Moab vacation and Shayna's Birthday celebration!

Since the kids had a week off of school for spring break I decided to take a week off of work and my Mom, Shane and the kids and I headed to Moab....for a WHOLE week. We even had a few days of really awesome weather. We got down there Monday afternoon. We spent the day relaxing after the long drive and just visiting with Grandma Donna. Later that night we went to the Branding Iron for dinner. They have the best scones...Yummy! Tuesday the weather was so amazing. We spent the whole day outside. First of all we packed up a lunch and headed to Wilson Arch. After lunch we headed to Hole in the rock home. We have been there before but they just got a petting zoo so we thought it would be fun to check it out. They were asking WAY to much money for something that no one was really excited about. So we went through the shops. Grandma Donna bought Shay a pair of dangley Unicorn earrings for her Birthday, then we got some ice cream and had another little picnic.

The day was getting hotter, it got up to 75 degrees so we decided to head down the river on Potash road. We walked around for a bit, threw rocks in the water and just enjoyed the sun.

Shayna was dying to put in her new earrings so we headed back to Grandma Donna's house. We changed into our swimming suits and sat out on the deck and I got sunburned and loved every minute of it.

Wednesday morning we woke up to cloudy sky's and lots of wind. But that wasn't going to stop our fun. We headed out to brunch at the Moab diner then went up to slick rock trail and hiked around a bunch.

Poor Britton is so scared of heights. He couldn't walk up any higher than this. He was huddled as close to the rock as he could get. But in his defense there was massive drop offs on both sides of us and the wind was blowing which made him feel unsteady. It still kind of made me laugh though.

He couldn't hike up the big rocks with Shayna and I so we left him behind with Shane and the Grandmas.

Shayna and I continued our adventure and hiked as far as we could go without falling off the other side.

I felt really bad that Britton was missing out on all of the beautiful scenery so we went back and got him. I held his hand the whole way and this is as far as we could get. The wind really started picking up and he was way to nervous. But I am so proud of him for doing it.

The wind started turning to cold for me to handle (it doesn't take much) so Britton, Grandma Donna, Shane and I sat in the car while Shayna had a modeling session with Grandma Sharon.

Thursday the weather was cold and VERY windy. We decided it would be a good day to help Grandma Donna with some spring cleaning. After that we went to the post office then visited some family members and then went and did some grocery shopping. Tyler and Dad were coming down the next day and we needed some supplies.

Friday we woke up and got ready for the day and waited for Tyler and Dad to show up. Again the weather was extremely windy so we thought it would be a fun day for Shayna to open up some gifts and take her out for a Birthday dinner so Grandma Donna could celebrate with us. And she just couldn't wait any more.

She got the game Uno Tippo from Shane.

A very nice hand made leather purse from Grandpa. ( I got one too, I know. SPOILED!)

Some horsey earrings from Grandma Donna a few days earlier. And then she recieved a VERY special gift.....

My Grandpa had purchased this gift before he passed away. He was waiting for the right time to give it to her. Grandma and Grandpa wanted to wait until she was old enough to take care of it. Grandma Donna felt that this was the right time and so Shayna got her butterfly tea set.

It is absolutly beautiful and she can't wait until she can use it. Thank you Grandma for this very special gift.

Birthday Dinner:

We took Shay to Fiesta Mexicana. They have the most delicious food and they really know how to make birthdays fun.

You will have to watch this video to see what they did. It's pretty dang funny! My Mom is the one behind the camera so if it makes you sick....blame her.

I think she had a good time!

About 9:30 Friday night Tyler the kids and I hopped in the car and drove to town to get a movie from redbox. We got the Sorcerrers Apprentice. The kids laughed so hard. They loved the show and begged us to keep it another day so they could watch it again. Both nights that we had the movie we were up until midnight watching it. Tyler and I both kept dozing off but the kids were glued to it.

Saturday the wind was blowing again. I seriously HATE wind. So Dad and Britton ran to the store and got supplies to make taffy.

I'm the only one that sat there for hours making and pulling taffy. And it still didn't work. It tasted good but I'm not sure what I did wrong. I am definatly going to try it again. It was kind of fun. RSL also played on saturday so we went to the store and bought treats and prepared for the game. Kip and Kayden (Tylers friend and his son) Came over and watched the game with us. Shortly after that we were off to bed to watch Sorcerrers Apprentice again.

