Our Uinta's

And now time to document our annual camping trip to the Uinta Mountains. Greg's whole family, Bangerter cousin's and all goes to the Blacks Fork River area up in the Uinta's. The boys look forward to it every summer. And Greg especially loves it. It's his "home" as he calls it.

We left on a Wednesday evening, and just look at the beautiful cloud that welcomed us as we arrived. Big giant fluff with the sun setting on it. Beautiful! The next days the older boys were finally able to use their air-soft guns they got for x-mas and play a little BBGun war. We hung out and while Greg went fly fishing I took the other boys to play in the river. Creed's walk through the mud turned into a deep, quicksand scary mess, and then they all freaked out how cold it was and didn't want to be in the water anymore. Ha! And it rained a bit one day and we hung out in the camper and the boys watched the movie Clue while Greg napped.

We always love gathering with the Lorenzon family around the campfire, Smores, talking, hot chocolate, staying up till we are all so dang tired. The sky is always amazing. Pretty blue, then spectacular stars. We get to see the Milky Way! 

We went on a little hike and fished one day. The boys loved it! They kept catching fish and had to copy Greg and roll up their pants to retrieve their fishing lines that got stuck under rocks. 

I have to mention how Creed and Bodie kept 2 fish that we couldn't release and they played with them back at camp and ended up mangling them and finally said goodbye and had a burial for them. And Jax finally touched the worms and put them on his own hook this year. They are getting the hang of all the fishing grossness. Well I think it's gross. Ha!

Greg bought some ammo and the boys got to shoot his 22 gun. Rafe was a little nervous and didn't know if he wanted to or not. But had fun. And I shot it too. And am a pretty good shot. Just not a good shot with his 9mm Beretta. (Bo, Jax, Creed - me filming, and Rafe w/ Greg's help)

The bugs were out in full force. I didn't get one bite though. I give credit to the new found dryer sheet I wear around to repel mosquito's. So far with 4 different occasions it has worked like a charm. But I also did use bug spray because there were so many. My sis-in-law Alisa captured me being like a horse, swatting away the flies with my pony tail. Ha ha! Then the next picture is the usual scene I see when the younger 3 boys go to bed and line up outside the camper trailer door to be ready to jump in so they don't let any bugs in by opening the door too much. Jax always stayed up later.

Then the Lorenzon family dinner. The heard gathered around getting and eating Taco's. Everyone loves Taco's - we have it up there every year. The night Greg and I were in charge of dinner we had rice and meatballs. Everyone does such yummy meals.

The bottom 2 pictures is of the Hans and Franz skit Greg does (from Saturday Night Live). He had Abe join as Franz again and our boys have been dying to be in it with him and talked about it for a year or two. So this year Greg had most of the Lorenzon cousin's in it as well. I think they all were excited and had a good time. It's silly and always gets good laughs. That's a tradition Greg has done since his youth. They all had German character names and totally got into it and were brave in front of the crowd of Bangerter's watching. Greg did good in "pumping them up". In case Greg needs to remember, Jax is Dieter, Creed is Friedrich, Bodie is Fabian, Rafe was Uter.

On our hike to the 2nd crossing. Everyone but Alisa who was taking the picture. The Lorenzon Family campers! And we never made it to the river crossing. Everyone with the little kids split up and bailed and just started their picnics and fishing. We went ahead a little bit further and found a nice shady spot and fished.

It's such a pretty place up in the mountains. Even with all the burned tree's from the fire 14 years ago. One afternoon after it rained the sun was shining during it and made this misty scene on one side and the other we saw 2 rainbows. It was stunning! Alisa captured these since I didn't have my camera on me.

It was another fun year! Creed and Jax are giving me a thumbs up for a successful camping trip. And the pretty mountains that surround us while we camp. Took this picture on our way home on Sunday. Above Creed's thumb way back by those mountains tucked away by the tree's is where we all camp. 

4th of 2016

 Always have to document my favorite holiday. So this year instead of just going to the 4th of July Millcreek Parade, we entered the parade! For a few years now we've been meeting up at the parade with our friends the Davies. And have also talked about entering because the kids always love getting the candy and wanted to be the ones to throw it to the people. And we figured our kids are getting older and to the point they won't want to be in the parade. So we finally did it. 

