Flashback to February 2012

Note: Part of the purpose of this post is to remind myself, when pregnant in the future, that pregnancy does not last forever.

Last year at this time I was nine months pregnant and feeling oh-so-ready to have a baby. I was waking up every few hours at night to pee, sleeping uncomfortably with a pillow propped beneath both back and belly, and having Braxton Hicks contractions weekly. Not to mention the swollen feet and ankles I was getting from my twelve hour night-shifts in the ER.

And did I mention the envy I had for any woman who had recently given birth? Major jealousy...

But I wasn't the only one expecting. The ER was full of pregnant women. I was the furthest along, then the others followed close behind. A year ago this month we had a baby shower to celebrate.

And today, a year later, we met at another baby shower. Except this time we weren't the pregnant ones. Hallelujah.

 (LtoR) Athena & Nayeli, Kattie & Zara, Heather & Easton, Nesha & Finn)

Although we were missing two others, we grabbed a snapshot of us and our babies. We all did it! We survived the nine months of pregnancy and had adorable children.

So was it worth every middle-of-the-night trip to the bathroom? You'd better believe it. And I'm sure the other girls would agree.

Our Love Story

In honor of Valentine's Day, I've decided to post about how Ben and I fell in love. This was inspired by my friend Vindie, who recently posted about her love story.

How Ben and I met, as well as the story of our first date can be found in this post from 2010. It's a toned down version since, until years later, I never actually knew how weird Ben thought I was after our first date. To put it simply, Ben never really planned on asking me out a second time.

 

Our first date. In my defense, I wanted to take pictures because on the mission, 

you take pictures of everything! But yeah, I know, it's still weird. 

Fast forward a month, sometime in November 2009. I have lost interest in Ben "whats-his-name" because he hasn't called. Ben has also lost interest in me, until one night he stumbles upon the pictures of our first date together. He thinks, "Maybe she's more normal with more adjustment time after her mission." So he calls to ask me to a play on Friday. As fate would have it, I have to work on Friday. Another near ending.

I think this is the point that our future children began to intervene. They were in heaven shouting things like, "C'mon Dad, she's not that weird!" or "Try to get work off on Friday Mom!" Needless to say, we needed some divine intervention.

And it was nothing short of divine intervention when Ben contacted me again about a week later. I received a text asking if I wanted to come eat crepes at his house on Sunday night. I was a little put off that he asked me out in a text, but since I wasn't planning on doing anything else that night, I decided to go. It turned out great. For the first time we actually hit it off. And he said that the thing that caught his eye the most was that I stayed late to help do the dishes.

But how could such a simple circumstance be called divine intervention? After we were married I kept calling the crepe night "our second date" until finally Ben confessed that it wasn't meant to be a date at all. He told me he had texted 10-15 people to come eat crepes that night and I was the only one who was able to come. He had even invited other girls! From the moment I got the text, I thought it was an exclusive invitation. If I had walked into the room to find other girls there, Ben would have been on my "do not call" list forever and for always.

So however it was that our kids blocked those texts / helped those people find other plans, I have them and heaven to thank. Because after that date, our relationship picked up speed.

 

Bowling at BYU. The first night Ben held my hand.

 At a UVU basketball game, the night of our first kiss.

 In fact, when I say our relationship picked up speed I'm not exaggerating. Roughly two months later, we were engaged and five months later we were married. I knew I wanted to marry Ben long before he had his confirmation. And since I knew, I took action. Before Ben had even proposed, I had:

• Said "I love you" to him before he said it to me
• Told him that he could propose and I would say "Yes" (I was never good at playing games)
• Picked out and purchased my wedding dress
• Found a wedding ring
• Called the temple to schedule our wedding day. I figured, "Hey, if we break up, I'll just cancel it!" In my defense, we had roughly discussed dates and I didn't want the good times of day to be taken. However, I don't know if that excuse will save me on the Judgement Day when they question as to why I lied to the temple worker on the phone. When she asked "Does the groom know about this date?" I nearly died. She really asked that! Maybe because she could hear the lies about everything else in my voice- a false phone number, my parent's address as his; I even gave them the wrong middle name because I didn't know his yet! So when Ben's temple letter arrived at my parent's house, his middle name was spelled wrong (it's Arden... I told them Arwen. Pretty close guess though, right?). Don't worry, I later fessed up and now we have a very honest, open relationship (wink, wink). And yes, we still have that envelope and letter.

The night Ben proposed to me. He proposed at the MTC in the room we met in.

Now we're going on nearly three years and I can't get enough of him. He's wonderful. We never would have been matched up on eHarmony or any other dating website because we have so little in common. Yet, we're perfect for each other because we have everything that's important in common. Besides, it's our differences that make us interesting to each other and keep our marriage entertaining.

