An entry while at Primary Children's on Aug. 2017

It has been quite an adventure since having little Walter. It has been hard on all the kids, but they have been awesome.  A sum up-Walter was life flighted the night of his birth to a higher level NICU due to breathing struggles.  He turned out to have fluid in his lungs as well which turned to pnemonia-which possibly came from Strep B.  That night he was put on several different ventilation items.  In the process somewhere his stomach got filled with air with a misplaced ventilator  This caused his belly to be quite large and distended.  I was quite concerned that it was still distended when he left the NICU 2 weeks later.  They said it would resolve itself via gas and poop.  After 2 weeks of it not resolving and him seeming constipated and then every 2-3 days having explosive, and I mean explosive, poops, and 3 visits to his pediatrician about it, the pediatrician ordered x-rays and a kidney ultrasound.  That was on a Monday.  Tuesday the pediatrician said there was major blockage and it was putting pressure on the kidneys as well.  To rule out Hirschprungs disease, which is in Jon's family and we were worried that it might be what was going on, he ordered an enema procedure where they veiw the colon under an xray.  The technician was pretty positive that Walter had it.  We got a call about 2 hours after the procedure from our pediatrician letting us know that Walter needed to head up to Primary Children's Hospital to have a biopsy and then likely surgery.  They wanted us to head up that evening and get him admitted and on an IV, ready for the biopsy in the morning.  The biopsy results take 24-48 hours to confirm.  The results came back Friday afternoon-the results were positive-he has Hirschsprungs Disease.  They scheduled the surgery for the following Tuesday and were going to send us home, but because of the regular vitals taken while at the hospital, they discovered that Walter had high blood pressure.  That could be due to the pressure of the abdomen on the kidneys and pain.  But they wanted to run some tests and make sure that there wasn't something else going on.  We ended up staying until Sunday afternoon.  They didn't find anything else that was really concerning.  We got to go home for 2 nights before coming back.  So many family members fasted for him and so many family and friends were praying for him.  He did really well the day of the surgery-I was amazed that he stayed calm the whole day. His surgery wasn't until that afternoon and he couldn't nurse after 8.  He did get some pedialyte at 11, but that was it.  I expected him to be super fussy and wanting to eat for the rest of the day.  Instead he was totally calm.  I realized that he was really being helped through the prayers and fasting for him.  They were delayed in surgery so he wasn't taken back until 4:30.  At 9pm the Dr came out and let us know that the surgery went really well and that we would be able to go back and see him soon.  I was so anxious to see my sweet baby.  When we went back he was crying such a sad weak, full of misery cry. It was so heartbreaking to see him in such pain.  I just held him and hurt for him.  He looked up at me and it was so hard to not be able to do anything to make him feel better but hold him.  My poor baby.  We are still at the hospital recovering.  He is doing well overall and we hope to be going home soon.
My other kids have been awesome through all this.  They have had to do a lot on their own and take charge of a lot of things.  I have been away from them quite a bit.  They have visited here once when we were here last week and then once this week.  If we end up spending tonight, they will come again this evening.  My poor little Isabelle went from being my baby to not only being replaced as the baby, but being away from her mom a lot.  It has been very hard on her.  Jon brought her over a couple of days ago and she was so cute and sweet.  I love her little hands and I love to hold them and hold and hug her.
The older kids were looking so forward to having their little brother and helped prepare for him, pick out cute outfits and get his room ready.  Little did we know that he wouldn't be home much to enjoy those things for the first couple months of his life.  He won't fit into some of the cute outfits the kids picked out before he was born.  He will be 7 weeks old tomorrow and he spent the first 2 weeks in the NICU and we have been at Primary Childrens Hospital for 10 days so far.  I hope we get to go home soon (possibly today).
Jon comes to visit each day.  Walter loves his dad so much.  He loves his voice-it is very calming to him.  I think part of the reason it is so calming is because Jon was with Walter at the NICU and talked to him and read to him quite a bit.  I didn't get to hold and nurse him until he was 6 days old.  So all he got before that was us talking to him, singing to him, reading to him, and holding his tiny hand and rubbing his head.
While Jon was here the other day, the kids decided to surprise him and cleaned the whole house, including shining the bathrooms.  They are such thoughtful kids.  They are great helpers and are very responsible.  They are

The Day Our Sweet Isabelle Arrived

So I just found this-unpublished.  Finishing things is not my strong point.  Oh well, I will post it, 3 years later. I am now 7ish weeks away from having another baby, so maybe I'll post about him this year or maybe I'll wait 3 years again, ha ha.  I will have to say that this pregnancy has also been quite miserable, though it is really neat to feel him move and I'm getting very excited to meet him-and Jonathan is ecstatic to be having a brother!  So on to my post from 3 years ago about our dear, sweet Isabelle.

