Almost the End and A New Beginning

First and foremost I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah or any other holiday that you may celebrate this time of year. I know we had a nice quiet one which will probably be our last quiet one for possibly the rest of our lives. 

We are at an odd place in life right now. As of last week I have graduated with my Bachelors in Photography and as you can see just about ready to explode. 

I am so grateful for an incredibly patient husband, as these last 2 semesters have been a roller coaster ride between morning sickness and other pregnancy adventures and finishing up my degree. Garett graduated in July so he was working and waiting for me to finish these last few months. I could not have survived all of this without him. 

Also to my dear parents whom invested greatly in me and always pushed me to work hard. I thank them. They have always supported me in doing what I love and have encouraged me to try new things. I owe them more than I'll ever be able to repay in my lifetime.

We loved getting to spend time with them this past weekend and were sad that we couldn't be there for Christmas. 

Regardless we had a wonderful Christmas. Below is my phenomenal homemade, personalized stocking made by Cathie, Garett's mom. (Just fyi Cathie I absolutely love this! You can ask Garett, I was dancing around the house for joy when I got this in the mail. Thank you for working incredibly hard on this for me! It means the world to me). All the Bonds kids had stockings like these and I think it is the coolest tradition ever.

This year it was just the 2 of us in Idaho. We decided to stay in town, being that baby boy's due date is in 2 weeks and I would hate to be stuck in another state when he arrives.

Garett made our Christmas loads of fun by jumping out of bed yelling "It's Christmas!" and dancing around the house. We of course had to be wearing our Christmas pajamas and start with the stockings. Garett pushed the couch out of the way so we could reach the presents easier and then proceeded to dump out his stocking on the floor. His facial expressions were priceless and though we are not quite parents yet, he had enough excitement for us and 3 of our unborn children. 

 It was nice to have one little Christmas to ourselves, but of course we missed out family that is spread over the country. 

We got to enjoy the rest of the day with our friends Bryton and Ron. We had brunch at our place where Garett cooked up a storm and then enjoyed a fantastic Christmas dinner made by Bryton. We were definitely stuffed full with delicious foods for Christmas. It was really nice to be able to share the day with our friends and enjoy some great company. (Thanks for sharing your Christmas day with us Bryton and Ron!)

 Rexburg also did not disappoint as it gave us almost a foot of snow for a beautiful white Christmas. Up until now Rexburg has been unusually warm and you could still see the grass on Christmas eve day. Literally overnight we got this beautiful blanket. I am grateful I didn't have to deal with this during the semester and it was nice timing to have it during the break. I would have been sad if our first and last Christmas in Rexburg was snowless. 

Now I am 38 weeks pregnant (below is at 37) and kind of just waiting.

It's weird waiting to become a parent, to bring a child into this world. I think it is finally feeling real that he can come whenever he wants now. Part of me wants him asap and part of me is content with waiting awhile longer (probably the insanity of having to actually give birth to another human being plays a part in that). I am both thrilled and terrified on a daily basis.

It is also strange to think we are basically done with Rexburg. I have had a wonderful 4 years here and 3 of them with Garett. I have truly grown to love this town as it has become my home. It is where so much of my life changed for the better. I have met some incredible people here over the years including my amazing husband Garett and some of our dearest friends. It is where our story began. It is about to be the beginning of our little family and it will always be dear to me.

Now we are starting a new chapter. 

We are about to have a baby boy, to become parents.

Our lives are about to change forever.

We are working on figuring out where we want to go for grad school.

Everything is about to change and I am sitting on the edge of the cliff waiting.

It seems rare that we get to hold on and savor the turning points in our lives.

Often they happen suddenly without warning, for better or worse.

So here I am waiting, waiting for this new chapter to begin, for everything to change.

I guess I should count it as a blessing that I get to be in this place and take it all in.

It is exciting, terrifying, thrilling, overwhelming and incredible.

I am grateful for an amazing husband to share in this adventure with.

I'm grateful to our family and friends that have supported us in everything we have decided to do and are always cheering us on.

This new road is coming and knowing that I have the greatest support from the most incredible people gives me peace. 

I know it will be a new and challenging road, but I also know it will all be okay. 

I am blessed beyond reason and know that when tomorrow comes I will welcome it with open arms.

Here's to new beginnings and with the new year, will come a new road and a new adventure.

Thank you all for being a part of it. 

I love you all and wish you the best in this coming year.

May it be filled with great and marvelous joys and experiences.

-Megan

Rounder and Rounder I Go

I'd apologize for not blogging in ages, but I start out every post like that so I'll dive right in.

I'm in my final semester of college and will graduate in 3 weeks. 

