July 4th, Camps Galore, Wound Care Graduation, Silver Medal, Fireworks, Parade

Here’s what we have been up to the last two weeks. We love the 4th of July. The morning started out pretty early for Josh and Noah. They both ran in the 5K that morning. After that we got ready for the parade. All of our family was in the parade which was pretty cool! Noah and I did the community marching band. Noah even got the chance to play the snare drum throughout the parade.  We have done the parade together for a few years so it is fun. Here he is warming up before the parade:

Here we both are before we had to line up for the parade:

Aaron got the truck up and running so Matthew could be in the parade, too. Luckily,  Josh was here for the parade so he got to sit in the back and help Matthew throw out candy throughout the parade:

Sarah’s dance camp members were in the parade, too:

The home town parade is only about a mile and a half long, but there are a lot of spectators. One of my friends grabbed a few pictures of my family on the parade route and sent them to me which was so nice!!  Here’s Noah:

Me playing the flute. I am in the middle, second one from the left wearing sunglasses:

Matthew being the Human GPS:

Noah and I were at the beginning of the parade so when we finished we walked the parade route back to almost the beginning and hopped in the truck with Aaron, Matthew and Josh.  They through out 56 pounds of taffy to all the spectators lining the parade route!!

After the parade we went and played some BINGO. A few of us seemed to be lucky enough to get BINGO. Noah won a really nice beach towel.  Matthew won some really nice tumbler glasses. I won a fishing rod.  Wahoo!!

In between playing BINGO the kids did some fun stage activities. Sarah participated in musical chairs. She made it pretty far, but didn’t win in the end.  She is the one with the red bandana:

Noah participated in a high jump contest:

Here we are playing BINGO:

After we had our fill at the park party we came home and had a yummy BBQ lunch of hamburgers, bratwursts, and grilled chicken breast. Josh also likes to make home made root beer with dry ice and everything. My dad used to make home made root beer often. It brings back lots of memories when it is ready to drink.  Here’s Josh working on it:

Later in the day Sarah realized she never reapplied her sunscreen and now has a really nice and painful cross body bag line:

Later that evening we all went to an open area to watch the city firework show.  We had a really good day!

Last month we got to tour the Family History Center as a Relief Society group and grabbed this fun picture:

Matthew got to go to Camp K for two weeks in a row. He was excited to go.  Since I work on Mondays Aaron got to drop him off Monday morning at camp. Here’s Matthew and one of his camp counselors:

One of our trips to Costco we found an interesting collection of sodas. We bought the box and sampled all of them as a family. We rated them all as we sampled them.  It was fun. 

There was a butterscotch, a peach, blue cream soda, a ginger root beer and a cola.

Josh had gotten some fireworks and sparklers to try, but it took a week before we were all home at the same time to try them out.  They were pretty fun! Noah:

Josh:

Sarah:

Aaron:

With the Syracuse Temple being so close the kids take a lot of opportunities to do some baptism which is pretty cool!  They all print out family history names and are able to perform the ordinances for them.

Sarah got to go to Girl’s Camp last week. Before they left they stopped by the new Tractor Supply store in town to pick up float tubes for the river. While the leaders were inside picking them up some of the girls took a picture on the outdoor swings:

Sarah had an amazing time at Girl’s Camp. Here’s a few pictures from it:

Sarah and group of her friends got together and had a book bedazzle party. It is where they glue jewels/crystals on the book covers to decorate them. She said it was fun:

I had to make special arrangements to pick up Matthew a few hours early from Camp K Saturday morning because he had a Special Olympics bowling tournament that I did not know about when I was scheduling his Camp weeks back in April.  Anyway, Camp K was awesome and let me come at 6:45 am. They gave him a sack lunch breakfast and sent us on our way.

Matthew loved his bowling tournament.  Everyone knew when he walked in because he very loudly announced that the HUMAN GPS was there as he walked in the building. He did really well.

He even got a Turkey which is three strikes in a row and he does not use bumpers. That was impressive. However, he came in second place.  They only take the first place people on to state so Matthew will have to try again next year.  Here’s proof of his Turkey:

Here’s Matthew getting his silver medal after the competition:

Wahoo!!