We were so excited to find out we were expecting this past summer (2013)-though also very nervous.  I will admit that it was a hard pregnancy-maybe because I'm older, maybe because I was used to feeling pretty good most of the time, or maybe it really was just making me super miserable, but I felt absolutely awful for the first 25 weeks.  It was a long pregnancy, that's all I can say.  It wasn't so bad for about 8 weeks, and then the end was rough with stomach acid and lack of sleep, but that's for sure normal.  The night before I couldn't sleep. I went into the baby's room and decided to work on some burp clothes I had wanted to make. Aubrey came in. She couldn't sleep either. We talked about the new baby and made the burp clothes together. It was really sweet. I took the kids to school the next morning. The c-section was scheduled for 5pm, getting to the hospital at 3. My kids were going home on the bus with friends. I didn't realize the bus driver would not let them get off on another stop than normal-I got a phone call from the school while I was being admitted saying I needed to pick up my kids because the bus driver wouldn't let them on the bus because they were getting off one stop earlier than normal-same bus, just getting off one stop earlier. I explained that I was in the hospital having my baby and that I had arranged for my kids to get off with their friends one stop earlier than their regular stop. Apparently the bus driver was being a real stickler and saying she wasn't going to allow it. I apologized and explained that I hadn't thought it would be a problem because friends had gone on the bus with my kids before. The bus driver insisted that the district bus supervisor give permission-the school had no authority over her. Anyway, the school secretary said she would work it out, though I was nervous about my kids getting to the homes we had planned out.  I had 2 kids going to one home and I had dropped Amelia off at another home where Mariah had a friend she was coming home on the bus with. I was good friends with both the mom's. I called them both to let them know the situation and they said they would let me know as soon as they had my kids. So that was a nice way to start out my delivery-ha ha.

I do not enjoy being prepped for a c-section, but I always do appreciate my anesthesiologist.   Mostly you just feel a lot of pressure and i all Jon how it's going.  I heard little Isabelles cry right as they ppulled her out.  Out was so precious  and I couldn't wait to see and hold her. I think it is so dear to be able to hold your baby as soon as she comes out. My Dr. knew this and was so good to me and laid her on my chest and I got to talk to her and touch her for a minute before they checked vitals and whatnot.  Then they brought her to me as soon as I was out of surgery.  That's the hard part about a c-section, probably the hardest. Finishing up and getting out of surgery to a room where you can really hold your baby.  I loved holding her close and starting to nurse. It was so precious. I think after having a miscarriage I was more attached to her. (I was the same way with Amelia-didn't let her out of my site and hardly put off my hands).  I kept her not only in my room my entire stay, but tucked into my shirt on the hospital bed and we just cuddled and rested together. The whole time.  It was really really sweet.

Hand Quilting

I've wanted to teach my kids how to hand quilt for a long time.  One of the main reasons we started homeschooling was to be able to do projects and activities as a family.  I have had this piece of fabric for a long time and figured this would be a great item to learn on, as the kids have also been learning their states &

capitals.  Hand sewing (along with many other hands-on activities) supposedly helps with hand writing and in helping with brain connections vital for reading and comprehension. If that's true, great!  But my main reason was the fond memories I have of hand quilting with my mom and sisters-visiting, watching movies, and enjoying each others company while we accomplished something neat together.

September 2014

Amelias Birthday!

