Bear Lake, 2007

Jeff's family has been going up to Bear Lake for years. They started a LONG time ago when Jeff was just little and they try to make it up every year. Jeff and I have been able to go three of the six years we've been married, 2002, 2005 and now this year. The first year, we had no children and the second year, Brax was still not too curious about much, but this year it was SO fun, just because we could see Braxton having so much fun. So, we were up this year from Monday, July 23rd thru Friday, July 27th 2007.

Here is a picture with the cousins:

Braxton, Austin, Cambria, Jakob, Jaden, McKinly and Isabella

(There are two missing, Ashley who hadn't arrived yet and baby Stockton who must have been with Kim at the Condo .... she was sick the first two days!)

We arrived at IDEAL BEACH RESORT on Monday night and so we didn't really get any playing in that day. But Tuesday we headed for the beach and Braxton had so much fun.

He played splashed in the water, tried to bury his feet in the sand, threw the sand (I think that was his favorite part) and just had fun hanging out with his cousins.

It was an overcast day and Jeff and I ended up with some nice sunburns! I didn't think we had stayed outside that long, but I guess we had. So funny that we take the time to make sure Braxton is protected - but for some reason think we won't get burned. I guess we were wrong! (not the first time that has happened)

road trip

On Wednesday, Braxton and I took a little trip to Montpelier, Idaho, to visit my sister, Debbie. It was about 40 minutes away from Bear Lake.

Braxton had so much fun playing with her two kids, Bailie and Durham. They were so incredibly sweet to him and played so nice.

Durham had this batman toy. It was pretty sweet. You'd put batman in the elevator type thing and when he reached to the top floor, you opened the door - it was Bruce Wayne, not batman anymore. Braxton kept saying what I thought way, "blue swing, blue swing." I had no idea what he meant and said, "I don't think they have a blue swing." Finally Durham politely told me, I think he is saying "Bruce Wayne." which is exactly what Brax was trying to say. They also made a fort out of their couch and couch cushions. I can't tell you how fun it is to see him interacting with his cousins. I can't wait to move back and be closer!

Bailie seemed like a sweet little lady. I think she enjoyed keeping an eye on Brax and being a little babysitter for him. It was so fun to see them. The last time they saw Brax was when he was having his two year, early birthday party in August of 2005 - almost 2 years ago. Crazy!

So, then I got the urge to CHOP OFF ALL OF MY HAIR. It has been long and permed - and I can't stand it! I seem to be losing all of my hair for some reason and it is bugging me, BIG TIME. So ... Debbie loves to cut hair, so why not?

First I had to pose with my long, chopped-off locks. For some reason, I chose this way, don't ask me why! :

(I know, so NOT lovely)

THE END RESULTS

That night when we went to bed, Braxton kept asking me, "where is that little boy and girl, Mommy? I want to play with them again." :(

splishin' and a splashin'

We spent Thursday morning at the pool. It was so nice, hardly anyone was there except are family. We were all taking turns doing crazy jumps off of the dive. Jeff did a beautiful toe-touch and then a made a splash with a back-flop. Very nice. I skipped down the diving board holding hands with Bart's girlfriend, Marcie. What a sight to behold, I bet!

Braxton also jumped off the diving board, too. We didn't get a still photo but we did get him on video. He is getting so big!

The night before at the pool, our nephew, Austin, had a bit of a scare. He tried to do a back-flip off of the board and ended where he started, therefore, slamming his body into the board. THANKFULLY, after getting out of the pool, he was alright. That could have been a very scary situation. The next day though, he was pretty excited to show his bruises on his stomache. Yep, looked like the lines from a diving board!

mini-golfing

The evening before we left, we decided to go mini-golfing. Braxton had never been before and he had so much fun! It took two or three holes for him to understand what he needed to do - and after that it was, "no, I do it!" if we tried to help him at all. It was so much fun! He loved to get the ball out of the hole after it went in - he was a bit disappointed with the last hole because he couldn't get the ball out.

