LP 14

I always love Lake Powell, but for some reason this year was better than ever. Maybe it was because for the first time in hmmm, ever, I wasn't pregnant or nursing a baby. LP is just wayyyy better when you don't have to worry about things like babies crawling off the houseboat, or swollen ankles and heartburn.

It was also special because I got to bring my little Abby Lou Who. We usually don't take kids until they are 8 (besides the nursing babes, obvi) but due to an unfortunate accident on the 4th of July, my sweet mother-in-law wasn't able to watch my 3 younger kids like we had planned (she is doing much better now, by the way, but it was really scary!!). My sister in law took over babysitting duties because she is the nicest person on the planet, so I was still able to go, but I decided to take the Abs with me even though she is a little shy of the usual deadline.

I'm so glad she was able to come. She has always been intimidated by water and I was worried she would be my little attachment the whole trip and also have a hard time with the heat. Instead, she loved it! We were lucky to park the houseboat in a spot where there was plenty of shallow water and a beachy area so she was free to float around as much as she wanted. It was great to see her overcome her fears and truly enjoy something that has always frightened her.

I never would have thought Abby would even consider putting her face in the water so I was shocked when Jason gave her a little snorkeling lesson, and she fell in love with it! She spent the rest of the trip pretty much under the water. It's a good thing for kids to have dads. They give kids a lot more credit than moms do sometimes.

Abby can be really reserved. I loved seeing my family members, especially the in laws, interact with her and make her feel comfortable and special. Her Uncle James was so nice to her and it was the cutest thing to watch her confidence grow as she became his little buddy.

It melts my heart to see my mom with Abby. My kids are blessed with incredible grandparents. Someday they will realize how lucky they are!

Another great part of the trip was seeing Luke in this hat. My mom bought it for my dad, who refused to wear it. I told Luke he wouldn't have to wear sunscreen on his face if he would wear the hat, and it was pretty much glued to his head for the rest of the trip.

He became quite the little fisherman in this kayak. It was adorable. Jason even helped him rig up an anchor so he could fish without floating away. 

However, he also loved to fish from shore and it was not uncommon to look out the window and see what appeared to be The Hat floating through the water, fishing on its own, as he traveled from bank to bank. 

He caught a lot of fish all by himself and couldn't have been prouder.

He and Dallin loved having their cousin Katelyn there for part of the time. She is a good sport and goes along with all the boys' crazy ideas. Including bow fishing.

I mean, bow fishing? Does it get any more redneck? Don't get me started.

Jason was in heaven with his own fishing boat this year. In previous years he has either had a piece of junk boat that kept dying or else he fished off the jet skis, which isn't easy. Each morning he was up before dawn, ready to track down the latest school of striped bass, or small mouth bass or catfish or walleye or whatever. He took everyone on multiple fishing trips and kept things exciting. 

The official fish count of the trip was 130.  That's a lotta fishies.

This was my first time hiking to the arch. I'm always amazed at the beauty of Lake Powell!

Jason took the girls on a special fishing trip. We had fun harassing him and making him regret his decision to take us.

Thanks, Dad, for the best LP trip ever. I don't think I can wait a whole year to go back. I'm going to propose Christmas at Lake Powell this year. Who's with me?

Dallin's Perfect Day

 Kids are simple creatures. You can plan and save and make huge sacrifices so they will have fun and make memories, and all they do is complain. Then you have a normal, hectic Saturday going from one thing to another, and you feel like you are about to go crazy, yet at the end of the day, your nine-year-old tells you it was the best day he's ever had. That's what happened yesterday. 

It started out with the boys' last flag football games of the season. Luke's game was first. His siblings were supportive, though slightly unenthusiastic.

Luke's friend Cooper's dad was the coach this year. They had such a fun year. Luke is a bit of a giant compared to the other boys, but that's okay. One of these years his effort is going to match his size and he is going to dominate, I'm sure of it. This year he tried hard... on games when he knew he would get $$ for each flag he pulled. The other games were a little more... relaxed.

