Christmas 2012

Christmas was spent working for both Ashley and I. Ashley's family came down for Christmas and spent it at Jace and Lindsey's house. We spent our free time with them while we were not working.

Red Tree for Lindsey

Expedition St. George Relay

In December, Jace invited me to join him and Michael on a relay race in St. George. It turned out to be lots of fun. It is a great one because you only run twice and it is only one day long. Not as time consuming or intense as Epic or Wasatch back and it gives you an excuse to go to St. George in December. It will be so much better when my parents live in Virgin Ut. 

Thanksgiving 2012

We told all of our friends and Ashley's family by Halloween but my side of the family still did not know until we saw them on Thanksgiving. We went down to Pahrump for Thanksgiving at my sister's house. As usual the weather was great, it was great to see Hailey, Georgia and Weston. My parents had arrived about a week before us. They had recently sold their house, put all their life in storage, packed their trailer to the brim and headed on the their great new adventure. They had just received the news that they were going to Nauvoo to serve an LDS mission for 18 months. They later found out that they would be in charge of the grounds and would be grounds keepers during the day and actors by night. We are both very excited for them and to visit their new home. We had lots of fun in Pahrump exploring ghost towns and Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas.

Random Fall Fun

Fall is usually spent Mt. Biking everyday. It is the best time to mountain bike, it cools off, the colors start to pop, in theory you should be in good shape, and it is the last moment to get some good biking before the first good snow fall. That was our plan but the baby decided to change that. The fall was long and amazing but Ashley spent most of it on the coach or over the toilet. I did not go biking as much as I wished but I did find lots of time to go trail running.

We also went to one BYU football game, I took my first family photos, and Halloween was a hit.

 Bebe a Bordo

32 Weeks and Counting

Ashley and I found out we were pregnant on September 11th 2012. For about a week Ashley had been not feeling great, not bad, just not great, and it was a sick feeling that she had never had before. So we pulled out a stash of pregnancy tests.....and life was going to change fast. Those changes unbeknownst to us were coming faster than we planned. Ashley got sick, really sick up until the 18th or 20th week when she started to feel better. Luckily, not so sick that any medical intervention was needed but miserable is the only word to describe those weeks. We did find time to still have fun.

That same day was the last day that Josh and Becca were going to be in town before LA. We decided to hit up Boondocks for there all inclusive Tuesday pass. We had a blast and did everything but laser tag because we spent most of our time racing on the slick track. Josh and I ended the day with a harsh warning to stop bumping. Rebels.

We had so much fun that we went back later that afternoon with Jace, Lindsey, and Gavin.

Go-carting was the main activity but sadly Ashley sat out because suddenly even go-carting made her sick which turned into a problem on any windy road.

The following months after this have been unposted for one reason or another except of course for Mexico but I will be filling you in on the posts to come.

Mexico

We chose the best time ever to go to Mexico. We left a terrible inversion and while we were gone it snowed 2 feet in some places in Salt Lake. Not sad to have missed that. Meanwhile, we were in Cabo San Lucas taking in the sun. We did nothing but eat, swim in the pool, relax on the beach, and snorkel.
The first five days we stayed with my dad and Pam at their place at Monte Cristo.  There is nothing quite as great as a warm infinity pool and hot tub right out your backdoor that overlooks the ocean and the incredible sunsets. We had so much fun playing games each night too.  Thanks for inviting us down  dad and Pam.

The cutest babies ever.  I especially love Madison's stumpy arm.

I feel like this photo pretty much sums up the trip. Relaxation.

The best snorkeling beach we found was at Chileno Bay.  It was quite lovely.

After our blissful days at Monte Cristo we moved onto Puerto del Sol for the remainder of our trip. Turns out this was a great idea because it made it seem like we had two different trips. Poor dad and Pam had to go home to work and be cold.  We stayed another four days there with just us kids.  At this place we were around the Baja peninsula enough to get amazing sunrises, had another great pool that we only had to walk down the stairs to and only had to share once, and we had amazing whale watching from our balcony every morning.  

Struggled a bit with the timed jumping photos. The best we got. If only Becca was around to animate some of the attempts though.

Gavin was obsessed with the water. He loved the surf and the pool so much that he would cry almost every time we made he leave the water.

Lee dug this awesome deep hole. Lindsey, you're a good big sister. If you were there, you know why.

One of our final adventures for the trip was some tide pool exploring which turned into lobster hunting.  We found a group of 5 lobsters hiding out in a pool. The pool was covered with sea urchins but that didn't stop us.  Most of the credit has to go to Jimmi because he was the one who actually donned his wet suit, gloves, and booties and got in the tide pool. However, he is quick to give his entire team credit for chasing down the lobsters that got away, navigating him through the sea urchins, video recording, taking pictures, and researching ways to get sea urchin spikes out of your skin. It was a pretty fun and funny process. The lobsters were huge and spiky and they hiss at you when they're mad and they flap their tails with great force.  In the end we enjoyed two nights of fresh lobster fixed different ways and a lot of it.

I think this was the first trip I've ever taken in my life where all I did was relax and then relax some more. I love our epic adventures too and maybe more, but I could be easily talked into another relaxing beach trip without much effort.