Vernal - The Land of Dinosaurs!

Last year we decided that our vacation for 2018 would be to Vernal, Utah. It was on our family bucket list and since we didn't know at the time if we would be staying in Utah or moving across the country we figured it would be the perfect year to make that our trip. I had been to Vernal and saw some dinosaur sites as a little girl and I wanted to relive some of those memories with Danny and our kids. Especially since those three LOVE dinosaurs. Danny might be the reason our kids are such big fans but I love that he's the biggest fan of all. We decided that we would go once Danny's semester of teaching was done at UVU. He teaches a couple labs and his finals are done before the semester is officially so the timing was great. Some of our great friends live in Vernal and the plan had always been that we would visit them there, however it turned out that when we tried to coordinate our schedules we learned that the two weekends we were able to go conflicted with their own vacation plans. They had planned a trip for Disneyland and wouldn't be in Vernal for both of the weekends that we were able to be there. We didn't get to see our friends but we did get to benefit from their generosity. They are seriously the best people and offered their house for us to stay in even though they would be out of town themselves. It was awesome not to have to find a hotel or pay for the nights with our family. It also allowed us to be flexible with our own plans. We were able to choose which weekend we wanted to go which turned out to be so nice because we decided to leave for our trip the morning of. 

Excited for Vernal.

But sad our friends weren't going to be there.

Danny's parent's found out that we were thinking of heading to Vernal and they wanted to go as well. Danny's dad needed to go for a business trip and thought it would be perfect to make his trip the same time that we would leave on ours. It turned out fun to have them join us. We both left on Wednesday the 18th and met up in Vernal for dinner that evening. We were able to plan our next day and talked about things we wanted to do and see. On our bucketlist was the dinosaur museum, seeing dinosaur bones, real petroglyphs, and getting a picture of Addie next to the giant pink brontosaurus we saw in town. Dave and Donna only planned on staying until Friday so we were going to try and do as much as we could while they were with us on Thursday. We ended up doing everything.

The kids LOVED this giant bear in the room they slept in.

We started Thursday morning heading over to the Utah Field House of Natural History State Park Museum. Addie was pretty happy that the first dinosaur we saw as we pulled up was a stegosaurus, that's her favorite dinosaur.

Addie had a grumpy moment because she wanted her sunglasses.

After the museum we spent some time in the gift shop before heading over to the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit. This was a cool place where they built a building around a cliff side that revealed actual dinosaur bones. They even had some you could touch. Hudson was also a little stinker in this place and eyes couldn't be taken off him or we would find him climbing inside some of the exhibits . . . which happened twice. After that he had to be confined to the stroller which he wasn't a huge fan of but it was necessary. 

If you zoom in you can see a hidden dinosaur toy.

Zoomed in.

In front of the exhibit we kept finding him in.

Touching a real bone.

We left the Quarry and headed to the Visitor's Center where we tried to watch a short video but both of the kids mostly just wanted to hang out in their gift store so only Dave and Donna actually watched the video. There was a pop up book in the store that both of the kids LOVED but we weren't planing on buying because it was $20 and we wanted to get them different souvenirs however Hudson got a little too excited and ripped one of the pages. :( So of course we bought the book after that only to realize later that night that there were several rips throughout the whole book from someone else who had destroyed it and then left it back on the shelf. Oh well. At least we were able to show our kids how integrity works even though they will probably never remember this story haha. We decided it was best to take the kids outside after this incident so that they can get their wiggles out without anything else suffering from them in the shop, and it also helped save our wallet. :)

Always with rocks in his hands.

We enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner at a Mexican restaurant where both kids did really well. Hudson did better than Addie but he's also the better eater out of the two. Donna told us about an easy hike where we would see some real petroglyphs so we decided to head there next. Let's just say that it was in no way easy. I don't think Danny and I will ever do that again. At least not while pregnant and carrying a three year old and a one year old. There was no way that either of the kids would be able to do it so Danny and I took turns carrying them up that mountain. Once my arms felt like they couldn't carry Addie any longer I would switch with Danny and take Hudson and we just kept switching off the whole way up and the whole way down. Plus I'm pregnant so that made it exceptionally harder. Both of the kids were also tired because by this point we had already had a full day of excitement with no naps for the kids. Anyway the petroglyphs were cool and I think Danny and I would have appreciated it more under different circumstances. If we do try it again it will definitely not be during a pregnancy or while the kids are too little to hike it themselves. With all that said though the kids did like it. Especially when we needed to take a breather and put both of them down. They also took full advantage to play in the dirt and get as dirty as possible haha.