Sunday was a beautiful day. No wind and the sun was shining but unfortunatley it was time to come home. I didn't want to leave. Time goes by way to fast when your enjoying yourself. Thank you Grandma for letting us stay for so long. You really are the BEST and I miss you already!

Where to begin?

I have allowed myself to get behind on blogging, now I have to play catch up and try to remember everything we have been up to. A couple of weeks ago we (Tyler, me, Britton, Shay, Mom and Dad) went to Anelope Island and hiked the Dooly Knobb trail. It's a pretty steep climb but we all made it. The kids practically ran the whole way. Of course Britton and Shay had to climb every huge rock in site! I LOVE this picture of Tyler and Shay! After the hike we went to the ranch and had a picnic. Then wandered around for a bit.

It was the first warm day we have had in a while and we were all having spring fever so bad. This ended up being the perfect day for a hike and a picnic. Last week Kim was in town so on Thursday I met up with Kim, Amy, Jill and Melissa for dinner at Robintino's. It's always a good time with those girls.

Last weekend I got a phone call from Tyler when he was on his way home from work telling me to pack my bags because he got us a jacuzzi suite in Wendover. I was so excited! I needed to get away and this was perfect. Thanks Ty, your the best!

While we were in Wendover my parents had a sleepover with the kids. They did all kinds of fun things, including bowling.

Since then we have had the last of the indoor soccer games and started outdoor training. We don't know when the first outdoor game will be but I am so looking forward to it. Shayna has also been begging us to put her in soccer. She has never wanted to before but since she went to the soccer store with Ty and Britton and saw all the cute girly soccer stuff she is hooked. I guess we will see what happens with that.

The kids have been continuing with their swimming lessons. They are in session two but the swim coach was so impressed with their swimming ability that he has been teaching them level three. They have two more lessons then we will see if they passed. If so, they go on to level four. I can't believe how much they have improved. Tyler and I have not wanted their lessons to go to waste so we have been taking them swimming as much as we can. This last Saturday we took the kids swimming. Jonny, Beckham and Mckye were able to meet us there. The kids had a blast! RSL also had a game on Saturday night. It wasn't televised and in order to watch it you have to purchase the MLS direct kick package for your TV. We have just never done that so we had planned on going out to dinner to a restaurant that had the game on. We didn't end up needing to do that because my Dad was kind enough to purchase it for us. So we ordered Chinese food and went to my Parents house for dinner and the RSL game. RSL won 4 -1. It was so much fun and my parents got to see how excited and LOUD Britton and Ty can be. I hope they don't regret purchasing this for us because WE WILL BE BACK! Hahaha!

Quick story:

Saturday morning before we went swimming I had poured myself a cup of coffee. I don't like coffee much unless it has a ton of creamer and sugar in it. By the time I added all of my creamer in I needed to reheat it. I stuck it in the microwave for one minute. When I looked over I saw that it was boiling so I took it out of the microwave and went to stir it.....that was the biggest mistake of my life. Little did I know that it would EXPLODE. As soon as I stuck the spoon in it it exploded all over my face and hands and of course all over the kitchen. It was the biggest mess but I was more concerned about my face. It hurt so bad. I immediately stuck my face under cold water. Fortunately it wasn't bad for having boiling water splashed on me. I have a spot on my neck and my ear that are still a little sensitive but nothing major. My face was red for a little bit and for a couple of days it felt tight and sunburned but no big deal considering what it could have been. It scared me more then hurt me that's for sure. Thank you Tyler for cleaning up the mess.

Moral of the story...be extremely careful when putting liquids in the microwave. I have been a little nervous of the microwave since then.

P.S.

I have no idea why the top of the page looks like it does. I could not for the life of me fix it....annoying.

Swimming lessons session one is over!

Waiting for lessons to begin....


Dead mans float....

Back float....

Rocket....

Back rocket....Britton Sinking

They also had to pass off the front crawl. I didn't get a picture of it because I was recording it. Both of the kids did really well. Shayna is a natural and caught onto everything really fast. Britton is a great swimmer but he can't float for anything. I don't get it, he would sink right to the bottom if he had to depend on floating. We will be working on that.

The Instructor said they both did great and they are ready to move on.

They passed!

Session two starts next week and we are all looking forward to it.

And the Mother of the Year award goes to......

**Merilyn Carver**

Tyler, the kids, and I ventured on up to Tremonton to watch Merilyn accept her award. She deserves this award more then anyone I know. She has been through so much and somehow manages to stay positive.

