Montana Again!

Once again we took a road trip to Montana to visit my parents and little brother. We had to be about a month and a half early for Christopher's birthday, but it is the thought that counts right?


While we were there we visited the 40 foot "coal chute" slide in Anaconda, It was a blast even with the risk of friction burns! I particularly love the sheer look of joy on Robert's face as he and Mark race down the slide.


We also managed to find time to go fishing at Georgetown Lake with our family friend Garrett and his daughter. My mom and I mostly just sat in the shade and chatted, but it was good to have the opportunity to bond.


While we were at the lake, Christopher decided to try wading...I love the look on his face from deciding that it was too cold!


While we were in Montana we also got the opportunity to visit thrift shops, tour an old state prison, visit a western museum, toy museum and car museum. We also got to stop and play at Prospector's Playground which was fun because we got to try to pan for gold. We also were able to stop and see the trout hatchery...sounds boring, right? It was actually really neat, they had a visitors center with all sorts of cool displays and information.

The Fourth of July

We did all the typical 4th of July things with the barbecue and fireworks. Thanks for joining us Glanville family and Nathan!!!

Camping at Castle Rock

This past weekend we had a blast camping at Castle Rock Campground in the Freemont Indian State Park. We took the usual suspects with us, in the form of the Glanville Family, Nathan, the Morgan Family and our dog, Mazie. Our Trip was great for a lot of reasons even though we got rained out on Saturday night, only to have the sun come out as soon as we had the tents down and packed up. The top ten things were:

10. Other than two or three other campsites, we had the place to ourselves. This was really neat because we could be as loud as we wanted to be, and Mazie was able to be off leash.


9. We had Frequent visits from local wildlife. The squirrels even ran across the hot fire pit to drag out potatoes that we had roasting in the coals. We also saw lizards, snakes, rabbits, and some sort of raptor.


8. No one was bitten by this...or any of its friends.


7. Our campsite had a really cool stream and foot bridge behind it, that was perfect for skipping stones and playing. It was neat because just a few hundred yards in either direction of the stream it suddenly changed from forest to desert because Castle Rock is a riparian zone. Thanks for the vocabulary word, Nathan!


6. Another wonderful thing about our trip was the really cool mountains that surrounded our campsite. We spent a lot of time climbing them, and even more time trying to not be pulled off them by Mazie.


5. I also enjoyed all the different plants that surrounded us. Thanks to being in a Riparian zone, we were able to see wild roses and cactus right next to each other.


4. Just a few miles down the road there was a REALLY neat Freemont Indian museum. The really cool part was that the campsite admission also paid for the museum admission. The museum was doing a special festival where the kids got to make Indian flutes and thing as well. Nathan, the Morgans, Mark and I all decided to go hiking while the Glanvilles did the kid things.


3. While we were hiking at the museum, we got to see a lot of rock art from hundreds of years ago.


2. On that same Hike, we found tons of really cool rocks that had eroded away into strange shapes. Most of them were big enough to sit in, or to crawl into.


1. The landscape was amazing!!

Community Politics

Mark and I have just recently become involved in a small community project to change the zoning in our subdivision. We are attempting to change the zoning to include an "A" overlay. This would allow owner-occupied accessory apartments in our subdivision. A lot of these apartments already exist illegally, but the home can not be sold because of the lack of an A overlay. So we are hoping to gain 50% of all the homeowners signatures on the petition in order to get the city to even look at the issue. Tonight there is an informative meeting for everyone in the neighborhood at the nearby elementary school, so wish us luck!

Rattlesnakes and More

What do you get when you add 5 adults, 5 children, 1 dog, 3 rattlesnakes, 5 miles and one river? An amazing hike to Diamond Fork Canyon's Hot springs! The going was slow and children were carried, dragged and cajoled into moving, but we had a ton of fun. The Glanvilles and Nathan are great for letting us talk them into such things! We only saw three little baby rattlesnakes, but it was enough to scare us, so I am not so sure we will visit that particular trail again.
The hot springs were great, even though the near by waterfall was really loud. Jacob was the only kid almost washed down the river, so that is always a plus. Mark fished him out with no harm done other than a missing swim shoe.
We made it home with tired kids that slept in the next morning, and life was good.

Class is beginning

Monday was the beginning of my summer semester at Weber State University. After hours of phone calls because of difficulties signing into my online classes, proctor issues and the like, I am finally on my way. So far I am about a week ahead on all my classes except for my art class. My book for it has still not arrived. I am starting to get nervous because I have an assignment due by Sunday night. I am taking six classes (18 credit hours) this summer as well as working full-time so I should be kept on my toes!

Today, the tomatoes made it into the garden, so hopefully soon I will be harvesting the bright red beauties. I still have squash, zucchini, lettuce, cucumbers and radishes to plant, so it may be a busy weekend.

In honor of NIAW

In honor of National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW), I wanted to share some thoughts. These are not directed at any one person, nor are they the result of any one person. These are just simple statements that are laying my emotions and struggles bare.

Infertility is hard. It is a condition that turns hope into a minefield. With every twinge, ache and bit of bad shrimp, hope appears that maybe, maybe this time, I am pregnant. Then when the real cause of the discomfort appears, I have to attempt to dodge the shrapnel as my dreams explode again. Infertility steals my faith in God, and the general good of the universe. It creeps into my life until more and more of my time and energy has become dedicated to researching new treatments, creating budgets to be able to afford those treatments, and finding support from others like myself. Infertility has made the world a harsh, treacherous place where the simplest sight of children playing can cause actual physical pain. The sight of a baby shower invitation, birth announcement, or child's birthday party invite is enough to make me shrink inside myself to that special place in Hell reserved for the barren.
I want to be happy for others and their joys, but infertility robs me of that ability. I find myself angry that even after desperately trying to prevent pregnancy, So and So is expecting once again. I find myself crushed that So and So is on baby number six and can't care for them financially or emotionally. I find myself worthless when So and So who never wanted children is now pregnant...again.
Most of all I feel lonely. I have nothing to input into the conversations of pregnancy, childbirth and parenting. I don't belong to the "Mommy Club". I can't brag about Johny's performance in sports or Suzie's grades. Most of all, I can't bear to hear you do it about your own children. So I avoid you. I smile a little too brightly for a little too long when the invitations roll in for the birthday parties, baptisms, and award ceremonies, and then I just do not show up.
I know that you should be proud of your children, and I am glad that you are, but I just can't bear to listen to it. Reserve your praise for their ears, not mine. You wouldn't pour water out onto the ground in front of a man dying of thirst, so don't torture me with what I want most. Please.
Please, let me talk to you, let me be open and honest with you. I need someone to listen to my struggles. Listen and be thoughtful in your responses. I need to be able to go to church on Mother's day without someone pressing a flower into my hand and stating that "I'm like a Mother" or some other drivel. What am I supposed to say to that..what does that even mean? I know that you mean them to be comforting, but comments of "Just relax","Don't worry about it", "Adopt and you'll get pregnant" and so on, are not only insensitive, but they are just not true. Infertility is a medical condition. If cancer does not go away simply because you "don't worry about it" and file some paperwork, then why would infertility? Also, please don't say "that it just isn't meant to be", because if that is the case, when you get cancer, you must not need any treatment because it is meant for you to die.
With all of this, in honor of NIAW, I am hoping that all of you out there in fertile land will come to understand me better, and recognize the pain the I go through EVERY SINGLE DAY. The pain of infertility is real and all encompassing, and seeps into every aspect of your life until that is all there is. So cherish you children, and be a little more careful of what you say to whom.