Going to Trail West, Piano recital, Birthdays, and Austin in the Hospital

Arriving at Trail West

Malachi getting his first pony ride

Samuel on the pony ride

Caleb on the pony ride

Caleb found a friend at kid's club

Getting ready for river rafting

Getting our safety instructions

Getting started on the river (Joseph, Samuel, and I are in the back)

Getting our towels when done

Going on the big rapids. We were sure holding on tight!

Feeding the chipmunks in the ghost town, during our jeep jours

Finding gold in the stream

On the hike up the mountain

At the top of the mountain, we're in the front on the left side and the right side (samuel)

Austin going down the mountain with her friend Kiera

Malachi going down the mountain

Austin and Caleb at whale rock

Malachi on the horse swing

Caleb on the horse swing

Caleb was so sweet. He picked this seeded dandelion (if that's what they're called) and said he was going to make a wish, he closed his eyes and said, "I wish I was a better boy, I wish I was nicer to my mom, because I love her so much, I love her more then the whole wide earth!" He then opened his eyes and blew all the seeds off. He did this with such sweet tenderness, that it brought tears to my eyes. I gave him a big hug, and said "I love you too!" I love my sweet boy!

Samuel on his horse for the trail riding

Austin on her horse for the trail riding

Joseph on his horse for the trail riding

Samuel was a little nervous, this was his first time riding a horse, but the guide calmed him down, and he ended up having a blast!

Caleb drinking hot chocolate at the wrangeler breakfast

Austin catching her french toast

Samuel catching his french toast

Malachi is paitently waiting his turn to catch french toast

Samuel helped Caleb catch his french toast

He caught it!

I helped Malachi catch his french toast

Betsy catching her french toast

Austin catching her french toast

Joseph catching his french toast

Austin riding her horse back from the wrangler breakfast

Malachi loved his ice cream cone

He got it all over his face

relaxing in the hamock

Betsy, Malachi, and Caleb walking town the trail

Joseph

Joseph climbing/falling on the rock wall

Going down the zip line

Joseph turned 14

Joseph blowing out his candles

Malachi had another run in with the oak stool, I threw it the stool to the curb, I was so mad at it for hurting my baby again.  

Austin doing an art project in while in the hospital

So we went to trail west two years ago, and it was the best family vacation ever.  I have applied every year since, even though they told me our chances of getting in again are slim to none.  Well a miracle happened, and monday morning (June 1st) I got a call telling us they had two families no show, and that left room for our family, and would we like to come, I made sure they were fine with us coming without Travis since he is in the field, and they said that would be fine.  So we did it.  We spent the next couple of hours getting everything ready to go, and then drove up to Buena Vista, CO (2 hours).  We were so happy to go again.  They gave us a condo just above the lodge to stay in, and we joined right in with the festivities.  We had a great time the whole week!  They had tons of activities for the kids.  It was a little exhausting climbing all the stairs all over the place, but we had a great time!  The best part for me was not having to cook or clean the entire week, and having good wholesome entertainment for the kids every day.  Each night was also nice to have a spiritual talk, and some quiet time without the kids.  Our friends the McCurdys were there, so it was nice to hang out with them too.  We loved hiking, horseback riding, white water rafting, jeep tours, ropes course and zipline, swimming, and all the fun activities and games.  I know the ropes course was a little scary for Caleb, We went up together, since he wasn't tall enough to grab the rope to hold onto.  I was holding his hand the whole way across, which only left me with one hand to hold onto the rope.  Towards the end they only had a rope hanging down every couple of feet, so I would have to let go of the rope and then quickly grab the next rope, well one of the times I had to switch ropes, Caleb moved the wrong way, and I missed the rope and we fell sideways, we were tethered together and attached to the higher wire, so we just fell horizontal, but after a minute of figuring out how to get us back up with one hand, we did it and made it to the end, it did scare Caleb a little, but he did great.  He didn't really want to go down the zip line, but I went first, and the worker, gave him a little push to get him off, and he did fine.  He even said he wanted to do it again, just not until tomorrow!  We had a couple incidents of kids fighting, but overall was a great week, The day we got back from Trail West we had 6 tons of rock delivered, and re-landscaped our front lawn area.  We had some help from some friends in the ward who are awesome!  Also that afternoon I had my piano recital, it went great, but boy was that sure a busy day.  The next week consisted of trying to get the house ready for pictures so we could list it for rent.  Joseph turned 14 years old on June 9th!  He is getting so big, he is now finally taller then me, and weighs more than me too.  We had a nerf wars birthday party for him at our house.  It was a lot of fun, we had about 5-6 boys come to the party, they ate homemade pizza I made to look like targets, had cake and ice cream, and had dart wars in the backyard.  The only down side was that I had ordered a bunch of guns from amazon and they didn't arrive until after the party, so we didn't have a huge selection of guns.  Now Austin had been complaining about her knee hurting, and the next day she had a fever, and was sleeping all day.  The fever combined with her knee pain (she didn't hurt it at all) worried me, so I called the nurse advice line and they told me to take her to the dr. right away.  I woke Austin up, and took her to the dr. office, the dr. told it was probably some kind of infection, and to take to the ER right away.  I checked on the kids at home, (I had left Joseph and Betsy in charge) grabbed some things for Austin and I and we drove to Memorial hospital (not the one of post, the dr. said to take her to Memorial Hospital about 30 minutes away).  We waited in the waiting room, for about an hour and a half, and then they took her back and started taking blood and urine samples, and ordered an MRI, they hooked her up to an IV and started giving her fluids (she was also dehydrated).   Finally by 9:30 pm they finally had enough abnormal results that they admitted her to the hospital, Once I got her settled in her room, I drove home, checked on all the kids to make sure they survived the day with Joseph in charge, told Joseph I would have to go back to the hospital in the morning, to be with Austin and sent him to bed.  The house was a disaster, but all least all the kids had been fed and were sleeping.  I finally went to sleep too.  The next morning, I fed all the kids breakfast, gave them instructions for the day and went back to the hospital.  They ran more blood tests, I sent a red cross message to Travis in the field, to let him know that Austin was in the hospital and would likely be there several more days, and we needed him at home.  They finally determined by late afternoon that she was fighting of a bacteria infection in the bone marrow in her leg.  They started her on antibiotics through her I.V. They have also been giving her pain medication and fever reducer through her I.V. since we got there. Austin was holding up pretty well, she wasn't feeling good, so mostly just laid in bed and watched T.V. or slept.  I went home at lunch time and checked on the kids, and then came home about dinner time as well.  Going back and forth so many times, was exhuasting.  The ward was helping to bring in dinner, so that helped.  The next day was my birthday, but life took over, and once again spent the day going back and forth from the hospital and home,  Joseph and Betsy were getting pretty tired of taking care of things at home, but, my prayers were answered and I heard from Travis that afternoon, that he was on his way home.  He made it home that evening, ate dinner with us, and then went and spent the night with Austin at the hospital.  Travis and I took turns watching kids, and staying with austin at the hospital.  Finally by Saturday evening her fever had gone done, and her blood work results were starting to improve, and best of all, Austin started getting up and moving around a little more.  She went to the play room there and made some crafts to decorate her room with, she had the most colorful room in the hospital.  They dr. told us they could probably send Austin home on Monday, but she was doing so much better, they let us take her home on Sunday, but with strong antibiotics to take on a strict schedule, and we had to bring her in frequently for blood tests.  We made it home just in time to go to church.