Cowabunga

At the beginning of the summer the kids made a list of things they wanted to do this summer. It included things like, go to Red Butte, sleepover at Grandma's, see the movie Thor, Go to Lagoon and a few other things. Now summer vacation is coming to an end, and I am happy to report we have done almost everything on the list. There are still a couple of more things left to do though.

Cowabunga Bay was a big item on the list. The kids have been asking to go again since we went last summer. We talked about going in July when my parents were here, but with Valerie's skin treatment that we were doing at the time, it was not really doable. So Here we are a week before school starts, and I am happy to say, we made it.

While dad was at the bike race on Saturday, the kids and I spent the day getting wet, and having fun.

The boys can't get enough of the dump buckets. When ever the bell started ringing I would see them running over to get dumped on. Valerie liked to watch the buckets dump, but she didn't like to be close enough to get wet.

Valerie, and I tried a few slides. She did not love them, but she liked the pink slide enough to go on it a few times, as long as someone went with her.

My friend has season passes, so they joined us for the day. It was really nice to have a friend for Emily to run around with, and I loved having my friend Laura there to visit with.

Because Emily was with her friend Lindsey, I did not see her much in the beginning. Every now and then I would catch a glimpse of her. At one point I saw her going down a slide and was able to hurry and take a picture. Unfortunately all we can see is her foot.

Joe and Josh were happy to hang out together. For most of the day.

But when it came to the water slides, Joe did not want to go on anything above the blue slide.

Josh on the other hand was feeling very brave, and went on every slide.

He also wanted me to take lots of pictures.

This slide was one of the scarier ones, but Josh loved it. I also saw Emily do this slide. I think it is the biggest in the park.

While Josh was on his water slide mission, Emily took Valerie to play in the pool. She did this without me even asking.

Valerie was very happy about this, because she had been wanting to ride in the tubes on the lazy river, but she was too small to stay on one by herself. Emily figured out a way to make it work.

She is such a good big sister.

I think one of Josh's favorite slides was the sun slide. He went on it a few times.

The kids had so much fun,

and when it was time to go they knew they had had a fun day in the water, because they came away with old man hands and feet.

I don't know about your house, but at our house that is a sign of a great day at the pool.

Tour of Utah

Before I married Ryan I had no idea that there was an actual pro sport called cycling. Where there are pros and sponsors and endorsements and everything that goes along with other pro sports. I knew there was biking in the Olympics, but beyond that, I thought riding bikes was just something you did for fun or exercise. I had never heard of the Tour de France.


For Ryan there is really no other sport that holds a candle to cycling. He raced in high school, and served his mission in Paris France, where he got to see The Tour de France in person.

So 13 years later I am becoming a little better versed in cycling. I am still not very good at remembering names and who is on what team, but I can tell you how it works, who won some of the major races, and also some of the scandals around the sport.

Four years ago one of Ryan's favorites came to ride in the Tour of Utah. So Ryan, Emily and his parents went to watch a stage. Every year after that more and more of the pros have been coming to race. This year was the best yet. There were quite a few names racing that I hear all the time during the big races. So Ryan tried to go to as many stages as he could.

I joined him on Friday for the time trail out at the Larry Miller Sports Park. We got pictures of all of the pros, and a few of the domestics. Here are a couple that I can recognize on my own now.

This is George Hincapie, He has been a favorite of Ryan's for a long time now. He came last year too, but only road the first stage. This year he stayed for the entire race.

This is Dave Zabriskie. Ryan thought the kids would like his Captain America gear, but we couldn't talk the kids into coming to the race. That was okay. It was a fun date.

This is Levi Leipheimer. He rides for team Radio Shack which used to be team Us Postal Service. He came last year without his team and ended up winning the Tour of Utah. This year he came with his team.

Ryan thought it was funny that one of the biggest teams at the race rented an RV instead of bringing their big tour bus.

Levi claimed the Yellow Jersey on Friday at the time trial. and he won the Tour of Utah for the second year in a row.

Ryan went to the Saturday stage with his mom and dad, and really debated going to watch the final stage on Sunday, but he ended up skipping it. I know he was a little sad that he did, because Cadel Evans, winner of the 2011 Tour de France, was at the finish line.

I always have fun going to the race with Ryan, but the fun part is not the race. It is watching Ryan at something he loves.

Flowers, Ducks and Water Fights

Thursday the kids and I headed off for an adventure at Red Butte Gardens.

Earlier this summer Emily and Grandpa saw a rattle snake while visiting the garden one evening for a wedding reception, so the boys were hoping to see one. Luckily we did not see any snakes, but we did see a lot of pretty flowers, and a few butterfly's.


At the pond we took a break and fed the ducks. A couple of the ducks were very excited to get food and came pretty close.

Valerie did not like this.

We ended our walk at the Children's Garden to play in the fountain.

Eventually the boys teamed up against Emily in a water fight.

I think Emily won.

Before heading home, I had the kids sit to dry off a little.

They did not sit still for very long. After a few minutes they started rolling down the hill.

Even though we did not see a snake, the kids had a great time at the garden. Maybe I will take the boys back one evening to see if the snakes are out....or maybe not.

Apple Picking

My Grandma called to tell us the apples were ready for picking.

So Monday, we dropped Emily off at Girls Camp, and the other kids and I went to Tooele for the day.

When we got to Great Grandma's house we went right to work picking Apples.

The boys were really excited that we were going to get to eat the apples this time, since last time we just thinned the apples and had to throw everything we picked away.

Ryan was in court that day in Tooele, so when he was done, he stopped by to visit before heading into Salt Lake. I guess picking the apples looked fun, because he started helping.

Valerie did a good job helping too. She liked climbing on the ladder, but I didn't like that so much.

