Arkansas

Addie and I flew out to visit my older sister, Karly and her family for a week. We left Cambree behind with Benton and our families to babysit her while Benton worked. They hadn't seen Addie since she was 2 months old, so it was time for us to visit them.

Both her boys are in school now. Jack is in second grade and Reid is in preschool. Reid was able to do more stuff with us on his day out of school. Poor Jack just had to hear about all the fun things we did.

Karly and I went to a taco truck, which served smoked pulled pork with their special sauce, cheese, avocado, pico and doritios to top it off, it was really good surprisingly.

On our way to pick up Jack one day from school, we had a little time to kill and started driving around looking for a good spot to take pictures. As we were leaving, I saw something in the distance, little ears. I decided to get out of the car and find out what it was. I was surprised to find a baby deer. It looked abandoned, hot and hungry. We tried calling the local wildlife center to see if we should take it somewhere but got their voicemail (that's why we have it wrapped in a a towel in my arms). After multiple attempts calling a bunch of places we finally got a hold of someone who told us it was normal for the mother deer to leave her fawn to go find food. I read online about baby deers and found out that during the first 5 days of their life they don't have that fight or flight response, so they will let people touch and hold them. So like I said to Karly, I doubt I will ever hold a baby deer ever again, a once in a lifetime opportunity. But it's good to know that the mother hadn't abandoned her baby.

On one of the days we spent a few hours at their local splash park. It was pretty empty since it was a cloudy day but both our kids loved running around getting wet.

I love visiting with them. Its hard when they come to town and are pulled every direction. I enjoy going to their house so I have all the time to myself!

We took a walk at one of my favorite places by their house, Tanyard Creek. We were told their was a poisonous snake on one of the trails, so we steered clear of where it was seen. Addie loved splashing in the creek.

We had a bunch of phone conversations with Benton and Cambree. I love the ability to see one another while talking and so did Addie, who didn't want to share the phone with me.

It wouldn't be normal if we didn't make a trip to the park!

And I was able to take their family pictures while I visited. For those of you who don't know, I've started to take pictures for clients. My photography blog is Maephotoblog.wordpress.com. Come check it out!

We had such a good time with their family and I am thrilled that they will be visiting Utah in about a month. I am so thankful for Karly, she is such a great older sister and has always been there for me. I've spent countless hours on the phone with her and I love that I can call her up anytime and vent, cry or just talk if I need to. Sisters really are such a blessing. Arkansas was good to us this trip, and hopefully we can come back next year!

Race for Grief 2014

Yesterday, Memorial Day we woke up bright and early to run for Allie. We did the Race for Grief last year and loved it and this year was no different. I really enjoyed running for her on Memorial Day. It was so fitting for the day. Benton and I both ran the 10 K (6.2 miles). I did really well and ran it in 59 minutes, 8 seconds. I beat my time from last year by 10 minutes, which I'm really proud of.

It was fun seeing our family and friends who came and supported us. We will never forget Allie, and I love that there is a run for those who have passed on.

I'm so thankful for our yearly run for Allie. See you all next year!

Zoo Pass

We bought a zoo pass and spent a beautiful day at the zoo with my sister and her kids. I know where we will be this summer!

Back into the swing of things...

One thing I hate when coming home from a vacation is getting back to the normalcy of regular everyday life.

It rained the whole time we were in Mexico and apparently both our girls were getting a little stir crazy staying inside all day. Thankfully this past week has been beautiful in the 70's so we've been playing and prepping our garden outside. Cambree has enjoyed being silly and running around outside.

Had to post these two pics just because I love her little facial expressions. Addie makes faces at us like we are from a different planet. I would give anything to know what she's thinking.

Other than playing outside, we've been running errands trying to get all caught up. I'm finally feeling like I have my home under control. However, Addie and I are going to visit my sister Karly in about 1.5 weeks and then I will do this all over again, trust me, it's worth all the chaos.

Cancun

We loved every second we had in Cancun. We missed our girls like crazy but we were both happy we were able to get away for 6 days.

We stayed at Live Aqua and it was a beautiful resort. We upgraded our room once we arrived to an ocean front room which included a separate living area and an additional bathroom, so Benton and I each had our own bathrooms. The resort was immaculate. So very clean. There were 6 different pools to choose from, each with a different temperature, so you could choose whether you wanted warm or cooler water.

The food was so yummy, it was an all-inclusive resort so we were able to eat as much or as little as we'd like. There were eight different restaurants to choose from, as well as room service. Even though everything was great, I however was pretty much sick every single day. Benton didn't get sick till the day we left. We both avoided drinking their water, and eating salads which are washed with their water but it didn't help. Our bellies just weren't use to Mexico.

The beaches are so extremely beautiful. The water is turquoise and the beach is soft white sand. We spent each day walking up and down the beach. I became obsessed with finding seashells and playing in the ocean.

We really didn't do anything. We didn't go on any execursions, just took naps and laid in our cabana each day. A perk of the cabana was that we got a 20 minute foot massage to split between both of us. It was so relaxing! As you can tell this vacation was an actual vacation instead of the type of vacations where you're exhausted when you arrive home. It was just what we both needed.

Almost every day this guy would go on the beach and make different things in the sand. He was amazing with the things he made out of the sand.

We had so much fun spending time with each other. Since we've had kids, we haven't gone on a vacation with just us two. I'm so glad we were able to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary in paradise.

I cannot say how thankful of everyone who pitched in and watched both of our girls. We had an amazing time and couldn't have gone without all your help.