Happy Anniversary (March 24th)

Because of everything that happened, we didn't get home from UT until the morning of our anniversary and probably would've forgotten all about it except for the fact that my parents gave us a card before we left that Monday after the funeral. This year we decided to forfeit celebration but I still wanted to mention, HAPPY 3rd ANNIVERSARY! Three years ago on March 24th, my sweetheart and I were married.

In a separate post I wanted to note some of the things we go to do, and kind of talk about the trip out and the driving and stuff. The good parts of being able to go see the family.
Driving out was pretty rough, I'll admit it. I mean, the whole purpose of getting there wasn't exactly the greatest one in the world. But the first night we stayed in a pretty ghetto Motel 6 in
West Memphis, AR that stunk and was just kind of scary. Ryan wanted to keep going but both Ben and I were pretty worn out. Ben was sleeping mostly in the car, but was still restless and needed a stretch. After a short 4 hour rest, we got back up and headed out on the road. Arkansas . Oklahoma. During our drive that day we luckily found the most wonderful rest stop in TX... some where in Texas, not sure where. Somewhere in the desert near Amarillo. It had a wonderful playground for Ben, which was seriously a God-sent because he REALLY REALLY needed to get out and PLAY. Not just walk, but play.
We made it to the border of New Mexico and decided to see if we could snooze off our sleepiness at the Welcome Center for an hour or so. We did, and it wasn't enough. We managed to make it to Santa Rosa, NM that night and stayed in another Motel 6 there. This one wasn't as bad thank goodness. The next day we traveled more of course, this time we were bound and determined to make it to UT... we had to, it was Friday by then. Poor Ben was just about done with us and being cooped up in his seat. So we tried to do a lot to entertain him. We had a screaming contest...

We watched Sesame Street on Ryan's iPhone, made a mess with apple sauce, slept some, sang, read books, played with toys, ate whatever we could find... got out when we could. Like in the middle of the desert of Eastern Arizona at the Geronimo tourist shop near the petrified forest. We got to make a stop in my hometown of Flagstaff for a quick bite to eat and pretty much after that it was TERRIBLE. The last 4 hours were SO hard for all of us. Ben was done, and Ryan and I had pretty much gone loony at this point! We tried to laugh a lot, but Ryan kept repeating in all seriousness "I'm so driving home alone and we're finding a way to pay for you and Ben to fly back home"! Ha! Yeah right! We finally made it to St. George that night around 6pm. We visited with cousins and family and saw my parents and talked a little.

After the funeral we spent some time with Andrea Green and Ryan A. and my family again. We went to the park with the kids. Greg unfortunately couldn't make it to the cemetery that afternoon because he had to go to the ER and so we watched their girls. Here are some pictures of the day.
The kids playing at the park.
This is the view from where Shauna is buried. So pretty and peaceful.Ben with his cousin.

And here are all the grandkids on my side of the family.

Sunday was my mom's 73rd birthday. So we spent some time with her, went to the grave again, and had dinner at John and Clau's house. Here is my beautiful sis and the horses next to Shauna's grave. It's kind of ironic, my oldest brother Brian passed away when he was a baby and the buried him on my dad's birthday, they buried Shauna the day before my mom's.
Monday we headed home. Only this time, because of the generosity of my parents and Andrea we were able to purchase ourselves and mostly Ben a PORTABLE DVD PLAYER. Holy Hannah that made SUCH a difference on the way home! There were moments of boredom still. Like the moment Ben decided to give himself a spit bath. It was pretty nasty, but really funny too. That kid, has got a personality. Let's count how many times he says "Momma!" to me while I'm looking at him! HA! On the way home, we stopped again in NM for one night, then drove until we got home... so.... another 23 HOURS AFTER THAT. OH MY GOSH. We left Monday morning and pulled in to our driveway at 6:30am Wednesday morning. We slept for a bit and then Ryan had to go to work at around 11am that day. Poor guy. That was SO extremely exhausting... and quite frankly we'd completely forgotten about the state of Mississippi... stupid Mississippi adding another 2-3 hours on our drive... But we were safe. Ben slept ALL night long and we made it home. And came home to a beautifully clean home thanks to our lovely friend Ashley, it was truly a blessing!
Let's not forget the bathroom stall in a bathroom in NM almost literally falling apart and almost falling on me. The maintenance guy standing there looking as me and another patron HELD IT UP and him saying "where'da bolts go?" after waiting as patiently as I could in like 30seconds I said "Uh... I need to go! Can one of you please take this from me???" HELLO??? It was pretty funny though. How about Ben randomly throwing up in Arkansas on the way home, eck... strawberry yogurt too. How about the green Hot Fudge Sundae at the McDonald's in Shamrock, TX. How about the HUGE rock that hit the windshield while I was driving and only nicking it thank goodness. A big shout out to Red Box DVD rentals- WOOT! Before we left, we went with my dad to go get a rock from the mountain across the road from my parents house and then drove it across the country. It's in the front yard sitting next to the "Ben Tree"! We call it the "Shauna Rock". I am SO glad we got to go. It was a HARD, LONG drive but so worth it. The Lord truly watched over us on so many levels and I am so grateful for that, my family, and my husband who was so supportive and loving during that tough time.