We decorated scooters for Jax and Bodie, then Rafe was in the wagon with candy, and Creed, well he used his pogo stick the whole way down the route. He got lots of cheers. He took a few breaks, but man, what a trooper. He was super hot and thirsty after. What a stud! The boys had fun riding down Evergreen Ave. and didn't throw too much candy. But Rafe sure did. Just sitting and throwing while Greg pulled him in the wagon. We got seperated at the very beginning from the Davies being so much slower. But it was fun and the kids said they wanted to do it next year. Jax said he'd rather not and I know Greg sure doesn't want to. We'll see I guess.

 Then we came home, did some yard work, watched a movie as a family, and got ready for our annual party. We did the hot dog bar again and had a good turn out. Lots of neighbors, friends, and family came. You can see the big water balloon fight going on there in the picture after dinner. And as we started fireworks, the group just kept growing and growing. I think I counted about 100 people were there for the show. In the picture all the empty spots were eventually filled with people who kept coming. Another fun 4th!

Our Cali 2016 #2

 After driving to San Diego and then spending the day at Disneyland we took Wednesday and had some relaxation. We decided to stay at the condo and ended up staying for hours and hours at the pool. The boys had so much fun swimming and playing some fun games and having fun adventures in the pool.

Thursday we went to Universal Studios. The hard part was having to drive through Los Angeles in the morning traffic. Ugh. We had no other way to get across the city to get there. So that part was sucky. But we arrived a little after it opened and were busy going and going the rest of the day.

I got some tips from my friend and did the studio tour early, then headed to the lower lot to do Transformers Ride (which the boys LOVED) We came out and the boys got to meet Optimus Prime. It was funny, I was taking pics, Greg was filming the video and Optimus said to Greg "Dad, get up here, you know you've been waiting for this since 1984"! Ha! I love it! It was funny and so true, everyone laughed and cheered. 

Then the Jurassic Park ride. I was worried the little boys would be scared but they did good. Then back to the upper lot to catch some of their shows on the bleachers. And then Greg was in heaven living his dream of being in the Simpson's World. He got to eat a Krusty Burger and had a big pink donut and even got to meet Homer Simpson. He had fun with all of that. And the boys favorite ride of the day was the Simpsons ride, which they did more than once. All the simulator rides kinda made me sick. So I spent all this money to enter the park and then had to keep my eyes closed during some parts of all the rides (most are simulator) - But, awesome simulator.

The new Harry Potter World opened so we checked that out as well. Tried some Butter Beer and saw the lines all day like 60-80 minutes long at some points. When we went the roller coaster was only a 5 min. wait. Luckily - I timed it, it was exactly 30 seconds long. What!?! People waited up to an hour or more for a 30 second ride?! Ridiculous. If you build it, why not build it a little bigger and longer? And then Greg took the older boys on the big scary HP ride in the castle. And they lucked out and didn't have to wait an hour for that one.

All the boys LOVED Universal Studios. Greg said he liked it better than Disneyland. Both parks were fun and both so different. The boys had a hard time deciding what they park they liked more. I told them they didn't have to pick, Disney is the magic and fun, Universal was thrilling and fun. But the favorite ride at Disney was Star Tours - the simulator ride. So they truly loved all of the simulator stuff. After we were done we had a late dinner in the City Walk and then headed home to bed.

 Fav Rides - Greg Simpsons & the land
me - Not the Simpsons (too queasy sick for me) - Jurassic
Park ride.
Jax - Harry Potter, then Transformers, Simpsons, Jurassic Park
Creed - Simpsons, Harry Potter, Transformers
Bo - Simpsons, Transformers, Jurassic Park
Rafe - Simpsons, Transformers, Jurassic Park.

  

Friday - Yay! Newport Beach day! We love NPB and ate lunch and headed to the beach. More sand playing and this time it was full of sea shells. Tons of them. So the boys have quite a collection. Greg showed them how to not just build a castle, but protect it with walls and motes. Then the tide came in and overtook the walls and motes. Hours of fun!

Thumbs up are the thoughts on the beach and the boys laying down trying to stop the waves with a human barrier. So funny. What a great dad to dig and play. I sat and watched and took pics and relaxed. 

 We love the beach. Here's my new favorite picture of the boys in my life!

