Staycation Part 3

Our last day was Sunday.  We had planned on going to the Music and the Spoken Word, tour Temple Square, and then head home.  We made it to the Conference Center just in time.  I sent CJ and the older girls in to the main area while I took the little ones to the overflow area where small children can be noisy.  After that we took lots of pictures (I think the kids were done with my obsession with the camera by this point.)

I LOVE my family!!!

It's nice to let loose once in a while.

I rarely get my picture taken, but I couldn't miss a chance to snuggle
with my husband in front of those beautiful flowers.

I love this picture of the kids in the reflection pool.

Kids at the reflection pool with the temple.

I couldn't resist a photo opp with the beautiful gardens at the temple.

Megan just loves rolly-polly bugs.  She spent most of her time
collecting these bugs to bring home and add to the one we have.

This was our first full vacation where it was just our little family.  We have always gone to visit family in another state or gone camping with friends or family or something like that.  We did have a ton of fun and we really bonded as a family but I must admit that I kept thinking about the family that wasn't there and how much I wished we could have shared our vacation with them.

Staycation Part 2

We had some places in mind that we wanted to go but all in all we were not on any kind of schedule.  We just played the whole weekend by ear and it was nice and relaxing to do it that way.  The places we really wanted to visit were the City Creek Mall, the Discovery Gateway, the Living Aquarium, the Beehive House, Music and the Spoken Word, Temple Square, and the movie in the Joseph Smith Memorial building.

Unfortunately, the Living Aquarium had moved to Sandy so we didn't get to visit that one.  We did ride the bus to the Discovery Gateway and walked around the Gateway Mall a bit too.  The kids loved riding the bus and we pretty much spent all day at the Gateway.  It was so much fun that we didn't want to leave.

CJ helping Alex to mountain climb.

Megan taking care of the horse.

Two of Alex's favorite things...water and balls.

What a cutie pie.

Megan still loved shopping and bringing home the food best of all.

Megan was trying to run over Rebecca.  They really do love each other, I promise.

Our first couple selfie.

Alexander daydreaming on the porch.

CJ and Lizzie hanging out.

The next day we spent our time in City Creek Mall and Downtown Salt Lake.  Rebecca said that she plans to live in one of the condos above the mall.  I know I would come visit her often if she did.  We loved the mall and went to the Beehive House but we took too long so we didn't get to see the movie at the Joseph Smith Memorial building.  We did go to the top and look out though.

Sitting on the walk way over the street.

Megan and Alexander sitting on the bank of the river that runs through the mall.
I asked Megan what she was thinking so hard about and she said that she wanted
to jump in the water but it was yucky and I told her she couldn't.  Crazy girl.

We got to see a spontaneous wedding proposal.

Megan was so glad she finally got to touch some water.

Lizzie and CJ still hanging out.

Sweet Rebecca.

What a crew.

There was an area for the kids to play in the fountains.  These two finally got enough water to make them happy.

Waiting for the tour at the Beehive House.

Families are Forever!

The perfect view on a perfect day.

Using the flags to cross the street on our way back to the hotel.

We did have a bonus activity though at the Gallivan Center.  That night they had free games with prizes for the little kids to play during the concert.  Xander and Megan had a BLAST.  Dakota had fun with the games and Rebecca and CJ tried their hands at the games too.

Our little basketball star.

Sweet Alexander.

My hero!

I love her smile.

Winning prizes.

Alex looks so tiny.

It's a good thing he had his puppy pal to help him hold all his loot.

Staycation Part 1

Like I mentioned in my last post, we decided to have a staycation this year.  We have so many fun things here in Salt Lake City and the drive is so much closer that we shouldn't have to worry too much about car sickness (all of the kids suffer from motion sickness.)  We thought we would get a hotel room in the heart of Salt Lake City and do everything we can within walking distance or a short ride on the bus.  Something different, yet memorable.  Having surgery just before we were to leave did make things a little more difficult for me but we were too excited to let anything get in our way.

