Catching up

In the week leading up to Luke's surgery, there was a lot that happened around here but I was too busy and preoccupied to write about it then. So I'm going to catch up as briefly as I can.

Last Saturday we had Cameryn's birthday party. We just invited our families and some of our close friends to come around 3:00. Mike's family was moving into their new house that same day so they couldn't come, but Robin (my mother-in-law) had come on Wednesday to give Cameryn her present and to play with her for awhile as well.

Cameryn had a really fun time and got some really cool presents. My parents got her a princess dress and some shoes for playing dress up. Mike and I got her the movie Monsters Inc., some Toy Story figures to play with and a Sleeping Beauty story book play house. It folds out into parts of a castle and then some woods. She has really been having fun playing with that too. Of course it has a bunch of tiny tiny pieces to it that Luke just loves to try and get. She also got some clothes, a Barbie doll, Play dough, and some bath time finger paints from our friends.

My family got their first and we were all in the kitchen eating when out of no where Luke up and takes 7 steps over to me!! It was so weird. Luke hadn't shown the slightest interest in walking before that and then suddenly when there are all these people there he takes his first steps. It was so awesome and surreal at the same time. He was so proud of himself too. After that Kathryn and Devon kept trying to get him to do it again but again, he wasn't interested.

After we all ate, Cameryn opened up her presents and we had some Princess cake. Mike took Cameryn to the store with him and she picked it out all by herself. Mike said at first she wanted a "Larry cake". Larry is the cucumber from Veggie Tales which Cameryn loves. They didn't have that so she of course picked out Princesses instead. It would have been a nice change of pace if we could have gotten a Veggie Tales cake but oh well, maybe next year. This year Cameryn finally blew out her own candles too (one by one) and thought it was hilarious. I gave Luke some of him own cake too and he had fun making a mess of himself and anything else within his reach. He looked like he had a blue icing beard.

Poor Luke was also having some pooping issues that day and had the worst rash, so I got some of Cameryn's training underwear and let him wear it to air his poor little bottom out. He looked so cute in them too. I didn't get a very good picture of him wearing them unfortunately. We were all joking about it though saying that he still looked like he was wearing a diaper because of how big his bottom is. I mean it really is a pretty big bottom for a little boy. Overall it was a nice day for a birthday party.

The rest of my week leading up to yesterday was spent going to the doctors for his pre-op check up on Monday, working on Tuesday and trying to get things done on Wednesday.

So far today Luke is acting himself though. He slept pretty well last night going to bed at 8:00 and sleeping for over 4 hours. I think he only woke up though because the medicine had worn off. He was up for good at about 5:00 though. I tried to get him back to sleep; he didn't want to so I gave up at 6:00 and took him downstairs to play. He played and ate until about 9:30 and then he was tired again. Hopefully he will take another nap later too. I am so proud of my little man and how well he is recovering from yesterday. What a brave little boy.

Surgery Day

Luke had his surgery today and it went so well. I was so proud of him.

We left the house this morning with Luke at 6:15 am. My mom came over to watch Cameryn when she woke up because we couldn't take her with us (I didn't want to do that anyways). We got to the hospital at 7:15 and luckily didn't have to wait around much. They took us back to Pediatrics and did all those pre-op poking and prodding that they have to do and Luke took it all in stride. He just stared around and when they were finished, we took him over to where all the toys were and he played for awhile. We had to wait till about 8:45 for them to take us up to the 3rd floor were the surgery center was. Luke was so adorable with his little hospital gown on. Unfortunately I left my camera with our bags in Pediatrics and forgot to take a picture when we were down there. Just take my word he was so cute.

When we got to our little cubical thing in the pre-surgery area, he started to get a little fussy. He was really hungry by then and kept trying to lay down in my lap in nursing position. It was so sad and I hated not being able to nurse him (plus I was really full and needed to nurse him). Finally the doctor came in to do some final measurements, then the anaesthesiologist and finally the OR nurse. I got to back into the OR with Luke while they were putting him to sleep. It was so heartbreaking to see him in there. They used the mask to give him the anaesthesia and when he finally fell asleep, he was whimpering in his sleep. It was really hard not to cry after that. I was pretty good about controlling myself though. I knew that everything was going to be fine so I was able to relax a little and not feel so stresses out.

