Quick Trip, Appointment, Meet, Hiking, Temple Trips, Paddle Boarding, First Day of School, CNA, Birthday

The past two weeks have been jam packed with last of summer activities and the start of school. We did celebrate the first Tuesday of the month with Fiiz and their buy one 24 ounce drink get the second one free. Wahoo! They have gotten so expensive that we rarely go there anymore so this was a fun treat.

Sarah had her annual Liver doctor appointment down at Primary Children’s hospital Liver Clinic. I was worried because Sarah is only one year away from being considered an adult which is scary, but that also means that she will no longer be considered a pediatric patient. I asked her liver doctor about it and if she would need to transfer to see an adult liver doctor. He stopped for a minute and then he started asking what her post high school plans were. She said she wanted to go to college for a year and then serve a mission. He said she could stay a patient of his through her mission if that would be easier. I agreed with him so that way he knows her history and can help manage her liver care throughout her mission if needed. He said she looks stable and said that filling out mission papers are a lot easier if you are not on any medication. He suggested a trial off the Ursodiol medication she takes to see if she can handle being off the meds. I agreed that now is the time to do a trial off the meds so she can get back on and regulated if she needs to before mission paperwork is needed. He sent her to get baseline labs right after the appointment to see where she is at and told her to stop taking the Ursodiol. Her labs came back elevated as they always are, but seems to be the normal for her. He wants her to get labs again in three months to see what is happening with her. Hopefully things will be okay, but we will see. Here she is getting her labs drawn:

After the appointment it is tradition to go to lunch. Sarah chose Moochie’s down in Salt Lake. It is a specialty Philadelphia sub shop. We split a sandwich and it was quite messy, but delicious.

When I started this new job in May I was a bit sad because it meant we wouldn’t be able to go on a family vacation this year since I wouldn’t be able to get the time off. However, I had my schedule at work change so now I work three days in a row and have off the other four. When that happened we checked with the kids and there was one week everyone had off all the same time which was a miracle. We decided to go down to St. George. We left after I got off work on Friday and drove down. We didn’t get down there until 11:30pm, but we made it. The next morning we got up early so we could go hike in Snow Canyon State Park before it got too hot.

We did repeat this Pioneer Names hike again from last year. This time I gathered up my courage and climbed the super slick and steep rock to make it up to the names. The pioneer names are graffiti from over 150 years ago when some pioneers painted their names in the rock with motor oil. Here I am slowly making my way up to meet up with Josh and Noah who got up there before me:

I made it--wahoo! You can see the pioneer names behind us:

Here’s Sarah and Aaron down at the bottom. They are circled in red:

The views are awesome!! We then moved onto a different hike in Snow Canyon

You can see the kids on the edge:

There was some rock scrambling to get through some of the trails:

Here’s Noah and Josh while they were waiting for us to catch up to them:

Here’s a different trail that we took to a lookout:

There is a small slot canyon you can walk into:

About this time it was getting really warm. We did want to hit another slot canyon before we stopped for lunch. We drove over to Pioneer Park where they have this super narrow slot canyon. I could only go so far before my claustrophobia got to me.

After that we grabbed lunch and then went back to the Air BnB to change. Aaron, Josh and I went and did an evening Endowment session at the St. George temple. After the session they let us take Josh up to the Assembly Hall to look around. They also let us look inside the General Authority waiting area. We got to walk down one of the spiral staircases that are original to the temple to get back to the dressing room at the end. It was pretty cool!

It gets so hot by the afternoon in St. George. I think it was around 109 degrees which makes the car so much hotter when you get inside. 

After the temple we came back and did some racquetball at our Airbnb:

The next morning we got up early and headed over to Sand Hollow Reservoir to do some paddle boarding.  We brought our pop up canopy, chairs, and a cooler to make a day of it.  We all took turns paddle boarding and drying off in the chairs.

Sarah, Josh, Noah:

Sarah:

They paddled out to the buoy and back:

Aaron and I took some turns, too:

I actually was able to stand up on the paddle board:

To shortly falling off the paddle board:

When we were done we packed up. On the way back to the Air BnB we stopped for Slurpees. We played some card games and later that evening we did some Foosball, ping pong and racquetball:

The next morning we got up early again (this was not a relaxing vacation) and headed over to hike Kanarra Falls. We had done this trail 7 years ago and it still is one of our favorite hikes ever. We were lucky enough to get tickets to hike it Monday morning.

This trail is really fun because it is higher elevation than St. George so it is cooler and most of the hike is shaded. About half of the hike you hike inside the river/stream. It is really fun.

At one point in the trail there were a million butterflies all around.

Towards the last third of the trail you hike through some slot canyons that are really pretty:

Last time we hike this, the ladder you used to get up to the higher part was pretty small and rickety. Thankfully, they changed the ladder to this steep, metal staircase that is easier to climb up:

They limit the amount of daily tickets they sell so we mostly had the trail to ourselves. It was AWESOME!!

In the deeper parts of the river/stream there were some trout that would swim by your legs.

