A couple of weeks ago, Wes and I were able to go back to Arizona for a visit. It started out a little rocky because we missed our first flight and nearly missed our connection in Detroit. But eventually we made it to sunny Arizona. It was the perfect time to go because our apartment here in Virginia is undergoing a complete exterior refinishing, which means pounding all day long. My little sister came down from Utah, and my mom took the whole week off of work to just hang out so we got to do A LOT together. Living in an apartment here, we don't exactly have a big backyard that Wes can run around in. At my parent's house, there's a nice, big backyard complete with a giant turtle.
Turtles: A perfectly suitable form of transportation. Who knew?
When we weren't enjoying the backyard, we were out and about.
This included a trip to the Zoo,
Tempe Town Lake for a picnic, Freestone Park to ride the train
(which was broken down, so we settled for riding the carousel and wave runner with his cousins),
the aquarium at the Arizona Mills Mall,
the San Tan Mall for some shopping, and we visited the little splash area over by the Gilbert Water Tower. We. Were. Busy. Wes' favorite part about all of these places was the water. He wanted to splash and play in all of them. Here he is at the water area at the Zoo...
When the time came, it was really sad for me to have to leave Arizona, but I wanted to get back to Brett because while I was having a good time in Arizona (the good news) he was back here finding out (and now for the bad news) he would have to have his thyroid removed because he has thyroid cancer. While everyone including the doctors say that if you have to get cancer, this is "the one to get because it's so treatable," no one wants to hear that they have it or that they're going to have to take a pill the rest of their life. At first we were both pretty shaken by the news, but we met with the doctor who will be performing the surgery and we've also prayed, fasted, and Brett had a blessing. So now we're able to joke about it, which is the best way to cope with bad news, right? Brett loves to use it as his universal one-upper. If I complain about something like having a bad day, he listens to my complaints and then says, "well, I have cancer." And once he has his thyroid out, he plans on using "I'm a cancer survivor" as his one-upper. In all seriousness though, we (especially Brett) has felt a lot of peace and comfort throughout this experience and we're grateful that it was caught early on after a routine physical for work. Now to end on a happy note, Brett's mom is coming to help with Wes during Brett's surgery next month and being so far away, anytime we can see family is good news. And finally, this:
