Vacations

Julie posed the question, "What are your top ten vacations?"
My answer is not a top ten list, but in no particular order, some vacations that I loved.

First, I think that my favorite vacation is always the next one. I love to plan and prepare for vacations. I love to research what is around and get thoroughly excited. The months before vacation are always so fun for me. For example, I am looking forward to my best friend Cristy coming to visit. She will be here for an long weekend and we will end with a night in Nashville, just us, no kids! I am sooo excited! We will also be tourists in my own backyard. It's not something I usually do. I am also having so much fun planning and thinking about what Jonathon and I are going to do for our 10 year anniversary. We want to do a beach something or other. Maybe Belize or somewhere like that. Hawaii was our first choice, but it might be a bit out of our price range.

Our five year anniversary was a cruise. I liked that one!

Our Honeymoon was to Rome. That was wonderful not only because it was our honeymoon, but also because of all the bloopers. We found nothing other than the best restaurant around. A Chinese restaurant. We also found this little grocery store that we walked to several times and Jonathon had pear soy milk and I had the best (I think it was German) chocolate. It took us two days to find the Colosseum. I almost got arrested and we had a room with two twin beds.

So far, other than the annual "Utah family tours" we have been on, our trip to the beach in Florida with John and Marie was my favorite family vacation. I really want to do that again. What could be better than a condo (almost) on the beach. The swimming pool out our front door, fish that fought to get on Grandpa's line and hermit crab beach?

Speaking of beaches. We did the Beach theme with my dad too. Only for a few days when we were in NC, but that was what wet our feet and made us want more, more, more! We went with Liz too in NC. Kitty Hawk was fabulous and Emerald Island is picturesque!

My mom came out and we went to Williamsberg. I remember Emily tried real shepherds pie. FYI, real shepherds pie in nothing like Mormon shepherds pie, it's made with lamb, which has a flavor of its own.

I would be totally out of it if I didn't put down any number of college road trips. We stuffed way too many people in to way too few cars and drove to California for almost nothing. We slept on friends and relatives floors, we rode major roller coasters and body surfed. We Disneyland-ed and it was soooo fun! Other college trips were spent hiking and playing.One I remember was rappelling in Escalate next to this huge waterfall.

As a kid we did a lot of camping. There was a point when I was too "cool" to show it, but I actually like camping. I remember the 31 games and the cheating. I loved sleeping in the tent, usually with Seth.

Like Emily, I remember that first trip via plane to California. Flying for the first time was so fun! Another memorable California trip was right after my mission when we did Disneyland for Thanksgiving. Hot dogs for Thanksgiving! Yum!

Right before my mission we went to Vegas. I wanted to get some major shopping done, and I wanted to be "carded." I didn't really want to gamble, just prove that I could. I tried to look my youngest and guiltiest, and finally someone asked to see my ID. I also took Rollerblades with me and bladed up and down the strip.

Those are a few that came to mind. I know I'm momentarily forgetting something. Love those vacations!

Sorry no pictures, but it took me long enough to do this much so I will call it good.

The First Day of School

It is finally here!

The first day of school for Aspen and Cedar.

They were ready. After vacation, what could compare?
Cedar is in first grade. His teacher is Mrs. Butler.
Aspen is in 3rd grade. She is now in the "intermediate" building with Mrs. Duby.
Olive and I, after working on the basement, cleaning up, playing, listing stuff on ebay, eating, readings and having naps and still finding ourselves with two hours on our hands decided to bake a back to school cake for Aspen and Cedar as a suprize.It was yummy, and fun to make, though Olive didn't like the crayons on top! As soon as I would let her she took them off.
They came home happy and excited about school. All in all, I think it was a great day for them.

Broken wrist

What I learned:
Make a big deal out of everything and you may feel silly, but everyone and everything will be perfectly fine. Brush it off as no big deal, wait it out a few days and it will feel better and it will turn out to be much worse than you thought. (Then, you don't feel silly anymore, you feel bad.)

What happened:
Monday (Yes, MONDAY) the kids were outside swinging and Aspen fell off. I ran out to see what was going on. She had hurt her wrist. I tried to get her onto her feet to bring her inside, but she wouldn't move. It turns out that we HAD (Notice the past tense here) a yellow jacket nest in the ground where Aspen was sitting and they were a bit peeved that she sat on their front door. One of them tried to politely ask her to move by landing on the little finger of her hurt hand. This was plenty invitation for her to move very quickly, but the yellow jacket didn't really like the noise and blowing at it so it stung her.

She was now very motivated to come inside and I could finally look at what had happened. "Can you move your fingers? Your hand? Your wrist? Squeeze my fingers." OK. Looks like you just bumped it or sprained it. On to the sting. Oooo. Yellow jacket stings really hurt. They really hurt for a long time. Her finger was swelling a little so I gave her some benadryl and some ice for the finger.

All of this time she is sobbing and yelling at Cedar to get out. He was peeking in trying to see what was going on. I had asked them to leave the living room so I could check Aspen out, but he was still hanging around a bit. I figured if she was more interested in getting Cedar in trouble she was hurt, but not too bad and a few hours or a day or so would cure everything.

So, basically I did nothing. She stopped complaining about the pain and only told people that she had sprained her wrist and she couldn't use it for a few days.

Tuesday was the (last) primary activity that I was in charge of. (I got released on Sunday but was asked to finish with the activity.) It was a big outside water activity. Aspen did everything except the tug of war. Her favorite was throwing water balloons at the leaders. The kids all brought canned food to give to the food pantry and in exchange they got water balloons to throw at us. She didn't seem too hurt then.
She said it hurt to practice the piano, but I thought she was just trying to get out of practicing. (I probably would have tried to if I were her...) That night when she tried to put weight on it it hurt really bad. I was a little concerned, but still I didn't think it was serious.

