Labor Day Weekend Fun

Alisha says: We spent the long three day weekend with Christine's family in Flagstaff. It was great to escape the heat and hang out in the pine trees for a few days. Highlights from the trip include:

Hiking the Old Cave Crater Trail: This is a short hike just outside of Flagstaff. Dave and I took Christine's girls aged 4-8 and this was a great hike for them. There were a few small caves for them to explore at the top.

Walnut Canyon National Monument: This is a cool monument where you can easily look across the canyon and view about 80 cliff dwellings built by the Sinagua between 1125 and 1250 AD.

Mountain Biking on Campbell Mesa and part of the Arizona Trail by the Snowbowl. These are the easiest, smooth, non technical trails around Flagstaff. I never thought I would still be doing any mountain biking at 27 weeks pregnant but I am still feeling great, my belly is getting bigger but it's not in the way yet.

Exploring the Flagstaff Lava River Tube Cave: It is an impressive one mile long lava tube that is spacious enough to handle the steady stream of people that were there on the holiday weekend. I wasn't sure about taking all of Christine's kids in the cave as the ground was really uneven and you had to do some rock scrambling but they all did great.

Switch-A-Roo

Alisha says: I finally had my 2nd trimester ultrasound/anatomy scan done on Tuesday at almost 26 weeks. Usually you have this scan done a little earlier like between 20-22 weeks but because of the move/switching insurance/a miscommunication at ob office it just happened this week. The last ultrasound I had was in Seattle at 12 weeks where it was too early to see the gender in the ultrasound but we did a blood test with my blood that tested for a few genetic disorders and in addition to this information it could also tell you the gender of the baby. The results came back as XY-male. So for the past 14 weeks we have been telling people that we are having a boy, calling the baby a he, and thinking of boy names.

Fast forward to the anatomy scan and after checking out the brain, heart, and other organs and finding everything looking good the ultrasound tech then says that she is confident that this baby is a girl. Say what? That is not what we were expecting to hear as the blood test is supposed to be 99.8% accurate for boys. We are happy to get either a boy or a girl but we were both a little confused. We decided to get a second independent opinion and so on Thursday we had another quick scan done and right away the ultrasound tech said that it looks like a girl. She even did some 3D ultrasound and that made it really easy to see the baby's plumbing and everything looked like a little girl.

After talking to some doctors and doing some research I think I know what happened. So we transferred two embryos through IVF, both embryos did implant but at an appointment I had at 6 1/2 weeks only one them had a heartbeat, it is also called a vanishing twin. I think that I had a male and female embryo transferred and that the male one didn't make it but because both did implant the test picked up a trace amount of Y chromosome and thought that I was having a boy.

It's been a little crazy and I haven't been sure how to feel about it, most importantly we want the baby to be healthy. I've had to almost mourn a little bit for the little boy that I had been imagining and planning for and at the same time I'm excited for our little girl. It has just been a big switch in thinking, not good or bad, just different. We are just thrilled to finally be having a baby!

It's A Girl

In other news last week I had a tooth that began aching. I hoped that it would go away but it got to where I could not use my molars to chew on the right side of my mouth. I got into the dentist on Thursday and found out I had an infection under a tooth that I had already had a root canal/crown on and the root looked cracked so really the only option left was to pull it. So on Friday morning I was back to have the oral surgeon remove it and then the dentist put in a temporary bridge while it heals. I was so sad at the loss of my tooth and afterwards it was really painful. My cheek ached and throbbed and swelled up. It looked like I had my wisdom teeth out and the pain meds you are allowed to take when pregnant don't really do much so I was miserable for a few days. On top of it all Dave and I were scheduled to speak in our sacrament meeting that Sunday. He was so kind and said that I could just give a short talk or that he would take up my portion of time as well as his own but I decided to brave it and gave a shortened version of my talk with my swollen cheek and all.

Wow, I look terrible :)

Payson Hiking

Alisha says: Saturday we went to Payson to do some hiking. We enjoyed the cooler temperatures up on the Mogollon Rim as we hiked around Woods Cross Lake. After lunch in town we decided to do one more little hike to Ellison Creek Waterfall.

I am still riding about everyday just at a slower and slower pace, we usually get in 20-25 miles. We love to look for the wild Salt River horses when we ride out that way. We were luck to see a bunch hanging out by the water so we stopped to check them out and Dave also snapped a picture of my 25 week baby bump.

Split Vacations

Alisha says: Last week Dave went to his yearly work conference called Academy of Management. This year it was held in Vancouver, British Columbia and I was really sad that I couldn't join him so instead of hanging around blazing hot Mesa alone I took off in our new (to us) 2015 Subaru Forester to visit my parents in Utah. My mom and I had a very productive week doing a few projects to help me get ready for this baby. We made burp clothes, hooded baby towels and a cute flannel baby blanket. I also went for a little hiking outing to Cedar Breaks with Shannon. Originally I thought I would be road tripping alone but I ended up bringing my mom and Shane back to Arizona with me. Shane had a few interviews set up and so it worked out great that I could bring him down to stay with us while he continued his job search.

Our First Visitors

Alisha Says: We brought Mandy, Shane, Brody, and Elsie back to Mesa to stay with us for a week. Although I normally wouldn't suggest Phoenix for a vacation destination in July we actually had a lot of fun spending time in pool, floating the Salt River and visiting the Children's museum.

Halfway through this pregnancy, 20 weeks down and 20 to go!

Road Trip

Alisha says: Phoenix- Richfield- Price- Park City- Salt Lake City- Park City- Cedar City- Phoenix. July has been filled with lots of driving and family time.

Richfield, UT- First of all my Grandpa Christensen passed away on June 27th. We were all sad but also relieved that he was finally at peace so our road trip started with a long drive to Richfield to attend his funeral. Funerals are never fun but it was really good to see and catch up with lots of my aunts, uncles and cousins that I haven't seen for a long time.

Price, UT- After the funeral we were invited to Amber's house in  to spend and celebrate the 4th of July weekend. We spent some time at the park enjoying the 4th of July activities, ate a yummy dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, and watched fireworks.

Park City, UT- Dave was invited to do some mountain biking with his friend who lives in Tucson but owns a condo and spends some of the summer in Park City. I joined them for two days and we mountain biked some really cool less technical trails like Mid Mountain and Flying Dog.

Salt Lake City, UT- I left Dave in Park City for a few days so that they could hit the ski lift trails and more technical stuff and spent a few days with Richard and Brittany. It was fun playing with Arley and Olivia.

Park City, UT- Back to Park City I went to pick up Dave and squeeze in one more mountain bike ride before starting our journey back the next day.

Cedar City, UT- We headed to my parents house to stay one night before heading back. Mandy and her family drove down from Logan and met us there because they were going to be coming back with us to Phoenix for a little vacation/job search.

Phoenix, AZ- The next day we loaded up our mazda 5 to the brim with six people, two bikes, and all of our stuff for the long drive back.

It's A ......................

Alisha says: BOY!!