rainy day diversion

Our original plans for today included the Living Traditions festival, but the weather was absolutely lousy. So we went with option number two. We went to the health fair they were having at LDS Hospital. Not quite as exciting, but at least it was indoors. They had emergency vehicles outside, and then nearly every department was represented in the auditorim. The kids got to meet a large tooth, and Bear from the Utah Jazz. We learned about PICC lines, hyperbaric chambers, emergency planning, endoscopy, car safety, and more. Then we got to go upstairs and tour the operating rooms. We saw the stuff they use for hip replacements, knee replacements, laproscopic barriatric surgery, and then they got to "take out an appendix". Alyssa struggled with the adult sized gear, but was really into her role as assistant to Dr. Colton, who successfully removed the patient's appendix. Rylan looked right at home taking in the "cool tools" they got to use. He had a thousand questions for the nurses and surgeons we talked with. Not a bad back up plan, we learned a few things, and they didn't drive me nuts. We may try to get to Living Traditions tomorrow after church if it isn't raining and hailing like today.

Max

This is Max! Max is the newest addition to our household. He is a five week old jack russel terrier mix. He had to leave his mother early because of some health problems she was having, so we have made him a part of our family. He has been a delight, our other dog Cooper has really taken to him and is a good "big brother". Max is a sweetheart and smart too, he has already started potty training, he is too little to get outside by himself, but if we take him out he goes. If we don't think to take him out soon enough he will start to whine. He is so tiny that we have "lost" him several times. We put him down on the floor to play and he will wander off and go to sleep some place, he is such a heavy sleeper that he doesn't even move when we call him. If he can survive Alyssa's constant mothering I think we have a match made in heaven.

It's all fun and games until....

We started out with a mission this morning...have some good old fashioned fun. For the most part we succeeded. We played music. We worked on a construction site. We played in the water. We visited the grocery store. We played in a pile of ground cork. And then he crashed, and cried and bled. And then we went to the doctors office. At least it didn't require stitches, just a liberal amount of glue. He tried hard to be brave, but it really hurt. That nasty old apple tree just came out of nowhere and attacked him. It isn't nice to attack a guy when he isn't even looking, oh wait, that was the whole problem, he wasn't watching where he was going. The other two would have just had a nasty bump, not Cole, he has to go all out. At least we were almost ready to leave. We will try again another day thanks to the complimentary pass the guy at the first aid station gave us. Next time he will wear a helmet and pads and be covered in bubble wrap.

eggs, candy, bunnies, and bison ???

We have all recovered enough that we were able to have a nice Easter. At the last minute we decided to check out the Easter egg hunt at Antelope Island. We figured if nothing else it would be a nice drive while we listened to conference. It turned out to be a great idea. The foul weather the night before kept most people away, I overheard someone say there were usually about 800 kids, I only figured about 200 were there. The kids made quite a haul. We got to visit the easter bunny. They had their faces painted. We checked out the ranch. We saw the bison and a few deer. And over all had a nice time, just the five of us, no friends, no tv, no computer. I should take them out in the middle of nowhere more often. We also enjoyed an evening with my family. Josh and Annie came up for conference and dinner with the family. We hid eggs for the little ones, and just relaxed.

Sick

***Update... Alyssa did end up getting what Colton had and was every bit as sick, she suffered most from high fevers(103.8). She doesn't cope as well as her brothers so she really kept us hopping for a few days. Then Rylan came down with strep on Monday. I am holding my breath that he doesn't share with everyone else. I tend to be vulnerable to strep. As of today they are all doing better, just a little more tired than usual.*** I feel like I ought to have a degree in pharmacology or nursing or something after the week we've had. Last Sunday Colton came down with a cold/cough/fever kind of thing. He pretty much slept his way through the week, not eating, no school, just plain miserable. On Thursday when I got home from work I could see he really wasn't doing very well. I called the doctors office and took him in. The first thing they did was check his oxygen saturation and discovered he was at 85%, normal is above 90%. So they quickly gave him a breathing treatment, and we narrowly avoided a trip to the hospital. He has bronchiolitis. They sent us home with some steriods to open his airway and breathing treatments to loosen the junk in his lungs. So on top of his four daily medications and tylenol for his fever we added two asthma meds and decongestant. I have spent well over $100 this week on their daily meds and all the extra ones.

Then this morning Alyssa woke up with a fever and cough. She has spent the entire day dozing on the couch. Here we go again. Please, please don't let anyone else catch this junk.

The Big Event

No words needed the video speaks for itself.
***Ok, I have been trying for three days to upload video of his solo, but after wasting many, many hours I have come to the conclusion it just isn't going to happen. So here are some photos instead, just know that it was wonderful and brought out the performer in him. He is looking forward to joining the older kids on celebration team next year.


Rylan and his dance teacher Dana. Rylan and his new buddy Peter Christie.

order from chaos

Last night was the big dress rehersal for Rylan's program. I was so glad to be an observer and not be in charge of anything. Peter Christie of Ballet West took the reins and corralled all these kids into place. He did a great job with them. He seems to have the perfect personality for this kind of thing, he would push them hard to fix something, and then walk up and down as they dance praising what he liked. The kids really responded well to him, especially when he started dancing next to them. When he demonstrated some leaps and spins he wanted fixed, they realized this wasn't just some old guy yelling at them, he is an accomplished dancer. We are looking forward to the first program tonight. Please forgive my blurry photos, I was across the room and not using my flash so I wasn't a distraction. My camera doesn't do so well without the flash. Oh, and these photos are a sneek peek at the Sorcerer's Apprentice part of the program.