A Reason To Relax  

About a month ago, Cody called on his way home from work and told me that he was going to be out of town for our anniversary on the 31st. I have to admit, I was pretty upset. He had just gone up to Snowflake for work and I didn't think that he would be going away again soon. I think he could tell I wasn't very happy because he said, "Don't worry though! You'll be with me." At this point I was just really confused. I didn't want to spend my anniversary on a work trip, but you do what you have to right? Well Cody went on to tell me that he was told by his boss that he had to take a vacation. Cody's boss really is great and I am thankful that he appreciates him and knows that he needs a break from time to time. He told Cody that he would not work his best if he worked all the time. Well, they are getting ready to make a huge upgrade and implement some new things at work in the IT department. It's a massive project and will take upwards of nine months. It will be starting soon so Cody needed to take his vacation time before then. With other vacations on the schedule and projects already in the works, it worked out that Cody could take the week of our anniversary off. I started to cry when he told me. I don't know what was wrong with me. I think it was the initial shock of hearing Cody was going to be out of town combined with the disappointment that the trip we wanted to take would probably not be possible because it was so close to when the vacation was that there was not time to plan or save for a more extravagant trip. I could tell Cody felt bad, but I got over it quickly and told him I was excited and that we could plan something fun. We decided to just go up to Phoenix and stay at the resort we stayed the night we got married. It worked out perfectly because we were going up to help Shannon move the weekend our vacation started.

The day before Cody left for the week his boss pulled him into his office. Cody was a little worried but he had no reason to be. In fact, it was great news! Something that Cody really wanted. With the new things happening at work, they opened two new positions up in the IT department. One was a position for a specialized programmer, and the other was for a systems administrator two position that will be specialized in the program that they are implementing. I obviously don't understand it in detail. Well they took applications for both and found a programmer right away, but they were not finding anyone to fill the sys admin two position. In fact Cody was the highest qualified based on the applications, and they have come to really like his work ethic and company at work. So.... THEY GAVE CODY THE PROMOTION!!! We are so very excited and realize that this is an enormous blessing. However, it is going to be a lot of work and will require learning and growth. Which is a good thing. In the end, Cody will become a very specialized type of administrator. This confirms for us even further that we made the right decision in moving to Willcox.

A week or so before this all happened, I was contacted about taking over the Executive Directorship for the Miss Graham County Scholarship Pageant. They needed a director to take over for the pageant in August and even though along with everyone else I think I am a little crazy I am very excited about it. Miss Graham is a preliminary in the Miss America Organization and I had the great blessing of being a titleholder in 2005. Graham County's pageant is a little more involved than a lot of pageants in the state so I am going to have my hands full, but I also have a lot of help and support behind me. I had such a great experience that I didn't want to see the pageant stop because they were not able to find a director. Here I am way back in 2005 when I was Miss Graham. It was a lot of fun and I'm sure being the director will be too.

With all of the new things we have taken on, decided that it was important to get away for a few days and just RELAX! So that is what we did. We started off by not relaxing, but still got away a day early. Joshua had a doctors appointment on Friday afternoon and then I had a photoshoot in Tucson that evening. Josh's appointment ended up being cancelled and rescheduled for Thursday of the next week so we just spent the morning getting ready and packing up the car to head out. The photoshoot went well, and then we hung out at Cody's parents' for the night. It was a lot of fun and we were ready to get the relaxation started. We headed up to Phoenix and got Shanny all moved and then she kept Joshua Saturday night for us. It was his first full night away but I was so tired it didn't even phase me. She took him to church with her that afternoon and Cody and I spent the day together which was WONDERFUL!! It's been a very long time since we have had a date that was longer than a two hour movie or dinner. We had lunch together at Sweet Tomatoes, went and saw Iron Man 2, went and did a little shopping for new beach towels, and then got ice cream at Cold Stone. It was so nice to just be together.


We picked Joshua up and then we headed back to our hotel. We stayed at the same resort we stayed at when we got married. We loved it then but only got to stay the one day before we headed to our reception and then to California for the week. It was perfect for relaxing and made our time away even nicer.

We decided to go for a swim after we got back and Joshua LOVED the pool. He wasn't very happy about the cold water at first but he got used to it, and after that it was all we heard about for the next few days. He actually loved the hot tub. We didn't let him stay in very long, but in the evening if he got cold we would let him go in for a few minutes.



Cody and I celebrated our third anniversary on May 31st which was Monday. We have a very relaxing day of swimming, watching movies, and just hanging around the hotel. We did go to Oregano's for lunch where Shannon works and it was very yummy! That afternoon Shannon came over and hung out for a bit and then she took Josh for us that night so we could go out and celebrate. We went to Olive Garden. It was the same one we ate at the night we got married. We have some really fond memories of that meal. We had an awesome server and he and another guy sang their "celebration" song for us. It was AWESOME! It was just the two of them, but we have still never heard anyone do it nearly as much justice and those two. We headed out a little late so we cut dinner short and headed over to the theater. We went to see Robin Hood and even though it was pretty violent we really liked it. It was definitely different than the traditional story of Robin Hood and Maid Marian. We headed home and found a sleeping little boy. It was a great day and I am so very grateful for my husband and our loving relationship. I see so many couples who argue and fight, or lose the friendship that they used to have and I am so thankful that we are not in that situation. Sure we have our moments just like everyone else, but I know that they never last long because we don't want them to. We usually talk about it and it's over in just a few minutes. I'm glad we can still laugh together, be silly, and dream big. I love Cody so very much and I know that he loves me. It's pretty wonderful and I am looking forward to many more years and eternity together.


Here we are at dinner. We didn't take a whole lot of pictures during vacation. I probably should have taken more, but it just got away from me. This is on Cody's iphone like a lot of the other photos we got while we were there.



The next day we decided that we wanted to get out and do something fun, so we thought we would try out Castles and Coasters. We picked Shannon up to go with us and grabbed some lunch at Subway and then headed into the park. It was a lot of fun. They had one big roller coaster, another smaller one, bumper boats, go karts, a free fall, a water ride, tons of other smaller rides, and then the arcade and miniature golf. We bought unlimited passes so we just kept getting in line and we would switch off who would stay and take Joshua on the smaller rides like the Merry-Go-Round. That was his favorite and it got plenty of use from us that day. Joshua's face was priceless on the bumper boats. I was laughing so hard I thought I was going to fall in. He has so much personality and it just makes us happy. It's hard not to smile around him. Here are a few pictures from the day. Again, they are from Cody's phone so they are not the greatest but I figured they were better than not having any at all.






Our last day there was Wednesday. We decided to just stay in again and have fun at the pool. It was a nice ending to our time away and even though I wished we could stay longer, I was also ready to head home. I'm pretty sure Josh was too. It was great to take some time for us and get away.

Thursday we took Joshua to his doctors appointment in Tucson. He is doing great. He is 25-50% for weight at 25 lbs and 75% for height at 32 inches. His doctor raved about his language skills and said that he is WAY ahead of his developmental age. She was very impressed and told us to keep up whatever we were doing, and that we should be very proud of him. It was so funny because she could hardly get a word in. He was talking up a storm, telling her colors that were in the room, naming butterflies and bugs. It was pretty funny. We were happy to hear he didn't need shots for a couple of months so that made the visit a bit more pleasant. Friday we hung out at home and spent some time resting up while we can. That weekend we were did another photoshoot, and caught up on homework. Still when Monday rolled around the next week, we were still not ready to get back to work. We are very grateful for our jobs and the many blessings we've been given. It's still nice to get away once in a while and this mini vacation was definitely much needed and appreciated.