A fun weekend

Last weekend the new town that we live in had a festival called Old Settlers. I used to love going to Old Settlers when I was in high school because it was a way to see everyone  that I hadn't seen much over summer. Sort of like a reunion before school started back up again for the year. There are activities like a parade, fireworks, a car show, softball tournament, mud volleyball, bull riding competition, etc. We thought it would be a lot of fun to take Miles to the parade. We also know that he loves having other kids around so we invited Johanna and the girls to join us and, of course, Grandma. The girls are old enough to understand what parades are all about, CANDY! Afterwards it looked like they had been trick-or-treating. They were fully loaded! 

There was a very fun fly-over before the parade started. Miles loved seeing all of the planes and unlike a fly-over in a bigger city (like Provo's jet fly-over), these little planes kept circling around and flew over us over and over and over again. So fun!

Waiting for the parade to start

I was too busy talking to get a good picture of the planes

Getting a good view

The girls knew where to stand to get the CANDY!

Watching the parade while eating their candy

Having a good time

Keaghan & Laiken with their loot

After the parade we all went back to our house and had lunch. Everyone then left so that Miles could take a nap. I had some old high school friends in town for the weekend so during nap I got to go hang out with them at the local pool and catch up. It was fun to see old friends!

Grandma came back over Saturday evening so Dave and I could have a date night. We went and got Dave a new phone (one that actually works in our town) and then had dinner with some friends from high school and their significant others. Our plan was to make it back in time to see the fireworks, but we were having too much fun talking that we didn't quite make it. We did get to see them from the road as we arrived back in town...and then one of my biggest fears actually came true. As we turned down our street the street was lit with all sorts of ambulance, firetruck, and cop car lights. I think my heart actually stopped beating! I was so freaked out and just knew something bad had happened to Miles and Grandma. I immediately called Grandma and asked what on earth was going on. She reassured me that all was well at our house, but that all of the emergency people had gone into the house across the street. I immediately felt relief even though I was worried about our neighbors. Dave asked some of the people standing around outside if they knew what was going on and all they had heard was that someone had fallen, but that it wasn't the owner of the house (who is an elderly lady who lives alone). We still don't know exactly what happened over there, but there didn't appear to be any rushing off with anyone in the ambulance so I'm hoping all is/was okay.

The next day after church we made the almost two hour drive out to Fall River to go skiing with my dad and Lisa. I don't do any skiing these days because of my back and I'm so out of shape, but it is fun to just be on the boat with everyone and to swim in the lake to cool off when we need to. We got to watch Dad and Lisa ski on the air chair, always fascinating to watch. Miles wasn't very cooperative and didn't enjoy the boat or swimming in the lake as much as he did last summer. He kept asking, "Go to car now?" Hopefully he'll get over all of that and become a skier boy some day!

Dave & Dad at the back of the boat chatting

Lisa driving while Miles looks on

Mom & Miles swimming

Dad & Miles driving (this was after the accident, they both look a little shocked)

Miles not wanting to swim

Dad demonstrating the knee board that Miles would have nothing to do with

Unfortunately our time at the lake was cut short by an unfortunate accident. Lisa wanted Miles to "drive" the boat but knew that he hasn't quite warmed up to her yet or Grandpa yet so he probably wouldn't sit on their laps so she offered to let Dave drive the boat with Miles on his lap. There is a safety mechanism on the throttle that is supposed to make it so you can't push the throttle down unless you pull up on the ring around it thereby preventing any accidental bumping or children playing with it. Apparently this is not working on Lisa's boat and Miles pushed the throttle down full force without anyone expecting it. Lisa wasn't holding on to anything and basically was thrown in the air for a brief moment until she reached the back of the boat. My dad tried to prevent her from landing on the air chair by sticking his leg out. Lisa got Dad's knee to her kidney area. The air was knocked out of her and she was instantly in a lot of pain. Dave and I felt so bad because we had no idea Miles was capable of doing that. We drove around the lake for a little while, but then decided to head back to shore. We played in the shallow water for a bit before Dad decided to take Lisa on home.

