One Year Ago, Today…

or rather, one year one month and 10 days ago…

I gave birth to my sweetest little chubby.  I hate back blogging.  It’s so much harder to accurately write about things when they happened weeks or months earlier, but I couldn’t skip over Jameson turning one.  Sadly, in the few weeks since then I’ve managed to forget many of the details of the celebration.  On the day of his actual birthday we kept it hush-hush from Jameson.  He didn’t know he was one, and we weren’t telling him, since Josh hadn’t yet arrived in Utah.  We did manage to have a celebration at Nana and Grandpa Brian’s house. 

I don’t think that Jameson actually ate any of his cake.
 
He smeared it everywhere but wasn’t that interested in eating it.  He is, however, interested in eating rocks, small choky things, and has been known to stick his hands in toilet water and then put them in his mouth.  Go figure.
Jameson, we love you.  We couldn’t be more thrilled to have your sweet, unassuming person in our family.  We have enough sassy-pants around here, so it’s nice you’ve decided to be chubby and delightful. 

Reunited, and it Feels so Good!

After many long weeks without our daddy, he flew in to spend one last week in Utah with us.  The boys had gone up camping with the grandparents, and after Josh got in we went up to join them. 
The boys were thrilled to have their dad with them, and couldn’t wait to tell him about all that they had been doing.
If daddy lays down, the kids can’t help but pile on.

Nana and Jameson shared a special bond.  It was so sweet to see. 

We tried to discourage the two year old from roasting her own marshmallows.  We realize it was a disaster waiting to happen, but if you took away her roasting stick, the next thing you knew she would be foraging  in the woods looking for a new one.  She was meant to be a roaster, what can I say!

Camping is fun!  (Unless you’re camping with Jameson.  Then, when he wakes up at 12:30 you go to daddy and say, “Give me the keys, I’m outta here!”)

Speaking of reunited…

Or should this picture have been mentioned in the blog post titled, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”?  Hehehe!  I kid boys.  This is Josh with his two best friends from high school.  It was fun to see them all together with their kids running around, while they told the same stories they always tell when they get together.  It was good seeing you Christian and Sean!

When in Utah, One Must See…

Temple Square

I bet Joseph never imagined his ordination would be celebrated by such a rowdy crowd.

The largest open mine in the world.

According to my kids, Classic Roller Skating is a must see (multiple times)!

While Will did this, the rest of us did this. Isaac’s knee kept him off the rink, but he enjoyed his cousin’s DS and a couple dollars for the arcade made him forget all about skating.

The Great Salt Lake

The kids and I headed to the Great Salt Lake one morning for something to do. What a bust! Not only was it smelly and super yucky because the water level was so low, but the look-out piers were covered with these bad boys! EWWWW!

 

I knew that I should have sat down the night we got home from our trip and blogged about all of it.  Of course, there is a ton to catch up on from the trip, and we have been living life to the absolute fullest since we’ve been home.  Yet to be blogged…the rest of our vacation, three birthdays, Will starting tackle football, and a plethora of home projects we’ve taken on.  Needless to say-- more to come.

Our Trip to Utah: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In no particular order…

Bad.  Having to say good-bye to our daddy for so long.  Josh has been very busy over the last 9 months, and my kids don’t get the kind of daddy time that a lot do, but they cherish what comes their way, even if it’s only a morning snuggle party.  This is from the morning we left.  They really do just do this on their own.  Never staged.  It’s what our daddy was made for   We weren’t even off of our street when we started the drive before Will was saying that he already missed dad.

Good.  This sweet little boy took the “best rider award” both to and from Utah.  He was amazingly good.  I think when Matt offered to drive us he expected to hear the most from Jameson.  He’s the baby, why wouldn’t he?

Bad.  Matt probably wasn’t anticipating the amount of noise that came out of this guy.  The curse of a six year old boy.  I’ve been through it once, and have seen that they come out better on the other side (thank goodness) but man alive! 

Good.  The amount of cousins we had access to at all times!

My sister, Alisha, came up from St. George with her 4 kids, and stayed with me and my kids.  Each day we’d load up with our kids and often a few of my brother’s kids to head over to my sister in law’s house to play with her 4 kids!  For over two weeks there was just a constant flux of kids in and out of minivans and houses.  You never left with the same kids you brought, and you almost always had a different crew sleeping at your house each night with all the sleepovers they had.

Bad.  Feeding and hydrating that many kids!  The amount of plastic cups we had lined up on countertops at all times with names written on them with a Sharpie was ridiculous!

