Fall Drive, Cardiology Visit, Visits, Corn Maze, Zooming, Date, Clowns

Another two weeks have flown by.  Things are still quite crazy busy, but still good.  Here’s some happenings with our family.  Grandpa T got to try out the pool table while playing a game with Noah.  He’s a pretty good player, too!

Every fall we like to go on a drive to see the pretty fall foliage.  This year we weren’t able to go until later in October so we only caught the end of the leaves changing, but they were still pretty.  Aaron had Columbus Day off from work--love those interesting Federal holidays--haha!  Anyway, usually Aaron and I have that day off while the kids are in school so we go on a day date.  However, this year Josh, Daniel, and Sarah are still on the hybrid schedule so they were doing ‘homeschool’ that day.  After Noah left for school we left and went for a drive.  We started on I-84 and drove over to Park City.  

We saw a train against the fall leaves:

Drove by Devil’s Slide:

The crazy thing is that we were just floating down the river right in front of Devil’s Slide not more than two months ago when it was about 30 degrees warmer!

There was even SNOW on the mountain tops on October 12:

My favorite are the reds:

We ended up driving over to Heber and stopping by Dairy Keen for lunch.  We made the kids social distance from us at another table--haha!

Josh and Daniel ordered the Train Wreck burger which was HUGE!!  It is a 1/4 pounder hamburger patty, with a fried chicken breast, bacon, ham, onion rings, lettuce, tomato and pickles.  Seriously it was as big as Josh’s hand which is HUGE!!

They had to hold it together with a big wooden toothpick to keep it all together:

Sarah and Aaron just got the regular Train burger and I got a Navajo taco.  It was all pretty tasty.  We used to come to Dairy Keen when G&G T had their cabin at Timberlakes.  Now that they sold their cabin we RARELY make it out to Heber.  It was fun reminiscing while we ate.

We drove home via Provo Canyon up through the Alpine Loop coming through American Fork Canyon.    We wanted to stop by Cascade Springs, but Josh and Daniel had to get to Cross Country practice that afternoon so that will have to happen a different day.  It was a beautiful drive and we really loved seeing the fall colors throughout the drive.

October 13 Aaron was able to have one of his old missionary companions and his family come over for a visit.  This is the first time Aaron has seen him since serving in Canada a long time ago.  It was fun meeting him, his wife and his cute family.  They live in Washington so it was great to meet up while they were in Utah for a bit.  Here’s Aaron and Chris:

Here’s Elder Mancil and Elder Hammond in Canada over 20 years ago:

I have been working A LOT lately.  Things will be slowing WAY down soon which I will be glad for.  Since I am not around to beg, plead and nag things around home haven’t been getting done--cleaning the house, keeping kids' schedules straight, homework getting done, piano being practiced, healthy dinner being cooked, etc...  No one knows all the ‘invisible' things I do to keep things running with our family and house until it doesn’t get done--haha!  I think Aaron and the kids will be glad when my work will slow down, too. 

Last week Aaron found out I was going to be going out to Morgan.  He really wanted to try some more ‘meat bombs’ from the butcher shop there.  Lucky for him I had just enough time to drive home from my morning clinic in West Valley to stop by home, pick up the cooler and some ice to drive out to Morgan to pick up the meat.  I then spent the rest of the afternoon/evening at the clinic in Morgan and drove home.  Aaron was pretty excited to smoke the meat bombs for dinner last Sunday.  There was a Chicken Cordon Bleu one that was chicken breasts line with ham and cream cheese wrapped with a bacon weave on the outside.

The other one was the Popeye Bomb which was marinated beef strips wrapped with Provolone cheese, spinach and chopped mushrooms all wrapped with a bacon weave on the outside:

We also tried a mini bomb that had turkey breast stuffed with avocado and cream cheese wrapped in a bacon weave, too.  It was all pretty tasty.  I am glad the family liked it since we won’t be making it out to Morgan again for a long while!

Josh is always wanting to try new things.  He talked Daniel into trading spots for a night to be a clown at Nightmare Acres.  Josh asked the makeup artist if she could do some latex wounds on his face and she was more than happy too.  Josh has a playing card sticking out of his forehead.  Daniel and Josh actually liked being a different character that night.

It is tradition that the first payday Friday for the Nightmare Acres staff they all go out to get some food at IHOP after work while still wearing all their scary makeup.  

There was a big group of them (I only have the picture of Josh and Daniel’s table, though) and they liked eating their dinner while still looking scary.  I am sure the IHOP staff loved that....However, waiting up for them at home was hard since they didn’t get home until 2 am.