The update from Dad is that Lisa didn't break anything, but is in a lot of pain so her doctor gave her some good pain medicine and told her to stay off of work for a while. Hopefully she is feeling better and better every day.

Birthdays galore and a few other pictures

The end of July/beginning of August is a busy time of year for our family because of the amount of birthdays during a nine day period. We celebrate four birthdays during that time. My mom starts it off on July 24th, then Dave's is on July 26th, then my grandma on July 27th, and then me on August 1st. It is a lot of fun especially because we get to eat a lot of cake!!!

Before I get to the birthday pictures though I'll post the random pictures. And this means that my blog is all caught up! 

One final picture of our house with the "For Rent" sign out front

Miles sleeping in the car on the way to KS

Having fun at the Hesston Splash Pad

Waiting for the buckets to drop the water

He and another little boy were having canon water fights

And now the birthday pictures! I don't have any pictures from when we celebrated our birthdays with my dad's side of the family though. We all went out to eat and then went back to my grandparents' to visit for a while and I completely forgot to take any pictures.

Happy birthday Grandma!

Although it doesn't look like it in this picture, Miles was helping blow out the candles

Dave's birthday cake

Happy birthday Dad! We celebrated about four days late.

Happy birthday Mom! It was a long day of unpacking.

My favorite, chocolate cake!!!

Dave started his new job on August 2nd so we've just been settling into our new routine. Dave is excited for the students to start school. He just sits in meetings right now and those meetings seem to really wipe him out. He is pretty tired when he gets home. 

We started officially potty training Miles yesterday. He has peed on the toilet here and there over the last month or so, but we didn't really force the issue because of the move. Now that we are here and I want to get him enrolled in preschool we decided it was time to make it official. He seems to enjoy being in underwear and is really proud of himself when he pees in the toilet. Yesterday he only had one accident and today he has had one accident, but I'd say that is pretty darn good! The preschool I want to enroll him in starts in two weeks and he has to be pretty much potty trained in order for him to go so I'm crossing my fingers. If we don't make it they did say he could possibly join mid-year like after their Christmas break. We'll see how it goes.

Moving day

Moving day (7/26/12) for Dave ended up being on his 34th birthday! Poor guy. What a way to spend your birthday. Good thing Dave is liked by pretty much everybody he meets. He had lots of helpers show up to help him load the truck. His two brothers that are in the area somewhat also were huge helps! Zach and his family came down the weekend before moving day and were a HUGE help. Jake came down on moving day. He didn't quite make it in time to help load the truck, but Dave put him to work doing all of the wrap up things like deep cleaning, etc. Also a HUGE help! We really do appreciate everyone who helped us in any way! We could never thank you enough!

Mark - what an awesome man! Dave's coworker. He even loaned Dave a vehicle for a few days since I had taken our only car to KS

Some of the young men from our church helping load the truck

The truck is filling up

Our things on the front lawn

Alice - what an amazing lady! Dave's coworker/Miles' babysitter. Miles LOVES this lady and asks about her often.

Moving day madness!

The neighbor girls "supervising!" The little girl in front is another person Miles asks about often.

Jake was in charge of shredding

What Jake & Dave slept on for the night. Ugh!

Jake cleaning the kitchen

Our complete kitchen with new grout and some new tile and newer black appliances

This was what I envisioned our final re-do in the kitchen to look like. Too bad I never got to see it completed in person! Dave did a great job!

The pantry all cleaned out and freshly painted

Silly Jake!

Our almost empty house

Dave even painted our laundry room and cleaned up our old washer and dryer for the renters

 It took Dave and Jake almost the entire day on the 27th (Friday) to get things cleaned, etc. They had a few unexpected things to deal with along the way as well like a leaky hose in the laundry room, etc. Dave finally got on the road Friday evening and made it to Kansas middle of the evening on Saturday. We didn't realize that his phone (Straight Talk) had absolutely NO coverage most of the way so there was a period of panic for me Friday night as I worried something had happened to him, but once he got close to Ft. Collins, CO (at like 5 a.m.) he was able to touch base with me and let me know he was stopping for a quick nap. His phone continues to struggle with coverage so we are going to break down and get him a phone through Verizon.

