Family Visit: Part 1

Alisha says: We really enjoyed having my parents and sister visit us this past week. We tried to show and do a variety of things to give them a good taste of Seattle.

Day 1: Downtown Seattle Day. We parked downtown and first had lunch in the revolving restaurant in the Space Needle. I wanted to do this before we moved and was really glad that we did. It was a cloudy day but we still got great views. After lunch we went up to the observation deck to look around some more before returning to ground level. We then walked through the Olympic Sculpture Park and along the water front to Pikes Place Market. It was great walking around in the middle of the day on a weekday, it was not busy at all. My dad loves fish and we stopped at each fish vendor so he could check them out. One place had smoked salmon and asked my dad if he wanted to taste it and then gave him a huge chunk, it was enough that we all could have several tastes. Yummy!

Day 2: After some light rain during the night we woke up to clear blue skies and warm temperatures, it was probably the nicest day so far of the year. We took a nice walk through the arboretum where the azaleas of many different colors were in full bloom. Our next activity was renting canoes from the UW and paddling around by the arboretum on Lake Washington. The water was smooth and we saw lots of ducks, a few dozen turtles sunning themselves on logs, a handful of herons (one eating a fish).
In the late afternoon we went to the Ballard Locks. We were lucky and got to watch a really big boat go through the locks as well as a few smaller ones.

Day 3: After a morning stroll at Magnuson Park we spent a wonderful afternoon at the Seattle Temple. I then had to battle Seattle rush hour traffic all the way to the airport and home. It was crazy but so worth it as we picked up my sister to join us for a few days. For dinner we took them to a Thai restaurant, not only was it Thai which is a bit adventurous for my family but it was a vegetarian Thai place. I don't think my dad has ever had thai or tofu before so I was a little nervous. We ordered a few dishes to share and hoped for the best. Everyone tried everything and they all said it was tasty, whew!

Whidbey Island Scenic Drive

Alisha says: Last weekend we opted for a scenic drive with a few small hikes/walks as our weekend adventure. We took the ferry short ferry crossing out of Mukilteo to Whibey Island. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time checking out a few different beaches and state parks. We walked around cute little towns with waterfront shops having a mid morning snack at a bakery in Langley and then having lunch with a view in Coupeville. One of my favorite stops was at Fort Casey State Park, it is an old army base has a light house that you can go in. We stopped at the always beautiful Deception Pass for a nap on the beach before driving across the bridge that connects the north end of the island to the mainland to continue our loop south on I-5 back to Seattle.

 Waiting for the ferry

 Double Bluff Beach

Lighthouse at Fort Casey 

 Afternoon nap at Deception Pass

We are moving to...

Dave says: We are moving to Phoenix, Arizona! This has been in the works for a bit but it's finally time to make the public announcement. We were just down in Phoenix last weekend and closed on an awesome house on the north-east side of Mesa. A few months ago, ASU invited me out to give a talk. The talk went well and afterwards they offered me a faculty position in the Management Department. Given that all my family is in Phoenix and Alisha's parents spend much of their time there, it was a great opportunity to return to Arizona. We'll be heading to Phoenix in June which is not ideal but at least we have a pool.

In addition to some work meetings at ASU, we had some fun during our trip including some hiking with my dad, some dinners at our new house with family and friends, and some relaxation in the warm, sunny weather.

IVF Part 5 : Blood Test Day

Alisha says:

March 31, 2015

Blood test day! I decided that I would wait until the blood test to find out the result of the transfer and not take any at home pregnancy tests. The two weeks between the transfer and blood test weren’t as bad as I thought they would be. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was constantly on my mind but luckily Dave had spring break and so we were able to do a few small adventures to keep us busy and give me things to look forward to. For the first week after the transfer I was instructed to take it easy so we visited two museums (The Burke Museum and the Asian Art Museum) and went on a few walks. The second week we added a little more activity including a run to foster island, a few mountain bike outings, and a hike. It sounds like a lot but I kept it at a low intensity. Finally the day of the blood test arrived. I went to the clinic and everyone was excited for me to find out. I told the medical assistant who took my blood that I didn’t take any at home tests so when they called it would be the first I would know.  After drawing my blood she told me that it would take about 45 minutes to process and that I should get a call around noon. I drove home and then anxiously watched TV for the next hour waiting for the call. I think I was the most anxious waiting for the call that I have been through this whole process. Finally the phone rang and she told me that it was a good day and I had a positive test! Yay! I wasn’t sure how I would react, I didn’t cry but I just felt really happy. My HCG was right around 1,000 which is a great number. I am 4 weeks 5 days and have a due date of December 3^rd! Another cool piece of information she gave me was that I get to have an ultrasound on April 6^th to find out if one or two embryos implanted. We are flying out early on the 6^th to Phoenix so she said I could do it on the 5^th. I have been toying with the idea of not telling anyone if we have one or two until we find out the gender.  Most people who get pregnant by traditional means don’t tell people for a few weeks after they find out they are pregnant but I feel like going through IVF most family/friends close to us have known what was going on at each step so I haven’t had any secrets. I don’t know, we will see what we decide.

We were also supposed to close on our Arizona house today. By mid afternoon it was looking like that wasn’t going to happen because one more thing needed to be signed off in order for our loan to get funded. This was a bit stressful because we would be in breach of our contract if it didn’t close by 5pm. After a lot of time spent on the phone we got an extension until Friday. We hope it doesn’t take that long and that everything will get signed off.

April 5^th, 2015
We got to have an ultrasound today to find out if we are pregnant with a singleton or twins. Jo did the ultrasound and said that we wouldn’t be able to see anything except for the gestational sac but we would find out if there was one or two. I thought that we would have one and sure enough she was only able to find one sac. We are just so happy to be pregnant that we will take whatever we can get.

Bainbridge Island

Dave says: Last Saturday was nice and sunny even though the temperature was a bit cold. We took the ferry from downtown Seattle out to Bainbridge Island with our bikes and did a fun loop around the south end. It takes about 30 minutes on the ferry to get out to the island. Some of the highlights from the trip include lunch at the crepes shop, sections of path right along the waterfront, and some really nice parks to stop at for some views.

Tulips Everywhere!

Alisha says: Visiting the tulip fields in Mount Vernon has been on my list of things to do for quite a while. From what I read online about them, they usually bloom mid to late April but because we have had such a mild winter they bloomed much earlier this year. We planned a weekday trip in order to try to avoid the crowds. It still seemed busy and was hard to get pictures without people in them but we still had a great time walking around the fields. I think Dave was getting annoyed by the end with all of the pictures I wanted to take. I couldn't help myself, it was so beautiful. The big fields of such vibrant colors were really amazing.

After visiting the tulip fields we then did a 6.5 mile hike to Oyster Dome. It was a great hike through the forest to a rock with an amazing view out to the San Juan Islands.