Here he is kicking off. Just pretend the ball is way up there.

Don't get me wrong, I love to watch my kids play sports. The problem is, I don't get to watch very much. I end up chasing the devil himself around for a few hours.

Don't let his innocent appearance deceive you. He never holds this still. 

He likes to follow around every animal within a five mile radius.

And we also spend a lot of time dragging him off the playing field. Sigh. Good times.

Then it was on to Dallin's game.

He had a great game and loved every second. He requested that I call this play, "The Touchdown Throw" because he threw this for a touchdown. So here's The Touchdown Throw. Pretty proud of that old boy.

Jason was hunting during the games, so that afternoon he decided to take the kids fishing to make it up to them. Boy, did that ever work. If there's anything Dallin loves as much as sports, it's fishing. Here is Dallin displaying a beautiful little blue gill. They were pulling them in on almost every cast.

Jason let each kid reel in numerous fish. Numerous times. They were in heaven.

Luke found a bird.

Unfortunately, it was deceased at the time. If you know anything about Luke's soft heart, and his love for birds, you can imagine his sorrow. He spent a lot of time trying to dig a little grave for it in the rock hard ground.

Isn't this a pretty spot?

You'd never know we were about 10 yards from a highway. It's a private place, but don't worry, we had permission. Jason knows a guy. A guy whose dad is rumored to own it. Jason swears the guy's dad won't prosecute.

Because I mean, I'm sure we were welcome there. Those keep out messages were just meant for other people. Other people who don't know the son of the guy who probably owns the place.

Jake had to be dragged out, but at least he had a smile on his face. Note to self: Jason's thumb is in a can of worms. Then he drove using keys that touched that thumb. Now those keys are sitting on my kitchen counter, about three feet away from me right this second. I will be disinfecting right after we are through here.

Well, that was a pretty exhausting day, for me anyway. Jason took us out to dinner, and we let Dallin choose the place.

He decided to channel his inner senior citizen and we ended up at Sizzler. Don't get me wrong, Sizzler is great. Just not on a Saturday night when every Mormon in Utah County has the same family-friendly idea. I was sitting at the table, shoveling food in five different directions, when Dallin turned to me and said, "Mom, this was the best day ever. Fishing, football and Sizzler." Then he gave me one of those smiles that let me know that despite everything else, it was all worth it. Non-washed fish hands and all.

The night we were converted to bicycle helmets

 Last Saturday night I got the bright idea to go for a family bike ride.

Originally, the plan was to stay home and watch Napolean Dynamite. I was in the mood to watch it because my neighbors have this sweet bike ramp outside their house and I kept watching the neighborhood kids go over it and it reminded me that I haven't seen Napolean in... way too long. 

My good friend Jenna let me borrow the movie, and we were so close to just settling in and kicking back and watching it as a family. But then Jason was sighting in his bow in the garage, and the kids started riding their bikes around, and I thought, it's such a nice evening. Let's just go for a little bike ride first. I grabbed my new, life-changing iPhone and began to document the journey.

Here's Jason giving you a little taste of his bike skillz. Don't feel bad, he's had lots of training. You could probably do this too someday if you set your mind to it and practiced for hours a day.

We set off on our journey.

My heart about stopped when I looked at these pictures later. This is Luke, right where he was destined to take a nasty spill on our way home later in the evening.

We have this certain road we like to take. It's freshly paved, quiet (usually), and we almost always see lots of critters. 

These little critters weren't too impressed that I kept making them turn around for pictures, but it's not my fault I had to try out my new iPhone. Gosh!

At one point we saw a chicken running around in the bushes. Luke got off his bike to chase it with a stick. Jason was fed up by this point and bailed.

No chickens were injured in the making of this post.

Unfortunately, one little Luke was. We were about a quarter of a mile from home and Luke was riding in front of me. Abby started squawking in the bike trailer and I turned around to see Jake trying to escape from his straps. He was all twisted around and I was worried that the straps were around his neck. I yelled, of course being overly-dramatic, and quickly stopped my bike. Luke looked over his shoulder to see what all the commotion was. 

