Fall Break San Diego/Borrego Trip

Our kids had Fall Break last week and so we decided to go to Borrego Springs and San Diego. We had a great trip, but the best part for me was the fact that I did it! Over the past 2 years as my health declined, we never even thought about a big trip like this. We went to Disneyland with Ty's family a year and 1/2 ago and we rented one of those scooter wheelchairs for me and I crashed for a couple weeks after we got home. This time, no scooter for me, I walked and sat and came home tired for a couple of days, but wouldn't consider it crashing. So, we are so excited about this progress! (If you know anyone struggling, please get them in contact with me. This hormone therapy has truly been life saving for me!)

So we started out on Tuesday night and drove to St. George, then left Wednesday morning for the 7 hour drive to Borrego Springs. We love visiting Ty's grandparents in Borrego. When you are there you feel like you are staying at a free resort. My kids have a hard time believing Ty's grandparents can live in a place where the closest fast food restaurant is hours away and there's no Wal-mart or Target anywhere either. Unfortunately we were only able to stay for a day & 1/2. Ty's grandma was having knee replacement surgery on Friday morning. So we left BorregoThursday evening for the hour and 45 minute drive to San Diego. But it was enough time to visit Papa at his cement plant and ride in the back hoe

to do lots of swimming in Mimi & Papa's pool,

and eat at the yummy local taco shop. We had a great time! Thanks Mimi & Papa!

Then it was off to Sea World. It's been about 5 years since we went to Sea World last. Macy was 2 and got a Shamu stuffed animal, she named it Shampoo. Pretty cute. Brigham wasn't feeling great all day at Sea World, but we still had lots of fun!

Ty and the girls on Atlantis (above).
Kristen and the girls on Atlantis (below).

Watching one of the shows.

Ty & the girls on Waterfall Rapids.

Saturday morning we got up and headed to Carlsbad to spend some time at the beach. The whole morning it was foggy. I was bummed because the kids don't get to see the ocean very often and we never once could see more than about 100 yards out. But the kids still had lots of fun, starting out a little nervous and cautious and by the end, I was hollering at them to not go out so far. Macy found some sea shells, Kamryn had fun burying herself in the sand, Kinsie had the most fun jumping the waves and Brigham had fun borrowing the 8 month pregnant lady in a string bikini's daughter's shovel and bucket. She highly recommended a local fish and chips place and we agreed as we enjoyed our fish or shrimp and chips. Yum!

That evening BYU was playing SDSU in San Diego. This is quite the stadium. We actually had gotten 3 seats from our brother-in-law and then bought 3 seats from a scalper (sp?) and basically just walked in, found 6 seats together and sat down. The stadium is so big, no one ever came by and told us we were in their seats.

At the end of the game, we were able to give high fives to quite a lot of the players.

All in all a very successful trip!

Adoption Update

Last Monday we got a call about a situation. A birthmom due in a couple of weeks coming to Utah that day. The only bad deal was that she wanted a family with 1 or 2 kids. The agency only had 2 families to show her, ours and a family with 3 biological kids. We got a call Tuesday morning that when she went to her Doctor's appt, she went into labor and had the baby. We had a trip planned to San Diego, we were leaving Tuesday evening. So, I kept debating if I pack or not. Well, we got a call around 2:00 in the afternoon, that the birthmom didn't pick either family. I was really upset the rest of the day, thinking about that little baby in the hospital without a family. I guess our agency posted on their blog and through word of mouth, they found a family. I felt really discouraged, but the best thing was that we went on our family trip to San Diego. (Pictures to be posted later.)

Today I got another call about a situation in Missouri. The birthmother is white and the birthfather black. She's due on November 25th (Kinsie's Birthday). So our profile is being overnighted today. Hopefully we'll hear back by the end of the week.

Adoption Update

So, the last thing I told you was that our profile was being shown to a birth mother in Louisiana. We have been waiting for almost 2 & 1/2 weeks since we told them to show our profile. We found out that this birth mom wanted the agency to pick their best family for her. So our profile was the only one sent to her. They told us if the birth mom wants the agency to pick, they usually end up with that family because they are trusting the agency. So we started thinking, this must be the one. Well, I got a call today from the social worker telling me that she can't get a hold of this birth mom. She's left her lots of messages and haven't heard from her. We knew that it would be hard to get a hold of her because she's in Rehab. But I guess they feel like we've waited long enough. So, she told us they have a few more cases they are working on, so they'll get in contact with us if one of them matches up with what we are looking for.

I don't know how people do this, I'm trying to just not think about any of it, so that I don't get attached prematurely. But, as a family we pray constantly about finding our little brother and son, so it's hard to not think about it when you are praying kind of people, I guess.

Kamryn and Macy - Soccer

Kamryn played on a rec soccer team and a competition soccer team (I know, I'm crazy, Kinsie's competition team needed a couple extra players, so we signed her up after she was already doing Rec). Her rec team was great, and she played awesome, I'll have to brag and say that she was one of their top 2 or 3 players. Her team won the championship in a really tight game, it was such fun.
Go, Kamryn, go!

The trophy was huge! She was thrilled!
She's on the bottom row, 2nd from the left.

Macy was awesome in soccer this year! She scored in almost every game (I'm trying to remember if it was every game). She has awesome legs and I didn't realize how fast she was until this year. Maybe she has some of those Beckstead running genes. It was also fun to watch her kick with both feet, she's pretty capable with either one.
Macy & her friend, Whitney

Great action shot with hair flying!

Fighting the goalie, beat her to the ball, Macy!
Leading the pack.
Brigham loves cheering for his sisters!

Lucky Me???

So Ty killed an elk a couple of years ago. I still have much of the meat in my freezer, I have a really hard time throwing it out. I think that if your going to kill an animal, it should at least be used to feed your family, right? Anywho, Ty has been waiting and waiting for this guy to finish with the taxidermy (sp?) and unfortunately for me, the guy finally finished (only took him 2 years). So here are pictures of the exciting? day when it was installed in the basement.