Amelia had her first friend party-which was super cute! We made homemade pizza and a cupcake horse. Great grandma and grandpa came it's always fun to have grandparents on your birthday! They were both so impressed with how much Jon helped with the party-and he did! Having a baby this year has given me more opportunity to rely on Jon and the kids for help and they have just been awesome! Aubrey and Amelia made the cutest pin the tail on the donkey game. Then we did the typical treasure hunt-kids always love that. They loved the pizza and Amelia and I had a great time making her cupcake horse cake together before the party. I think she had a great 4th birthday!

Here's the birthday girl ready to pop her 4 balloons-birthday tradition to pop as many balloons as you are turning and there will be a nice surprise inside.

Aubrey drew the outline and Amelia colored it. The kids each colored their own tail.

Funny faces!

Little dishes with little food-it's become a birthday tradition!

And I don't know how to move this picture down, so here is me making one of Jons favorites-scones (with honey butter of course).

Aubrey sewed a spider man, batman and hulk for Amelia. She loves those characters. She also got woody, which she also loves.

Horse shaped cake with cup cakes. Amelia loved helping frost it.

We did ab ripper for family home evening. It was hilarious!

Canned pinto beans.

Amelia folding laundry-she's such a good helper.

Isabelle taking a bath in the kitchen sink. And below she is sitting up and staying up on her own for the first time.

I was really into trying new homemade food this month. We did homemade egg noodles-which were amazing! I don't I will ever buy them again! Here they are in chicken noodle soup-homemade of course and delicious!

This was a fun find! I can't believe how many things I have found on the street for free! I was taking the kids to school and saw a huge free TV. I wanted to stop and get it but the kids didn't want to be late for school so I hurried to drop them off, came back and it was still there. I got it into the can-which I discovered I had to fold the seats to make it fit anyway so it wouldn't have worked to get it before dropping off the kids anyway. Jon was super surprised! It does have pixels on it, but it's better than our old TV and it's fun to have such a huge TV!

Here is our adorable Isabelle! She is really trying to copy faces we make. This is one of our favorites.

And of course this is adorable too!

So we got into homemade pizza hut pan pizza-deliciousness!

Everyone made their own.

Really LOVE homemade ice cream! A LOT!

And it's also amazing on chocolate waffles with homade carmel and chocolate sauce!

Homemade pasta noodles with the most amazing sauce-recipes found from the pioneer woman.

                                                                                                             

August 2014

School started the first week of August-we got back from Utah Sunday night, had meet the teacher on Monday night, bought our school supplies Tuesday and started school up on Wednesday.  On Monday we were able to finish reading the last 2 chapters of A Little Princess-that was really fun to read aloud to my kids and they really got into it-so fun!

Aubrey-first day of 5th grade

Mariah-first day of 4th grade

Jonathan-first day of 2nd grade

Isabelle started smiling more and we finally got her to laugh more!  She laughed for Jon a few times before we went to Utah in July, but the first time she laughed for me was in Utah while I was cleaning her hand with a wet wipe!  It tickled her hand I guess and she just started giggling!  It was adorable!

Love this face!  She is such a cute baby!

Jon started his new Job as the recruitment manager for Corestaff-he hires Shutterfly employees.  He is loving being a manager (and he is a good one too-doing a great job!)

We took first day of school pics of the other kids and grandma needed an updated picture of Amelia-we did a little photo shoot and got several adorable pics-this is one of my favorites.

Jon is the EQ president and as such helps many people move, set up chairs for things, cleaning assignments and . . . you know how it is :)  Our kids have been amazing helpers!  They helped move someone, set up chairs, clean and really worked hard.  We rewarded them with Sonic slurpees-they were pretty excited about that!

Pizza Hut pan pizza is our favorite.  We decided to try out a copycat recipe and guess what!?!  It is actually really delicious!  Unfortunately we didn't have any real toppings when we tried it out the first time, but it was still delicious!

We visited Great Grandma and Grandpa one Sunday evening-Grandpa just adored watching Isabelle-he loved her chubby legs and toes and her smile.  He kept smiling and giggling watching her-very precious!

Mariah was playing with Isabelle and walking around with Isabelles feet on hers-Isabelle loved it!

