DreamNight at the Zoo

We were a few of the lucky ones that got invited to DreamNight at the Zoo! It is a night filled with fun for children with disabilities, handicaps or special diseases. We were invited because of Oakley's Type 1 diabetes. It is a free event for the immediate family to attend. You go in for free and then they do a free family photo and free Farr's ice cream and free cute water bottles full of yummy pink lemonade and a free stuffed animal for each child on the way out of the zoo. They have random music stands around the zoo and animals to touch and animal skins to pet. The kids loved it. I had a hard time not crying sometimes seeing all these precious children with everything from diabetes like Oakley to MS, autism, down syndrome, etc. It was a touching night watching their excitement and smiles.

The night started off really well. It was a little chilly so I had them all wear pants. (Of course I am the dumby that stayed in my shorts.) After we had been there about 45 minutes it started to sprinkle and then the sprinkle turned into a full fledged hard rain.

We didn't get to leave the zoo until it was pouring on us - mostly because WE HAD TO SEE THE DUCKS! Rhett was insistent!! Of course on the way out we had to stop and pick-up our family photo they had taken and we were there at the same time all the other families were trying to pick-up theirs. I left my kids out in the pouring rain - because the building was PACKED and ran in to get our picture. Luckily ours was one that was already printed. By the time we ran to the car it was hailing HARD! I got the kids into the car making it so they missed the worst of the storm...but you know how it goes when you are the mom and have to load the car with all the stuff from the zoo, fold up the stroller and stand in the hail buckling in the 2 year old. I was DRENCHED by the time I got in. My hair was caked with hail. It was awful. We then came home to a power outage at home. We were freezing because of being wet and the house was dark and cold. We came in and snuggled into our warm pj's.
So...was it a dreamnight at the zoo?? It was definitely the kind of night that memories are made from!!

One Happy Little Man

At 7:30 am (way before I was ready to wake-up) Dallin came flying up the stairs yelling "Mom, there is a baby frog in Oakley's window well - CAN I KEEP HIM!!! I thought - ya right there is a baby frog in the window well. I mean - we don't live anywhere close to where we ever see frogs even. Sure enough - there was a baby frog. Dallin called his dad on the phone.

Dallin: Are you coming home soon?

Ryan: Why?

D: There is a baby frog in Oakley's window - CAN I KEEP HIM?

R: I'll be home in a minute.

Then about 5 minutes later Dallin comes up from the basement just bawling. The frog had hopped down off the window screen and was gone. Luckily Ryan showed up at the same time, climbed into the window well and saved the day!! Now - after a quick trip to walmart for supplies...WE HAVE ONE HAPPY LITTLE MAN!

His frog is that little tiny dot you can see on the rock.:)

Can I get a WAHOO!!

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.

And the countdown ended...

Every summer Ryan and I joke about how we are counting down the days to a broken bone. With the four crazy kids that we have we expected to have one years ago, but as of yesterday afternoon the countdown is officially over.

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!

Memorial Day Fun

OF COURSE MY PICTURES UPLOAD STARTING AT THE END OF THE DAY INSTEAD OF THE BEGINNING. It took only 30 minutes to upload them so I AM NOT DOING IT AGAIN. So, if you want to see Memorial Day in the order that it happened just go ahead and scroll down to the end of this post and work your way up!! :)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!:)

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

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!!:)

Lagoon

On Saturday Oakley got to compete at the National Clogging Championship at Lagoon.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!

*I just got an email from Oakley's clogging teacher and I guess the girls got two 1st places - one with a perfect 10 score - and one 2nd place. They are good little dancers.:)