Summertime Fun!

July has been a great month full of all things decidedly summer!! We have spent more time in the water or near water or on water than I can keep track of but I guess that's the only thing to do here in 100+ degree weather. It seems just about everyday includes some type of swimming/water play activity. One of our favorite places to go to beat the heat is up to Pine Valley which is about a 45 minute drive from here out past Snow Canyon & Dammeron Valley. It is BEAUTIFUL and COOL with lots of trees and shade. And, it's the only place we've been fishing at that we actually catch fish - well except me. Kade & Kellin caught 7 fish this last trip and Kellin caught his fish all by himself thanks to his Pops (Grandpa Ken) teaching him all about fishing. Everytime he was reeling in a fish, he kept repeating over and over, "slow & steady, slow & steady". As for me & Ethan, we just enjoyed the cool breeze and shared some goldfish crackers & warm milk!

Surgery

Kellin before the surgery - looking for Transformers on the TV.

So for most of you, I'm sure having your child to the hospital in nothing new - I know my sister Emily has had her kids there many times, and I assume it's the same for most moms, at least a few trips to the hospital. For me, it was the first time having one of my kids to the hospital for surgery and it was hard. I think mostly because I have only been in the hospital once (aside from my deliveries, of course) and have never been "put under". Kellin was diagnosed with sleep apnea and when we took him to the specialist he said that he had never seen tonsils so big, he was surprised Kellin could eat! So we scheduled him to have his tonsils & adnoids out. Kade was great with Kellin, and talked with Kellin about what would happen for a few days before he actually went in and it helped a lot that Kade has been through this a couple times before with nose & knee surgeries. Kellin was very brave at the hospital and they gave him some medicine to settle him down so they could do the IV which made him "drunk" as they said. He was so funny on the medicine and started singing songs we've never heard of and smiling lots and telling us how much he loved us - "as big as kamerica" as he says. I was really nervous and kept hearing the anestesiologist say that although death is unlikely it is estimated to happen in about every 1 in 100,000 patients. Great, so what if Kellin is the 1! Which is weird because I'm not a "what if" type of person usually, but I couldn't shake the feeling. So I carried a silent prayer in my heart through the hospital just to remind God how important Kellin is to me and that I really would be very, very angry if something happened to him (understatement). The surgery was done before I knew it and they brought Kellin down to the recovery room - and then the fun began. He was yelling and screaming and thrashing around, trying to pull the IV out and really completely inconsolable. This went on for almost an hour and again, I was so blessed to have Kade there because he stayed calm and worked to settle Kellin down. I just cried at seeing my little guy so upset. Finally the nurse cleared us to leave and took the IV out. Once we were in the car Kellin settled down and it has been smooth sailing since. His voice sounds very different which the doctor said would happen since he doesn't have these huge tonsils in his throat anymore. Last night Kellin wanted to sleep with us and usually we don't let him because he snores so loud that neither of us can sleep. So I decided to try it and see if the surgery fixed that and sure enough, we were all asleep in a few minutes in silence. I just have to say that I feel so much more now for parents who have to have their children in the hospital and my heart really goes out to those of you who have.

Dance, Dance, Dance

Sorry about the sideways filming - I guess you can't rotate videos like you can pictures! If anyone knows how, let me know.

4th of July

Usually we go to my parents condo in San Clemente for the 4th but with gas prices so high we opted for a closer location this year. Lake Powell is about a 2 hour drive from here and some friends of ours we camping and boating out there and invited us along. Our friends were the Mower family and Tyler & Angela. They went up a few days earlier and camped through the weekend but we didn't think Ethan would fare so well camping (he's grumpy if he doesn't get his 15+ hours of sleep a day) so we just drove up Friday morning & came back Friday night. We had a blast boating and hanging out. Kellin was a little fish the whole day and spent most of the time in the water which was great because it kept him cool and having fun. He also loved to go for rides on the Seadoo's, especially with Keith - apparently mom & dad weren't nearly as fun! Ethan did great as well, so much better than I thought he would. He was pretty content to hang out in his stroller or sit with me on the Seadoo or play on the boat. He went in the water a couple of times but kept trying to drink the gross lake water and eat the floating wood chips. We didn't really see any fireworks though, so the next night we had some friends over and did fireworks at our house. All in all, it was a good 4th of July, although we missed spending it with my family at the Condo. I didn't dare bring my camera to the lake so no pictures this year.