Cocoa Beach

We just got back from a very fun and much needed vacation to florida. We stayed in Cocoa Beach in a 2 bedroom apartment style hotel. The beach was fantastic, the ocean was warm, and we all had a blast building sand castles and chasing crabs.

One night we actually went out to the beach with flashlights to search for ghost crabs. I wasn't too fond of it because with all those leggs, they remind me of very large spiders. Max thought it was funny when dad would chase the crab with his flashlight over to me and I would scream and run away! I'm glad they had fun with that, even if it was at my expense ;).

I'm not in any of the beach pictures because I take the best pictures ( I know Josh would disagree), but it's true.

Josh and I loved getting in the ocean and jumping the waves. Max tolerated it, but would much rather have stayed and played in the sand the entire time. Don't mind the woman and her cleavage in the background, it was pretty busy on the beach that day and it was practically impossible not to get some stranger in the background.

Trials

This time of year I try to look back and reflect on everything I have to be grateful for in my life. It has been a difficult year for Josh and I, but I know we will gain something from our current trial we've been facing. Looking back, I can honestly say that even though there have been times when I felt like I was being punished for something I must have done, I've always found a positive to every negative. For instance: I was bullied pretty badly in 6th grade. I guess I just rubbed this girl the wrong way and she quickly became the ring leader of the "I hate Kristen club". I quickly learned who my true friends were because those girls stuck by me even when they were tormented for being my friend. I'm not going to go into detail about all the torment that I went through that year, but I will say that I have learned to be compassionate for others. Those of you who know me, know that when I say "the more the merrier" I truely mean it. Ever since then, I've always surrounded myself with uplifting people.

When Josh was gone for a 16 month long deployment to Afghanistan I thought life was officially over. That is an extremely long time to be away from family and for a very long time I was very negative about everything. How could I ever gain anything positive from this experience? Well I did.... Up until Josh left I had never lived on my own before. I mean I lived with roomates, but never alone. It was up to me to take care of things while he was away. I was also still attending school at the time which added to all the stress. I became more independent that year, I didn't always have my husband or my dad around to take care of things and I had to learn to do things myself. I'm truely grateful for that. I feel like in that time I became my own person. Josh and I grew closer together during that time apart as well. I learned to not take things for granted. We were also able to save some money for the down payment on our home that we purchased a year ago. We would not have been able to save all that money had it not been for his deployment. I have learned patience and to how to cope with stress through that experience and I truely believe that is a gift because I don't know how I could have gotten through this year without it.

One of my New Years resolutions is to have a more positive outlook on my life. Even when things are dark and gloomy, we'll get through it and in the end be stronger for it. We need to learn to forget the negatives and think about the positives.

Park City

Josh's brother, J.J. and his wife Katie called us Friday morning to see if we wanted to go to Park City for the weekend. It was definately a last minute planned mini vacation but we had a lot of fun.

We got a pretty good deal on our hotel room and even got the second night stay for free so we were excited about that. Max was so excited to explore the hotel room and to sleep on his "little bed," which was just his old crib mattress that we had brought for him to sleep on. Our hotel room was more like a loft with the bedroom being upstairs. It also had a small kitchen in it so it was pretty nice.



We went to Heber City to take Max for a ride on the Heber Valley Railroad. Max was so excited and for those of you who know him, trains are his absolute favorite thing in the whole world. He kept asking us if we were going to ride the Polar express because he just loves that movie since it is about a train.



We were able to ride at the front of the train in a car that was open to the outside. It was nice to sit back and enjoy the beautiful outdoors. After we got to the halfway mark we all enjoyed a yummy ice cream bar and rode the remainder of the way inside. I think both Max, and baby Kinzlie (J.J. and Katie's baby) were much happier indoors since the whistle blew every time we went through a railroad crossing and it was extremely loud being outside.



The conductor came and sat in the same car as us on the ride back to the train station. When Max saw him he yelled "conductor, we need to stop the train, the boy wants to get on." This is also from the movie. J.J. and Katie thought it would be funny to take advantage of the fact that my son is an extremely outgoing child and will talk to anyone. They kept telling him to yell CONDUCTOR really loudly. Thanks guys, it's not embarassing when it's someone else's kid, but I will definately remember this for when Kinzlie is 3!

Here are just a few pictures of our little adventure.

Max is showing off his ticket to ride the train in the picture above. He just loves to pretend that he's the train conductor and that he needs to go around and punch everyone's tickets (like on Polar Express). He'll tell you that "this ticket is non-transferbable," it's really cute. He was thrilled just to get the ticket.

The next day we went to the Alpine Resort and we all went for a ride (minus Kinzlie of course) down the Alpine slide. J.J., Josh and Max took the first ride and when they came back Katie and I went with Max for his second time. It was a lot of fun. On the way up the mountain, Max kept telling Katie and I that "it's only a little bit scary." It was so cute that he was trying to help us to not be scared. He had so much fun, we all did.














We also made time on our trip for Josh and J.J. to go golfing while Katie and I packed up our kids and did what we do best, we went shopping. It's funny because the only stores we even went into were the children's clothing stores. I got some great deals on some clothes for Max and Katie got some really cute clothes for Kinz.


All in all this was a really fun weekend getaway. Josh and I have had some trials that we've been going through over the past year and we definately needed this fun little vacation. Thanks guys for inviting us!

