2019 in Review

I haven't done a year in review in a while, but since I have been terrible at blogging this year....
I like to take the new year to reflect on the year. And 2019 was a DOOZY.

We had some really hard times this year.
At the beginning of the year, I wasn't sure if I could run more than a mile ever again. I was going to physical therapy every week and felt like it would never end.
In January, I was called by my doctor and told that my bloodwork came back positive for an autoimmune disease. It looked like lupus. Now, if you don't know, when I was pregnant with Cora I was mistakenly diagnosed with Hep B before they realized it was a lab error. So, thinking there was no way I would be misdiagnosed again. For 2 months I struggled with this while waiting for meetings with specialists, only to find out it WAS a false positive. So, there you go. If I ever have cancer I won't believe it.

In February the kids and I were the sickest we have ever been (simultaneously). James was on his way to getting his ear tubes, and I didn't realize Cora could still get ear infections until she started bleeding out of her ears. Thank goodness for Brandon who didn't panic when he saw it. Meanwhile I had a sinus infection and some virus.

In March James got his ear tubes. He had had 4 back to back ear infections. It was so sad to let him go with Brandon, and apparently he cried for me the whole time he was recovering. But by the time they got home he was ready to run around in the backyard (even though we're supposed to have them rest the rest of the day), so he was fine.

(Before and after, more or less)
In April we had possibly the worst Easter ever. Brandon is too modest to admit this, but he saved his dad's life. He told him to go to the hospital and turns out Steve needed emergency heart surgery. Not a good birthday weekend for Brandon since he nearly lost his dad.

In August, we found out that Cora's ear tubes falling out (in May) meant that her ears filled back up with fluid and her hearing was compromised again. I was gutted. I was SURE that we had left this behind us! They called us and scheduled it for August 20 (definitely not a coincidence).

In August, Brandon's car was backed into while he was in a meeting for Elder's Quorum. In September, we were hit hard while driving home from Taylor and Emily's wedding. We weren't sure if the van was totaled. Someone ran the stop sign and hit us, and took away our feelings of safety when approaching any 4 way stop.
In September and October, we had a bout of sickness that NEVER seemed to end. First Brandon got it, then I did, and back and forth. I had pharyngitis, bronchitis, and pink eye. I actually coughed so hard I burst a blood vessel in my eyeball. Turns out that can happen.

(Gross picture ahead) 

On top of all these things, I have struggled a LOT with my anxiety. In the beginning of the year, I was waking Brandon up 4-5 times  NIGHT because I was convinced that someone was breaking into our house. It comes and goes in waves, but that was the worst of it.
It is easy to see how looking at all of those things would make me want to crawl into a hole and not come out... but thank goodness that wasn't our whole year!
We started out the year on an AMAZING note, moving into our first home on January 1. The kids have absolutely LOVED having a backyard, and I tell Brandon at least once a week that I never want to go back to an apartment or condo.

My injury from the end of 2018 has healed, and I can run, jump on the trampoline, squat, and do everything I couldn't before.

(My first post physical therapy 5k)

We are all healthy now! Minus coughs and colds. No pink eye or lupus to be found.
This year we got to see TWO things that we have been waiting for years to see. We got to see Muse in March, and HAMILTON in November. Both are also things that have gotten Brandon out of the hole. (Just kidding, except for Muse. He's owed me since 2013 for that one.)

We had friends come visit in May! We are ALWAYS down for people to come visit, so do it!

This summer was really one for the books. In May we got to pick blueberries a LOT. U Pick blueberries is my new favorite thing to do, so come visit us around Memorial Day!

 We got to swim. A LOT.

Cora (and James) took swimming lessons, and Cora overcame her fear of the water and now can swim without a floatie.

 Obviously the highlight of the summer was my parents coming home from their mission. We're grateful for their example, and even more grateful that we don't need to renew our passports to go see them anymore. We have seen them four times since they came home! Just for fun!

We got to spend time with a lot of family in July.

We even got to see a new national park! We took a slight detour to see Kolob Canyon in Zion National Park.

We went to the beach with my family to celebrate being together for the first time in 3 years.

(As a not unimportant side note, Steve recovered from his heart surgery and is doing amazingly! For which we are very grateful)

We got to celebrate 8 years of marriage.