This semester has been weirdly busy and not busy at the same time.

I should explain...I am only taking one studio class this semester so in terms of having to run around like a crazy person and live on campus, I'm actually pretty relaxed on time. But then somehow despite not taking as intense classes as normal, my classes still keep me busy. 

The beginning of the semester was rather calm, but then once we hit over half way through the semester, my teachers all decided that we need to have lots of papers and projects due in the next 3 or so weeks. So despite being extremely close to being done, I feel like I have a ton to do before it's over.

In case you have forgotten, I am 34 weeks pregnant (below was at 31 weeks though). 

I feel quite round though luckily not horrifically round. You can thank hiking through the snow and climbing 4 flights of stairs a few times a week for that. You may ask "why not use an elevator?" 

Well the elevator in the Spori building sounds like my little brothers' car, which is older than me. It sounds like death and breaks down at least once a semester, so that is why I take the stairs. Plus I suck at exercising so this keeps me active.

Garett has finally gotten his diploma! 

He graduated in July, but there were all these funky complications that required him to spend the last 2 months trying to fix it. Basically it came down to this one class being wavered for basically the same class with a different number and changing his catalog year. But now he now has his bachelors in Microbiology! He's also taking a GRE prep class and we're beginning on looking at where we wants to apply to for grad school. 

We just got back from Thanksgiving break with my parents. It was great to see them! I think we are more or less officially ready for our baby boy. We're even making some progress on names. Slowly, but surely. 

Below is a picture of the Spori building that I get to hike up each day. 

Pretty, but tiring.

This is the time of year that I always get a bit nostalgic. 3 years ago I met my in-laws for the first time and I was terrified. Garett and I had been only dating a few weeks and I was scared they wouldn't like me. Luckily they were extremely sweet to me and Grandma and Grandpa Bonds opened up their home to me and they all made me feel welcomed. 

This is a picture of the apple orchard where Garett and I first met and then later he proposed to me here. It's beautiful, quiet and will always have a place in my heart. It's where everything started for us and I could not be more grateful for the events that led to us meeting. 

We used to take walks all over Rexburg, even in the snow. This was one of the place we would walk to on the outskirts of town. Looking back we must have really wanted to spend time together to walk that far in the freezing Rexburg weather in the evenings. I'm not sure you could get me to do that anymore, or at least not after dark.

We're preparing for a new chapter in our lives and to be honest I am actually pretty excited. I'm extremely grateful for a husband and best friend that keeps me level headed. I'm grateful that we have the same goals and dreams that we can work on together. He lifts me up in every way and makes me better than I ever could be alone. So though the future is still a bit unknown and parenthood will be a challenging adventure, I am not scared. I know Garett will always be here by my side and we will embark on this adventure together. This season I am grateful for my little family and how it is growing. I love our little boy and I am excited to meet him. I could not ask for a better support system, especially as I work to finish my Bachelor's degree and play host to a very sweet baby boy for a few more weeks. 

I hope y'all had a nice Thanksgiving with delicious food and good company. I hope you remembered to give thanks for the blessings and people in your lives. 

I guess this is a belated Happy Thanksgiving. 

Have a great week y'all!

-Megan

And We're Having.....

A SWEET BABY BOY!

We found out the gender of our sweet baby on Thursday.

The night before I didn't sleep a wink because I feel like I've been waiting forever and couldn't wait another minute longer. I'm at 21 1/2 weeks which isn't really past the range for finding out gender but I've been ready to know for a long time.We no longer have to call him an "it" which is a great feeling.

The appointment went well. He started out asleep head up which was perfect for the doctor to get all the pictures of his brain and make sure everything looked normal. Sadly that was all he stayed asleep for and began being very wiggly.

Below is his bum and cute little legs.

You can't look at these feet and not sigh in awe! Are they not the sweetest???

When it was time to find out his gender he was not shy at all. By time we were ready to find out he had flipped over completely with his bum in the air.

Before the doctor even said his gender we saw it. He was not shy even a little.

It was pretty surreal to find out his gender and is only now starting to kick in.

Speaking of kicking he is a VERY VERY VERY energetic little boy!

He loves to kick and wiggle any time he is awake.

His little head, not quite sucking his thumb.

Gosh I'm in love with that little guy!

He has a strange idea of comfortable positions, I think he gets is from me.

If only I could be that flexible.

We're so thrilled to have him in our lives.

Already Garett, my mom and a friend of mine have gotten to feel him move.

It's a fun sensation to know he's there listening to my voice and growing stronger everyday. 

As for names we are far from making a dent.

In my baby book of names I've only gotten through the C's without much luck. 

Luckily we have time.