We did all try out the slick rock slide.  I lost my balance at the bottom and totally submerged myself and got a nose full of water. That water was COLD!!  Luckily, by the time we got back to the car in the parking lot I was almost dry. Top row from left to right Sarah and Noah. Bottom row left to right Aaron, Josh, me:

Here we are going back down the ladder:

That hike is so fun!!

When we got back to the Air BnB we went over and spent some time at the pool to cool off during the blazing afternoon heat. The kids talked me in to doing a chicken war. Sarah got on my shoulders, Noah got on Josh’s shoulders. Sarah and I lost within seconds-haha!

After swimming we all showered and went to grab some pizza for dinner.  We then came back and talked to Daniel on his P-Day. It was fun because Katie joined us on the call, too. She only has a few more weeks until she starts her own mission to Copenhagen, Denmark. That is crazy! She has been joining our weekly calls until she starts her mission the beginning of September.

The next morning we got up early and did some baptisms.  It was so slow at the baptistry because all the kids had started back to school for the year the day before.  The baptistry workers were not busy and took time to chit chat with us while we were there. 

We got done at the temple early enough that we walked around the grounds for a few minutes, then we went back to the Air BnB and did some more activities like mini golfing:

Pool:

Racquetball and ping pong before we had to check out and make the drive back home. It was a really fun vacation and I was so grateful we were able to go. It was hard to go back to work the next day. I could have used a day to recover, but such is life--haha!

When we got home Sarah had her CNA certificate waiting:

The two previous weeks before she had done her written test and her skills test and passed both. She was glad to get her certificate because it means she now gets a raise at work. Wahoo!

While Aaron and I had to go back to work the kids have been enjoying the rest of their summer. They did do some shopping and then out to lunch together:

I had taken Sarah and Noah school clothes shopping the week before. It was weird to only need to take two kids shopping instead of more.  

Sarah went and did some baptisms with her friends at the Syracuse Temple. It is awesome to have it five minutes away!!

Sarah’s birthday was this past weekend. She had a friend birthday party Friday afternoon at our house. She had a lot of fun. Saturday morning was her actual birthday, but she had to do an early morning CNA shift from 6am-2pm. Aaron did get her birthday donuts that morning.  Noah and Josh were anxiously waiting for her to get home to try some.  

Saturday morning was Noah’s first Cross Country Meet. Here’s all the boys at the starting line for his race:

It was a three mile race. Noah is the one in the fluorescent orange shoes:

Post race recovery:

Post race recovery at home-haha!

He is definitely my son since he sleeps with his eyes partially open like me--haha!

When Sarah got home from her shift she wanted to do a birthday lunch of sushi:

Sunday was Josh’s Mission President’s homecoming. He got up early Sunday morning and drove out to Midway to see them speak in person. Amazingly enough Elder Rasband showed up, too. His daughter was the Mission President’s companion so there is a cool connection. Josh sent us this picture before Sacrament Meeting started which was cool:

Sunday evening we celebrated Sarah’s birthday as a family so Grandma T and Matthew could join us. Matthew is so sweet and always remembers everyone’s birthdays. He made sure he got Sarah a present for her birthday:

Sarah chose to have Firecracker Chicken for her birthday dinner. She then wanted and Better Than Anything Cake for her birthday cake with 17 candles:

Grandma joined us for dinner, but I didn’t get a picture with Sarah and her for whatever reason. We were glad she could join us.

After dinner we cleaned up. Then Aaron and I drove Matthew back to his group home. While we were driving I told Sarah and Noah to get their stuff ready for the first day of school which was the next day.  When Aaron and I got back from dropping off Matthew we measured everyone’s heights on the wall like we do every year. Noah has grown so much in the last year!!  Sarah stayed the same height so I think her growing days might be over. Aaron then gave them Father’s Blessings to start the new year. Josh got to join in on the blessings, too. That was pretty cool!

First day of school Aaron got up early and made everyone breakfast burritos. Then after breakfast Noah and Sarah got ready for the day. Here’s Noah before he left to ride the bus for his first day of sophomore year:

Since Sarah was a senior she didn’t need to start school until a few hours later. Here she is before she left for her first day of her Senior year:

The seniors like to get children back packs for the year. Sarah bypassed all the princess and pink backpacks and zeroed in on this Hotwheels back pack. I asked her why Hotwheels? She said it was because she played with them all the time when she was little. I guess that is what happens when you grow up with four brothers.

Here’s Sarah’s first day of kindergarten and her first day of her senior year. Where has time gone?!  I still see her has that little kindergartener!!

Josh doesn’t start school until next week so this week he is working a ton. He has a pretty crazy schedule this upcoming fall.

Daniel has been loving Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Falls Park area. He and his companion are getting many chances to teach people the gospel with a few choosing to be baptized. He is loving it!

Here he is at District Council Interviews:

I love that the mission posts many pictures of the missionaries on Instagram. It is always fun to try and pick out where Daniel is!

I am sad summer is over, but it will be good to have some routine back at our house again.