Saturday - Newport Beach again! Yay! We got there earlier because it was Saturday but it was still full of parking so we walked and fed the meter every 2 hours. This day was a long one. 8 hours at the beach long! Crazy! 11:30a-7:30pm. Having too much fun to leave. I was quite cold this day. The afternoon I just wanted to wrap in a towel. The boys backs all got sun burned. I feel bad, that's a parents fault ya know. Anyways, ice cream and donuts at NPort are the best! 

Playing in the waves, Rafe doing his hopping and jumping, hours of fun.

Now this day, Greg checked the tide schedule and we bought a bigger shovel. He dug a 15 x 15ft. mote and 3 walls and a bigger sand castle and a 2nd mote. Everyone walking the beach would stop and look and comment. The boys helped Greg create quite the fortress. Building the walls up and protecting their castle.

The fun started when the waves came. The surges would take one wall, then they'd dig and re-pile sand and work to keep it up while fending off the waves. Just for fun, to see how long it can last. It kept them busy. What fun they had. The ultimate sand playing fortress, trenches, digging, packing, preparing for the waves. 

I love their faces when a big wave would go over a wall, and the diameter would get smaller and smaller. The last picture is the last lone castle corner about to fall.

Sunday the 19th, Father's Day. We packed up and flew home sweet home. Thanks for taking us to and from the airport mom! And packing, traveling wasn't the funnest Father's Day, so we'll pamper Greg another day. :)

Gosh what a fun vacation! I am so grateful we were able to take our boys for a family vacation to California. We all had such a good time and talk about our trip often. Great memories we all will have. I love it!

Our Cali 2016 #1

 Our big summer vacation trip is now over. It was fun waiting and anticipating it, then we finally went and did it! What a wonderful time. I love traveling and being on a family vacation. And we all love California!

The following posts is our day by day with lots of pictures. I actually looked up my old blog post from our last trip to Disney to remember my thoughts and tips. So here we go...

Sunday the 12th we flew into LA and drove down to our condo in Dana Point, had some lunch and then dinner, drove to the Newport Beach Temple and checked out the sunset on the local Salt Creek Beach.

Monday we slept in and then headed down to San Diego. My grand idea when planning our trip was to take the kids to Tijuana, Mexico. But a few months ago they changed the rule that you need a passport now. And that put a damper on the plans :(  So we enjoyed the spectacular looking San Diego Temple grounds. Here's both temples from both days...

Then we headed to the Mormon Battalion. We all really enjoyed this. I enjoyed the story and the kids liked the real guns and searching for gold! And we had a "serious" old time photo taken.

After eating some real Mexican food in Old Town for a yummy lunch and spending way too long looking for the perfect souvenirs we finally headed to Coronado Island. The boys all got buried in the sand and we played in the waves and had a good windy time. And then way after dinner time headed back up to the condo to be ready for our big next day.

 Tuesday, we woke up early and arrived at Disneyland first thing in the morning. As we walked in we were some of the firsts to see Mickey and Goofy and got our rare picture with them. We were able to do lots of rides. Everything on our list. We waited to get the boys names on the list to do the Jedi training academy and used the fast passes and my handy Disney app on my phone and we really didn't have to wait in any lines for too long. Their were lots of crowds of people to navigate around and we brought our meals in a cooler and were the only ones eating in the picnic area. We are so glad we did that. 

The very first ride we did was the Matterhorn. Rafe and Bodie closed their eyes the whole time. They had to be a single rider and it jerks you around so Greg and I had to lean forward and hold the shoulders to keep the boys from smashing all over. But other than that we all loved it. Except the younger 2 boys. Bodie flat out said he HATES that ride. Because of the scary sounds and the red eye Yeti's.

While Greg took the older boys on Splash Mtn. I did Pooh Bear again and the boys got to meet some characters. Bodie went right up to Pooh Bear and bear hugged him and told him he has a stuffed bear of him. Luckily Pooh understood what Bodie said and reacted for him. So cute. 

While I took the older boys on the Indian Jones Ride he took the younger ones to Fantasy Land and rode Tea cups, Dumbo and the Carousel. 

We also went to Toon Town and the little boys loved seeing all the houses and another family favorite that we did this time was the Jungle Cruise, I liked it way better than the Pirates of the Caribbean. And Jax was the only child brave enough to try the Haunted Mansion with Greg.

Here is everyone's favorites this time.

Greg liked Star Tours, Space Mtn, then the Matterhorn.

