Matt's visit was a much needed break from our lives. Having something to look forward to really kept me together these past few weeks and having him here was like a breath of fresh air. Aside from Ian (and our families), Matt is my favorite person in the whole world and seeing him in person made me feel better, if only for a weekend. Thanks to his mom, Sandy, for bringing him out here with her, and for both of them arranging this trip. I think my mom and I really needed them here and I am so happy they flew in to be with us. I am so grateful for my unrelated families in Oregon (the Ogiers', Phillips' and Hickey's), they have all played such an influential part in my life. Family is not just blood related, for sure.
Last time Matt was here was for our wedding and we didn't have much free time to show him around Arizona. Like I said before, I think the last time his mom and him were here together was 20 years ago, so it's definitely different having time to show him around now that we are older.
Matt came in late Friday night and after hours of cleaning (and a nice visit at school from a former student) we picked him up and we went to dinner with our moms and Ian. After dinner we stayed up late (I made it until 4am, the boys went to bed at 7am) and then woke up at noon the next day. We laid around most of the day because I didn't feel well (and only had one beer the night before, I think it was a touch of the flu) and then went to my dad's for a Turkish vegetarian meal (which I couldn't even eat). I was so bummed I missed this one, he made it just for me. We were supposed to go out with all of our friends Saturday night but I was feeling pretty awful (and the boys were hungover) so we stayed in and went to bed early.
Sunday we took a trip to Sedona because Matt had never been. For those of you that don't know him, he is really into to mystical stuff and had read a lot about the power of the vortexes in Sedona. I had never actually been to a vortex (never wanted to make the hike up to one) so I was excited to see what it was all about too. The boys looked up aura pictures before we went and decided that they wanted to get one taken (for $30 and interpreted for another $60) so I asked Ian if he looked on the App Store to see if there was an aura app - and there was! iAura was $2.99 and totally worth it (and probably about as real as a $30 aura pic)!
Here are our aura pictures BEFORE our hike to the Boyton Vista vortex:
And, here are our aura pictures at the end of the hike, IN the vortex:
Our iAura pictures were supposed to come with an explanation, but the app wasn't working properly so I found this site that interprets the colors for you. My first aura was silver, the one on our hike was green and at the top it was blue (blueberry?). Ian's were green then yellow/gold and Matt's were yellow/orange and then red. It's interesting that my silver means nurturing or abundance and my blue is peacefulness or sensitivity. Ian's green has to do with nature and love, his yellow/gold is creative, optimistic, wisdom and Matt's orange is creative and scientific and his red is grounded and realistic. Kind of fits our personalities, even if it was just a $2.99 iPhone app!
Apparently the vortex we went to is a balance of both masculine and feminine energy. This is the site we used to find an easy vortex hike and this one has more information on Boyton Canyon. The different vortexes mean different things, here is more information about them. It was about a mile round trip and pretty easy up a hill at the end but had gorgeous views and two very tall rocks. We read that you should put your forehead against the rocks to feel the energy so that's what we did. We also climbed up them a bit but didn't want to climb all over something so sacred so we just stayed towards the bottom. Ian got mad at me for not climbing around properly (he was scared I would fall down the mountain), but I have no fear lately. (I was actually thinking of this while I walked down the stairs at school today in my heels, I was doing the same technique he told me to do on the mountain. Funny what you do in heels to avoid falling but not on mountains!)
I'm not sure if I felt anything from the vortex rocks, but I was there with my two favorite people so I definitely got energy from them. I thought I would feel better, healed, being up there but it kind of made me more sad. It's hard to see something so beautiful and think about how blueberry never got to see such beauty in the world. It made me wish I was pregnant walking up to the vortex, sharing it with her, but then realized that if it weren't for blueberry dying then Matt wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be in Sedona experiencing this. Everything happens for a reason I guess.
At the vortex there were all these little stacks of rocks. I am not sure why people do this but I thought maybe it was to honor someone or leave a trace of your visit at the vortex so I made my own. The first pics are of everyone else's and the last two are of mine. Mine were for blueberry of course.
(Mine were two, small, different piles left at each vortex rock.)
I did buy some spiritual rocks at a new age store across from Tlaquepaque (beautiful!) that I hope will help with some of my scared, negative, sad energy. I am not sure if I believe in all of this juju but positive energy can only help at this point! We also ate at Oak Creek Brewery and it was delicious, Ian had the best Spinach salad of his life (apparently). After our trip to the vortex we stopped at the UFO store (it was closed) and then headed back to Phoenix. It was a GORGEOUS day and a super fun trip with my two favorite men.
(Only in Sedona! Cute!)
(The UFO shop claims to have had a visit from a real UFO at their opening BBQ. But, this isn't his ship, this is just a fake.)
On Valentine's Day we spent the day in the desert. Ian is a Pima Indian so he can go to places on the reservation that regular people can't, and he takes visitors sometimes. Last time we were out there I found this arrowhead, and I was hoping to find another one to show Matt, but we had no luck. When you do find things, like pottery, arrowheads or shells, you can't take them with you. They are sacred and preserved, and it is illegal to remove them (or dig for them).
(The arrowhead I found last time.)
(The road to nowhere.)
(1500 year old pottery.)
(A large ball court.)
We had fun, even though it was about 80 degrees (Matt got sunburnt), and then decided to go to the Pueblo Grande Museum (I also had never been and always wanted to go). We really wanted to take him to the Casa Grande Ruins but it was too far (and we had to meet the moms for dinner later) so we went somewhere close instead.
(Casa Grande Ruins in Coolidge. See this if you can, it's HUGE! More info about its preservation is here.)
These mounds out in the desert are really 1500 year old houses covered with dirt over the years. Under the mounds, if you dug down (which is illegal too), you would find walls, pottery, bodies, shells, etc. So, we wanted to show Matt what some mounds looked like that were excavated and that's how we ended up at the museum. It was a pretty good museum with a short video about the people, some artifacts and then a trip around the ruins. They haven't done a very good job of dressing this place up, it's kind of boring walking around outside, there isn't much information and it's all dirt, but it was ok we got the point.
(Mounds on the reservation, there are houses, walls, pottery, artifacts and maybe people under them.)
(This is what an uncovered mound looks like - Pueblo Grande Museum.)
(What they think the site may have looked like.)
After a lovely Valentine's dinner with our moms, Ian, Joe (my step-dad) and my Aunt Virgie, we were back and home and off to bed. We left Matt up watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Ian and I climbed into bed at 9:30pm because we had to be at work today.
(Sandy and my mom - best friends!)
Before heading out to the desert yesterday I had to make a quick stop at my OB office to get my blood tested again. The girl who came in to do my blood work asked me, "So, do you hope this is a positive test?" And I was shocked that, yet again, they did not read my chart or information (it is a pregnancy blood test, to see if pregnancy hormones are still in my body). Got the call today that my hormones have leveled out so I guess that's good. Two months from now we will try this again. They want me to start taking one baby aspirin a day, now, and then progesterone when I'm pregnant again. The jury is out on whether the baby aspirin actually works, but here's some info on why they prescribe it (seems like something they should give ALL women BEFORE something like this happens, just in case).
It was a fun weekend that went by REALLY fast and now I'm sad it's over. It makes me feel blah again having to get back to my normal life but gives me hope for the future. I decided that I am going to stop focusing on the negative and start looking towards the positive, no matter how hard it may be. So, send me some love from your corner and I will send you some from mine and here's hoping it starts to pick me back up. Matt got it rolling and now I'm on a momentum back up this hill to the top.
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