Our little get-away

Last week was very atypical for Bryndon and me. 

First of all, let it be known that Bryndon finished the infamous 3rd year of Med School (the most difficult of the 4 years)!!! So he only has 1 more year until graduation with his MD! Then we'll start the just-as-long-if-not-longer road of Residency and possibly Fellowship in a mystery location or two or three. What that means is that it's possible that his first year of Residency (the Intern year, as it's called) could be in a different location than the next 3 years of specialty, and then if he does a Fellowship (not a sure thing) to specialize even more, that could take us to yet another location. OR, there's the possibility that we might not even leave Utah for any of it. OR door number 3 might lead us somewhere in between those two options. Anyway, not all of that was necessary, but I thought some people might like to know. I'm very proud of Bryndon for his hard work and dedication. It is NOT easy to get up every day before 5am (on some rotations) and work long days, nor is it easy to work 30-hour shifts through the day and night. He's my superman!

With that said, Bryndon is on a coveted 2-week break and it has been wonderful to see more of him and spend some quality time together. That brings me to last week's activities...

We left Tuesday morning for St. George, which was very hot, but the trip was perfect! We had decided to take advantage of his little break to go on one last get-away before becoming parents. We definitely plan on doing more trips after our little girl comes, but we know that it'll never be quite the same. 

We stayed in a very beautiful and luxurious home with a refreshing community pool near by and a 72-inch TV, among other fun amenities!  
I wanted to post some pictures to show what we did...

We had a big, fully equipped kitchen to cook our own meals. 
(Mmmm... steak and corn on the cob!)

We went on a hike in the red rocks with all the cool little caves and shapes carved all over.

To hold true to tradition, we took quite a few funny-face pictures. And by the way, the above picture is very normal compared to the rest... :) After taking the ugliest-face-you-can-possibly-make picture I basically had an emotional breakdown from laughing and crying so hard. But unfortunately for any readers of this blog, that picture will not be included.

We conquered the rock... and when I say "we", I speak of myself and the babe.

We got to visit the beautiful St. George temple.

Here we are in front of the pool in all our white (or glow-in-the-dark) glory. Luckily, by the end of the week we had some color on our skin finally, and not a burn!

Here's a nice pregnant shot for you (33 weeks). We went to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City and saw A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was very good and entertaining! I was so excited to see it because first of all, I have never seen a Shakespeare play before, and second, I took a Shakespeare class in my last semester at the U of U and really enjoyed it. 

We few a kite!!! (See the tiny little thing at the top of the picture?) I felt like a 5-year-old with all the excitement it brought me, because neither of us had flown a kite for many, many years. It was fun! The first time we tried was one morning in St. George and there was absolutely ZERO wind. So it didn't work. But the picture above is when we were in Cedar City and the wind was plentiful! We did it a second time when we were no longer in a parking lot surrounded by large trees that our line got stuck on. But both times were great!

Last Friday we left St. George and drove again to Cedar City, where we met up with some friends from my MTC District for a little reunion!! I still can't believe it finally happened. Most of our District has kept in touch since we were together almost 5 years ago! We always said that we should have a reunion, but I didn't actually think it would happen, seeing as nobody lives near each other and we're spread across the U.S. But only a few couldn't attend (one of the Elders is in Europe doing a study abroad), and it was SO fun for me to see them all! It was Kyle Robinson, who we lovingly call "Hobbs", who proposed and organized the reunion. Props to him! He hosted it at his family cabin up Cedar Canyon. As you can see from the above picture (although it doesn't fully do it justice), the canyon was breathtakingly beautiful. Everything was so green, and there were ponds and lakes and fields and forests and red rocks and amazing views overlooking the canyons and even as far as Zions National Park! 

Here we are at one of the overlooks above a lake that used to be 2 lakes with a big bridge separating them. The water rose so much this year that it covers the bridge and now is one big lake!

Here I am with 3 of the Elders from our District. Saturday morning we went on an adventure across a muddy field and stream to find a patch of snow so that Elder Thompson (Cale), standing next to me, could have his 3rd ever experience with snow! We had a snowball fight (of sorts) and made a miniature snowman so that he could say that he has made one. :) It was fun for all of us.

This is the last picture, and we're in a cave. The cool thing is that these underground caverns are air pockets that came from volcanic vents thousands of years ago. ... Probably more cool if you were there. Soon after we explored these caves we had to leave to drive home that night. But even with the short time we were with those friends, we had a great time and Bryndon was also a good sport to tolerate all our reminiscing about the MTC and our missions.

All in all, the entire week was super fun and relaxing. We are grateful for his break and for my flexible boss who allowed me to take most of the week off. I loved being able to spend the entire day with my cute husband all week!! And it was nice to have a comfortable, air conditioned place to stay where we could take naps and relax to escape the hottest parts of the day. 
I love spending time with Bryndon!

Latest belly shot

At the request of my sister-in-law Kari, I am posting a more recent photo of my growing belly. If I'm remembering right, I was about 28 weeks in this picture. I'm now 30 weeks--crazy!! I apologize that most of the photos I've posted are low quality and low light. This photo was actually taken by myself (thus the cropped head) while Bryndon was studying one day. I just used the timer and propped it up on my bed, then ran around and stood in front of our closet door. :)

Thankfully I'm still feeling really good. I'm not sleeping super well, and recently have been waking up a lot earlier than desired, but overall I have nothing to complain of. I feel very blessed for many reasons!