He lost his balance, over-corrected, and went off the road. His bike tipped over and threw him right into this beautiful barbed wire fence.

I was fixing Jake at the time, but I was aware that Luke had crashed and I ran up there as fast as I could. Luke had jumped up and was walking toward me, bent over. I could see blood dripping from his face. A lot of blood. I lifted his chin to see if it was his nose and I about passed out. His cheek was ripped wide open right under his left eye, in addition to a large cut under his nose. It was one of the worst things I have ever seen.

What could I do? I had two barefoot kids in the bike trailer, I was too far away from home to carry Luke there, and even if I did, what would I do with Abby and Jake? I pressed Luke's shirt against his face and sent Dallin home at top speed to get Jason. 

Those were some bad moments. I was trying to keep Luke's cheek closed and keep him calm at the same time. He wasn't in much pain, surprisingly, but he was scared. "Am I going to die, am I going to die?" "No, no, you're just fine. It's going to be fine."

When Jason arrived, he about freaked. Dallin had just told him that Luke scraped his face, so he was NOT prepared for the sight that greeted him. Somehow we piled all the kids in the truck and drove home to switch into the van. 

I just couldn't believe that our Napolean Dynamite night was turning into this. Why, why, why did I insist on a bike ride?

Everything seemed to be going in slow motion. We couldn't get anywhere fast enough. We didn't know where to go, first of all. An instacare? After-hours clinic? The ER? I had heard so many bad stories about the ER, I thought that should be our last resort. After driving to a closed instacare and frantically trying to figure out what to do, we drove to the hospital.

Of course there was construction. Of course every road we turned down was closed. It was horrible.

Finally, we arrived and Jason dropped me off at the door and I carried Luke in. Luke was clutching a damp white dish towel that was soaked in blood and we looked like we had been attacked. My worries about having to sit in the waiting room were put to rest as soon as we entered. The receptionist and nurses rushed over and helped us immediately.

This is the part that is so touching to me. I expect that my friends and family members will be kind and show lots of compassion. They always do, and I am so grateful for it. I didn't expect it at the ER. To receive that kind of treatment from total strangers who see this kind of thing all the time is so humbling. Every single person we dealt with - the office people, the nurses, techs, doctors - were beyond kind and were so gentle with Luke. He had to go through a lot to finally get all stitched up, and it was so much more bearable to be working with people like that. For example, Luke was so proud of the hospital bracelet with his name on it, and when we were carrying him out to the car, one of the nurses (male, no less) came running out and said, "Wait, you can't leave yet!" We turned around, expecting to have to fill out more paperwork. "He dropped this!" and handed us the bracelet (Luke was fast asleep). So nice! It was the first thing Luke asked for when he woke up.

They gave Luke some kind of sedative through a nasal spray. Luke hated it, but I'm pretty sure he would have been hating it a lot worse without it. It made him groggy and he fell asleep several times. He doesn't remember waking up several times and having to have us hold down his arms and legs and head, and then spray more junk up his nose. THANK HEAVENS.

He ended up with 28 external stitches that will need to be removed on Friday, and a whole bunch of internal ones that will dissolve, mostly in the gash in his cheek. I can't even describe how deep that gash was. The most gory picture doesn't do it justice. But I have been impressed again and again that he was protected from worse injury. He could have lost his eye so easily. The cut under his nose was deep and could have taken the whole nose with it. I know that's graphic, but I just can't help but be so incredibly grateful that he was spared from more permanent damage. The cut in his cheek is in the soft tissue on his face and didn't reach the muscle. The doctor was so precise stitching him up and I know he did a great job. Luke might still have scars, but when I see them I will be forever reminded of how blessed I am and how each moment I have with my loved ones is a true gift.

It was hard to see Luke lying there having to go through all that. I would have traded places with him in a second. But he did so well and was the bravest little boy ever. I am so proud of him.

