Summer...

The Boy believes it should be spent reading insanely large books. I believe it should be spent outside. Compromise is good.

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Another Anniversary - 20 years this time

Last night, as I checked Facebook, I saw this post by my sis, "20 years ago today, I had a rude awakening about how fragile life is. My life has never been the same, I totally miss my sister! She was awesome! Thankful for my belief in eternal families.."

 The only thing I could say was "Amen!" because I totally miss my sister, also.

I was thinking about things and all that has changed in the last 20 years, and I tried to remember that night. Seriously, it came in flashes.

I remember being so excited to go dancing with Shauna.

I also remember wanting to go home and change shoes... little did I know what awaited me at my apartment.

It was dark when I walked up to the door and there were TONS of post-it from several people telling me to call them and to stay put.

(From here on out, things in my memory get spotty.... shock is the official medical term. I prefer 'shattered' because that is what I was for a very long time.) 

Mark M. telling me that my sister had died in a car accident (he had pulled up right behind us).

Jen R. helping me pack (actually I think she packed for me).

Shauna V.O. driving me to Pocatello. I sobbed the whole way without a stop.

Mark M. loading me into his truck in Pokey and taking me home.

My sibling's faces when I walked through the door.

The next few days were a blur. I have very little memory the days leading up to the funeral. 

I remember walking into the church and seeing the casket and her husband.

At one point, I had to step outside. I just needed to breathe. I walked out the door just as Steve and Jamie arrived. I remember that I lost it. I do remember my mascara on his shirt as I sobbed in his arms.

I remember the awful wind at the cemetary - oh, that's right it was Idaho in June. Actually, Idaho at any time.

Alright. I have sobbed enough this morning.

20 years is a long time, but, thankfully, love and families are eternal.

1 Year Anniversary - kinda

We, as a family, are not big on celebrating the anniversaries of the little things that happen in our lives.

This is one that I have to share.

It has been a year since my baby's stitches!

Look at the difference a year makes!

Love it!

For those that don't know or don't remember...

On June 8, The Boy and I were in the kitchen getting ready to make pudding pops. The Girl was playing in The Boys room.

We heard a scream and crying. I ran down the hall and there she was... blood running down her face.

I knew it was bad so I grabbed some paper towels and threw the kiddos in the car. I managed to drive, with The Girl on my lap to the house of a friend and I commandeered her daughter (still in her jammies). The Boy did not want to go to the hospital, so he got out and stayed with the friends little guys.

I never once thought of going to the emergency room. Weird, huh? Must have been shock.

I took her to an urgent care and they kindly sent me to the emergency room.

Once there, they got her in pretty quickly and the doctor gave her a drug that put her completely out! (Scared the dickens out of me!) They started sewing her head shut. Three layers of stitching. The first was down at the bottom, by the bone. The second was a traveling stitch (I would have called it a basting stitch). It's purpose was to keep the two sides together after they remove the top stitches. And then the top layer of stitching. That is lots of stitches in my baby's head!

To sum up, I think I was in worse shape than The Girl!

The "before" picture was taken after we got back from the emergency room.

Yep, she was fine! I was the one who needed a nap! 

For the next year, I faithfully put Scarguard on the scar. That is it.

Occasionally, I would rub it with Vitamin E oil to check for scar tissue build up, but there wasn't any. YEAH!

Here we are today. I haven't put anything on her scar for a while now. I do keep her pretty well covered in sunscreen, but that is it!

I can't wait to see how this looks in a couple of years. Most people don't even realize that The Girl has a scar.
YEAH!

Our Recent Adventures - Day 4

Talk about tired kiddos!

After Hogle Zoo and This is the Place, they were plumb tuckered out! But we weren't done ~ we had a relaxing morning and then drove down to Thanksgiving Point. (Or we shall call the drive another name that rhymes with 'bell.')

Ok, I live in a small city. Pretty much zero traffic. I HATE driving farther south than Salt Lake. The traffic wasn't too bad but they are seriously tearing out the exit at Thanksgiving Point. There were some bad words said. Sorry, Mom.

They started out okay!

howdy!

We went to the dinosaur museum that Grandma has been telling us about, actually called The Museum of Ancient Life. Seriously cool place. 

awww..

 

Seriously too many things in 4 days. Can anyone say "Major Meltdown?"

No?

Let me show the proof.

at the sand tank...shaking the sand off and whining

I want my mommy!

better yet - I want Grandma!

The Girl did well for about 30 minutes, then the whining started. She played in the water/sand tank for about 2 minutes before she started whining in earnest and trying to get the yucky sand off her hands. When her momma wouldn't hold her, (I have TWO kids who needed attention, baby.) she curled up with her blankie on Grandma. But she wouldn't sleep. At one point, she got out to play with a display and threw everything down in disgust. It really was humorous, but I did feel bad for her. She tried and tried to keep up!

The Boy, on the other hand, got sillier and sillier!

Need proof of that?

Here you go.

swim away!

There are no words....

We played in the sand, uncovering dinosaurs, despite the constant unhappiness that sand was in The Girl's flip flops.

We gave up at that point and headed out to Cabela's.

