Birthday Shenanigans in the Mitten

As son as Val, Bill and the gang left we had 2 days to pack and do a little cleaning before heading home. HOME. Wonderful, beautiful, green Michigan filled with tons of family and friends that we miss so dearly. We celebrated Chad's birthday on Saturday along with Jared as well. It' become an amazing tradition that we are all determined to keep alive. In addition to celebrating together matching shirts have also snuck their way in as well. I love it. LOVE it.

I also love that we were able to celebrate not only with my parents, Taylor, Jared (duh), Chad's parents, Nikki, Matt and the gang, Tracy, Lincoln and their whole crew as well. It was so fun to be able to celebrate with so much of our family! Happy Birthday Chad!!! Especially since I was passed out for a while (ok, it was longer than a while) due to some drugas for my whole SI joint issue. Glad to have some birthday support otherwise it wouldn't have been quite so fun with just me!

It was so nice to see everyone, everyone! I slept on the couch (are you sensing a theme) while my mom and the boys made the birthday cake, everyone brought yummy salads and sides while we ate fried chicken. We hung out all afternoon and it was awesome. I couldn't be more thankful for my wonderful family, immediate and extended, they are the absolute best around. And while it is technically "Chared's" birthday, I can't wait to see how we celebrate it all next year :)

In addition to the birthday festivities there was a ridiculous amount of Mexican food consumed, just enough sugar cookies eaten and not enough frozen custard, lol. We were able to stop in at our old ward briefly to basically just say "hi" and harass our old primary class, I stopped by my old work, Chad fit in a little climbing, we managed a double date with Jared and helped pick out a new tv for the parents, and just generally did a lot of hanging out with a lot of the people that we dearly love and miss.  Somehow we were out there for so long but it all went by in a flash.

 

 

(Chad took an actual group photo, and I think some overall better ones in general, imagine that. So as soon as I'm not feeling lazy I'll get some real photos up here to add the amazing amount of selfies that I took all week :) )

Lessons in Traveling

When we first got our plane tickets it took us a while to realize that Danielle Portela was heading out to Michigan. Hard to do when you don't have much proof of being that person anymore. ha. Lesson one learned: Your expired passport still counts a valid ID as long as it hasn't been over a year. Phew. My office manager coincidently lost her ID on the way home from her vacation and learned that her Costco ID and credit card was good enough to get her home as well.

Lesson Two, The Flint Ariport rocks. Rock my socks right off. Small, clean, the people are NICE, friendly, and SO helpful. Grated I was wheelchair so I think I had some pity points but still, so nice. Pre boarding ain't so bad either.

Third, Ward Families are forever families. We were able to park our car with a family who used to go to go to our same ward in Michigan. Not only did we park out car there, they then drove us to the airport and then dropped our car off the night before we arrived because they were leaving on their own vacation. Above and beyond these people went. Such good people.

Then of course we had to drive back to St. George from Vegas. Night-mare. Of epic proportions. It was over 100 when we got here, which we knew it would be but still doesn't soften the blow when your in leggings and long sleeves for the plane. As soon as we managed to grab our baggage we were off to find the car. We were hot, beyond sweaty, I was attempting to walk so that we could pull all our crazy baggage with us. I was breaking d-o-w-n guys. We started driving down the strip trying to kill some time so we could drive back in weather that wouldn't burn us alive. We finally parked at a Casino and changed in the car. Changing in the car with a hurt back in 100+ heat and a cramped up leg was nothing short of a miracle. It was not done discreetly but hey, when in Vegas right? At that point I was ready to strip naked outside the car to change. Modesty? What's that?

So by the time I waddled into the casino I laid and cried like a true drunk Vegas girl at Ceasars Palace while I made Chad go check out H&M. It was his birthday and I still hadn't/haven't gotten him anything so we weren't leaving until he found a kick ass suit at H&M. He finally made it back to me with a bit of a birthday haul! Success! Until a few days ago when we realized the pieces just weren't going to work. So back to Vegas we will go within the next 30 days to return! Lets see if I can get walking before then because wheelchairs are for rent and not borrow at good 'ol Ceasars. And I don't know if I can mentally handle being a crying Vegas cliché again unless I'm actually seriously intoxicated.