Yesterday I finally bought her an Ace bandage. As I went to put it on her I noticed that compared to her other little arm, this one was swollen. Not a lot. And you can't really tell unless you put them side by side, but it was swollen. Though, she said it felt a lot better.

This is when I start bugging anyone I can get a hold of with medical training. I called my mom, explained it all and then asked the fateful question, "I would know if it was broken right? I mean she wouldn't be able to use it as well would she? She would have a hard time moving her fingers or wrist or bending it, right?" Well, no. (Guilt oozes from the walls and ceiling and surrounds me.)

We get an appointment with the Dr. All through the exam I am thinking. Good, she's fine. It doesn't really hurt her now. She can do everything that the Dr. is asking her without pain. (relief.)

We go get an x-ray. This is very interesting for her and our tech is really nice. She lets us go in and look at the x-ray and to my untrained eye it looks great. We go out into the waiting room while the radiologist goes in and takes a look. We are all feeling better about the whole thing. We see the radiologist go out and the tech comes back to show us out. She says that our Dr. will call us. Then she looks at me and asks if we have an orthopedist that we use. (Bye bye good feelings.) I mouth "Broken?" I know she really can't tell me. There are signs up all over the office announcing that techs cannot give results of the x-rays, so don't ask. Our tech gives the smallest nod then I tell her that we don't have anyone particular that we use. She said that there are several there that are good and they can recommend one. Oh boy...

At five till five the Dr. office calls. We need to go back in to get a splint. She broke her wrist in two places and they need to immobilize it until we can get in and get a cast. When we get there Dr. Melling takes me over and shows me the x-ray. I had seen it before, but then he points out a little line about a half inch down on the biggest arm bone. (I am obviously not up to speed on bone names.) It goes all the way across. Then there is a little crescent shape line on the little arm bone next to the other one. Oh! I see it now. It's broken in two places. Lovely.

The good news is that it's a clean break. They won't have to set it, just cast it.

She gets her cast on Friday, right before we go to school registration. Aspen is really excited. She will choose a pink cast and can't wait to get everyone to sign it. As for me. I don't know what I feel. Relieved that it isn't worse. Bad that I didn't take her in Monday. Wondering what to do next time I want to say, "It's not too bad, you'll feel better in the morning."

Happy Birthday Dad!

This is what heaven looks like to my dad. Surrounded by noisy grandchildren. Being climbed on and layed on and pounced on and and cried on. His house may be small, but there is always room for everyone. Come in, your welcome here!

Today is his special day. I hope that he knows how loved he is. I wish I could be there to make him a Texas sheet cake. I love you dad! Happy birthday!

Makin' bacon.

Climbed on.

Layed on.
At the temple.

GKISA Swim meet

Last Saturday was Aspen's last swim meet of the season. The meet was held on the UT campus in the new, state of the art Olympic pool. Aspen swam the 25 free, placing first in her heat (75th out of 220 over all.) She swam in the 25 back coming in 2nd in her heat and the 50 free (with a flip turn!) also placing 2nd in her heat. It was a fun meet. She did a great job and was a nice way to end the season!

Waiting with one of the coaches.

50 free results. The top 9 went into the finals on Sunday. We saw later in the paper that the top finisher of this event had a time of 33 seconds. Way ahead of even the 2nd place finisher.

Finishing the 50 free.

Finishing up the 25 back stroke.

The back stroke.

Off the blocks in the 50 free.

Waiting her turn for the 25 free.

Kayla

We just said goodbye to my niece Kayla. She spent 10 days with us after our Utah Family Tour '09. (More to come on that!)

Here are some of the fun things that we did.

The Crockett Tavern is on the east side of Morristown. I have been there several times, but haven't been able to actually go inside. So this was a first for all of us. The lady giving the tour was thrilled to get someone from Utah. She is hoping that someone from all 50 states visit each year.

At Crockett Tavern. The boyhood home of Davy Crockett

Cedar Crockett

Chores at the tavern

The key to the tavern

Next was a visit to the park and splash pad!

At the splash pad

After Aspens swim meet (which will have a blog entry of it's very own!) We took a picnic lunch to Worlds Fair park in Knoxville. I think that this was Kayla's favorite outing. She didn't want to leave and wanted to come back the next day. When the water is going full blast, it's a bit like standing under a water fall.

Cedar spray fighting with Jonathon.

The Monday before Kayla left we headed up to Nashville. We played in the afternoon at children's museum there. They have a great indoor playground and some pretty amazing exhibits.

This exhibit takes a picture of you and then "ages" you and shows you what you will look like if you smoke. I thought this was great. Aspen came away saying "That is gross! I am NEVER going to smoke!"

Click on the picture to see the enlarged pictures of Aspen aged and "a smoker."

Click on the picture to see the enlarged pictures of Cedar aged and "a smoker."

Olive laying in the back of the ambulance.

Aspen and Cedar "moon walking."

Kayla "Moon Walking."

I like to call this one "buns of steel."

We had lots of fun with Kayla. It was fun for the kids to have a cousin to play with.

John B. English

Happy Happy Birthday to my favorite Father in law!

This post is dedicated to a few of the many memories that we made with him during our Utah Family Tour '09.

We love you John!

Helping Aspen make a frame.

In the workshop with the kids.

The very popular zip line.

I could be wrong, but I think this is one of his top 10 favorite places. His garden.

With Olive.

The zip line again.

And again

At the cabin.