Darek and Ian and Alex

This is actually the third post of the day. Keep going below to read the other two- they are my Adventure updates!

Adventure #7: SLC #?? (March 20-22)
We flew out of and back into Salt Lake City, not because we are crazy or wanted to drive an extra two hours, but because an amazing event happened for Mandi and her family. Really our DC trip dates revolved around this particular event. Mandi and Ryan recieved the blesing of having twin baby boys, Darek and Ian, enter their life on August 22, 2008 for adoption. They were born prematurely at 25 weeks. Darek was thriving, but Ian had been in the NICU since birth. He had good days and bad, eventually was taken off his ventilator and Ryan and Mandi started making plans to have him transferred to PCMC in SLC. Unfortuantely, very suddenly Ian passed away on October 7, 2008. Through this whole experience of losing thier child, Mandi and Ryan have been so blessed. They were able to have both the boys legally adopted (which it is apparently is quite unheard of for people to want an adoption to continue after their baby has died) on March 17, 2009! As members of the LDS church, the adoption meant even more joy and happiness- Mandi and Ryan were able to have both the boys sealed to them in the SLC Temple on March 21, 2009. What a special day for our family. I am so grateful for eternal families and so happy that Darek and ian are now part of our eternal family! Darek was also blessed on March 22, 2009 at church. The whole family (minus Jen and the kids) were able to be present for this, so our family sang during church on Sunday after the blessing. What a fantastic weekend!

Adventure #8: SLC#?? (March 27-29)
We had previously had some plans in SLC this weekend that were cancelled, but we had promised to take Tyson and Anna up for Alex's birthday party, so we packed everyone up in our car and headed to SLC again! We helped set up for Alex's birthday party- A Mario themed party! It was so fun! There were 16 4-6 year olds in Mario and Luigi hats with mustaches or Princess Peach crowns running around. It was hilarious! We helped wrangle kids, pass out candy, do activities, set up, clean up, and had a blast doing it all! We also went to see Monsters vs Aliens. Red Box this one folks, all the funny parts are in the commercials. We noticed the weekend before as we were driving home in snow, that our tires were bald. So, we put new tires on our car and headed home in the snow on Sunday afternoon, once again. Fun filled, busy weeked!

Up next:
Las Vegas #?: April 3-5
Easter in Hurricane, Vol. 1: April 10-12

An update on us- we are super happy, still loving our jobs, home, friends, etc. We are so content with life. We have had some scares with jobs (as everyone else has). We're putting our faith to the test right now as we plan for next year. As of right now, rumor has it that I'll be staying full-time at my middle school (HUGE blessing) and Chad will have at least 4 of 7 periods at Hurricane Intermediate. He will not be continuing the piano lab at Fossil Ridge. There is speculation that the piano lab will be shut down completely at Fossil Ridge and move to Hurricane Int. with him, but at this time it is speculation. We are prepared to downsize and cut back or to move if Chad's job is cut back. We are praying for Chad to be Full-time at Hurricane Intermediate right now! We'll find out next week (most likely) about our job situation. Also, I've been sick (cold-like sumptoms)for the past month, or so I thought, come to find out that it's been probably been allergies the whole time-LAME. So my body is adjusting to Zyrtec again- I am one of the 10% of the population of Zyrtec takers who metabolizes one of the ingredients into a heavy sedative. More to come- and watch for a couple of slideshows coming up.