Last Month's Beach Holiday

So on account of the Walbergs impending desertion relocation, Nicole and I impulsively decided to take a beach holiday in Destin Florida last month, bringing along our combined three kids for the ride. The 12 hours each way ride that is.   Our critical trip miscalculation though lay not in the length of the journey, but in the underparticipation of adults. Our ratio was 2:3 - this was the first time in my life that I've ever had to go to the proverbial zone defence. We did have a secret weapon though- Shane's cousin Amber babysat for us a couple of times, to give Nicole and I a holiday from our holiday.  Once we went out for dinner and drinks, and the other time we went to the beach.  That was pretty civilized.   Somehow looking after 3 kids looked easy when Amber did it. 

We spent a lot of time in the pools. 





Declan and Abbey had a great time together as usual. 



We caught them holding hands while watching a video.  Cute!


Abbey's favourite movie is "Enchanted" which features a big waltz scene. She was constantly trying to get Declan to ballroom dance with her, to no avail. That guy is all freestyle, all the time.

The kids were so good we even took them out to actual restaurant.  At this one, we had a table overlooking a playground on the beach. 

Out for ice cream.

Tormenting the local fauna.

I love this picture-  Nicole is so over this carousel.

Beach Photo Shoot

So there is a thing around these parts where, while on summer holiday, you take your family members, dress them all in white, and have your picture made at the beach. So while in Florida, I tried to shoot some portraits of Abbey and Declan, but they (a) wouldnt stop moving, and (b) had nary a piece of white clothing between them. Plus it was the only time the weather was a little sour, so the sky and water look pretty darn dismal. What are you doing to do? Order fewer copies of the calendar, that's what.

The Fourth of July, 26 days ex post facto

So at Declan's school, whenever a long weekend is around the corner, there will be a preschool hat parade on the Friday afternoon. This means everyone gets to go home early and get a good jump on the long weekend, and more importantly, involves the crafting of thematically linked hats, which are then paraded about.  I love me some hat parade.   Here is Declan in his Fourth of July number.  For the record, this is not the outfit I sent him to school in- his teachers dug out the canuck shirt and red shorts from his back up potty-training clothes supply to dress him up for the parade.  I thought it was at once cute and subversive.  My little Canuck!

My Birthday This Year.

So it is a truth universally acknowledged that I am pro-fuss when it comes to birthdays, including my own. I don't really understand those who actually want their birthdays to pass by without a big to-do. I mean, if you ever do something really meaningful in your life, children will get your birthday off school. Or at least there will be a Google doodle for you. Birthdays are a big deal.

So this year, infertility spoiled my birthday, as it fell right in the middle of another IVF cycle, and with no notice I ended up having to fly out to Denver on my own on my actual birthday.  This left us with about 40 minutes at 5 pm on the way to the airport for my grand birthday dinner. I chose El Porton to make use of an expiring Groupon, very glamourous. This could have been a fun family place, but Declan managed to fall asleep in the car on the way.  So this was my birthday celebration this year:

Good times. 

Although Fortune kindly seated a woman with a dazzling array of "Happy Birthday" balloons right beside me, so that bumped up the festive atmosphere considerably. 

It has been all worth it though, as my latest cycle has gone stunningly well so far.  After my last two cancellations, Dr. Schoolcraft had told me that that was pretty much predicative of future failure, but I talked him into letting me cycle one more time for closure's sake.  With my AMH now less than .1 ngl and a rocking antral follicle count of 1, we are squarely in the tilting-at-windmills territory here, with our chances of pregnancy hovering around zero.    However, I once again did 21 days of testosterone priming prior to this cycle, and this time it seems to be working.  Right now I have 11 follicles growing, which from an antral follicle count of 1, is some serious loaves-and-fishes miraculous type action.  This is the best I've ever done, in our 3 years of trying with assistance.   My doctor is absolutely flummoxed with how well my cycle is going.  It is fun to surprise a world-leading expert with how strange things things seem to go, wherever I am concerned. 

We are still, as always, a long way from baby, but it looks like we will definitely make it to retrieval  this time, probably next Tuesday.  Hoping to get 6 eggs so we will have enough to "push to blast" - ie. allow the embryos to develop 5 days into blastocytes before getting the deep freeze, instead of freezing at the day 3 embryo stage.  I have never made it that far before.   Keep your thoughts and prayers coming!  In the interim, I am revelling in a lot of spare time while I'm here in Denver by myself.  I'm not feeling terrific, but have nonetheless managed to drag my carcass over to Nordstrom's a couple times, so there's life in me yet.  Am thinking about going to a movie by myself for the first time ever tonight!  Am also contemplating catching up on my blogging...