October 2019

Flying to Utah for Chaplain Conference

I bought a bag of chik-fil-a mints (500)! (no Chick-Fil-A in Hawaii)

Gideon was so tired he fell asleep, but hooked his little finger into his box of Chick-fil-A hash browns, so no one would take his while he was sleeping

All the vitamins and herbal supplements Betsy needs to feel better

Going to Women's Conference session with my girls!

My friend Lisa Fletcher and I

Walking around temple square

Roasting S'mores at our hotel in SLC

Austin loved wearing hoodies and roasting marshmallows in the cold

Malachi loves climbing trees

Malachi loves Caleb

Gideon loves to climb trees too!

Beautiful hiking in Hawaii

Gideon was a puppy for Halloween

Samuel liked playing with Bazookas at family range day

Malachi was super excited to be in the big army truck

Bowling with Betsy in Oregon

At family range day, the boys loved climbing to the top of the big dirt/rock piles

Betsy getting to hold her cousin Della for the first time in Oregon

Caleb was Spiderman for Halloween

Betsy and I were given free tickets for Disney on Ice in Oregon, they were box seats, and it was awesome!

Trunk or Treat at the church was camping in the van!

My little Halloween puppy

My goodness, October was a busy month.  Travis was gone at training, then ended up needing to go to Montana for emergency leave due do Bonnie (step mom) having a heart attack, and needing to care for his Dad.  Then I got to fly with all 7 kids to Utah by myself for Chaplain Conference, where Travis was meeting us.  We determined Joseph would go take care of his Grandpa and step Grandma (once she was out of the hospital) while Travis came to Conference.  We had an evening flight, that went overnight.  We made it through the airport okay, we had reserved a wheelchair for Betsy (still wasn't feeling good).  I pushed Betsy, and Joseph, Austin, and Samuel each were in charge of a little boy.  Once we got through security, a lady helped push Betsy, while I helped more with the little boys who were wanted to explore and not stay with the group.  When we got to the gate another Chaplain family we know was there, going to conference too, so we were excited to have friends.  Since Betsy was in a wheelchair, we got to get on the airplane first, so that was helpful to get all the kids on, they also put us pretty close together in the very back of the plane.  The little boys slept through a lot of the airplane ride, but the rest of us didn't sleep much.  We didn't have any checked luggage, (took a lot of planning) and Travis and Grandma Kathy picked us up from the airport.  We made it to the hotel, and tried to sleep a little more, then left to drive down to Provo, UT to meet my parents at Chick-Fil-A.  The kids loved eating there, and the little boys played at the play place.  I bought a huge bag of Chick-Fil-A mints, it was great.  The girls, Travis, my mom and I walked over to the dollar store (no dollar store in Hawaii) and shopped a little bit while my Dad watched the boys in the play place.  Next Betsy and I went to our naturopath doctor in Orem, while everyone else went to the park.  Betsy got lots of vitamins and herbal supplements to try to help her feel better, with iron being the most important (no surprise there).  I got a few things to help me as well.  Then we all drove back to Salt Lake City, where Travis and I got ready and went to the dinner reception for Chaplain Conference.  It was a nice event, got to see old friends, and eat yummy food, and hear a spiritual message and music.  I was so tired from flying in that I had trouble staying awake though.  Joseph left the next morning with his Aunt Maia to drive to Montana to start helping to care for Jim and Bonnie (still in the hospital).  We enjoyed going to general conference all day Saturday, I got to take the girls to the evening session, and then go out to the Olive Garden afterwards.  Grandma Kathy was with us too, but she lost her ticket, so she didn't get to go into the session with us.  Sunday, we also enjoyed going to the General Conference Sessions, and roasted S'mores on the top of our hotel in the evening, it was fun.  Monday and Tuesday, Travis and I went to Chaplain Conference, again wonderful inspirational messages.  Austin took the kids to the Children's Discovery museum one morning, they went to a trampoline park for another day.  We ate at the Nauvoo Café and walked around temple square.  Wednesday the kids and I (except Joseph) flew home, while Travis and his mom drove to Montana.  Once again we had Betsy in the wheelchair, but there was a guy pushing her at first, but when we took the stairs to go up to security, they were supposed to bring her up in the wheelchair, I finally had to send Samuel down to get her, while trying to keep everyone else in line.  We finally managed to get her with us and go through security together.  We got on the plane first again, and got everyone situated and made it through the long flight home.  Stake Choir practice started for Christmas, with Austin and I participating.  The practices are long, but the music is good.  We are both singing, and I am playing the piano for two songs.  Travis got back the next week, so it was good to have him home.  The three little boys enjoyed a hike with us, which was really nice, and we got to go to Family Range Day, where the kids got to see lots of different army vehicles, and weapons and things, then Austin, Samuel, and I got to practice shooting the guns.  It was fun.  Then we got news that Betsy's procedure in Oregon was approved and we would be leaving Saturday the 19th.  We frantically got all the paperwork and things figured out to be ready in time.  We also took the whole family in (except Joseph, who got his blood drawn before we left for conference) to have their blood drawn to check for anyone else who may have the same genetic problem that Betsy does.  We'll have the results back by the end of the year.  