Just a side note, I'm not exactly sure how to get rid of all the extra space that is always on the bottom of my posts. It's extremely annoying so if anyone can help me out with this, I'd really appreciate it. This post also has some extra space in it when it didn't show up while writing it so I'm sorry for that too. Again, any help on this is appreciated.

Pumpkin Patch

On Thursday, Max and I met my friend, Becky and her two adorable little girls at the pumpkin patch. There is a maze there so it was fun for the kids to play. Max had a lot of fun playing with his friend, Addie. I also had a lot of fun playing with my new camera and taking pictures of Max, and Becky's two daughters, Addie and Bree. It was warm and beautiful and we took full advantage of the weather that day. The kids had so much fun, we were there for almost two hours. I just love the fall season!

Max chasing Addie through the maze
Max and Addie posing for me
Bree trying to eat a pumpkin

I cannot wait for the holidays this year. I always get excited for the fall when the leaves start changing colors and we start getting ready for Halloween, which is just the beginning of the holiday season. I can't wait for Max to dress up in his costume this year and go trick-or-treating. He says he remembers it from last year so we'll see.

All Things Halloween

Josh, myself and Max had a great time last weekend.
This picture was taken at the American West Heritage Center. We spent 3 1/2 hours there and we all had so much fun. In this picture, Max is riding the train with his dad. He rode that train about 4 times and loved it each and every time. There was so much to do there and we pretty much did it all. There were also animals for the kids to pet, pony rides, a kids straw maze, a corn maze, a tractor/train ride, even a ghord launch. It was money well spent and just to see the smile that didn't leave Max's face all night was priceless.

I took this picture of Max while we went for a ride on a covered wagon that was pulled by two horses. As you can see, it was starting to get a bit chilly by this time so Max was all bundled up. His coat really brings out the blue in his eyes.

This picture was taken at the pumpkin patch. We started out the weekend by taking Max to the pumpkin patch to pick out his very own pumpkin. They also have a straw maze there for kids and he had probably more fun playing in the maze than looking for the perfect pumpkin.

We did manage to get him to take time to look through them and I think we all did a great job picking them out.
I love his little devious smile here.

I am so excited because we got a very nice new camera!!! It is going to be so much fun taking pictures for the holidays and I will most likely be posting more often because of it. Max insists on being a green dragon this year, like on Dragon Tales. His costume is pretty cute and I will definately be getting some cute pictures of him in it. It's funny because I've always loved the holidays, but it just makes everything ten times better having Max to share it all with!

August

I've been greatly anticipating and yet dreading this month to come. I've been excited because I've had Max's birthday party to plan for and that's always stressful, but fun as well for me. He had a great birthday and loved celebrating it with his cousins and a few close friends of his. I am a little relieved that it is over now just because of how stressful planning a birthday event for a child can be, even when he is only turning 3!

This month has been also very difficult for me to get through because of my miscarriage back in February. My due date was supposed to be on the 23rd of August, and it has been a very emotional time for me. I have many friends that have been having babies over the past two months and I am very excited for them, but it has just been extra difficult for me. Seeing these moms with their new babies brings back all the hurt that I felt when I first miscarried. I have kept a brave face throughout it all and only a few people have even seen me cry over this.

I had been doing so well getting through all this, but while I was in the waiting room at the hospital waiting to see my brother-in-law's new baby girl there was another family there waiting for a new baby to be born. I was definately in the wrong place at the wrong time because the proud new father came out and announced "It's a GIRL". This triggered every emotion I felt that day when I spent half the day in the hospital because I miscarried when I was supposed to be having my first appointment to hear the heartbeat. Yes, I quickly removed myself from the room and hid in the stairwell for a good 30 minutes to avoid being seen by anyone with my bloodshot eyes. Yes, I wanted to go see the new baby. I just didn't want to take any attention away from baby and mom so after about 45 minutes I picked myself up and saw that adorable little baby girl, and I even held her. It was extremely difficult for me to do it, but I'm very happy and proud of myself for doing it. That was a very big step for me.

I don't fully understand why Josh and I are having such a difficult time becoming pregnant. Sometimes I wonder if it's just bad karma or something, but then I remember that everyone has their trials and this is one of ours. It isn't our first trial and it is definately not our last. It is getting more and more difficult each month after we find out yet again that we have had no luck. What makes it even more difficult is that we have family members who ask every time we see them if I am pregnant and I painfully have to say no. I am not trying to keep this private and I have openly discussed this with others. I just wish that these individuals would wait and see if it comes up because I don't mind talking about it, just on my own time.

I'm sorry this post is not upbeat at all, but one of the ways for me to deal is to write about it. So here I am just trying to make it through the next couple of days.

Happy Birthday Max!!!

My baby is not a baby anymore and he reminds me every day that he is now a BIG BOY! It's awesome to see how he's grown into the whole little person with a mind of his own. His name says it all, he is a fun loving, extremely outgoing child and I'm so proud to be his mom.

My mother in law watched Max last week and when we came to pick him up she said: "your son has been going around the house punching everyone's tickets to ride the Polar Express and telling us that our tickets are non transferrable" what 3 year old says non-transferrable??? I was in the computer room a couple days ago and Max had been watching the movie, Bolt when he ran into the room, grabbed my face and said: "MOM, WE NEED TO FIND THE ANTEDOTE!" He is so funny! There's never a dull moment with Mr. Max.