It was over in about an hour and they let us go back into the recovery area. Luke was very upset as they were trying to feed him a bottle of plain water!!! How dare they!! Actually Luke likes water but only in a regular cup, not in a bottle. If it's a bottle, it has to have a little bit of juice mixed with the water or it has to be milk. They tried to see if he would take the water from me but he still didn't want it. Then we tried the sugar water and he still didn't want it. Finally they let me nurse him because they didn't want him to stay that upset.

They left in his IV until they were sure that he wasn't going to throw up. I forgot to get a picture of that though. They put it in after his was under and they had his whole arm all wrapped up like a cast so he couldn't pull it out when he woke up. It was so cute. He didn't like it much. He kept swinging it around trying to get it off and I got hit in the face once. He was very disoriented though and kept thrashing around and arching his back, that is until they let me nurse him. It was so nice and he quickly fell back asleep. He was so worn out and hungry from the whole day I just was so happy that it was all over. I finally remembered about my camera and we took a picture of him nursing in his cute little gown.

He slept the whole way home and then actually played a little when we got into the house. I was so surprised that he was handling it all so well. He crawled around a little and played with the dog but was quickly tired out. I put him down for a nap and took one myself. He slept for another 2 hours.

His eyes look kinda gross right now. They look all bloody on the inside corner of his eyes and they told us that if he cries, his tears will be pink. The redness should go away in about 10-14 days but he is already eating better and is keeping it all down. We are alternating giving him Tylenol or Motrin every three hours. I know it's usually every four hours but they don't want him to be in a lot of pain so they said every three hours is fine.

Someone from church brought us dinner tonight and my mom brought Cameryn back home around 5:00. She was very happy to be home again with us and was very sweet to Luke.

So it's finally over and I happy that it all went well. Thanks to all of you who kept us in your prayers and thoughts today.

Luke nursing and then right after we got home, already smiling. My wonderful boy!!

Playing with Leia (actually, hitting her with a piece of paper). After his nap, happy and crawling.

My silly little man with his Cheerio bowl.

The Weekend and a Three Year Old!!

I had a pretty nice and busy weekend just past. This past Friday, Mike and I actually had a date. Just us, no children. I don't think we've done that since Luke was born. We put the kids to bed and then my parents came over while Mike and I went to the movies to see Transformers. It was nice to be by ourselves and relax a little.

Saturday, we did some work around the house and then went to our friends house for their sons one year birthday party. Cameryn had a lot of fun playing and, after awhile, Luke did too. He was still trying to wake up completely because as soon as he woke up from his nap, I put the kids in the stroller and walked them up the street to Jessie and Shaun's house. Their son, Landon, is only a month and a half younger then Luke and they already play really well together. Jessie and I are really looking forward to cooler weather so we can keep them at the park for longer then 20 minutes. Maybe we are wimps but I just can't sit at that little park for really long with all the heat and humidity and the stupid mosquitoes eating me and Luke (they don't bother Cameryn for whatever reason). Anyways, they had fun playing with all the other kids and the toys that Landon got for his birthday. Mike and I stayed to help clean up since we only live down the street and then took the kids home with their gift bags.

Sunday was Cameryn's 3rd birthday!! I can't believe that she is already three. She is such a smart little girl too. Her new favorite thing to do is puzzles. I bought her a bunch from the Dollar Store and Mike bought her for her birthday a book with a different 2-sided Princess puzzle on each page. She has fun figuring them all out. She can get a little frustrated though because it is 2-sided but she is getting better and better at them. Most of the puzzles she has have only nine pieces but she can also do this 24 piece puzzle with minimal help. I'd never really given her puzzles before our trip to Utah but I bought her some to do on the plane and she figured them out in no time at all.

Cameryn has also started up coloring a lot again. She used to color all the time but after awhile she wouldn't do it anymore. I guess she got tired of it or something. I'm sort of in the process of "recycling" my toys so the kids can have some different ones to play with downstairs. Plus with birthdays past and Christmas coming up, I really need to get rid of some of our older toys that they don't play with that often. Cameryn likes to keep busy though. I usually let her watch one movie while I'm putting Luke to sleep otherwise she bothers me the whole time and he won't go to sleep. She loves all the Disney movies and she also likes watching the Muppet movies with Kermit and Miss Piggy.