The kids school holds a back to school pool party-we had a really fun time-the kids were a little too scared for the high-dive though-it was kind of cute, maybe next year :)

I am so happy to say that I finally love my new washing machine-thanks to my dad and Jon!!  We bought a front-loader back in November and were so excited as we had an old top loader that we had since we got married.  Unfortunately the front loader didn't seem to be washing the clothes that well.  It had long loads and sanitizing loads, but they just didn't smell fresh.  I even quit using my homemade laundry soap and bought Tide, which helped a little (but shouldn't be necessary).  I came to the realization that the washer wasn't using enough water to actually wash and rinse the clothes.  I started adding about 3 gallons of water to each load and that helped substantially, but was such a pain.  I mentioned this to my dad on one of our runs in Utah and he suggested looking for a regulator on it-and that it must have something that can regulate the amount of water to fit different countries energy efficient crap codes-I think Al Gore doesn't know that it takes more than 4 gallons of water to clean a large load of laundry-oh and that's total water-4 gallons for wash and rinse-let's just say that you could just tell that the clothes were wet-you couldn't actually see ANY water swishing around!!  So, I googled and I found several videos that were the answer!!  Jon and I took the washer apart, adjusted the regulator (a large screw that you turn) and took out a plastic piece that was in the rinse hose.  We started up the washer-it was a beautiful sight!  I actually saw water in the washer!  It actually was swishing around in the clothes!!  It made my heart happy and now our clothes smell clean again and I have gone back to my homemade laundry soap  :) :) :)!!!

We had our good friends, the Merrills and the Halls over for an FHE night-it was really fun and I loved having the kids be together during the lesson and hearing a friend bear their testimony.  We had a lesson, scripture, swimming, and Aubrey made an Atlas Cake (Texas Sheet cake) that was super delicious!  

My girls, myself, and a couple other friends threw a surprise shower for our good friend, Stephanie.  She is the activity day leader and so we had the girls be a part of it-they helped decorate and set it up.  We had so much fun throwing it all together.  I think she was surprised, but I am not entirely sure. . . 

Then last, but not least, I was released as Primary President-I was super excited to not have the responsibility, but I was sad too.  And now that it's been a couple of months, I really miss being there with the kids-I especially miss being there with my kids-they are all in primary right now and it was super sweet to be with them, bear my testimony, sing, teach, and see them learning and growing in the gospel with the other primary children.  I didn't know that I would really love being in Primary so much, but I did.

Here I am-blogging again-I am hoping to really stick to this month blog thing that I am starting-we have so many good memories we have shared as a family and I want my kids and myself to remember them.  Life is so busy and I am so bad at writing things down or keeping records. 

Women's Conference Sept. 2014

I just found this in my drafts. I'm not sure why I didn't post it, so here it is-ironically the day before the next woman's conference.

It was really neat to be able to attend the Women's conference with my two older daughters-Aubrey & Mariah.  We watched the first part here at home while I nursed Isabelle and we hoped the crazy rain would subside because we had a monsoon right when the meeting started-and we had already had a huge one earlier which had caused quite a bit of flooding in the streets-the water level was higher than the bottom of our car, so I wasn't too keen on driving in it.  Infact, I had already been out driving when the first one hit hard and it is so amazing how hard the rain comes down.  You can't even see out of your window.  I was close to home and in neighborhood streets so I kept going-wondering if I should keep going or pull over.  But I had picked up the kids from a primary activity and the rain started as we were leaving and just from walking from the activity to the car, we were soaked through-dripping as if someone had dumped huge buckets of water on us, and the kids were cold and wanted to be home-well mostly Amelia, since the older kids went outside to play in the rain when we did get home-they played for an hour in it!  This wasn't a typical monsoon either-usually they last 5-15 minutes.  This lasted more than an hour and then picked back up about 30 minutes after subsiding.  We barely had made it home from the activity.  I had to drive on sidewalks at really deep water levels to keep the car more out of the water-it really was crazy!

The rain subsided just as I finished feeding Isabelle and we were able to leave for the Stake center.  Our stake does something called the errand of Angels where all morning on Saturday people bring any of their "DI" donations to the cultural hall and then after the Women's meeting the women get to collect anything they would like.  There was so much stuff and we got quite a few nice things-some clothes, Christmas gifts, and whatnot.  The girls loved that!

