10 Days of J-O-Y

It's been a while since I posted and I'm afraid this is going to be a lil lengthy, especially with all thso consider yourself fore-warned.

On June 27th we packed the car and headed east for a much needed family vacation. I admit I was a little nervous to be driving not knowing how the girls, well mostly how Tyler was going to do for the next 10 days. We left at a quarter to 5 Saturday morning and had a 10 hr drive (without stopping) ahead of us so we thought maybe an early start and the girls would sleep the first few hours. It was a good thought...but things never go as planned. I won't spend the whole blog talking about driving, although I could do it. We spent a total of 40 hrs in the car and the girls, well they did Fantastic! There were a few moments at the end of the day when Tyler would start arching her back and declaring herself "done", there were a few times I felt the same way. McKenna was in her element- driving in the car (not towards home), movie after movie and all the treats she could eat only a "please Mommy" away.

We arrived in Sun Valley around 6:30ish that evening and met up with the Harris Klan who'd had quite the eventful ride up -something about fallen luggage. :) McKenna couldn't have been more thrilled to see everyone. We met up with my mom in Albertson's and as soon as McKenna saw her she began screaming as she ran up the aisle to hug her. There were 2 condos that all of us stayed in and so every morning shortly after waking up we were paid a fun visit by Maddie, Kierra & "maddie's mom". There was a bit of confusion as McKenna often declared herself Maddie, which didn't go over well with the original. She didn't understand how McKenna could be so confused. We were also able to get some family pictures at a beautiful spot close by one of the condos.

Some of the highlights of our time in Sun Valley were: Swimming, John winning twice in BINGO: including an iPod Nano (Thanks to Mark who knows how to pick a number), the kids Carnival with lots of blow up slides, bounce houses & Cotton Candy, meeting up with Jelina and her kids, John winning the 5K/Fun run-overall and Mel winning in her division (pregnant and all), playing with grandparents, aunts & uncles & Cousins, and Mel & John got a night out to go see the Sun Valley Ice Skating show.

Wednesday-July 2nd came all too quickly where we pack up again and then headed our seperate directions. We headed East where we stopped in Driggs to see Sarah McKellar and her cute family and have "supper". After visiting with Sarah and touring her beautiful new home we headed on to Lander Wyoming to see the Johnson/Johnstone family and celebrate the 4th of July.

John has spent quite a bit of time in Lander over the years including a summer internship in 2001 where he stayed with Jillyn's family-George & Linda Johnstone. He has such fond memories of the place and has always wanted to go back and visit. This time was no exception as the experience with kids makes it a little different but still wonderful. Mitch and Jillyn were excellent hosts and made us feel right at home. Jillyn's family was equally as welcoming, they even found us a house next door to Mitch & JJ's that was vacant and begging us to buy. For me Lander was like stepping back in time-it just felt so...comfortable. The first day we were there we ran out to Jillyn's parents and the horses. McKenna surprised us all when she was brave enough to not only get on the horse, but telling Mom & Dad to "go", wanting to do it alone.

The 4th of July celebration in Lander actually begins on the 3rd- we had a BBQ at Aunt Babz where we were also able to watch & listen to a wonderful and very patriotic Firework show. The next morning we got up and went the parade which involved a lot of horses, "native americans", a 10 yr graduation party that is still going on, and Linda (JJ's mom) led the pack of VW Bugs to wrap it up. Well actually there were a ton of Fire Engines at the end but we took shelter from the noise and water in the Quilt shop.

The evening was spent eating, playing wiffle ball, dancing and setting off fireworks (which started in the neighborhood around 3 that afternoon and lasted about 10 hrs). We got up early the next morning and on our way out of Lander we stopped for a delicious country breakfast and to say our Good-bye's at the Johnstone's.

We headed to Boise which was an 8-1/2 hr drive stopping in Jackson to play at the park and allow me to reminisce the summers vacations I spent there. It seemed like an all too quick stop for the evening at John's sister, Audrey's home. The girls were thrilled to find a "park" at their house and McKenna was in love with Alexia's room which was all girl-the bed, the shoes, the clothes, the stuffed animals, Loved It!

Ya gotta do what ya gotta do, cheetos anyone?
It was a great trip, one in which we won't forget for sometime. We were able to see and spend time with a lot of Loved Ones, The girls and I not only saw but were able to spend good quality time with our Dad, "Daddy John", and we saw some some of the most beautiful places that God created. Wish I'd gotten more pictures of...everything and everybody! Thanks to Shelly & My Mom who helped set us up with movies, stickers, books and toys to keep the girls happy and the parents sane.

From Mt. Raineer to the Grand Tetons!

