Sally's Journey to Buffalo

Once upon a time, a pretty little baby named Sally boarded a plane to journey across the country to meet her Auntie Natalie (and surprise her for her 35th birthday!).

Actually, Sally's journey started a few hours before she boarded the plane--it started when she and her mother left their comfortable home in Twin Falls, Idaho and drove three hours across the barren wasteland of southern Idaho so they could catch their plane in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Honestly, whose idea was it to move to a small town without a major airport??)

Our cute little heroine didn't mind the drive too much--she only cried a little--and she was thrilled when her mother stopped in the middle of nowhere to feed her a bottle and give her a turn behind the wheel.  (The driving age in Idaho is much lower than it is in other parts of the nation.)

After their road trip, Sally's mother was exhausted--so Sal promised to be good on the flight.  She kept her promise, but she was just so excited that she couldn't stop wiggling!  Mommy and Baby did a lot of bouncing, juggling, walking, patty-cake, and playing with toys as they flew across the country.  It was exhausting.  Thankfully, Sally finally napped a little.

They stopped briefly in Minneapolis--but the stop was so brief that they had to sprint across the airport and didn't have time to stop for dinner or a diaper change.  Sally was so hungry that she decided to eat her foot.

Needless to say, when they finally arrived in Buffalo, they both rejoiced.

And Sally did a little yoga to loosen up after her tiring day of being crammed in airplane seats.

Eleven hours of traveling were all made worth it when they saw the look on Auntie Natalie's face.  SURPRISE!  We are here to celebrate your birthday with you, Auntie Natalie!  They spent a fabulous birthday weekend with her, going out for a girls' lunch, getting pedicures, and shopping for Christmas presents for friends and family.  

Sally also got to meet many other very important people, such as her Uncle Adrian (who sponsored their surprise visit--thank you, Adrian!) and her other "aunties," including Laney, Deborah, Sherry, Danielle, Kristen, Julie, and Melissa.  (I'm sad we didn't get photos with all of them.  How could I have forgotten to take a quick photo with my former work colleagues at the Cheesecake Factory?)

Sally wished she could have met even more people whom her mama loves in Buffalo, but it was a very short trip!  Next time!!

The journey home was much easier than the way there because the Daytons were actually headed to Utah on the same flight so they could celebrate Christmas with their families.  Having a few more helping hands on the way home made things much more manageable and fun for Mama.

Sally's only regret was that she didn't come home from Buffalo with an awesome track suit to match the Dayton boys (who, by the way, clearly got their love of track suits from Rachel).

All in all, it was a fabulous trip to the Buff, and Sally was truly a trooper.  She was so good, in fact, that this airplane journey might not be her last.

The end.

Back from the Buff

We are home, and Ryan is happy!  In fact, when he pulled up at the airport, he had this sign with him:

My favorite line on the sign is "Never leave me again."  It made me laugh.  We did keep in touch with Ryan as much as we could through the miracle of Skype.  It was amazing how Noah recognized him and responded to him, even over the computer!

Noah and I had a great trip.  Our flights to and from the Buff were actually quite bearable because I was able to bring Noah's car seat on for two of the legs.  He is surprisingly calm when he's all nuzzled into his car seat.  When he's in my lap...well that's a different story.  He climbs all over me, grabs my glasses, dumps his snacks on the ground, arches his back and screams in protest when I try to hold him still...you know, typical active nine-month old behavior.  (Thank goodness I only had to hold him in my lap for two of our four flights.)  Despite how active he is, Noah is really fun to travel with because he is so friendly.  He smiles at everyone who makes eye contact with him, and I love hearing people goosh about how cute he is.  The kid is a real charmer.

We had the most wonderful week in Buffalo seeing old friends.  My "Buffalo Family" were the people who supported me during our years of infertility and adoption stress, so it was really fun for me to introduce them to Noah.  Some of them had met him in Utah when he was a tiny baby, but now he's so full of personality that it was almost like they were meeting him all over again.

