Thanksgiving '09

We had Thanksgiving this year at my oldest sister Alicia's place in Saratoga Springs, UT, sort of the middle ground for my whole family. We're in AZ, my parents and younger sister Diana are in ID and Patrice and Alicia are in UT.

Ted, Stef, Julie and I all drove together and had a surprisingly fast/enjoyable ride. I thought the 10 hour drive each way was going to be arduous but Ted brought along a couple of books on tape which made for a good time.

When we arrived in UT our oldest nephew Isaac had a basketball game that we got to see. His dad Ben is the coach, so it was great to see them down on the court working together. Isaac is their star player, and did great...although if you're reading this Isaac, keep workin' on that defense and on those rebounds.

The next day, Julie and I went up to my grandparents house in SLC. My grandma had recently gotten out of the hospital so we wanted to see how she was doing, and you know? for an 89 year old woman who had just been released from the hospital, she was doing quite well. My grandpa, who is currently suffering from dimensia seemed to have one of his better days while we were there. There were a couple of funny things, like when we got there he asked: "hey, have you guys talked to Rick? he said he's coming over" (I had talked to him on the phone on our way there). He obviously didn't recognize me, which is kinda sad, but then again, he doesn't really recognize his own kids a lot of the times either. That's okay grandpa, I won't remember you as you are right now, I'll always remember you as the hip, outgoing, hard-working grandpa you always were.

When we got back to Alicia's everyone had showed up to the house. It's always a bit surprising to see just how much kids grow in a matter of months. We lounged around, visited and ate food. The next day was Thanksgiving. So the morning was pretty crazy, everyone getting ready, making their dishes (Julie and I were in charge of the mashed potatoes, green beans and Julie's aunts famous pumpkin gooey cake...delish!) When everything was ready we sat down to a very traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It was very nice.




After dinner, everyone wanted to follow tradition and take a nap. But I asked that we start a new family tradition instead. I asked them, "why don't we go on a family walk instead?" Everyone was very hesitant at first, but after a few people agreed to it, most everyone followed suite. It was awesome, probably my favorite part of the trip. We walked up to a park by the house, where they had to coolest playground I've ever been on. I don't know who had more fun, the kids or the adults. It was great!

On Friday, Dave, Patrice, Ben, Alicia and their families, along with Julie and I went to the Christmas lights at Temple Square. That's always a good time.


To top things off to a great weekend, BYU beat Utah. Does life get better than this? I submit that it does not.

Triathlon!

Rick and I decided that we wanted to train for something together and somehow I talked him into doing an off-road triathlon with me at the beginning of May. I had done one in 2007 and figured I could do another one especially if I had a training buddy. So we printed off a training schedule we found online and put it up on the fridge.

Then, we started looking for an event to sign up for. I just figured we would do the same one I had done a couple of years before, which was at Saguaro Lake, so we wouldn't have to travel anywhere. Well, it turns out that one wasn't being held this year, so we looked for the next closest venue...Vegas! Perfect it was a Saturday event (most are held on Sundays)! We even have some fabulous friends that would let us stay with them for the weekend. So we went ahead and signed up.

Yeah, perfect until the course description and all of that was posted a couple of weeks later... First off, it was the Western Cup Championship Race for off-road triathlons. Great tons of pros competing in it...and as time went on that was their big advertising ploy, naming all of the INTERNATIONAL pros that were signed up for the race. I'm talking ex-Olympians, former professional mountain bikers, the winner of Ironman Canada...the list goes on. Then comes the course map and description...with parts labeled things like "dangerous descent". Ok, so our goal by now is just to finish the thing. I was thinking of setting a goal time, but that flew out the window when we started getting all of this fantastic information.

We trained for a few months, nothing super-duper strict, but made sure we did a couple of swims a weeks, got a good ride in every week and did some running. This was an Olympic distance race, which means it was about a mile swim, 17 mile mountain bike and 10K trail run.

We got up to Vegas with no problems and hung out a little with Megan, Carl and baby Aidan and then got up the next morning to pre-ride the course. We did one lap of the bike course (we would have to do 2 laps for the actual race), which turned out to be the most difficult ride either of us had been on. Bad choice. I would have been just fine not knowing what I was getting into on race day and having fresher legs.

Race day arrives, we get all of our things set up in the transition area, get our wetsuits on and head down to the beach of Lake Las Vegas. Rick's group leaves first and then my group leaves about 3 minutes later. Of course it's windy and the water is super choppy...that is always helpful. I love swallowing large amounts of lake water! We finally make it out of the lake. Rick's stuff is still at the transition point, so I figure I must have beat him out of the water (which was expected). We see each other for a brief moment at transition and then I take off on the dreaded bike course. Rick catches me pretty quickly on the bike (also expected), and I figure I won't see him until the finish.

