H Town Adventures: In Another Life Time

Once upon a time, I lived in this mystical place called Casper, Wyoming. And then, quite suddenly, our hour glass life was upended and we found ourselves in another time and place entirely. But that story is coming soon. In the mean time, know that I am literally now a whole year behind on my blog, and so much as happened since I took these pictures that I might as well be blogging about someone else's life.

We will start things off with some random cuteness...

Super happy about nap time. That's how I feel when I get to nap too. :)

Finally busted out this fun toy from Pierscen's younger days. She loved it!

Playing at the mall. I only took these pictures to capture the development of Pierscen's bravery. When we first started coming, standing on the edge of the bridge was enough for him. But this day - he decided it was time to spread his wings and fly. One step closer towards a cast. ;)

He is way to cool to garden in his clothes.

In June, Ryan's grandpa on his mom's side passed away. Though we will all miss him, and his passing was really hard on the siblings, it was a good thing. He has been without his wife for a really long time. (I never knew her). He had been in decline for a long time as well, and I think it was a relief for him to be able to go home to his Heavenly Father and see his wonderful wife again.

We usually take the same route home each time, but this trip we decided to come out Parley's canyon and head down to I-15 to catch the viewing in Lehi, rather than go down Provo canyon and then have to loop back up the opposite direction. It was a really great idea until we remembered where we were: Salt Lake/Utah Valley on a Friday, at rush hour.

We forgot what six lanes of bumper to bumper traffic was like! There are definite perks to living in the middle of no where!

The viewing and funeral were wonderful. I didn't take any pictures, which I totally regret. I asked Ryan if he wanted any and he said no - which I understand to a degree, but I feel really sad now. Grandpa was a really wonderful man and we are grateful for his influence and example in our lives.

We often joke that we can't go to Utah without some sort of injury. Well, in this case, we got a double dose. Pierscen got his first road rash riding some sort of scooter/tricycle thing (I never saw it so I'm not totally sure.) Then Dodger got his throat torn open. It happened on a Sunday and we really weren't sure what happened. He was in the backyard with Koda, Ryan's sister Jodi's dog, and they get along really well. We couldn't image Koda doing anything to him, but we couldn't find anything that would have been the culprit. Well, it was a nasty gash, though thankfully, it was only the skin. It didn't get the muscle at all which is a HUGE blessing. Be that as it may, it needed serious attention. We didn't want to take him to the emergency vet, so we used a suturing kit and family muscle.

The following day we all went down to Holden. While we were eating, we gave Dodger the rest of Pierscen's hot dog. Koda was apparently pretty jealous and picked Dodger up and started shaking him like a rag doll. It was really scary, but since everyone was right there and we all yelled at him, he dropped him really quick and no damage was done other than a popped suture. It still kind of boggles my mind because Koda is the sweetest dog ever. He's never acted like that before and it's never happened since. Definitely weird.

Anyway, besides the lunch time excitement, Holden was perfect. I think Holden is a really magical place. I've only been in the family for little over 12 years, but Holden has a really special place in my heart and I think all the grandkids and great grandkids would say the same.

Playing in the irrigation ditch. (Side note for personal history: Once upon a time my family moved from the house my parents built the year I was born, to a building on State Street in Orem, Utah where my mom had an interior design store and my dad ran his archeology business. On the north side of the house there was an irrigation ditch that we used to love to play in. There were grapes that grew along the backs of some of the houses there, and I remember loving to pick them with my friends when they were still green and launch them into the water as bombs. Good memories.)

Ryan snapped this picture of Pierscen and his cousins out wandering the fields behind Grandpa's house. It's pretty picturesque.

We got some great family pictures with grandpa, including Pierscen posing with the wooden spoons Grandpa likes to make. And I love this four generation picture with the boys.

When we made it back to Orem we took Ryan's dad to Mi Ranchito for his birthday dinner. We love that place!

More picture travel pictures of this cutie:

Dodger's neck progression. I healed really well. Took a while, but there were no issues. We just kept it clean, kept antibiotics on it, and he healed right up. We did discover over the next little bit, tooth sized scabs that would flake off around his neck, so yes, it was indeed a bite that was the culprit.

Back in Casper, Dev had her 6 month check up. She was just a little over 14 lbs. 17th percentile for weight, 30th for height, and 44th for head.

June was also the start of cheap summer movies with Pierscen. I had never taken him to a theater before. The first movie we saw we took Devry with us and she slept through most of it, thankfully, but after that we started babysitting swapping with a friend so we could both go baby free. It was really fun and great a way to spend time with just my little man.

I tried to do a little photo shoot with this one, mostly to get pictures of this outfit that Aunt Sabrina gave her, but she didn't really feel like smiling too much. That's alright though.

Piersecn had no problem smiling and wanted to be part of the photo shoot too. :)

Using your toes is the best way to play with your toys.

A little synchronized relaxation...

I put these two in the stroller to go the park and Pierscen was a total gem with his arm around her to keep her safe. I love how much he loves her!

We took our first ever family camping trip. Sort of. Haha. We decided we should go camping, but I was really nervous about trying to sleep with Devry in a tent and how to keep her warm. So we I decided that we would all go up, have dinner, hang out, hike, and explore, then Devry and I would go home and sleep.

The weather was perfect, the scenery was gorgeous. We had a really great time!

As we left to head down the mountain, I was feeling really bad about leaving. I was feeling like a wimp and regretting my choice. However, sleeping in my own bed was wonderful and when we went back up the next morning, it was pretty chilly and I was super glad we didn't stay. Haha! I was amazed that the boys were both still sleeping considering the fact that they are both early risers - especially while camping. We hung out in the tent for a while and discovered that after Ryan had fallen asleep, Pierscen had gone through a bunch of the food and left chipmunk crumbs everywhere. Hahaha!

It was a great experience and I'm glad we decided to do it. And some day I will be brave enough to stay with the baby.

That month we also watched Pierscen's bestie, Jackson for a while. I don't remember what this was for - cause it was an all day thing. I think maybe his parents had a doctor's appointment in Denver? I thought about just deleting the pictures since I couldn't remember the context, but these boys were pretty inseparable, and I don't want to erase those memories just because I don't remember the details.

I DO remember documenting the fact that I got all three kids to sleep at once... Go me!

I love these boys. They were best friends from the moment the met and well... I better not talk about this right now because it will make me cry. I can have more tearful posts later.

We signed Pierscen up for t-ball and picked up his jersey. Isn't that hilarious? Bet you didn't know they gave out game regulated dresses. Ha!

The good, the bad, the nasty: Devry did not appreciate peas. We attended the Nic fest and Pierscen smacked his head pretty bad on something (which you can see the welt on his forehead,) but he was consoled by some delicious homemade ice cream. :)

We finally got around to replacing the countertop for our master bathroom. We measure it out, cut the holes for the sinks, and then found that we had cut too much off the back because we didn't take into consideration the thick lip on the underside. We really didn't want to have to buy a whole new one, so we improvised. More pictures of the final result later.