Betsy was pretty low on iron and blood again, so they gave her a blood transfusion on Friday before we needed to leave.   So Betsy and I left for Saturday morning.  We had a layover, and arrived in Oregon late Saturday night, by the time we got the rental car and drove to my mom's house it was midnight.  We went to sleep, and went to church with my Mom, to my sister's ward on Sunday for Jonathan's homecoming talk in church.  It was so nice to be back to the ward I grew up in, and to be there for Jonathan's homecoming.  Then afterwards it was so nice to have all my brothers and sisters except Cristin and their families over for dinner.  It was a great afternoon and evening.  Monday morning, Betsy and I packed up our stuff and drove over to Doerenbacher's children's hospital in Portland, OR for her appointment.  They checked her out, and talked about her upcoming procedure, and then we went out to lunch at Olive Garden (another restaurant not in Hawaii) while we were waiting for her room to be ready.  Then we went back and got her situated in her hospital room.  They ran their labs, and I got checked into the Ronald McDonald house where we were going to be staying for the rest of the time.  My mom hung out with us a little bit at the hospital, then she went home, and I went at slept at the Ronald McDonald house.  The next day, Betsy couldn't eat or drink anything, and had a hard time when the nurse putting her IV in missed the vein and shot saline fluid in her arm, which was pretty painful.  Then by early afternoon they brought her down to the procedure room, and put her to sleep, and took her back.  My mom and I got food, and talked and waited for Betsy to be done.  After about 90 minutes she was done, and waited for her to wake up, and be monitored for a while.  Because of the nature of the procedure, she couldn't eat or drink anything, and her throat hurt a lot, and all she wanted was to drink, or suck on ice, but they wouldn't let her.  She had 4-5 large polyps removed from her intestines, and the largest one, was the size of a baseball and completely blocking her intestines.  They had to put staples in her intestines to close the site when they removed it.  She was having a hard time mostly because she was so thirsty, but otherwise the procedure went well.  They wouldn't let her eat or drink anything the rest of the day.  She slept okay, had to take pain medication, (I slept with her).  Then finally the next morning after we finally got a hold of the doctor after a few hours she was able to eat and drink again.  Boy, was she so glad to finally eat and drink again.  Her throat was still sore, but it helped a lot to have drinks again, we also got her lots of ice cream.  By the afternoon they had checked her labs one more time, and decided to release her.  My mom helped us get her to the Ronald Mcdonald house and she was able to rest nicely in a big bed.  The Ronald Mcdonald house was really nice and had a lot of fun things to do.  Betsy spent the next week resting, making a few outings with Betsy to get food and go to places like the dollar store.  We got free tickets to OMSI (museum) and got to take some of the cousins with us, which was pretty fun.  We also went and saw a movie one day, and went to a bookstore.  We did an escape room that was pretty fun, and went bowling and played laser tag for free, with some kids who wanted a few more players.  We went to IKEA and bought candy, ate at the Olive Garden again and the Cheesecake factory.  We bought some groceries, so that we didn't have to eat out at every meal, but did eat out a lot.  We also went to a donut shop and played games while eating out donuts.  Betsy didn't seem to have a ton of energy, but could handle one small outing a day, and then reading and tv watching was most of the rest of the day.  We also played games that they had at the Ronald Mcdonald house.  I went to church on Sunday to my brother Kyle's church, where the kids were doing the primary program.  That was nice, Betsy wasn't feeling well so I went back to the Ronald Mcdonald house after that.  That evening she was feeling better, so we were able to use some free tickets we were given from the Ronald McDonald house for Disney on Ice!  It was really cool, we had box seats, and went up in a private elevator, and had our own space for watching with free snacks, drinks, and our own bathroom.  The show was pretty spectacular, and we had a great time.  Betsy had her follow up appointment, and everything looked good, so we were good to go home.  We spent the evening packing up our stuff, we ended up with a lot of extra stuff, so it was tricky putting it all in.  While we were in Oregon the weather was beautiful, sunny, and cool.  The fall colors were absolutely gorgeous.  We had a great time together, even though part of it wasn't very fun.  The morning we left, it was really cold and windy, and we were shivering like crazy whenever we were outside.  We were sure happy to be going home.  Our trip home was long, but uneventful.  We made it back October 29th.  While I was gone, Travis was supposed to be staying home and watching the kids.  But he had a soldier die at work, and was super busy with work, and the kids were basically being watched by friends the whole time I was gone, I was really grateful others were able to step in and help take care of the kids.  The kids sure missed me, especially Gideon, he kept following me everywhere, and freaked out when I left the room without him.  The next day, there was a trunk or treat at Travis' work, so we met him there and had fun going around getting candy, they had a costume contest, and Caleb won for being an alien!  (sorry, no picture).  Then on Halloween Travis and I took the younger kids around our neighborhood, while Betsy passed out candy at our house and watched a movie.  They had fun, and I made sure they each only ate a few pieces of candy before I took the rest to lock up.