San Diego

Nate had a work conference in San Diego last month

and we decided to make a mini vacation out of it! 

My mom was on fall break from teaching early morning seminary
so she flew out to spend the week with Mabel.
Our first big trip ALONE!
We were meeting up with Nate's business partner Aaron,
and his wife Andrea and they left their kids at home too.
PAR-TAY!!

First things first:
My vacation could not officially begin until
my toes touched the ocean water. :)

La Jolla Beach

(and I am ordering myself a pair of prescription sunglasses asap)

We rented cruisers and biked the 3 mile boardwalk

along Mission Beach. It was so much fun.

Perfect weather, crazy people watching, and

a bike bell. Loved this day.

We text messaged this picture to my mom to show Mabel

and she was pretty concerned. 

Aaron was the YELP master and we ate

at some great places. I ordered a salad at this little

Greek sandwich shop...my salad was not so little.

That night we went to check out historic Old Town.

It was full of cool old buildings that had been restored as 

much as possible to their original state.

This little general store was my favorite.

Andrea and I got some great shopping in while the guys

sat outside each store. 

For you black licorice lovers (Aaron, Nate, and my mom)

this general store had jars and jars of more 

varieties of black licorice than I ever knew existed.

We bought a beautiful carved gourd for 

my mom as a thank you gift...I should

have bought one for me too, they were so neat!

 Fresh tortillas made street side,

yum!

The next day we went to see 

Hotel Del Coronado - built in 1887!

It was gorgeous inside and the gardens

surrounding it looked like Hawaii.

We explored the tide pools behind the hotel:

Stopped in Little Italy for lunch and had 

the best Stromboli EVER.

A sailor's kiss when the end of 

WWII was announced.

The USS Midway was ginormous!

We drove past the San Diego temple on our way to Oceanside. 

(which was about an hour car ride because of traffic.)

We were going to Oceanside because I had read about these

gorgeous Sunset Cliffs and wanted to check them out.

Once we got to Oceanside and I pulled out my phone to get the exact

directions I realized the cliffs were NOT in Oceanside...they were

about 10 minutes from where were before we left!

So annoying.  Not sure where I got Oceanside from. Brain fart apparently. 

We couldn't make it back to the cliffs in time to see 

the sun set so we decided to make the best of Oceanside.

We went to the beach and rented a Surrey!

It was hilarious driving this thing around.

The next day the guys had to go to meetings all day so 

Andrea and I went thrift shopping.  We both love hunting for treasures.
It was a bust as far as finding much but we made

some great memories! 

That night we met up with Nate's NARPM group for dinner

in the Gaslamp Quarter. I didn't get pictures at dinner 

(and I can't remember the name of the restaurant)

but our food was really good and I had fun getting to know

some of the people that Nate works with in this group.

One of Nate's friends, Paul, took us all on a little

stroll after dinner to check out this yacht.

He had heard about it being docked here and wanted

to see it.  It is owned by a German bazillionare 

and it has a 30 person staff at all times.

The next day the guys had to go to meetings again

so we went shopping at Seaport Village.

Lots of fun shops and great conversation.

Andrea is so easy to talk to and fun to be around,

we need to do this more often!!

Mabel sure had fun with Nana while were gone,

here are some of the picture messages I got:

Bubble baths, candlelit dinners, pumba rides...

I'm surprised she actually wanted us to come home!

Mabel was so excited about this sign...so cute.

It was a great getaway! 

My kind of "work" trip!! :)

Salt Lake's Version of Wipe Out!

...Hit and Run 5k...

Long before strange bacterial thumb infections showed up we signed up with some friends for a obstacle course/5k.  It's similar to the show Wipe-Out but on a much smaller scale....and there is no prize; just knee burns and loss of pride.  I was totally out of comission on the day of the race, my hand was still in a brace and there was no way I was going to be able to participate.  Luckily, my mom and my little brother were in town so Jacob filled in for me while my mom and I were the paparazzi for our team. So basically we ran a 5k trying to keep up with them to get pictures!

The starting line:

Running to the first obstacle:

Jumping, climbing, and sliding...

Balance thingy:

 

Walk across, watch out for those red doors that open,

and oh yeah, people are throwing balls at you.

JUMP!

Nothing like more jogging....

Obstacle #5

She laid there like a slug.

It was her only defense.

They saved the best for last! 

Rotating big balls and water!

It was such a blast to watch - 

there better not be any thumb issues stopping me next year!!

Cellulitis, not to be confused with Cellulite, but I do have both.

