2013...the best of times, and the worst of times

Maybe I should stick around to updating my blog once a year. Like one of those Christmas brag letters. There's definitely some boast-worthy moments for 2013 (hello...I birthed an awesome kid!). And then there's some stuff I wouldn't wish on anyone.

2013 started off pretty great. I turned 26 (which is still mid-20's I swear!), and took over the FOX5 weekend show. I absolutely loved my new role at work, and was excited about working with such an amazing team.

Judd and I went to Portland where we considered turning into hipsters for 5 minutes, then decided it was too rainy and cold to actually want to live there. We're too used to being desert rats.

I finally came up with really awesome frisbee routine with Bindi, set to Dropkick Murphy's "Shipping Up to Boston".

In April, I discovered I was pregnant, finally. It took awhile to get to that point, but we were here, and no turning back!

A few weeks later, I had a miscarriage scare. My baby was fine, but it meant the pregnancy was going to be a bit tougher than normal. I had to be extra careful with pretty much everything.

I went up to Cape Cod for a few days with my favorite hocake ever, and we totally took over our favorite stomping grounds during the off-season.

Judd went to where dreams come true, Disneyland in China for a few weeks, to work on the castle. I thought I had a cool job, but that just sounds almost fake with awesomeness.

While Judd was rubbing elbows with Mickey Mouse, I took a trip of my own to California for a frisbee tournament with the Atomic dogs. A ton of fun, even if wrangling 2 crazy border collies while 4 months pregnant was a little challenging.

We also went camping with our team in Utah. A great few days of fishing, boating, and interesting cooking experiments!

Shortly after that trip, I started having horrible round ligament pains. My pregnancy got that much more difficult, I could barely move. I went from being able to exercise moderately, to not at all. This was really, really difficult for me to accept. I had only wanted to gain the bare minimum recommended weight, and it looked like that wasn't going to happen anymore.

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary!

We decided to do a stay-cation instead of a major trip this year (originally we tossed around the idea of going to the Philippines) because of all the pain I was having. So we got massages and ate a lot of food in Mesquite, then stayed in a suite at Mandalay Bay and hung out by the pool all weekend. A great calm before the storm!

Judd went on his annual dirtbiking trip to Moab...and broke his leg, almost 2 months before delivery. Best timing ever.

The next weeks up until Kaden came were really, really tough. Judd had surgery, I was getting progressively worse with the pain, and neither one of us was very mobile. We were lucky to have some really great friends and family who helped us out a lot.

Kaden came early at the end of November. The highlight of the year!

Then it's a whirlwind of holidays and festivities.

Then a family tragedy. To protect our privacy, I'm not going into it, but let's just say 2013 did not end on a great note, and we have a lot of challenges coming up in 2014 because of it.

I'm still excited though, to see what 2014 brings to us. Our goals are to get back to our wedding day bodies, eat real food (with both of us basically on bedrest for 2 months, then taking care of a newborn, our diet choices have been terrible!), clean the garage, and keep the kid alive. Here's to a great new start!