Sophie when we first got her up until about 3 months ago would spend the nighttime and sleep in the half bath in her kennel with the kennel door open, but the bathroom door closed. 99% of the time she was quiet and was really good. We would put her to bed at 10:30pm and get her out around 6 am. 3 months ago she started scratching and barking all throughout the night.  I tried to tough it out, but I am old and tired and did not enjoy getting up at 3 am every night so she could play and get snuggles from me. We just started letting her roam the house throughout the night so we could all sleep. We take her on a walk before bed to make sure she potties and she has been great.  However, she does not like being alone at night. She has found Noah’s bed and will snuggle at his feet every night.  It looks something like this but only on Noah’s bed and not the couch. When Noah is gone to camp, she will go and do the same thing with Sarah. She is such a stinker!!!  Good thing she is cute!!

Noah had young men camp two weeks ago from a Thursday to Saturday. He came home for a few days and then left to go to Cross Country high altitude camp. He just got home today and is exhausted. He has a quick turnaround because he leaves for FSY on Monday. For whatever reason no pictures were either taken, or shared of either camp, yet. When I get to see some of the pictures I will add them. Noah has been pretty busy!!

Josh did 4 weeks of FSY in June. He came home the very end of June and spent the beginning of July, including July 4th with us before he had to leave again. The next two weeks he is an assistant area coordinator at Perdue University in Indiana. As I was leaving to pick up Matthew early from Camp K I had to drop Josh off at the Salt Lake airport at 5:45am so he could catch his flight to Chicago and bus drive to Perdue in Indiana.  Here he is on the bus from Chicago to Perdue, but about this time all the FSY employees on that flight found out that the airline left all of their luggage back at the Salt Lake airport. None of it got loaded on the airplane. DOH!! Josh just basically had a small back pack and the clothes he was wearing. He got to wear this outfit to church the next day since he had no other clothes.  Hopefully it didn’t smell too bad since he had worn it for around 30 hours.

Here’s a few pictures of the people he gets to work with the next two weeks:

Everyone was overjoyed when their luggage was delivered to them the next evening.  Yay clean clothes!!

Here’s Matthew starting his 3rd week of Camp K this summer. His first week was in June and then he had back to back weeks in July. Here he is starting his last week for this year and he is still pretty excited about it!!

Daniel is doing well in his new area. He and his companion had 4 baptisms last Sunday!

The work is thriving in Sioux City!! He loves he companion, but he finished his mission last week. Daniel gets to train again this next transfer. We haven’t had a chance to talk to him after he got his new greenie, but we have seen a few pictures and they look like they are getting along. 

Here’s his P-Day call Tuesday morning before he got his new companion. Josh joined from Indiana, Aaron from work, me from home. Technology is pretty cool!! Sarah was at Girl’s Camp and Noah was at Cross Country practice so they weren’t able to join us for this call.

Aaron had a wound care appointment this past Wednesday.  Awesomely enough his wound has made drastic improvements over the past three weeks. It improved by 60% one week and an additional 50% the next week. Aaron finally got the approval to graduate the wound care clinic. Wahoo!!

WOUND PICS following:

You can see the improvement from one week to the next.  That was awesome!!

There is still a very small deep hole that is exposed so he can’t swim or submerge it for another 6 weeks, but the end is in sight!!  He even got to ring the exit bell showing that he completed his wound care.  Wahoo!!  The staff was all cheering for him, too!!

This week was super quiet!!  Noah was at Cross Country Camp, Matthew was at Camp K. Josh was at FSY so it was just Aaron, Sarah and me.  We decided to go out and get some ice cream for dinner Thursday night. It was awesome!!

Sarah had 3 CNA 8hr clinicals in the last week. They have been a bit rough on her, but she got through it. She gets to take her CNA testing next week. 