Cameryn speaks very well for her age and pretty much always has, but there are still a few words that she says that are so cute. I can only think of four right now but there aren't much more than that anyways- here they are:

nank you, Mama - Thank you, Mama
flumb - thumb
wusgusting - disgusting
wusquitos - Mosquitoes

I think "wusgusting" is my personal favorite. Just the way she says it when she sees something "wusgusting" is so funny and her facial expression is adorable. Mike and I have started using that word sometimes just to be silly.

Even though she can throw some pretty horrible and long fits with crying and other wonderful symptoms of a temper tantrum, I love how sweet and funny she can be other times. She absolutely LOVES her little brother and can be so sweet to him. Now that he is into more things and playing with more toys, she is a little bit more possessive of things (even when they aren't hers) but after a few words or suggestions from her mom, she can usually be persuaded to share the toys.

She loves to get herself dressed now and if you even try to touch her shirt or shorts to help her she will start all over again. She is the same way when getting into the car. She has to get into the car by herself, climb in her seat by herself and buckle in completely by herself. If I lift her into her car seat when I'm in a hurry, she will squirm her way back out of the car and then climb back in by herself. I'm glad that she is more independent but it can be seriously annoying sometimes, especially when I'm in a hurry. We let her have two presents to open on her birthday but the rest we are saving for her party that we are going to have this coming Saturday.

On Labor Day, we did more house cleaning and then later in the afternoon, I took the kids to the pool with my family since it was the last day it was open until next year. Mike was smoking some meat that we were going to eat with my family that night. It takes a LONG, LONG time to smoke meat but it is so good and tender and flavorful when it is finally done.Cameryn played a lot with Andrew while they were here for dinner yesterday. She can be bossy a lot of the time but I don't think Andrew minded too much since she usually pretty much ignores him and Ezra and plays with Kathryn and Devon the whole time.

So that was our nice 3 day weekend. I'm going to try to get a lot more cleaning and rearranging and other stuff done this week in time for Cameryn's party. I need to keep my mind on something else because Luke's surgery is coming up in a little more then a week. I'm finally starting to feel nervous, not about the surgery itself but about all the stuff leading up to it and after it. Please keep us in your prayers.

Tongues?

Luke has a new favorite face to make. He is constantly sticking his tongue out and just going about his business like that. Of course that gets Cameryn started too. What silly children I have.

Busy little Boy

Luke has been getting into EVERYTHING lately and just being the silliest 13 month old ever. He is always making me laugh. For his birthday, one of the guys that Mike works with bought him a Radio Flyer Scoot-About. He loves this thing!! He walks all over the house with it and it helps him to get into even more mischief. He crawls over to it and climbs right on and just starts going. He rams into things and then backs up and steers himself somewhere else.

I am amazed at the huge difference between him and Cameryn; or in other words between boys and girls. (Not that am one of those people who think that there aren't differences because that is just stupid) It is just so fun to see the differences in your children when you have one of each. Even at this young age, I can tell Luke is going to be into all those things that most boys like. Throwing balls, climbing, getting into mischief, cars, bikes, noises, making messes, jumping, and throwing himself down things (like slides for one). He loves to climb up the stairs when I'm not paying attention (thank goodness he doesn't try to throw himself down those). Then when he gets to the top, he starts to yell and laugh and shout his nonsense blabbering down the stairs until I run up there to get him. When he sees me coming he just smiles his hugest grin and laughs and laughs.

He has started holding his arms out to me when he wants me to pick him up and it just melts my heart. I have already forgotten some of those wonderful things that little toddlers do from when Cameryn was Luke's age.

Another gift for his birthday from my in-laws was battery powered 4-wheeler like the one that he loves to ride of Cameryn's except that it has more manly colors. He has gotten even better at riding on it. We take him outside and he drives it down this little hill next to our house. He can climb on and off it and knows exactly where to put his hand to make it go. What a smart little man!!

The funniest thing that he has done recently though is.... wait for it.... get in a jar of Vaseline. Yes, I said Vaseline. Is it a requirement that at least one child must get into Vaseline or something similar? Anyways, it was this past Saturday and I had been outside alot mowing lawns and unfortunately I got heat stroke. It was evening and I was laying on the couch feeling absolutely horrible. My head was killing me and I felt really nauseous and just plan sick. So I wasn't really paying attention to the kids too much. Cameryn and Luke play really well together and I was just letting them do their thing. Mike was making dinner in the kitchen. Cameryn had got the Vaseline down to put some on her lips and of course had to give me a kiss to show me how pretty her lips were. I guess I shouldn't have assumed that she had put the jar back up where it belongs even though she has always done this before. I'm not even sure how much time had passed before I got up to go into the kitchen and I looked down at Luke and screamed. Yeah, that's a stupid reaction but I couldn't think what else to do (hey, I was sick okay). Then I started laughing because Luke looked at me with the happiest face I have ever seen. There was Vaseline everywhere; on the floor, the couch, pieces of Mr. Potato Head, a plastic drawer, his legs, shirt, shorts, arms, and of course his face and hair.