We did eventually make it back home. It did cool down once we left the city, we finally got some food in us, which helped immensely, chugged some Gatorade, which we have been living off of, and Chad got me one of those giant bags of ice for the ride home. We took turns with it. I would lay on in, he would simply hold it in his lap to cool off and then I'd sit on it again. We may not have a/c but bless Chad's heart, that giant bag of ice saved my life on the ride home.

Bragging Rights

I needed to interrupt the awesome vacation stories and pictures to do a little bragging. A little Chad bragging. I know everyone thinks they have the best husband but I really do. Really.

I've done my fair share of Chad bragging before but the past couple of months he's gone above and beyond, especially out here by ourselves. Where the heck is family when you need them? (Oh, that's right, we were the ones with the bright idea to move as far away as possible.)

The whole cooking, cleaning thing has gone out the freaking window. For reals people. And not like, oh the past couple weeks I've been lazy, it's like the past couple months I can't move. Sooooo.... The past week consisted of me coming home from work and then literally sleeping until doing it all over the next day. He feeds me, gets me treats, keeps me hydrated, makes dinner, cleans the kitchen, and bathrooms, unpacked everything from vacation, takes care of all the animals and works his 5am shift. He makes sure my contacts are out and I don't smash my face while sleeping in my glasses. And the back/leg rubs.... come on. He sprays me down with the freeze spray before bed, in the morning, whenever he can get my pants down ;)  So good. Happy I could trick this guy into marrying me just before turning into a 95 year old crippled. #Jokesonyoubabe

He's replaced my purses this last week, surprised me with a new pair of sunglasses that are cuter than anything, secretly bought me the cutest coral pants that fit perfectly (didn't even have to try them on, man he's good) and is all around spoiling me in that way as well.

The patience and love this guy has for me is incredible and I am so lucky to have him watch over and care for me.

True Love

Sadly another of my loves also lives too very far away from me. After some serious Pinterest scouring and poll taking I was ready to reunite with her and take the plunge. Cheryl, you are the best!

Originally it was going to be something like this.

But I have a husband who has a love affair with short hair, also, I've always wanted my sister's hair and never thought I could pull it off.

So I went in armed with a picture of who we all openly want to be (Jennifer Lawrence duh) and came out with this. Goodbye cowlic, Goodbye ponytails, Goodbye crazy thick, hot hair.

And although a certain brother in law may think that I look like a boy, lol, I couldn't be happier with it and can't wait to rock out this short hair for a long, long while.

We're back kids!

It's been nice to take a little break from writing this past little while. Not that things haven't been exciting, in fact it's been very much the opposite. One of the best parts of the month was getting to spend a week with Val and Bill and all the babies. One of which we had never met and the other spitfire we had only met as just a little baby.

They rushed into our house puking up a storm, isn't that the rule on vacation? Oh and Kinsley was scared to death of us. To death. Of course after Chad offered up some ice cream we had pretty much won her over. While the ice cream my have md us all BFF's it did lead to a puke fest later that night all over poor Penny. Hiding behind toilet wasn't her best move to avoid the vomit. After all of Penny's peeing and puking and general ruining of things though that cat deserved every bit of puke she got. High five Kins!

Everyone in the house managed to make it though the sickness, I was the only lucky one who escaped, work happened to come in handy this vacation :)

Our plans were slowed down quite  bit and although we couldn't fit in everything that we had planned on doing we did quite a dang bit. Our favorite being rock climbing, duh. My personal favorite being Cade rock climbing. That little guy was a freaking champ. He climbed to the top of two different pitches and did so awesome! Bill got in on the action as well even after smashing his finger working on their car, and Val was the climbing superstar surprise of the visit. She kicked serious butt up on those mountains!

We had an absolute blast eating too much Café Rio, staying up way to late every night, visiting Zion's, climbing the narrows at pioneer Park, splashing around at the splash park and Children's museum and eating way too much goodies in general. In was perfect and we wish we didn't have to let them go home.

P.S. Pain pills are real kids, so please excuse any ridiculous spelling errors or grammatical fumblings. So basically just the normal....