Pranks - August th and 10th

Before Youth Conference this year, I decided to buy Silly String to have on hand if opportunity presented itself. I talked to Sis. Lowry and we decided to ask Flaming Gorge Resort if they had any zip ties that they could spare. Guess what, they did! Following a very fun and long day on the river with 42 youth and leaders around 11:00 everyone settled down and went to sleep. YM on one end of camp and YW on the other. Sis. Lowry and I waited until we heard soft sounds of YM leaders snoring and we slightly unzipped their tent and plastered them with Silly String. After a few seconds, a large hand grabbed my arm and I dropped the silly string. We ran off and hunkered down in our tent. After what seemed a long time, we felt a thud on our tent. We waited and waited and decided to try it one more time. We snuck quietly along the path and attemped to zip tie their tent. Sis. Lowry went around back and I tried the front, but the YM leaders were ready. One picked up Sis. Lowry and pulled her shoes off and threw them into the trees. We were chased off. We went back one last time to try and find Sis. Lowry's shoes in the darkness. We were accompanied by the "Red Dragon" squirt gun. Bro Allred came out into the night this time and played the Bishopric card. We were reminded about how this would look to the YW in the morning. Bro. Allred did tell us to go find Bro. Cogswells tent, but we just went back to bed. Around 6:20 in the morning, our tent mostly collapsed (thanks to the YM leaders). Everyone was laughing in the morning. Last night I received a text from Bro. Boase that he needed help getting silly string off the tents. Shortly after the text I rec'd a phone call too! Trav and I showed up with WD40, but the silly string was off. I should have known that retaliation was soon to come. This morning I awoke to my front yard toilet papered and my car and front door silly stringed. The grossest thing was the forks dipped in vaseline stuck all over my front yard. Yuck! Good times!

Snowbird 2009 with Grandpa John

For over 10 years my parents have had timeshares at Cliff Lodge at Snowbird. My parents loved having it over the 4th of July since family members who worked could make it up at some point. Snowbird is one of the few things that hasn't changed since my mom passed away two years ago. This year was no different, my dad checked in on Friday and we went up first thing Saturday morning following an awesome dinner party at Nanc's house Friday night. We swam and swam and swam some more. Garrett stayed back with the Lowry's to do firework and came up with us after church on Sunday. Lauren's friend Emily came up too. We swam some more and the kids played arcade game and Lauren and Em stitched 4th of July pillows - thanks Heidi! We watched movies and ate too much. Monday was more of the same until evening. My dad made dinner plans with his good friends the Robergs and headed down to the Garden Restaurant. We invited our old neighbors and life long friends, the Loveridges, Madsens and more Loveridges up for dinner and swimming. They treated us to pizza and we hung out by the pool. We had such a fun time together! Tuesday we decided to Hike UP to the top of the tram at Snowbird. Garrett, Zac, Lauren, Britnee and me donned Camel backs and packed lunches too. We began about 8:30 am. Grandpa stayed back with Ash and my niece Baylee. They swam while we hiked. As you know it, it is just straight up. About an hour into the hike I realized I didn't bring my camera, but I had my cell phone so I don't have photos of the hike, but they are pretty funny and I have plans to figure out a way to get the pics off my phone soon! Anyways, when I asked my niece Britnee to give me a smile, she could only frown, but all the kids were troopers! After about 4 hours, we arrived at the top of the tram and at lunch. We were cold! We had climbed about 3700 feet through mud, snow and sun! We saw beautiful wildflowers and enjoyed talking to each other. We gladly climbed on the tram for the ride down and headed straight for the pool. Wednesday we all did the Snowbird All Day Activity Pass. It included zip line, bungee jump, alpine slide, tram, Peruvian chairlift and bounce zone too. The big kids loved the zip line and me and Ash rode the Alpine slide over and over and over. It was so fun. Ash really wanted me to ride the mechanical bull so I did that too. It is definitely harder than it looks. Thursday we swam some more and took it easy since I had my big PET scan the following day. I had to be careful what I ate and try to not exert myself. We then packed up and headed home. My dad packed up too and took off on Friday. We are so happy my dad keeps his Snowbird week because it if fun to "get away" and not be too far too! Travis stayed with us up at Snowbird, but commuted into work and joined us in the evening.

An anxious couple of days - July 15, 2009

Last Friday, was my 4th PET scan. I was pretty calm over the weekend and knew I'd receive the news of it sometime this week. I called Monday afternoon, but never heard back from my doctor until I had my appointment today. I drug Travis with me this morning in case it was bad news, but it was great news! The scan still shows no signs of the cancer rearing it's ugly head again. I won't have another scan for 6 more months. I will continue my same treatment of Herceptin and Zometa with Femara. I still get my echos every 12 weeks, but no icky chemos! I am super happy!!! Plus we are headed to a family reunion this weekend and will get to be with family! Right after the good news, Trav headed to work and my cute Barb friend showed up to hang with me during my treatment.