My first pick is Space Mtn, Indiana Jones, and the Matterhorn.

Jax said his is still It's a Small World, then Space Mtn., Star Tours and all the Mountains tie for the rest.

Creed liked Space Mtn. Star Tours, Splash Mtn, and Indiana Jones ride.

Bodie kept mentioning them all. His favorite that we did more than once was Star Tours, he then said Space Mtn. But I know he was kinda scared in that, then he said meeting Pooh Bear. I told him he has to pick a ride for 3rd so said the Winnie the Pooh Bear ride, then Go Gadget, tea cups, etc...

Rafe said his is Space Mtn. (he was brave, we watched it on youtube so he knew what to expect) He loved Star Tours, Go Gadget coaster, teacups, the Paint the Night Parade, It's a Small World, Thunder Mtn. and 10th he said he liked going home. Ha!

Bodie and Rafe have seen our last home movies of their brothers doing it many times when they were babies and were dying for their turn to do the Jedi training. Creed decided to sign up again and do it too. We picked mid afternoon and am glad we had some "down" time for a bit. I loved the smiles Rafe and Bodie had the whole time. Loving every minute of it. Creed and Rafe fought the "Dark Sister" from the Disney XD cable tv cartoon. So we didn't even know her which was a bummer they couldn't have had Kylo Ren to fight. He did come out at the end and made an appearance. Bodie was happy he could confront and fight Darth Vader. We have him on video being a tough funny guy loving the whole light saber jedi thing. He totally got into it.

And as a parent I am so bugged, they ended up having Rafe and Bodie go up at the same time to fight! Ah! Who do I take pictures of? I was hurrying to snap some of each of them. It was tricky. Phew! Rafe was on the stage and Bo was down below.

We checked out the new Star Wars Launch Bay they opened while they are constructing the big new Star Wars land. And there we got to meet Chewbacca. They boys said that was their favorite character to meet (except Bodie - still loves his Pooh Bear) They gave Chewy hugs and then took a picture and then gave him bones (fist bump) as they were leaving. Chewy was funny and gave himself bones. As if the boys were teaching him what that greeting of bumping fists is.

We were later getting a crowded spot for the night Parade. And Greg was going back to a spot we decided on and I was going to look around a little further. And Creed turned to run and go with Greg but it was crowded and Greg was gone. A few minutes later I went back to Greg and then we noticed Creed was not with us!! Total heart panic! We told Jax to keep the little boys an stay put, while Greg and I ran around looking for Creed. I said a little prayer that we'd find him. Greg did as well. Jax said he did and of course Creed said he did as well. He was missing for maybe 7-10min. And I walked a ways away and figured I turn around and go back. Right then I turn around as Creed saw me and ran up to me and hugged me! Oh what a relief. It was getting dark and I knew it would be even harder to find him. I was just hoping someone would notice him and get him some help, then we'd talk to the park workers and I'm sure be reunited. What a scary thing. Poor Creed. We all gave long big hugs. And reviewed again what the boys are to do when they realized they can't find us. Stop right where you are and wait.

We waited around for the firework show, just to have them cancel them on us! So at 9:45pm we took off and left back to our beds. 

It is a pretty happy place on earth!

May = School Ends

Gosh, so many pictures and info to share. Here's our month in review...

Bodie had his kindergarten program. He has a music lady come all year and do singing with the kids. So they performed a concert. He was fun to watch. He didn't move his mouth much, but he sure did the actions! Sometimes he'd do actions when none of the other kids were. What a character Bodie is. It's so nice to see how he has done this year in repeating kindergarten. He was one of the top in his class, his confidence has grown, he feels capable and is totally ready for 1st grade now. Bring on the french!

Mother's Day was nice I sure did get lots of cards and many many plants/flowers this year. I love it! Greg had his birthday, we had yummy pie and then a Sunday dinner of his favorite spaghetti and meatballs in Alpine.

While in Alpine we stopped by Greg's grandparents farm to see the new baby filly. It was cute. She's just a few days old and was trying to run and jump around. I have a picture of her nursing. Rafe loves his spaghetti and it getting all over his chin. And then one night it was Rafe's turn to help daddy scrub the car before entering the car wash. He was so excited, he's never done it like his brothers have.

