going going back back to Cali Cali

If you didn't already know (or if you couldn't tell by the name of this blog) I live for adventure.  

In January my paternal grandparents were having a lot of health issues, my grandpa was moved to a rehabilitation facility for diabetic complications and my grandma had been taken to the hospital via ambulance for pretty scary aortic/cardiac issues... It was a pretty unsure time, they live in San Diego (along with my dad and his wife as well as my aunt and uncle) so it's not like we can just pop in and see them whenever.  Actually, I hadn't seen my grandparents since Jay was 4 months old and they had never met Paxton... So when I looked at Jay's school calendar and saw that he had a week off of school in February for "mid-winter break" two words came to mind: 

ROAD TRIP!

We had already planned out Josh's time off and vacations for the year so we knew he wouldn't be able go to California. I am so thankful that my sister, Claire, was able to get some time off so that we could go on this once in a lifetime trip together.  

 Mt. Shasta, California

Jay was a big fan of In-N-Out Burger

Redding, CA

Gorgeous trees in bloom in northern California

Paxton was SUCH a great sport in the car, I was so relieved proud 

The first thing Jay wanted to do was to jump in the pool.  

Even though the reason for our trip was to spend quality time with our grandparents, we made sure to enjoy our surroundings and have fun... we didn't want the trip to be too heavy for the boys.

The sweetest man you will ever meet, my grandpa Al.

My grandparents lived in Africa when I was born but moved 10 minutes away when I was in junior high, I so enjoyed living close to them and seeing them often while growing up. I have tons of wonderful memories with them and have missed living close to them so much.

You can't tell now, but Paxton's eyes remind me so much of what my grandpa's eyes looked like when he was younger.  I love being reminded of my grandpa when I look at Pax!

One of the hardest parts of the trip was seeing how much my grandparents had aged in the 5 years since we had seen them last.  I so enjoyed getting to spend quality time with my grandparents and having them get to know my boys. Pushing my grandpa around the rehab facility in his wheelchair with my sister and sons, all of us watching college basketball piled up on his hospital bed with him, hearing my grandma tell stories and sharing recipes that we made together growing up...  So many special memories were made this trip that I will  cherish forever.

Poor Josh got way too many texts with pictures like this, the weather was perfection!

One of the boy's favorite parts of the trip was visiting the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

We had no idea what to expect when we decided last minute to go to the Safari Park but we were so impressed! Our favorite part of the park was definitely the African Tram, getting to see such exotic animals up close was a really cool experience.  Jay was out-of-his-mind excited to see all of the rare animals we have read about in real life, he was the perfect age to really appreciate the park! 

One of my other favorite outings on our trip was going wine tasting with my family.  My dad and his wife are members at a gorgeous winery we visited, along with another award wining winery where my parents stayed while taking my sister to college back in 2008.  It was so fun to be able to check going a winery off of my bucket list, I learned a lot and we definitely brought some wine home.

Spending time with my family and making memories was the perfect getaway and it was so hard to say goodbye.  Claire and I made sure to pack the last day full of fun as we drove home to distract ourselves from the sadness of leaving.  The summer before I went into 6th grade our family lived in Laguna Beach for a majority of the summer while my dad opened up Washington Mutual banks. When we were planning out the road trip we knew that we definitely had to hit up Laguna while in California.  It was so fun to go to our favorite surf shop (Toes on the Nose) along with a few other secret favorite spots!

We, of course, had to hit up In-N-Out one last time on our last day

Being from Seattle and being the (current and former) baristas we are, Claire and I definitely are coffee snobs appreciate good coffee.  We each had heard a lot about Verve Coffee Roasters in Santa Cruz so we took a little detour and had a little tasting and a caffeination pitstop... 

 (source)

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Verve coffee was definitely on par with most of our favorite Seattle roasters and was a welcome sight after a week of Starbucks.

After Verve we hightailed it up to San Francisco and of course we had to take a picture at the Golden Gate Bridge... (even if I did have to wake up both boys to get this shot!)

The trip was such an adventure and was filled with so much fun and memories that I will cherish forever, but I think the person who had the most fun was Jay!