We watched my brother’s dog Charlie for 9 days.  He was a bit timid the first day, but he came out of his shell shortly after.  Even though he was 50 pounds he still tried to be a lap dog every chance he got.  The kids all thought it was hilarious.

He was a sweet dog that loved getting loves.  He was a very well behaved dog with great manners, however, we let him get away with a lot.  I am sure he went home with lots of bad habits, but it was fun to have him.

Charlie is only 2 years old so he still has a lot of that puppy energy.  The kids were good about taking him for walks, though.  Matthew, however, LOVED walking him because he never ran out of energy like Sophie does.  Matthew took him out on a walk and kept going and going and going until Matthew ran out of energy, but Charlie was still raring to go.  I never thought I would see the day that a dog would outlast Matthew--haha!

Last week I did a clinic out at Handi Quilter.  They make specialty quilting sewing machines.  Their whole building had quilts that lined the walls.  They even had quilts hung on the walls in the mens restroom--haha!  After the clinic the clerk and I toured their quilt gallery upstairs.  It was amazing the intricate details of all the quilts.  Here is just one example of a quilt:

Up close all the stitching was so detailed:

It was beautiful!

One perk of working at Black Island Farms is each employee gets 4 free tickets to visit the corn maze and the courtyard activities.  Josh and Daniel went with friends a few weeks earlier, but they allowed us to save the last four tickets for our family.  We went last Friday afternoon.  It was Fall Break so the kids had the day off.  Aaron went to work that morning, but came home at lunch and went with us.  We tried out some corn hole.  I am pretty good at it--who knew?!  We had fun playing against each other.

They also had an area where you could try lassoing a fake cow.  Let’s just say none of us would be good at a roping competition--haha!

The kids had fun playing on the slides.

They even tried out the animal barrel train pulled by a tractor.  I bet Josh that he couldn’t fit in the barrel.  He rode it just to prove me wrong--haha!

He did barely fit, though--haha!

It’s nice when your siblings can help you get somewhere you want to be.  Josh pulled Sarah up to the next level:

Next it was Noah’s turn for help:

They all wanted to try the HUGE slide that you ride down on using a potato sack.  Daniel didn’t let us get a picture of him, but the rest did.

Noah:

Sarah:

Josh:

Me:

Aaron was our cheerleader and picture taker.  He didn’t want to go down the huge slide:

We then attempted the corn maze.  It had three different parts.  We had heard that if you keep turning in the same direction you could get out faster.  We wanted to test our theory.  However, a few turns into the maze Daniel started complaining that turning left every time was too logical.  That was a small snippet into the thinking skills a teenager if you were wondering--haha!

The middle section had a bridge you could climb up and walk over.  It was cool to see what the maze looked like from above:

Part of it you even went back under the bridge:

Here’s what the maze looked like:

Josh though he’d try the small kid slide.  It was all fun and games until he got stuck--haha!  He had to slowly inch his way down to get out.  We all laughed at him the whole time he was inching his way out.  What a weirdo--haha!

I am glad to say we made it out of all three phases of the corn maze and came home.  It was a fun day and yearly fall tradition checked off the list.

When Sophie gets super comfortable she will flip on her back and put her feet straight up into the air to take a snooze.  When she does this we say she forgets how to dog.  The kids thought it was hilarious that Charlie forgets how to dog as well:

Sophie was not a fan of Charlie.  He kept trying to play with her, but she would growl and snap at him.  She definitely was a 'mean girl’.  She made sure she was exactly where Charlie wasn’t.  She got a bit jealous of him, too.  However, she still made sure she got plenty of attention, too.

Sundays are pretty interesting around here.  We have just started in person sacrament meeting up.  However, our ward is big enough that in order to social distance we have to separate into two different groups.  That means that we attend sacrament in person every other week and on the off weeks we can stream it at home.  The other classes--YM/YW, Sunday school, Priesthood, etc. all are done through Zoom.  Luckily for Daniel that means he only has to dress up from the waist up.  Here he is in his Zoom Sunday school class last Sunday.  Love the shorts with the dress shirt--haha!

Speaking of Zoom I have to teach my first YW lesson on Zoom tomorrow.  I am a bit nervous.  We did have a Zoom learning meeting where all the YW leaders got together to practice a few weeks ago, but it will be the real thing tomorrow.  It will definitely be interesting--haha!  

Amazon Prime Day was last week.  I didn’t participate because I worked the whole time.  However, Josh was interested and shopped a bit.  He ended up getting a great deal on the board game Risk.  One day while Aaron and I were at work he set it up and taught the kids how to play.  Risk is such a long game that it is still set up and in the middle of that game a week later.  It is hard to find time to play when everyone has different schedules.