Right before we found out what we were getting ourselves into.

By the time we got back to the house both of the kids were beyond exhausted. Especially Hudson. He wanted to go to bed so bad but because of the hike a bath was more than necessary. They were filthy. They had dirt in every place possible. We gave them a quick wash and then both of the kids fell asleep in record time. Danny and I were also feeling dead that night that we just passed out ourselves. Something sad happened because of that though. :( A record was broken. Two records actually. I have personally read my scriptures every single day for 11 straight years. I started a couple months before I turned 18 and kept at it. Danny and I have also read consistently every single day for almost five years. It started on day one of our married lives together. We read on our wedding night and even on nights that we were separated because of various trips we still found a way to get in some verses together. Well we were soooooo tired that we completely forgot to read before going to bed ourselves. In fact I didn't even realize it until Danny pointed it out the following night when we went to read together. I was devastated. I now blame the hike hahaha. I know it shouldn't matter if we miss one night and that it's not about the record but I was still a little sad about it. I even tried to justify it by saying that maybe the primary songs we sang in the car with Addie counted but the truth is that we did miss a night of scripture reading. Oh well. Here's to moving forward. 

The next morning Danny and I were debating if we should stay as planned or head back home like Dave and Donna were doing. We liked the idea of just relaxing and staying in our friend's house but we also liked the idea of looking at cars to buy and thought hey why not get one today? We knew we were going to buy a minivan at some point and we found one online at a really good price that we wanted to check out before it was no longer available. Ultimately the decision making came down to the fact that we actually did almost everything we had planned on doing in one day and there wasn't really anything else that we really wanted to get done in Vernal. The only thing we still wanted to do was buy a key chain from Vernal and take a picture of Addie in front of the pink brontosaurus in town. Both were easy things so we decided that once that was done we would head home early and get us a van. :) 

The drive home was easy going and both kids did so well in the car. We never had any meltdowns the whole trip from the kids being in their car seats which made it so nice. We plan on doing another road trip next year and right now we're thinking of Yellowstone. Addie has been with me and my side of the family but Danny and Hudson have not. By then we'll also have our third child and I already can't wait. :)

We left a nice little review for our friends to have once they got home from their Disney trip. We'll be back in Vernal again and next time we'll plan better between our friends since we missed them.

500 Days Old!

Huddy Buddy

I sure love you.

Rainy Day

Addie has been waiting for a rainy day because she really wanted to test out her rain boots. She has two pairs and she chose to use the ones she got from Aunt Marie for Christmas. They're too big for her but they light up when she walks so for her it was an easy choice. She loved getting in the puddles! And I loved watching her.

Grad School is Happening!

Danny was accepted to BYU's PHD program in Biology! Whoo hoo! Of course I'm still a Ute fan but I couldn't be happier for him and our family. The news came in great timing to and how it all came together is nothing short of a miracle in my opinion. Back in November Danny sent Dr. Jensen, a professor at BYU, an email letting her know he would be applying to the school in the next coming weeks and would like to work with her. She got back to him and they set up a meeting for the two of them to get together and talk. At that meeting she informed him that the possibility of her getting funding to take on a grad student was very bleak and not likely at all. She still spoke with him though and wanted to hear about his goals and plans. When the time came for Danny to submit his application to the school he still put her name down as a professor he'd like to work with. That was a risky move especially since we were told she wouldn't be able to take on any students. We were hoping to hear back about grad school soon but week after week would pass with no news or requests for interviews. Our hopes were constantly going up and down with each week. 

In all honesty BYU was not at the top of our list, it was actually near the bottom. We were both looking forward to taking our family and experiencing life in a different state, but one by one we started receiving the news that this likely wasn't going to happen. The closest we got to positive news was when we found out that Danny made the second round list for grad school applicants in New Mexico, meaning that if someone else chose to not accept their position for the school then they would be able to give Danny's application a deeper glance. Our top choice was Ohio and we were quite bummed when we found out Danny barely missed the cut. At this point we we started planning for what life would look like with graduate school on hold for another year. Danny enrolled himself back at UVU and had already signed up for classes and we were okay with our plans moving forward. We were going to take the year off to really improve Danny's application so we could try for Ohio again next year. Danny was communicating back and forth with the professor and was hopeful that there would be a second chance. 

