Yellowstone National Park

This summer we went on our very first Gaffney family vacation to Yellowstone! It was a little stressful to plan on Garrick's part since he had the MCAT leading up to it. But it ended up being a pretty great trip! We camped, talked, played games, and saw the sites. Yellowstone was beautiful, I wasn't sure if I would be able to get Garrick to leave! He was so in love with the place. We went at the very beginning of the summer so everything was super green and there were so many animals out! I was pretty nauseous through the whole trip but being outside seemed to really help! I'm so glad I married someone who loves the outdoors and makes camping a priority. It's been so fun to experience so much beauty!

Anniversary Getaway

Fist pumps for taking the MCAT!

While Garrick was studying for the MCAT I asked what was one thing we wanted to do to celebrate. His response was all you can eat crab legs. Of all the things he could've said, crab legs was all he wanted. Around this same time we had also decided that we would postpone celebrating our anniversary until the MCAT was behind us. So Vegas was our solution to celebrate everything! Since Garrick was busy studying I was in charge of planning this trip. The first thing we did when we got there was sit down at a casino buffet with all you can eat crab legs. We ate until Garrick's tummy was good and full! (We paid quite a bit of money for the buffet and while it was fun to splurge, we definitely didn't think it was worth it.) The next thing I had planned was a list of sites to see on the strip. Garrick had only been to Vegas for brief visits and had never experiences the strip so I was happy to show him the sites! 

My all time favorite part of the strip is the Bellagio fountains. Beautiful fountain shows during the day and night were magical. The highlight was when they played a Celine Dion song, I almost cried it was so beautiful!! It was definitely Garrick's favorite part as well, we were both mesmerized and watched several shows. It was fun taking in the whole experience. We did everything on my list except gamble of course ;)

During this time my morning sickness had kicked in and eating at the buffet only made the day harder for me. I had done the strip before so I was confident that being pregnant wouldn't be an issue. But after walking up and down the entire strip things started to go south.Towards the end of the night we ran out of water and no where on the strip can you get water! It was baffling! No water in sight. So I was dehydrated and my body was extremely tired. We had on going to the old Vegas strip right after we had finished the main strip but I couldn't last another minute so we decided call it a night.  Heading back to the car, we discovered we had walked in a large circle and didn't know how to get back to the car. It was then that I broke down in tears. Hot, tired, thirsty, and nauseous; I just couldn't handle it anymore.

Garrick being the incredible husband that he is, sat me down and ran to find water. Once I was able to rest and drink water I was able to make it back to our car. I happened to be wearing my fitness tracker that day and discovered that we had walked over 13 miles!! No wonder I was so cranky. He was so sweet and took such good care of me. I felt so guilty for not making it to our final stop of the night but he kept saying how much fun he had, how tired he was (I know that was a lie)  and that we would be back to do it another time. He definitely cheered me up.

Well since I had been in charge of planning I figured that getting a hotel wouldn't be worth it since we would be on the strip so late and would be leaving early the next morning. My brilliant solution was to sleep in the car at the closest rest stop. I'm cheap and I know it. Garrick, not complaining once about my sleeping solution, hopped on the interstate and started driving until we found a rest stop. There was just one problem with my plan. There was no rest stops. We had been driving for an hour with no rest stops in sight. Garrick was growing in patient and I was getting emotional again. My plan for the next day was to visit the Hoover Dam which was an hour and a half away. Garrick decided to just drive to the Hoover Dam since we had no other solutions. Just outside of the Dam was one casino/hotel, and across the street from it was a dirt parking lot with semi trucks parked to sleep through the night. This was our only option. So we pulled in to the lot, laid our backseat down and tried to sleep. It was hot, uncomfortable and neither of us slept. It was a pretty awful night. We got up early the next morning, drove across the street to the hotel, and used their lobby bathroom to brush teeth and freshen. 

Tired and cranky we headed to the Hoover Dam. To our surprise, it was beautiful! Neither of us had been before so we didn't have any expectations, but we were happily surprised. We spent a couple hours walking around, reading the monuments, and enjoying the view. It was the perfect ending to our semi-disastrous trip. 