Wound Care Week 5, Camps, New Job, Dobby, Girl’s Weekend, Temple, Band, FSY

Here’s what we have been up to in the last two weeks. Sarah has completed her CNA coursework. She still has to do her clinical and then the state testing before she can be officially certified as a CNA. She has been practicing how to do vital signs with me and Aaron. She is counting my respirations in this picture:

Sophie got groomed today. I told the groomer to leave her ears and tail long. When I picked her up the kids told me she looks like Dobby the House Elf from Harry Potter. I told Sarah not to give her a sock then--haha!

Last week Josh was away as an Area Coordinator for FSY. Aaron left for AP camp Wednesday morning. That left just me, Noah and Sarah. We decided to go out and get some lunch.  We went to Old Grist Mill and had soup and sandwiches. Yum!

However, after lunch they both went to hang out with friends and I was home alone. That was weird!

Sarah had a young women NERF gun activity. Here’s a group shot they got of everyone that played:

Last week as I said above Josh was gone, Aaron left for AP Wednesday morning, Noah left for young men camp Thursday morning which left only me and Sarah at home from Thursday to Saturday. Girl’s weekend. Too bad we both worked for most of it! We did watch a movie together, though. It was fun!

Thursday night I got a chance to tour the Layton Family History Center. They have a lot of family history helps and ways to record your family history. I would love to go down there and scan in all of the family blog books and now I know how to do that. I think it’s an amazing resource!

Sarah had her last shift at Little Caesar’s. We picked up some pizza to see her there one last time:

The kids have loved having the Syracuse temple so close by. They go multiple times a week with friends. Here’s a few pictures of them:

Aaron had the dreaded AP (Aaronic Priesthood) camp last week. This is a camp just for all the young men aged 16-18 in the stake and their leaders as well as the Stake Young Men’s Presidency and the Stake Presidency. They only do this camp every other year. Two years ago Aaron was asked to be in co-charge of all the food. It was a HUGE undertaking, but Daniel was up there with him as a camp participant so it made not as stressful for Aaron. This year they reached out to different people asking for help. Aaron waited a few weeks before he responded saying he would HELP,  but didn’t want to be in charge. Well, they then reached out personally and asked him to spearhead the entire food situation. He said yes, but felt pretty overwhelmed. He had to plan meals for 130 people over four days.  He did have a committee of 5 other people to help, but it was overwhelming still. He precooked most of the food and froze it just to make things easier. All in all to prepare for this he smoked 20 pork shoulders and 10 briskets. While up at camp they also cooked 72 pounds of bacon, 540 eggs, 200 hamburgers.  It was a big undertaking, but he had a good group of guys that helped cook the meals. Aaron also had to gather up enough coolers to help store all the food since they were in a primitive camping area without electricity, refrigeration, or any modern nicety. One person in the stake lent his cooler to him for the camp and it was the biggest cooler I have ever seen. The picture doesn’t do it justice. It was massive and I assume made to hold a deer carcass. I tried to get a picture of Noah next to it for scale, but you can’t quite tell how big it really was!!

Here’s a few pictures from the camp:

Aaron survived it, but came home pretty exhausted. He had his wound care appointment the day before camp and was wondering if he would get cleared to go. The doctor wasn’t super happy he was going up to camp, but said it was okay. He did have to ask someone to change the dressing for him while he was up there since it is every other day dressing changes. One of the other cooking committee guys is a dentist and said he is used to packing gums so he didn’t mind to pack Aaron’s wound. I sent all the supplies with him and it looked good when he got home so I guess it was a success. I think it will take Aaron a few more days to recover, though. Noah missed the cut off by a year so he wasn’t able to attend this camp with Aaron. In two years Noah will be able to attend, but I don’t know if Aaron wants to do another food committee assignment then....

Noah and I are participating in a community marching band for the July 4th city parade. We have done this parade a few years in a row together. Noah gets to play the snare drum on the drum line. I am playing the flute. Here’s a picture from Monday’s practice of Noah carrying the snare drum. He is in the black shirt:

Unfortunately, the band practices are on Monday night which is when Daniel calls home for P-Day. I have missed a few practices so I can talk with him. Here’s a few pictures of the last two P-day calls. Josh even joined us from Las Vegas one week and Ephraim another week:

Our area missionaries stopped by for a visit last night. It was fun to chat with them. It made us miss Daniel, though.

