Spring Break in Moab

Moab is nature's biggest playground...

for little boys...

and big boys!

I was planning a fun family vacation for spring break this year and was disappointed when Jason told me he was going to take the varsity scouts on a Jeep trip to Moab.  Then my friend Kelly (whose husband was also going on the trip) suggested that we go too.  So while our husbands camped and jeeped with the scouts we stayed with the kids in a hotel and found lots of fun rocks to climb on.

Nick, Ben, Andrew, Will, Kaitlyn and Jared in Arches National Park

Kelly's boys are close to my kids' age and they had so much fun playing together!

Moab is usually the perfect place to go this time of year for sunshine and warmer temperatures.  We didn't get quite what we expected with a storm system moving into the state for the weekend.  It was cool and really windy but at least we escaped the snow that fell all weekend in Ogden.  With the threat of a government shutdown closing all the National Parks we tried to fit in as much hiking in Arches National Park as we could the first two days.  Luckily the budget was passed last minute and the parks stayed open.

Notice the fossilized dinosaur tracks on the rock.

We climbed up to look at tons of petroglyphs on the cliffs.

Kaitlyn was a trooper climbing over all the rocks with only one good hand.  Here she is by the Windows in Arches National Park.

We found this cool trail on Mill Canyon Road with dinosaur bones in the rock.

I love that we are less than a five hour drive from some of the wonders of the world!  Delicate Arch is one of those things that pictures just don't do it justice.  Unfortunately we hiked there on a super windy day.  It sits up on top of a plateau and when we came around the corner where we could view it we felt like we were going to be blown off the cliff behind it.  The kids didn't like that at all and stayed wedged between these rocks.  We took a few quick pictures and then turned around to hike back to the car.

Double Arch

Saturday afternoon the scouts went home and Jason was able to join us for a couple more days.  Monday the sun finally came out and we had a few hours of warm weather before getting back in the car to head home.

Canyonlands National Park

The kids loved earing their junior ranger badges at the national parks.

Hiking to Double O Arch

Double O Arch

More Bad News

Yesterday was supposed to be a fun day.  Jason was planning to leave before the crack of dawn for the Green River on a fly fishing trip.  I was preparing to host book club at our house in the evening.  Jason's plans were spoiled when the weather turned nasty but it ended up being a blessing in disguise.  He stayed home and we took Kaitlyn in for a quick dressing change on her thumb.  I was worried before we went in because her pain was getting a lot worse and we had a couple of sleepless nights.  I wasn't prepared for the ordeal we were about to go through.  Getting the dressing off was the most horrible experience!  She was screaming and shaking with pain.  It was so heartbreaking to watch!  The doctor found a nasty infection in her thumb (probably staph).  An x-ray found that the infection had worked it's way into the end of the bone (as well as discovering the end of the bone had broken off when the door was slammed on it.)  To get rid of the infection the doctor had to surgically remove most of the graft that he put back on last week.  Then we were sent downstairs to radiology to get a PICC line put in so we could start IV antibiotics.  This was supposed to be a short procedure but it ended up taking three hours.  They had a hard time finding a vein big enough and it took three times before they got one that would work.  When we thought they were all done the x-ray showed that the tube was going the wrong direction and they had to go in with a wire and fix it.  The staff at McKay Dee were so wonderful with Kaitlyn!  They kept her busy and happy the whole time and I was amazed again at how brave she is!

After 8 hours at the hospital the pharmacy sent the antibiotics and a nurse came to our house to show me how to administer the medication.  It ended up not being as hard as I thought. She's feeling much better today and we finally got some sleep last night.  The hard part now is trying to keep her mellow while she's got the PICC line when she's feeling so much better!  We take her back again on Tuesday to see if the antibiotics have cleared up the infection.  I wish the worry and pain was over but staph is a bad infection to have.  Thanks so much for all your thoughts and prayers.

Tragic Start to Spring Break

Last Wednesday the kids got home from school and were excited for a 5 day weekend for spring break.  I was trying to finish up packing and cleaning the house to get ready for our trip to Moab.  Jared came home and quickly packed his things and did his work so he could go outside and play with his friends.  I was busy in the kitchen washing dishes and Jared didn't see Kaitlyn following him as he ran out the door.  I heard the door slam and Kaitlyn's cry and I knew something was seriously wrong.  She ran into the kitchen and her thumb was dripping with blood.  I grabbed a towel and as I reached over to stop the bleeding I realized in horror that part of her thumb wasn't there.  Andrew and I ran to the front door and found the tip of her thumb and her whole fingernail stuck to the door frame.  I just about passed out and if I wasn't in shock, Andrew was.  We were both crying as I tried to call Jason but he wasn't answering.  At least I was thinking clearly enough to throw the tip of her thumb in some ice before jumping in the car to take her to the hospital.  Jason finally called me back when I was pulling into the hospital parking lot.  I asked him whether I should go to the ER or take her to the clinic.  He said to bring her up to the clinic.  Kaitlyn hardly cried at all on the way to the hospital.  She didn't really cry much until I mentioned on the phone to Jason how much it was bleeding.  Then she started to cry and asked if she was going to bleed to death!