Ben, I love you more than I could ever show you. Thanks for giving the weird returned missionary another chance. I'll make you glad that you did for the rest of eternity.

The Greatest Vacation of 2012 (Part 2) - Naples, Florida

On Tuesday we took an early morning flight out of New Orleans, through Nashville, into Ft. Lauderdale. 

Nayeli was a champ on all the flights. Luckily, this time we had an empty seat next to us.

After renting a car, we drove an hour and a half across the peninsula of Florida to Naples. Surprisingly, we were welcomed by a torrential rain storm. Literally, water pouring from the sky. We were hoping for sunny, warm skies but I found myself drenched after running around Emily's townhouse to find her hide-a-key. Emily and Darren would have been there to greet us, but they were in Utah until the next day for Darren's sister's wedding. So we had an evening to show ourselves around.

We took a sunset cruise that takes you past all the million dollar homes in the area. It was amazing. I'm going to model my mansion in heaven after a few of the homes I saw (that is if I keep working to deserve it, of course).

 On the cruise. There was a Brazilian couple that were obsessed with Nayeli. They kept taking pictures of her, so I finally offered to let the woman hold her. She was so excited and ended up holding Nayeli for part of the cruise. It gave Ben and I some "us" time, so I didn't mind.

Cloudy Naples cruise, but we weren't complaining. It was beautiful.

The next day we drove to the Everglades. Luckily, we happened upon the greatest tourist attraction ever- Wooton's Tourist Center - and had a blast. We got to visit the mini-zoo and alligator farm, go on an air-boat ride, and drive through the swamp in a swamp buggy.

 My other favorite picture ever. Aren't they so cute together? 

I have this picture framed by my bed I love it so much.

Ben and Nayeli standing in front of 50 alligators. Nayeli is not taking her eyes from them.

Yes, they were the most terrifying thing I've ever seen. Especially when they threw chicken to them and they jumped for the food. The video clip below will give you an idea of what it was like.

After the alligator show we got to hold baby alligators. Here is Ben holding the smaller one.

Me holding the small one... and super nervous.

Don't ask me why, but I have always wanted to hold an alligator. So after I finished with the mini one, they handed me the big one. Are you kidding me? He was practically my size! I had to shove my elbows into my ribs to sustain the weight. But then I got this sweet picture. 

Another item on my bucket list checked off.

 

Air-boat ride!

 

I plugged Nayeli's ears and she took a little nap. I guess she liked the hum of the motor. 

Crusin' through the Everglades.

After the ride. It was so much fun.

 

And last but not least they took us on an awesome tour of the swamp in this swamp buggy- a glorified tractor. We saw alligators down by the tires as well as racoons in the trees. 

I felt like it was such an adventure- the whole thing. So much fun.

That night Darren and Emily flew back into Florida. We ate Chinese take-out and chatted while watching the Presidential debates. I love Emily and Darren. They have always been so kind to me and this trip was no exception.

The next morning Emily got the kids off to school and then all the adults plus babies drove three hours to Key Largo. Ben and Darren were going to scuba dive together and Emily and I were going to hang out, but the scuba visibility was really bad so we all ended up hanging out together.

We had lunch at Sundowners, a fun restaurant right on the water in Key Largo. After, we fed the tarpon and seagulls. We threw the food high in the air and the fish and birds battled. 

It was great to watch.

 Ben with the tarpons

Then after lunch we decided to go scuba diving at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.

Darren and Emily at the entrance

 

The guys watched the babies while Emily and I snorkeled together. We had a lot of fun, except that our husbands made fun of us because we held hands as we swam over a deep, dark trench. It was deep and dark and scary! Of course I was going to hold Emily's hand!

I love my sister Emily.

Wearing daddy's hat in Key Largo

The next day (Friday) Emily and I went shopping while Darren and Ben went back down to Key Largo to go scuba diving. Naples is retirement area with a lot of wealthy people. Everywhere you looks there's a Bentley, Rolls Royce, Mercedes, etc. Anyway, she took me to this upscale mall and we went to lunch. It was so fun to spend time together and everywhere we went people admired our babies. They asked if Nayeli and Gabe were twins. Speaking of the babies... that night they had bonding time.

They were the best of friends...

and worst of enemies :) But they had a great time together.

Our last full day in Naples we hit the beach... Barefoot Beach to be exact.

Ben tried out the paddleboard, although the waves were a little intense.

Yes, I let my child eat sand sometimes.

 

However Ben lets her eat seashells :)

We left the beach just before a huge rainstorm hit. And so, Florida welcomed us with rain and bid us farewell with rain. However we have no complaints. Florida was paradise and even if it is raining in paradise, it is still beautiful.

