Galveston Getaway

My new favorite place is Galveston, TX. We loved our trip there a last year and when our friends asked if we wanted to go with them and rent a beach house for the weekend we jumped on the opportunity!

We couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions. The weather was BEAUTIFUL. Friday and Saturday the water was crystal clear and so calm, which is rare for Galveston. Usually the water is brown and sometimes has lots of seaweed. But it was so clear we could see fish in the waves as they crested.

Friday we spent some time at the beach, running in the waves, looking for shells, and just taking it easy. Our friends put Emery to bed for us so Gavin and I could go on a date. It was so fun. We went to a restaurant where we got some great seafood that we really liked. Gavin had Texas Redfish and I had stuffed shrimp. We don't get seafood very often so it was a fun treat. Then we went and saw the new Avengers movie. Dinner and a movie might sound boring to some, but Gavin and I NEVER do that...like, EVER...so it felt like a special treat for us.

Saturday morning was sandcastle building. They worked for hours building this thing and it looked really cool when it was done.

I think it looks like an Aztec temple or something. The sand at the beach is super fine and it doesn't work very well to use buckets to shape and mold things so they basically made a huge pile, packed it down, and then shaved away at it.

After the castle was built we took a break from the beach and headed to The Strand (like a touristy downtown type place) for lunch. We couldn't pass up our favorite ice cream and candy shop, La Kings, so we went there too. Luckily we caught them making their salt water taffy on their 100 year old taffy machines. It was fun to watch.

After they make it they throw pieces into the crowd and Emery caught herself one. It was pretty tasty! 

Poor Emery was super worn out from all the fun on Friday and then not getting enough sleep (who needs sleep when you have frieeeends?!) So this is what she looked like through lunch:

Poor girl could barely keep her eyes open. She did perk up a little bit after she had some food in her, but she was one tired girl. 

After some lunch and ice cream we headed back to the beach for some more relaxation and fun. The boys decided to add to their sandcastle and make a neighboring town. Here they are, hard at work:

By that point, Emery had a fever and was so tired so she just laid down and rested for awhile. This next picture kind of breaks my heart. She looks so sad and tired, but still cute with her ruffly little bum in the air. I gave her some Tylenol and pretty soon she was doing much better and wanted to come play again. 

Our beach buddies! They were so fun to vacation with--super laid back but full of fun! Plus Emery and their youngest boy get along so well. 

Happy beach bums!

Emery loves the beach. She talks about it every day. She is a girl after my own heart!

We had to bury somebody, and this guy was the lucky one this trip! We did make him into a merman after and he looked pretty awesome with rippling pectorals and a sea shell belly button!

A story to go along with the above fish picture. That little fishy was stuck behind a sandbar after the tide went out. We decided to try to catch him, but he was too fast! It was quite a sight to see 4 adults and a few kids (some other kids joined in the fun) racing around with sand buckets, trying to catch this little fish. We were not having any luck, when all of a sudden Gavin drops his bucket, sticks his hands in the water and SNATCHES THE FISH WITH HIS BARE HANDS! I still laugh just thinking about it. It was AWESOME.

Pregnant belly and feet in the nice warm sand. I was in my happy place! 

I didn't take any up-close pictures of the house but you can see it in this picture of Emery. We were the second one back. It was so nice being close to the beach and having a private beach to relax on. 

And last of all, here is a video we took of some clams. There were thousands of them. I dug my hands into the sand on Friday and thought I felt a bunch of pebbles. Imagine my surprise when they started wiggling! They were mesmerizing to watch. 

The Animal Game with a Toddler

Last summer Bella (the girl I babysit) and I started playing the animal game a lot when we needed to pass the time. It's like 20 questions but with animals only. Emery wasn't interested at first but then she started getting into it. It was hilarious to hear her questions at first and it's been fun to see her get better at the game. For example, now she will think of animals other than a cat, and if you ask if it has 2 legs and she says yes, then you can trust that the animal actually has 2 legs and isn't a 4 legged creature. It's one of my favorite things we do and I captured a video of it yesterday.


She still has some strategy points to pick up...like not telling me it has a shark tail :) but she's really getting better at it!

Holy Hail!

We had an EPIC hail storm a few weeks ago. It had been really rainy and stormy, but all of a sudden it got CRAZY loud. We ran to the door to watch it. The biggest we saw were a little bigger than quarter-size, but some friends close by had some that were golf ball size in their yard!

It's been a long time since I've seen hail this big and it was really cool to see the ones that broke open. They they reminded me of a jawbreaker or rings on a tree trunk. I thought they were beautiful. And check out those spikes!

Frozen on Ice

Emery and I had the chance to go on a "Mommy-Daughter" date with some friends to Frozen on Ice. It was so fun! Disney does not skimp on the experience. The set, costumes, and effects were all incredible. It snowed, fireworks shot down from the ceiling, and a HUGE marshmallow snow monster grew right in front of our eyes. It was a magical evening!

Blurry cell phone picture, but you kind of get the idea of how magical it was. 

It was so fun to see the girls all so excited. Emery's friend in the picture above was so funny during "Let It Go." She was singing along at the top of her lungs, and when Elsa rips her tiara off, Emery's friend ripped hers off dramatically, both her arms flung out, singing, "THE PAST IS IN THE PAAAAAAAST!" Emery's other friend was so overcome with happiness at the end of the show when the happy ending comes that she started hugging all her friends. Disney knows just how to get to the heart of little girls (and big girls too!).  

