California Trip

BJ and I were able to get away to California just the two of us for Memorial Day weekend. As much as we missed Sam and Brodi we had so much fun as we tried to squeeze everything we could in 4 days. Our first day we kind of just bummed around the Sacramento area and watched a late movie, yes my friends it started at 8pm and didn't get out until AFTER 10pm. Gone are the days when we would go to movies that started after 10pm.
Saturday we went to go see Wicked, my Mother's Day gift from BJ. What can I say, it was wicked awesome. We absolutely loved it. We stayed the night with Michael and Mallory and it was so good to get to visit with them.
Sunday we did something we rarely ever do, we went on a whim. We thought Yosemite isn't too far away and neither of us has been there, lets go. The problem with whims to state parks on holiday weekends is that they tend to be crowded. Luckily we stopped to get a map of at Mariposa about 1 hour away from Yosemite. We were informed that nearly everything in the area was booked for the weekend but luckily they found us a room in a vary quaint motel called The Mother Load Lodge. If we thought of it as more staying in a cabin for the night it wasn't too bad, small, but clean and at least we had a roof over our heads. Yosemite was fantastic. It's one of those places that pictures will never do it justice. The other problem with whims is that you don't always have the right gear. We hiked to a waterfall with a bunch of granite boulders in flip flops. I have pretty tough feet from my days in Samoa and living in flip flops in AZ so I found it was actually easier to hike in bare feet. I did get some funny looks.
Monday we were off to Sacramento and saw that they that a Train museum. We just had to go there in honor of Sam so we took a ton of pictures of all sorts of trains. We had so much fun and can't wait to go again sometime. Sam and Brodi had a wonderful time with Nana and Papa while we were gone.

Two cute kids

Here are just a couple of pictures of our cute kids.

Sam with his new sunglasses. You really don't get much cooler than this.

Brodi's bedhead. I love how Brodi has one ponytail sticking straight up. It always reminds me of a little bunny rabbit. Such a cute little girl.

Last Day of School

To commemorate Sam's last day of preschool I had to share this cute video of him reading one of his favorite books. This is a book we read together every night so I know that he has it memorized but not too shabby for a 3 year old. We are so proud of our Sam. He has made so much progress this year. It seemed like just a little while ago that I was posting about his first day of preschool. At that time he still had a speech therapist coming to the house and was picking up a lot of words, but still had a really basic vocabulary, our lover of the alphabet is now quite a talker and reads some sight words. He can also write his name. Such a smart kid. We are so proud of you Sam!!

Fathers and Sons Outing

BJ here. In our church they have an annual event called the Fathers and Sons Outing. It is a camping trip where all the boys go camping for a night. There are many doctrinal reasons for the celebration, suffice it to say that it is a lot of fun each year.



Confession: I haven't been to one since before my mission (circa 1996). Sam did so well on our trip to San Antonio this year that I decided to take him on the campout. I was a little nervous because this is not only his first Fathers and Sons but his first camping trip ever.



He ended up doing great. When we got there we setup the tent and let him sit in his little camp chair and after about a half hour he said he was ready to go home. it was 4:30 in the afternoon. I reminded him that we had to wait and go to sleep first. He was disappointed until he saw several groups start making fires and then I knew that he was all boy. All he wanted to do was walk around and check out the fires. Heaven help his future scoutmaster.

Here are some pics. The first one is him in our tent.

After playing in the tent for a while we ate dinner. He thought it was pretty cool to eat in the back of my truck. I stopped at Wal Mart and got a bunch of candy and decided to let him eat as much as he wanted. He ended up getting a small stomachache at dinner so I had to put it away much earlier than I thought I would.

Then we played with fires for a little while.

Then, after the sun went down and we gobbled down our dutch over cobbler is was time for bed. It was cold up there that night (mid thirties) but Sam did well. He woke up a couple of times and said he was cold (he kept wriggling out of his sleeping bag). I put him back in and kept putting his hat on. This picture is what I woke up to in the morning.

And then in the morning we played with some more fires.

Thanks for coming with me Sam. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Mother's Day

Typically for women who deal with infertility problems Mother's Day can be a pretty touchy subject. We have known now for 5 1/2 years that unless some gigantic miracle happens (we are talking Abraham and Sariah type miracle, hopefully BJ would not be asked to sacrifice that child) we won't be able to naturally have our own children. I think that there always is a little twinge of sadness that accompanies this day for me now. I once read a quote that says "My infertility resides in my heart as an old friend. I do not hear from it for weeks at a time,and then, a moment, a thought, a baby announcement or some such thing, and I will feel the tug-maybe even be sad or shed a few tears. And I will think, 'There's my old friend.' It will always be part of me..." I have always identified with that quote. At the beginning I thought that infertility would never be my friend, but it has, it makes me who I am today. It makes me appreciate and love the 2 wonderful children that I have been blessed with that call me "Mommy" all the more. On mother's day I can't help but reflect on the many mothers and grandmothers in my children's lives. I think my children are the luckiest kids in the world to be so blessed with so many incredible women in their lives. We love you all. We love the women that we may have never met that love our children from afar. Mother's Day has come to mean so much more to me than a reminder of my infertility as I think of all the love and sacrifice that has been shown to my children in making me a mother. Thank you and Happy Mother's Day!!!