We made plans to stay at UVU even though we officially hadn't heard back yet from BYU and Montana. In my mind this basically just meant Montana because the professor Danny selected for BYU had already told us months before that she wouldn't be taking students. Then Danny received an email from Professor Jensen at BYU on Monday April 2nd. She told him that she wanted to meet with him again about a possible position to work with her. She asked if Danny could meet with her that Wednesday. He already was planning on taking that morning off from work because of the baby appointment with the high risk specialist so the timing worked out perfectly. He then was reached out by Dr. Ogden from UVU who wanted to meet with him before his meeting at BYU. It turns out that Dr. Jensen had reached out to Dr. Ogden to find out more about Danny and they both felt that Danny would be the perfect fit for her research. Dr. Ogden told Danny that Dr. Jensen was going to offer him a grad student position and that it was Danny's to accept or not. We spent that evening discussing the offer as a couple. We went over in depth the pros and cons about attending BYU over trying again for Ohio. By the end of the night we felt really good about staying here for grad school and possibly pursuing a post doc degree elsewhere when this is done. As it turns out Dr. Ogden was right about the offer and Dr. Jensen did in fact want to work with Danny. She explained the research she would like Danny to be in charge with and told him that she was going to have administration send out his acceptance letter right away. 

This was such relieving news to receive before heading into our baby appointment that same morning. We were in need of good news for our family and by the end of the day we were feeling really blessed. Danny got into grad school and our baby was looking good. We told our families that all Danny had was an interview even though we already knew about the position before even heading into that morning because of Dr. Ogden. Danny took an extra day before he submitted his official acceptance because we wanted to be absolutely sure that this was the path for us. This year started out so rough for us and now we are feeling everything come together. There are still things we need to figure out but we're so happy with things right now and know that everything will turn out the way it's supposed to. BYU we're coming for you! Even though we'll be a BYU family I'm still a U of U girl at heart. :)

Anatomy Ultrasound . . .

Since Danny and I found out the gender early in February we didn't think it was necessary to look for a babysitter for both Danny and I to be at the twenty week appointment. The anatomy ultrasound happened on Thursday March 15th. Danny stayed at home to be with Addie, Hudson and Georgia. By the end of that appointment though I had wished that Danny was with me instead. I've never encountered problems during the ultrasound with Addie or Hudson so this visit was new to me. Baby Bean appeared healthy and growing right on track but there was a minor health issue concerning baby's kidneys. Both of them. I learned at that ultrasound that both the left and the right kidney had backed up fluids in them above the range the doctor would like it at. The ultrasound tech highly encouraged that I take the Quad Screening Test to rule out Down Syndrome. I drove home in shock and after realized that I didn't ask any questions. Truth is I couldn't think of any at the time. Danny and I talked it over and decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea to get the blood work done for the screening test to determine whether or not Down Syndrome was going to be something our baby would have to live with. With my previous two pregnancies we opted out and didn't think much of it but the tech felt I should do it since this baby was showing markers for it. I had six days to decide if I was going to do the test or not because they only do it before the twenty one week mark. I went in the very next day and got it done. I really wanted to talk to the doctor but the office was so busy that day and there was only one doctor in the office so I wrote a message on a post it note and left it with his receptionist. I also confided in a friend from the ward and was able to sort through my feelings regarding my baby's health. I made a decision that I wasn't going to inform our families at this point. I wanted to be given more information before letting everybody know about the kidneys. All I knew was that the baby had excess fluids in both kidneys but I didn't know the specifics of it. I didn't know how much fluid was in them, what the normal range was supposed to be, what the diagnosis was, if one kidney was worse than the other and what this would mean for the baby. The doctor called me back around 7pm that night (Friday the 16th) but unfortunately I was not with my phone so a message was left. I was informed that I would receive results from the Quad Test in seven days and that I would be able to talk more in depth with the doctor upon receiving the results. I thought I was going to have to wait until the following Friday and was dreading the long week ahead. I turned to google which was not a good idea. Of course I found all the worst case scenarios possible - kidney failure, down syndrome, and different surgeries. I spent the next four (felt like forever) nights online when I should have been sleeping but the hardest part was not knowing where in the spectrum my baby was as far as how much fluids he had in his kidneys. 

