Vegas/Spring Break April 2010

I know I'm back peddling a little with my posts but as I find more pictures of the activities we've done, I post what I find. haha So bear with me please!

Last spring break Jayson was really antsy to take a mini vacae. So we packed up the car and headed to Vegas! 

On the road!!



What a trooper!! First road trip and he slept most of the way there!!



Luckily for us I have two sets of amazing aunts and uncles who there, so we had family to stay with. =-) We stayed the first two nights with my aunt Melissa, uncle Paul and my cousin Amanda. My aunt had the room all set up ready for Bentley and it was so nice to have that ready. I need to mention this now, but my aunt and uncle are AMAZING cooks and I LOOOOVE when they cook for us. haha Unfortunately my uncle Paul was out of town and we definitiely missed his company, but it was so nice spending time with my aunt Melissa. My cousin Amanda had her Prom that weekend so it was fun getting to see her get ready that week for it. Unfortunately I didn't get ONE stinkin picture with the Martinez family and I'm SOO upset at myself! Ugh!

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 We then set up a time to go and visit my aunt Jill, uncle Steve, and my two little cousins Spencer and Morgan. Let me just say, my cousin Spencer absolutely LOOOOVES Jayson! He could sit with Jayson all day and have him read book after book and play multiple Wii games with him. haha

Morgan wanted to share her milk with Jayson =-)

 It was so funny seeing them together.I myself enjoyed Morgan's company, and Bentley spent time with his Aunt Jill. It was so great seeing him get to be with family that he doesn't get to see often. It was great spending so much time with family on this trip, we just loved every second of it!

Bentley enjoying himself hanging out!



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The next day the three of us headed to The Strip. Interesting experience for us mostly because this was our first actual vacation with Bentley and we wanted to make sure we were ready for anything. There are so many things to worry about! And of course I wore flip flops......that didn't help things. Haha Needless to say we really enjoyed ourselves and Bentley did FABULOUS!

I'm not 100% sure but I think these were the amazing gardens at the Bellagio....but again....dont' quote me on that.

Ugh. Please ignore the post-pregnancy weight!!

the Coca-Cola factory! What a fun store!

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The next day we hooked up with Jayson's family and we visited Hoover Dam. I've been to Vegas mulitple times but I've NEVER seen Hoover Dam! So this was a really neat experience for me. When we were there they were still doing construction on the new bridge that crosses the dam, which would eventually save ALOT of travel time for people. Pretty neat! They were nearly completed with it when we were there. 

The picture does not do it justice but this thing was HUUUUGE

Rubbing the feet was good luck

Bentley with Aunt Kira!!

Amazing that they can build something like that!

Ahh precious....haha

 Phew, so that's the end of the Vegas trip. It was really nice just getting away and enjoying the time together.

Jackson Hole 2010

Here it was. That time every year we look forward to....JACKSON! Of course this year was a little different. I was anxious and a little nervous having Bentley with us this year. Mostly I was worried about him napping and sleeping at night. But of course he did amazing! haha And Jayson's family came with us so it was really nice having LOTS of helping hands. We even had some of my brother's friends come along and they helped with him also, so it was really nice. Bentley slept GREAT and even took naps throughout the day. The Bar J was great as always, and we even went and visited the hot springs. The trip was nice and relaxing and the rafting was great. It's always a nice get away and a great time with friends and family. =-)

Alexander Family

My boss Crystal and her husband Shonn

Bentley LOVED his BBQ Ribs haha

That grill was really hot

Can you tell they're related??? HAHA

Crossing the river for the hot springs. That water is FREEEEEEZING!!

Bentley with Uncle Jeff

FAT FACE

We actually had a lot of rain that trip....



June Wedding!

My sweet cousin Chelsea married her sweet husband in June. They were married in the Logan temple and it was a beautiful day for a wedding! Chelsea looked stunning and Clay was so handsome. Unfortunately.......I can't find my pictures at the temple but I do have the pictures of the time we took before hand to stop by the dam and feed the ducks. Bentley was so fascinated with them, and these pictures are so funny of him because he has fat face. haha And it was really windy.