While we were picking my Grandma had to go to a Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP) meeting.

When we finished, the kids wanted to go inside and play. I told the boys we needed to clean up the messes we made and even leave it a little cleaner than it was when we came. Joe started his complaining that happens every time I mention cleaning. So I explained to him that when people get older their body hurts and it is harder for them to do things. (I need to mention that my grandma's house is never really dirty.)

He then said, "I can't wait until I'm old so people will come and do my work for me."

I told him that would only happen if he learns to work, and teaches his children to work too. Otherwise they wont know how to work for him.

When Grandma returned we visited for a while, and we can't go to Great Grandma's without seeing the horses.

The horses were happy to see us, because we brought them a treat.

It was really nice to get to visit with my Grandma. My kids really do love going to her house, and they love the kind of work they get to do there. (I don't think they realize picking apples is work.)

Every time we go I am reminded of how lucky my kids are to get to know my Grandma and have a relationship with her.

Now we are busy making yummy apple treats, like applesauce, pie filling and dried apples, so throughout the year we can remember our fun day at Grandma's picking apples.

Daddy's Helper

For Valerie's birthday Aunt Tracy, and Uncle Gavin sent her a pink lawn mower.

She loves it. It makes all kinds of noises. The balls in it spin around and make noise, It plays music and talks, and it even makes the sounds of a real lawn mower. That is the setting Valerie likes most. I was not sure if she really knew what it was until.....................

Dad got out his lawn mower to mow the lawn, and Valerie ran and got hers to help.

A Smurfy Birthday

For Emily's 12th birthday she wanted to go see the movie "Smurfs."

So we decided to have a Smurf party.

We even made a smurf birthday cake.

Grandma lent us her Smurf mobile to get to the movies.

There were a few Smurf Rules that had to be followed to ride.

I was not sure about the smurf movie, but it was turned out to be pretty Smurfy. (cute)

Her friends seemed to all have a smurfy time.

It is hard for me to believe that Emily is 12.

She is such a great kid, and I am so lucky to have her for a daughter. I am grateful for her willingness to help out. Her desire to do what is right and make good choices. She is such a good example to her younger brothers and sister.

Emily loves reading and enjoys learning new things.

She is so pleasant and easy to get along with. I hope that these qualities will help her as she starts Middle school.

I know that she is so excited to be twelve. I could tell on mother's day as she stood with the other primary children in sacrament meeting and sang the mother's day song, that she was ready to move on. Not just because she stood a foot taller than all of the other kids, but because she looked so grown up.

Emily you are a beautiful person both inside and out.

I love you

Happy Smurfy Birthday!

A Bad Bad Day

Earlier this year I noticed something on Valerie's chin. At first I thought it was a pimple, but after couple of days I realized it was not going away, so I took a closer look at it and realized it looked like a wart. Then I noticed a couple more on her. I then realized that she probably had Molluscums. So I called my sister, because I knew she had dealt with these before. She told me to take her to the doctor. So I took Valerie to our pediatrician (who I really like) and was told that is was molluskum which is a kind of wart virus. I was also told this was very common and she only had a couple, so I didn't need to worry. They are not harmful, and would go away on their on. Only 1% of kids who get it have to be treated, and they don't like to treat, because it could cause scaring. So I took Valerie home and continued on with life. But the Warts kept spreading and becoming a problem.

After a couple of months I began to worry, because when one went away 5 to 10 more replaced it. So we decided to take her to a dermatologist.

I could tell right away that Doctor R did not like what he saw. He told me that he wished I had brought her in right away, because two or three is a lot easier to take care of than the 40 to 50 she had. (believe me when I say I wished I had brought her in earlier too.) But he also told me that what my pediatrician had told me was correct, and it only becomes a problem for about 1% of the people who get it.

He started us on a treatment plan where we applied creams every night before bed. (Reten A and another cream used for acne treatment.) Then we were to come back in and if there were any left he would cut them out and that should take care of it. He didn't want to just cut them out now, because there were so many of them. But the cream should take care of most of them.

The creams stung, and in some places even burned her skin, but Doctor R said it would do that and we needed to treat the spots for 1 month.

Half way through the month I noticed that Valerie was still getting new warts. I called Doctor R. His nurse told me that it was normal for that to happen during the treatment.

When the month ended I knew it had not gotten any better, in fact it seemed worse to me.
So I took her in for the checkup not sure what Doctor R was going to want to do next. He was not happy that it had gotten worse, and said it is very rare for that treatment not to work. So we now had two options, Try another treatment of putting stuff on her skin that causes it to blister, or cut out each one of the spots right then. Both processes would take two or three treatments.

I knew both would be painful, and I also didn't want to mess around anymore. So I asked Doctor R what he would do if it was his kid. I was not surprised when he said cut, because that seemed the best option to me.

So for the next hour Ryan and I had to hold Valerie still while the Doctor R cut out each little spot. He would do a group of 20-25 of them and then leave while we got her cleaned and bandaged. Then he would come do some more.

We did this process four times. It was all I could do not to start crying with Valerie towards the end, but I knew this was what we had to do. I was holding her head still, and I had her turned toward Ryan so Doctor R could get under her chin. It broke my hart when she cried to her dad.

"Daddy help me! It hurts! it hurts!"

Doctor R felt like he got most of them, and he felt like that was a good start, but we have to come back in two weeks. He hopes that there will only be 20 or less when we come back. I hope so too.

On the way home we stopped and got Root-beer Floats to make us feel better. Then later that day Ryan's mom stopped by with a special surprise.

A Dora doll who had ouches too.

Valerie liked putting the bandages on her doll, but she didn't want any more on her.

It has been a few days and things are already looking better, but I still feel so bad about the whole thing.

There is nothing harder as a parent than to watch your child suffer.