I am hating every second of the bike leg, except for the fact that these pros are passing me (I'm on my first lap and they are on their second) and giving me encouragement! Everyone was so nice out on the course. Pretty cool. Also, it made me feel A LOT better to see the professionals walking up at least 3 of the hills as well (I'm not that big of a wuss after all).

We struggle our way through the bike and I think I had seen Rick not more than a mile a head of me at one point. Now, I head into the barren wasteland known as the run course with hopes of catching up with him, and surprisingly I do! However, when I catch up to Rick he is sitting in the dirt stretching his legs...not the way I wanted to catch him. He had been cramping up for a while. So we end up doing the run together. We walk some and run some and end up going across the finish line holding hands :) I know, super cheesy, but it was fun to hang out and finish together.

How did we place....let's just say that they gave out awards for the top 3 finishers in each age group for both men and women, and the person we finished closest to that actually got an award was a woman in the 65+ age group. (Ouch! haha!)

All-in-all it was really hard, but fun to have the memory and be able to tell our kids one day that we did a triathlon together. Will we do it again? Rick confessed afterwards that he never would have done a triathlon if I hadn't have brought it up and that he hated it and had no desire to do anther one. That is until a couple of weeks later when he told me, "I keep thinking about how bad I did and it makes me want to do another one." haha! So maybe we will do another one someday, but probably not a Championship course and more likely a sprint distance :)

Here are some of our "battle wounds".

The Laughter Club

For my Biology class, our professor provided extra credit opportunities he called "safe activities." One of these safe activities was held at SWIHA (South West Institute of Healing Arts). This place is as hippy-ish as it sounds. It's essentially a school where people can earn really strange certificates and degrees like: western herbilism, hypnotherapy, aromatherapy, Chinese Shamanistic medicine and palm and foot reading. As a part of the school itself, they also offer classes to the public. One of the classes, which was one of these extra credit opportunities was "The Laughter Club." It was taught by this older woman who was a "certified laughter leader" and who also taught "laughter yoga"...awesome.

First off Julie was extremely disinterested in attending the class, she hadn't been feeling well that day, but she finally gave in and came with me...what a sport. Then the craziness began. The instructor started off by explaining how laughter benefits our body...in fact she gave us this sweet little handout:


She then proceeded to use another handout:
to go through exercises we could do in order to use laughter as a stress reducer. Some of the exercises, which we all practiced in class by the way, included laughing as if you were a queen, laughing like you were walking on hot sand and laughing while pretending to be shy.

All of this, as awkward as it was, was exacerbated by the fact that a guy (a white guy I might add) with a turquoise turban showed up and was totally and completely unafraid of making a fool of himself. As ridiculous as he was, it was actually kind of refreshing to see someone not care about what anyone else thought. He must have got this from his mother, who by the way was there too, and who sang a solo at the end of class. All in all, we had a good time and are glad we tried it out.

Baby BOY Berry

We went in for our ultrasound to find out what the gender of the baby was on October 14th. It was just in time so that we could answer all of the "do you know what you're having" questions at Amanda's reception. The result...it's a boy! We are so excited, but I think Rick's dad is the most excited. (Rick is the only boy and needs to "carry on the family name".) Joe gave a big "YEEHAW!" when we called him after the appointment and gave him the news.


I'm glad those ultrasound technichians know what to look for because I wouldn't have been able to tell you anything about this picture!

Now we can move on to names...here are our top 5 at the moment in no particular order:

Maxwell (Max)
Jackson
Cooper
Davis
Truman

Let us know your favorite or send us some new ones!
We are open to suggestions!

Halloween '09

Brannon threw a Halloween bash at his house this year. Everyone got dressed up and had a great time. Jack and Valrie were tooth ferries, Ted and Stef went as Brannon and Amanda, Brannon and Amanda were Snow White and Prince Charming, and Julie and I were Ketchup and Mustard. Karen Campbell, I mean,Waldo even showed up!

Brannon busted out his cotton candy machine and the entire neighborhood got word. There were lines of kids waiting for that stuff. Fortunately, Julie and I were able to cut in line to get some...deelish!

Oh, Canada

This past weekend marked the closing of another of life's many chapters...Ms. Karen Campbell is no longer in the great US of A. She is making her way back to her home land of the True North. She will be greatly missed as my employee/co-worker, roommate/tenant, study partner/excel master, and most importantly my friend. M'lady, a few of my memories of your times spent in the Copper State...