The Greatest Vacation of 2012 (Part 1) - New Orleans

I've been procrastinating blogging about this... mostly because I hate waiting for pictures to upload on my blog and there are a lot of pictures to upload with this post. That being said, I hope you enjoy the photo smorgasbord that was our back to back trips to Louisiana and Florida last September.

When Ben & I married, we had a goal to visit each others missions before we had kids. About a month after the honeymoon we took an trip to Belize (although I was called to the El Salvador West mission I spent only 3 months there- I was in Belize the remaining 14 months of my mission) and it was amazing. I loved introducing him to the people, showing him the places I served, and also visiting the islands I couldn't visit as a missionary. It was a fantastic experience.

On Caye Caulker, a gorgeous island off the coast of Belize

Ben served in the Louisiana Baton Rouge mission (Spanish speaking). We kept meaning to get down there but with school, work, living in DC, a miscarriage, a second pregnancy, then having our sweet Nayeli, we never could squeeze it in. Finally when Nayeli turned 3 months I knew it was a now or never sort of thing and so I began looking at ticket prices.

Meanwhile another trip was calling my name. My sister Emily lives in Naples, Florida and kept telling me we should come visit. Before I knew it, I'd booked six flights. Two that would take us to New Orleans for a week, two to Ft. Lauderdale, and two to bring us home to Utah after a four day stay in Florida.

NEW ORLEANS and BATON ROUGE

 Flight #1 or 2. To save space, we had her sit on the tray table. 

It was the perfect solution to our space dilemma.

 Daddy and baby

We ended up staying in the home of the former Bishop of the New Orleans Spanish ward- Bishop Garcia. It was the perfect place to stay and we couldn't have had a better hotel.

 Our first night we went to dinner with the Vasquez family. They were great.

 Loved spending time with them.

 A beautiful home in the French Quarter

 The best place in the French Quarter to eat beignets aka french doughnuts aka glorified scones

 See my post about citizen photographers here. I asked a man near us to take a picture of us 

and our breakfast and this is what we got. Really? We're eating world-famous New Orleans

 beignets in the French Quarter and you take a picture of just us?

 So the woman with him decided to try. Good thing she got our sleeping baby in the shot too. Besides the fact that she looks like she's dead under a shroud, I guess it could have been a worse photo.

 

So I took matters into my own hands. Not an amazing shot, but at least you can see the beignets. 

Oh and fresh squeezed orange juice. Yum.

 Jackson's Square in the French Quarter

Ben as a missionary in the same spot a few years earlier

Fun New Orleans houses

One day Ben went to film with another YouTuber for work so I had time to entertain myself. I drove an hour or so to New Iberia, LA to see a sugar plantation called the Shadows on the Teche. It was cool, but not anything I would go out of my way to see again. Especially with a six-month-old screaming in the backseat with no way to console her. Needless to say, it ended up being a really long drive.

 Partial, lame shot of the house

 Amazing tree moss

 32" roast beef Po-boys baby! And yes, that is a piece of delicious Po-boy on my face.

And on Nayeli's face. We really really enjoyed them (I ate my whole 16").

Speaking of food, Louisiana has a lot to offer besides the 32" Po-boys. While there, I got to taste Voodoo Barbeque (on St. Charles Street- of Monopoly fame), Popeye's, Raising Cane's, and Sister Garcia made us some delicious Gumbo for Sunday dinner.

 

 With Amanda, one of Ben's favorite members.

Laura and Nayeli. She made us delicious pupusas.

 All of us together

 Ermalinda. Such a wonderful woman. They found her knocking doors, 

and she was baptized a year later.

Brother Laborde in Baton Rouge. He was the ward mission leader and made us spaghetti.

 

 

The Baton Rouge temple

 We didn't get to do a session because we had Nayeli, but it was fun to see it.

 Adreana and family. She is Garifuna, like the people in Ben's documentary.

 We went on a walk on a boardwalk in the bayou. It was so pretty and we even saw a baby alligator!

 The bayou.

  One of my favorite pictures ever.

 The Vasquez family. They looooooved Nayeli.

 A New Orleans above ground cemetary. And yes, I'm only wearing one earring in this picture. 

I lost the other one somewhere in the French Quarter. Tear... 

All the graves are above ground because the water table is so high.

 The fleur de lis can be found everywhere and on everything

 Jose & Saida, as well as Luis Chicas. Luis is from the same city in El Salvador that I lived in. 

We ate pupusas with them too (a typical dish from El Salvador).

 The last night there we ate at the Bustillo's home. He is the bishop of the ward now. 

They made us a delicious food from Honduras called baleadas.

It was such a great time to get to see the places Ben served as well as meet the people that were so dear to him. New Orleans is an interesting city- it is clear that certain areas have not, or will never recover from Hurricane Katrina. However, for the most part the city has begun to rise again and I saw a class and charm there that I'd never seen before. The Big Easy was a treat and I'm so glad I got to see it.