Has it really been that long?

Okay, I am just really horrible about keeping this updated lately. For now, I am just going to update on what has been happening the last 2 months and then I will post pictures later.

In October Christian has surgery to repair a deviated septum. The surgery went well although he had a massive panic attack when he first woke up. He hasn't officially admitted it, but I think he is very glad he did it. The boys loved Halloween. Josh was Darth Vader, with the mask that actually let him do the Vader voice, and Zachary was a pirate. I took the boys up to my Moms neighborhood to let them trick-or-treat, and let Christian stay home and have some peace (his surgery was only 3 days earlier). That night though, Josh spiked a fever of 103. We took him to the doctor 4 different times, had chest x-rays and blood work done, and he ended up missing 2 weeks of school, all over a sinus infection. The fever lasted for 13 days, never going lower than 100.5 and they had told me it was the swine flu. Stupid on call doctor sure got that one wrong!

On November 29th my sweet little Zachary turned 9 years old. He was spoiled rotten, of course, by all his family and really enjoyed mashing cake all over. For a special, belated, birthday treat I took him today out to the new school on the west side to visit his favorites teachers and friends from the last several years. He was so excited to see Penny and Amanda! He was smiling all day and dancing around in his chair. They were so good to let us spend the day in their classroom and he especially seemed to enjoy the kisses he got from his little girlfriend Isabelle. It has been hard for him to be seperated from them this year and I'm really glad they were so willing to let us come visit.

I hope to post pictures soon, but with the way things have been going, Happy Holidays!

I give up!

I know I promised an update long before now, but there never seems to be any extra time. Since I am so overdue I will only blog about NOW and try and post past stuff a little later. Both kids are back in school and seem to be doing well. Josh LOVES kindergarten and HATES having to go to bed early. Zach is doing well though it is obvious he misses his friends, teachers, and girlfriend that went to the new school. He isn't quite as excited to leave in the morning but is doing well all the same. We had the chance to go down to Zion this weekend with Christians family. His Mom and Dad treated us to stay in an incredible hotel, more like a condo, right at the park entrance. We only had to walk out the front door and across the bridge to be inside the park. The boys had a blast hiking and playing with Grandma and Grandpa and Kennedy. On our first day we got to go on an outback Safari ride where they take you above the canyon and into a little ghost town. It was neat to see it that way, though I got major car sick! I had the chance to scare the heck out of Josh on one of our hikes. In Zion it is not uncommon to have a tarantula cross the path right in front of you. It has never happened to us before but this time there were 3 of them in a row. Josh was looking at one of them from a distance when I snuck up behind him a gave him a little push to get closer. He screamed at the top of his lungs and the spider jumped toward him. Although they were still nowhere near each other, I think I almost gave him a heart attack and he RAN as fast as could to get away from the spider and "Mean" Mom. While we were there, the family treated us to a movie on the big screen and we got to see Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs in 3D. It was hilarious (or I was exhausted) and the kids loved it! Thanks Mom and Dad Terry for such a fun trip!!!!

In front of one of the buildings in the ghost town

We are ready to hike!

The boys on the Pa'Rus trail

Checking out the river on our hike

The kids all earned their Junior Ranger Badges

On the way home we stopped at a trading post with a petting zoo and old fashioned buildings, wagons, and other fun things

June

The last few months have been crazy busy with camping, scouts, sickness, family outings, and everything else! I have finally decided that I couldn't put off updating this blog any longer. I am going to do this by months since it has been awhile and hopefully nobody will get sick of reading it. In the beginning of June we packed up the family and headed off to good ol' Tooele for a camping trip and so the kids could go to camp Hobe. After setting up camp we headed over to our friends, the Reed family, for dinner and some fun. The kids had a great time playing together and Cristi had made an excellant dinner! Then it was back to the canyon where we let Josh roast marshmallows before making the kids go to bed. The next day was the first day of camp! Camp Hobe is an excellant camp set up for cancer kids and their brothers and sisters. Since Josh isn't old enough and Zach can't stay overnight we had signed them up for the daycamp. They were both very excited and loved all the activities, like swimming, crafts, singing, and story time. While the boys were at camp Christian and I spent the day driving back to Sandy to pick up Zachs swim float (luckily we made it back in time for swimming at camp), trying to find a Fathers Day present for Christian, and looking in a fun little scrapbooking store. After we picked the boys up from camp we all went bowling. The boys love to bowl and we all had a lot of fun. After that we met back up with the Reed family and went to a really fun public pool that even had a waterslide. The kids were sad when it was time to head back to camp but they needed to head to bed for camp the next day. After dropping the boys off for their second day of camp, Christian and I headed back and packed up all the camp stuff and put down the trailer. Then it was back to wandering around Tooele trying to find something fun to do. We ended up going to lunch and back to the scrapbooking store! Then we picked up the kids and headed on home.

After that excitement we spent a couple of quiet days at home and then it was time for Cub Country! I got to be one of the leaders, so Zach could go, so we dropped off Josh as Grandmas and headed up the canyon to Fort Wilderness. Zach had so much fun! They had some really neat activities including panning for gold, learning to rope and use a whip, and his all time favorite BB guns. I was afraid he wouldn't like the noise of the guns but he was so excited and threw an absolute fit when his turn was over. There was a very nice counsler up there that took Zach on as his special buddy and made sure that he was able to do everything.

Sadly that night Zach started getting sick. As we soon found out there was an outbreak of swine flu at camp Hobe and my luckly little boy was one that had brought it home. After he had been sick for a couple of days I ended up with it as well. Luckily, the doctors treated Christian and Josh so that they didn't get it, but it made for a long two weeks being under quarentine until it was gone. The rest of the month we just played at home or at Lagoon. I'll post about July within the week!

A bad joke?

I got to hear some very unwanted news today. Zach has swine flu. When the flu first hit the US, we were joking that with our families luck one of us would get it. Unfortunately that turned into a horrible joke. Zach has it bad, Josh is starting to show symptoms, and I'm just dreading it hitting Christian and I. I'll post something happier later, but for now, please keep Zachy in your prayers so that we don't end up in the hospital.

Part two--Dead Horse Point and Canyonlands

Part one of our trip to Moab--hiking in Arches

New do's and soccer stars!

April has been a crazy fun month. I know I didn't post anything about Easter but this is more fun. For awhile now Christian has been teasing me that he was going to give Josh a buzz cut. Sadly, this last week he actually did it. While I don't like it much, Josh is thrilled with it. He thinks hes big stuff having such short hair.

Last Saturday Zach's team had the opportunity to go to the Real soccer game and play on the field at half time. It was a little cold but the kids had a blast. Zach even got to score a goal!