The Girl didn't make it out of the parking lot at Thanksgiving Point. I decided that she needed to sleep as long as possible so I stayed in the car while Grandma and The Boy went in with my camera.

the moose

Now, some quick explanation. I love moose. I look for them everywhere. The Boy shot pictures of the displays for his dad, but this one was for me. Thanks, my little man!

The Girl woke up as the others were headed out, so we went back for a quick snack and headed north. We stopped at Five Guys Burgers for dinner and then.... yummy cupcakes!

yum!

Thanks for a fabulous trip, Grandma! We love you!

Our Recent Adventures - Day 3, Part 2

So, here we go to Hogle Zoo!

awww... aren't they so cute?

Since it is just across the street we really had no trouble getting there! Since it was just about lunch time, we got a great parking spot! Yeah!

The zoo I remember is no more. Everything pretty much has changed, which isn't always a bad thing and it is not always a good thing!

The Girl was pretty tired when we got there and I don't think she really enjoyed it the way I was hoping!

We did get to see lots of cool animals!

New baby elephant - aww!

The Girl and a big cat!

The Boy and a Giraffe

 The kiddos posed for lots of pictures on the zoo statutes AND they got to ride on the carousel.

she liked this horse better!

look at momma....or at the kids just outta the frame.

yeah, The Girl didn't like this one.

The Girl on the carousel

The Boy on the carousel

The kiddos were starting to melt down so we hopped on the train and played for a minute in the playground. Then back to the car. The Girl didn't make it out of the parking lot.

Grandma and the kiddos on the train.

at the playground

major meltdown of The Girl. oh and the cats.

We picked up Papa Murphy's pizza on the way home and crashed!

Our Recent Adventures - Day 3, Part 1

Day 3 was the BIG day!

We had 2 big locations to explore and now, looking back, we seriously needed more time at these places.

After a yummy breakfast, we sprayed the kiddos down with SPF 50 and headed to This is the Place Heritage Park. 

(The last time I had been there was YEARS and YEARS ago when it was just a couple of cabins and the monument. It is NOT the same! We had done some research and found out that they had a "train" and pony rides. That was our plan - ride the train and the ponies and leave. Good plan, right? We were going to have to find someplace yummy to eat lunch because neither Grandma or I could stomach eating at our next stop, Hogle Zoo.)

We got there behind 2 school buses (not good) and started to plan how we would do this quickly. We wandered until we found the pony rides. 

The Girl

The Boy

All The Girl wanted to do!

The Girl screamed/whined the whole time and wanted off, but suffered through. She just wanted to pet the pony. She was also disappointed that the pony was NOT pink. The Boy had a blast!

Next, we hopped the train for a ride around the park.

Cropped to not show Grandma's cool visor.

We REALLY enjoyed this part! In fact, we did it twice!

What we really did was ride it around to see the sights - then we rode back up to the "Hotel" for lunch. Now, it was about 11, which is a bit early for all of us! The kiddos really enjoyed the hot dogs and the pulled pork sandwiches were yummy, too!

waiting!

After lunch, we visited one of the homes that had hands-on displays. The Boy worked! He plowed (?),  milked, and saw some other kids beating rugs and laundry.  Wish he was that motivated to work at home.

Working?!

The Boy had a fabulous time! The Girl's feelings were a bit mixed. Grandma and I wish we had planned more time for this!
Then off to Hogle Zoo!

Our Recent Adventures - Day 1 & 2

The kiddos and I have done nothing but play since school got out! Yippee!!

One of the first things we did was plan a trip to the Land Southward.

Yep, we went to spend time with Grandma who lives in Layton.

We planned on heading down on Sunday but that soon changed to Saturday. We left home early and had plenty of time to get there!  We loaded Grandma in the minivan (against her wishes really) and kept heading south.  We had a yummy lunch at Chin Wah and then we stopped at the Living Planet Aquarium in south Salt Lake. The Boy and I had been here about 4 years ago and had loved it. Grandma had never been and The Girl had no idea what was happening!

Coolness was to be had there! We loved it. The Girl got tired about 3/4 of the way through and really should have napped in the stroller but she just whined her way around the rest of the exhibits and tried to steal the pink fluffy turtle from the gift shop. Following are some of the pix that I took. (REALLY bad lighting and sometimes I was more distracted than the kiddos! Sorry!)

Looking in a tank - check out the fingers!

petting the stingrays

my fav - the Lion fish

the sea horse

Grandma and the kiddos checking out giant fish

After browsing the aquarium for a while and participating in an education class (The Boy got to have a bird hop across his arms!), we headed for home. The Girl sacked out before we hit the freeway and The Boy was really quiet!

One of the bonuses of staying with Grandma is the treats - there are ALWAYS treats at Grandma's house.

The kiddos started with the Creamies! YUMMY!

Now, I have no idea why I didn't take a picture of The Boy, but you get the idea!

We had homemade pizza that night. Yummy!

The next day (Sunday), we went to church with Grandma and then drove to Logan for a birthday party - at which I took no pictures! Boo! It was fabulous to see the cousins and eat some seriously delish food! Then back to Grandma's for a well deserved sleep!