We made it!! It is the last day of school. This is just after the awards assembly. They are holding their Physnacal (as Dallin calls it) Fitness awards!! They have both had a great year and we are SO EXCITED to be done.
Oakley came home from school complaining that her pinkie finger hurt. I inspected it finding that she could still bend it and if I pushed on it I only got a small "ouch" so I figured she was fine and sent her off to piano lessons. We then went to a cousins birthday party where she ran through the sprinklers and had a great time only mentioning her finger a few times. Last night as I tucked her into bed I bumped her hand and she screamed and started crying instantly. So - I decided I better look a little closer. That is when I realized that there was swelling and bruising up in her hand above her pinkie knuckle. At 9 pm we were off to the ER since they were the only ones open. We happened to check in at the exact same time as another little Oakley (baby sized though) and those working thought that was interesting. We thought it was funny when they came and put Oakley's wristband on and about 10 minutes later came and took it off because they had put it on the wrong Oakley. We kept hearing the doctor say - now which Oakley is in which room. It was funny!:) So - the x-rays showed that she had fractured the bone just above her pinkie knuckle. The doctor (which just happened to be our family doctor) decided to cast it. He put a cast on that only covers the bottom half of her arm and is held in place by an ace bandage so that we can take it on and off with clothes changes and baths. We are suppose to go in next week for more x-rays to make sure it is healing properly and she has to wear the cast for 3 weeks with very limited physical activity. This kind of puts a damper on the last few days of school when they are having field days and trying to finish physical fitness. Oh - well, there is always next year and the next year and the next to do those fun things! You only have a fractured 5th metacarpal once in your life...we hope only once anyway!
Yesterday evening we took the kids the short-cut way (which is actually still a LONG ride) from Swan Valley over to Bone where the Ranch is and did some fishing. This is my "HANDSOME STUD" of a husband being all handsomely out on the rocks by the lake.
My Aunt always puts on an annual Memorial Day picnic. She has been doing it since I was a little girl and I still love it just as much as I did then. My kids get to play with not only their cousins, but my cousins kids also. These are a few of the boys. Rhett and Dallin are on the left end.
These are some of the girls. This is the only time all day they sat still. They were receiving instructions on the treasure hunt! Oakley is in the middle next to Hunter (in red stripes - also NOT A GIRL - he was really cute with her even asking if they could hold hands. :) see how fun it is to get together.)
This is how we started the day. When we were little my parents had a tradition of taking us to the cemetary to visit graves with my grandparents. My parents and grandparents still do this each Memorial Day and I want it to be a part of my kids life...so for the past few years we have taken the kids to do this. This year we took them for a Sunday drive to some of Ry's and my family's graves too. It is neat to be able to teach our children where we came from.
Bright sun, cold morning and cranky two year old about sum this picture up!:)
This is my pathetic wannabe flowerbed. I have one on each side of my front stairs. The little old lady that lived here before us had some great big shrub type bushes that were filled with spiders and were taking over, so last spring we pulled them out and decided that we were going to tear out these stairs and build a deck here...those plans are still just plans.:( So last summer it was the sandbox and I have a"goal" of improving my yard this summer. It may not be great, but anything is better than it is now.
So, you can't see them very well, but I spent all afternoon planting flowers in these flowerbeds and the cute little pot by the door. Like I said - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!! I know these may not be beautiful to anybody but me, but they are 100% better than the sandbox it was before. Now on to the next project - mowing the lawn, weeding around the fence, spraying the weeds...the list goes o-n a-n-d o-n!!:)
Of course this all happens at a terrible time of year for Ryan so here are me and my four kids being brave all alone at the "big and crazy" Lagoon. Luckily I was only there for about an hour when my in-laws showed up to help. I am so grateful they came because we had 3 costume changes to do and it would have been me dragging all 4 kids back and forth each time. Plus keeping track of all 4 alone in the crowds would have been a nightmare. I couldn't have done it without them!!
Oakley is the one in the blue. I wanted a picture that had the National Championship and the Lagoon sign in it to prove WE WERE THERE!
So, we rode the rides, clogged Oakley's little heart out, enjoyed the sun and all we came home with was a fever, and ear infection and strep throat. :( After we had been there for a couple hours Rhett got a fever and spent the rest of the day miserable in the stroller. For being sick he was a good little trooper. We pulled in our driveway at 7:30 pm...I sent Oakley, Dallin and Laiklie into the house with their dad and Rhett and I ran to the doctor. He is doing SO MUCH better now though - but, the sad news is...all 4 kids shared a water bottle all day that day so I am sure him being sick is just the beginning!
7:28 am - there is not a single alarm in this house that goes off before 7:30 am, but here she is awake and already wearing a swimsuit. This is early enough that she doesn't even have her hair fixed yet. 
9:05 am - this is the first change of the day. If you can't tell, she is winking.;) It is also still too early for hairdo's around here.
10:40 am - second change of the day. This Elmo swimsuit is her FAVORITE and she wears it the very most. It is also the most immodest suit. I am glad she is sitting the way she is so you don't see TOO MUCH! This suit is going to "disappear" one of the days.
7:56 pm - 5th change of the day. This is actually a dance leotard...but, she thinks it is a swimsuit.
8:49 pm - final change before bedtime. Most nights she will actually fight us at bedtime taking off the swimsuit and ends up sleeping in it. This night she decided pj's were okay though. What a funny little personality she has. Like we always say, "SHE IS ONE OF A KIND!!"
If you can't tell, my boys couldn't get enough of it!! They are all boy and LOVE this kind of thing.
The branding crew! 
Rhett is physically SO STONG. He has always been able to beat up his big brother Dallin.:) They call the rings Mickey Mouse ears and Rhett was the only one in his class that could actually pull himself all the way up to hold them the way they were suppose to be held. (This picture doesn't show that too well though.)
Gym has been so good to help him with coordination and balance. Plus, it gives him something to talk about that is his own when the older two talk about school and friends.
He only has 3 more classes before he is finished for the summer. We aren't planning on doing gym again next year because he will be in preschool, but it has sure been worth the money to watch him discover a love of it!
Yesterday morning I took my own butt to the doctor after exposing my family to whatever I had all weekend - which was spent at my mom and dad's house with almost all 24 grandkids (don't worry I kissed on nearly all of them) anyway - the Doc told me that I had strep throat. My throat was so sore that it felt like it was swollen to the size of a drinking straw. It was MISERABLE. So, I decided that instead of exposing all the achievement day girls to strep that I would cancel yesterday's planned activity. The sweet lady that I do achievement days with brought us dinner - she is SO nice. So, I was hanging out in bed not feeling up to anything when Ry announced that he wanted to take the kids fishing for FHE. I knew Laiklie and the lake spells disaster so I had to go too. I forgot my camera and took a whole bunch of pictures with my phone, but my computer won't read my phone for some reason :( and I didn't feel good enough last night to mess with it. So, this is what you get. The only fish caught was caught by Dallin and I missed the whole thing. It was windy and cold so me and the two little ones went to the cabin and Oakley followed shortly after because she needed to go to the bathroom. So, Ry and Dallin were the only witnesses of the fish catching. He was SO EXCITED...if you can't tell in the picture.