See you later California, we'll be back in June!

30 before 30

 Hi friends! 

On New Years Eve I had kind of a scary thought... 2015 is my last full year in my 20's!!! I have a summer birthday, so half of 2016 will be spent in my 30's!  The thought of being so close to the big 3-0 seriously boggles my mind. Didn't I just graduate high school?!  With the big birthday inevitably heading my way, I thought I should start a bucket list of things to do before I have to jump into my next decade.  That being said... I present to you my 30 before 30 Bucket List!!

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 What do you guys think of my list?

 I was going for realistic but fun goals. I also thought that it would be fun to blog about each completed item as I check them off my list. Obviously, there are other things that I want to accomplish before 30 but I didn't think goals like"save X amount of money" or "pay off student loans" had to be done anyways and weren't that exciting. Do you have a bucket list or know of some fun things I should add to mine? Hook a sister up!!

Cheers to 2014 :: A Year to Remember

 Hey friends! 2014 was such a big year for the Beahan family that I can't let it go without posting a little review and a look back on some of our favorite pictures. Welcoming Paxton to the world and becoming a family of 4 was definitely the highlight of our year, but we had many other fun adventures too. 

➳Most memorable moments of 2014
Seattle Seahawks won the SuperBowl! 
Seahawks SuperBowl Parade
Paxton was born March 20th, 2014
Josh and I saw James Taylor in concert (was on my bucket list!)
Traveled to Eastern Washington and Montana multiple times
Josh and I turned 28
We celebrated 6 years of marriage
Jay started Pre-Kindergarten 
Backstage passes to the Blake Shelton concert (thanks Uncle Ed!)
Paxton started crawling
All members of the Beahan family landed on the Nice List! 

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Paxton James Beahan

Thursday March 20th, 2014

Paxton James Beahan was born at 9:47am, he was 6.9lbs and 19.75" and he was perfect. 

I don’t know if I am the only one to have this fear or not, but I was worried before getting pregnant with Paxton... worried if I could love another baby as much as I loved Jay. I didn't know if I had room in my heart to love another baby as fiercely as I loved Jay. Even after I got pregnant I didn't know if I would have to share my love between the two of them. Then I remember so clearly as our doctor first held Pax up, my heart just grew. I didn’t need to make space to for Paxton in my heart because my heart doubled and there was a place just for him in my heart. I felt so much love as I first saw him, it was the such amazing feeling and I feel blessed to have experienced that overwhelming/live changing love twice now.  

 

When I had Jay everything was so new and overwhelming. I really had no idea what to expect when I had Jay, it was so nice to have a first hand idea of what to expect the second time around. Once nice thing about having a scheduled c-section was that I knew exactly when we would be meeting him and we could prepare. I cannot tell you how excited we were to have our little guy safely in our arms (especially after losing Paxton's twin.)  

Josh and I got on the 6:00am ferry to Seattle on March 20th to get to the hospital in time for our 8:00am check in. 

(on the boat, pregnancy bloat in full effect)

We were so excited, I was a little nervous... to say I didn't get much sleep the night before would be an understatement. We got to the hospital and checked in, they gave me my lovely hospital gown and left Josh and I in the room.  Our nurse was so sweet, as soon as she found out that Josh and I were both EMTs... funny how that worked. When we first arrived we were told that there may be a delay in our surgery time so Josh and I got comfy and I even snuck in a few zzz's. 

...can you say blackmail? (I found this on my phone after we got out of the hospital, sneaky-sneaky Josh) 

After we had been told that it would be awhile our nurse friend came in and told us that she had pulled a few strings and that they were ready to go!  Things really got moving quickly after that and I was so thankful that I knew what to expect after having Jay. 

One thing that was very different this time around was that they made me walk back to the OR.  I was starting to get anxious and was so happy to our old buddy, Mr. Anesthesiologist! In all seriousness though I was so glad that we had the same anesthesiologist that we had with Jay, he remembered us and had even worked with Josh's grandfather who was also an anesthesiologist. I was pretty nervous about the spinal block and he was so calming, he even let Josh come in the OR early so that he could be there to hold my hand while the block was administered.

