California Trip

Okay, so I'm a little slow. But here are some more pictures to add to everyone's collection. Thanks to everyone for the great time we had.

THE SALT FLATS IN UTAH

The kids' first experience with the salt flats. We stopped at a rest stop on the way to Sacramento and let the kids play for a minute. It was really interesting to have the salt stick to your shoes. They actually have a place designated to clean the salt off your shoes.

HANGIN' WITH COUSINS

Come here and give me a "tiss."

LAKE CAMANCHE

Careful, the white legs might blind you!

STINSON BEACH WITH GRANDMA AND GRANDPA PRICE

We should do trips more like this every time. It's so much work to get there with all the grandkids. But it is so worth it.

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA D'S BACKYARD

Kamrie taught herself how to swim while in Cali. She is so proud of herself and thinks she can do anything now. She jumps off diving boards into deep water and goes down the water slides all by herself now at public pools. We have to remind her that she still needs an adult to watch her at all times.

While skimming through the pictures, I realized that I'm not the best at capturing moments as I would like to be. I wish I could have had more of all of you in our pictures. I'll have to remember that the next time we get together. We had a great time anyway! Stay tuned for the first days at school. I will post about it sometime after Tuesday.

Here's a Bit of Our Last Month

I haven't had much time the last few Sundays to blog. So here are some pictures from the last month:

We had a great time on Taylor's birthday. We went swimming, watched Ratatouille, ate at Fazoli's, came home, and ate some Rainbow Chip cake and Rainbow Sherbet (and Moose Tracks for those with a chocolate tooth).

A little 4th of July celebration and festivities.

Here's having a good time with cousins! Sisi thinks she is so funny.

Shawn and Brittney's wedding at the Salt Lake Temple.

Trampoline fun at Grandpa Stevens' house.

Summer Time Means Family Time

I just love summer because that means I get to see my family. Last week Mitch and Amanda came from Arizona to support Brittney in receiving her endowment from the Bountiful Temple. That was really special for Jarin and me because that is "our temple". This was our first time doing an endowment session there together. We actually went back last year on our 10th anniversary to do some sealings. I just love that temple. It brings back some nostalgic feelings.

Mitch, Amanda, and their cute little kids stayed with us for the weekend, which was an ablsolute blast for my kids. Amanda and kids are still here in Utah, but went up north to help with wedding plans. Thayne and Jennifer and their little family will be coming this weekend. My kids can't wait to see their other cousins as well. Kamrie keeps asking if it is Saturday yet and how many days are left until then.

We have a busy week ahead of us. Brittney will be getting sealed to her soon to be husband, Shawn, on Friday. We will be heading up to the Tremonton area and staying the night on Thursday and Friday to get ready for the wedding and reception. On Saturday, we will be celebrating Courtney's birthday (and Kerrie's in my heart) while we are there. That night we will travel home to be with Jennifer and Thayne and to get ready for church the next day, which is bright and early--8:30 AM.

The following week we will be with family from both sides to celebrate the 4th of July and Taylor and Thayne's birthdays, to help Shad and Kati move to their new house in Payson, and just to hang out with everyone while they are visiting from Arizona. Hopefully we can plan some fun activities while everyone is here. We're looking forward to lots of fun over the next two weeks!

Feeling Better

At first I thought whatever Sienna had was viral because of the runny nose. But the red sores/spots on her nose, mouth, and eyes were really confusing me. I always like to look things up online, since we don't have medical insurance, to make sure the symptoms really warrant a trip to the doctor. I couldn't find anything that matched her signs and symptoms. However, when I got sick on Thursday, I was feeling so incredibly lousy that I started to think maybe it could be bacterial, but hoped it wasn't. By Friday, my tonsils and lymph nodes were so swollen that I was pretty sure it was strep throat; and since Sienna had some of the same signs, I brought her to the doctor with me.