Tim McGraw Comes To Washington

Tuesday night Shelly (who flew in from Utah that morning) and I went to the Auburn's WhiteRiver Ampitheater to see Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean & Halfway to Hazzard in Concert. All I have to say is What a Show...but it's me and maybe it's an unbiased opinion as there are few shows I don't love that Tim does. My good friend Kelli actually was responsible for getting me tickets-I've lost touch and didn't even know Tim was coming til the show was practically sold out. We were on the floor, row 11-at least for Jason Aldean & H2H-for Tim we were pretty much dancing up by the stage the whole time. We scored a guitar pick from Jason's guitarist and one from Darren Smith-Bandleader of the Dancehall Dr's and even got a few high fives from Tim and a signed ticket stub. Such a fun girls night out!

Jason Aldean, Darren Smith, The Dance Hall Doctors (Warren Bros as a bonus)

It was an especially exciting show as during Indian Outlaw Tim got in a little argument with a rather large fellow in the audience. At the time we couldn't see why he was so upset, we just saw Tim scolding the guy and then tell him he was gone, then he proceeded to drag the man up on stage with the help of his "burley" security guards-Joey and another fellow I do not know the name of. Once the man got on stage he actually started to throw a punch at Tim. Later I read that apparently this man had hit a female in the audience, whether it was on purpose or not was unknown, but it must've looked bad for Tim to react that way. In case you wanted to check it out I did find it on Youtube:

Lessons Learned

I've thought of things to write and this evening as I sit I come up blank. I guess I'll take my usual approach to just keep writing about nothing and I'm sure I'll fill in the space, afterall I am a talker.

The days are beginning to get a lil warmer. Being pregnant I haven't minded the cool...cold weather so much, so much nicer than the blazing hot sun. I do feel bad for the girls as they want to play outside and who can blame them. It is afterall the middle of June. McKenna keeps asking for the swimpool and keeps telling me she needs a bike. I chuckle as I think about her needs these days.

Tyler decided to help me clean
I had a meeting with her teachers yesterday that left me feeling exhausted, frustrated, despairing and confused...to say the least right? McKenna's preschool is designed to work specifically with Developmentally Delayed children and so making goals and keeping track of where they are is very important. I know McKenna is behind in a few areas and when she gets around other children it is very apparent to me as a mother. I don't love her any less, but feel a certain amount of guilt for not working more with her at trying to help shorten the gaps. My feelings came from one of the specialists expressions of concern because she too has noticed that after teaching her things when they re-address the lesson it was as if it was never taught to her in the first place, as if it "didn't stick". It was also expressed that she isn't progressing like they had hoped. These are all things that I have thought and doesn't really come as much of a surprise but to hear them from "professionals" was a little disheartening. Options were explored and more goals were made for next year. I was given some guidance as to things we can work on this summer and hopefully with this new direction I will be able to make more of a difference in McKenna's life. I know McKenna is a bright child in so many ways, it's just trying to figure out her learning style. I took the kids with me to the meeting and I know that although McKenna was playing with toys she was also listening. Unfortunately I didn't realize this until we got home and McKenna has a random meltdown to which I was unsure of how to respond because I didn't know where it was coming from. A lesson learned in watch what you say around your kids, they are always listening...

On a more positive note Tyler has become a lil Mini-Me, or rather, Mini McKenna. She follows McKenna around and wants to do everything she is doing. Put on princess dresses, ride bikes, she even carries around McKenna's old beany baby bear because it looks like the new one McKenna has adopted.

This behavior cracks me up and makes me think this is what I must have been like with my older sister when I was younger. It also has it's drawbacks as she's screams and begs for things like McKenna does-despite the lack of results either girl gets for the behavior. We got a lil crazy and crafty this week since McKenna's out of school so we made hats one day. Look out Martha Stuart Here I Come...actually the idea came from Curious George. Almost the same.

Father's Day

This last week school ended for little Miss McKenna, although she still wakes up each morning asking "bus?" wondering if it's coming to pick her up. She had her little preschool summer "farewell" party at the park where they played on the playground and then had a grueling game of baseball. I was actually very impressed as she hit the ball. She needed a lil direction when it came to the running...she ran just didn't know which direction, she was heading straight for 2nd. Can't say that I blame her it was the least path of resistence.

Tyler on the other hand had a party of her own on McKenna's last day of school a few days earlier.

Father's day was pretty low key. The shopping was a lil entertaining, if you can picture it: there I am in the mall with the kids in a double-stroller eating goldfish and as we pull into the "Buckle" the stroller decides to squeak each time I make a turn. Such a Mom moment for me-I'm sure the employees were thrilled at the market they were pulling in. :) The salesman actually made the comment about not getting "too trendy" of clothes for John. All I could was laugh because he was right, I couldn't see John sporting a t-shirt with a wild Skeleton on a motorcycle or something similar on it. I think his favorite gift was the one Mother Nature gave him, one of the 2 moles caught in a trap. (my apologies to the animal sympathists).