Bodie lost his 2 front teeth within an hour of each other, he was crying and scared. Greg finally was able to quickly do it and it wasn't so bad he said. Then the next day his bottom tooth literally popped out of his mouth in the morning. We had a ward party and they did a pinata for the kids. Jax and Creed taking big swings at it. And Rafe had his preschool Art Night. It was great, I dropped him off and picked him up on his last day of preschool. I kinda felt emotional. I can't believe all my children are done with preschool! And a picture of Miss Jen - the best teacher ever and Miss Jessica. Rafe has LOVED preschool this year (after we switched in October) My baby is sure growing up.

The school the boys go to is 60 years old this year. (same as our house, our ward building, Greg's high school, and Disneyland - all 60 yrs) so the students put on a big performance grade by grade. They each took a decade and sang songs from that era. Jax with his afro wig was from the 70's. Then a quick picture of Bodie and Creed singing.

And then the last week of school we had the Fun Run! I volunteered again, it's so fun. Jax's class all dressed up in silly costumes to run. Jax ran well as a hula Hawaiian fairy (red shirt). And Bodie was a good sport after his class was done (he got 2nd place) and stayed and rang the cowbell the whole time for all the other grades. By the end he wanted to plug his ears. Ha!

The last week of school was full of fun activities. Creed and the 3rd grade had a patriotic performance. I was so excited for this, he was learning so many patriotic songs. But in the end each class only did a few songs each. I guess they decided to make it easier for the kids to learn? But he was front and center, as was I. So I have good pictures of him. Even dancing to a french song in a beret.

And then it was beach day (which is their version of field day). Rafe watched for a while at all the fun his brothers were having with the whole school on the field playing. And I have Bodie being the anchor in his class tug of war, I love it he's really digging his feet in (light blue shirt). And Jax and Creed got sunburned. Creed's neck is funny, tan, then white, then all red on the back. They learned their lesson about sun screen or leaving your shirt on.

And before you know it, the last day of school arrived! Above is the group hanging out at 7-eleven drinking their Slurpee's. I always take them as our tradition and we had a few more join in. And we let the boys have a few friends over that night for a pizza party to celebrate the last day of school on Friday. They all played for hours and had a good time. Let summer begin!

And then we had Memorial Day weekend to kick off the summer. I finally planted flowers and have sore muscles because of it, Sunday we BBQ'd with my family in Bountiful and visited my dad's grave and my g-parents Jensen, uncle Bills grave, the whole gang was there (my aunt Merlene and cousins too) And Monday we visited G-pa Bangerter's grave and then had a picnic at the park with the Lorenzon family and then that night we had another BBQ with friends. Busy and fun and luckily good weather!

India

 Greg's been traveling, a lot. In fact in the last 90 days he has been gone traveling for 32 days. He was able to go to India at the beginning of the month. It took him 30 hrs. to fly there, worked a 40hr. work week and had to fly back another 30hrs. Ugh. The travel alone would kill me. But he's a trooper and did it. He flew via Amsterdam and then Delhi then onto Pune (a couples hours from Mumbai). Pune (pronounced poo-nay) is kinda like the silicon valley of India. But not quite as nice, he he. Here are some pics of his week there. Wearing local attire, view from his hotel room over the city, the streets, lunch with his co-workers, and shopping - he took of pic of a pile of bracelets where he purchased some.

 While there he ate local authentic Indian food every day, he loved it, but by the last meal, he was done and on the plane couldn't eat anymore either. They put spice on everything, including their snow cones! One day the people he works with took him up to a local ancient fort. Here's a picture of their monkey god, and the views. And a local guy preparing their lunch chopping on a dirty rock, right by his feet. Interesting... And took a picture of 15 people squished onto a tiny truck. The conditions the people of India live in are pretty diverse. Just as you hear, some living in tin shacks, poor working class, dirty everywhere, and the garbage stacked everywhere with no place to go.  But Greg says there were so many beautiful and amazing things about India and he really liked it a lot - especially the people he worked with.

On his flights I told him as he flies in or out of Amsterdam to take a pic of the tulip fields as they are in bloom. So he did. And the plane had to zig zag through the middle east airspace. Yikes. But when he came home we were sure glad. And gathered around his luggage while he got out the many fun souvenirs for all of us. (clothing, coins, jewelry, leather bracelets, piggy bank, pkg. Indian food and magnets of course)  He stayed at a very nice hotel, a pic of the lobby of the JW Marriott and loved their breakfasts. And then the Delhi Airport -which was really nice compared to the condition of the country itself.