Miles was so super excited to see his daddy pull up in a big moving truck! He was also super excited to see Buddy and chased Buddy around for the next hour or so. It was nice to be reunited as a family!

We took Sunday to relax and catch up on some sleep and then Monday evening three guys from our new church came over to help us unload the truck. Some of our things got some pretty good "dings" on them, but I guess that is to be expected with any big move. I wasn't the nicest wife in the world though when I saw the damage. Poor Dave! He really is a GREAT guy and puts up with a lot.

We are slowly getting things situated at our new house. We aren't going to be here permanently so we are trying to decide what to unpack and what to leave packed up.

Stayed tuned for more updates...

Our final days in Utah

Things are starting to settle down a bit for us here in Kansas. Miles is currently napping and I'm tempted to join him (it is Sunday afternoon and all), but I figured some of you would appreciate me updating the blog a bit so I'm selflessly doing that instead of getting some shuteye! You should be thankful. Lol! I have a lot of updating to do so I'll have to do it in parts.

The Saturday before Miles and I left Utah (7/14/12) we invited Dave's family to join us in Salt Lake City at the Hogle Zoo for sort of a farewell party. Two of Dave's brothers and their families and Dave's mom were able to join us. We had so much fun spending time with all of them and seeing all the animals. Miles LOVES being around his cousins and was thrilled to be hanging out with them! The Hogle Zoo has a new exhibit that houses animals such as a polar bear, sea otters, brown bears, etc. It was neat to see and the polar bear really put on a good show for us. Miles and Gwen got front row seats!

Miles not cooperating for a picture with mom

Miles, Dave, Ira, & Jake on the carousel

Dave, Miles, Lily, & Zach on the carousel. They were lucky ducks and got to ride it twice!

Miles watching the polar bear

Ira, Sam, & Gwen posing for a picture on the polar bear statues. That other little girl on the left was not very happy that she had to wait while we took a picture. She even managed to make it in our picture!

Riding the train. Apparently Zach, Tammy, & Lily were too impatient to wait for us so they had already ridden the train. Hence the reason they are missing from this picture.

Grandma Dorothy with the grand-kids; Lily, Sam, Miles, Ira, & Gwen

Dave's brother Zach and his family had already planned to follow us back to Provo to help Dave with fixing the tile & grout in our kitchen, but everyone was having so much fun that the whole crew decided to follow us home. Miles was so excited to be entertaining the bunch and refused to take a nap. As I've mentioned many many times on here before, Miles is so sensitive to sleep, or the lack thereof, that the day sort of got crazy for us and him, but I think overall everyone enjoyed spending time together. Dave, Jake, & Zach were able to get a few projects done while the girls and the kiddos played so that was very helpful. Dave & Zach started fixing the tile floor and that project kind of turned into a much bigger project than we thought it would be, but I know Dave appreciated having Zach's help and support.

I started itching that day but could not find any bug bites or anything that would cause the itching. Tammy thought maybe it was stress related. Come to find out nine days later after going to a doctor in Kansas, I had shingles and this was the first day of about two weeks of complete misery! Don't ever get shingles, get the vaccine (at least when you turn 50)! The doctor said my shingles was probably triggered by stress. I think moving to another state would be considered stressful!

Gwen, Sam, & Miles playing in our backyard

The kids got restless so we took them out behind our townhouse and let them run free

For those of you wondering...

We've been busy busy getting ready for the big move! I have some updating to do of the blog, but won't be able to get to it for a while. See...Miles and I left Utah and headed for the next chapter in our lives (Kansas) on Wednesday. We arrived at our new home on Thursday and took a couple of days to recover from the drive and the busy last few weeks we've had. I managed to leave my cell phone charger and cords in Provo so I can't upload any photos until Dave gets here with the rest of our things. Depending on how everything goes, he is scheduled to arrive this Friday, Saturday, or possibly even Sunday. Miles and I are so ready to see him again!