My mom came up this weekend to help us move and in doing so was able to help us get the crib set up and his nursery is slowly coming together little by little. 

I never thought a little boy less than a pound that I haven't even technically met yet could change my world so much. We really are happy beyond compare and it's only growing everyday.

He will be the first great-grandson Bonds for Grandpa Royce and the first grandson Bonds for Garett's parents. Their name-sake shall continue on!

As always we're grateful for all the support from our friends and family and we'll keep you updated as our little boy gets bigger.

-Megan

Summer Time Adventures

I know, I know. I haven't blogged in almost 2 months but I'm here to make it up to you.

Forgive me?

To be fair we have had tons going on. Funny how life gets quiet and then picks up suddenly for awhile.

I would say things are quiet now but they're still busy, just in different ways. 

Without further ado I will catch you up on life. 

I'll keep dialogue to a minimum until then end of the post, sound fair enough?

To start I found Cheerwine in Rexburg at this cute vintage candy store!

For those that don't know it is a North Carolina original soda. 

I believe it is a cherry, almond flavored cola. (No alcohol I promise)

Garett graduated with his Bachelors in Microbiology! 

I'm so proud of him, if y'all only knew how hard he worked!

(P.S. Yes in case you missed it I am pregnant with our first baby which is due in January, gender VERY SOON to come)

After the semester ended we headed down to Utah to spend time with my family, some old friends, see Grandma and Grandpa Bonds and attend my dear friend Haley's wedding.

I also satisfied my deepest pregnancy craving with doughnuts!

Munchkin is growing big and is constantly kicking and wiggling.

It makes me so very happy. 

(Baby can't reach my ribs yet)

This was me at about 17 weeks.

My dear friend Haley and her very lucky man.

What a beautiful bride! So glad I got to be there!

My very handsome little brother

(Sorry Aaron, I know you don't like this picture but you look good anyway)

After that we headed down to the fabulous Southern California.

Not before we saw rain in Las Vegas though.....weird...

Once we got down there we went camping at the beach.

Falling asleep to the sound of actual waves at night is probably on my list of all time favorite things now.

Plus no bugs!

Me, before I took a nap in the sun and burned my left shoulder pretty badly.

It was worth it though because I got to see Garett surf for the first time since he has been home from his mission (roughly 5 years).

He's mine! Isn't that wonderful?

I finally had California Pizza Kitchen!

My cup left a Red John smiley face though. O.o 

(Google The Mentalist for more info)

Of course I got my Panera Bread!

(I have a deep love of food, don't judge me.)

Tay's cat, Buddy loves me. 

He thinks my lap is a great napping place.

After almost 2 weeks away from home we are back in Rexburg. 

We loved getting to see so many people that we love dearly and it was by far one of the best trips we've ever had. We feel blessed to be able to be close enough (relatively) to see so much of our family all in one trip. 

Now we're home and working on packing up and moving to a new apartment to make room for our sweet little munchkin. I start my last semester of school in a little under a month which I am excited for but in no rush to start. It'll be fun, exciting and a little sad to be done with BYU-I. I've had a wonderful 4 years here and I have fallen in love with this little town.

As I said before we are very close to finding out the gender of our munchkin so make your bets now. 

So far it's pretty much split down the middle.

We've been enjoying quite a bit of rain this last week which I love not only because I love rain but because we live on the 3rd floor which gets  hot in the summer.

Things are great and busy as we are starting to prepare little by little for baby to come.

We now have some of the basic things like crib, changing table, etc and it's exciting to start preparing for munchkin.

More than anything I'm falling in love with my baby every day. Baby is very vivacious and wiggly and it fills me with joy to know my baby is working hard on building those strong muscles. I'm looking forward to meeting baby in roughly 20ish weeks and being a mom.

Don't get me wrong I'm certain it's probably going to be the hardest thing I've ever done, but also the most wonderful. We couldn't be happier to be on our way to becoming parents.

It's a crazy but exciting time in our lives. We're grateful to all the support we've had thus far and thank you for all the well wishes and positive energy.

I hope all is well with y'all.

I'm hoping my next post will be for the gender of our baby so stay tuned!

Megan

Player 3 is Entering the Game

 In January 2015!

Garett and I are excited to announce we are expecting a sweet addition to our little family in the coming year!

I am currently finishing up my first trimester at 13 weeks and baby and I are both doing well.

We got to hear the heartbeat today which is big and strong!

The ultrasound below is from the beginning of June when I was only 9 weeks along.

Baby has now more than doubled in size and is growing rapidly daily.

This is my attempt at a baby belly picture though it was probably more of a food belly, 

but hey I can dream right?

Only a few more weeks and my belly will start becoming more pronounced as baby grows.

