Noticing the Ladies

I have to laugh my head off at some of the things these boys say. Since I have neglected my blog so completely lately, here are some fun stories. More for my benefit then anyone else's. This is as close to a journal as it gets. Sad, but true.

Nathan got a big bike for his 6th birthday. He is getting better at riding it, but he just can't seem to master the brake thing. So when he needs to stop he heads toward the curb and just crashes into it.

Poor kid needs a cup.

It makes me hurt and I don't even have any!!

So today we are in the car and we get talking about how Nathan needs to practice on his bike more because Dallin wants a bigger one for his birthday. So then Dallin pipes up, "You have to quit crashing your bike like that and smashing your nuts! Your nachos! Your going to break your nachos!!"

I was totally in the front seat crying laughing!!

Another funny one:

I went on the field trip with Dallin's class the other day. We were sitting in the bus and I asked Dallin, "So, which girls do you like this year?" He smiled like he wanted to talk about it, but didn't want to say any names. So I started saying some of the, oh like 3 girls that I know in his class. I said one girl's name and he totally did this "No way Mom" look. He was all, "No Mom, I only go for younger girls. She's 8!"

Eye roll.



I truly do LOVE having boys. I just don't see how girls can be this entertaining!

This post will never be finished. So here....

Vacation to Paradise

Joel and I are coming up on 1o years of marriage this year! We figured we would do something great for it and decided that somewhere tropical was in order. We talked about it forever, I was beginning to think that it would never turn into action. So one day, I just booked it! We were on our way to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!!

On the news like 2 weeks later they start talking about swine flu and how it may affect travel plans to Mexico...so we didn't want to risk having troubles with our travel...so we switched it! Now we were on our way to Maui!! Still way exciting, and in the good ol' USA!

We decided to go with another couple...totally the way to travel! They were dropping kids off to family in Boise, ID and then flying out of there, so we decided to tag along. (the $300 + we saved in airfare had a lot to do with it too!) So we found child care for the kids, took the dogs grandparents, and headed out! It was actually a really fun road trip...we were singing at the top of our lungs for most of it, and had a great time! Then we came across one of the worst storms I have ever been in, bar none.


The picture really doesn't do it justice, but that cloud was so big and low and eerie, and then there was this blank wall under it...you couldn't see anything but gray, filled with lightning streaks every few seconds. We were very excited that the road went right under it. We got dumped on, hailed on, and blown around like crazy. It took me awhile for it to dawn on me, but I realized, "Oh yah, this is what happens before tornadoes!" So I started looking around for funnel clouds! Very freaky, but we found daylight on the other side and we had the knowledge of going to paradise soon!


So enough of that crappy part of the story huh?!?! We flew to Maui the next day and WOW!!! You could literally just point the camera at the dirt and have an amazing picture! However, we did sit in an airplane at the gate in San Fransico for an extra hour and 45 minutes! Crappy start, but we FINALLY got in the air. Landed in Maui, got our car, and then headed to Costco to stock up on food for everyone during the trip. We were laughing so hard at Costco because we had used so much of our luggage room to pack some really nice snorkel gear....that we bought at Costco....(do you see where this is going?) Yep, they have all of it at the Maui Costco. But who cares?! We were in Hawaii!! Nothing could get us down!

Checked in to the our hotel and then hit the beach for the evening! My first time in the ocean, I got schooled by a wave and it totally filled my sinuses and stole my sunglasses. Who cares though...still in paradise! (that is a reoccuring theme of this trip!!) Our first full day in Maui, we decided to drive the infamous Road to Hana. It is a drive that goes all the way around the island, and there are tons of spots you can stop along the way to hike or swim. So fun. So we loaded up the convertible....only way to do it!


This was our rental, a Chrysler Sebring. No offense to anyone, but there is a reason that Chrystler is so in trouble, every one that I have driven STINKS!! But then again, who care?! It is a convertible in Maui for crying out loud!!! :)

Note the bare shoulders...this is key to the sunburn later. Joel was driving and Ryan was navigating, so Tara and I got to sit in the back like two little kids. We left early in the morning and it was pretty cool, so we were freezing for the first half of the day. We stopped at a gas station to fill up the car, and they had one of those hot chocolate machines...sweet! So I got one to warm myself up...started drinking it....it was coffee. :( Some sort of vanilla latte whatever...like I know the difference! So got rid of that and kept freezing for awhile.

The drive is an all-day trip, but it is absolutely amazing. I swear you could point your camera at the dirt on the road and it would be an amazing picture! We hiked to a few waterfalls, did some boulder hopping to get to some of the them...in flip flops...wouldn't recommend this method. We also found this place called "The Garden of Eden" that you can walk all around....it is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The entire island is!!

I hate how blogger makes you put in the picture and it sticks it at the top of your post, so then you have to move each picture down to the bottom. I am going to save myself huge headaches and just start a new post. :)

Catching up....

Did you think I was never returning?! THAT DANG FACEBOOK!! Blame that! But Facebook isn't as much fun...you don't get to creatively express your experiences! I miss blogging and I have so much to catch up on. So here we go!

Back in March little Benjamin got sick. I took him to the doctor and they checked him out and sent us home with some breathing treatments. The after hours clinic that I took him to was in AF, and in walks one of the doctors from the Payson office. Nice guy, just definitely not my first pick. He checks out Benjamin and sends us home with some breathing treatments.


So the next day Benjamin is doing a lot worse, so I call the Payson office and make an appointment with the other doctor down there that is amazing. We get there and in walks the same Magoo doctor that we saw before! (eye roll) He was actually great though and we decided that he needed to go to the hospital. It was only day 2 and day 4 was suppose to be the worst.