Fortunately I didn't have to wait a week for the results. I got the call from my doctor on March 20th the following Tuesday. The results from the testing came back normal. Our baby did not have down syndrome. The test also concluded that my baby did not have Trisomy 18 or a Neural Tube Defect (open spine). I learned that the backed up fluids in the baby's kidneys was called Pyelectasis. The normal measurements they'd like to see is under 4.0mm. My baby's left kidney measured at 5.2mm and the right kidney was 5.3mm. They were both very similar and in the mild range which is good. Well not good but 7 is considered bad and 10 is severe so I'm thankful the numbers weren't as high as it could be. The doctor feels that this could resolve itself by 32 weeks. Then he told me about the other news. He told me the ultrasound also showed a cyst in the baby's brain. I had no idea. I didn't even know you could have a cyst in your brain but my baby was showing that he did. This condition is called Choroid Plexus Cyst. He told me not to worry but that he was going to refer me to a high risk specialist for a further in depth evaluation and monitoring. He informed me that even though my baby does not have Down's or Trisomy 18 the findings with the kidneys and his brain could be a result of a different chromosomal problem. I decided right then and there that I was going to avoid Google until I could meet with the specialist. Doing my own research on the Internet when I found out about the kidneys was not the best thing for me and created a lot of worry and anxiety. I didn't want the same thing to happen with this new information about the baby's brain until I could hear straight from the specialist how mild or severe this case was. 

I had to wait two weeks before I could get in to see the high risk specialist which was scheduled for yesterday April 4th. Danny took the morning off work to come with me. Jill watched Addie and Hudson while we left for the hospital. I wasn't sure how to feel before getting baby bean up on that screen. I was excited to see him again, nervous to learn more about his brain and anxious to see if his fluid levels had decreased at all. The best news was that the ultrasound showed nothing wrong with his brain. No sign of a cyst anywhere. It was completely gone! In a lot of cases fetuses with a Choroid Plexus Cyst usually are free of them by 32 weeks and thankfully for my sanity our baby's was gone within two weeks of me finding out about it. I was happy about that. Now I won't have to worry myself reading horror stories of worst case scenarios. I didn't know anything about cysts in brains (and still don't) but anything concerning the brain at all seems terrifying to me. That was a huge blessing to happen so soon after hearing about it. Now as for the kidneys . . . they are still not where they are supposed to be BUT they also aren't measuring at a 7 which is great - or at least something I can handle. At twenty weeks the right kidney measured at 5.3mm and at this appointment the right kidney measured at 5.1mm. So that was a slight improvement and in the right direction. At twenty weeks the left kidney measured 5.2mm and yesterday it was 5.8mm. The high risk doctor was able to speak to us and he also felt confident that by 32 weeks the baby's kidneys will improve and be able to drain themselves properly. He told me that baby is considered healthy and told me to stay off the Internet for the next eight weeks. He even had me repeat out loud "baby is healthy" haha. I do feel mostly at peace about it all. Of course I still worry a little. I think I would worry less if it was just one kidney struggling to drain itself but since it's both of them I can't help but feel a little cautious. The great thing though is that the doctor went over what would happen if this does not resolve itself by birth. If baby is born with Pyelectasis then he'll be referred to a pediatric urologist to determine whether he'll need to be put on medication or see if surgery will be needed to put in a stint which would help drain his kidneys to his bladder. From everything I've read online I'm grateful that this would be the worst case scenario if it comes to it. I have a follow up evaluation in their same office scheduled for May 30th when I'll be closer to 32 weeks along. 

His little profile. His face was hiding against the placenta the entire appointment.

Last week I went to the temple and put Baby Bean's name on their prayer roll and this week my parents did the same so Baby Bean you have a lot of prayers happening on your behalf from temples all over the world. I'm hopeful for you and feel at peace concerning your health and future. Now if only we had an official name for you. I'm convinced your name might actually be Bean. :)