Utah part two.

Subtitle: Untold (until now) Stories from the E.R.

In part two of the Utah trip recap, we will focus mainly on a two hour period Sunday afternoon, starting with a question:

What happens when you take this sweet, accident-prone, almost four-year-old . . .
and add this light post base right outside of Sam and Terri's church (which is so tempting for little boys to climb on)?

Yep, a visit to the local emergency room for for stitches!!
This was probably two of the worst hours of my life (Clyde likewise did not seem to enjoy himself much). After the beautiful baby blessing, we were leaving the church to go back to Sam and Terri's house when Clyde fell as he climbed down off the light post, splitting open his chin. He and I both cried uncontrollably (after I said a very bad word, which was absolutely necessary) as we headed for the nearest hospital. Quinn and Cody took baby Will to Sam and Terri's to be sweetly taken care of by everyone there while my mom and Heidi stayed at the ER with Clyde and me, both of us still sobbing as we waited in the exam room.

The absolute worst part was when they gave Clyde the medicine for the 'conscious sedation'. I honestly can't think about it without crying. It was so, so horrible to hold my baby while he gradually fell into this weird state of consciousness.

The nurse was really great; especially as the ketamine took effect with Clyde. I was seriously shaking (and trying to hold him somewhat still!) as I cried and she kept touching my arm and telling me how great I was doing. I wish I could have had one of my two favorite nurses, but Whitney was an excellent substitute.

When the doctor came in to do the stitches, I most definitely excused myself. Sam and Quinn had arrived for more moral support (thanks brothers!!) so I left Clyde safely with Sam, Grandma Pam, the nurse and the doctor. Quinn and Heidi and I went outside so I could get some fresh air and compose myself a bit.

Six stitches later, we were called back in. The nurse warned us that Clyde might be a little 'loopy' as the medicine wore off, but he did really, really well - possibly thanks to the ice cream cones that we treated ourselves to for surviving the ordeal.

Clyde's button up shirt and my nice shirt were both saved thanks to Grandma Pam following Connie's excellent tip about hydrogen peroxide getting blood out, but the white undershirt was a lost cause. Don't mind Quinn in this shot, it was tricky to photograph the wound without Clyde objecting so Quinner was trying to be sneaky :).

Clyde did SO well. He got a little grumpy in the evening, but it wasn't anything that some more Star Wars video game couldn't fix :). He finally consented to calling them 'stitches' and even helped Chuck take them out after the week was over.

As I said, this was one of the worst experiences of my life as a mother - watching your child so scared and in pain and being unable to make it stop is excruciating. This was compounded by the fact that Chuck wasn't there; he's definitely the strong one in these situations. Thankfully I was able to rely on two of the most amazing women ever:

My mama! She level-headedly (not a word, I know) drove us to the hospital so I could sit with Clyde in back and saved the day by telling Clyde Star Wars stories to help him calm down. I felt much better knowing that my mom was there (and yes, we totally posed for pictures after Clyde fell asleep).

And my BFSC Heidi! Heidi was such a doll all afternoon. I'm sure this was not something a cute 18-year-old wanted to get wrangled into, but she did not even flinch (outwardly, at least) at any of it. She sweetly rubbed my back (sitting hunched over on a hospital bed cradling a 35 lb. kid hurts!) and let me dictate texts to her so we could tell poor Chuck what had happened and she didn't think I was crazy as I cried and cried and cried.

So, now that my sons are even - one chin injury requiring stitches a piece, one leg/foot injury requiring a cast a piece, I think we should be good for a while. . . hopefully a loooong while.

Utah part one.

We took a lovely trip last weekend to Utah for Bailey's blessing at church. Chuck had to work (lame!) so the little boys and I made the trek down with my mom and Cody. By an amazing coincidence, it was also the weekend that my dear, dear BFSC Courtney graduated from the BYU College of Nursing so we left a day early to see her walk on Friday.

Heidi, Courtney, and me. It was so fun to be there - a big thank you to Lynndi and McKay who let me drop off Clyde for an all-day playdate with McKenzie so that he didn't have to endure the graduation ceremony. I told them that moving to Utah would make no difference in how often I asked them to watch my kids!! Will had been a bit grumpy so I kept him for the day; Cody volunteered to play with him outside in the grass which worked excellently!

