Grand Junction, Junction, What's Your Function?

Song anyone? 10 points to the first person who knows...

If you follow me on instagram (barnesdailycircus) you know that we were traveling last weekend. Despite all my concerns and fears, Avery was a freaking CHAMP on the plane. She flew as a lap infant and our flight was direct to Junction. It was only about an hour and fifteen minutes, but it gave us a good indication of how Avery will do when we fly to Florida next month for my sisters wedding (5 hour flight, 2 hour layover, 1 hour flight).

We went to visit Kyle and Rosa. They are recently engaged (CONGRATS!!) and have been to visit us 4 times since we moved to Las Vegas in August. It was DEFINITELY our turn to go out for a visit. We were pretty pumped.

We got there about 5 on thursday afternoon. Before we lost the light, we headed up to the Mesa and went for a drive. It was gorgeous. Apparently, they (the town) are waiting on approval for Independence Monument to be approved as a National monument. Ain't it purty??



Here's a picture of Avery, Troy, Kyle, and Rosa looking over the Mesa. Good looking group, eh?



That night, we put Avery to bed and had a BBQ on the back porch (bratwursts with grilled onions, peppers and asparagus) and sat out on the porch with a nice, comfy fire.

Friday morning, we got up and went for a short hike (about 2 miles) to go and see the Colorado River.



Then Troy veto'd anyones vote for lunch with Chick-fil-a. There isn't one in Las Vegas and Troy has been going through extreme withdrawal for some. He was SO excited. He double fisted. He got a sandwich and nuggets. With sweet tea. And fries. And he larged his order. Fatty. Just kidding, honey...LOVE YOU!



After lunch, we headed back to the house so Avery could nap. We hung out and chatted and then headed out to dinner at a local restaurant/brewery that has really cool/unusual pizzas. They gave Avery pizza dough to play with while we waited. She LOVED it. It made me think that she might be ready for playdoh soon. As long as she doesn't try to eat it.



That night, we went back to the house and watched a movie on Netflix and chatted.

Saturday morning, we woke up and the weather was pretty yucky. Well, pretty. But yucky for any outdoor activity that we were planning. But we saw some snow.



Then we headed to this indoor kids place called Bananas. It cost 8 bucks for Avery to "jump" on any of the indoor inflatables for an unlimited time. She was definitely one of the smaller kids there and I was FREAKING out about her getting knocked over or hurt. But she held her own and figured out some of the mazes and slides by herself!

JUMP!



She caught some serious air. She liked to jump up and then just throw herself onto the ground.



We kind of had a hard time with directions. She wanted to climb up the slides and slide down the ladders.



Rosa couldn't go with us to Chick-fil-a the day before because of work, so she suggested we go again. Troy was all, "DO YOU EVEN HAVE TO ASK?!?!?!?" So, off we went again.

This time, Avery got to meet the "Eat Mor Chik'n" cow. I thought she would be super scared, but she did GREAT!



So I took video. She signed "thank you" to the cow for his milk. So funny.





We headed home to put Avery down for a nap and when she got up, the snow/rain slushy was done and we went for a walk around their neighborhood/town.

The next morning, Kyle suggest that we drive to Utah to check out some of the parks and scenery. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I started feeling a little carsick from the looking straight up from inside the car thing, so I only got a couple pictures. It was GORGEOUS.

And my first time to Utah.



And here are some of the formations.



We left later that afternoon and had an easy flight home. YAY AVERY!

Thanks Kyle and Rosa for hosting. We had a great time visiting with you guys! Can't wait to see you again!

And NOW My Ovary is the Size of a Grapefruit...

Here's another fertility update. WARNING: Contains girly info and a kind of awkward picture...

So I finished my second round of Follistim. I had 5 mature eggs and Troy and I decided to go ahead with the insemination this round. My whole cycle went PERFECTLY. No weird spotting or random problems like last time.

So now we are in the "waiting" time frame of my cycle. Where we have done everything and are just waiting for the pregnancy test day. LONGEST DAYS EVER.

As a new development, I now have developed Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome. Basically, during fertility cycles, especially ones where gonadotropins (like Follistim) are used, there is a 10% chance of the ovaries going a little bonkers. I am one of those 10%. As a result, I am in excruciating pain when I bend, sit, lift, stand, move suddenly, or pretty much do anything.

Here comes the awkward picture of my stomach. I'm laying down, so you can see how big my ovary is when gravity is actually holding it inside my body. It's HUUUUGE.



I talked to my doctor about it and I am now on a high sodium/limited water diet. One of the scary things about OHSS, is that if you intake too much water, your ovaries hold onto it and you can gain 2+ pounds per day. As a result, I literally look about 4-5 months pregnant right now. Isn't that just a cruel joke?

As a bonus, I am already a desert creature and don't require much water, AND my doctor was like, "eat as many potato chips, french fries and, and gatorade as you want, but almost NO water." So pretty, much I get to eat like a 13 yo old boy. Which lets be honest, is AWESOME. I mean, it's practically prescribed to eat unhealthy!

So I just want the swelling of my ovary to go down. As much as I love yoga pants and scrubs...sometimes I just don't want to wear pajamas. I also feel disgusting. As much as a high sodium diet appeals to me, it also is making me swell all over. The sodium is supposed to draw the fluid out of my ovaries and into my blood stream where my kidneys can filter it out.

YAY DRUG SIDE EFFECTS!

please please please please please God let me be pregnant this time so that I don't feel like I went through all this for nothing. pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease

Optimus Gets Pretty. And Avery Gets Sad.

It's starting to warm up here again. Fall/Winter/Spring lasted about 4 months. It's been 70 the past 3 days. CRAAAAZY. As a result, poor Optimus is VERY confused about what his fur is supposed to be doing. If you remember, he went through a stressful fall, which involved the crazy shedding and medical testing. So to avoid him getting too hot, we decided to be proactive and went ahead and shaved him down.

Here's Sir Optimus and his mane before and after getting cut:



Avery thought that he wasn't coming back when we dropped him off at the groomers. I didn't realize how many nicknames we had for Optimus until this happened. We started walking out the doors without his and she was like "NOOOOOO PUPPERS!! PUPPERS!! PUPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEERS!!!!"

And instead of comforting her, what did I do? I did what any good blogger does!! I taped it.



She's SO melodramatic. Apparently it's a girl thing. But she wasn't upset enough to stop shoving crackers in her mouth....