6th Anniversary Trip/Babymoon 2015

Monica and I just happened to have a 3 day weekend off AT THE SAME TIME! It's a phenomenon that never occurs in the Parks household. We usually have opposite days off. It just happened to be our 6th wedding anniversary weekend too! We decided we needed to take a trip somewhere... anywhere... just us. We've been so insanely busy lately with trying to get our house ready to sell (another story for another post) we haven't had any time together. I've been getting off work and spending hours at our house before heading home to my in-laws. (Oh yea, I forgot to mention we moved out of our house and in with Monica's parents.) by the time I'm done with treatments and dinner it's time to go to bed. It's been crazy. Legit crazy, lol. We needed to get away and forget about the stress of fixing a house. Not to mention Baby #3 will be here in 4 weeks! 

My parents agreed to keep the kiddos for the weekend and we were off! We booked a train to Chicago very cheap and booked a hotel on the way. We were right on the Magnificent Mile! We slept in both days and did a lot of walking! A lot! I'm glad Monica didn't go into labor, lol! We saw some sights, did some shopping, some eating and just enjoyed being with each other! Eating meals without trying to feed reluctant toddlers, going to bed without fighting reluctant toddlers, sleeping in without hyper early bird toddlers telling us to "wake up." It was nice! We really missed the boys but it was a nice getaway. 

One of my favorite parts was probably our dinner at Jake Melnicks. It was a small tavern that had awesome buffalo wings (if you know me you know I love buffalo wings) and a dish called Street fries. They were AWESOME (said in a heavenly voice as if being sung by angels)!!! It was a pile of French fries topped with smoked pulled pork, nacho cheese, sriracha sauce and jalapeños! They were FIRE!! I almost went back for them again. 

We had so much fun and it was a great stress reliever trip! Now back to the grind. Here's some pics from our trip:

This is called a Polaris Slingshot. Awesome car! That's the first time I ever saw one in person. 

Getting all artsy and stuff :)

Thankful Thursday: Babymoon, Pregnancy & P90X

Hey all you awesome people that read our blog! It's Thankful Thursday time! I apologize sincerely for not posting one last week. The Parks household was a little crazy. So this week we will make up for it, by each posting 20 things we're thankful for! Just kidding! Hahaha I crack myself up! Anyway, on to the lists!

Jeremy's List:

I'm thankful for a pregnant wife! It was a dream of mine as I was growing up to have 4 or 6 kids. Once I read that 98% of men with CF cannot have children I was crushed. I was doing a research paper on CF at the time. I soon learned of in vitro. This brought a glimmer of hope. I knew because of the cost I would probably only get one shot at it.

For a long time, Monica and I prepared ourselves to hear the news that it didn't work. We weren't being pessimists! Just realistic. I am an optimistic person, but I also know that reality is... well.... REAL. There was a very REAL chance that Monica and I would not get pregnant. I can't tell you the countless number of stories we read of CF couples who had no luck after several attempts.

All we could do was pray and hope that it indeed was God's will for us to have children. That prayer was answered and we are pregnant. It still astounds me to hear the words come out of my own mouth. Monica. Is. Pregnant. To watch her little belly grow and to see our beautiful twins grow through each ultrasound has been astonishing! I am so thankful that my wife will have the experience of being pregnant and birthing 2 gorgeous children! I was thinking about it on the way home from work today, just how amazing it is that she is pregnant with TWINS! I'm thankful for that!

I'm also thankful for P90X! It's freezing in Missouri right now!!! It's only going to get colder, which means running outdoors is out of the question most of the time. It also gets dark at 5:30, which doesn't help either, lol. I'm thankful I have something that I really enjoy doing, that is indoors, gives me results, and is good at getting up secretions! Thank you Tony!

Monica's List:

I am thankful for our "babymoon" getaway to New Orleans! It was the last trip we will be able to take before the babies get here. We love to travel and really enjoy opportunities to escape our hectic schedules and just be together! Jeremy truly is my best friend and I would rather be with him than anyone in the world! It was a very fun, relaxing trip and I'm just so thankful that we were able to spend that quality time together!! I am so proud of him! He did such a wonderful job on his talk and I couldn't help but be so thankful to call him mine! He is gonna make one Amazing daddy!! I can't wait!!

I am thankful for my new iPhone! Yes, I am slowly catching up with the rest of the world! This is my first smart phone and I must say it is pretty handy and convenient. I'm still getting used to it and I'm sure I'm not using it to it's potential quite yet... but I'm getting there. Jeremy is probably more thankful for it than I am because now I don't bug him to look up stuff for me anymore! ;)

I am thankful for our growing twins! I'm pretty sure they will be on every Thankful Thursday I ever do now.... so get used to it! :) Yeah.... they are pretty much everything to us already! I know it's only going to get worse once we can hold them in our arms! My belly just seems to be getting bigger all the time! It's taking me a little time to get used to the changes that are happening to my body, but our babies are worth anything! I know that means they are growing and doing good, so I couldn't be more happy! Evidently they are going through a growth spurt right now so it makes sense that my belly is too! :)