springdellgirl

Before We Left

Before we left we had a great weekend at the lake. My mom had a tower put on the boat and it looks great!!


We had so much fun hanging out with my aunt, uncle, and cousins who were at the lake for their summer vacation. We just love these guys!! My Uncle Mike and Aunt Bonnie were there...along with my cousin Justin and his wife Hannah and their three kids: Grace, Haylee and new baby Gavin. My cousin Jennifer was there with her son, Jackson, and my cousin Wendy was there with her two girls: Miley and Addison. It was fun to see all of them.

I was a little bit nervous to see the new baby as Gavin had a due date very near my old due date for my first miscarriage (the pregnancy that I had a due date and ultrasound for.) How would I feel? Would I be jealous? I admit to being a little teary the first time I held him. Gavin by the way is an absolute sweetheart and I just fell in love with him.




Hannah and Justin are so loving and just let us all hold him as much as we wanted to. That night Tyler and I went home and had a really good talk about where our family is headed. We can start trying to get pregnant in just a few weeks after being in limbo for so long and we still just didn't know what the right course for us was...even after lots of prayer and fasting...it was still limboland. After our talk we came up with a plan of action that feels really good for both of us. Would we love another baby? Sure. But we are OK with the wonderful children we have been blessed with. This enforced "break" has been good in that it has helped us to come to the point that we can be happy and content with the family we have and got us out of our "we HAVE to have another baby" frenzy that we were in.

The next day was Grace's birthday party. We all went bowling. It was an absolute blast!! I love to go bowling. It takes me back to my BYU days. Also in high school when we had our bowling unit in PE we got to get on the bus every day and go to King Louie Lanes in Kansas City. I LOVED that!!

The birthday girl

Aunt Bonnie...the "Strike Queen"

Uncle Mike

Jennifer, Jackson and Reilly

Reilly and my cousin Justin...check out the family resemblance? I love it!! Reilly was uber-competitive at bowling...and most everything else...and was bound and determined to take Justin down!!

Am I the only one who thinks bowling shoes are cute? I seriously do!!

Kameron, Grace, Haylee, Miley and Ailey had a great kids game going. Kameron and Grace did really well.

Miley, Ailey and Grace

After bowling we headed back out to the lake for a BBQ and cake and ice cream. Some how I didn't get any pictures of Hannah and Wendy. Shoot. My mom and Ken announced their engagement. They are getting married August 17th. While I want my mom to be happy this will take some getting used too. Ken hasn't even met Kirk or Jordin yet and will meet them two days before the wedding. Things just feel really rushed. This has caused some concern among my siblings and I and our concern hasn't gone over real well with my mom so things have been a little tense.


Before we left we handed Mrs. Beasley over to my mom who was going to be watching her while we were out of town. We have never left her before so it was surprisingly hard. Kameron cried for half an hour. But there was just no way we could take her this trip.

Unfortunately that has become a HUGE regret for us...My mom had her for about 24 hours before she called to tell us that Mrs. Beasley had died. Just before we left on our trip. Needless to say we were crushed, hysterical, and just so sad. My mom doesn't know what happened. Maybe she got into something... maybe she got dehydrated...who knows. But she was perfectly fine when we dropped her off with my mom. This has been a huge blow to the kids and to us. I have never understood those people who acted like dogs were "people" but now I really get it. We have had dogs but never an inside little dog who was truly a "family member". We really loved Mrs. Beasley and our house and yard seem bleak and empty. I can't tell you how many mornings I went into the girls bedroom to wake them up and found three heads on the pillow...Mrs. Beasley all snuggled up. She and Kameron had such a special cute relationship. He was "her boy". The kids taught her tricks and she was so smart and loving. I can't believe I am one of "those" crazy dog people but I am and it has been an unbelievably sad week for us.

I was ready to cancel the trip to Utah but Tyler really felt that we all needed to get out of town and get away for awhile. I'm glad we went. But it was on a super sad note that we left town.