Going to the cabin
Driving Amanda's car all summer...and maybe putting a scratch on it ;)
Taking long lunches to new restaurants
Laughing until we cried about random things at work
Hanging out with Bear and Coco and speaking in accents to them
Almost making it to Havasupai and getting caught in a flood (we will make it one day)
Dealing with "the idiot broker" at work (you know who)
Making salads at lunch
Not knowing what country you were in on multiple occasions
Getting to see your emotional side (now I know Canadians are humans too)
Going to Hole-in-the-Rock and taking sunset pictures
Running to the Felix and back and realizing after that neither of us really wanted to go that fast we were just trying to keep up with the other person
Laying on the couch in the mornings hoping you wouldn't get up, so I wouldn't have to go running
Studying for days on end in the Scottsdale Library...if that didn't bond us together for life, I don't know what will
You making Pannini's (I have yet to have one!)
Your family coming to stay and taking us out to some lovely dinners
You coming to American Thanks Giving (my Aunt Lynne asked me last week what your plans were for this year :( had to tell her you were gone)
Hiring and "firing" you...hahaha
You finding out we were pregnant before my parents knew by the "deer in the headlights" look on our faces when you asked us
Watching Anne of Green Gables
You sitting on "your spot" on the couch
The adventures of Mike Maughn (I still have hopes)
Amanda being fearful of your nighttime tendencies
Coming home to you sitting in the pool reading a book
You earning your workout name of "Muscles"
Waking you up and taking you out to breakfast because someone was coming to look at the house (thanks for being a good sport)
AZ State Fair...chelloooo Indian Fry Bread!
and...Lada dada di dada da da...

Those are just a few I came up with. I miss you already, but I am really excited for you. I know you are a little unsettled about the next few months, but for some reason I feel like you are going to land something and somewhere (and maybe someone...), where you are really going to be happy. Remember that you have been adopted into the Cross family and that means you now have 2 sisters if you ever need anything.

I love you and can't wait for the next 7 years of memories!

'09 AZ State Fair

To bid THE Ms. Karen Campbell a fond farewell and celebrate her last weekend with us in the good ol' U. S. of A, we decided to treat her like royalty, to associate with the highest quality citizens that our country has to offer. What better to do this than the Arizona State Fair; the place where dreams come true. Where you can go to get your smell of livestock fix, your annual dose of Indian fry bread, the best people watching around and to let the kid out, the occasional fair ride.

Brannon and Amanda came with too. Amanda was set on winning a stuffed monkey coming out of a banana. Poor Brannon spent a good $20 trying to win her the thing. We found this game that looked simple enough. We thought for sure we could do it. All you had to do was throw a wiffle ball off this backboard thing into a laundry basket. Easy enough right? Uh, nope...impossible. We had fun trying anyway.

If you're at the fair, you've got to ride the rides. They were giving out free tickets to ride the ferris wheel, so we hit them up and tried it out. We couldn't JUST do the ferris wheel though. Where's the fun in that? So we had a little competition. Julie and I, Brannon and Amanda all went down the EuroSlide, the stratified monstrosity you see in the picture up above. Uh, that's Rick by the way, in the front, coming from behind to steal the victory from the hopeful Dr. Gunnell. YES!

Last but not least...fair food. I mean seriously, where else can you get cotton candy, Indian fry bread or a deep fried pickle on every other corner? By far the best story of the night when it came to food was Kate Orme's corn dogs. Apparently little Miss Orme wanted a corn dog, so she went to one of the corn dog concession stands to pick one up. As she walking around, enjoying said corn dog, another man, at another corn dog concession stand called her over and said: "hey, if you throw the rest of that corn dog you have in your hand away, I'll give you one of mine for free." Apparently Kate hadn't had enough for the night, so she threw the 3 inches that remained of her foot long corn dog to get yet another foot long corn dog. And did she finish it? By golly she sure did. Way to go Kate, you make us proud.

Utrasound Pics

I went for an ultrasound and walked away with a CD full of pictures. I didn't know they were going to do some 3-D! Man, those are pretty crazy, makes it a lot more realistic. Here are some of baby's best poses!

Rick couldn't go with because of class, but I asked my mom if she wanted to come and meet the babe, so of course she came. They asked me if I was interested in finding out the sex....I was confused a little...I thought that wasn't happening until week 18, this was only about week 12. I hesitated a little because Rick wasn't there, but curiosity got the best of me. They said that it looks like a little boy! Rick was super excited when I told him. Sure, now he wants the baby...jk :) We aren't really picking a name yet though since 1 in 5 are wrong about sex this early. But it's fun to start thinking about. Oh, and the baby was actually measuring at about 13 weeks and 4 days in these.

