"I can do scary things"

Last week, I finally had the opportunity to hike Half Dome. It has been on my very unofficial bucket list for years. I knew I wanted to hike it, but kids, pregnancies, fears or laziness always prevented me from doing it.
A few months ago, Stewart's family was talking about who might be interested in hiking it. In order to hike up the cable to get on top of Half Dome you have to enter a lottery. Sunny's husband won the lottery for him and 5 others. There was going to be 3 adults with one kid to go, so I didn't think we would end up hiking. We entered the day before lottery for last minute reservations and I GOT IT! This was it. I was going to do it! However, it didn't even really matter because only five of us ended up hiking it - Stewart, Robbie, Lori, Jack (11 years old), and me.

Even though we didn't get the first lottery, Stewart and I were still trying to prep just in case we got the chance. He borrowed a harness from a friend to help me feel more confident in case I slipped. If you slip and let go while hiking the cables, you are most likely dead depending on what part you are on.

The hike up was pretty decent. We left around 5am. It is 7 miles up to the top of Half Dome. We hiked up next to two different waterfalls and through the forest. The rangers stop you before the sub dome to check and make sure you have a reservation. The sub dome is a bunch of granite steps forming switchbacks. It was hot and a LOT of steps.

Once you get done with the switchbacks you walk down the other side on smoother rock, across the saddle, and up the cables. Once the cables were in sight I started feeling the nerves growing stronger and stronger. I was trying not to let it show because I didn't want to place doubt or fear into other people (mostly Jack) but talked to Stewart a little since he had done it a few times before. I had a love hate relationship with the harness I was wearing. Wearing harnesses are not super common and a lot of people will say don't use them because it can slow the climbers down unnecessarily. However, I don't know if I would have been able to get myself on the cables without it. I knew I wasn't going to fall to my death, but every time I had to switch the carabiner to the next section, I was forced to look down the very scary slope. We were very tired at the top and took a few minutes to eat lunch before we headed back down.

When we walked to the top of the cables to start our descend there was a long line and people were packed on the cables. Apparently there was a group of individuals who were taking a very long time. This caused us to be on the cables for 45 minutes, way longer than necessary which gave us all some lovely uneven sunburns. I walking down the cables backwards which I think was the best way for me to do it. My knees didn't suffer and I didn't have to stare down the whole time. The feeling of unclipping from the cables for the last time was such a good feeling! I yelled, " I did it!!!" My mantra the whole time was "I can do scary things. Thousands of people do this every year, I CAN TOO!" lol

The hike down was harder than expected. We took the recommend amount of water but we were out of water way earlier than expected. Robbie, Lori, and Jack went ahead of us because Stewart and I decided to go a little slower so as not to totally blow our knees.

We stopped on the trail and drank our last sips of water, without saying out loud that it was our last. A couple hiking behind us asked us if we were out of water and filled our bottles with their own water. They had a water filter and they were going to be hiking along water along a different trail. It was honestly such a blessing, we would have reeaaaallly struggled without it.

A few miles later we were hiking with a group of three people maybe 20 feet in front of us. They all of a sudden start running back saying, "There's a bear! There's a bear! What do we do!!"  Stewart, in his reassuring and calm voice, told us to be loud, down turn our backs to it, and don't make sudden movements. None of us really knew what loud noises to make and were a little in shock in think. We just start clapping and moving back. We then saw a second bear. Of course, the first worry is if this is a cub and it's mother so we were all trying to figure out if one looked bigger than the other. Thankfully, kind of thankfully, both bears were both the same size, very large and both were crossing our trail 30 feet in front of us.

As we continue to walk backward and be loud, we hear a group coming up the trail from the opposite direction and their noise helps move the bears away from the trail. There was a small bridge we were on and one of the bears was crossing up the creek from us. Someone made a loud clap and the bear just stares at us for a good 30 seconds causing more fear in me than I would like. By that time the group of us had grown to about 20 people and Stewart whispered to me that we needed to go. So we slipped away safely.

The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful, but it was sooooo long. There were so many steps we walked down and so many parts of the trail I had forgotten about.

When we were on the last little stretch I looked up and thought I saw one of my brother in laws walking toward me. I didn't know if I was hallucinating a little bit or what. But sure enough, it was Jenner's husband bringing us a scooter and bike so we could rest our walking muscles. I took the kid scooter and almost fell over at least 5 times because I just couldn't balance after 14 miles of hiking.

The hike was completely worth it, but it was really challenging mentally and physically. Now I don't have to do again! Unless one of our kids begs me to do it with them or something... But we will see!

Apple Blossom

We were so excited to spend a week in Manson!  Stewart and I left the kids with my parents so we could enjoy an anniversary trip to Leavenworth. We love our anniversary trips and I'm so happy we make a point to go on a kid-free trip once a year, even if it is just a couple nights.

We got to "help" catch/save/help a swarm of bees in the orchard. We tried our best to cover up so we wouldn't get stung. Meanwhile, dad was in shorts and a polo. Not surprising! 

Darell did not mind this wonderful set up...

It was so fun to show the kids some of my favorite things to do in Manson like going through sprinklers in the orchard and, of course, the lake! 

