We did a great little hike that even Lucy was able to do all on her own. If you head up towards Payson Lake, on your way up look for a sign that says The Grotto and a dirt parking lot. The trail was gorgeous with lots of little bridges to cross and within 15 minutes you are at a beautiful waterfall. Amazing!
The Endan all night tummy ache that resulted in more showers, sheet changes and showings of Elmo I care to count. I HOPE we're on the mend.
I haven't been shy about my involvement in politics (a subject I know puts many of you to sleep-which make me sad). At any rate, it was very energizing to be a part of a very grass roots level of trying to help Tim Bridgewater get elected to the senate.
Below are some of my dear campaigning friends: Jodie, Me, Heidi and Leslie. These ladies are awesome and it was great to talk with them about things I feel so passionately about.
I know this picture is dark, but it represents the night so well. We went to the Bridgewater result party and while many were up in the front watching the results come in on a projector-we huddled around a little computer we had hijacked from somebody so we could refresh the page as often as our anxious selves wanted to . . .
The night was full of a lot of excitement and opportunities to meet some great people. To me, the hardest part of the night was seeing so many well informed individuals that I really respect there backing this great candidate and he still didn't win! I know I am biased (but my thoughts have been backed by numerous journalist as well), but I just felt like the other candidate was full of great philosophical ideas that people jumped on board about but they they were lacking real solutions while Tim was full of great solutions that really could have turned our country and Utah around.
In the end, we were left disappointed. Disappointed that our candidate didn't win. Disappointed that negative/dishonest campaigning won over a campaign of high integrity. And most of all, disappointed that only about 15% of Utahans cared enough to vote to elect their next senator.
The following quote best describes how I feel:
Oh, but I am proud to say, I did not swear once the entire night (not something many of those around me could claim ;)
My body and mind have gone through so much in the past short while that I am afraid this will be somewhat random, but I wanted to let you all know how we are doing and pass on these words of advice:
-We truly are at peace and the tears did not last much past a day. It was a very sad day of tears, but the days since have shown us MANY silver linings to our cloud of sadness.
-I did have a crazy bout with hormones/emotions for about a day, two weeks after the miscarriage. They were the crazy kind you get right after having a baby. It was rough. I think we've pulled through though.
-I thought I knew what it meant to have a broken heart or heartache. I had no idea just how deeply my heart could ache. I mean physically ache. I know this experience has empowered me to better "comfort those that stand in need of comfort" and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to become more like Heavenly Father and serve His children.
-Having a miscarriage is both emotionally and physically painful. I did not realize just how physically painful it would be (I have planned c-sections-I had never felt a contraction before-I have now!). My friend who has had 5 natural births and 2 miscarriages, assures me I have experienced labor. May I suggest that if any of you find yourself in this situation that you request pain medication to aid you through the process.
-I had no idea just how much tissue and how many clots I would pass. There is a lot of stuff that passes with a miscarriage. I would keep towels/cleaning supplies nearby.
-You and your husband will probably deal with the loss in different ways and neither way of dealing with it will be wrong.
-It really helped to have so many dear friends call, email, comment, text, come over, etc in our time of need. I was really in quite a fog with it all and did not return any calls, emails, etc. Please know, your compassion was deeply felt and greatly needed even if I did not personally respond to you.
-We can do hard things.
My Grandma along with her 6 sisters have a reunion each year for all of their posterity. It always turns out to be a lot of fun.
Here David is playing in a fountain-as you can see Grandma is supervising this quite well while Mom took pictures. Then we let Dad clean him up ;)
The early birds go golfing. The course in Tooele was beautiful. I always love the time we have together when we're golfing.
There's my Pro Golfer Hubby . . .
Three generations of Sampson ladies. Can you believe my Grandma is 85? She is amazing.
Grandma found a best friend in David as soon as she started to share her popcorn.
There is something very wonderful and incredibly relaxing about being around family. I am grateful for my heritage and I look forward to passing on this great legacy to my children.
You can come too . . . (seriously, you can come too because we've got an annual pass and I can take a guest for FREE and kids 2 and under are just $3! Who's in?)
on the ski lift (Marc forgot his hat and the bandanna was the cheapest thing at the gift shop so that's what he got. He put it on, looked at me and said, "I'll be your Brett Michaels." I totally melted ;)
hiking (standing in a mini waterfall)
at Stewart Falls
The day ended with yummy cupcakes, ice cream and dear friends . . .
And then we got our Daddy all to ourselves and we were reminded once again just how lucky we are to have such an incredible man in our lives.When your big sister is done with her cupcake and you're sitting next to her and Mom can't quite reach you in the backseat . . . .
I just have to write this down. Lucy doesn't quite understand what the phrase, "It's not your fault" means.
Often when she is upset at something she will say, "It's not your fault!". When we ask, "Whose fault is it?" She will insist that, "It's MY fault!" Sometimes we tease her and say things like, "Actually I think it's Daddy's fault" and she will get upset with us and say once again, "NO. It's MY fault!"
The other day when we working in the garden, she turned to me and said, "Mom, I don't think that's the best idea."
Another funny thing she said was when I told her she could have just one more piece of candy her response was, "I can respect that."