Berry Baby!

We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do to get our weekend started on a Friday night. Our conclusion was to just get a movie and have a laid back night. While we were out I suggested we pick up a pregnancy test....we had been "trying" for a little while and I was late for my time of the month. When we got home we decided, "why wait?" so I peed in a styrophome Christmas cup and we watched as the 2 lines appeared :)

So, June 26th became a rather eventful night insead of just a laid back movie night.

Excited Daddy-to-be!

Baby incubator :)

We decided to wait and tell my family until every one was together. Everyone was going up to Greer for the 4th of July. Ted and Stef were driving in from Philly and I convinced Amanda and Brannon to come (I had to tell Amanda the news before-hand because they had decided not to go up because Brannon had to work, but the news changed thier minds and they came up). We called Rick's parents on our way up and told them the good news. This will be grandbaby number 12 for them and grandbaby number 1 for my folks.

Rick waited until August at his family's family reunion to tell his siblings. He blessed me and the baby in a family prayer...I think he caught them a little offguard :)

It's official, we are going to be parents...a little scary, life changing and very exciting!

Lake Time

We have actually made some friends in our new ward, Sarah and Jerry Johnson. They invited us to join them at the lake one Friday afternoon. It was a much needed break for Rick after finishing his final for his first 5 week course of the summer term. We had a blast!

Rick looking sooo good.

The beginning of one crazy ride!

Yep, it was a crazy one, but we survived and had a great BBQ after!

Thank you Johnsons!

Thank You Coco!

The other day when I got to work, I greeted the dogs as usual and played with them for about 5 minutes. Then, I went to the bathroom before getting started for the day. When I went to wash my hands, I noticed that something looked weird…a diamond was missing! That’s right, one of the “big” diamonds from my ring was gone. I said, “Shoot!” (ok, maybe I didn’t exactly say shoot…) then I started retracing my steps through the bathroom and bedroom.

Then, I remembered all of the stories from primary aged kids about praying to be able to find their toys…so that’s what I did. I said a little prayer. When I got into the living room I started looking on the rug where I had played with the dogs. I saw nothing, but then Coco got up from where she was laying on the rug and there it was!! It was definitely a miracle, because that dog thinks she is a goat and had I been a few minutes late my diamond would have found a new home in her little intestines. All I have to say is, tender mercies.

Spring Time in Arizona

One of the greatest things about Arizona is spring. I had a Spring break from school this past week and so Julie and I took some time to enjoy the weather, some fun activities and each other.

We went to a Chicago Cubs spring training game. Julie has lived by their stadium for the past 2 years and hadn't made it to a game yet, so we walked on over and enjoyed some of the game. We also went for a bike ride in downtown Mesa and stopped for lunch at Sweet Cakes.

Spring also brought us some visitors...we have had a few ducks stop by our pool and we also saved this grasshopper that we found clinging for life on the hose of the pool vacuum.

Indoor Skydiving

So Julie and I decided to satisfy our thrill seeking craving by going indoor skydiving. Julie's Aunt Mara had given us a gift certificate to "Sky Dive Arizona" for Christmas. It's a place in Eloy, AZ where they take a lot of military and civilians skydiving. There is an indoor facility for practice if anyone wants to go over things before the big jump. In fact, before our turn in the wind tunnel, there was a group of four people doing formations and all kinds of cool stunts in preparation for their jump. They then ran us through a little class where they told us what we needed to do, gave us some hand signals to coach us through our run because it was EXTREMELY loud in there (p.s. turn down the volume on your computer when you listen to the videos below, or it will scream at you), and then we had a ball.




We would recommend it to any one! Great time and no real risk of major injury :)

Light Rail

Rick and I decided it was time to check out the new light rail that started operating in the Phoenix area this past December. We drove down to the most eastern stop on Main between Dobson and Alma School, paid the $3.50 for a day pass for me and Rick was free since he's an ASU student. We hopped on and started our ride!

We ended up getting off downtown and looked for a fun place to have our picnic. We found a little square between some cool buildings and had some lunch.

Thanks for the picnic basket Hollister! We had fun packing it up and using. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a fun, laid back, economical date :)

Thanks Cindy!!

Here is the dress that Rick's Mom, Cindy, made me over

Christmas break. I wore it last Sunday and received

multiple complements on how cute it was. Thank you!

Thank you! It turned out fantastic and I love it!

Posted by Julie at 7:50 PM 3 comments