Everything was eerily familiar in the OR. There was the same sterile scent, the room was so stark and bright, we even had the exact same staff in the room that we had with Jay!  I was given the spinal block and was strapped down to the table as I waited to get the warm-and-tinglies... and they just weren't coming. The doctors decided to tilt the operating table so that my feet we were up in the air and all of a sudden I started feeling it... I let them know that and they put the table back to normal as I felt my feet go numb, then my legs, my hips, stomach and then my chest. I started to feel tingling in my fingers and it felt really hard to get a deep breath in. 

I was really nervous that I was going to be able to feel the incision and was trying to take deep breaths to calm myself, but was having a hard time since the block had reached so high.  

I love our OB so much.  Our OB actually delivered my brother and sister, as well as Jay and Pax.  I always looked forward to my appointments with her because she is much more than an OB to us.  Since Dr. B knew us and knew of Josh's firefighting/EMT background, she let him watch a lot of the surgery.  While I was not super thrilled at the though of Josh seeing my insides, he was so excited to watch that I couldn't say no! I will admit that I missed having him next to me the whole time, but watching his face in amazement was pretty priceless.

 I was trying to remain calm and take a deep breaths but I was getting anxious, feeling like an elephant was sitting on my chest.  I was so thankful that Josh came over to hold my hand and told me how proud he was of me, reminding me that soon enough we would meet our baby and it would all be worth it. 

Our doctor had a bit of a struggle getting Paxton out as his cord was wrapped around his neck twice and once under his arms, his umbilical cord was freakishly long. I didn't know if that had anything to do with our twin loss or not, but the doctor did say that I would not have been able to deliver him vaginally because of the umbilical situation. 

One of the most precious things in life that I have ever witnessed is watching the nurse hand our newborn babies over to Josh.  When Josh was handed Paxton I was bawling. I really wish I could have pulled myself together a little more to take a picture of the moment, but it is an image that is engrained in my memory forever.

I cannot tell you how anxious I was to hold to see our sweet boy.  Josh brought Pax over to my face and I kissed every little inch of him that was not swaddled.  Still crying, I remember praying and thanking God for this sweet miracle baby.  I was so happy when they let me hold him and wheeled us back to recovery. It was love at first sight.

When we had Jay, the waiting room was full of our friends and family who were chomping at the bit to meet our new addition.  This time around Josh and I gave ourselves a buffer of time where it would be just the three of us before visitors started arriving and I'm so thankful we did.  

After we got to our recovery room everything is a blur in my memory.  I do remember that Josh's brother Richie came waltzing into the recovery room to surprise us as I was trying to nurse for the first time! Thankfully between our nurse and Josh a crisis was averted and Richie was intercepted before any scaring could occur! ;)

Seeing Jay meet his little brother was so precious.  I am very thankful to our families for watching Jay so that Josh could stay both nights at the hospital with me, soaking up and loving on our new addition. We had talked about meeting Paxton so many times with Jay but watching him meet his little brother for the first time was beautiful, Jay to took being a big brother so naturally.

We had the sweetest nurses in our Mother/Baby room. I love staying at the hospital after having a baby, it's as if the world stops and we can just focus on loving this new little miracle.  I do really wish I would have agreed to stay the extra day at the hospital before going back home.  Josh says, "next time!" We'll see...

 Everything went so smoothly and I couldn't have been happier with the hospital stay.  Josh and I getting to have that quality time with just us and our new baby was so priceless. It's such a special time to be together and just be in the moment before going home to the real world. Doing things like napping together with Paxton on my chest, uninterrupted in our own world... it was just magical. 

Paxton was born on the first day of Spring and it was an abnormally gorgeous (and rain-less) Seattle day. I'll never forget the warm glow of the sun in our room as Paxton and I had some skin-to-skin time, feeling his little heart beat and watching the his body move as he breathed... I remember thinking, "Happy Birthday sweet boy!" He was here and safe, loved and prayed for by so many with his special guardian angel watching over him from above.

We love you Paxton James, you are a perfect addition to our family.  You fit into our family so effortlessly that it feels as if you've always been a part of it. Welcome sweet boy and Happy Birthday!