As a thank you to my parents for watching our kids we got them a fun game for them to play with their grandkids... 

Aunt Emily, or as the kids like to call her "our friend", made edible play dough with the kids. They loved that you could make something fun to play with out of candy. 

This year was my 10 year anniversary for Apple Blossom and I took my whole family up to Washington. Stewart insisted that he and the kids had to be there for the special event. I will admit, I was feeling a little silly going back to wear a crown, sash, and ride in a parade at 28 years old. But, as soon as I saw Marci and Kelsey and we started talking, I got excited and was happy to be there! 

Finishing the trip at Willow Point with cousins and a helicopter ride was a perfect ending to the trip! 

Brandon Stewart Poulsen

At the end of August 2017 we found out I was pregnant. I had been going through a lot of physical issues with my birth control. The pregnancy was kind of a surprise. This whole time, things felt different - physically and emotionally. Things didn't seem the same and kind of felt off. A couple weeks later, I start spotting and later that night I knew I had lost the baby. I went to the doctor the next day and they confirmed what I already knew.
About four weeks later, I took a pregnancy test, thinking I might be pregnant again. The test was positive but it was hard to be excited because we just weren't trusting it fully. I took a few different tests and brands and all came back positive. So I called my doctor and they suggested I come in for a blood test check my levels. I went in and took the test. Found out my HCG levels were so high they thought I was pregnant with twins.
At around 16 weeks I took a special blood test that tested a whole bunch of things and one thing it would tell us is the gender. We found out we were having a boy while we were all in the car together. Madison refused to believe she wasn't getting a sister.
I was hardly sick during Brandon's pregnancy and was able to stay pretty active throughout.  He dropped around 36 weeks and I felt it was going to fall out of me every time I bent over. However, I met with my doctor on my due date and we scheduled a day for me to be induced.
I thought it was scheduled for Thursday, June 14th. But, at 7:15am on June 13th I got a call from Labor and Delivery asking if I was still planning on being induced that day!
So I woke Stewart up, got the family fed, Stewart and I were off the hospital in the same 2003 Alero we had taken to the hospital for the other two kids. Memories started flooding my mind of contractions, delivery, and holding a new baby. I was getting really nervous and had no idea what it would be like for me to get induced.
They started Pitocin around 1pm and I honestly didn't feel anything for an hour or so, so they upped it. Hardly anything still. I walked around a lot and was doing dances and squats with Stewart. I was dilating slowly and it was driving me nuts. They broke my water and that didn't make any change. They kept upping it ever so often, but I wasn't feeling anything significant. THEN they upped in around 6:30pm. Holy moly did I start feeling contractions! They were so instant and very sharp. I had to pee so I got up and could hardly make it back to the bed. I kept feeling like I needed to poop and push. The nurse had me get on the bed to check how far I was dilated and I was only at a 7. I was tired and decided to ask for an epidural to see if relaxing would help me. Stewart says he heard so many swear words come out of my mouth and had to keep himself from laughing when I was cussing for the anesthesiologist to get there faster. I was shaking so bad and when the anesthesiologist came he told me I need to breathe deep to try to stop shaking because he couldn't do anything until I stopped. I had Stewart sitting in front of my while I was sitting on the edge of the bed. I was staring him in the eye and concentrating so hard to relax. I was incredibly sweaty and in a terrible mood. The epidural was placed and I was asked to lay on my side. As soon as I laid down I felt Brandon coming. I kept telling the nurse "He's coming! He's coming! I know he's coming!" I knew she didn't believe me and leisurely finished her notes then decided to check me again. As soon as she looked she said, "Oh! There's the head!" My doctor was already at the hospital all suited up and came in right away. Brandon was born less than ten minutes later.
I was terrified during that birth. I kept telling Stewart I thought I was going to die. The pain was unreal since the epidural didn't have time to numb anything. There was one nurse that was holding my right foot that really helped me focus and I am so thankful for her! haha
I was completely exhausted after. They laid Brandon on me and I could hardly hold him. Stewart kept saying I was so in love with the baby I wasn't giving him up so Stewart could hold him. But the truth is, I was so tired I couldn't lift the baby to Stewart.
We had a really hard time deciding on names for him. But we settled on Brandon because it was common and fit with the other two kids' names well. I wanted his middle name to be Stewart the whole time, but Stewart wasn't sure. He decided he wanted Stewart as the middle name after he held him.
Since Brandon was born so fast, he had taken in a lot of amniotic fluid and we had to suction his mouth out at all hours of the day and night so he wouldn't choke.
Stewart's mom was there to help the week prior and my mom came the day after we got out of the hospital.

Brandon is quite the baby. He's been a very quiet boy but is very interested in what other people are doing. He's not afraid to crawl over anything or anyone in order to get what he wants. He's been a thumbsucker since the first minute we saw him. He is a very chill baby and we get comments all the time about how good he is in public. But now that he understands he can get out and play, he hasn't been so happy to just watch! RIP easy sacrament meetings. He is only 9 months and he already has 9 teeth - the first two came through before he was 3 months old. He started crawling when he was 6 months because he wanted to play with our Christmas train and has been trying to walk the last couple months.

We all love this baby so much.