Brandon's brother Taylor got married, so I got another Giullian girl in the family!

Our cars WERE eventually fixed. Even though it took the van a week longer than expected, and the rental situation was not ideal.

Cora started a new dance class and LOVES it. It has been so fun for her to learn to follow directions and overcome her shyness.

Brandon and I got to go on our first trip away without the kids ever.

 As a personal victory, I think that regular exercise and cutting down on screen time has helped me with my mental health. It also helped me accomplish a New Year's resolution of FINALLY losing the baby weight from James.

 I also got to start working a few times a month as a substitute teacher. It has (generally) been a good experience, and it is helpful to my mental health. Turns out I miss the kids after I work all day.

And I got to end the year seeing Gabrielle after nearly 7 years!

Really, it depends on what we focused on for this year. For me, I'm going to focus on the positives. We are not starting the new year exactly how I thought we would, but we are healthy, safe, happy, and together. 2020 is our year!

Roadtrip with the Richards family.

We were SO happy to have some of our friends from Miami come visit us! Jaran did summer sales in Visalia, so they are somewhat familiar with it. It was so fun to plan our roadtrip and show them a lot of the sights of our new home.

We started in San Francisco, because Jaran and Aubry's flight landed there. Since Cora begged to go on the carousel at Disneyland and we never got to do it, we made a beeline for the Pier 39 carousel! After stopping for lunch at a gourmet macaroni and cheese restaurant.

Obviously James got a dragon, and Cora took a while to pick her ride before settling on a rabbit.

  

  

    

 We then took the kids over to see the seals at the pier.

We also got to see the Musee Mecanique, which is a museum that has early 20th century arcade games. Some of those games were horrific. There was one that had a man being hung, and at the last second he dropped from the gallows. This is what people paid for way back when?? There was also an opium den, more executions, etc. But it was also pretty entertaining.

The biggest problem with San Francisco is the TRAFFIC. It took us 4 hours to do the hour drive home. We were going to do the Oakland temple open house the next morning, but decided that the traffic did not sound fun again. So we decided to instead go straight to Yosemite.

 We have never taken the road through Sonora to get to Yosemite, and it was very interesting! It took us through old historic mining towns. One was called "Chinese Camp", and had a bar that had been open since 1849. (I'm pretty sure it has been a lot of different types of buildings since, but still.)

The drive into Yosemite wasn't quite as spectacular as when we came from Fresno last year, because you just can't beat that view of El Capitan and Half Dome.

Also, it was COLD! We stopped at the closest gas station ($5 a gallon in the park, ugh) and it was in the 30's! So we were all underdressed.

  

 The bad news was it was foggy and rainy for our entire day there. We kept quoting Frodo from Lord of the Rings when he said "We've been here before!" Because we just kept circling around Yosemite Valley waiting for the clouds to dissipate.

 We almost got out of the car to picnic for lunch, but it started pouring. So instead we stayed in the car and let the kids go nuts.

 We got out at the visitor's center because Cora needed to go to the bathroom. It is SO fun to watch the kids running around!

 After a while Cora was not interested in being in the cold and rain.

We tried to hike up to Bridal Veil falls, but not only was the sidewalk flooded (trust me, trying to jump over calf deep water while carrying Cora was HARD) but with the rain the waterfall was so intense that we couldn't get close because it was whipping us in the face.

 But we got the cutest picture of our tiny John Muir hiking! He has his little leashed backpack on because otherwise he will run away and off into the waterfall.

After a while we decided to just go to our Airbnb in Bass Lake. It was a good way to unwind, playing games and letting the kids sleep.

We also go to hit up the zoo! Always a must when we have visitors.

Two different reactions to snakes.

 James and his animal twin.

 Tiny angel.

 All the kids were wary of the other dad, but India eventually warmed up to Brandon. 

 Our final stop was Kings Canyon. Another must when we have someone come from out of town!

 

  Playing hide and seek. 

This is why I'm always sweating when out in public with James... he doesn't make it easy for me!

Playing in the stream (with James on a short leash again).  

 

 There was also a lot of games, playing with the kids, running around, and we laughed our heads off.

We LOVE having people come visit! Come back soon Richards family!