Back to the meeting though-as I sat there and listened with my daughters, my heart was really touched realizing that I am their mother and they are growing and learning and listening with me.  I felt the spirit strongly several times during the conference and I knew my girls had been touched too.  It was just a really sweet feeling and moment as a mother.

The rest of July/Summer, 2014

Baby Hummingbird-aka: Elsa Cutes

The kids and I were done with the heat in Mesa, so it was off to Utah to spend some time with my parents.  We really wanted to enjoy the beautiful mountains as much as we could.  My parents live very close to Provo canyon and I miss that canyon a lot!    Our first day there the kids found a baby hummingbird-likely fell out of a nest way up high in a tree.  The kids were super diligent with it.  We were able to get it to drink some sugar water.  The kids made it a "natural" home with a cardboard box, leaves, and branches.  One morning it was gone, and I'm pretty sure it flew away on it's own.  It was so cute and tiny-this picture is a child's hand, so that should give you a perspective on the size of this baby bird.

My kids and I and Emma (one of our favorite older cousins) went with us one of our first days there up to visit Riverton (where we used to live). We spent most of the day visiting my dear friend Renae and then we found the Up house in Herriman-it was super awesome!  I had forgotten just how neat that house actually looks!  We decided to go on a hike in Herriman that I had done with the youth.  I don't think I remembered it quite right though because it wasn't very green and it was super dirty-lots of dry dirt.  I couldn't believe just how dirty we got, but it was a good opportunity to test out a small hike before hitting some real mountains.

Isabelles First hike!
We needed a hat to block the sun, her lightweight
blanket and elastic bow actually worked out quite well!

After our first hike, we realized that Amelias crocs were not going to work for hiking-duh.  So we went to buy her some new shoes.  There was a pair of these funny, cute shoes on clearance-the only pair left actually and they fit Amelia!  She fell in love with them and for the remainder of the trip, they hardly left her feet.

She even slept in them on many occasions.

On another gorgeous evening, we hiked up 1st and 2nd falls with my parents and my sister Mary and her family one evening.  It was really beautiful, though harder than I thought carting a baby on my back-mostly because it strained my neck so much.  But it was such a beautiful overcast evening and the mountain air was just wonderful!
My kids love Grandma and grandpas yard-it is an awesome and beautiful place!  They have a pool, a sandbox, playhouse, tramp, and wonderful grass all over!!

It started to rain, and not hot, muggy, mesa rain-real rain that feels how it should-nice and cool.  The other cousins started to run right inside-any of my kids that weren't already outside ran right outside screaming for joy of rain!!  The other cousins were inspired and joined my kids on the tramp since it did look pretty fun to be so excited!

Unfortunately, with luschious yards, come insects and bees-
Jonathan stepped on a bee our very first night there.
His foot was so huge!  Poor kid!

Amelia was being so cute playing so adorably!

Love that face!

The kids were outside quite a bit, enjoying grandma and
grandpas amazing yard and the amazing weather!
Aubrey decided to jump very gently with little Isabelle.

Digging for "gold"

The Salamander-aka: David

We went up to spend the day with Grandma and Grandpa Hansen.  Several of our Hansen cousins met us there for a big lunch.  Jonathan was so excited to see Taylor-one of his cousin idols.  It was so cute to see Jonathan talking to him and wanting to sit by him and whatnot.  Grandma and Grandpa Hansen burried a bunch of quarters in their sandbox for the kids to find-I think there were 50 quarters total!  The kids had a lot of fun finding them.  They found an extra surprise while looking though-a salamander that desperately needed water!  They got it in some water and helped revive it back to life.  Before we left, they took it back to where it likely came from-across the street in a water reserve.

Jonathan is a brave, good sport!

One of my favorite holidays is Pioneer Day-it is a Utah and Mormon holiday.  I have many fond memories of that day and I really love to learn about my pioneer ancestors and the lives and lifestyle they had.  I know I romanticize it, but I still would love to adopt more of it into my own life at times.  Being in Utah over Pioneer Day made for a super fun day and I hope my children will have fond memories of this day as well.  We started off with a new tradition-as of last year-of the Temple to Temple walk/run.  It is a 5k that goes from the Provo Temple to the Prove Tabernacle Temple.  The neat thing about this race is that it is so family friendly!  It is completely free-unless you want a shirt, then you pay $6 for a shirt and the shirt is really neat, so I paid for the shirt :)

I loved when I signed up for the race that the shirt sizes that you could choose were 12 months, 2 T, 4T, and so on.  That means this is really a family race!  So even my little Isabelle got a shirt that actually fit her!

