Monday, March 29, 2010

Royal Caribbean Cruise

A Little Background: Tyler and I both grew up in close families. I am the third of five kids. Tyler is the second of six. The biggest gap between subsequent kids in any of our families is 4 years. The shortest gap is 10 and a half months. We have both been blessed to always feel close with our siblings and feel like they are our best friends. Because of this, we have always wanted our own family to be like that. We want Sarah to have some siblings to be best buds with. We know she would be such a good older sister.

Well, Heavenly Father's life plan for us isn't always the same as our life plan for ourselves. When we had Sarah we knew she was a miracle. After a year of not getting pregnant, I went on clomid and 9 months later we had Sarah. We have the book "You Are My Miracle" and I have read it to her a million times because she truly is our miracle baby.

Well, about six months ago we went to the doctor (after about a year of hoping we wouldn't need medical help to have a second child). The doctor had me try clomid again. Well, long story short, it didn't work like last time. They will only let you take it for five times times before sending you to expensive fertility clinics. Well, the first four goes of it, my body did not react to it at all. So, in February, we were at our final shot at clomid. My doctor said I need to try to relax....so we decided to take a cruise for our last shot at it working, because hey...what is more relaxing than a cruise?! And, if it works, a cruise is less expensive than a fertility clinic, and hey...if it doesn't work at least we still got a fun trip out of it to soften the saddness, right?

So, we left Sarah in good hands (A BIG thanks to Grams and Grampy AND Grandma and Grandpa for watching her while we were gone. She had a BLAST!) and we took off to the Caribbean. We had lots of fun adventures. We stopped in Costa Maya, Cozumel, Belize, and the Cayman Islands. It was a blast.

Unfortunately, we know now that it did not work as we hoped it would, so a fertility clinic is our next step, and if that doesn't work, adoption or just waiting I guess. A quote that I like that Tyler got on a block for his birthday is by Neal A. Maxwell "Faith in God, includes faith in His timing." I know that things will all work out the way they are supposed to and I just need to remember that God knows what is best for me and for our family and have patience. We really are loving our lives right now, and enjoying having Sarah be such a fun age. She lights up our lives and we truly are grateful for the blessings that we have in our lives.

Our trip was STILL FUN and we enjoyed ourselves. Here are some pictures from our adventures.

Our first port was Costa Maya. Here is our cruise ship behind us, Liberty of the Seas. Oh yeah, and a MONKEY on my shoulder!!!!! It was so cool!


In Costa Maya we got amazing $20 massages on a beach near this one.


then went and saw some Mayan ruins.


They really like foot statues in Costa Maya for some reason, so we of course had to have pictures by them. :) (this is why it's kinda fun having a Foote as your last name)

Our second port was Belize. We did jungle ziplining and cave tubing and bonded with our tour group. It was a blast being with these awesome people. In fact, we now have two honorary sons in Chicago. Here is a picture with our "sons." :) They called us "mom and dad."




Our next stop was Cozumel. We were supposed to go scuba diving, but the weather did not cooperate (70 mile and hour winds the night before). I was sad about missing out on scuba. Instead, we rented a scooter (but sadly took no pic of us on it!) and cruised around together. We hit up the beach and ate some real Mexican food. It was so yummy!



Our last port was Grand Cayman, and we hit up Sting Ray City. This was freaking me out for weeks before we got there. Surprisingly, I thought it was awesome, and wished we could have stayed a little longer. The guide assured us that we were safe and that this was a different kind of sting ray than killed Steve Irwin. He even put the barb in his mouth to show us there was nothing to fear. The sting rays are super soft feeling and come rub against your legs like cats. It was crazy and freaky at first. Then, when I was starting to think it was cool, it was time to leave.


Our cruise ship was a blast too. When we weren't playing in port. We relaxed and hit up some mini golf, flow rider, amazing food, ice skating, shows, fancy shmancy formal night, pools, games, reading, and just had fun being together.


THANK YOU TYLER FOR TAKING ME ON AN AMAZING TRIP! YOU'RE THE BEST AND I LOVE YOU!!!!

Green Eggs and Ham


Tyler is not a big fan of Corned beef and cabbage, so we decided to celebrate St. Patrick's Day the Dr. Seuss/kid and Tyler friendly way by having green eggs and ham. It was a lot of fun.


We also had green glow-in-the-dark forks that I got from the dollar store. It was awesome!


For dessert we had chocolate covered strawberries and kiwi. (I dipped them in green chocolate). Notice the nice kiwi in the shape of a shamrock? :)

Monday, January 11, 2010

Sarah, the goofy kid of ours

So we had Aunt Kimmy over the other night and Sarah started acting goofy. She really wanted to watch a princess movie so we put Anastasia on, you can tell she was really into it... or not.


Then she decided to start jumping off the couch, head first, she wanted to keep doing it so we put pillow down, but she was doing the same thing without pillow first, 3 times!


Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Katie Bungee Jumping

So we borrowed my cousins Jason's house for Sarah's birthday party last week, and let's just say, it's 1 part house, 3 parts amusement park. It was a blast, anyway, here is a video of Katie bungee jumping in the living room. :)


Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Opportunity Village Great Santa Run


IMG_1002
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

This was our second year participating in this 5K and it was a blast! Everyone wears Santa suits and we try to win the world record for the most Santas. It was a lot of fun to do this with Mom and Dad Foote and Kimmy (we missed everyone else who couldn't come). This is definitely a fun tradition I think we will keep doing.

The Classic Santa Picture


Sarah and Santa 2
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

Sarah was super excited to see Santa at the library until we set her on his lap then this happened. haha. It's classic. Don't worry she was happy as soon as she got a candy cane afterwards. No permanent damage done.

Upside down on the Y


Hike the Y 048
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

This was Danny's idea that I talked about in the last post: at the top of the Y you have to lie upside down on it. It was scarier to do than it looks and all the blood rushes to your head and you feel pressure like you are going to fall. Anyway, Danny didn't have very much support. I was supposed to be holding his feet to make sure he didn't fall and die--I'm afraid I barely held onto his toes. Good thing he is fearless....right? heehee

Hike the Y and Thanksgiving



Hike the Y 003
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

This year we got to celebrate a Foote/Kelly family Thanksgiving in Provo,UT. It was lots of fun and it was so good to see everyone. We squeezed in some dodgeball, temple sealings, Foote Christmas gift exchange, and even hit some black Friday sales while we were there. Even though it was a Foote Thanksgiving year we got a double bonus because we also got to stay at the Gunnells (my sister Mary and her fun family) house and go to the BYU vs. Utah football game with them too. It was a blast. Thanks guys! Tyler and I hiked the Y for the first time ever this trip with them and it feels good to say that I've done it. I can't believe I went to the Y all those years and never did it. I kind of regretted not doing it and so I feel good to have it checked off my list now. Yay. even laid upside down at the top of the Y (Danny's idea) and didn't die. I can say that I have lived now. And am officially a true blue cougar (now I just need to ride the Cougar because apparently that is another cliche BYU student thing that I missed out on) ;)

My little girl


Disneyland 2009 109
Originally uploaded by I am Tyler

I honestly love this little girl more than words can describe. I am so lucky that I get to be her mom.