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!

Bryce Canyon National Park.

Since I didn't get to run my marathon, I told Brandon my big stipulation for the trip was that we NEEDED to make a stop at a national park to cross it off our list. Utah has 5, and the two closest are Zion and Bryce Canyon. I looked it up, and last October 2 million people went to Zion and 200,000 went to Bryce Canyon. So, we didn't extend our stay at the hotel in St. George and found a yurt on Airbnb in Panguitch about 20 minutes away from Bryce Canyon. 

I looked up the weather, and it looked pretty chilly. It said high of 50's and low of 20's so we packed all the warm clothes that we have for the kids. When we drove through Panguitch it reminded me a lot of the small towns in Idaho we had for 6 years. Then we turned onto Scenic Route 12 and WOW.

Notice the weather. It was 70 in St. George, and it got steadily colder as we went on. Then, the raindrops got fluffier and fluffier. IT WAS SNOWING. Brandon and I looked at each other, we hadn't expected this! The kids had warm sweaters but nothing water repellent.

Cora was FREAKING OUT. She is obsessed with Frozen, and wanted to see snow for a long time. The only other time she's been in snow was when we went to Reno, over a year and a half ago. So we taught her to catch a snowflake on her tongue.

This is one of my new favorite pictures of her.
The visitor's center has some nice things for the kids to play with. We haven't seen too many visitor's center like these!

I was worried that the fog and snow meant we wouldn't be able to see the big amphitheater of hoodoos. That was the thing I wanted to see! So we went to Sunset Point, where the hoodoo named Thor's Hammer is located. I jumped out of the car to see the view, and it took my breath away.

Amazing!

 I am obsessed with this new family picture. It's definitely going on our Christmas card, and I think I'm going to put it on a giant canvas on our wall.

Some selfies with our kids.

 (James was saying "dees" and pointing at the canyon)

The problem with Bryce Canyon (not surprisingly) is that the path doesn't always have good railings and it is very. high. up. So we didn't walk too far, because Cora just wanted to throw snowballs!

When I threw a snowball at Brandon, it just bounced off his stomach and hit the ground. It was too wet to be a proper snowball. But James really laughed at it!
Some of our other views:
Natural Bridge

Inspiration Point

 Look at that cutie James in the backpack! He was actually shivering, but his face was so cute I had to take a picture (before we rushed him back to the car to warm up)

It is A.MAZE.ING.

The only problem with Bryce Canyon is that we didn't have service and couldn't listen to the afternoon session of General Conference. Every time I saw any service I tried to stream it (thanks Giullians for Brandon's unlimited data plan!), but it never stayed for long. We were racing back to the lodge to try and listen to the end when they announced all TWELVE temples! I MISSED IT! And that's my favorite part of the announcements in conference! And especially for Puerto Rico to get a new temple. I got a little teary eyed thinking of Bethany listening to it and being able to hear that her beloved mission was getting a temple. She's been through SO much! (As a side note, she MAY have been excited...)

And another temple in California! This one will be way further north. But as of right now we have been to all the temples in California, so this will be another one to visit.

So anyway, we're going to listen to what we missed in conference this week.

Our yurt was an experience. It was RIGHT off the 89 freeway, which is the freeway that took us to the park.

 I don't think I'll do camping any other way with little kids. Tent camping seems too stressful... but we had a wood burning stove for the heat source and James was only interested in touching that stove and climbing inside. So THAT was a disaster! We tried to keep him in the portacrib for as long as possible, but he freaked out after a while.

The biggest problem was that it rained all night and all day, so we didn't get to make a bonfire outside to roast marshmallows. But the stove kept the yurt warm. We kept James in the portacrib in between the stove and the table, far enough away from each that he couldn't touch them but close enough to feel the warmth. Since it is pitch black he wouldn't be able to see it anyway.
Cora didn't want to stay in her sleeping bag, even though it was a cute fox themed one that had sleeves. So after a few hours she ended up in between our sleeping bags so we could keep her covered with blankets.

That night I was startled to hear car doors slam shut and footsteps around the back of our yurt. Now, as I have a "little bit" of a Boy who Cried Wolf complex with hearing things at night. For whatever reason, now that I have kids I jump at any noise I hear at night. So I waited to make sure I heard was real and not just my imagination. So after about 10 minutes of listening I woke Brandon up. I mean, how many scary movies start with someone camping in the middle of nowhere?? I told Brandon to grab the wood cutting axe and head out there haha. I mean what if it was a bear, and I had just heard the car doors shut once? AHHH. He looked outside, and said it was 2 cars of people going to the yurt next to ours. I guess they just got out there late. AND it is hard to find the gate in the light, so I imagine how hard it is at night. After that I could relax and fall asleep!
At 6 AM both kids woke up, and we figured since we couldn't cook eggs over the fire we'd might as well pack up and go. So since we were out the door by 8, we made it home by 8 PM. That was with 3 stops in St. George for lunch, Las Vegas for Great Harvest, and Tehachapi for dinner. It was a fun trip, and we were glad we did it. But after 4 nights of sharing a room with the kids and having literally NO time away from them, we were ready to get back. Next "camping" trip we are getting something with at least two rooms so we can relax without having to watch a show on our phone under the blankets with headphones.