Raft for the Cure 2009 - June 27, 2009

On Friday, June 26th Michelle and I went down to Moab to participate in Raft for the Cure. We drove down to Moab Friday afternoon in crazy thunderstorms and arrived at dusk to get Michelle's 5th wheel set up for us to stay in. She own's property in Moab where they leave their 5th wheel, it was a perfect place for us to sleep in. We grabbed nachos that evening and then crashed. We got up early and had breakfast at the Moab Dinner and walked next door to Moab Adventure Center. They sponsored the event. We were greeted by super nice employees. 5 large buses, 320 participants, and every raft in Moab. We were sized for life jackets and hopped on the bus. Next, we rode up to the drop off spot. We then heard a safety speech and organized ourselves in groups of 10+. Our raft group was awesome! There was a family from Idaho, and a family from Sandy and Michelle and me. Our guide and her new husband were on our raft too. We had a great time. We went through 5 level 2 rapids. We all got wet and only managed to loose Chuck from Idaho twice out of the raft. We had many laughs and enjoyed the morning and beautiful surroundings. Around 11:15 we floatd into Red Cliffs Lodge and ate a great BBQ lunch. Following lunch we headed on the river again and we met a wicked rapid. We almost lost Michelle, but everyone stayed in. It was so fun. There were many water fights amongst the rafts and then we got to the end way too soon. It was so much fun! Our new friends invited us back to their campground to use their showers. We then played games with them and headed back to the Moab Adventure Center for another BBQ dinner, music and silent auction. The music was great. Everyone ate in the rafts or chairs. The next day we decided to hike Delicate Arch. It was about 100 degrees and full sun! I've hiked it before, but never in this heat! We grabbed lots of water and headed out. Too bad the only camera we had was our disposable waterproof camera. Arches is such an amazing place to visit. Following our hike we drove back to SLC and promised to Raft for the Cure in 2010! Thanks to Michelle for going with me!

Lauren's Spring Dance Recital - May 26, 2009

Lauren had her Spring Dance finale today. We were all excited and nervous for her since she had broken her arm. She looked darling and danced beautifully. For an entire year she has wanted to dance to "Popular" for the Broadway Play, Wicked. She finally got her chance. We designed her costume to be like Glinda with a twist. She also danced to three other numbers. It was a wonderful recital and look forward to dancing again next fall!

Lauren's broken arm & Trav's 39th birthday

May 11th was Trav's 39th birthday as well as the day that Lauren broke her first bone, her arm. I was super excited for Trav's birthday this year. This past year I overcame my fear of guns and decided that it was fine to own guns as long as we had a safe to put them in. Trav's grandma Bonnie has been wanting to give Trav his grandpa's guns for years, but I was so worried about having guns in our home due to our small children. Anyways, I'd been watching KSL classifieds and Craiglist for a month and bought a used gun safe. I replaced the "other guy's" name tag with a cute tag on Trav's new gun safe. It reads, "Sweet, get your gun, May 11, 2009". Trav's mom came down from Driggs and brought his grandpa's guns as well as Trav's dad brought over the gun that he and Trav had refinished when Trav was 12. It was his 22 rifle. Trav was super surprised and excited at this gift.

While I was getting the b-day cake ready, Trav and the kids were jumping on the tramp. Our kids have never really been double bounced before until that evening. Trav kept doing it over and over and the kids were laughing so hard until Lauren took a spill and landed on Trav's foot. She cried out in pain and Trav helped her inside. We looked at her arm expecting to see something, but it just hurt bad. We gave her some ibuprofen and an icepack. She was teary until the medicine kicked in. Following b-day cake and homemade tutti-fruity ice cream, she went to bed. In the morning we gave her more ibuprofen and sent her to school. I volunteer twice a month in Lauren's class and it just happened to be that Tuesday. While at school, Mrs. Palmer said Lauren's arm looks kind of swollen. (Bad mom) I then decided I better take her to the doctor. We went after school and yup, it was broken It is called a buckle fracture on her radius (near her wrist). She had to wear a splint for 3 days and then got her pink cast on Friday afternoon following her first dance performance. The cast isn't too annoying yet, except that I totally have to bathe Lauren. At first she was embarrassed, but now, no big deal. She had her grand recital for dance and the pink cast matched. She has played several soccer games and rides her bike, scooter and rip stick. Not much has slowed her down, except water!

Lauren's cousin, Britnee broke her arm too! You should see the questions they get where ever they go together! Britnee broke her arm on her scooter.

Garrett - Falcon of the Quarter, June 1, 2009

Today, Garrett was awarded the highest award you can earn at Sunset Ridge Middle School - Falcon of the Quarter. I received a phone call from Mr. Bogenshutz during Ashton's preschool graduation informing me of the award. He said that it will be a surprise for Garrett and it would be awarded during an assembly. He said to invite friends and family and arrive at 10:25. We met in the media center where we waited until we were escorted to the balcony of the auditorium. The principal talked for a few minutes and then began announcing the four 8th grade Falcon of the Quarter recipients. While in the balcony we were scouring the audience to look for Garrett, but we didn't see him in the crowd or up in the band section. (He was scheduled to play his trumpet during the assembly). Just before the principal began giving a bio on Garrett, we saw him peek around the corner from the hallway where the band members were waiting to perform. He smiled up at us and then walked to the stage. He received a plaque and recognition from the principal. There was a cookie reception following the assembly where the principal greeting all the visitors and thanked everyone for coming. We are so proud of Garrett in every aspect of his life! We are also grateful for Grandma Jacki, Tracie & kids, Uncle Jon and James Boase for attending this event! It definately takes a village to help raise a child these days!