Camping

I went camping sans Scott with a bunch of my friends and their families. Why? Because I like my friends and I like being with them and I like my kids to be able to do fun things and I don't want Scott's lack of presence to get in the way. All the other adults were very helpful. I was lucky enough to have kids that wanted to go to sleep, and so I was able to put them to bed at a decent time. My kids loved it and had a great time being spazzy and being with their friends.

Family Reunion

We went to St. George in June. I planned the family reunion for my side of the family. We went to Zion Canyon a couple of days, Snow Canyon, Tuacahn, and some other little things around St. George. I tried to balance out hiking with other activities. Things seemed to go well and I think everyone had a good time. My family was all pretty supportive of my efforts. All were able to come except my sister-in-law and my niece, and we missed them. I had a great time despite the heat.

Who's the cute baby girl you say? Well, we didn't have a masculine hat with a strap to prevent a baby from pulling it off. I'm frugal and decided against buying a hat when I already had one. He's a baby and didn't seem to mind. The pink flowers did tend to confuse people.

I carried Thomas. Scott carried the food and the water. It worked out well!

This is the beginnings of our group. Several others arrived later in the day and then a few more arrived the next day. 

 The kids and several of the adults played in the river after hiking the first mile of the Narrows.

The kids playing at a park with a pool, river, and splash pad.

We hiked on rocks in Snow Canyon. Fortunately, we were in the shade for this portion of the day.

This is also at Snow Canyon once the sun came out. The temperatures skyrocketed in a hurry. 

Scott's birthday

Scott is older! Yeah! We celebrated with a super awesome yummy double chocolate torte. We had my sister and her family, my brother and his family, my other sister, and Scott's brother at the house to help us celebrate. We gave him presents and had a grand old time!

I love Scott dearly and am so glad to be married to him. Happy Birthday my love.

Rashes

So, rashes weird me out. They always have. My dad tells stories of my waking them up in the middle of the night because I was afraid I had a rash. I remember trying to cover my exposed skin in the bathrooms at our church built in the 70s, because the tiles on the walls looked like they had a rash. I worried my skin would want to look like the tiles. I know I'm odd. I'm over the tile thing. 

All my kids except Richard got a fever for a couple of days. He was always fine. Audrey only got the fever. However, when this popped up on my kid's legs, I was a bit disturbed. Peter's legs looked HORRIBLE. He had a few on his fingers as well. Marie had a few scattered lesions behind her knees and on her inner, upper thighs. Thomas was scant, but they were scattered on his arms, legs and face. The presentation was so different, but I figured it had to be related since they all had the fever and then got some kind of rash. 

Being the child of a doctor, I had no desire to actually bring my children to a doctor. So, I took pictures and e-mailed them to him. We also did a google plus chat so my dad could see the rash. I was worried that somehow the chicken pox vaccination hadn't worked. However, the rash stayed off the trunk which is where chicken pox typically is the worst.

We finally just quit worrying about it. Then, a week or so later, I found out that my niece, who had stayed at our house for a couple of days (and left the same day Marie first got her fever), also got a rash. However, she had the text book presentation of hand, foot, and mouth disease. So, the reason Richard didn't get sick, is because he had the disease when he was about a year old. Case solved. Nasty rash is healed.

How we practice letters

A couple of weeks ago during lunch, I only let Peter have two corn dogs even though he wanted three. He gets too full and then won't eat his dinner. He kept playing with the sticks at the table even though I told him he was done. He would say, “Mom look! Here's a big T-- and here's a little T. This is like an A.” Then, he said, “This is a broken Z because you won't let me have three corn dogs.” I though it was pretty funny!

He's how old?

Scott has been moved up from Elder's Quorum to the High Priest Group due to being called to the bishopric. He's lamenting that he no longer gets to go to Elder's Quorum. In fact, because of the callings he's had over the years, he's been to Elder's Quorum less than half of the time he was actually a member of Elder's Quorum.

His calling makes for some fun times during church for me. We've had a tray of bread dumped on the floor and some craziness (at least as perceived by me). However, the members of the ward are wonderful and have really stepped up to making sure I get help. One woman offered to let one of the boys sit with her, but that seemed a punishment to them. However, it motivated Richard and Peter to get along, so I guess the purpose came about anyway.

Oops, I did it again....

Audrey was playing on the computer chair. Somehow she fell off and banged her head into the desk. She split her head on her temple just to the right of her right eye. It was about an inch long gash. Scott took Audrey to the instacare to get stitches. Scott said that Audrey was really nervous and her legs were shaking because she was scared. He said she kept moving her head to try and see what they were doing. They first put a topical anesthetic on. Then, they dripped some lidocaine in the wound before actually injecting the medication. She was numb enough from the prep that she didn't even realize they were injecting. They then told her they were using “princess soap” to clean her up. It was hibiclens, which is pink. She got one deep stitch and then 6 stitches on the surface.

Recitals

Audrey and Richard played in the end of the year piano recital. It was Audrey's first recital, but she did a great job. Well, they both did.

The girls had their end of the year dance recital. Marie did a great job! You could tell she wasn't the most coordinated in the class, but she also looks like she's the youngest. She was so cute! I was pleased with how she did. I was disappointed that Thomas kept trying to grab the video camera and so messed up the recording a couple of times. Scott took enough pictures that we could theoretically watch it in slow motion. 

Audrey did a great job as well! She's really improved in her coordination and grace. Her dance was cute! Scott said he took about 200 pictures. The dance was only about 3 minutes. We could watch it flip-book style!