On the drive back we talked about our highlights from the trip and overall it was pretty great! I had my stress-free husband with me to experience a fun new adventure. What more could I ask for? We can laugh now about that horrible night's sleep as well as my break down on the strip. I am, however, suspended from planning future trips for awhile...

Parenthood

Garrick and I are gonna be parents!! It's still so weird to say but we have a bun in the oven that's due January 17th! It's such a bizarre feeling, knowing that something is growing inside of you, I can't wrap my head around it. But baby is doing well, we've heard its heartbeat a couple of times now and were able to get an ultrasound pretty early on. I love how excited Garrick is, he's ecstatic! And looking at our baby picture makes all the sickness and exhaustion worth it! 

Kayla just got hired on as a photographer/videographer at her work so she was really excited to put a video together for our announcement. That girl is so talented, I'm glad we have her in the fam!

May, June, July...

Now that Garrick is home and done with military and MCAT the summer is starting to fly by! I don't know if I've mentioned yet, but Garrick took the MCAT and applied to Medical School! It's crazy, I thought this day would never come. But it came and went and now we wait! Garrick is now taking summer classes and enjoying his free time. He joined our ward's ultimate intramural team!

This is the best picture I had of him to document the game...

We've also done more hiking and are loving it! It will be really hard to leave the beautiful Utah, it is so nice being able drive to the mountains and find gorgeous hikes in minutes!

We hiked Stewart Falls with Race and Aly, we love them!

The Payson temple was newly dedicated and we loved going to a new temple. That's another thing we'll miss about Utah next year, so many temples! We're trying to take advantage of our time left and are going more often. 

 Ever since we've been married Garrick has talked and talked about the Independence Day in Provo. He would talk about the fun traditions he had with his family and how he couldn't wait until we got to experience it together. Unfortuntely it hasn't worked out the past two years. But once we figured out that we'd both be home for this fourth of July Garrick started planning! He had planned the ENTIRE day. From 6am hot air balloons to 11pm stadium of fire fireworks. It was such a fun day, we loved every second of it. We spent the day with new friends, old friends, and family. Garrick had a huge smile on his face the entire day. I'm glad he loves this holiday so much, it's fitting because he loves America so much!

And then a picture to remember free slurpie day! We love summer!!

The Marine Corps

 

Garrick was gone for a couple weeks in June for his LAST military training. He was in Twentynine Palms, CA and had spotty cellphone service the entire time. I was very happy to have him come home. This is the third summer he's done this while we've been married and it doesn't get any easier. This last time dragged on forever, I was so ready to have him home for good. While it was hard for me to have him away, Garrick did awesome during his training! He got a huge award at the end of the training for his leadership and combat skills. He received a plaque and a medal to put on his uniform. Everyone was congratulating him during the family picnic, it was pretty neat to see the respect he everyone gave him.
It's easy for me to forget that he has experienced so much in the military since I've only known him for a small part of that time. So whenever I'm around other marines I get to see this completely different side of him. In this environment he changes modes and becomes Sergeant Gaffney.
Garrick has loved his time in the military and it was a really hard decision for him to be done and move on. As I'm writing this Garrick is at the base turning in all his gear, checking out for good. It's so weird to think that this won't be a part of our lives anymore. I know Garrick will miss this, it has played such a vital role in the man that he has become. I'm so grateful that I've been able to experience a small part of it with him. I have grown so much respect and awe of the men, women, and families that sacrifice for our country. I'm grateful that Garrick has served our country and now has the most patriotism of anyone I know! I'm glad our kids will be raised in a home where their dad served and loves this country!

I was able to visit him on the base because of the family picnic. It was my last time ever going on the base since his contract is up so I made sure to get some pictures of him. 

We Have a Graduate in the House

I graduated! Technically I didn't officially graduate until June but I was still able to walk in April with Colby and Kelsi so it was nice. Kayla and I skipped one of the ceremonies and she took some killer photos of me on campus so I'll remember BYU forever!

Good riddance to the Testing Center!

Lots of Richardsons graduated so we had a party at Uncle Kens to celebrate!

Kayla has become super talented overnight in her photography and videography skills. She made this sweet video of my graduation. Love that girl!