Waiting...

Part 1:
After 3 months of anticipation,the day FINALLY arrived, July 17th, that Jason and I started our drive up to Utah to await the birth of our soon-to-be son. We got up really early that morning, like 3 am to get the car loaded and be on the road by 4 am. We figured it would be easier on the car if we did most of the driving out of the afternoon sun, so by leaving around 4 am we were hoping to arrive at Jason's parent's house around 3 pm (driving takes longer when we bring Sugar since we have to give her more potty/run-around breaks). About 1 hour into the drive I look at the control gages and notice that the temperature gage is really close to hot. I let Jason know and we pull off the road and give it like 15 min. to cool down and then get on our way again. Well, this happens two more times. After the third stop we are driving in a hilly area and we start noticing that going up hills the gage shoots up PAST the hot area into the "I'm going to burst into flames" RED area. Jason is frantically looking for a place to pull off the road, preferably in the shade, but since there is no shade and there is another hill coming up we just decide to pull over. Not more than 5 seconds after pulling over we hear a BANG and smoke starts billowing out of the front of the car. Jason gets out and there is radiator fluid, you know the green stuff, EVERYWHERE. So, we start calling tow companies. Jason has to walk a half a mile back down the road to figure out the closest mile marker before anyone will agree to send a truck. At 7:30 am the tow truck arrives, meaning that we had been driving (or trying to) for 3 1/2 hours just to break down 40 miles outside of Flagstaff which is normally a 2 1/2 hour drive from Mesa! We end up taking the car to a Nissan dealership and spend 8 HOURS in Flagstaff waiting for it to get fixed. While we were waiting we found a park that we hung out in. (earlier in the month we had bought Sugar a 72-hour backpack that would allow her to carry her own water, food, leash and toy-we are on a preparedness kick this year!) So when we left the car, we strapped the backpack on Sugar. At the park she must have smelled a dead worm or something because she dropped to the ground to rub the scent on herself and then couldn't get back up because of the weight of the pack. It was HILARIOUS! When we took the picture above she had finally given up trying to get back up! hehehe Silly Wooger! At 3pm we were finally back on our way!

Part 2: After arriving in Salt Lake early on July 18th, we began waiting again...this time for Gavin to be born. We quickly realized he wasn't going to come on his due date which was July 18th, Jason's father's birthday. The next Monday Ariel saw her doctor and was scheduled to be induced the next day-Tuesday, July 22nd-which was our niece Elise's birthday. She was supposed to go in early that morning to be induced but apparently Utah Valley hospital was so busy with mothers in active labor that they told her to call again around 12-1pm. She called and they were still too busy to have room for her and told her to call back at 8pm. Ariel got pushed back for a third time, but finally managed to get into the hospital around 10:30 pm. Gavin's heart rate dropped during the pitocin drip because the contractions were coming right on top of one another which slowed the process. Jason and I got a call from David, the birth father, that Ariel was 8 cm dilated around 11 am the next day, July 23rd. He said the nurses predicted Ariel would start pushing in 2 hours or so. So Jason and I decided we would just head down to Provo so that we would be nearby if things went faster than anticipated. About 20 min after arriving in Provo, David called back and said that another nurse checked Ariel and said she was only 6 cm dilated and that it would take longer and they would keep us informed. So again we found a park (one that we had gone to when we lived in Provo) and waited. Jason needed to study for the Bar exam anyway and I passed the time leisure reading which was totally not fair for Jason but what can you do...life isn't fair! :)