McKenna was the 1st to wake at naptime, the WHOLE house was asleep in one room or another, so John using his "daddy-brain" concocted the following for her. She couldn't have been more thrilled than a movie outside!

Last and certainly not least there are many many benefits to having Ashley live with us and this last weekend we were blessed with her cooking talents. Saturday she surprised me by announcing she would make dinner. I was very impressed with her Homemade pizza, crust and all.

I'm really not very good at big announcements, I think because the idea of it gets ahead of me and the when's and how's get bigger and bigger until I'm too overwhelmed by the idea. (Thus my almost subtly in the previous post, to which I realized was not so clear and so I added the actual "bun" later.) The procrastination then follows and I find reasons to put it off. We were going to wait until we found out the specifics (scheduled for July 8th) but want you to know much to our surprise and pleasure we will have one more reason to be thankful for this year at Thanksgiving. Baby #3 is on it's way.

12 week bump

I think it's a race with Steven (John's brother) & Silvia's 2nd to see who can get here first, what do you say Silvia...as if we really have any say in it? I also found out my Visiting Teacher, Ashley is Due the day after me. What are the chances of that happening? Being pregnant is not always pleasant but it's always better when you have friends and family to go through it with, something along the lines of "Misery loves company."

Rainier to Ruston

This last weekend I finally got to run in a race I've heard about and wanted to run for years. It's a relay race that goes from Mt. Rainier to Ruston, which is down along the waterfront in Tacoma. I ran it with 5 WONDERFUL women-Jana, Lisa, Allison, Carla & Ady (For privacy I've withheld their last names :)). We started at 8 am Saturday morning and ended a few minutes before 5 pm, each running 2 legs ranging from 6.5-2.5 miles on the road, paved paths and even muddy trails. Our team name was 6 Women and a Bun-one of us is pregnant so we decided to play with the name a bit-can you guess who it was? We had another team there we ran with for the 1st half of the race, Team Hanni who's team spirit is hard to beat. I was able to start us out at Rainier, it was so beautiful! Even though it was cold, a lil rainy and for Carla & Allison a lil muddy and despite being sick now and again it was a thoroughly wonderful day and I hope to be able to do it again next year.

We are all a little sore in one place or another and I believe we've gotten over our injured pride of the 17-yr old boys & Team Hanni passing us half way through the day. We had a wonderful celebratory dinner at a good lil place in Sumner called "Buttered Biscuit". Thanks everyone for such a Fantastic day, including Ashley & John who watched McKenna & Tyler, cleaned the clinic, the house and the yard.

I've decided if I don't get to run the St. George Marathon this year, I couldn't have asked for a better race to run and with a better group of women to run it with (including Team Hanni). Everyone's been very supportive and I guess we'll hit St. George in 2010. Until then keep on Runnin!

The "bun": 16 weeks and counting...

Catchup

Pry the biggest news is that Ashley John's little sister has come home. :) Well in a matter of speaking, BYU got out and Ashleyis returning to work for Outpatient Physical Therapy. McKenna woke up Thursday morning much excited for Aunt Ashley. As soon as I told her she was here, she ran to the window screaming and then started jumping up and down once she saw Ashley's car in the drive.

Later that morning we headed to the dentist we piled in the van and headed to Spokane and Sandpoint (ID) for the weekend. We were trying to be optimistic as Tyler hadn't had her morning nap that she'd spend a good 2-3 hrs sleeping in the car on the way out. She's not a big fan of driving and being strapped in her car seat. We were not disappointed as she soon fell asleep towards the beginning of our drive, but sitting next to McKenna has it's drawbacks, which includes being woken up.

The beggining of our Trip

None of us had been to Spokane before and found it to be quite a nice place. Our friend Julie & Kevin Kellogg live there with their 2 very cute kids. They were sweet to feed us a yummy meal of Cafe Rio's Shredded beef and tacos and then we had a riling game of Wii Bowling. The Girls loved being able to play with new toys and didn't want to leave. Truth be-it I didn't want to leave either. The next hour driving was hard on all of us but we finally reached Sandpoint around 10 pm and finally crashed in the room til Morning.

A few hours later...
Sandpoint, ID is a lil ski town, reminded me of Jackson Hole or Sun Valley without all the tourist shopping, but maybe that's because we didn't make it to the shops. They did have a nice beach on a Lake there, but the distracted and stress case I was, I constantly forgot the camera, so I only got a few pictures.

Yep, that's the Hotel Bible, religious girl

John and Ashley learned a lot and I think they really liked the class and have a new workout regiment they are starting next week. The drive home wasn't nearly as bad as the drive out, driving late at night, keeping the girls out in the sun all day seemed to work out perfectly for all involved. Sorry no pictures of that, we were enjoying the moment way too much!