Princess For a Night

These are a few weeks old, but I had to share them. My friend had the brilliant idea to get a group to go to opening night of Cinderella dressed as PRINCESSES. I thought it was such a fun idea! We figured maybe a couple other people might want to some along, but we ended up having a group of over 20 women come! It was SUCH A BLAST. Silly, yes, but still so fun. There was a group of little girls there who wanted pictures with us.

The little girl was there for her birthday and wanted a picture with the princesses. :)

My friend in the middle was the brains behind this fabulous night. 

I borrowed a friends prom dress from high school. I couldn't believe it fit over my belly...it wouldn't have a week later. 

Emery was asking where I was going and it was funny telling her I was going to a princess party with my friends. She didn't think that was weird at all. :) I firmly believe that you are never too old for dress-up! 

The movie was so cute, I loved the "have courage and be kind" theme. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it whole-heartedly!

Butterflies!

Emery and I recently went with some friends to the Butterfly Pavilion. I love that place. They were feeding the poisonous tree frogs right when we got there so we got to see them up close. Usually they are hiding in the plants and hard to see. These frogs actually aren't poisonous since the bugs they are fed aren't poisonous, but their colors are amazingly vibrant.

The frogs look fake to me when I see them because they are so brightly colored. 

 At the end of the exhibit they have a little display about bugs eaten around the world and a vending machine where you can buy bugs to eat. Emery was begging me to buy some, and I definitely couldn't refuse that request! My kid wants to eat bugs? Heck yes I'm buying some and going to video tape her reaction! So we bought some chocolate covered worms of some kind (shaped like larvae or mealworm) and passed them around. Emery was the first to go and she acted like it was no big deal. I kept trying to freak her out a little bit by saying stuff like, "Emery, THIS IS A REAL BUG. You are going to EAT a BUG. A BUG." But she seemed unphased. She did hesitate for a second and broke off a piece of the chocolate to eat, but once she realized it was real chocolate she just popped it right in her mouth and asked for more. My friend and her daughter also ate one, they said it wasn't too bad minus the feet that got stuck in your teeth. Blech! I did not eat one...I pulled the pregnancy card, "well...I might puke...you know, because I'm pregnant and all..." Really it just sounded too gross to me. I ate a fried mealworm in a college class and the memory of those little legs in my teeth was enough to make me steer clear of these ones, even if they were dipped in chocolate!

Plus 1

I've fallen behind in my blogging (again). This picture tells you why:

There's a BABY in there!!!

We are pregnant and couldn't be happier! I'm 17 weeks along, due early September. We actually found out CHRISTMAS DAY that we were expecting, it was the best Christmas present we could have ever asked for. Our own little Christmas miracle!

I've been pretty sick for the last few months so it's taken me awhile to get this post out. I've been so incredibly grateful for the support I've received from friends here; they've brought food, popsicles when I couldn't keep anything else down, had Emery over for play dates, and just been so understanding while I've fallen short in everything I do the last little while. I'm finally coming out of that dark abyss known as the first trimester and I'm happy to be getting our life back on track...sort of.  

Emery is so excited for this baby. She frequently talks about how our family will soon have 4 people in it. A month or two ago I was watching a little 9 month old girl and she was laying on Emery's lap while we fed her a bottle. Emery got wide eyed, looked up at me and said, "Is this the baby from your belly?!" She was a little disappointed when I told her it wasn't. :) 9 months is a long time to wait when you are 3 years old. 

This next portion might be TMI for those who have never struggled with infertility so feel free to stop reading here. :)

Our journey to get this baby is important to me and I'd like to share it in case it could help someone else. I'll try to keep it brief. We started going to a fertility clinic almost 2 years ago. After a lot of bloodwork, tests, and a few surgeries, they told us we had unexplained secondary infertility (aka you haven't been able to get pregnant again and we don't know why) and that our best chance for pregnancy was IVF. This crushed me. I was a decently healthy not-even-30-year-old woman. I should be able to have a baby without a petri dish--isn't that what my body was MADE TO DO?! So we stopped going to the clinic and decided to keep trying on our own until I either got pregnant or I was ready to try IVF.

Then a friend of mine started seeing a chiropractor/nutritionist/quantum neurologist in our ward and recommended I start seeing him. I told myself I would do whatever he said and follow everything he told me to do for 6 months, and if it didn't work, we would try IVF. And so began a fun journey of a gluten/dairy free diet (so hard for me!), TONS of nutritional/vitamin/mineral supplements (24 pills a day!), and some brain training/nerve stimulating exercises three times a day. I was not excited to jump on the gluten free wagon because of all the ridiculousness surrounding the fad, but I figured I might as well try it. What did we have to lose? After 4 months of seeing Dr. Hayden, BOOM. I was pregnant (I also lost weight...less carbs will do that for ya!). I was so excited and I had never felt healthier and more energetic. Then the pregnancy sickness started and all that healthy energy flushed down the toilet along with everything I ate. So I'm back on a regular diet now because for a few weeks all I could keep down was white bread..and I eat DONUTS again!

I don't know if the things I did would work for anyone else, but Gavin and I were willing to try ANYTHING people told us had worked for them (yes, that statement should make you nervous) so I wanted to share our story. If you have questions feel free to email me.