You can see how shiny his legs and face are in this picture and just look at that smile. If you look at the drawer he is next to you can see to Vaseline smeared on the handle.

I know this one is blurry but just look at all the chunks and globs of Vaseline all over his face!! Priceless!!

I should have made this picture bigger so you could see the Vaseline all over the floor too. Just look at him laughing though. He thinks he is the funniest boy right there.

Well, I had a heck of a time trying to get all the Vaseline off everything. First I took off all his clothes and wiped off as much of the Vaseline as possible. He just crawled right off after I put him down leaving more greasy hand and leg prints. Mike took him upstairs to give him a bath while I cleaned up the toys, floor and couch. Of course I knew that regular shampoo wasn't going to get out the Vaseline but we had to try. I combed his hair out after the bath and it stayed all slicked back so I knew there was still lots of stuff to get out.

Here's Luke after the first bath, still greasy but being fed.

After he ate, I washed his hand and face in the sink with Dawn dish washing soap and that seemed to do the trick as I figured it would. While there I decided to wash his hair real fast in the sink as well. It got out a little bit more of the Vaseline but it still wasn't all out. Finally, when it was time for their regular bath I washed his hair and body one more time with Dawn soap and it was all out. Mike then washed him once more with regular shampoo so he wouldn't smell like dish soap. It was quite an interesting little adventure.

Here is a short video I took of Luke on his Scoot-Along and Mike took a few video's of Luke sitting on his (Mike's) 4 wheeler and some old motorcycle that someone gave him for free. Listen to his cute sound effects. He is definitely going to be like his dad.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Not busy, kinda

There isn't much going on in my life right now. It has been rainy and the temperature is a lot cooler then normal. It's been in the 60's and lower 70's for the past few days but I definitely don't mind it at all. It's much better then the horrible humidity that us on the east coast normally deal with in the summertime.

Cameryn has been in an especially lovey-dovey mood lately. She is always coming up to me and hugging me or kissing my hand or placing her hands on my cheeks and saying "I love you so much, Mama". I love it!! She can be such a little sweet heart sometimes. She also will grab my hand and hug it and kiss it if she can't reach my face. Of course she tries to do the same things to Luke but I'm pretty sure he doesn't appreciate it at all. He'll give her a goodnight kiss after we have said family prayer at night but he gets really upset when she is clobbering him with hugs and kisses and trying to hold his hand while bending his arm backwards. Though of course she doesn't know that she is hurting him and gets her feelings hurt when I tell her to stop. Poor sweet girl.

Luke is finally getting more bottom teeth. He has had four teeth on top and two on bottom for months now. Though he is starting to bite again I'm assuming because of the new teeth. He has to test them out and make sure they hurt just as much as the other ones do. And they definitely do. He thinks it's funny to lift up my shirt and bite my belly. A trick which he started doing on his daddy and since Mike didn't stop him from doing it and just laughed and said ow, he now does it to me too. I have to admit though it is funny when I see his little face and how happy he gets while doing it. He looks at you and just laughs and laughs.

I am working today at my friends golf course. I work up in their Pro Shop one day a week for 6-7 hours and I'm allowed to bring my kids so I couldn't pass it up. Though sometimes I wish I could leave them with someone while I work just to have a break. Occasionally my mom will watch Cameryn for me so that I only have to keep an eye on Luke. Plus Mike comes after work and picks them both up so that I have 2 hours (or more depending on when he leaves work) all to my self!! It is wonderful!! Hopefully one of these days I'll be able to leave Luke with someone too. Though it probably won't be until next summer. The golf course isn't open year round of course so I won't be working when the weather gets really cold and snowy.

Sorry this post is so boring. I felt like writing something though.

Birthday Boy

Even though Luke's birthday was July 25th, we didn't get a chance to celebrate it until after I got home from Utah. This past Saturday we had some of our friends and family come over to help us celebrate Luke turning one.