Heidi and I pondered an appropriate gift for Courtney on such a momentous occasion and finally settled on something that allowed us to be recipients as well - coordinating BFSC bracelets!! (Top to bottom: Courtney, Heidi, me).

Candid shot that big Will took while he had my camera. . . he made it pretty clear that he expected to see it make the blog, so here you are!

Reed, Courtney, and Gloria! Very proud parents :).

Then Reed generously treated us all to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory - baby Will somehow sneaked a spot at the girls' end of the table. (The cute girl in yellow is Courtney's sister-in-law Jessi).

That day also happened to be my very wonderful mom's birthday!! So of course we had them sing to her, which caught her by surprise :).

They also decked out her piece of cheesecake!
Hard to read, but it says 'Happy birthday Pam'.

Here she is opening her presents . . . notice my super-awesome wrapping job :).

We reclaimed Clyde and headed back home for some Lego Star Wars video game. Unfortunately big Will only had one XBOX controller, which meant taking turns; here Ben patiently waits for Clyde to finish his level . . .

And now Ben AND big Will are waiting for their turns. Apparently Clyde was good at handing over the controller to let them play, but frequently took it back in an effort to 'help' them through the tricky parts. I told Ben and big Will to stand up for themselves but they assured me it was fine :).

Saturday was a fabulous day also. It started bright and EARLY with a trip to the gym; I tagged along with Heidi to an hour of torture called 'Body Combat'.

Here we are before the class (don't mind the blurriness). We would have taken an 'after' but I couldn't lift my arms :). Actually, it wasn't that bad, although it was painfully obvious I was the only first-timer in the class.

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon in the pool, which was heavenly.

Clyde and Will showed off all of their crazy skills, although Will didn't seem to believe us that he can't actually swim yet, and kept trying to ditch whoever was holding him.

Cody suggested Clyde jump off the diving board. Clyde walked resolutely over, muttering, "This will be a little scary . . . " and then never looked back - he became a diving board fanatic, doing various twists and turns as he jumped in. Uncle Cody dutifully treaded water until each jump and then he safely transported Clyde back to the shallow end.

That evening we met Sam, Terri, Bailey, and Terri's family in Provo for a picnic dinner. We hadn't seen Terri's wonderful parents, Steve and Mary, since the wedding three years ago so it was really neat to spend time with them.

Clyde took a couple minutes to warm up to Steve, but once he did there was no going back. At one point Steve was impressively playing two games of frisbee simultaneously - one with Sam, Robby, and Brandon, and another just with Clyde, whose aim is highly questionable :).

Sam and I documented each other's presence at the shindig.

Bailey, aka the cutest three-month-old on the planet - and her super cute mom :).

Will, my child who spins, twirls, and dances his way through life. Love it!

Clyde kindly allowed other people to play frisbee with him as well, like Uncle Sam . . .

and Uncle Cody!

Will commandeered the football . . . probably as a result of almost getting hit with it twice courtesy of Uncle Sam.

Clyde dabbled in some rock-climbing . . .

Aunt Amanda's (and Uncle Steve's!) influence is apparently pretty strong :).

The picnic gang - minus Cody who was surely off chasing Will :).

And thus concludes part one of our Utah trip!

We are a happy extended family!

. . . or at least that's the impression we were trying to
make with these family pictures :).

We took advantage of Sam and Terri being in town last month to do some family pictures. Our go-to photographer, Chuck's sister Melissa, was unavailable due to her own busy summer traveling schedule so we used Mandie Anderson, who did an excellent job.

The whole gang; I love Will's pensive look. And could Bailey's little outfit be any cuter?

One of our favorite family activities, chillin' on a log.

Just the young folk... notice how Cody is suddenly dramatically taller that his two younger brothers? Kid is definitely up on his toes, grrrr. For the record, the three of them are all within about a quarter-inch of each other, depending on the day.

My brothers and me! They are such nice brothers to have (although my seven-year-old self would disagree vehemently!). I'm so lucky to have such great relationships with all three of them, and I'm SURE they'd all agree that I'm their favorite sister.

Grandma Pam and quite possibly the three cutest kids ever!
(P.S. Happy, happy birthday to Grandma Pam tomorrow!! We'll be livin' it up in Utah, yay!)

