Saturday, June 9, 2012

"State Trips"

This post is to explain what I mean when I say "State Trip" next to one of the places we visited; ie. Hawaii and New York so far. Eric and I have traveled a lot, as you can probably tell from the pictures, and this is one of the reasons why. :)

Eric and I decided to alternate planning anniversaries. I'm not really sure how this happened, but we don't really surprise the other with what we're doing, per say, but we just take turns deciding what we want to do. (Well I think Eric intended on surprising me, but I usually am the one to find good deals for traveling so he ended up just telling me what his choice was and I booked everything haha eh it works for us!) So for anniversary numero uno, Eric chose a romantic getaway to Sedona and a visit to the Grand Canyon. It was lovely and a little chilly, but what can you expect since we got married late November? For our second anniversary I chose the Bahamas.. I'm a lover of warmth, what can I say? We're not really sure where we're going this year yet for anniversary number 3 (THREE YEARS?! WOOHOO! I really can't believe it.)  Anyways.. this is all off topic from why I really was doing this post... So here is the story behind the State Trips:

Nearing our first anniversary, Eric was trying to think of what he wanted to do as a tradition each year for our anniversary. Some people follow those lists where its like a clock for 1st year of marriage, china for second, leather for the 7th, silver for the 25th etc, etc. (totally made those up, but I hope you get my point!) My dad gets my mom a rose for each year of their marriage.. Which he said he wish he would have thought of something else because roses are expensive when you're married for a long time! Ha!

Eric had thought of the single rose for each year as well, but wanted to think of something else when I told him that is what my dad does for my mom. So being the hopeless romantic that he is, he racked his brain and came up with the sweetest, genius, wonderfully PERFECT idea!

He decided to give me a STATE QUARTER (you know, the new ones with the states on the back?) on each anniversary and we would travel to that state within the next year, before our next anniversary. How thoughtful, no?! He also said he wanted me to scrapbook a couple pictures of each trip on 1 page and include the quarter so by the time we have our 51st anniversary, we will have a scrapbook with 50 pages, one from each anniversary, and we would have traveled to every state, together. (Maybe we'll even go for 51 quarters and do Puerto Rico too, even though it isn't a state! I'm totally okay with that) I know- you're SUPER impressed and a little jealous of the incredible man I married, I would be too! Although I haven't started the scrapbook yet, I'm planning on doing it soon and I'm so excited! So while we were in Sedona, celebrating the fact we made it through 1 year of marriage, Eric gave me the first quarter- Hawaii. Yes! While we were celebrating year 2 in the Bahamas, he gave me quarter 2- New York. Yes, again! I guess you could say we're trying to do the more expensive trips first before we have 10 children running around and can only make it over to like New Mexico, ha.

So here's the list so far:

Anniversary #1: Hawaii Quarter













Anniversary #2: New York Quarter












Anniversary #3: (?? Any guesses?)


So there you have it, the beginning of our 50 year adventure. :)

Bahama Mama! (November 2011)


I've been in the blogging mood lately, go figure. What can I say? I'm playing catch up!

So without further introduction, I give you...


THE BAHAMAS.. Our 2nd Anniversary, November 2011 :)


This is the scuba building at the resort, I believe.



This is the kids clubhouse at our resort. You can leave your kids there all day, and they have people that play games with them and entertains them! Pretty sweet. 




This is the only picture of me.. haha so I had to post it for proof I was there! ;) Eric put that flower in my hair. Presh!





Ahh.. the lovely white sand beach.


This is part of the resort. There were like 10 buildings like these.



More beach :)


What a Hunk! ;)



Snack bar on the beach.. Everything is free! :) (Our resort was all-inclusive so the only things we paid for were the cab rides)






Its hard to tell, but that contraption towards the back is for TRAPEZE lessons! Also free. :)




Lovely view. So I couldn't help that most of the pictures are of the beach. 




Classic vaca picture, right?





This is when we took a nap out on the beach for a couple hours. It was so relaxing with the breeze and the sound of the waves.



The view from our room. That building is where you get the snorkeling gear, kayaks, and all the other water activity stuff. (Yup, you guessed it! Also free. :))  The blue behind it is the ocean.. So technically, we had an ocean front room. The little path on the right led right to the beach. 

We snorkeled a few times, but don't have any pictures of that. While we were snorkeling, there was a cute bluiesh shiny fish that followed us around the whole time!



More of the view. 


Our bed... Obviously. :)



Our room had 2 beds.. haha I thought that was funny for some reason. 








These are the super silly trees that we saw after we got off the plane in the Bahamas. Our cab driver was kinda crazy, but it was fun.


I seriously got such a kick out of the trees. They were suuuuper tall with just a patch of leaves at the top. I hadn't seen any trees like it before.. except in Dr Suess books!




Well now that I have the Bahama pictures up, I am nearly caught up with the pictures of our travels! Phew! New York is up next!


We have been so blessed to be able to travel so much and to see so many wonderful places! I love traveling with Eric so much. We have so much fun together and it is awesome to be able to experience new things and places with my best friend and love of my life. Some people think when getting married at a young age, you give up or sacrifice many things, especially traveling. (Tell me you haven't heard at least one person say something to the effect of, "I want to travel and see the world and experience things before I settle down and have to give it up.") But I'm tellin ya... Its WAY more fun traveling with someone you love so much! Seriously, who wouldn't want to have a permanent (freakin' hott) travel buddy that you can travel with for the rest of your life?! :)

Monday, June 4, 2012

Faith In God Includes Faith In His Timing



As many of you know, Eric and I have been trying to bring some babies into this world for quite some time now, without any luck thus far. We have an incredible fertility doctor (which if any of you need one- trust me, you want him!) that we love and appreciate so much. Although we don't talk a lot about whats going on in the fertility part of our lives, and we are generally pretty vague about what is happening with testing and such, we appreciate everyones prayers, thoughts and encouragement, and ask that you keep them coming. :) I know that everything will work out when it is supposed to, and we just have to be faithful and patient. We would absolutely love to be parents, and I know that this trying time is a trial the Lord has given us to help refine us, and I'm sure will make us better parents when the time comes. My testimony has been strengthened and I have grown closer to my Savior through this process. At times I feel angry, frustrated, and sad, but knowing that my Heavenly Father knows me and loves me, and that He knows the desires of my heart, has helped me to have an eternal perspective. He already has blessed me with an incredible husband to be able to spend eternity with and I know that even if it was just going to be him and I in this earthly life, I'm already more blessed and happier than I could ever deserve. I've learned, firsthand, that the Lord's timing and our timing are not always the same, and I know that I need to have faith that everything will work out how, and when it is supposed to.

I plan on blogging our journey and experiences with infertility sometime, things I've learned, how we've grown together, and all the ups and downs, but for now, I just wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. They are being felt and I know that they are helping us get through both the easy times and the more difficult times, so please keep praying for us! Whenever the time may be that we are given the blessing of a child, I will definitely be letting everyone know. It may be months from now, it may be years from now, but I know that when the timing is right for us, it'll happen... and those babies will be dang good looking! ;)