Miles and I went to church today and had fun telling everyone that we are going to be back in the ward again after being gone for about eight years. There are so many new faces in our old ward. It'll be fun getting to know the new people (I guess we are considered new people as well)!

For those who don't know, we are moving in to my mom's house in Halstead, KS. This poor old house is in need of some repairs and we are going to help with those repairs so that she can sell it or rent it out or do whatever she wants with it. Currently she is living with a friend and is about 15 minutes away from us. Boy it'll be so nice to have her so close! We've already scheduled her to babysit so we can have a date night in September to see the Lion King in Wichita. I'm soooooo excited!

Dave's been working hard getting our townhouse ready for our renters. He had to do some tile and grout work in the kitchen that started out as a small project (or so we thought) and turned into a much bigger project. He has also been busy painting. On top of all of that he is finishing up his internship at BYU and his last few days at Target. I do appreciate all he is doing for our little family. He is such an awesome guy!

Miles isn't quite sure what to think of all of this. He is really confused because when we go to what he considers "Gramma's house," grandma isn't always there. Instead we go to Dale's house to see grandma and her dog, Pickles. Grandma has come over everyday to see us though so that is nice. Grandma refers to this house as "your house" or "Miles' room," etc. and he sort of looks at her with a confused expression. I think when we get our stuff here and dad is here with us, it'll slowly start to make more sense to him...hopefully.

Whelp, I promise to update the blog as soon as I can in the next couple of weeks!

Independence Day and Fires

I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day! We definitely had a good day together as a family. It was HOT, but we tried to make the best of it.

In all of our years in Provo we've never attended the big Freedom Festival Parade on Independence Day. I thought it would be fun to take Miles this year since he is old enough to appreciate the fun things in the parade like the Police on their motorcycles, the loud firetrucks spraying water to cool everyone off, the high school bands marching down the street, the horses walking fancy down the street, etc. We got there a tad bit too early so by the time the parade actually got to where we were, we were all sweating and about ready to die! We stuck it out as long as we could so Miles could see as many fun things as possible, but we ended up leaving long before the parade was over. So, we missed most of the floats, but we got to see all of the aforementioned fun things! I think Miles was in heaven when the firetrucks and the bands went by! He was so hot that he finally agreed to go home although I think he would've loved to stay longer.

Waiting for the parade to start

 

It was fun for Miles to see a real band. He loves instruments!

This video is for my dad although I'm not sure he looks at our blog. 

He used to Indian dance so I'm sure he can appreciate what these guys are going through. Neat to see!

Our annual family pic in our Old Navy shirts

After the parade we went home for a bit to cool off and to figure out what we wanted to do the rest of the day. Dave had to work that evening so there would be no fireworks in our future unfortunately. I really love to watch a good fireworks show, but since Miles has joined our family we haven't seen any. Hopefully next year he'll be old enough to stay up late enough and Dave will have the day off!

We spent the rest of the day driving around seeing sites we've never seen before and some we love to see over and over! We drove up to a lookout point over Jordanelle Reservoir and then drove up the Big Cottonwood Canyon. Both very beautiful places! Utah has a lot to offer in the scenery department for sure!

While driving around we also wanted to get a closer view of one of the fires that is burning relatively close to our home. Currently Utah has seven active fires burning across the state. The closest one to our house is the Quail Fire. It has burnt about 2,200 acres so far and is about 50% contained. This fire is approximately 20 to 30 minutes away from us. Our favorite canyon and favorite place to go camping (Alpine Loop) has been closed for the last several days due to this fire, but it has reopened today. Our air here in the valley has been filled with smoke for a few weeks now due to all of the fires burning around us. It is a crazy summer! We finally got some much needed rain yesterday and it only got in the high 60s which was a HUGE blessing and helped clean out the air for now. Several of these fires burning are human caused and that makes me so sad!

View from our mailbox

View from the Provo mall

View from the Orem mall