We stayed with several different friends throughout the week, and I worried that Noah wouldn't do well with so much change and moving around, but he was a trooper and did just fine.  My only complaint was that he woke up at 5 a.m. every morning! (He's always been an early riser but 5 a.m. NY time is 3 a.m. CO time...what the heck??)  I think his favorite part of the trip was playing with my friends' kids.  They were so cute together.  Laney's kids, Henry and Milly, were quite obsessed with Noah.  When he was napping, Milly would wander all over the house saying, "Baby?  Noah?" I guess she's been asking for him ever since we left.  And Henry was so sweet with Noah--he wanted to feed him and hold him and snuggle with him.  He climbed into Noah's pack-n-play one day, and Milly soon followed. :)

Natalie's son Taylor was also very excited about Noah and would make airplane noises as he fed him baby food (until he would say the food just smelled "too gross" and he couldn't take it anymore--hilarious).  I remember when Taylor was a newborn baby ("Mr. Flops," as I called him), and he would sleep in my arms while I graded papers.  I have watched this little boy grow up, and it's so fun to see him with my little boy.  I think they look like they could be brothers!

I also saw several of my beloved colleagues from the high school.  They really are beloved, and I miss them so much.  It was a privilege to work for four years with people who became some of my favorite friends in the world--it made going to work every day fun.

We went to Letchworth State Park with Sherry

Sue, the high school librarian, hosted a get-together at her house.
Lots of my former colleagues came, and it was so fun to see everyone.
(Wish I would've gotten more photos.)

 English teachers and their babies!
Love these ladies!

Now that I am back home, I am trying to process how the trip made me feel.  It made me so happy to spend time with such kindred spirits, but it also made me a little sad because I am no longer near all of those people whom I love so much.  When I saw my old friends, it felt like I had never left.  But I have left, and that's just kind of a weird realization.  I miss having friends that are so close that we can go for coffee/steamed milk and talk for hours about all of the serious things of life.  I miss having friends that are so close that I can sleepover at their houses and feel 100% comfortable stumbling out of my room in the morning, still in my PJs with my hair a mess and my teeth unbrushed, to sit down with the family around the breakfast table.  It takes time to build friendships like these, and it's hard to move on to a new chapter, as good as that new chapter might be.

All in all, I'm just grateful.  I'm grateful to have friendships like these.  I'm grateful that distance and time doesn't change friendships like these.  I'm grateful that God gave us four wonderful years in Buffalo, New York and that He is granting us a new adventure now.  I am grateful to know that He wants us to have kindred spirits wherever we live, and He has already guided me to some wonderful friends here in Colorado.  I am grateful that He brought us close to family right before Noah was born because, as a friend in Buffalo told me right before I moved, "No one loves your babies as much as your family."  God is good, and life is good.

And on an unrelated note--it's Mothers' Day week!  I have a lot of thoughts on motherhood, so hopefully I can do a few mother-related posts this week (as soon as I get unpacked and get my life back in order--we've been home since Saturday night, and I still have stuff in suitcases and laundry to be done).

Off to work!

"Could we have supposed?"

Today was a down day.  I cried actual real tears (a big deal for me) because I miss Buffalo so much.  We had a magical four years living there.  So many wonderful people and experiences.  I treasure the friendships that we made there, and I miss it with all of my heart.

Interestingly, when Ryan was interviewing for dental school, we almost took Buffalo off of the list.  He had several interviews around the country, and it was getting expensive to fly him to all of them, so we looked at the list and said, "Where is the least likely place that we will go?"  Buffalo seemed so far away--and so expensive for a plane ticket--and so cold in the winter.  We decided to take it off the list.  But then we got a call from Ryan's mom saying that she was going to use some of her credit card miles to buy his ticket to New York.  If it hadn't been for Sally's gift, we never would've ended up in Buffalo.

I have written before about the experience of driving into Buffalo for the first time, alone in a strange city so far from home.  Little did we know then the good things that were to come.

In the Book of Mormon, Ammon is reflecting back on his years as a missionary, and he says, "...behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?" (Alma 26:1)

This is how I feel.  Could we have supposed when we left our comfortable life in Provo, Utah that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?

Then "how great reason have [I] to rejoice."

But I didn't feel like rejoicing today.  I felt a deep ache inside, knowing that a season of my life that I loved is over, and I can't ever rewind time and relive it.

In spite of this ache in my heart, my mind is telling me that everything is going to be okay--that God has not forgotten us--and if He lead us to Buffalo, then He surely lead us to Denver as well.

Ryan felt that his residency interview in Denver was one of his worst.  He didn't think there was a chance under heaven that he would get accepted here, and I was okay with that because I wasn't quite ready to move back to my hometown--I wanted another "adventure" in a totally different part of the country.  Consequently, Ryan did not rank the program in Denver very high on his "match list."

And yet here we are.