Late April Stuff

 For family night one evening we went to the Utah Jazz bball game. And yes, we sat in the 2nd to last row in the arena. The boys had a good time. Jax and Creed really wanted to stay. But we had to get the little ones home. Bodie was only 1 week from his tonsil surgery, we brought medicine but he wanted to leave. Bodie saw the Jazz Bear and asked why "Chewy" was there?  ha ha. 

Wish the pics weren't so blurry.

Loving the warm spring weather and all the blossoms. Not loving all the cold spring and rain. We turned our water on so the boys were out one evening trying out the new hose hand sprinkler thing. I loved the sunset, my Holland Tulips, the blossoms on the apple tree, and the lilacs. And oh the smell in our yard that week. Very strong and nice.

The boys had their dance performances. Jax and then Bodie were the same day and same time, which was convenient. Creed was able to pop in to see Jax's class and then Jax stayed with some friends and was able to even dance in Bodie's performance with Rafe too. Greg was working from home that day and he came as well. 

Then the last 2 pics is our Saturday night dinner one evening. Assorted cereal and nacho's. We didn't want to cook or go out. We call it a "whatever night" - the boys actually love picking whatever they want to eat every-so-often. And Greg is traveling again (India) and I went up to my mom's in Bountiful to have lunch on Sunday with her for her B-day. The boys were running around as we were leaving and got "hot" so if one removes their shirt, they all remove their shirts! Boys!

Rafe was already buckled when they got in the car shirtless, by the time I was to the freeway his shirt had come off, so I snapped a picture. And Jax saw the camera and quickly covered up. Wuss. :)

Art Night

I wanted to document my full time job. Ha ha. I kid. But man, it feels like a full time job. I was on the Art Night committee at the boys school again this year. I was in charge of all the art getting displayed and hung in the school to be our museum. We had 1,600+ pieces to be hung on the walls. What a task. I luckily had a lot of people helping. It takes a team. I was organized and worked it out and that week of, everything got up and looked great I might add! I was at the school everyday and spent lots of time. Bodie and Rafe were troopers and even had lunch at the school with their brothers one day. I caught a picture of Rafe giving Jax a karate chop massage. And then one photo with one of the boys projects. Bodie's pretending to sleep, Jax is pointing to 2, and Creed wasn't smiling because his sun/moon was kinda morbid. The one to the side of his arm. It might have stood out from all the others. :)

The night of, I only captured a few pics with Jax. He hung around the whole time with his friends. And even rode his bike through the school as we were leaving. Don't tell. And he and Creed won like 5 bags of Beanie Babies (stuffed animals). So we have like 2 dozen little animals that the boys are hoarding. I did check them to see if selling them would be a nice profit, but not worth the time I think. And I also did 2 class projects for the auction. Bodie's Kindergarten class painted our rocking chair I donated and then I helped some 3rd grade class with their art and took a photo with their hands shaped in a heart. They both made some good money.

The whole evening was a success. Thousands of dollars was made and helps fund our art program and art teacher. I loved art and thinks it's so important for the kids to learn and do art as well.

Bo's tonsils no more

 Bodie boy has always had enlarged tonsils. This winter was the first he seemed to really be bothered by them. He said he couldn't swallow his food very well. And of course sometimes he would snore. And we didn't want sleep apnea to develop or anything. They weren't going down in size so we scheduled to have them removed.

Several weeks later we were chatting and come to find out our niece Lucy was having hers out the same day, same hospital, and the exact same Dr.!! Talk about a small world. 

Monday the 4th came and we took Bodie to Primary Children's Hosp. He was nervous. In fact he would request that we "just don't talk about it" with him for the weeks leading up to it. He was good and brave until they took him down the hall to leave us. He cried and hugged me. It made my mom heart so sad for him. But he said he remembers breathing in his bubble gum flavor and then woke up. He was sad and weepy when  he woke up. It took us a bit to get him ready to go home. To wake up enough and get enough oxygen, etc.  We tried to see if we could visit his cousin Lucy too, how cool of a picture to have with family doing the same as us. But we were in different areas and it didn't work out.

The top 2 pics are before. Happy silly Bodie. And the bottom 2 are after. Drugged, pain, no silly going on.