Knee Surgery-June 2010

Well after many, many, MANY months of knee pain, I finally had it checked out. Turned out that I had some scar tissue in my left knee. I didn't start experiencing the pain until after I had Bentley, so I held out until summer so I wouldn't have to miss work to get the surgery. The surgery went well and I had two sepereate pieces of scar tissue removed. The recovery was......weird to put it simply. I was able to walk on my leg but it just felt...invaded! haha You could definitely tell that something had been in my knee. The pain was manageable but it made me feel really funny. My mother-in-law watched Bentley all morning for us, then I had Jayson go to work and my mom and sister came to stay with us. My friend Jana saved me by lending me her knee/ice pack machine. AMAZING! It really helped. The next day was a little more difficult, but I felt like I would be ok. Jayson stayed home with us that but we needed groceries that day. So of course, the ONE hour that he's gone, I hear Bentley wake up from his nap and go in to grab him. He had a HUGE blowout in his crib and it was EVERYWHERE! Ahhh!! So I started up the bath and I did what I could to give him a bath. I was so out of it from sleeping and from the pills that I actually tried to KNEEL down and give Bentley a bath. *sigh* I will never learn.....After I bathed him, I couldn't get back up. haha So I pulled Bentley out, wrapped him in a towel, and let him wander naked as I sat on our bathroom floor. Awesome. I'll tell you what, I was never more happy to have Jayson home then I did then. Phew! Anyways, the remainder of the recovery was great and I haven't had any issues with my knee since. It has been so nice to actually be able to play with Bentley on the floor without experiencing mando pain whenever I moved or had to stand up. Yay!!

 Ugh. Those stockings!! Did I mention it was JUNE when I had the surgery?! Those stockings were SOOOO stinking hot! And sleeping with them was the worst! Blah!



One Whole Year!!

Oh my heavens! Where did the time go?! I cannot believe that I've been away for so long. I do apologize for anyone who actually followed this little blog of mine :-p

Well now where to begin?! I'll just write out what I can remember I guess....haha

My last post was for the Walk For Autism. Well little did we know that more came from that walk then we expected.

My dad had been having severe headaches the week of the walk. The morning of the walk, he had a massive migrane but really didn't want to miss out on the event since it was the first one we've participated in. He battled through it and we finished the whole event. The next week at work, after continuous headaches, my dad collapsed at work. The paramedics were called, and he once again passed out. The medics thought he had a stroke, which is a really scary word for family to hear. After much time and tests spent at the University of Utah hospital, the doctors discovered my dad had a severe tear in his carotid artery.

Usually, a tear like that DOES result in a blood clot which leads to stroke. Thankfully for my dad, the tear was on the INNER lining of the artery, which caused the artery itself to buldge, but thankfully not bleed out. What the buldging did result in was my dad's left eye to go funky. The puldge put pressure on his nerve which resulted in my dad's eye going lazy. My mom looked at him one day (about 3-4 days before this incident) and realized his left eye was not tracking. Again, we thought stroke. Anyways, so they discovered the tear and immediately started medication. They put him on exstensive blood thinners and pain meds. He was in the hospital I think 2 days before they sent him home. Now usually with a tear like that, all you can really do is bring the swelling down with blood thinners, and let it heal over time. Here is where we ran into another snag.....

My dad was home almost a week before my brother Jeff noticed that he did not look well. He wasn't experiencing pain, just felt weird. Finally my brother couldn't take it anymore and called our best family friend and E.R. nurse Jana to come check on him. My dad was grey and very disoriented. Jana knew something was wrong and told my brother to call 911. The ambulence came and again trasnported him to the U of U hospital. There we found almost a scarier diognosis then the first. Since my dad had been having constant headaches the month previous, he was constantly taking asprin and other pain pills. Now for those of you who DON'T know...if you take a massive number of pain pills on a consistant basis, your stomach lining can't handle that well. My dad had developed a serious stomach ulcer. Now........lets see.......an OPEN stomach wound PLUS massive amount of blood thinners EQUALS........Yea. My dad nearly bled out internally! They think that one more day waiting, and he could have suffered severe damage or even death. They immediately took him off the thinners and did an laperscopy to look at the ulcer. With almost a week in the hospital, the ulcer healed up and he was once again, on the road to recovery.

It's been a long and tedious recovery with much adversity along the way. It's sad to see how people can be so unkind and uncaring in situations like these. Lets just say my dad's old boss......yea......a D-Bag! Anyhoo! My dad is doing well now. He occassionally had headaches which were expected, and he'll have to be on medication the rest of his life to protect himself. We are definitely thankful for all the prayers that were sent our way. It was a scary time for our family and it really brought us closer. The best medicine for my dad was of course, Bentley. He really enjoyed the time they spent together in the hospital and helping to babysit while he was home recouping. =) Love you Dad!!

karina, ink.: letter banner surprise!#links#links

Hello everyone!!
Well today I'm super excited to share my friends talent with you! Her name is Karen and she used to be my neighbor in my apartments. She has a such a talent for beautiful unique decorations so I wanted to give her Letter Banners a shout out!! They are so cute and really give a lot of personality to a room!! Please take the time to look through them and maybe you'll fall in love with one like I did. :-D


karina, ink.: letter banner surprise!#links#links