Just as we didn't intend to go to Buffalo for dental school, we didn't intend to come to Denver for residency.  So I am hoping that the parallel experiences will continue, and, in two years, I will reflect back on this time and say "could we have supposed"when we left our home in Buffalo that God would grant unto us such great blessings in our home in Denver?

I know that there are good things to come.

The Big Move

The cross-country move ended up being quite a production!!  I don’t know how people do this with an entire family and a house full of stuff.  Just moving the two of us and our one-bedroom apartment was enough stress to last me for several years!

Moving preparations began in earnest on May 7^th, when my good friend Nelda flew in from Utah just to visit and help me (seriously, could there be a better friend?).  She packed box after box and even photographed our furniture and wrote our Craigslist advertisements for us.

Our friends will all agree that the ugliest piece of furniture that we own is a ghetto-plastic-grandma lamp that we purchased four years ago when we moved to Buffalo.  I really don’t know what we were thinking when we bought it, as it is truly one of the most heinous lamps I’ve ever seen, but the price was right, and it spread a lot of light in our dark living room.

Anyway, here is a photo of Nelda with our beloved lamp:

And here is the Craigslist posting that she wrote about it:

“Truly unique plastic floor lamp for sale. Features a tall tube of frosted white plastic, edged with gold plastic trim, attached to a plastic base. The flared top piece spreads light rather elegantly, for a lamp made entirely of plastic.”

I giggled when I read it.

Sadly, there were no takers on the “elegant” plastic lamp, and so we moved it with us to Colorado, and it just might make an appearance in our new apartment!

A few days after Nelda left Buffalo, our family arrived for Ryan’s graduation.  In addition to partying with us all weekend, they rolled up their sleeves and packed and cleaned.  It was sooo nice to have so many willing helpers.  (Although I am quite humiliated that my mother-in-law deep cleaned our bathroom, including scrubbing our bathtub, toilet, and floor!  MILs are not supposed to see that their sons live in such filth.  Luckily, my MIL is a saint, and she didn't care.)

You are probably thinking that, with that many helpers, we should’ve been about done, but there was still so much work to be done.  I was planning to just stay up all night on the night before I left Buffalo, but two of my favorite friends came to the rescue.  They texted around 10:00 p.m., and when they found out I was still working with hours left to go, they came over to help.  Thanks, Laney and Natalie!

When we were all finished at 1 a.m., we decided to set off a few fireworks to celebrate so many good years in Buffalo.  I was a little nervous about disturbing the neighbors, but I figured that they had disturbed us enough times that it was probably fine.  We set off a couple of illegal fireworks we got in Canada last summer (I am a rebel), and we did some sparklers and shared memories.

Ryan sets up the illegals...

The next morning, I left on a flight to Seattle for one of my best friend’s weddings (more on that in a later post), and Ryan stayed behind to finish the cleaning and complete the first “leg” of the cross-country journey by himself.  He is a trooper.

After loading up the moving truck with the help of only one friend (thanks, Taylor), he got on the road and started the long trek to St. Louis by himself.

Mid-day, I texted and asked, “How are you doing?”

He responded, “Just riding along with a smile on my face!” and sent this photo:

I forwarded it to my dad, who responded, “Ryan is the ROAD WARRIOR!”

But even Road Warriors get tired.  When I texted Ry at 1 a.m., as he was just arriving in St. Louis after 13 hours, and said, “I love you,”  he responded, “Even when I am grumpy, ornery, and irritable?”

Poor Ry.

Luckily for him, after the wedding, I flew to St. Louis and met him for the second half of the trip.  We also picked up my older sister, Sarah, her husband, Logan, and their son, Callum.  (Logan is completing his residency in General Surgery in Denver, as well.  Funnest!)  We loaded all of their stuff into our moving truck, and together, we caravanned across the mid-west (through several frightening storms that we were afraid would become tornadoes) until we finally reached Denver at 3 a.m., after 14 hours of driving, with a screaming two year old in the backseat.  I have never been so relieved to arrive home in my life!

Here is a video of Ryan and Callum, telling a little bit about the trip:

These two are big buddies

After our arrival in Colorado three weeks ago, we helped my sister and her husband unload and move into their new place (they will be living with my dad), we went apartment hunting and checked out way more places than I wanted to (Ryan likes to consider all of his options), we found a good apartment and went through all of the paperwork and rigmarole (this part is seriously annoying), we moved all of our boxes into our new place and unpacked most of them (thanks, Sarah and Logan), we met with our adoption caseworker twice (she is really nice, and everything is going swimmingly), we planted my dad's gardens and cleaned out his crawl space (Dad loves having his "Slave Girls" in town), and we boarded a plane and spent seventeen hours traveling to...are you ready for this?...HAWAII for a reunion with Ryan's family (yes, Hawaii...are we lucky or what?).