The hotel was AWESOME!!!!  We stayed at the Marriott right by the Gallivan Center. I didn't know it when I made the reservations.  I just knew the hotel was in the location we wanted.  I didn't even know what the Gallivan Center was even though I had heard it mentioned many times on the radio.  Turns out that the Gallivan Center is a venue for free concerts every weekend in the summer time.  Our room overlooked the concert area and there was a concert every night.  Who needs TV when you can sit and people watch while listening to a different band giving a free concert every night from your window.  I know where I want to stay for our next staycation!

The view of the Gallivan Center the we had from our room.

Dakota waving at the room from the Gallivan Center.

Anyway, the hotel was really nice.  I got two rooms not just because we have a large family but so that the older girls could enjoy their own space.  They could watch what ever they wanted on TV, stay up as late as they wanted, sleep in, you know, fun stuff for 3 teenage girls.  Lizzie ended up sleeping in our room though (you know, 3 teenage sisters in one room...lol)

Look at all my pillows.  What luxury.

Xander in the port a crib.  The crib came with a gift pack for him from the hotel.

Lizzie on the floor instead of a nice comfy bed.

Our first morning there was my birthday so I did something I've never done before (and will probably never do again)...I ordered room service for breakfast!  It was fun to do.  They had a pool that overlooked the east side of the city and we went swimming at night so the view was really nice.

Megan enjoying the pool.

The water was colder than I expected but we loved it anyway.

Back to School

Once again the girls look forward with excitement and anxiety to what they are going to wear on their first day of school.  It seems to take forever to get here and then when it is time I wonder why the summer passed so quickly and I am saying goodbye to my children once again.  Well, like it or not, my kids are off to another year of school.

Dakota is in Jr. High!  That little girl went and grew up.  She is such a beautiful young woman.  She is in 7th grade and looking forward to walking home from school (she hated riding the bus.)  She will be taking choir and theater classes with all of the required classes. She is so much fun and I will miss her so much.  I just know that she will make so many fun new friends.

My sweet Rebecca is in High School now!!  Man did that one sneak up on me.  Since their first year of High School is still in the Jr. High and not at the High School it is hard for me to put my mind around that fact that she is already a Freshman in High School.  Isn't she beautiful!!!  That smile just lights up my day.  She has joined the Marching Band as a Color Guard member.  She has a hard time with it but she seems to love to spin that flag.  (Side note: You can't tell but those shoes that she is wearing are high-tops and they go all the way up to her knees.  They are her favorite.)

Lizzie is in 10th grade now.  A Sophomore in High School and going to the actual High School now.  I don't know what is more scary, sending my babies off to Jr. High or off to High School.  Either way she is going and I really am happy for her.  She is much more confident now and she is making plans for her future which is fun to see.  She wants to be in the marching band too so she will be teaching herself to play the flute.  This is one happy band mom.

My three Princesses.
(Okay, so I took this picture when they got back from school because they have two different start times and they were not all together in the morning...that's why Dakota has different clothes on.)

Never thought it would happen to me!