This 2 1/2 year-old cracks us up!
Love,Not sure where you should vote THIS Tuesday, June 22nd? Go here and you will know in a matter of seconds!
And as far as the U.S. Senate race is concerned, in my humble opinion, I would highly recommend that you vote for Tim Bridgewater!
You deserve a wonderful day full of dear friends, loving family, sunny outdoors and yummy food. You are what makes our life so worth living. You make everything better the moment you walk through the door. We all can't wait for Daddy to come home. You protect us, you make us laugh and you wrestle with us. We love you to forever. We LIKE most things about you and we LOVE everything about you!!!Our little family experienced a very sad day yesterday and through it all I found a lot of comfort in what I had read through the years on various friends' blogs. So, if you do not appreciate reading too personal of things on blogs, I invite you to stop reading.
6/10/10
Today was a sad day. I was 8 ½ weeks pregnant and began to bleed. My Dr. said bleeding was not uncommon around 9 weeks and we just needed to do an ultrasound to see what was going on. Marc came home from work and we went to the ultra sound. It was a very sad site when all they could pull up was a dark black sac. I knew from having an eight-week ultrasound with David that if a baby was forming, we would have seen it.
The tech explained that what I had was a blighted ovum. It happens in as many as 60% of potential pregnancies. What happens is when the cells divide, the sac and lining are made and the hormones go up, but the baby never forms.
Everything makes sense in my head. I get that there was never even a physical baby in me. I get that I am blessed with two beautiful children. I even know that The Lord showed me multiple tender mercies that prepared me for the fact that I would be having a miscarriage.
I know that before I got pregnant a third time I was scared. I felt that we had been so lucky to have two healthy babies with no real complications. I thought maybe we should just stop while we were ahead. I hadn’t had a miscarriage, our children are healthy, etc, etc. And then I was reminded that I was a woman who had made covenants to sacrifice. And I recommitted to The Lord that I would go through all that was asked of me.
I know I am on The Lord’s side. I know He can call me His. I know He knows I would give my all to the building of His kingdom. I know I feel closer to The Lord because of my experience. I know that I more clearly understand the will and the ways of Heavenly Father because of this experience. I know that I am at peace with what has occurred and that The Lord’s timing is once again being implemented in my life and it will, as it always has been, be what is for the best. I know there is another baby waiting to join our family, and will join us someday soon. I KNOW all of this.
And I also know that my heart is just simply broken. My mind completely gets it but my heart is just aching. I know all will be well, but today I am also very sad.
What does the Father ask of us? What do the scriptures say?
Have faith, have hope, live like his Son, help others on their way. --Mabel Jones Gabbott
This is Lucy wearing one of the flower girl dresses from our wedding. It was actually the dress our niece, Kylie, wore and she was about a year younger than Lucy is now (thus the length being a bit on the short side, I promise we did not promote mini skirt wearing at our wedding). They also wore yellow ribbons for our wedding but the yellow ribbon was a bit worn. At any rate, it was really fun to see my daughter wear a dress from my wedding day . . .
And here is just a little more cuteness for you to enjoy . . .
We ran our first 5k as a family this weekend at our favorite 5k (The Art City Days 5k). We had a lot of fun and I met my goal of jogging pretty much the whole thing (there was a VERY steep hill I chose to walk up, but the rest, we jogged!)
A great memory we will take from this race will be forgetting the handlebar to the jogging stroller!!! The race was literally seconds away from starting and we could not find the handlebar anywhere. My amazing husband looked up, smiled and said, "I guess I'll have to push it like this." And he did-the WHOLE way!
The race is sponsored by Nestle so they handed out ice cream bars at the end. Lucy thought this was great and she was also thrilled to be out of the stroller. She couldn't help but to dance with all the excitement!
Here we all are! David was such a trooper. At one point he sang to us during the race. He loves being in the stroller and just relaxes with his feet up.
Way to go team!I kept thinking I wasn't "allowed" to cut David's hair until he turned a year. I wasn't sure why I felt this way until I mentioned to my Mom and Sister a few months ago that I thought I would trim David's hair. They both informed me that you do NOT cut a baby's hair until their 1st birthday. I then knew where my idea came from.
I waited to cut his hair just in time for his 1st birthday. I kept him busy in his highchair with some Cheerios and snipped away.
5/29/10
Some yummy treats with boy things like baseballs and footballs on them
A game where everyone guessed what they thought David would do when he grew up. Then we put an item representing each field (eg: a stethoscope for medical, a book for education, a microphone for entertainment, etc). Whichever item he grabbed first would represent the field he chose. He picked the stethoscope so I drew a name from the medical cup and Grandpa was the winner!
Lots of little friends having fun being outside.
Some serious spoiling from both of his Grandmas
The Grandpas solved the world's problems while the Grandmas spoiled.
Yummy BBQ from Dad
Very proud and grateful parents
Pointy hats
Cake!!!
And lots of great presents. This boy sure is loved by a lot of wonderful people.
Happy 1st Birthday David! We love you. You brighten our world. You make us smile more. You bring a joy to our home accompanied with a wonderful amount of laughter. Thanks for the best year yet.