I can't believe that he is already one. I don't remember Cameryn's first year going by as quickly as Luke's has. Maybe it's because he is my second born and since I have two kids now it feels like it's going by so much quicker. We always seem so busy that I guess I feel that I didn't get to enjoy all the moments with Luke as a tiny baby that I did with Cameryn. Time is just flying by now and I wish that it would just slow down some.

I really do enjoy this age though. It is so easy to make Luke laugh!! And he has the cutest little grin, where he smiles real big and his little nose wrinkles up. He is crawling everywhere and climbing on anything that he can get his knee up on. He loves to climb into laundry baskets and throw all the clean clothes out. He also loves to be chased up the stairs even though he is still rather slow on them. He has to stop on every step and turn around and look to make sure you are still there "chasing" him. Of course now that he can do more things, he is getting hurt more too. He's a tough little man though and stops crying about 10 seconds after you pick him up.

He was pretty good at his one year check up too. He only needed one shot and was really only crying because the nurses had to hold his legs. As soon as they let go, he stopped crying and I hadn't even picked him up yet. Though he did also cry while we were weighing him and I had to put him on the scale and the nurse (gasp) looked at him!!!!! He still is quite the mamma's boy so he's not too keen on letting other people hold him (or touch him or I guess sometimes look at him) but he's not like that all the time thankfully. He does unfortunately have a little rash on his chest and neck as a result of the chicken pox vaccine but hopefully it won't last too long.

He still is only babbling and saying "mama" and "dada" and other things like that. Though Cameryn talks so much that I don't really mind Luke not talking too much yet. He doesn't really show any interest in walking either which makes me happy but he can still get into everything already so it really wouldn't make much difference if he did. Luke is the kind of child that is pretty happy (relatively speaking) just doing what he can do already. He is happy crawling and climbing, standing and babbling at me. Mike and I are his favorite things to climb over and on. He really only gets frustrated when he's playing with some toy or book and it's not cooperating with what he thinks it should do.

I love both of my children so much and I am so thankful that I have them both. I feel very lucky to be able to stay home with them everyday and that I have a very supportive husband as well. I am also very thankful that we live near most of our family, though I definitely still miss my sisters and their families. We all had so much fun together and Cameryn just LOVED to play with her cousins. I know she misses them too. Her birthday is coming up soon and I can't believe she is going to be three!!! I think I'll probably be saying that at every one of their birthdays though. It's so cliche but kids really do grow up so quickly.

I had wanted to do a montage of Luke's first year to post with this but I haven't had time yet. I will hopefully soon but here is a short one from Saturday with him opening present a present and eating cake.

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Family vacation photos

It took me a while to put all these pictures together. I had to mess with the songs, the order of the pictures, the effects, the length, etc. It also takes a lot of time to download all the pictures in the first place. So I hope you all enjoy looking at my vacation with all my wonderful family.

It's about 10 minutes long but really worth it (at least I think so).

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Adjusting to normal life

Every night since I've been back, I've woken up in the middle of the night with Luke and I have no idea where I am. The first night I was so confused, I couldn't find Luke's room which is just silly since there are three bedrooms upstairs and I had just walked out of mine (I also think that I was still mostly asleep). I walked into my room again and thought that I was at my sister Lindsey's house and had walked into her and Zak's room. I quietly walked back out and shut the door. Finally I got close to Luke's door to see that it had "LUKE" spelled out in wooden letters and realized, "hey, I'm at my house."

Now when I wake up with Luke, I have to sit up in bed first until my brain catches up and I remember that I'm in my house again. It's very weird since I didn't have that sort of problem while at either of my sister's houses or the hotel.

So back to my vacation (I'll try to keep it shorter this time):

July 21, 2007

Mike caught the morning flight from the Dallas/Fort Worth airport into Salt Lake and my mom and I drove down to get him bringing only Luke with us. We figured Cameryn would have more fun playing with her cousins. Mike and I picked up our rental car (an awesome red Jetta that some guy tried to get us to trade for his rental car- hehe. I was like, "no thanks, we like the Jetta") and drove back to the hotel so Mike could shower and change clothes since he had worn those clothes for 2 days now.

We met up with all my family plus our best friends from Indiana, Devon, Brenda, Gina and Heidi , we all go way back. We went to the Tree House Museum in Ogden, Utah. It was really cool but I was only there for a little while. Everyone else had been there for a long time before me, Mike, my mom and Luke got there. Heidi has a really good post all about the Museum here.