One of Jason's partners, Dr. Callister, is a hand surgeon.  He had already gone home for the day and was getting ready to leave on his own trip with his family for spring break but came back in to the office to stitch Kaitlyn's thumb back together.  She was so brave!  The only time she really cried much was when Jason numbed up her thumb.  Laurie, one of the clinic managers, came in to talk to Kaitlyn and keep her mind off things while they worked.  Kaitlyn talked non-stop!  Of course she has always loved to talk to anyone who will listen.  She was so good and let Dr. Callister work the whole time without any complaining.  I think I was more traumatized by the event than she was.  I really can't think of anything worse than watching my child suffer.  For the next couple nights every time I tried to sleep I kept reliving it, trying to think what I could have done to prevent it.  Jared felt terrible.  No matter how many times I told him it wasn't his fault he still felt bad.  When we rushed her back into the exam room Jason sent the boys to his office.  Later he found Jared laying underneath his desk crying.  One of the office staff was nice and took them to a room with a t.v. and gave them some cookies to eat while they waited.

Now we have to wait a few weeks to see how much of her thumb will survive and if the fingernail will grow back.  It's hard to think of blessings when a tragedy like this happens but we felt fortunate that the bone wasn't damaged.  We were so grateful to Dr. Callister for giving up his time to help us.  It saved us a lot of time in the emergency room and it gave me so much comfort to know she was in the hands of such a skilled surgeon who we knew and trusted.  I was grateful that we were still in Ogden with a good hospital close by instead of on our trip in Moab at a rural hospital. (I'm sure they don't have a hand surgeon.)  It was also touching to see how much Andrew and Jared care for her.  Sometimes we don't see it with all the bickering that goes on between siblings but these boys were devastated to see their sister suffering and it touched my heart to see how much she is loved.

She loved the pink cast and whenever she is asked what happened she says, "My thumb got slammed in the door and I had to get stitches for the first time."  Let's hope it's also a last.

April Fools!

I've decided there are two kinds of people.  Those who love April Fools Day and those who hate it.  I loved it when I was a kid.  I thought it was so much fun to trick people.  I had lost my enthusiasm for it the last few years due to lack of ideas.  The other day I stumbled across some ideas on the internet and I started giggling just thinking of all the fun I would have.  The day before I found a picture of a parking ticket online and I altered it with our info and a ridiculous reason, such as parking crooked, and was planning to put it on Jason's car while he was at work.  I was disappointed when we woke up to a beautiful spring day and Jason decided to ride his bike to work.  So it was time for plan B.  I grabbed Jason's cell phone while he was in the shower and changed my name in his contacts to "Darth Vader".  After he was off to work I sent him a text message that said, "Luke, I am your father!"  I had some other Star Wars quotes in mind but he figured out it was me pretty quickly.  It gave him a good laugh anyways.  I figured he would be on high alert after that and I wouldn't be able to trick him again but I was wrong!

I thought there was no way my kids could resist a plate of donuts when they walked in the door from school.  Kaitlyn was my accomplice in this joke.  We sucked the filling out with a straw and used a syringe to fill them with ketchup instead.  Kaitlyn couldn't wait for her brothers to get home and I was a little nervous she would give away the trick.  As soon as they walked in the door she ran up to them, "Do you want a donut?!"  Jared was carrying a chocolate covered donut in his hand and said he had gotten one for a birthday treat.  Andrew looked at them and said he didn't really like the filled kind.  Kaitlyn was pretty sad but didn't give it away.  She was going to her grandma's to spend the night and I told her to take it with her and trick someone there.  She was very sly about it and managed to trick both grandma and grandpa.  Jason came home from work and saw the donuts.  I told him the kids had saved one for him.  We went to dinner and the waiter asked if we wanted dessert.  I was too full and Jason said he would just go home and eat his donut.  It took a lot of self control not bust up laughing at that point.  I wish I had the camera handy when he ate it!  It took about three bites before he got enough of the filling to notice.  He pulled the funniest face!  He was a great sport about it!

