, that I can't even describe how fun it was. We explored Georgetown, we did a night bus tour of the monuments (I HIGHLY recommend it), headed up Mt. Vernon, saw Abe Lincoln's home and theatre where he was shot. We did the FBI spy tour (amazing for kids around 10 years old), had dinner with Jen and Holly. Had dinner with Sterling and Ellie, saw many wonderful museums. There was so much to do and I can't wait to go back someday. Here are some pictures of DC.
Holly, Momma Jen, & Me. The three amigos!
The Terry Crew
Grand Central Station
George Washington's Toumb
The Fam at Mt. Vernon
NYC was COLD. But we loved it anyway. We saw my favorite musical Mary Poppins, did the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, happened across Kathy Lee Gifford, Lots of cheesecake, and the best italian in little italy ever. I seriously love public transportation. Even in NYC. I miss it so much. We loved our waiters and their inhospitable attitudes. One thing you must do, walk across the Brooklyn bridge and get pizza at Grimaldi's on the Brooklyn side. I loved the white pizza just plain jane.
Playing with the shutter speed or f-stop, I can never keep them straight.
The view from the empire state building
Kathy Lee in the flesh! Our faces were frozen stiff at that point.
Our pro photo taker in action
Us at Ellis Island
You have to get the stuffed french toast and a frozen hot chocolate. Seriously.
One of my all time favorite pictures of Grey
The Manhattan Temple
The Brooklyn Bridge
I had started training that January for the SLC 1/2 marathon. I didn't get really serious about it until about a month before. I never thought it would be so fun. My sister-in-law Susie inspired me because she did it the year before and was doing it again. I was bummed because we lost all our pictures from the trip. I stole this from Suz's blog. We also met Blaine and Daine from the biggest loser.
About a week after that, we announced to our friends and family we were expecting our first addition to our little family! For Ryans family we made pink and blue sprinkles cupcakes and wrote a cute poem:
"Boy or girl which will it be? I guess we'll find out in January!"
There was so much screaming and tears, my heart raced, it was a happy moment.
For my mom we were celebrating mother's day a little early and in her gift I put a picture of our first ultra sound. She was more than surprised. She was shocked. She had no idea. She asked when I was due and when I responded, "End of December." she replied, "
THIS December?" I loved that moment.
May 2009 Ryan graduated from ASU in the Housing and Urban Development program. What a joyous day! Except, I was sicker than a dog, but it was still joyous. I can brag that he was Summa-cum laude. We went to a fabulous dinner at Roy's after, I unfortunately couldn't keep it down.
End of may we headed to California and had a Colton-Jensen family reunion. Oh it was so much fun! It is such a treat to get together with all of my family because we are all so spread out. And it couldn't get better than the beach and disneyland!
No one told me that you burn faster when prego, I got burnt the first day and spent the rest of the time trying to stay covered up. Thank goodness for Ryan's Angel's hat!
The only other picture I had of the trip! I don't know what happened to them all!
The day after we got back Ryan drove down to Tucson to go pick up Hiro our new golden-doodle puppy. He was a cutie and a sweetheart but we ended up selling him 6 months down the road to a family with a backyard and another dog and 2 kids. It broke my heart but now I know it was the right thing to do. I highly recommend not selling a dog when you are pregnant. My nesting/nurturing hormones kicked in and I was a mess for 2 weeks. I felt like I had lost a child. I couldn't even talk about it until after I had Finn. Anyway, here are some pictures taken from Megan's blog.
June, July, and August are a blur. I spent the time avoiding the heat and trying not to be sick and working. My Mom and Dave moved to Germany and I missed (and miss) them terribly. Here is a little taste of Lake Powell 2009. (hopefully it works)
Do you remember hearing about the survivor package at the Rancho Bernardo Inn? Well, we took them up on that little offer. Starting at $19.99/night you could stay at the hotel with no electricity, no beds, no air conditioning, pretty much all you had was a lockable door and a room with a porch. It was in San Diego though, so it was worth it. That was in september and I was just starting to show.
The week we got back I had 2 friends give birth, and a baby shower. My brother Trevor and his wife Brooke were expecting their baby any day. I finished up at the baby shower and Brooke called and asked us to come over so they could head to the hospital. She was in labor! She gave birth to baby Tyler the next morning.
October came quickly. We headed up to St. George, Utah for my brother Dave's wedding. He married the cutest Lizzy spelt with a Y that I know. They are one beautiful and happy couple. For halloween I dressed up as a S'more. I cut out two pieces of cardboard attached one to my back and one to my belly. I wore a brown shirt with a hole cut out the middle with a white shirt showing through for a marshmallow belly. Too bad I didn't get pictures.
I also was thrown the cutest baby shower ever by Chris Ketring and my sister-in-law Megan. Seriously, it was darling. They did a fall theme with pumpkin shaped breadbowls and different homemade soups, caramel apple dip, and all sorts of goodies. I made pumpkin cupcakes with little buttons on top that said, "Thanks for coming to celebrate our future pumpkin!".
In November we celebrated our 3 year anniversary. Ryan took me to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Gammage Theater. It was awesome. I went in for my 36 week checkup the day before Thanksgiving and they told me I was dilated to a 2 and 80% effaced and the baby was starting to drop. I panicked. I wasn't ready to give birth yet! I had predicted I would have our baby December 28th (one week late) there was no way I was ready to have him early! I got through Thanksgiving and family pictures. I was even able to get some maternity photos taken. I got everything for Christmas, decorations and shopping and neighborhood gifts included done by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.
