I'm Sitting here

Mike is in the kitchen getting Annabelle something to eat and I just heard her say "Bad guys can eat cream sneeze". I'm guessing she wanted a bagel.

Travel Log: Maryland

Earlier this month we were able to spend a week in Maryland with Mike's older brother Sam and his wife Kristin and my hilarious nephew Isaac. Neither Mike nor I have spent much time on the east coast and we thought it was beautiful! Almost as soon as we left the airport we seemed to be surrounded by green. The weather was perfect, cool and refreshing.

Our first Sunday in Maryland we drove to the Washington D.C. temple and met up with my Aunt DeeDee and her family.

After touring the temple grounds we all headed to a picnic in the park where a friendly passerby serenaded us in spanish while we ate. He explained that he gets bored and so he likes to play for people in the park. We were the beneficiaries. The major highlight of the outing was chatting with my Aunt and seeing my adorable cousins. I think they like snuggling with my chubby Asa.

Our Labor Day was spent discovering D.C. It felt so surreal to walk around the National Mall and actually see the great monuments in person. The kids loved riding the metro, running around the mall and playing at the Smithsonian. My favorite was the World War II Memorial, I felt a beautiful peace as I thought about the great sacrifices made by those who were being memorialized. I was impressed with how well my sister in law Kristin knew her way around. From the moment we stepped out of the metro and I was completely disoriented until we got back on it several hours later she knew right where to go and the quickest route to get there!

Another evening on our trip we went to the beach! Annabelle has never been to the ocean and she loved it! It didn't take long for her to jump right in and enjoy the warm water. Isaac and Sam showed her how to dig trenches along the beach for waves to fill up and wash away. Asa must have enjoyed the soothing sounds of the waves because he slept the ENTIRE time.

Our timing in Maryland seemed to be perfect as Gala apples and raspberries were in season. I think raspberry picking might have been my favorite part of the entire trip! I couldn't seem to stop picking. I kept reaching in the bushes to get just one more.

Before we came out to Maryland Isaac had made the request to his mom that we have a pirate party. So that is exactly what we did! Kristin made cupcakes and let the kids decorate and devour them until we thought they might get sick. Isaac made me laugh so hard as he would slap some frosting on his cupcake, bite it off, do it again and again before just eating the icing off of his knife and then once that wasn't getting into his mouth fast enough he started going for it with his fingers - all the while muttering "mmm, yumm yumm, mmm" to himself. It was hysterical!

Another day it was rainy so we ventured into Baltimore to visit the Children's Museum. As to be expected - it was a blast! Here is my favorite shot from the day:

And what would a vacation with Mike be without a nature hike? Mike loved his walks through this forest.

Here are {some} of Mike's favorite shots from the trip:

THANK YOU Sam and Kristin SOOO much for letting us come and crash with you for a week. You were wonderful hosts and tour guides. We loved visiting with you and getting to see some amazing places out east!

Travel Log: Colorado

Mike posted his favorite pictures from our trip to Colorado last month and somehow I never ended up writing about our trip. We spent a wonderful week in Colorado with family. Mike did do some photography hikes and I spend quite a few hours scrap booking with my sisters in law - thanks to my thoughtful father-in law :). We all enjoyed playing with the kids (all 5 grandkids were in the Sherwood house) and having some fun family outings as well. Highlights of the trip for me were:

A BBQ at the fire pit at the Sherwoods house with my family and our good friend's the Smiths over as well.

Good food, s'mores, friends, family, great weather and a Teepee are a recipe for a great night.

One day we took the kids to the North Pole. The North Pole is this amazing little amusement park for kids up in the mountains behind Pikes Peak. Most of the rides just go around and around but there aren't lines, Santa (the real one with a real white beard and twinkly blue eyes is there) and we had a blast.

The kids enjoyed an afternoon playing with hoses and Papa Zeke filling up his canoe to act as a swimming pool of sorts out on the driveway - somehow I didn't get any of those pictures on my computer but it was great to watch them try to drag their heavy hoses around and get tangled up with each other.

Bowling hasn't been much of a family tradition but with a rainy afternoon with all the Sherwoods together we needed an activity and had a great time knocking down some pins. The kids lasted just barely into the second game - so we did the responsible thing and let them run around while we took their turns!

Mike's mom had also arranged for us to have family portraits taken. Joyana who took our McKean pictures last year, and her friend Heather took the pictures this year. It was fun, they were so great at making us feel relaxed and making sure we got the pictures we wanted taken. I love them - so many great ones, here are just a few (I really did narrow it down):

Colorado

We went to CO a few weeks ago and I thought I would post some pictures from our trip. I took way too many, but had a great time doing it. Some of them are from hiking to a secret slot canyon with my friend Alma, others are at my Mom's garden, and some are from hiking with my brother Sam. Alma and Sam took some of the pics in the slideshow.

These pictures are some of the many reasons we LOVE Colorado. We had a great time with the Sherwood, Mckeans, Andersons, and the Smiths. We love you all and can't wait to get back to beautiful of CO.

Mike

Happy Days

It feels like a long time since our house has felt normal! Hurray for slower days :) This week has been nice. Asa came home from the hospital Monday evening and seemed back to himself more and more the longer we were home. He did end up breaking out with little red dots all over his body later in the week, but the pediatrician took a look on Wednesday and said they were probably just the virus working itself out of his skin! They are gone now.

Asa has been smiling a lot more this last month - so instead of posting 4 minutes of smiling videos, I'll just post this one:

Ha ha, I realize you might not really want to listen to us coo over our baby for a minute and a half, so I am not offended if you just skip over the video.

Annabelle and I have been having a good week together. She has been working really hard helping me put the house back together and on Friday we tried doing "Princess Hair". This is the curly version of the french braid 'crown' that my mom used to do with my hair:

It looks a little different dry, she wore it this way to church. She of course would try to avoid eye contact and stiffen her face to avoid smiling when someone mentioned how pretty her hair looked.

Thanks for all of the words of encouragement and phone calls. We are doing just fine, have survived some minor drama and may even meet our insurance deductibles BEFORE the end of the year after all!

98.5

Asa has not had a fever all day and so long has his 48 hr blood cultures come back normal at 6pm, we will be going home. Thanks for all your notes and prayers, we are doing well. Can't wait to get back to regular life!

Fever

Friday night Annabelle had a little fever, complained she wasn't feeling well and was all together out of sorts. With a little Tylenol and spoiling she was back to herself Saturday morning. Unfortunately when Asa woke up from a nap on Saturday he felt warm. I checked and sure enough he then had a fever. Since he is so little I knew he needed to be seen, so we went to the Emergency room. They were awesome, saw him right away (and I mean instantly, no waiting) and started doing tests to rule out the most dangerous possibilites. After his chest x-rays and initial blood work came back normal they told me they wanted to keep him over night for observation. They don't have a pediatric unit at that hospital but they let me drive him over to their sister hospital not too far away. So we've been here ever since. He still has a low-grade fever. He has undergone more tests and so far so good. With any luck we'll be going home tomorrow. He seems like himself, just a little fussy when he is on tylenol and semi-miserable when he is not. He is on tylenol right now and is laying on my lap grunting and sticking out his tounge as he studies the half-open blinds.

All of this is mostly just precautionary, so I don't feel especially worried but I'd appreciate if you would keep him in your prayers today. I'll update again tomorrow and let you know how he is doing. Thanks!