Retrospect; My 30th Birthday

I spent five hours on a bus covered in vomit. Life is glamourous, no?

Pete and I decided to go to visit my sister's family in Boston for Thanksgiving and we left on my birthday. (We still lived in NYC at the time, remember?) Of course the traffic leaving the city was horrendous. And, of course, my baby got carsick. Poor babe was fussy and unsettled. She kept going back and forth between Pete and me and then finally settled down long enough to throw up all over me. I was able to step into the nasty little horror of a WC at the back of the bus and get both Georgia and myself cleaned up, but it was only a matter of a few minutes before she repeated the performance and I was out of options for clean clothes.

Georgia felt much better and spent the rest of the journey snoozing peacefully on her daddy's lap wearing nothing but her raincoat and a diaper. I pulled my coat on over the smelly mess on my chest and cracked open the window.

It wasn't the best beginning to a birthday celebration I've ever had. But when we arrived at Sharon's house my sisters surprised me with a party and Pete had secretly made me a cake. Lovely Mexican food and balloons everywhere.

I really was happy about my party and cake, I promise. This is just what happens when someone else is in charge of taking the pictures.

So now I'm 30. It feels good. I'm more comfortable with myself, my talents, abilities, personality and purpose than I've ever been. I'm pretty sure that this is my prime decade. Life is better than ever and I'm loving the adventure.

Saying Goodbye

To New York City.

It all happened so fast; one minute we're living cozily in our (maybe) 500 square feet of New York rented space, and the next we're hauling our lives back across the country in favor of a 5 bedroom home with the most agreeable rent agreement possible--free. And just in time for Christmas.

I suppose we did kind of see this coming; Pete wasn't exactly making headway in the saving-for-a-bakery plan and we knew his parents were planning to leave for a mission to Brazil. I just don't think I really believed that we'd head back to Utah so soon--or ever.

We made the decision and acted fast, giving ourselves three weeks for packing and checking off our city bucket list. I must say I'm proud of everything we were able to squeeze into those three weeks, but of course there were things we left unexperienced.

One thing I insisted that we do before leaving was have a family portrait taken. It turned out to be a bit of an ordeal to make it happen (our poor photographer had to cancel last minute due to pregnancy complications so we had to scramble to find a photographer, and the dear friend we asked to step in and take our photos last minute didn't have any of his equipment available at the moment so he had to use my camera, which he wasn't familiar with. Nor is he a portrait photographer, he's a fashion photographer which is entirely different) but we got our photos done.

So here are a few images of my family bidding farewell to New York City and leaving our blessing. And a promise that we'll be back to visit someday. When we've made our fortune.