On the way back to the condo all we heard was, "I want to go goffing again, Mommy" - "Daddy, let's go goff."

It was a really fun way to end our trip.

(The picture in the middle looks like he was about to throw the ball at the camera -- don't worry, he wasn't. He was just trying to show the ball to the camera :)

Six years and counting!

Jeff and I celebrated our 6th anniversary today! Pretty crazy to think how fast time flies by. I swear, it just goes by faster and faster.

We just went out to eat and went by the downtown Ogden area. SO much has changed since Christmastime. It was fun!

We also had a family reunion to go to. It was family from Jeff's mom's side, the Fowers'. That was also way fun. I don't know about you, but I love getting together with family (even if it is people I don't know) and just having good old fashioned fun. There was a swimming pool and a basketball court and a place to play volleyball. Fun stuff!

Never expected this

So, today was just your normal, average day when Jeff comes into me and says, "um, I just checked your email, and you better come read it" So, I was like, alright.

This is what I read:

Hello everyone - Some scary news - Harvey Miller was bitten by a shark yesterday while he was on vacation in Hawaii. He is in Queens hospital and is stable at this time but he has sustained lacerations to his leg which are pretty severe. He has severed tendons, and quite a bit of muscle missing according to Lisa. He had surgery yesterday and will likely need additional surgery / rehab in the future. (Not sure on the details at this time). They asked that we keep him in our prayers and thoughts. and give thanks that his injuries were not any worse. He did get a blessing from the missionaries and his father in law prior to surgery yesterday. He will probably be in the hospital for about 3-4 more days. They are planning on returning home on the 27th.

Alright, so who is Brother Miller you ask? Well, he is the first counselor in the bishopbric of the Toledo 2nd ward. Jeff and I moved out of that Ward almost a year ago, but, we still see the Miller's all of the time since we are in the Toledo 1st ward. In fact, just the last week before we flew out here, we ran into him as he was headed out of church and we were headed in. His wife was also my 2nd counselor in the YW's. I also got to know their daughter Catie well, too, because she was in YW's also. SUCH A WONDERFUL FAMILY! You just never think anything bad will happen to people you know, let alone, of all things, A SHARK ATTACK! Especially to someone I know so well. I'd see him ALL the time for mutual and things. He also is an attorney, so he and Jeff kind of hit it off from the very beginning, too.

Harvey has really had a string of not-so-good, alright BAD luck the last few years. About 2 years ago he was in a very serious motorcycle accident and was severely hurt, and about a year ago, he was avoiding a accident and drove onto the grassy area by the road. The grass was so high, he didn't see a big metal pole sticking up out of the ground ... he was lucky, he walked away.

They say he will be ok. He will have to undergo many surgeries to fix some nerve and tendon damage. Most of his calf muscle is gone, there were atleast four or five deep lacerations down to the bone. He should be able to walk again and within 6 months to a year, they say he should be able to play basketball with his teenage son.

Anyway -- very interesting. Like I said, such a sweet man. His wife is adorable, too. If you want, you can type in any search engine "shark attack harvey miller oahu" and you will get plenty of information on that accident.
Alright ... Well, here are some photos (don't worry, not gruesome)

After paramedics arrived (this pic was in a hawaiian newspaper)

In a news conference answering questions (he was sick from all of the medication he was on, hence the pink container :(

Talking with is wife Lisa

This picture says it all.

If you only knew how happy this guys is, ALWAYS, you'd want to bawl just looking at this picture. I know he has nothing to be real happy about - but just a very humbling picture.

Utah, here we come!

Braxton was SO excited to fly on an airplane to see his grandmas and grandpas. I had made him a chain of linked paper to countdown the days - from like day 39. Finally when we got up Tuesday morning we took off the last link. Braxton said, "where did the links go?" I told him that there were no more because we head out tomorrow morning. You should have seen the look on his face! He was so terribly excited!