Ready to start-though Amelia and Isabelle are still waking up :)

We walked together with my kids cute cousin, Emma, and Jon's sister Lisa.  It was really nice overall.  It was fun to see all the people that were doing it-in fact it was actually amazing-there were 10,000 runners!  We were at the start off to the side and thought we would just wait for the main crowd to go through and then move through.  The stream of people seemed endless and after 10 minutes, we decided to go ahead and squeeze our way through the start line!  My dad and my brother Jeremy did the race as well, only they actually ran it and then ran back to the start to get our cars-cause you know, 6 miles is really nothing to run to us ;)

Watching the thousands of people going through the finish line,
wondering when we should try to jump in.

Afterwards, Jeremy bought a bunch of BYU Creamery chocolate milk (the BEST, most AMAZING chocolate milk there is!!!) and french bread and we made french toast and had chocolate milk at my parents after the race.

Me with the kids and Lisa.

Then my mom and I went on to one of my favorite things-the pioneer cabins on display in Spanish Fork-next to/part of their quilt show as well, so a double bonus.  What I love about it is showing the kids the cabins and the blacksmith (they always have a blacksmith, who will make horseshoe rings upon request, which he did for the kids :)

Then they also have a couple of ponies that they let the kids sit on, feed, pet, and brush.  They had baby chicks this year and last year they had bunnies.  My kids loved it and absolutely loved the ponies!  They each got at least one turn sitting on them.

Mariah is my animal lover-all of my kids love animals,
but Mariah just adores them. She's a natural when it comes to animals.

So cute!  I love Jonathan's sweet smile!

We then went to Jon's brother's home (Eric) and many of the Hansen cousins and families were there and we had dinner and fireworks.  Eric let Jonathan light several rockets-boy was that crazy!  The kids had a super time helping with and watching the fireworks!

We visited the bean museum, small BYU dinosaur museum, and then walked up to Bridal Veil falls another day.  We lucked out because when we parked the car to hike bridal veil, a man with a horse and buggy came up to us and asked if we wanted a ride.  He said he had just finished a job and hadn't packed up yet and would be happy to give the kids a little ride!  Pretty fun!  Then they had a super fun time playing in the water at the bottom of the falls.  We of course had to end our fun day with a Macey's ice-cream cone (we did that a few times while in Utah :)

Our lucky buggy ride!  Jonathan said he got nervous
when the man started driving away-kind of cute.  I knew
I could take down a buggy in the parking lot if not by foot,
for sure with my car-I wasn't worried to say the least.

Bridal Veil Falls-my kids are the ones in the middle, I think. . .  though that's Mariah on the left walking away.

Aubrey, Mariah, Jonathan, Amelia & Cousin Matthew behind Amelia
-at the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls.

And then we of course had to hit moms and my favorite fabric stores, and Salem Pond is right in the middle of them, so we had a picnic there with my cousin Maida.  It was so pleasant and the kids had a really nice time playing in the pond/beach area.  It was a beautiful day and mom, Maida and I had a really nice visit.

We got to play in the irrigation at my parents and Jeremy was so fun with the kids on several occasions.  We met at the park one evening to have dinner and then play.  It was a pretty neat park and Jeremy was a super awesome Uncle and played tag with the kids for over an hour!

This isn't the park Jeremy took us to, but one of the
parks we went to while we were there.
The park Jeremy took us too was one of those
awesome wooden structures that has a fort feel to it.
The kids LOVED it!

Aubrey and I went to a card class with Mom-that was really fun as well!  It got me wanting to make fun cards and use fun scrapbook stuff that I have again!

We were there for Mom's birthday-Aubrey went all out!  She made her grandma an adorable card, decorated, made her breakfast (scrambled eggs) and was so super thoughtful!  We went up to Ogden and got to go to the Ogden Temple open house.  