After we left the museum we all decided to go swimming at the hotels. Gina, Heidi, their kids and their parents came with Mike and I to our hotel to swim. Everyone else went to my parents hotel. We couldn't find any of Cameryn's swimming suits though so we had her wear Luke's and he just wore a swimming diaper. I think she looks rather cute, don't you?

That night we had a really fun bar-b-que at Lindsey's house and just hung around and talked. Luke just loved sitting in this really cute little kid lawn chair. He ate and ate and swung his little legs. So cute!!

Much later that night a bunch of us went to see a late showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was me, Heidi, Gina, Jessica, Lindsey, Zak, Andrew and Ezra. There were a ton of really funny previews for movies that I now can't wait to go see. (Not that I really ever get to go see movies anyways) It was fun to have just adults around and NO children for a little while. The movie was really good also.

July 22, 2007

Nothing much happened as it was Sunday. Heidi had to go home but it was really fun seeing her and finally getting to meet her adorable daughter, Sierra. Most of the day we hung out at Lindsey's house and ate dinner there again. Here's Luke begging a popsicle off of Kathryn.


July 23, 2007

Monday was Jessica's 30th birthday so while the rest of us went to Timpanogos Cave for a hike, she stayed home with Belle and Tristyn to get ready.

The hike up to the caves was long and hot but it was fun. We had to pay to go into the caves but if I was going to hike all the way up with all those kids then I wanted to see the caves too. Mike and I took turns carrying Luke in a baby back pack and the rest of the kids walked most of the way. The little two year olds were carried some times but none more than Cameryn. She must really think she is a Princess because she walked behind me and screamed and cried and threw herself around so I would pick her up. This of course made me not want to pick her up even more. (also, outta no where she started crying for candy, weird) My dad, Mike and my brothers took turns carrying her up the mountain. Brenda, Gina and her son Liam were also there on the hike. Gina wrote about it here and here also.

Here is Gina, Liam and my mom on the hike up and the other picture is (left to right) Penny, Emerald and Cameryn all peeking over the edge on the way down.

The caves were a nice cool treat after that hot hike in the sun. Of course it would have helped if we had all brought more water. We ran out and were all soooooooooo thirsty on the way down.

When we got home we went to Jessica's birthday party at a really fun park and she got to blow out 30 candles!! It was a busy day.


July 24, 2007

We didn't do much this day either but relax and hang out a bit, but we needed it.

July 25, 2007

Luke turned the big ONE!!! Unfortunately he also started getting his molars in that day and he had a 100 degree fever. Poor baby!! We went to the This is the Place Heritage Park in the morning and had a really nice time. Cameryn was so excited to go on a pony ride and then Mike let her go on it again. Luke was a tad grumpy but it was understandable. They had a petting zoo and all these different buildings that were origianlly built by the pioneers. It was alot of fun.

We got our family pictures taken later that day and it seemed about to rain almost the whole time. After the pictures Mike and I invited Mary to come out to dinner with us at the Outback.

July 26, 2007

This was another relaxing day and we all went swimming at my parents hotel pool. It was alot of fun.

July 27, 2007


Lindsey and her family got sealed in the Salt Lake Temple this day. It was such a beautiful and special day for them. They were all so happy. All the kids were playing in the Temple grounds and picking flowers (until we told them to stop) and we took lots of pictures. I think Cameryn thought that the Temple was a Princess castle too. She was so sad that she couldn't go in.

We went to Liberty Park in Salt Lake City afterwards and had food and played and all the siblings reminiced about the good lod times. It was such a perfect day and a nice end to a WONDERFUL week!! Mike, Mom, Dad, Andrew, Ezra, Kathryn and Devon all went home the next morning. I was sad to see them go but glad to get to spend one more week with my sisters.

I'll get to the last week later. It definitly wasn't as busy of a week so it will be a much shorter post. I'm still working on my picture montage so that'll be up later as well.

Vacation time

July 14, 2007

Me, Cameryn and Luke all flew out to Utah on two relatively uneventful flights (we had a layover in Texas) which I am extremely grateful for. They were definitely tired and thankful to be off the plane when we finally landed in Utah though. My mom, Kathryn, Devon and sister Mary came to the airport to meet me. They helped me get my luggage and then we waited for my sister Jessica to pick us up. Poor Luke was so exhausted that he went down for bed soon after we arrived at Jessica's house. Cameryn was already very excited to play with her cousins and my sister Lindsey and her kids showed up to play also. We didn't get the kids to be until very late. Cameryn fell fast asleep once in bed though because with the time change it was after midnight for her.