   We are getting ready for our staycation that we have decided to take this year.  We are taking a week and spending it in Salt Lake City.  We rented a hotel room right in the heart of the city and have many fun things planned.  We are all very excited especially since this is close enough to home that CJ can come with us.  We leave tomorrow, because my birthday is on Thursday, and I thought it would be fun to celebrate my birthday while we were on vacation.  So last Saturday we are busy, busy and it gets late and we haven't had dinner so we pick up some Little Caesars pizza and eat around 9:30 at night.  I think nothing of it until I wake up at 3am with cramping.  It happens every now and then when I eat pizza real late so I am regretting the decision now (don't know why pizza is the trigger but it is.)  Usually I just lie flat on my stomach on the floor and the pain isn't as bad so I am able to wait out the cramping and eventually go back to bed.  After over an hour of no relief no matter what I do I start to panic a little.  It's getting hard to breath and I feel like I'm going to pass out.  I can take deep breaths yet I feel like my lungs just aren't getting any air.  I had a thought that I wasn't expecting, I wondered if I was going to die.  I really didn't want to die on the floor in the middle of the night from intestinal cramping...that just isn't how I thought I would leave this world, or how soon.  I decided to get on the computer and look up which side is the warning sign for appendicitis since the pain just wasn't going away.  I didn't want to go to the hospital and have them tell me to take some tums and call them in the morning because it was nothing.  My pain was in the area that was described but again I didn't want to look like a fool so I thought I would just wait a little longer.  I think it was about 5 minutes later that the thought that I might die came back in to my head and I realized that even if it wasn't appendicitis I couldn't breath and that made me nervous too so I woke CJ up and asked him if he would take me to the hospital.
   I decided to go to the hospital that is 5 minutes from our house even though it isn't on our medical insurance because I didn't know if I would make the 20 minute trip to the hospital in Provo before I passed out (or worse) from no oxygen.  I was taken back right away.  My pulse ox showed that I was getting too much air, not too little, and that is why I felt like I was going to pass out.  I was in so much pain that I was hyperventilating, go figure.  They gave me some pain meds and as I began to feel better I started to feel soooo stupid for going in.  I was breathing just fine now and I didn't hurt near as bad so I figured what ever had caused the pain had run it's course and this was just going to be an expensive reminder to NOT eat pizza so late at night. I never said I was the brightest crayon in the box.  I had a chest X-Ray just in case there was a reason behind my breathing scare...all looked good.  Then I had a CT scan to see what had caused the pain.
   The test came back positive for appendicitis.  It's really sad that I was GLAD I had appendicitis...I didn't feel stupid anymore for bothering everyone in the middle of the night for nothing...even though what I had was life threatening.  Anyway, I did need surgery as soon as possible but since it wasn't about to burst I was allowed to let CJ drive me to the hospital that my insurance did cover.  With the pain under control I had no worries making the 20 minute drive now.
   My surgery kept getting bumped for one reason or another so it took 13 hours for me to get the surgery that I needed "right away".  I wasn't worried, in fact I was just fine every time they bumped it back.  I finally had time to think about the fact that I was going "under the knife" and a piece of me was going to be removed.  Just kidding.  Surgery doesn't scare me near as much as the anesthesia does.  Even worse though is that I know what goes on in the OR when the patient (in this case...me) is asleep and it's not very positive to the self esteem.  That honestly is what I feared the most!  I just had to completely block any thought of the OR from my mind and keep telling myself that I am going to go to sleep in one room and wake up in another...nothing more.  A task that is made a little easier when the surgery is spur of the moment and not planned months in advance but hard to do just the same.
   I woke up from surgery groggy and on oxygen but out of danger.  CJ was finally able to go home to the kids and get some rest.  Not the way I planned to spend Sunday at all.  The incisions are very small so there isn't a ton of pain but I did actually have trouble getting enough oxygen this time so I had a respiratory therapist work with me to be able to take the oxygen off and get ready to go home.  I'm really sad that they didn't offer to let me bring the appendix home in a jar like they used to.  It would have been fun to gross out the girls.  Well, before I went home the surgeon let me know that I had begun to abscess around the appendix and that he had found a rather large ovarian cyst that he drained (that was unexpected) so it was a good thing I came in when I did.
   CJ asked me if we should postpone the trip since we leave so soon but I told him that I feel good as new and I'm too excited to wait any more.  It's amazing how quickly we heal now from what used to be a major surgery that would hospitalize you for at least 2-3 days with another week of recovery at home.  I am so grateful for modern medicine!

Even Shorter

Well, I wanted shorter hair because I just can't take the heat on my neck anymore.  I liked my haircut but something just didn't seem right.  It felt like the sides and back didn't match (looking back they were fine.  I think I just wasn't used to it.)  So I went and asked for an even SHORTER hair cut.  Can you believe it?!  It is so short that I spike it in the back.  I like it more than I thought I would.  Anyway, here is my even shorter hair.