So, he stayed up that day from 8:15am to about 7 or 7:30pm. He took a late nap (which I was ok with, because I was hoping he would stay up late, so that he'd be tired on the airplane ride.) That CRAZY monkey of mine stayed up from 10pm Tuesday night until about 8am Wednesday morning. He was so excited he couldn't sleep. After he woke up from his nap, he got his backpack on and just paced back and forth. He kept asking how much longer and we'd say, "6 hours .... 5 hours...." etc and he'd just say, "ok!"

Anyway, we stayed up with him, so none of us went to bed that night. But, our plan worked. Our flight took off from Detroit at 7:20am and by 8:00am he was out cold. He slept most of the way which made it nice because we could both drift off, too.

So here are a few pictures of our day:

Alright, so technically - it is July 21st. I haven't been able to get on here and get some pictures/stories on until tonight, but I'm posting them on the dates that it really happened :)

(about 4:50 am, Wednesday, July 18th)

(about 4:50am and 23 seconds, on July 18th)

Braxton with his backpack!

(his shirt says, I'm a freakin' genius)

Just boarded, now waiting!

"I see our special K box, Mommy!"

He was so excited because he saw a box we had brought with us full of his old toys

SO EXCITED!

About 20 minutes after take off, he was OUT

Fast asleep on Daddy's lap

Half awake. About and hour, hour and a half left to go.


(FYI- so technically it is July 21st. I haven't been able to get on here and get some pictures/stories on until tonight, but I'm posting them on the dates that it really happened :)

Yes, I know, I'm blogging!

I know I said I wouldn't be blogging again until we reached Utah. I lied. Well, technically, I didn't - I said if something way cool happened, I might have to post something. Nothing cool happened - but something "uncool" did. So, I'm justifying that as well.

Ok, so most of our kitchen stuff is boxed up and ready to move. We do however have one cupboard with some plates/glasses/utensils and also pots and pans. Everything else is in a box. So, I was to tackle the "cleaning" aspect last night. Of course, I got side-tracked wrestling around with Braxton. (remember, Jeff is studying in our other room, so we don't see much of him. we won't until Wednesday, which is also the day we leave.)

Well, I figure that tomorrow (which is now today) after church I can tackle the cleaning and whatever else needs to be done. Of course, I SHOULD HAVE DONE IT LAST NIGHT!

flashback to last night: Braxton is asleep, Jeff is asleep, I am tossing and turning because my foot is hurting. (I had bandaged it up with some medicine last night.) After about 40 minutes I am starting to feel the tiredness creeping up on me when "bark, bark, bark." Nope, not a dog - just my son.

Yes, my son sounds "croupy" this morning and I am flipping out. Last time he had the croup (3 months ago) it ended up turning into pneumonia. I got on the internet and I am trying all the home remedies but I pray it doesn't last. The last thing I want is for him to be not well for the plane ride. What fun! It is just so weird how they seem fine pretty much all day as long as they are upright, it's the laying down that gets them.

I am really starting to wonder, though - Braxton was diagnosed with trachea/laryngo malasia as a baby, and croup is inflammation of the trachea and larynx area. I wonder if that has anything to do with why he seems to get croup so often?

Alright, well, I must tend to my little munchkin. He isn't eating much and seems to want to just lay around and be held. Looks like another day of not much going to get done again. I'm running out of time - Actually, I ran out of time!

Worth the pain

Alright - so last night I finished my two projects. I am happy that I finally got the one for our living room done - and now I have another road sign to go along with Braxton's real stop sign so I am excited.

I really have to stop blogging and seriously get ready for our trip to Utah. So NOW there probably won't be anymore blogs until we get there. (Unless of course something way cool happens!)

Have fun y'all!

