Goodbye Tonsils

Well, my cute Seth had his tonsils and adenoids out on Wednesday.  He has been such a trooper about it.  He honestly has not complained once or shed a tear until yesterday.  I had heard it got worse after it scabbed and then they started coming off which I think starts this week, so it may be starting to be more painful.  He woke up a pretty sad little camper this morning, but once he has his pain meds in him he does great.

He was so brave at the hospital to just walk back with the doctors to the operating room.  They said he was very stubborn about wearing the gas mask.  He did not want to breathe through it.  I guess they got it on, and he held his breath until he had to take a deep one and then it was lights out.  They thought he was quite the cute, brave kid.  Strangely enough Seth doesn't really like popsicles or ice cream, so I have  to almost force him to eat them.  He has gone through a lot of Jello but other than that his appetite has not been great.  I can't say I blame him.  We watched his surgery on closed circuit TV while they did it, and they gave us a DVD.  He and Luke have watched it a couple of times, and they think it's so cool.  His voice sounds different now, so it will be interesting to see if that lasts.  I'm just hoping we can get through these next few days without it hurting too bad.

 Seth entertained himself while we waited by taking pictures of everything.

What a good kid.  I am just relieved it went well, and I hope he feels like his normal, spunky self soon.  Love you Seth.

Stinker

After much begging and pleading I took the kids to the fun park a few weeks ago.  (I hate it there..it's dark, nasty, has arcade games...yuck but I take them once or twice a year.)  Anyway, while I was watching the kids and their friends Ian did this....

This is a bad cell phone pic, but he climbed up into one of those arcade style basketball games.  He was up in past the arm thing that holds the balls until you pay.  There was no way to reach him, and the other boys were too big to go in after him.  After begging, pleading, threatening w/timeout...he was still in there just shooting baskets happy as a clam.  Luke suggested paying to get the balls to come down and then he might follow.  Of course it would not work.  The worker fiddled with it and said it might be because he was in there and then just walked off.  By now it had been a good 15 minutes...and then he decided he was done and came out on his own.  What a stinker!

Swim Lessons

Both of the boys took swim lessons this year and improved so much.  They are becoming little fish.  They both love going off the diving board.  Seth still needs caught or wears a life jacket, but it won't be long.  Luke has a great forward crawl.  He is also very good at diving down and being underwater.  He does not float like a cork.  Seth is the opposite.  He is very buoyant and floats like crazy.  He can do a sweet from the knees dive.  I wish they could take more sessions at the Campbell's pool.  They do such a good job.  My friend Cami's mom was their teacher this year and she was awesome.  They loved every second.

 Oops.  Sorry about your head Luke.  He wanted a diving board picture, and I didn't exactly come through.  Next time!  In my defense I was wrestling a wiggly Ian while trying to take pictures near deep water!

San Diego

At the first of July we headed to San Diego for about 5 days with my parents.  We had a great time.  The weather was in the low 70s and perfect, and it was great.  When the kids weren't swimming in the pool we were out having fun somewhere else.  They literally crashed into bed each night.

Our first day we went to Legoland.  None of us had ever been there before.  The kids had a lot of fun.  I think once was enough for me.  At first the lines were really long but by evening it was about empty, and the kids got to go on lots of rides.  Most of the rides are small, but they had a Lego Technic roller coaster that was pretty fun.

My dad and I took the bigger boys on this "ride."  You pull yourself up.  When we were about 15 feet off the ground Seth pushed this big, black button in between us.  It raised the lap bar up.  For the rest of the ride I kept telling him not to push the button.  Doesn't that kind of seem like bad ride design?

Luke waited forever to drive the cars on this course, but he thought it was worth it.

At the end of the day the boys got soaked in the fountain.  They had their shirts off, and we had to put them in the family dryer.

Our next day was a beach day, and we had a blast.  Luke was Mr. Kelp and for some reason Seth was scared of it, so you can imagine he capitalized on that.