Ogden Temple Open House with Grandma Robertson-aka: Mommy Granka

We had so much fun and such a nice time while we were in Utah-we enjoyed the outdoors as much as we could.  I read A Little Princess outloud to the kids while we were there-that was more fun than I thought it would be.  Oh, and I can't forget, little Isabelle cut two teeth while there!  At 5 months old!  I was completely surprised-and they are sharp little things!

A snow cave-water was streaming under this hige patch of snow,
so we didn't venture far under it, just under the very front edge.
We had a little snowball fight as well :)

Our final hike was Mount Timpanogous.  I wanted to hike it with the kids, but knew I could really take Isabelle, but she is exclusively nursing-she hasn't ever had anything else, not even a bottle, so I wasn't sure what to do.  We decided to get up super early and hike early.  It was really nice to hike when it wasn't quite so hot, but the fact that it wasn't cold either meant it was going to be a hot day and it was.  It took us longer to hike it that I thought, but it was such a great hike.  Aubrey and Mariah went, Mariah for her 1st time, Aubrey for her 4th time.  Jeremy, Dad, and 2 of Johns kids (Adam & Johnny).  They all did really well.  They had their weak moments and they had their fun and exciting moments.  That's something I love about hiking-it's something that's hard, but it teaches you that you can keep pushing yourself and you get to enjoy the beauties of nature, ending with something awesome-like looking down the top of a mountain, or getting to a big lake, or a snow glacier, enjoying waterfalls, flowers, streams, and other beauties along the way.  We got to have some of all of those.  At one point Aubrey said she couldn't keep going.  Then she heard a waterfall and ran on to it in excitement.  It's great to have moments like that!  Mariah was by far the most enthusiastic about everything, but especially the snow!  She was so excited to be in snow-she just kept playing in it and sliding on it and jumping in it.  It was awesome!  She made a little snowman that she carried back down the mountain for quite a while.

Mariah and her snowman.
A 4th grade teacher saw Mariah up there and asked if she could take a picture to show her class how
enthusiastic Mariah was about hiking so high and finding snow!

A gorgeous view of the meadow-almost to the lake.

The hardest part of the hike was of course, the way  back down.  They got pretty tired and worn out.  I had to push them as well because Isabelle was waiting for me and starving.  Mariah wanted this rock-it wasn't small either.  She really wanted to carry it back down (it was from the lake).  I told her that if she went as fast down as I needed her to, that I would carry it for her (I had previously said that we weren't carrying any rocks down-I knew she couldn't carry it down).  I carried that rock for her in one hand and a bunch of wildflowers of Aubrey's in the other.  They really struggled, but made it down-it really is so tiring and hard on your knees coming down.  I am really glad I was able to do that with my girls and family.  Jeremy and Dad are always good sports and willing to hike with me and my kids :)
Dad loves to build trains and train models.  He and Jeremy have really gotten back into it the last few years.  When I was young, there was train building going on here and there.  Dad did a great deal of it when he was a kid.  He and Jonathan spent many hours working on building these mountains and tunnels.  Unfortunately I only took one picture.  But Jonathan treasured those memories and thoroughly enjoyed that time with his grandpa.

Oh, and of course Dad and I went on several great runs together and Jeremy got to join us a time or two as well!  We had great discussions and got to enjoy the beauties around us. We would run down by the Provo River-so nice to see trees and water-I think I needed to get a break from the desert.  I know I live in a super nice home and a really nice area, but it was so nice to get a break from the super heat and just enjoy the outdoors so much!

And that's a quick sum-up of our Utah fun!

If you know me-you know I love to eat delicious food and if I am given the opportunity to make something yummy even more yummy-I will do it.  I like to enjoy things to their fullest :)  This started out as a regular, yummy chocolate chip cookie.  After adding homemade chocolate sauce, pecans, and chunks of french vanilla dark chocolate. . . it was amazing!

 Here are a few adorable pictures of Isabelle that I took-I know I have such a crappy camera, but she's still adorable even if my camera sucks :)

Just love the smile!  She broke a tooth the first
week we were there!  What a good sport, because
I didn't think she was old enough to do so yet :)

Love those eyes and eyelashes!

The classic Dad hands-the way
in which she is holding her hands.