(by the way - my foot actually feels quite good. I thought afterwards that I wasn't even going to be able to walk normal for a while, but I guess it just hurt and looked bad at first)

Look what I can do! (Or can't)

So, Jeff is gearing up this weekend to start studying for summer semester finals. He came home from school tonight and said, this weekend, he is going to be in Braxton's room studying and I need to act like he isn't in there. (In other words ... "let me study!") So, I told him that I would need to have a few projects to do so that I could stay busy doing those insteady of staying busy bugging him. I have a few projects at home ready to start - I just needed some spray paint from the store. So, off we went in pursuit of orange and white spray paint. (I am making something for our living room & I am making a construction sign to hang in Braxton's room - hence the orange spray paint.)

Well, leave it to me to get hurt spray painting. Ok, technically I wasn't spray painting when I got hurt. After the initial pain - I was actually pretty excited to be honest! I haven't had a really good scar to add to my list of scars in a REAL long time. I loved getting scars as a child - they were my awesome battle wounds. I thought I was so buff. Okay, sometimes I still pretend I am ....

I was done spray painting my first project and was holding the door open for Braxton to come in. (I was also holding a big flat cardboard box because I needed something to place under my project so that I wouldn't get paint all over the parking lot. And, my project was still a little wet.) Braxton walks in as I am holding the door with my back, I let go of the door and try to walk in, but didn't take into account that the cardboard box was a little too large to fit through the door without a slight turn ... when "slam!" I hadn't moved quick enough and my foot, where the back tendon is, got stuck underneath the opening of the door.

Anyway ... so here you go:

A typical door

A typical door, opened

(there is a slight step up from the cement - you can't tell from this pic though.)

A typical foot after getting slammed in a door

A typical foot getting slammed in a door from another angle :0)

FUN STUFF, EH?

It does look much cooler (worse) in real life. Too bad cameras can't get the true effect!

It's a plane, It's a bird, NO - It's a Condor

Alright - so, once again, I feel so not smart. I was going through Braxton's preschool book with him. We were learning about the number 9. There were pictures grouped together like, rainbows, clouds, hearts, etc. The instructions said to count them and if there was nine of them, he was supposed to circle them. So the rest of the conversation went something like this:

Me (M): Okay, count the rainbows
Brax (B): 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
M: Do you circle them?
B: Yes

M: K, now count the big hearts
B: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
M: Are you supposed to circle them?
B: Nope

M: Now count the clouds
B: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
M: Should you circle those
B: Yep. Sure.

M: K, now there is just the birds left. Count them.
B: (with a confused look on his face) hu, Mommy? What did you say?
M: Count the birds
B: Right here?
M: Yeah
B: Those aren't birds - those are condors!

(Had to pause and think a minute to make sure condors are really birds and not like ... a dinosaur or something - of course, he was right)

I really don't know if technically it was a "condor" or not. It was just a cartoon bird that he could color. But, I'm just amazed that he even knew a condor was a type of bird and that he picked that up from somewhere. I tell you what, whatever it is that I don't know I'm doing must be working! Cuz he is a smarty pants, that's for sure.

A couple reasons to move ...

Today would be my Grandmother Whiting's (my mom's mom) 100th birthday. She passed away 2 1/2 years ago. Happy Birthday Grandma!

In nursery on Sunday - we were about 1/2 way through the two hours and Joe (a little black boy) came in because he had been asleep earlier. He walked in and Jeff said, "hi, Joe." He walked over to Jeff and did a hand gesture and said, "what's up?" It was hilarious!

So, there are only 8 days before we head out to Utah! I'm so excited. Braxton is really excited, too. Every morning when we wake up he asks, "how many more days before we go see grandma and grandpa, mom?" He loves to fly! I'm glad - it makes it a lot easier on me.

Our lease is up at this apartment on August 31st. We have had some serious problems with bugs getting into our apartment. They have come to spray and we have sprayed, but it only lasts like, maybe a week, and the buggies are back to visit. So, we have found a new apartment that we will be moving into once we get back to Toledo. Problem - we don't get back until August 28th. So, you see, I have to make sure that EVERYTHING is packed and ready to go so that we can be out by the 31st. I have been busy trying to get all of that taken care of AND get ready for our little trip, too.

