It was a super quick but extremely long weekend in Boise. The night before we left, Isla was sick with a fever and slept from about 10-midnight and then from 7-8 in the morning, I was a tired mom for sure. We left Friday around 11am to go to the Pheonix/Mesa Gateway airport where I flew on Allegiant airlines to Ogden, UT with Isla. This was the beginning of our super long journey. My sister lives in Utah and since she was driving to Boise for the race too, I decided to fly to Ogden and then have her pick me up from the airport on her way up. Flights on Allegiant from Mesa to Ogden are usually less than $70 roundtrip so I thought it would be great to save money and also spend time with my sister. The flight is only an hour and six minutes so I thought it would be quick and easy even though Isla still wasn't feeling well. After being in the air for about 30 minutes though, the pilot came on to let us know that the autopilot was not working correctly so they were going to TURN AROUND and land in Mesa, get us a different plane, and then get us on our way. Apparently they couldn't just keep going since that was 36 minutes instead of 30... I was a little frustrated but what can you do? Luckily they were able to get us another plane very quickly and we were on our way again.
We finally landed in Ogden around 6:30 so now instead of getting to Boise at 8:30, we were looking at getting there around 11. It was slowly becoming the longest travel day ever. Shortly after getting on the road Isla starts saying "Potty, potty, potty..." As much as I love that she's potty trained, it was not ideal for this situation. She is smart enough to know that whenever she wants out of her carseat, crib, church, anywhere, all she needs to do is say "potty" and that gets her out. What's hard for me is determining when she really means it in those situations. So this story isn't as long as our drive I'll just say we stopped about 6 times in what is supposed to be a 4 hour drive and we didn't get to Boise until 1 in the morning and Isla cried "potty" pretty much the whole way there. Luckily we didn't have any accidents though!
Saturday was race day and between the lack of sleep and my nerves I was already pretty emotional. We got together with some of our team before the race so we could see each other and catch up since we wouldn't be in town long. Soon we were headed to the race and the closer we got the more nervous I became. There were over 35 teams participating and about 600 people there to race. With even more people doing the "sleep-in" option too, I thought we really had no chance of winning. When we got to the park and I saw the rest of our team, it just about pushed me into meltdown mode. I'll be honest, I'm a cryer, big time and when you show up and see that many people coming to support you and show you that they care, it means so much. That really has been one of the best things about the trials we been through, we have really found who are friends are and who loves us and its surprisingly more people than I ever would have thought. Since I was already about to cry, I was so glad they had the race first and then the drawing! Running definitely helped calm me down and relax. It was a beautiful run along the river and perfect chilly running weather so that also helped me gain a little composure and get my endorphins going.
After we finished the race, they waited until every person was done before they started the drawing. It was great to see all of the teams there supporting these couples. With this race, they had 2 complete IVF cycles donated by Idaho Center for Reproductive Medicine and the Utah Center for Reproductive Medicine (one each). They were also able to raise enough money to give away three $5000 grants and one $2000 grant which went to the team with the most team members. That is a total of 6 couples getting grants to help with fertility treatments. That is amazing!
I called James when they started to announce everything and just kept him on speaker phone so we could listen to everything. They first announce the team with the most team members for the $2000 grant. After that, I was expecting that they would start with the $5000 grants and then save the complete cycles until the end but they started with the cycle donated by the Idaho Center for Reproductive Medicine. That is when they called our team name! I couldn't believe how fast it all happened. James later told me that he really couldn't understand exactly what we won at first, he only knew we won something because I was crying. This was so amazing and so perfect though. We would have been more than happy with any sort of grant but not only was it a grant, it was a full cycle, and it was with OUR doctor! It really could not have been anymore perfect.
After the race I was so exhausted and Isla was still not feeling well so we had a pretty lazy day at home (after we picked up some celebratory donuts from krispykreme of course!) Isla went to bed around 8:30 and woke up a few hours later with another fever and the most terrible cough I've ever heard. So we headed to the emergency room to get her checked out. Normally Isla loves the doctor. At home she always wants to use James' stethoscope to listen to everyones heart and she is seriously the best patient whenever we go for her check ups. Tired and sick check ups are definitely not as fun as her regular wellness exams though. She was more than mad the whole time and screamed every time a doctor even came in the room. Luckily they decided she just had croup and after giving her a steroid and a popsicle she was back to her happy self and bouncing around the room. She ended up sleeping pretty well the rest of the night and most of the drive back to Utah the next day, only after 3 potty stops in the first hour of course though... She was so excited to fly on the "pairplane" though and was so happy to see daddy when we got home.
Needless to say I am so so so happy and grateful that we were able to win an IVF cycle. This may have been a miserable weekend if we would have gone home sick and empty handed. We have so many things to be thankful for though and now we can add this event to that list!
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| The photographer at the race snapped this picture right after our name was drawn. I'm crying because we won and Isla's crying because she wants to go on the slide... |
I LOVED every bit of this. I am so, so, so happy for you guys. Your post made me cry. And laugh. Isles is definitely not the first to try the potty trick. Congratulations again!!
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