I was talking to my sister yesterday and she mentioned that she didn't play any April Fools jokes because they are all mean.  Of course I was probably always the one trying to trick her when we were kids.  Maybe she's right.  Maybe I am mean-but only one day a year and it was a lot of fun!  All in all it was a great April Fools day.  I pulled off several pranks and didn't get tricked once.  Of course, I better be on the lookout for revenge next year!

How Hard Can It Be?

Jason and I spent a lot of years living in apartments while he was going to school.  We watched all of our friends we went to college with buying houses while he continued on the journey to become a doctor.  We were finally able to buy our first house when he started residency in Iowa.  It was a tiny house built in the 1950s but it was cute and we loved having our own place.  That is, until things started to break.  I still remember the first time it happened.  The air conditioner wasn't working (it gets awfully hot and humid without central air in the summer in Iowa!) and I didn't know what to do when I could no longer call a landlord to fix it.  Jason was spending at least 80 hours a week at the hospital and the few hours at home were normally spent sleeping so I called a repairman.  I think it cost somewhere around $100 to have him come out and discover that the only problem was a blown fuse!  Jason rarely had time to work on the house and I quickly grew tired of an old house that was constantly needing attention.  The climax was when the roof started leaking two days before Christmas!

When we moved to Utah I told our realtor that I wanted a house built within the last 10 years.  I was done dealing with constant repairs.  Every house that we seriously considered fell into that category except one- the one we bought.  We just fell in love with it and felt like it was our home from the first time we saw it.  It's definitely in better shape than our house in Iowa but it was built in 1986 and anything that is original in the house is starting to show wear.  We've always laughed about the old original microwave in the kitchen.  It took forever to heat food and looked awful.  It finally completely died the other day and I was glad for an excuse to replace it.

Saturday afternoon we dived into installing the new microwave.  The first problem we ran into was how to get the old one out.  We unscrewed it from the cabinet above and tried to lift it off the rack just like everyone had told us but that old thing wouldn't budge.  We tried everything imaginable and still couldn't get it to move.  That's when the typical home improvement conversation started.  Jason, "I have no idea what I am doing!"  Me, "My dad would probably..."  Jason, "Well, I'm not your dad!"  Me, "I know you're not my dad.  I don't expect you to be my dad."  (If you haven't figured it out yet my dad is a huge home repair guy that can fix anything.)  Jason, "Well you must have expected me to install it since you bought it."  Me, "I didn't think it would be this hard.  Do you want me to go back and pay for the installation?"  Jason, "Too late.  I'm already started.  I have to finish now."  This wasn't a serious argument but you get the gist.  We were awfully frustrated by that point.  Jason called my dad who suggested we take apart the old microwave.  This made me laugh because I have vivid memories of my dad taking apart anything imaginable in an attempt to figure out  how to take it out, install it, or repair it!  We started that but still couldn't figure out what was holding the blasted thing on the wall.  My story would end here with a torn apart microwave still hanging above my stove if it weren't for our awesome neighbor.  After an hour and a half of sheer frustration Jason went next door and asked our neighbor, Tim, who happens to be an electrician, for a hand.  He was a lifesaver and had the old one out and the new one installed in about an hour, including a trip to Lowe's and some rewiring that had to be done.  The good news is that Jason now knows how to install a microwave so if you ever need help you know who to call!

Tooth Fairy, Crazy Hair, Treehouse and Bowling

My baby lost her first tooth! I couldn't believe it when she showed me it was loose a few weeks ago. Four seems way too young to be loosing teeth but she was so excited about it. Jason for some reason has always wanted to pull our kids teeth out when they are loose and my boys would never let him. Kaitlyn has been asking ever since she realized it was loose if it was loose enough to pull out. Every time he checked it wasn't quite ready but Thursday he pulled it out. Jason was thrilled to finally get to pull one of the kids teeth out and Kaitlyn was ecstatic about putting the tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy. It was like Christmas Eve and she couldn't fall asleep. She was well rewarded by the tooth fairy for being brave enough to let her dad pull it out. She didn't actually show us the money though. She said she put it in her piggy bank as soon as she woke up so Dad wouldn't take it!

Crazy hair day at school. Andrew is way overdue for a haircut and it made for some really wacky hair. Thanks to my sister in law for saving the orange hair spray from Halloween!

Kaitlyn had a field trip to the Weber State bowling alley. It was a lot of fun and she had to have the pink ball every time. It took a lot of convincing that the other girls there liked the pink ball too and it was ok for them to use it when it wasn't her turn.

Kaitlyn has enjoyed her pass to the Treehouse Museum. Here are some pictures from a few weeks ago with her cousin Jesse. She loves dressing up and usually spends most of her time at this part of the museum!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Remember what it was like to be a child when simple things like food coloring made your day?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!