So at the hospital they start trying to get an IV in my cute little chubby baby...kill me! The nurses got it in the vein, it slipped out and they thought they would have to do it again. Then suddenly the nurse miraculously gets the IV back in the vein. All of them in there were amazed and swore they had never ever seen that happen. So we are all truly amazed and then notice that the cute student nurse that had been observing was pasty white and not really responding. So the nurses pause what they are doing and help her lay down safely while she passes completely out. That pretty much started our crazy, bad luck for Benjamin week.

The first night we were there the IV alarm kept going off. His IV was right in the bend in his elbow and every single time he would move his arm, the alarm would go off! That makes for a VERY VERY VERY long night for mom, trying to get sleeping baby to put his arm back to where it was...and then not move. I think I got 2 hours of sleep that night. The next day was the same and I asked the nurse if they could maybe move the IV. She kind of thought I was a jerk for wanting to put my baby through that again. But then finally another nurse had the sense to know that it just wasn't working the way it was. So they put a new IV in him and I was able to sleep a little bit! (YEAH!!) This one worked GREAT!!



They had to put oxygen on him for a few nights because his oxygen saturation levels kept dropping during the night.

So the night before we came home with him they took out the IV. Poor little Benjamin's luck was still not going well. The tube had slipped out of his vein and the fluid was just going into his arm. The arm was totally huge and swollen and really firm to the touch. The nurse said that most kids if that happens, they start screaming as soon as it slips out! The tape that had been holding everything was totally cutting into his skin from being so tight on that little swollen arm. So we had to wrap it in a warm blanket all night trying to make the fluid reabsorb.

Poor little guy was in there for the entire week. He was very dehydrated and couldn't keep anything down. Plus his breathing was very raspy and he just wasn't feeling good at all. So the diagnosis was RSV and Brochiolitis. He was such a sweet baby and honestly, I am grateful for the time I had to just be with my little buddy one on one. I was already addicted to him before, but now it was WAY worse! :)

Sound like a crazy enough week? Let's a twist to our tale! I had a leadership conference that I was suppose to be leaving for on Thursday. Not only had I already purchased airfare, but I was one of the speakers! So I kept asking the doctor if he thought we would be out of there soon, obviously I wasn't going to leave with my baby in the hospital, but I just needed to know if I should cancel my plane tickets. I seriously think the doctor thought I was insane! He was almost a jerk about it because he thought I had my priorities so out of whack! When they didn't release Benjamin until too late, I canceled my airfare. (ate the cost of course)

So Friday morning rolls around and they decide to send us home. Baby is doing great and we are good to go. So I am telling my friend this, who is at Leadership...and she texts me back and she has found me a buddy pass! So I sped home and threw some stuff in a suitcase...sped up to the airport and then..... ..... ....I spend the rest of the day hanging out at the airport waiting for a flight. Buddy passes are stand by tickets and flights were crazy full. So I called Joel, admitting defeat on more time. He came and got me and I went home and crashed from exhaustion.

Was that the end of the craziness?! Of course not!!! I head back to the airport the next morning to catch a 6:00 flight! I got to Phoenix and then caught the shuttle to the hotel....tantalizingly close to my goal!! We were driving along to the hotel and we find a St. Patricks Day parade blocking our route! Not even kidding. IT WASN'T EVEN ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!! At this point I just started laughing my head off. I was totally apologizing to the others on the shuttle, "Sorry guys, this is totally my fault!" The driver finally found a way around and we got there.

I walked in way late and felt like a freaking rock star. Of course they all knew I was trying so hard to get there...I had already missed my presentation, so life was good! I came home the next day, so I was literally there for about 29 hours. The whole thing feels completely like an out of body experience...I have totally foggy memories, but pictures to prove it. :)

I know, this picture probably doesn't mean a ton to the random reader, but this is my amazing team for Uppercase Living. I get to work with all these great women and I love them to bits! And since I entered journal mode a long time ago, and it is my blog...deal with it! :) (I will entertain later!)Do you see the dazed, tired look in my eyes? I think I broke some sort of record for me that week of never having more then 5 hours of sleep on any night.

MORE CATCH UP!!! Ian's turn!

Poor little Ian had thrown up a few times and then went for a long stretch without anything. So we were hoping it was a little 24 hour bug. So the next day we went to lunch with Joel's family, leaving the kids with our favorite babysitter. So we get back and poor sweet Ian was asleep on the couch with a fever of 106!!!!!!!!!!


I felt like the biggest pile of crap mom! So I got some medicine in him and the fever didn't drop very much at all, not to mention that he had barely peed at all that day. So off we go to the doctor.

They drew some blood and called us awhile later because they wanted him to go to the hospital. Poor little guy was so tired and sad. He was so brave during the IV process. We explained to him how it was just going to give his body a drink through his arm. He thought that sounded really cool (big huge Ian smile) but when it came down to it he cried...it was heartbreaking to watch my sweet little Ian go through that.

This little cutie had the nurses wrapped around his happy little finger. His nurse the second day LOVED him. He had the idea all by himself to make her a card and he wrote, "Thank you for being so nice to me." I gave him a few different ideas, but that is the wording he wanted to go with. She seriously almost cried when he gave it to her. Of course it was accompanied with that HUGE smile of his. We only had to keep him there overnight. They gave us the option to stay the next night because he was sick enough still, but he was really bored and wanted to go home.

He took me way more seriously the next few days about drinking lots of fluids.

This was our family's second hospital visit this year. We have never had any except to add babies to the count. Not fun, sure hope this trend doesn't continue.

My poor forgotten blog....

I am really not trying to be a slacker on my blog! From hospital stays with the baby, trips for mom, family weekend escapes, that dang thing called Facebook...I really just haven't had time to update this. I do, however, have tons of fun pictures that will be posted very very shortly.

Stay tuned....