Ian liked the sand but wasn't too interested in the water.  He was constantly wandering off and a bit of a pill!

Seth does not mind having sand in every crack and crevice.

I showed the kids how to find crabs when there were bubbles after the wave came...and sure enough they were still there...just like my San Diego beach days as a kid.  Luke was way into the crabs and Ian was pretty excited about them too.

The next day was Sea World.  The weather was not too hot, and the kids loved it.  Luke especially was totally amazed by the animals and took tons of pictures with his little camera.  I thought the dolphin show was way cool myself.

At the end we really wanted to ride the roller coaster, but the wait was 90 minutes.  We decided we didn't want to ride it that bad.

Our last vacation day we spent at two different beaches.  We first went to La Jolla cove and did a little snorkeling.  Both Jer and I love to snorkel and swim in the ocean but California is just not that great.  We've been here before and it was especially murky and wavy this time.

There were all sorts of crabs and critters to be found, and there were a bunch of seals out on "seal rock" that were noisy.

We also went to a beautiful state beach and played in the surf.  The kids had a blast.

Ian once again enjoyed the refreshments most of all.

As the tide came in Luke stayed and watched until every last bit of this sand castle was gone.

This is not a great picture because light was coming down through a skylight and I just had my little camera, but it's the only one we got with both grandma and grandpa.  We all had such a fun time!  Ian was so tired on the way home that he even crashed out on the plane, and we enjoyed some peace and quiet for a minute.

Random Summer Fun

Blogging has not really happened this summer so I'm attempting to do some major catching up. This post is just a mish mash of some fun stuff we've done the last month or so.

We borrowed Grandpa Boyd's Jeep and took the kids for a ride from Cub River up to Gibson Lakes.  It was a pretty rough ride, but it was fun.  Poor Luke was in the back in the middle, and he got sick.  When we got to the lakes and got out Luke was puking with millions of mosquitoes swarming him.  He didn't complain!  On the way back he got to sit shotgun with me so he could see, and he felt much better.

On the 24th of July we were down at my parent's house for Sunday dinner.  The kids were sporting their patriotic shirts my mom got them.  They love chilling in the swing on my parent's deck.

We've made a couple trips to Bear Lake this year.  We went up with my family and cousins' family on the 4th and then went up again for the day on the 24th.  On the 24th it was really windy, and the kids had such a blast at the pool.  On the 4th it was pretty nice at the beach, and we spent most of our time there.  There isn't much of a beach this year though because the water's so high.

At one point Ian was using that black thing as a straw and drinking that gross water.

My aunt and uncle have owned a red boat for years, but it has been a lot of trouble lately.  Last year it left us stranded and this year the first time they took it out it started on fire.  They retired it, and we rented a boat.  It was lots of fun.  The kids tubed and some of us who haven't waterskied for years tried it again.  I can't remember the last time I was on a waterski but it got smooth, and I decided it was one ski or bust. Apparently it's like riding a bike because I got right up and it was really fun.  My cousin Jodi showed us her skills too.  It was just like old times...except we're 20 years older.

Pretty much all the kids were buried at one time or another.  I think Andrew is happy with his work.

We live in a cul-de-sac with great neighbors and lots of kids!  We always have a cookout in the summer and this year we did fireworks too.  This is our cute neighbor Klein with Ian.

Little Luke and Seth doing sparklers.  It was a little sketchy for a minute when lots of small children were waving fiery sticks!

Ian alternated between liking and hating the fireworks.  He was really not a fan of the noise and kept wanting me to cover his ears.

This is just part of the group...we have over 30 elementary age kids on our street and a handful of older kids.

We also headed up to P town for That Famous Preston Night Rodeo and parade.  We left Ian home on this one because sitting with him in open bleachers is a disaster.  Jer got home from his high adventure with the young men just in time to come with us.  Parades, candy, rodeo burgers, the rodeo itself, and of course family...you can't beat small town traditions.