Being asked by Jason’s brother John and his wife Tara to go to Yellowstone with them was overly exciting. The furthest west I had been was South Dakota on a family vacation forever ago. Yellowstone was one of those places you just saw through pictures, one day dreamed of going and now its becoming a reality! I could barely handle that then learned we were also going to spend the weekend with Jason’s twin sister who lived in Gillette. I had never met her and he had only saw her maybe twice in the past 10 years. You could say my nerves were high at that point considering Jason and I were only together about 2 years. This trip was a big deal. Little did I know though that my life was about to be changed forever in more than one way.
June 19th 2015 we set out for Gillette Wyoming, bye bye small town Wisconsin for the next week that is. We set out at night knowing we weren’t missing much going through Minnesota and South Dakota. So damn FLAT!!!
We were doing a little this and…………………………………………………………………………..a little that.
We arrived in Gillette late morning of the next day greeted by Jason’s sister and her adorable family. We were quite the tired bunch and couldn’t wait to rest and quite frankly we didn’t lol
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After we all regained some energy it was time to get better acquainted and check out what Gillette had to offer. One thing I have to point out about Wyoming is the heat, its so dry and intense very different compared to Wisconsin’s heat also no lakes or trees to escape from it. Coming from a place where there is a lake every 15-30 minutes and trees everywhere, I almost felt as if I needed a passport.
We spent the weekend building family bonds, being amused by the antelope roaming free in Mindy’s back yard and found a park that had both trees and a lake!!
When Jason and I were not with the family we went out exploring a bit found some pretty cool back roads and captured our own unique pictures.
Sunday night I came to the realization that I had been feeling some odd cramping lately and extreme moodiness some would say ;). I was chalking all that up to monthly friend coming but a funny feeling said otherwise. Every ounce of me was fighting that funny feeling. I told Jason we need to go for a drive. I explained the situation and off to town we went. Pregnancy test in hand we went back to the house to wait for a prime time to figure out our fate. There was never an option that night. I went to bed with the biggest question unanswered. To say that was a restless sleep would be the least. Not knowing and leaving for Yellowstone in the morning, my head was whirling. The next morning I sprang up and immediately ran out the door, I had to know what the hell was going on.
So their we are on the morning we are to be leaving for Yellowstone driving around looking for a place to piss on a stick, certainly not how I saw this going at all. We find a gas station called Big D’s Kwik Shop of all places. Seriously the irony could not be anymore lol. This was definitely a red neck stop with people not wearing shirts or shoes around this place. To be honest though made me feel a bit more at home and relaxed. Jason stayed out in the car for this one as he was still pretty tired. He always takes forever to wake up in the morning and me I’m wired the second my eyes open. I went into the bathroom with my heart pounding and my emotions everywhere. This is not how I wanted my vacation to go at all who would, pissing on a stick in some gas station out of state and about to leave to one of the most iconic national parks. Yep not how I saw this going but there I was waiting for the longest 2 minutes of my life, well sort of those lines starting appearing before i could even get resituated. BAM PREGNANT!!! Are you f’n kidding me right now is the only thing going through my head. My slow paced walk back to the car with tears flowing down my face was a dead giveaway to Jason. He didn’t have much to say either we just held each other while I cried. Gathered ourselves and decided to not tell anyone after what happened with our last pregnancy(story for another day) we would continue our vacation and make an appt back home as soon as possible.
Getting back to Mindy’s and trying to keep a calm exterior was almost impossible I was screaming on the inside. I felt like I didn’t even want to go on this vacation anymore, just go home and figure everything out. I knew that wasn’t a real option so we loaded up Johns truck and said our good byes leaving all the fresh bought alcohol to sit in Jason’s SUV to bake in the Wyoming summer heat for the next 5 days. Poor alcohol. Putting it elsewhere would have been a dead giveaway to our secret as we were known for our drinking just a tad bit.
The long ride to Yellowstone from Gillette began. As long as reception allowed I was between google with all my concerns and pinterest with some of my excitement. Only when my phone was useless was I able to look out the window at the new and unknown terrain. Eventually the terrain took over, my anxiety started to die down and I saw the beauty in it all. Legit cliff sides, real ranchers with their cattle, a moose and mountains.
Within hours of arriving at Yellowstone I snuck to the bathroom to take just one more test. I was indeed pregnant.
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