I'm not quite sure if I will have enough time to post again before we get to Utah so, no worries. Everything is goin' good. I will however, try and keep you posted while we are in the good 'ol "beehive state."

I will now leave you with a few pictures of our unwanted "friends" that we have met while we have lived here ... they are REALLY annoying and "bug" us, if you know what I mean!

This little (alright, BIG) friend of ours was really quick! It was one of the biggest that we had. Actually we had probably, about 4 or 5 this size. Most of the centipedes were only 2 or 3 inches long - but a few were about 6-7 inches! The first one we saw, was about three days after we moved in - and we were getting Brax to bed, we turned on the light and just saw something fly across the wall. (GULP! *did we just sign a year lease?* grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.) People will probably think we are nuts-o, but we'd just vacuum these guys up. Except, some were big enough, that they would get stuck at the end of the hose and just hang out there for a minute trying (and succeeding for a while) to escape the sucking air. We did this for two reasons - 1) they were dang quick! It's not like you can grab a tissue and get these guys, either. 2) We have a cyclone vacuum - so once they got in the canister, we would just let 'em spin for a while. Kind of like six flags for centipedes! I hope they got so dizzy they puked! (I know God created all of these things, but they are creepy when you think they could be crawling around you at night! I say --- August 31st can't come soon enough!)

We call this little critter, Charlotte. Charlotte was ENORMOUS, too. I think she was the biggest AND hairiest spider we saw here. Jeff went to grab a tissue and get her and she was not only ugly, huge, and hairy - she was also JUMPY, too. (hence the tissue on the floor)

I posted the pictures backwards - this is the first picture, Jeff had gone to get the spider and it jumped and so he dropped the tissue ..... ewey!

Alrighty! Well, until next time .... G'nite, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite - but if they do, pick up a shoe, and beat 'em 'till they're black and blue! (we say this religiously at our house every night)

One more quick "Brax" story. We went to Walmart on Saturday to get some treats for a movie. We decided to get crunch'n'munch popcorn. I guess Braxton wasn't really paying much attention. When we got up to the register to pay, Brax said, "Mom - grandma has that" I thought for a moment and my mom does like that a lot, so I figured he could remember that she had some last time we were in Utah. I just kind of said "mmm-hmmmm." Then he said, "Mom, remember? She had it at the hotel?"

So, this is what he was remembering - in August of last year, we went on a little trip with my parents to Nauvoo. While we were in the hotel, my mom had some crunch'n'munch and I wanted some, too, so she put some in a baggie for her and gave us the rest of the box. He has got such a good memory!

This is MY country

I know this is a little late - but Happy 4th of July! I have always loved seeing a flag waving in the wind. (My personal favorite is actually at a grocery store in Logan, Utah, called Macey's - it is the hugest flag I have ever seen and it looks so beautiful waving in the wind.)

Just a few months after Jeff and I were married, September 11th happened. I have always tried to be a patriotic person - but after that event, I made a promise to myself that I need to proudly display the flag as much as possible. I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! So, two years ago, I made the flag pictured above out of wood from an old crate. I know it isn't the greatest thing in the world, but I actually do love it.

To me seeing a flag is a lot more than just knowing we are a free country. Everytime I see a flag, I think about our forefathers and how they fought hard to make sure we could have the freedoms to choose what we want to believe. I think about the early pioneers going through so much to get to a land where they could do exactly that - worship how they want. I do love this great country and feel so blessed to be here.

Jeff and I spoke today in church. Of course, my nerves were running high - but I feel I actually did very well. Yeah, I still could feel my body shaking, my voice quivered a few times ... but all in all, I can't complain. I spoke on "Miracles" and Jeff spoke on "The Plan of Salvation." He did really great, too. Now that it is over with, I don't understand why I get so uptight. It really isn't that bad.

Well, we have 10 days left before we head out to Utah for a few weeks. Braxton is still worried that we have missed our plane. Poor kid, we have been counting down since day 39. That is a long time for a 3 year old.

OK - I guess that is all I have for now.