This summer has been absolutely great. We started off with a trip to the Wasatch Front for the fourth. We saw the family back at home and they are all doing well. We regretted not being able to spend more time with family, it went by too fast.
Here is summary of our trip:
We climbed Ensign peak, and unfurled our banners with the Heywood folks.
We went to Seven Peaks, and had fun in the hot Utah sun.
We played games with the family, with 5000 being the game of choice on this trip.
We had a Snowasis and played at the park.
We went to the zoo.
We went to a Bee's game and saw fireworks afterwords.
We saw the famous 4th of July parade in Provo.
And overall, we ate way too much food, and partied pretty hard.
When we got back to California we started our 4th In-Vitro Fertilization cycle. Julie now takes 6 pills and 6 shots a day. She has a constellation of evidence of the injections across her tummy. Like many professional baseball players and Tour de France athletes, she is getting tired of the injections. She promises, like many Californians, that her substance abuse is strictly for medicinal purposes, wink, wink.
One big day coming up will be next Wednesday July 23, for the TESE and egg retrieval. Julie has been carrying 9 follicles around lately, all carrying genetic information capsules known to most as eggs, 5 on one ovary and 4 on the other. Soon we will see the embryos fight through the miracle of life that is genetic recombination. When this is done, ICSI will be performed and we will need to rest and wait to see what happens. On Friday through Sunday, we will wait to see which embryos hang around for implantation. After this Julie will have her bed rest, (which is probably the only reason she wanted to go through all of this in the first place, a couple of days off). We could use prayers, and lots of them. We have our whole heart and soul in this effort, it is a very special time for us.Other less important stuff: Jake and I (Ryan) just got back from a 4 day trip through the Pacific Northwest. We flew to Portland on Tuesday, drove to Seattle on Wednesday, and flew back to Oakland today. It was a fun business trip. While I worked, Jake saw many movies, played games, and read books. He was bo – red. And now is ready to run and party back home here with his Mom and sister.Kate was unfortunately bit by our dog. Her perfect little cheek has an owee.We love you guys, and wish you were here to help us watch these little guys as we go through this procedure, fix us meals, etc. I’m kidding, we are getting by just fine. Jen and Sam have been a big help. We also want to thank Ruth in advance for coming to help us out. True to her name, wither we go, she will go likewise, and where we lodgest, she will lodge, our people will be her people, etc.
