Summer in a capsule

I have so many blogging buddies...okay, I exaggerate, I really only have a handful of blogging buddies, and only a few of them are really diligent bloggers, but it sounds better to make is seem like I have a lot who are faithful bloggers. I love going and reading all the exciting things they do each week and seeing their kids and their families having so much fun together. And then there is me... I am sitting here now trying to figure out how do I capture the summer in one blog post because I have procrastinated putting the other blogs together throughout the summer?

So I have pictures on my computer from the week we spent with Grandma and Grandpa, some from lots of water fun, from the play Abbi was in, from our family reunion, fun with friends, and on and on! I had some great posts planned, but then I decided sleep was more fun than posting, so I just didn't post! And here I am now, with tpp many pictures and not knowing how to condense properly!

We started the summer off with a week at Grandma's ans Grandpa's house. Just the kids and I went while Scottie focused on his school. The four of us had a ball because it is always so peaceful and relaxing down there. We spent days at the park and at the skate park with the kids scooters and at the pool or at the lake. And Grandma always keeps the kids well snacked and juiced and fed that it is a shocker for them to come home and have our rules for juice only at meals and snacks only at certain times! On the day we spent at the skate park the two older kids scootered up and down the hills showing off their tricks and turns, Owen spent the day in one of his more cautious moods and never went down the hills on his scooter ~ he would climb up, send his scooter down, and then slide down on his tushie. It was very cute how excited he got even though he was not really doing it quite right!

So that was at the beginning of the summer. Then we went hiking a couple of times to this great grotto that is only about a half an hour away. The hike up to it is a great hike for kids - fairly easy and it criss crosses a light stream a lot of times, so you get to walk over logs to cross them. The kids love this hike and so do the adults. And then when you get to the top of the hike the mountain opens up and there is this beautiful waterfall jumping off the side of the mountain and at the base is this great little grotto to play in! There was supposed to be a letterbox up there, but we couldn't find it. There is also supposed to be a geocache there, but while we were looking for our letterbox, there were two other families searching for the geocache! But it is still a great family hike all the same! Scott kept trying to get Owen to go into the water, but since the water is snow melt off, it really was chilly and Owen wanted no part of it! I posted a picture of Scottie to prove that yes, he indeed does smile when we are out and about! Proof Positive Picture!
Scott, of course, used the trip as a playful learning experience and he and Owen found all sorts of mountain water bugs and creatures and he and Garrett checked the whole grotto to find out how deep the water was everywhere and talked about how the water had carved the rock walls.
It is such a great place and we sure do love it!

Okay, that brings us to a weekend when we just planned on visiting some of our family who were camping near us. Our (impromptu) plan was to buy some popcicles or ice cream and bring them up to them since the weather was near 100F. We thought we had just gone out to run some errands as a family, so the kids and I had put on sandals and crocs and no sunscreen or bug spray or anything... it was just a brilliant thought of Scott's and we ran along with it! So we went to visit them at their beautiful campsite on the Jordanelle Reservoir in the Provo Canyon and found them out on the lake jet skiing. They let us take some turns on the jet skis and we had a ball ~ even though we weren't planning on getting wet! We didn't have towels or dry clothes or anything! But we figured we wouldn't get too wet if we were sitting on top of the jet skis. What we didn't plan on was Scott rolling he, Garrett, and I into the water! We all got soaked and Scott lost his glasses to the bottom of the lake! We went back to their camp and shared their dinner of corn on the cob, steaks, baked potatoes and garlic bread (yeah, they know how to camp!)It was a great visit. The Klondike bars we had brought up to share were WAY melted by the time we got back to camp to eat them, and we learned that drinking a Klondike is no where near as yummy as eating one!

Okay, now onto a great visit I had from a childhood/teen friend. We grew up in the same ward in Georgia and lost contact about the time when I got married (almost 11 years ago). Well, thanks to the joys that come from Facebook, she and I got back in touch this year! She and her hubby and their two girls are stationed in Japan right now on the Air Force base there, so it was pretty cool to get in touch with someone all the way across the globe! Well, due to some sad family health issues, she and her girls were able to come stateside for a while to be with her family.
After a couple of weeks being in the south they came out to Utah to be with her husband's family for a while. So she and I were able to get together and meet each others kids and play. We even found sitters for our kids one night and went on a girl's night out! (I haven't been on one of those since I have been in Utah, so it was way over due!) After a month or so of her being in Utah, she had to go back to the south for a funeral and I was able to keep her girls for part of the week while she was gone. We had a ball and Teagan loved having two little sisters around the house!
Her girls are adorable and the baby is such an easy and fun kid! And I had a great time playing dress up and doing photo shoots with these cuties! They have since flown home to Japan, but they only have another year and a half being stationed there before they can come stateside again, so hopefully it won't be another 10 years before we get together again!

Phew, I am out of breath and my fingers are tired, but there are only three more things to go to finish my update. See, I told you I had a lot to talk about! I really should have done this all throughout the summer, right?!

Next we go onto our exciting developments in our garden. We were able to do our first harvests of the season a few weeks ago. There were 4, yes count them, 4 snow peas (enough for Teagan, Garrett, Owen and I to each have one to ourselves!), a trayfull of dill clippings, one cabbage, and some banana peppers. The kids were so proud of their plants!