We took him home, got all of our medicine for him and then my mom (who was babysitting the other boys for us) took Greg to the airport! Yep, he had a business trip and was gone all week. While I tirelessly tended to Bodie, by myself. And boy, this was quite the recovery for Bodie. He doesn't like pain. We did the 2 hr. medicine rotation. And he had all the soft foods you can think of. I was up in the nights giving medicine. He missed almost 2 weeks of school. When the 7-10 day mark came with the scabbing, he was in more pain and it lasted for 14 days!!

His voice is different. They said it should go back to normal. It's higher and he sounds different. I think he actually isn't speaking as clearly either. 

Oh and to make it worse, right before surgery he got a cold. His cold was short and went away. But with our younger boys it always brings their asthma coughs. So we took him to the Dr. to get his steroid so he could have the surgery. I can think of nothing worse than coughing while recovering from a tonsillectomy.  But it cleared up, so we did the surgery. Then it kinda came back on day 2 after! Ah! So we did more steroid and got it under control.

While he was on all his meds the first week - he was so EMOTIONAL! It was weird. Everything would make him cry. We would all be puzzled at why he was crying and kinda have to laugh. So we ended the narcotic (which I wish I would have saved it for the scabbing week) and then one night he woke up freaking out and crying in pain. He was holding his ear and some stuff was seeping out so we assumed he had ruptured his ear drum. And the next morning, we find out that his ears are perfect and perhaps the ear pain is just from the adenoids. 

All I know is, it's done. Thank goodness. It was rough. It was a looooooooooong 14 days!

Poor Bodie going through all that recovery. He played hours and hours of video games. Like I mean hours! I feel bad, but it took his mind off of it and he loves playing and I let him do whatever he wanted. Ice cream for breakfast sometimes too. :)

stuff as of late

 March came and went, with a lot of lion in there. Boy we've had quite the spring snow storms. And we've been able to finally get some skiing done. Creed and I on the Cecret lift at Alta with Jax and Greg and Bo behind us. Then our family (minus Rafe) Bodie is happy he can do it on his own now and gets to use poles. That's like a right of passage or something for them? So proud is he. And Jax is super proud that Greg took him on his first Black Diamond run. I probably won't ever do that. :)

Speaking of skiing... Rafe is doing it now too! We put him in some spring preschool lessons at Brighton. He picked it right up. He was ready to ski. He was loving it. And then, they took the clips off his ski's. And he struggled to keep his legs together. Pulled some muscles and was discouraged that he couldn't do it like the week before. But he's got this. Maybe a refresher next winter then we will all be skiing together. Isn't my baby boy cute?

What else have we been up to? The boys discovered the fun childhood game of MASH. So I showed them how I did it and they had some fun and good laughs seeing who they marry and where they live, etc. I mentioned the tea party with cousins, there they are with their minions they made. And Rafe's asthma cough just won't go away. We had some x-rays done of his chest to rule out pneumonia and things. He is good, just a forever lingering cough that the steroids won't take care of. Ugh. But he sure loved seeing his skeleton!

 We had Greg's Bangerter cousins party at our house. We did some karaoke! Then lots of big snowflakes during one of the many snowstorms, so glad I have a car that can "do" snow. Jax forgot he had (another) talk to give in primary. So minutes before we chatted about what he can maybe say, and he got up and was "winging it" giving his talk. Everyone was impressed. I'm glad he's like his dad and can just speak in front of everyone with no fear. I played a women's basketball tournament with our stake and region. It was fun, but both games I jammed my ring finger on both my hands. One turned all black and blue, and still is hurting and healing. And boy some women play to the death! Geesh! But I had lots of fun playing again. And the last picture is of little Rafe who fell asleep one afternoon. Jax put a blanket on him because they were playing and a few minuets later, he was out cold.

Ha ha, I also mentioned a naked dance party. I had to capture silly Bodie jammin on a guitar while sporting his undies pulled up to show some cheek!  He is a wild character. Takes after his father! Silliness!

And I've been getting lots of movies from the Library. This week while Greg was out of town I watched The Man From Snowy River and Return to Snowy River. I was worried the boys would think they are too slow. But they loved them! I had to explain things as we went along but it was fun stuff. And I took this picture last night of them playing horses like in Snowy River. Fun boys!