For a few weeks I had some minor pain in my lower thumb joint. It only bugged me when I would open a jar, or twist it a certain way.  I figured it just a little birthday gift for turning thirty - early signs of arthritis, yay for getting old! Well, on Saturday October 5th I woke up and my thumb was swollen, red, and I could barely move it. Weird.  By Saturday night I was feeling pain comparable to childbirth. Seriously. My thumb was about to give birth to a baby thumb.  I covered it in my Doterra oils and tried ice and heat along with keeping it elevated. Still felt like I was going to die.

Sunday morning I went to Instacare.  The doctor said it could be a joint issue or a
bacterial infection and he felt like I needed x-rays and/or an MRI and
told me to go to the ER.  Since he couldn't help me he didn't charge
me for the visit.  I thought that was really nice of him since the cost
of my ER visit will now be my birthday and Christmas presents
for the next 10 years.

Nate made me this sling out out of one of my jackets.

So despite the insane pain and zero thumb mobility I didn't want to go to the ER.

The main reason being I did NOT want to fork up the dough
I knew it was going to cost. I thought maybe if I saw a regular doctor,
who could refer me for an X-ray, it would cost less.

Nope.

Labor pains all night Sunday and the doctor Monday told me to go to the ER.

Should have just gone to the dang ER in the first place.

It doesn't look like much in these pictures but imagine
someone crushed your thumb joint with a sledgehammer.
That is what the throbbing pain felt like.
(and I have a pretty high pain tolerance)
I cried a lot at that point.

And then I went to the ER.

An ER that was not in our insurance network.

AWESOME.

Nate stayed home from work even though it was the busiest Monday 

ever for him and my sweet friends and neighbors helped watch Mabel 

in the morning and afternoon so Nate could make several important calls

 and get a few things done.

At the ER they took blood samples, X-rays, and even did 

a sonogram (with the gel and everything just like when you are pregnant!) 

of my thumb. Unfortunately, there was no thumb baby.

X-rays showed my bones and joint were fine.

Diagnosis:  Cellulitis.

Typically caused by a bacterial infection from an animal bite,

insect bite, scratch, cut, or sore.

Which I had NONE of.

And they asked me a dozen times.

No. No. No. and No.

Nothing I was aware of.

Sneaky spider bite maybe?

I have no idea.

I had been there for hours and was starving.
I asked the nurse if there was any food available...
he said he could hook me up with chicken strips or a burger.
He dropped off my chicken tenders and left and I had to laugh
because I could not get one to my mouth. Left hand was totally immobilized
because the IV cord was short and I couldn't reach behind me to unwind it and
my right hand was hurting so bad from the poking and prodding that I
could barely lift it. My mouth was involved in the taking of this picture. 

They put a partial hard cast on my thumb side and wrapped that 

in an ace bandage so I could remove the entire thing at night to apply a 

heat compress and make sure the redness wasn't spreading up my arm.

They also gave me this lovely sponge bob device that I was supposed 

to put my arm in to sleep with in order to keep it elevated.

Ya right, I laughed the first night I tried to use it.

AWKWARD! (and sexy)

Pillows propped up did the trick.

Saw a hand specialist in Salt Lake the next day and he said 

one of two things could happen:

1) My hand would respond to the antibiotics and get better on it's own or

2) It would localize and start to get red in one spot and I would probably need surgery.

After almost a week in the cast I upgraded to this snazzy little

Micheal Jackson number that Nate got me.  Sooooo much better than the cast.

As of right now I have almost full use of my thumb back.

No cast, no biker glove, done with antibiotics.

It is looking a lot better.  Swelling down completely but still a little red.

Hardly tender at all.  My left wrist does hurt a little from overcompensating 

with it. I am hoping it just continues to get better and better and 

I don't have any more issues. Such a strange annoying thing!

You don't realize how much you use your dominant thumb to 

DO EVERYTHING!

Nate had to help me get dressed, I had to brush my teeth with my left hand, 

Nate had to put on my deodorant, I couldn't do dishes 

(the only good thing to come of this), 

and could barely change Mabel. A friend brought us dinner Monday night and I 

was so thankful for it. I couldn't cook anything and Nate didn't have to 

worry about making something right when he got home from work.  

We have the best friends and neighbors!

THANK YOU!

My mom was supposed to fly to our house on Friday the 11th to stay with Mabel 

while we went to San Diego the following week but she was able to change 

her flight and come to my rescue Tuesday night. She did my dishes, took over 

completely with Mabel, and was literally my right hand woman.  

That was such a blessing for us, thank you mom! 

Then she stayed with Mabel the whole week while 

we got to enjoy a week in California.

Pictures to come...