Speaking of Josh this past week was college application week at school.  He also ordered his cap and gown this week for graduation, too.  It is just crazy to think this kid will be finishing high school this year!!  He is making the most of his last year, though.  He is going extra strong with running.  He set a goal for himself this week to get a 50 mile week in--to run 50 miles this week.  He was able to get 43 miles in so far.  Pretty cool!

Last Saturday we took the kids and played Pickleball.  We had lots of fun despite us not being very good, though.  It was just nice to get out and do something as a family.

Afterward Aaron and I went and picked up Matthew.  He had been calling me every day asking when he was going to get his flu shot.  I was hoping to wait until I would be doing a clinic close by, but it never happened and Matthew was getting anxious about it.  We finally just decided to take him to Smiths and get it done.  He HATES getting shots, but he knew it was important and let them give it to him.

Last Monday was a crazy day.  Sarah had an early morning appointment with Cardiology down at Primary Children’s Hospital.  On the way down we drove by the Salt Lake Temple and got to see all the work that was currently taking place.

We made it to Primary’s and checked in.  The view from the waiting area is always nice to look at:

Sarah needed to have a 5 year follow up from her Kawasaki Disease.  Kawasaki is a condition that causes inflammation in the walls of blood vessels--mostly the heart.  A lot of times it can cause aneurysms in the heart vessels that’s why it is so scary.  Anyway, Sarah got treated for the Kawasaki while being admitted to Primary Children’s Hospital 6 years ago.  With Kawasaki patients they like to follow them every 5 years just to make sure they are doing okay thus is why she was seeing cardiology that morning.  She had had her last echocardiogram 5 years ago so that’s is the date we went by for her follow up visit.  They did an ECG on her before her appointment:

The cardiologist came in to see Sarah and to chat.  He said that her ECG was normal and that the guidelines have changed for patients who have had Kawasaki Disease with no lasting heart involvement.  The guidelines now say that a patient who has had Kawasaki with no lasting heart issues doesn’t need to be followed anymore unless there are any heart issues that pop up.  Wahoo!!  He did tell Sarah multiple times that she NEEDS to remember that she has had Kawasaki because it is a very important part of her health history, though.  Other than that she got a clean bill of health cardiology wise and she can continue living life like normal.

After the appointment we grabbed some breakfast from the cafe.  However, they weren’t allowing any places to sit down in the cafeteria to eat due to Covid so we just took it to the car and enjoyed our breakfast together in the dark parking garage--haha!

After the cardiology visit Sarah had another visit set up with the ABCD (Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development) study she is taking part in.  It is a study that follows the brain, biological and behavioral development from age 10 to age 20.  They contact her and me every 6 months to fill out a bunch of questionnaires and once a year they like to do an MRI scan of her brain as well.  Since everything got put on hold with Covid they are just starting up the visits again.  It was Sarah’s time to get an MRI scan.  The scan took 3 hours because they like to have her play games while they map the brain activity in addition to some other imaging done with the brain.  I just had to hang out the whole time she was getting scanned.  It made for a bit of a long day in Salt Lake, but we made it home in enough time for me to get ready and leave to go to work for an evening shift.  Poor Sarah wasn’t done getting poked and prodded yet.  The Liver Clinic called and asked for Sarah to go and get her labs drawn yesterday.  After that hopefully she will be done for a while medical wise!!

We had a fun YW activity this past Wednesday.  The Layton Temple that is currently being built has allowed people to paint rocks no bigger than 3” to drop off to become part of the concrete in the temple.  What a cool thing to say that you were able to add something that will forever be a part of the temple!  We had the 12 year old class all paint rocks.  I will be dropping them off at the temple site next week to be added.  It was a fun activity!

Here’s all their rocks:

Last night Aaron and I went on a double date with Erin and Blaine.  We went to the Desert Star Playhouse and watched the show CSI:Provo Chasing Crime Down the I-15.  We love the Desert Star shows because it spoofs the local customs and social mores of the area.  This particular show had a lot of BYU jokes in it.  It was pretty funny.  We did have to wear masks which is fine.    However, when we walked in the usher told Aaron his mask wouldn’t work.  I was worried because I had the same cloth style mask.  Come to find out he was just teasing Aaron because he was wearing a BYU mask in Ute territory--haha!  

After the show we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  It was a really fun night despite the call from home saying Sophie barfed all over my nice blanket.  DOH!!  Oh well we still had lots of fun on an adult double date sans kids.