Such an attractive couple, am I right? I really love Chuck.

Clyde. Can't get enough of this kid (okay, well, sometimes I can...). Seriously, though, he is such a ball of energy and hilarity.

Will. Love his impromptu dancing and kisses - such a doll! He actually did pretty well for the pictures, Mandie did such a great job with props and such to get his attention. I figured if his cute face was at least visible and he wasn't actually running out of the shot, it was a successful picture :).

And that's a wrap!

We miss you already!

You know how sometimes you meet people and you're kind of amazed at what good people they are? Like, genuine, kind, salt of the earth type people? We know some people like that. Well, lots of people. But in particular, McKay and Lynndi Littlewood, and they just moved a state away.

We're pretty much in mourning around here (although since they can no longer live three blocks away from us, it was pretty considerate of them to move to Salt Lake, since we average about a trip a month to Utah anyways!). We LOVE the Littlewoods. All of them. Here's why:

Lynndi (pictured here playing with Will) is amazing. I can't even tally the number of hours she's watched my kids over the last eight months or so (or the number of diapers she's had to change while doing so!!). Hmm, I have Scouts and Chuck has to work and my mom can't come over that night? No problem, Lynndi will watch them. Hmm, my almost-two-year-old split his chin open and needs stitches? No problem, Lynndi will take Clyde for the entire afternoon. AND she's this generous with all of her friends - and happily so.

She also helped me realize that I can run (well, jog) a mile without stopping. I know that's not impressive to you marathon runners out there, but I am NOT a runner and I did NOT think I had that in me. And I do . . . if Lynndi's with me :).

Lynndi's also a really great shopping buddy. She's the one who encouraged me to try on the white framed aviator sunglasses that I now refuse to leave my house without.

McKay is super awesome too. First of all, see this nice picture of my family on a teeter-totter? McKay took that. He saw us playing on it and thoughtfully grabbed my camera and took a few pictures of us. McKay is always willing to help out or serve others. I'm pretty sure he (or at least his truck/trailer) is responsible for moving at least half of our ward in and out. He also helped immensely as Chuck and our friend Troy tackled our backyard renovations last fall and this spring.

McKay has been such a great friend to Chuck. Here they are getting ready to race down the slides at the pool last week . . . they're like little kids :).

Hmm, maybe too good of a friend at times . . . here's Chuck resisting McKay's advances after a double date to the temple.

Probably the thing Chuck and I appreciate most about McKay is his special bond with baby Will - they are best friends (although I don't think McKay was ever successful in getting Will to ice block!). Every time McKay saw Will, he would say, "Little Will!" and scoop him up for a snuggle/toss in the air - which Will LOVED. It has meant so much to Chuck and myself to watch McKay (and Lynndi) completely accept and love Will without any question. I seriously tear up when I think about it... so I'll stop!

It makes sense that such good people would have such cute, sweet (and admittedly spunky) daughters, McKenzie and Paislee.

Clyde is only a month and a half older than Kenzie, and it's sooo hilarious to watch them interact.

Lynndi and I (and another good friend, Melissa) did a little co-op preschool for our kids this spring and for "H" we made hats... and Clyde waited until McKenzie chose pink for her hat to select his color - pink. Love it.

Cute little trampoline jumpers! Clyde has already asked a few times when we're going to go visit Kenzie.

Before their movie date the day before Kenzie left - with their dads as chaperones :).

Ahh, Paislee and Will. A much harder to photograph duo, but still very adorable.

They were a pretty good match for a friendship - Paislee knows what she wants and Will learned pretty quickly to give in :).

A few nights before Lynndi left, a group of us got together at Olive Garden and basically talked all night. I'm thinking a reunion dinner is in order, especially since in the hustle and bustle not everyone got their invites to this one - we'll close the place down again!!

The boys had a farewell adventure, too - floating the river with some of the Young Men in our ward and hitting up Los Betos for a midnight snack afterwards. Being the dutiful memory-preserver that I am, I made them pose for a couple pictures as they dropped Chuck off:

Chuck, McKay, and Troy. . . can't take their eyes off one another :).

And this is the best I got - goofs!

Lynndi and McKay, thank you SO much for your friendship. We wish you all the best in Utah - I'm sure we'll see you there soon!!