All but three of her children were able to make it. All seven of the children that were there took turns getting up and talking about how much they appreciate their Mom. Tyler did a great job. I was so proud of him. Mary did a great job as well. She told some funny stories, one of them I have to write about. If you know Merilyn at all you will understand why this story is so funny.

When Jim and Merilyn were first married they lived in a small home on a farm in a very small town. One day while Jim was at work Merilyn was home alone and kept hearing bells. She couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from and was looking all through the house to figure out where the sound was coming from. She heard the bells several times throughout the day. She could never find the source of the sound. When Jim got home she told him about the bells. Jim said "Merilyn, we live on a farm, we don't have any neighbors for miles I really don't think you could be hearing bells". She was discouraged but went about her business. Next thing she knew she was hearing the bells again. She ran to Jim to tell him she had just heard them again. Jim said, "yep, I heard them too. If you go to the front door someone will be there!"

She had never heard a doorbell before. It was new technology to her. I love that story!

Congratulation Merilyn, you really deserve this. I am so proud to be your Daughter-in-law.

He made it home!!

Mary would not allow her Dad to stay one more night in that place. She checked him out herself and took him home. I didn't feel like I could be too critical of the nursing home when I wrote my post yesterday because I didn't want to upset Family members. Merilyn ended up filing a grievance with the place so I feel I can now voice my opinion.

When we first arrived I was shocked. I couldn't believe how bad he looked. His face was sunken in and he looked so frail. Mary was in tears telling us how he was sitting in his wheelchair in the hallway all by himself. He was just staring at the floor and wearing filthy clothes.

The whole time we were there we never had contact with any of the nurses. Nobody offered to help him eat, nobody checked to see if he needed to use the restroom, nobody came by to see if he needed a drink, nobody offered to change his clothes. I know they knew we were there and that he would be taken care of but it would have been nice to know the help was there if we needed it.

When his lunch came we decided to take him to his room to eat. We sat there and visited with him while Mary spoon fed him. It took about an hour and a half for him to eat but you wouldn't believe the difference. He started getting some color back in his face and was much better about making eye contact. I can't help but think he was starving. Who knows who, if anyone was helping him on the days we were not there.

After lunch Mary and Tyler were able to get him to the restroom and then get his clothes changed. Mary brushed his hair and he thanked them both. He looked ten times better. You could tell he was feeling better just by his attitude. He started smiling. We tried to find his toothbrush but guess what, he didn't have one. Mary had to go ask for one. who knows how long it had been since he had them brushed....if at all. I can't even express the difference it made after he had clean teeth. He got his dignity back and you could tell.

The sad thing is, it wasn't just his hygiene that had us so upset. There is an alarm on his bed that will go off as soon as he gets off of it. Skialer (our niece) was sitting on the bed and when she stood up the alarm went off. We didn't know how to turn it off so we just waited for the nurse. Five minutes later we finally walked down to the nurses station to see what was going on. They came in and showed us how to turn it off and went back about their business. Twenty minutes later a nurse came into the room and asked us what we needed because his call light was on. Come to find out the call light comes on when the bed alarm goes off. Wow! It only took them twenty minutes to respond. Anything could happen in that amount of time. ANYTHING!

Every time there was an incident with Jim, Merilyn was supposed to be contacted. Apparently that didn't happen and come to find out he fell down every day. It really makes me wonder if any body was ever paying attention to him.

The person at the Nursing home that discharged him sent him home without all of his meds. He woke up around two in the morning and made for a miserable night for all involved.

While we were there we tried to remain positive. We didn't want to be too negative especially with the kids there. Shayna is way too intuitive, she knew it didn't feel right. She asked me if we could please leave and take Grandpa with us. She told me she was nervous and just wanted to leave. She said she didn't like the way the place made her feel. The longer we were there the calmer she became but she is pretty glad her Grandpa isn't there anymore.

It wasn't a good experience. It was heartbreaking to say the least. Through all of this I have learned what an amazing job Merilyn is doing with him. She is willing to sacrifice so much for him and even though he doesn't say it, it's obvious how much he appreciates her.


The Rain

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am. I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.
While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there
for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease. As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not
recognized him in five years now. I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every
morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?' He smiled as he patted my hand and said,
'She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is.' I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, 'That is the kind of love I want in my life.' True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not
be.