More photos and stories to come!

Graduation Weekend

So behind on blogging!!

Ryan and I made it to Colorado (more on the move and the road trip coming in a later post), and we have spent the last few days frantically searching for an apartment.  We are staying with my dad for now, but we need an apartment ASAP, so we can get it "home studied" and approved for our upcoming adoption.  It's been a hectic couple of days!

BUT...before I get into our Colorado adventure, I need to wrap up our Buffalo adventure...which means that I need to write about Graduation Weekend!

The festivities started on Thursday night with a fancy banquet honoring all of the graduating seniors:

The sexy wives...right, boys (oh yeah, you're all doctors now, so I should call you "men")?

The boys men
Ezra and Tom squatted down, so Chris and Ryan wouldn't feel short. :)

While we were at the banquet, our parents were flying into town, and on Friday, we took them to Palmyra, New York.

We went to the Mormon temple:

And to the Sacred Grove:

The weather was gorgeous and absolutely perfect.  Don't believe me?  I'll prove it:

That night, we went to see the musical Wicked at Sheas theater downtown.  It was soooooo good:

Saturday was the big graduation!  Congratulations, Dr. Ry!!

Buddies from the dental class
Beecher, Jason, Ezra, Chris, Thayne, Ryan, Creed, Scott, Bron

Proud parents

Proud wife!

After church on Sunday, we decided to have a few friends over for dinner.  It was a great time.  We gave them some little "gag gifts" to remember us by.  In attendance:

The Schroeders

The Daytons and Deb

The Hawes

Taylor and Henry in teeth costumes with their future pedodontist

Monday, my dad and Ryan's dad had to leave mid-day, so that night, we had a party with Ryan's mom Sally in her hotel room.  We ate treats, watched the Justin Bieber movie (yes, we did--I know we're pathetic), and went hot tubbing.  I love my mother-in-law!!

I love taking photos using the timer!

It was a very very fun weekend, and I'm so glad that our parents came to town to celebrate.  They also helped us pack and clean our apartment, and I don't know what we would've done without them.

Sorry this blog post reads rather like a report...stories to come in the near future!

Final Hurrah

My friends from school threw a baby shower/going away party for me.  I loved it.  I am going to miss these ladies A LOT:

From left to right:

Kary: Her baby boy is due in June! :) She and I co-advised the literary magazine together this year, and we had fun!

Julie: Her baby boy is due in August, right after ours.  It makes me happy to see her so cute and pregnant because it gives me a gauge for how our boy is growing.  She is so delightful and has been a great friend.

Melissa:  Melissa has been on maternity leave this year, but she decided to come back to finish the school year for me.  So she is currently teaching my classes, and the kids are thrilled because she is awesome.

Lisa:  Lisa and I started teaching at the high school the same year, and we became fast friends.  I will miss our outings to Panera and TGIFridays.

Kristen: We co-advised the literary magazine for a year.  She has been one of my biggest supporters during the past two years of fertility treatments and adoption drama.  We shared a free period this year, and I would vent to her every day, and she has the best advice and words of comfort.

Danielle: We job-shared this year.  She taught two classes in the morning, and I taught three classes in the afternoon.  Danielle is brilliant and I learned so much from teaching with her.  She encouraged me to teach one of the Honors classes this year, and it was a great experience.  I will miss our "steamed milk dates" where we discussed literature and life.

Awesome self-portrait

Sherry:  I've written about Sherry before.  My first three years at the high school, I taught the "blended" classes which have a high concentration of students who have Individual Education Plans.  Sherry was my special education co-teacher.  We planned and taught together, and we became great friends.  I will miss laughing together about our crazy students!

And here we are getting excited about the baby!

My favorite gifts were from Sherry because she made reference to some of the novels that we have taught together.

The note with this little ducky robe read, "Now you can answer with confidence when your son asks you, 'Where do the ducks go in the winter?'."  Name that novel!

The note with this ensemble said, "I hope there's a little bit of McMurphy in your son's personality.  Better brush up on your poker...'Hey ya! Hey ya! Hey ya!'"  One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, anyone?

Many other favorite colleagues attended the party, but unfortunately I didn't get a photo with everyone.  I have had the best work environment in the world these past four years.  I will miss it!!!