One Month Down!

Jason left on Saturday the 4th for his internship for Towers Watson in Denver, Colorado. He said the drive felt long. He listened to most of a book on CD and we talked on the phone for over an hour of it. He arrived at Mike and Desi's house that evening around 7:00pm. To say the least, it was not fun to say good-bye.

Fortunately I had lunch plans with Erica that afternoon to give me something else to think about. That day she was 38 weeks pregnant with their first baby, who is also a boy. It had been several months since I've talked to her, and we spent a couple hours at Kneaders talking about pregnancy, getting ready for motherhood, and our jobs. It was fun to talk to someone who is at the same stage in life as me. I don't have many close friends that are just having their first child right now and it is really nice to have someone to talk to about it. Erica ended up delivering a healthy Cruize Cooper at the hospital a couple weeks later.

After a month of his internship Jason's feeling a little more comfortable, although he's on a steep learning curve of trying to figure out what he's doing. Even after a month he can see only a little progress, and he still has a long way to go. Right now he is enjoying participating in a bocce tournament at work which lets him interact a little more with his co-workers. He generally likes his co-workers and feels like it's a good environment, although he wishes he could talk to people a little more throughout the day about stuff not directly related to work.

I've mostly adjusted to living here without Jason, although I miss doing stuff with him on the weekends. Fortunately we have cell phones and Facetime through our iPads so we talk to each other for at least 60-90 minutes every day. People in my ward have been super nice to invite me over for dinner or to check up on me. The Olsen family, in particular, has been great. They invite me over every Monday night for dinner and FHE with their family of three kids age 5 and under. It has been fun to get to know them better and enjoy being with their funny and cute kids who always refer to me as Sister Burningham...and for a newly turned 3-year-old, that can be a mouthful!

My doctor's appointments continue to go well. I keep gaining weight and my tummy keeps getting bigger and bigger. I feel really good most of the time and can still sleep through the night. I'm officially in my third trimester with 10 weeks left to go!

Young Women's has been keeping me busy. The girls are starting to get ready for camp and I'm sad I won't be able to go with them. I have really good memories of girls' camp and it just seems like it will be so much fun...although I'm guessing it's a different experience as a leader...but I still like being in the outdoors. One recent class activity we had was a modesty night. I was worried about what to do for it, but after a short lesson about it we let the girls create their own modest dresses out of colored tissue paper and ribbon. The dresses turned out great and the girls all had a great time.

Kaylan, Kiley, Arie, Anika, and Julia

Jason flew in for Memorial Day weekend. It was sooooo nice to have him here. He made me breakfast two of the mornings and I made him dinner twice. He is so good to help out and we just enjoyed being together. Saturday we did take a walk along the river and had fun playing frisbee golf at Rock Canyon Park. There were so many rocks, trees, and bushes and the holes were so far apart that on some holes we ended up playing hide and seek rather than golf with the frisbees. I think on hole 5 we spent close to 20 minutes just looking for Jason's frisbees because we didn't see exactly where they landed. By the end, our biggest victory was leaving with all three of our discs!

We spent Memorial Day with family. We ate a BBQ lunch with Keith, Kim, Talisa, and Kira. Then we visited graves with Grandpa Richards, Colleen, Bruce and Nancy, Kent and Susan, and Robbie. We visited Grandpa Richards and Helen's immediate family at the Salt Lake and Farmington Cemeteries. It was an extra treat to hear stories about these ancestors from the people who still remember them. What a great family heritage we have!

Jason, Julie, Bruce, Nancy, Susan, Kent, Grandpa Richards, Colleen, and Robbie

Farmington Cemetery visiting the Richards family burial plots