Things were going along swimmingly until they took a turn for the ugly.

 

Ugly.  Isaac cuts his knee open.

I think it was only the second weekend we were there, and Will and Isaac were with their grandparents, hiking in Park City.  I got a call from Josh’s mom saying Isaac had fallen and cut his knee.  She calmly told me he’d need stitches and asked where they should take him.  With this first call I wasn’t too alarmed.  We had done the stitches thing before.  It was on his knee, so I wasn’t worried about a scar.  “Wherever,” I told her.  A while later I got a call from her saying they were at the Deer Valley Clinic and they were sending him to the ER because this cut was too bad for them to take care of.  What?!  Things started to turn here.  I became more worried, and Nana started losing it.  Each phone call from her became a little more frantic, all the while making me a lot more worried.  The last call she was allowed to make to me was when she told me, “It’s bad, really bad.  The doctor at the ER says they don’t know if he’ll need surgery or not…”  What?!  This was a lot different than the 1/2 inch cut I had originally pictured.  Now, in fairness to our Nana, she saw his knee.  It was disgusting.  I don’t blame her for getting more upset as this ordeal played out.  The next phone call I got was from Grandpa Brian.  Isaac wasn’t going to need surgery.  They took x-rays to check if debris had got into his joint.  This cut was long and deep.  If it had gotten in there, then surgery would have been necessary to get it out.  Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.  I didn’t get anymore calls from Nana.   He came home after a long day with aftercare instructions and antibiotics, and a gloomy feeling that this was going to be the worst vacation ever.  I don’t blame him.

Uglier.  About 48 hours after he cut it, I was taking his dressing off to put on a clean one, to find not only a gnarly cut, but signs of infection all around it.  He was in a lot of pain, and I had to take him to the ER again.  Thankfully, Alisha was there to watch all the kids so I could take off.  Hours later we were back home with a second antibiotic and two less stitches that they had to pop out to let it drain.  He had about 20 placed in the first place.  For two weeks he was taking 10 teaspoons of pretty yucky antibiotics.  Bad.

Bad.  While I was at the ER with Isaac, my baby locked himself in the bathroom.

 

(This is not Jameson trapped in the bathroom, but it is him trapped in a laundry basket)

He crawled right in there, shut the door, and then pulled out the drawer in front of it.  My sister couldn’t get him out.  Try as she might!  She was configuring every type of MacGyver type tool she could think of to get that drawer shut from the other side of the door to set him free, but nothing worked.

Good.  My brother, St. Matthew, is only ever 5 minutes away.  He came over, and without hesitation pried a metal bar into the door jam and set him free. 

Ugly.  The damage done to the door jam.  Sorry mom.  I think this was preferable to you inheriting a one year old.  Which seemed like our only other alternative.  Seriously though, it’s Alisha’s fault. Blame her.

To be continued…

We’re Back!

 

We’re back, and things are a little messy around here!  I don’t think you can call what we just did a vacation.  6 weeks seems like it should be called something else.  Not a vacation. 

Way back in June, the kids and I planned to load up by ourselves and make the 1500 mile drive across the country to visit family in Utah.  I had told myself that this would be fine.  I could do it.  It would be hell, but we would make it.  Now, we may very well have made it, and it most definitely would have been hell, but thankfully, my brother, now known as St. Matthew, wouldn’t stand for it, and flew out to Milwaukee just so he could drive me and my 4 kids across the country.  If that doesn’t qualify him for sure entry into heaven, I don’t know what will.  He was even planning on driving us back, but lucky for him, Josh was able to take some time from the lab to join us for a week, and then make the trek back.  There are not enough thank you’s  for Matt’s willingness to chauffer a rowdy group like mine. 

I don’t even know how to blog about all that my boys got to do while they were in Utah.  They didn’t know it before this trip, but their Nana and Grandpa Brian are absolute rock stars, and had six weeks jam packed with action and fun every day we were there.  From camping, to go-cart racing, to football/baseball games and even the rodeo. Nothing was lacking, and much more will follow. 

For now, I answer the question most frequently asked of me since returning…."Does it feel good to be back?”

Well, it feels like my house is a mess, my kids are always “so stinkin’ bored”, the babies are crying, and bills are due, but when it comes right down to it, Yes!  its good to be back!

More blog posts are in order to cover the amazing time we had, but thanks to Nana and Brian for feeding, entertaining us, and being patient with us.  Thanks to my mom and dad for being on your mission so that we could move right into to your beautiful home!  It’s only a  little less beautiful since our stay.  Sorry   Darn kids.