July 15, 2007

Nothing much happened today as it was Sunday. We went to church and took naps. Later when Lindsey and her family got back from their church, they all came over and we had dinner and played and talked together. It is always to much fun to get together and talk. I love seeing my sisters and their husbands!! We always have a great time.

July 16, 2007

We all went over to Lindsey's house and the kids played in the back yard. L & J filled up a ton of water balloons for the kids to throw in the front yard. I gave a few to Luke to play with and everytime they would pop he would burst into tears. It was so cute and a little bit funny (okay, a lot funny).

July 17th and 18th, 2007

Cameryn, Emerald and Yzabelle all played dress ups (of course in Princess dresses) in the morning and then my mom came over around 12:00 and her and I drove up to Rexsburg, Idaho to BYU-Idaho (which I will always call Ricks) to pick up Ezra from college. It was such a pretty drive and we talked the whole way. I of course had to bring Luke with me but Jessica watched Cameryn for me because she definitely would have more fun there then driving for 3 hours and walking around the campus forever. It was so good to see Ezra again and I could tell that he was really happy there and that he had had a really fun time at college. He introduced us to some of his friends and we went out to Applebee's for lunch.

After we ate we walked around the campus. I went to Ricks from 1998-2000 when it was only a 2 year college. They made it a 4 year college a few years ago and it has grown so much since I was there. There is a ton of construction going on, a few more buildings and a lot more housing. They are even almost done building a temple there. It is so beautiful too. You can see it way up on this hill as soon as you drive off the exit into Rexsburg. How lucky for all those students to have a temple right there for their use.

It was really great to be there again. I loved going to college there and have so many wonderful memories of there. It was great to see all the buildings, dorms, apartments, and other random places that I had wonderful times at when I went to school there. So many memories just flooded me and it was good to reminisce. It would have been more fun to have my old roommates there to talk about it all with but it was funny to tell all my stories about specific places that we would pass to my mom and Ezra. We went to my old dorm room and then to the house that I lived in my second year. We passed all the apartment buildings where me and my roommates knew guys from because of course most of the people we knew where males (hehe). Ahhhh, good times!!

We spent the night at a friend from Maryland's place. I got a horrible nights sleep though and Luke woke up super early. I didn't want him to wake up anyone in the apartment so I took him on a walk around campus again. I ended up walking with him for about 2 1/2 hours. I was hungry and tired when I got back but I had a really nice walk too. It made me miss college days being at Ricks but I am still happy with my life now (most of the time- I miss the days of no responsibility). The drive back was uneventful but nice.

July 19, 2007

We went to the Hill Air Force Base Museum. The kids had a blast looking at all the old planes and they had this fun room with lots of things for all the kids to play with and look at that had to do with airplanes and space travel. They had a video about the Wright brothers, pictures to color, different computer simulations, Devon tried on a flight suit and they had a cockpit from an airplane that all the kids could play in. They also had some thing that astromauts use in space that walks on the moon. We spent a really long time in therebut unfortunately we lost my mom. Lindsey and I looked everywhere for her but couldn't find her. Later when we finally found each other, she told us that she had been looking everywhere for us too. Poor mom had even been outside in the 100 degree heat walking everywhere looking for us.

Later me, my mom, Ezra, Kathryn and Devon had to go to the Airport to pick up my best friend, Heidi, and her daughter, Sierra, from the airport. We decided to go visit my younger sister, Mary in the meantime. It was a nice but very brief visit.

After our short visit, we went to walk around in Salt Lake City and ended up in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We went all the way to the top floor where there were some water fountains and Cameryn and Luke had alot of fun playing in them.

July 20, 2007

Friday, Mike, my dad and my brother Andrew were all supposed to fly in (on two separate flights of course). Unfortunately, Mike missed his connecting flight out of Texas and couldn't come until Saturday morning. I was pretty upset after being so excited to see my husband after a week but it was nice to have Andrew and my dad there too.

Even though Mike wasn't there, me and my kids still checked into our hotel that we booked for that week when my whole family was going to be in Utah. Mary drove us there and helped me to bring in all my stuff.

Well that's all I'm going to write for now. I'm working on a photo montage thing to show all my pictures of family and friends. I miss them already!!