We went to a local urgent care to a doctor we had never met before. The nurse, of course, took the throat swabs and the doctor came in to evaluate us. He checked out Sienna first and said it looked viral. In my mind I still questioned it. Within 10 seconds, the nurse popped in and said the throat swabs were positive for strep. The doctor (though nice) felt a bit embarrassed and said that I probably gave it to Sienna and that we caught it early. I agreed with him just because I can't stand it when people are embarrassed, even though I was pretty sure Sienna had it all week. So we came home with some antibiotics. I looked up online about strep in toddlers and found that children under the age of three can show signs of strep differently than those older; such as: a clear runny nose, slight rash between the nose and lips, fever, stomach aches, and their throat may or may not hurt. So I learned some new things: 1)that strep exhibits signs and symptoms differently in toddlers, 2) that adults feel much more sick than the young (maybe we're just bigger babies as we get older), and 3) that mother's instict always knows best.



Oh, and Kamrie ended up sick on Saturday with strep. She woke up with a cough and that was it. By that afternoon, her eyes looked swollen and she had a slight fever. I knew then, that she had it too. The same doctor said you couldn't tell by looking at her throat that she had strep. For some reason, this strain causes the eyelids to swell (probably from the pressure caused by the headache--owwwiee!) But Kamrie was tough and said nothing ever hurt but her eyes. It's so hard to tell with kids sometimes. As for anyone coming to stay with us soon, don't worry. We will wash and sanitize the house by the time you get here.

Sick, Sick, Sick

So Sienna started feeling sick last Sunday. She had a slight fever, really tired, and irritable. Then on Monday or Tuesday, she had a clear but very runny nose. Her eyes were slightly swollen and red dots appeared on her lips, around her nose, and inner eyelids. They disappeared after a couple of days. She hasn't acted terribly sick since Sunday night. She's been a little more irritable, but her appetite is good.

Then, yesterday I started feeling sick. My head started hurting in the morning. By 2:00 PM, my throat started hurting and I was feeling exhausted. By 5:00 PM, my head felt like it was going to explode, my body ached, my throat hurt, I was slightly nauseated, and I had chills and a slight fever. I woke up this morning feeling a little better; but Jarin stayed home (thank goodness) and I kept sleeping off and on until noon. My left eyelid is slightly swollen too.

So all you doctors or (wannabe doctors) :), do you have any ideas what we could be sick with?

The Blaze Game

Someone gave Jarin some free tickets to the Utah Blaze vs. San Jose Saber Tooths football game yesterday. So we attended the Blaze's last home game at the EnergySolutions Arena (formerly known as the Delta Center) last night. It was interesting to watch, even though we got creamed. The rules are a little different for indoor football. One of the first string offensive players is in our ward, Hans Olsen. I've seen him a couple of times on our local news stations. He's a super nice and funny guy. (Pretty special to have a famous person in our ward, eh?) :) We actually left right after the third quarter because it was getting late and they were losing by quite a bit. The best part of the night was the Trax ride back to our car. The kids really enjoyed hanging on the hand holders and letting the train force their bodies backwards and forwards as it would start and stop.

Our 11th Anniversary

Jarin and I celebrated our anniversary this week by staying at one of our favorite bed and breakfast places, The Hines Mansion. We like it because it's an old large home with some interesting history. The innkeeper told us that Butch Cassidy used to hide out in one of the rooms there. She said that it's rumored that he is actually buried somewhere in Utah because his grandmother wrote that in her journal. We stayed in "The Library" room. It has a hidden door to the bathroom and a spiral staircase up to the loft where there is a jetted tub with a sky light. We went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. They served Jarin some gluten-free pasta that tasted pretty good.

Uncle Courtney watched our kids for us. They had a great day with him. He took them to the Hogle Zoo to see the "ghost of the bayou." It's a white alligator. Taylor thought it was so cool. Then they went to a park, ate some McDonald's, came home and watched "Richie Rich." He spoiled them rotten and they LOVED IT!