We have had an outpouring of love from everyone. It has been amazing. My in-laws picked up the other three kids at the hospital and took them home so we didn't have to worry about them. My sweet friend offered to play the piano for me in church so I could stay home with Luke. My sister-in-law made him yummy rice crispy treats. Lots of Luke's friends have showed up with treats and cards. One little boy even used his own money to buy Luke a pack of Pokemon cards. Thank you to each one of you for your prayers and concern. It really means so much. Sometimes when something major happens to someone else, I think, oh I shouldn't even bother to contact them, they are probably so overwhelmed with everyone else in the world reaching out to them. But seriously, every single person's efforts are so appreciated. I will try harder in the future to be more compassionate when others are going through hard things.

Putting Luke to bed that night was scary. The sedatives were still in effect and we couldn't wake him up, so we just had to hope that he was all right. Imagine my relief when I woke up Sunday morning to a happy little boy standing by my bed saying, "Mama, I'm okay!" He is doing so well and I can't shake the thought that even though it is unfortunate that he has had to go through this (and try to shake the thought that it was my fault), it could have been so much worse and he was very blessed and protected.

A few thoughts about helmets

I've never thought much about putting bike helmets on my kids. They have them, but I never wore one growing up and my kids aren't reckless, so I have never bothered with them. But that was the first question the doctor asked us, and I was very ashamed to have to answer no.

I'm not sure if anything would have been different if Luke had been wearing a helmet. It's very likely that things would have been exactly the same. A helmet probably wouldn't have protected his face from the barbed wire. I don't know. But I think about how quickly that happened, and how unexpected that moment was, and I was right there. What if in the future it is a head to the concrete, or getting hit by a car, and I could have prevented at least some of the injury? One instant is all it takes. I will definitely be more careful in the future.

"I let my 6 year old be lowered into a bear den by someone I met on the Internet."

Now how many people can say that? I know of exactly one - my husband. Incidentally, there was a bear IN the den at the time. A mad bear, cornered by seven hound dogs. What a fun thing for a little boy to see. Let's lower him by his feet and hang him upside down five feet from a mad bear! Here, random friend I met on MonsterMuleys.com, you take one leg, I'll take the other...

That wasn't the only confession Jason made after returning from his bear hunt in southern Utah this weekend.

"I also put the boys out on several ledges that were very dangerous."

Maybe some things that you might not want to share with your wife if you ever want to spend unsupervised time with your children. Ever. Again.

Just a thought.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Jason wants to spend time with the boys and take them hunting. I just sleep a lot better once they are home and safe. And I kind of wish they would keep all the details to themselves. Sheesh!

The Night Luke Found Love at the Rodeo

We were fortunate this year to get the last 3 tickets for the Friday night Lehi Roundup Rodeo, not to mention we had great front row seats and it was a perfect night. So I was just sitting there thinking how lucky we were when I look down, and there's Luke with some little stranger, getting a little lucky himself!! Talk about a good night for a 1-year-old!! I don't know who this little girl is, but she and Luke hugged and kissed and danced in front of the whole crowd for a good half an hour. People were seriously watching them more than the bull riding. It was the funniest thing ever. When we got in the car later, Dallin told me, "Mom, that was just making me sick watching them hug and kiss. I thought I was going to barf." But, other than being grossed out by the little lovers, Dallin had a pretty good night himself. He's been asking to go to the rodeo ever since we went last year, and he was thrilled to finally be there. And not only that, but he and Luke got to be in the parade for a whole two blocks with their faces painted like tigers with our ward float (thank you, everyone, for not telling them that the parade didn't end at Chad and Shelli's house - it was 97 degrees outside and I don't think I could have pushed that stroller any farther!). Then Dallin insisted on wearing his tiger paint to the rodeo. Jason washed Luke's off before we went, but apparently Luke still had a little bit of tiger in him. The dad of the little girl kept turning to us and saying in a really manly voice, "Must be like father, like son, heh heh." I was like, "ok, now I think I'm going to barf..."