 We are really excited and can't wait to find out the gender in a few weeks.

Look for more on the gender sometime in August. 

This is the biggest blessing minus the morning sickness which has been quite the adventure...

Regardless we are thrilled and grateful for the support of our families as we carry on the Bonds name.

We'll keep you updated in the coming weeks!

Thanks!

-Megan

A Little Taste of Moab

Last week I went on my travel study to Moab, UT.

For those that know nothing about Moab it is a tiny town surrounded by 2 national parks: Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. We mainly went to Arches of the two but we had many adventures.

The trip began last Wednesday with a 6 hour drive to Moab where we stayed in this lovely little motel. Surprisingly not as scary as I thought it would be but the tv's in the rooms were definitely a lot older than me.

Our first trip started about 30 minutes after we arrived where we headed right into the park to hike to Delicate Arch. It is quite a hike and quite a view.

This view is actually pointing away from the arch to show that there is a huge drop off on the other side. FYI not a huge fan of heights and no railing...but it was beautiful! (More pictures of much better quality coming later).

One of the nine other students on the trip, Adrianne. We became fast friends and hiking buddies.

The next morning we awoke at the lovely hour of 4am (having gone to bed around 11:30pm).

By time people started arriving in the park we had been there for at least 4 hours...no biggie. 

This was at Pine Tree Arch where we watched the sun rise.

That afternoon we went to Sand dune arch which I only have pictures of on my actual camera but it was BEAUTIFUL!

Then in the evening we went to the Window Arches, Turret Arch and a few more.

I stayed late to do some night photography and got some pretty cool shots. Sadly they are on film and I do not have any copies with me to scan in but I will later, promise.

This time I didn't get to bed until midnight when the full(ish) moon was high in the sky.

The next morning we got to get up at 3:50am....the moon was still up and fyi 4 hours of sleep really just feels like a longish nap. This time we went to Dead Horse Canyon which I have no pictures of on my phone because I was mostly asleep. It was a beautiful but surprisingly cold sunrise. 

Later that day we did get a nap which was as long as our sleep the night before. Then headed off to Hanksville where we were going to camp. 

It was too windy to set up camp so we went to Goblin Valley that evening where is was even more windy so we didn't stay long past sunset. We also managed to get sand and dirt in EVERYTHING.

We got back after dark and set up camp and passed out.

Luckily Saturday we got to sleep in to save up our rest for the hardest, craziest, most beautiful hike of all.

Horseshoe Canyon.

I recommend using the bathroom before you go because there is at least an hour drive on the bumpiest road ever and you'll likely have to pee when you get there just from all the jostling. 

It is 7 miles round trip and 5 of those miles are in the sand where you descend almost 800 feet into the canyon.

FYI hiking in the sand is much more difficult.

The first mile or so is just climbing down into the Canyon which isn't too bad.

Then you get to the floor and hike another 2 1/2 miles in. Along the way there are 4 or 5 panels of barrier canyon styled rock art which if I remember right is thousands of years old.

The final panel (well most of it) seen below is BEAUTIFUL! Much more amazing in person but this can give you a little feel.

Those figures are often a few feet tall.

It was breath taking and well worth the hike!

The hardest part was getting out though. 

Warning the trail to get up and out of the Canyon is kind of hard to see. Half of our group missed it at first and we may or may not have lost one of the teachers for about 3-4 hours...it was pretty scary...

Also I recommend going in the late afternoon because it isn't as hot and there is more shade. 

This is me after the hike feeling like a beast hiking that 7 mile trail!

We didn't get home until 1:30am.

Sunday we woke up, broke camp and headed to see a little more rock art and the Little Grand Canyon.

It was beautiful but at this point I was just ready to get home and see Garett.

5 days is far too long and I missed him like crazy.

Here is panorama of the canyon. You should be able to click on it and see a bigger version.

It was pretty but I'm not a fan of heights so I didn't get too crazy.

We finally got home around 8pm where my husband welcomed me home with marinated steak and potatoes and it was delicious! (Isn't he the best?) Of course I had to go back to school the next day and play catch up but it has all worked out. Now I am FINALLY getting to relax and slowly catching up on my sleep.

(Side note, a lot of places in the middle of nowhere have pretty good cell reception and I find that odd). 

Anyway that is all I have for now. I'll post later though it might not be until the end of the semester (4 weeks) but I will post eventually.

It was an adventuresome trip. To quote myself when asked why I chose this trip and what I liked about it.

"It seemed more interactive than going to a bunch of museums and looking at pictures and then it ended up being much more interactive than I thought".

It was great but next time I'd like to go with my husband and family.

Hope all is well with y'all and I'll try to post more in the coming weeks.

-Megan