Josh, Sarah and Noah all went to the movie last night to see the new How to Train Your Dragon. They said  it was good. Interestingly enough they went to see the original way back when the day Noah was born. Aunt Jill took them while I was having Noah by C-Section. That is crazy!!

Noah has been busy. Two weeks ago our stake had youth conference at a campground up by Logan. He said it was awesome. He came home for a few days and then left for Young men camp for a few days up by Echo. By the time he came home Saturday he was pretty exhausted from back to back weeks of camping.  He gets to recover a few weeks and then head out to do a Cross country camp in Idaho. He is looking forward to that.

This past Monday’s P-day call Sarah was training at her new CNA job. The interesting thing is her trainer was Katie, Daniel’s girlfriend. They got to join in the P-day call for a few minutes in-between patient care:

Sarah got a job at the same facility Katie works at and it has been fun. Sarah said Katie was an amazing trainer. It was Sarah’s second training shift there so she is still learning the ropes. Katie was a good teacher for her which I was glad for. Daniel was happy to have a chance to chat with her, too, during the call for a minute.

In our ward they ask different people to play prelude music before Sacrament Meeting starts. They ask people with any and all piano abilities. Sarah, Noah and I do take a turn. It was my turn this past Sunday. I get so nervous, but did okay. Luckily, it is background noise and most people don’t notice if you make a mistake. I didn’t do too bad, but it wasn’t perfect. I am hoping at some point I can actually play without having my hands shake out of nervousness and hit a wrong key every so often. It wasn’t too bad, though.

Matthew’s birthday is in August, but he is already sending us his birthday list. Wow I need to be a millionaire to afford what he wants--haha!  We will review it together this upcoming Sunday and pare it down a bit to make things more manageable. I just don’t have money for a 15 passenger van with sirens and lights for his group home--haha!

Matthew had a routine visit with the Psychiatrist this past Monday. It was just a medication management visit. Matthew is doing well. She has been his psychiatrist for 22 years. We love her and will be sad if she ever decides to retire.

Josh had a fun time being an Assistant Area Coordinator so far this year. Here’s a few pictures he shared with us of the last two weeks:

All the girl counselors gave their male counterparts roses. Josh is the one wearing a ball cap:

Night duty is no joke. Josh had some kids that kept trying to escape during the night to go to In-N-Out burger next door, but it was off campus and off limits for the FSY participants. He said he needed a Red Bull the next day to help keep himself awake:

The shuttle coming back to Provo from Ephraim full of FSY counselors:

While at Snow College someone tried to microwave Mac and cheese without adding water. Needless to say it triggered the fire alarm and everyone had to evacuate. Here’s the offending cup of Mac and cheese. Thankfully, Josh was NOT the one that did that, but he sent us the charred remains though:

Noah is doing summer cross country running. Josh when he is around they go running together. They did a temple run this morning:

This past Saturday everyone came back home from all the places they had been. Josh got home from FSY at Ephraim. Aaron got back from AP Camp down by Manti, Noah got back from young mens camp by Echo. Sarah got home from work and I got back from my work. It was great to finally all be back together again for a few weeks before Josh leaves for FSY again.  

Daniel has been transferred to Sioux Falls in South Dakota. The Omaha, NE mission is really big and covers parts of five different states. So for now Daniel is serving in a corner of South Dakota. Here’s some of the Instagram pictures his Mission leaders have shared in these past two weeks:

He is staying very busy and loving his area and companion. Things are going well for him right now.

***WOUND PICTURE WARNING*** for those that are sensitive. 

Aaron had his weekly appointment with wound care the day before he left for AP Camp. His wound is finally starting to look better. The doctor wasn’t super happy with Aaron going to camp, but he understood.

You can finally see the bottom of it:

He got to go to his weekly wound appointment yesterday. Again his wound is finally starting to fill in and is looking better.

They filled it with a lidocaine cream before they messed with it because it is painful. That is what the white stuff inside the wound is:

He also gets to wear a support stocking to keep the swelling down. We still have at least two more months of wound care weekly visits, but I think the end is in sight...