Garrett is like a proud papa every day when he goes outside to check on his pumpkin! There is only one big one so far, but there are about 5 little ones trying to grow. His one big one is already the size of a basketball and is turning orange! And Owen's sunflowers are now taller than he is! Their babies are getting so big so quickly ~ isn't that how babies are?! :-) I have already made my first batch of dilly beans for the year, and I made them with our home grown dill! Yummy! I can't wait to taste them in a couple of months when they are done setting

Okay, that brings us to this past week...finally! The end is coming for all you faithful blog reader! Last weekend we had a family reunion at a lake in Mona - that was the somewhat midpoint for the family. There were people coming from as far south as Saint George and as far north as Perry (near Ogden). It was a nice clearwater lake that doesn't allow any types of motor boats and it's only ammenities were port-a-potties! Real camping! We had rented some kayaks and a canoe from BYU to bring with us, brought along all of our fishing poles and enough sunscreen and bug repelant to last a lifetime! Some of the other family members were bringing more kayaks, inflatable pool toys and islands, and the lake had three rope swings around it... it was destined to be a weekend filled with our family turning into a bunch of merpeople! We got there early Friday to set up most of the tents to hold our spots and prepare for the rest of the family to arrive. After setting up what seemed like a million tents, but was probably only closer to ten, we decided to let the kids get in the water to swim and wade around a bit. Some other family and extended family members had arrived by then and the kids were biting at the bit to get into the water. Well, after only about 10 minutes of water time I heard them calling me telling me that Tig had cut her foot. I figured I would finish setting up the awning gazebo I was working on since I was almost finished, and then go check on her. So I did and when I got there she was absolutely in tears! I hugged her and told her to be strong and brave ~ there was a long, but thin line on her foot and it was bloody, but it didn't look too bad. Grandma and Aunt Mel were looking worried and scrounging around for first aid supplies so I turned and went back to my tent to get our first aid box to get some neosporin and a couple of band-aids. When I got back and she was still crying and I again told her to pull it in, that I loved her but it wasn't too bad and I would have it fixed up in no time. She looked at her foot again and flexed it in pain and then oh my, the gash opened up and man was it deep!! It only looked shallow when her foot was relaxed, but any flexation made this monster of a cut roar! I washed it out with some hydrogen peroxide (which caused major screams to emminate from her!) After 9 or 10 rinses with the peroxide I decided she needed stitches. So, Scott and I left the boys with the rest of the family and went to the hospital 20 minutes away in Nephi. Luckily it is a tiny hospital in a tiny town and we were in and out within an hour! She was really brave during it and only cried (again quite loudy!) when they were numbing her foot with some really painful shots! They put 13 stitches in her foot and told her no walking on it for 12 days until the stitches come out and no water...at all. Yikes! Right at the beginning of our water weekend, she was told no water. We were able to get the okay for her to go on the boats, but that was it, and only with reliable (non-tipping)rowers as companions. So our weekend was filled with her being either pulled in a firewood cart with 2 flat tires or me piggybacking her around camp. (And for those who haven't seen her lately, she is almost as tall as me and is only about 20lbs lighter than I am, so it was a sight to see!) She had no crutches to help her move and after the first day she had already popped two stiches on accident when she would put pressure on her foot. She now has crutches and we have been back to her doctor to check on the popped stiches (he put some glue on them and taped them together and added on 3 more days of no walking!) She also has three new popped stitches, but it all looks like it is healing well. Watching all of the cousins living in the water while she couldn't was pretty hard for her, but I made a deal with her that I wouldn't get in the water either since she couldn't. So that made it a little more bearable, and we played cards and such. And once we got home and I was able to borrow some crutches from a neighbor, and the mobility made her life a lot better and my back a lot happier!

So that brings up to this past week, Tig is still on crutches and is getting around really well on them, she just finished her 7 days of antibiotics, and life was getting into the swing of normality. Until last night... we did baths to get ready for church, had jammies on, had teeth brushed, and the kids were just waiting for me to call them for prayers. I was working on my RS papers for Sunday morning when CRASH, BOOM, BANG, AAAGGHHH! I come running to the boys room to find Owen kneeling over a pillow screaming and Garrett on the side of the bunk bed looking with wide astonished eyes. It was apparent that Owen fell, and Scott started quizzing Garrett about it when I see blood dripping onto the pillow...fast! I scoop him up and start trying to find where the blood was coming from. Lips..okay, nose..clear and dry (what kind of doggie does he think he is with a dry nose?).. face, red from screaming, but no blood. I carry him to the bathroom where the light is better to do a more thorough check and the blood starts dripping down my arm from his head. Of course, why didn't I think if that - if Owen is going to get hurt it is going to be his head! Gravity pulls harder on his head than any other object in the known universe! He has a yucky gash on the back of his head and it is squirting out blood. His jammies are soaked in it, I am covered in it, I have squirts down my leg... yeah, it was pretty bad! I called Scott in and he grabs some gauze from the medicine cabinet and has the other kids get shoes on and off we trek to the ER...again! Of course, Newton's Law states that most accident have to occurerught after After-Hours are finished and such it as last night! The after hours clinics had all just closed, so the ER was our only choice. This time we went to the one here in town, so it was only a 5 minute drive. To shorten the story, (since my family is hungry and needing to be fed!) he did wonderfully, never cried at all in the hospital and we left with him having 4 new, bright and shiny staples in the back of his head! The gash was only an inch or more wide, but it went all the way down to his skull. While we were waiting for the doctor to come with the stapler we were able to see the indentation on his skull where his head hit the toy box when he fell from the side of the bunk bed. Teagan couldn't look at it at all and had to leave the room when he got his staples in, and Garrett had to be told a couple of times to scootch out of the doctor's way because he was too close! Luckily Owen has "floppy hair" like his brother and you can't really tell when his hair is down! Now, on the 19th of this month we are going to have a grand celebration when Teagan gets her stitches out and Owen gets his staples removed ~ there's going to be cake and ice cream and a vow to make no more trips to the ER for any of our kids! (We'll see how long it lasts!)

So there it is, our summer in a WAY too long blog. But now you know and have some nice visuals to haunt your mind! Hopefully I won't wait too long to post again, this was tiring!