When I went in for my 38 week checkup I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced. When I came back at week 39, my Dr. felt so bad that he had given me false hope. I wasn't really miserable so I didn't mind at all. I was really enjoying cleaning EVERYTHING and organizing and just having a little time off work to do nothing but get ready to be a mom. Plus, I really wanted to have him after Christmas. 40 weeks came and still nothing. My Dr. was in shock. I was scheduled to be induced Monday Dec. 28th 8am.
Sunday morning the 27th I woke up with serious back pain. I thought I had slept on it wrong. I kept doing normal things and I did some cleaning because I couldn't help myself before we went to Ryan's parents for Sunday dinner. I could hardly walk my back hurt so bad and I was starting to get some strong contractions. I thought we would just wait to go to the hospital once my water broke but by the end of dinner I was ready to go. Especially since it was a 30 minute drive and we needed to stop by our house to grab my "Go bag".
We pulled into the hospital around 8 and I meekly walked up to the nurses and said so kindly, "I think I'm in Labor" even though I was screaming on the inside, "HELP! NOW!" They slowly showed me to a room and told me to put robes on and they'd be right in to check on me. I did and felt like I was waiting forever. I could hear them talking and laughing outside the door and I wanted to yell. Finally a nurse came in and checked me. My contractions were 2 minutes apart, I was dilated to a 6 and she was very surprised. I had debated on whether I would get an epidural but once I realized how much contractions hurt I was begging for one. By the time the anesthesiologist got there I was at an 8. He was worried he did it wrong because I didn't flinch at all. I was too worried if I moved I would get paralyzed and I was also worried Ryan was going to pass out. One of my big fears was that ryan would pass out and miss the whole thing because he'd be getting stitches or something. He did not do the epidural wrong. I was quickly feeling much better and became a much happier person. Ryan's family got there right about when I became a happier person. It really became fun and exciting.
Around 11pm my nurse checked me and I was at a 10 but my water still hadn't broken. She pinched it, it broke, and she called my doctor. I started pushing. I pushed for about 15 minutes and then Dr. T got there. Another 15 minutes and we had a new baby boy with a full head of hair. 12.28.2009 12:20 am, 7lbs. 15oz, 20 inches. I knew all that acid reflux was going to pay off.
I remember they pulled him out and put him right on me. Ryan and his mom and megan were checking him out but I couldn't really see him and didn't want to move him because he was so slippery. They said, "Oh my goodness look at all that hair on his back and shoulders!" In my mind I was saying, "Oh poor guy, I don't care I love him so much!" Then they noticed his birthmark on his forehead and were like, "Oh my and look at the cute birthmark on his face!" My thoughts went to, "Oh this poor kid, he has a giant birthmark on his face, he's a monkey baby with a giant birthmark, I love him so much!" Then when I saw it I thought it was darling. Unfortunately the hair on his back and shoulders and most of what was on his head is all gone now.
Thanks Megan for taking all of those photos in the delivery and maternity shoot. Check out more of her stuff at www.meganpapworth.com
I will post Finn's newborn shoot and what we have been up to the last six months soon.
4 Generations
Our new and happy little family!
All my family that was able to make it. (If you can believe it, there's more!) Dave and Lizzy, Finn can't wait to meet you in just a couple of weeks!
We had so many friends go out of their way to be there. It meant a lot to us. Pictured: Lauren, myself, Paige, & Megan
The Dawn and Dave Terry family put on an AMAZING lunch for everyone that came. Leave it to them to plan a party. They are the best. Seriously, they had the most darling centerpieces ever, not to mention all the delicious food. Everyone enjoyed themselves. Pictured: Brooke, Caden, Hailey, & Jacob.
HUD buddies! Pictured: Ryan, Jeff, & Devyn
The end of February Finn was already 2 months old and losing all his hair! We try and do an amateur mini photo shoot each month. We were so excited he finally fit into his red vans they had to be a part of it. When we first found out we were having a boy, the first thing we went and did was shop for some amazing baby boy things with Ryan's mom. Our first purchase was these little red vans. AMAZING.
The middle of February I went back to work just 2 days a week. Dawn watches him one day and Ryan watches him the other. It was so hard to leave him that first day. I was teary all day long.
March came too quickly. Mid March we took off to Hawaii with the Terry family for our Christmas surprise trip. My post pregnancy body definitely wasn't swimsuit ready but we had such a fun time anyway! Finn slept the entire flight there and back. The waves on the beach lulled him to sleep. It was the perfect time to go. Ryan and I finally got to go scuba diving together! It was such a fun experience. I have to admit the first dive I had a little anxiety since it had been 4 years since I had done any diving at all, but the second dive I completely enjoyed myself. We saw young sea turtles, the most giant mana ray ever who was so curious he just hung out right by us, and lots of other cool things.
For my birthday dinner we went to Kimo's. I recommend the O Pacu Pacu. They had the BEST Hula Pie. That was my first experience and it didn't let me down. We sat on the top floor looking over the ocean at sunset. Best dinner ever. Here's the view.
"Unconditional Lava Flows"
We also did the road to Hannah. Everyone said it isn't a good idea to take a baby but he slept the entire time. I was reluctant to go but SO glad I did. We saw the black sandy beaches and had delicious banana bread made by the nicest hippy lady. I would love to do that again on a vespa with towels. We forgot our towels so we didn't get in any of the waterfalls on the way up.
