Our Summer in Review: June

We kicked off June with a trip to the ER.  To add to the excitement, and expense, we decided to take a ride in the ambulance to get there.  Logan decided to add some fun to our quiet evening by sending his Mom and Dad into full fledged panic mode.  He has a tendency to do the silent cry when he gets really upset.  By silent cry, I mean he will start crying, open his mouth, turn red, but no sound comes out.  We have been worried when he does this b/c he had almost passed out a couple of times b/c he isn't breathing when he does it.  Well, on this particular occasion, he had gotten hurt while him and Stockton were rough housing on the floor by falling on his back on a toy.  He started crying so Troy picked him up and stood him in his lap to help calm him down.  He was doing his typical "silent cry" when he arched his back and just collapsed in Troy's arms.  Troy picked him up and realized that he was unconscious.  After a few seconds, he started convulsing  and his eyes were rolling around in his head.  When I saw the way his eyes looked, I thought he was dying for sure.  I jumped up and ran across the street to our neighbor's house who is nurse to get help.  When I was at the door babbling that we needed help, Troy comes running out of our house with Logan's lifeless body, yelling "Get Britany!!!, Get Britany!!!"  When Troy laid him down in their yard, he was turning blue and not breathing.  I call 911 while they try and figure out what to do, but at this point I was too hysterical, I couldn't even tell them where we were.  The next 10-15 minutes are just a blur, all I know is that for a few minutes, I was certain that my baby was either going to die or be brain dead because even after they got him breathing, he still wasn't waking up.  To summarize the rest of the evening, it turns out he may be prone to have seizures and/or pass out when he cries like that b/c he stops breathing.  So we have to watch him and not just let him cry.  They told us to blow in his face hard and fast when he does it so he will inhale.  We have had to do it numerous time since this incident and it freaks me out every time.  Oh man, that's enough about that.  Now I am all worked up just reliving it.  While I recognize that it really wasn't that serious and it obviously could have been ALOT worse, it doesn't take away the fear and panic that we experienced in that short time.  It was horrible.  The only funny thing about it is, if you will notice in the picture, he is wearing his pajama shirt and diaper.  That's right, that's what he looked like at 6pm on the day that we had to take him to the ER.  Anyone who knows me very well knows that EVERYDAY we get up, eat breakfast and get dressed FIRST thing EVERY MORNING!  Except, of course, on this morning.  I felt like Mother of the Year.

Moving on....we went on our first camp trip of the season.  It was a GREAT trip, aside from the marshmallow fight between me and Troy that our friends got to witness.  WE. ARE. AWESOME.  

 Stockton with his B.F.F., Rhett.

The kids had a perfect "sandbox" provided by Mother Nature herself.

Our campsite

 We ate watermelon in the driveway,

we painted on the sidewalk, 

and we played in the rain.

Troy and I got to be the leaders on the 14-15 year old girls overnight hike. 

It was my first taste of back packing and I definitely caught the fever.  I can't wait til the boys get older and we can do it together.  I loved it.

 I am going to MISS these girls SO MUCH when we move!!! 

 Both of the boys got to do swimming lessons.  A girl from our church did them at her house and she really did a great job.  Both boys had a good time.

One day they even had a special visitor stop by for some fun.

We had cousins come for a visit.  Stockton just adores his cousin, Emi.  And he has even taken quite the liking to his "big" cousin, Mack.  We took them down to play in the river.

Troy thought he would impress the kids by jumping off the platform...

 ...so Emily decided she needed to do it, too!!  

Since she was so brave, we decided to celebrate with cake in the backyard.

And by "cake", I actually mean an entire cake.  Why not, right??

 Amy, are you regretting your decision to not come for fall break yet?  

Our Summer in review: May

 I am feeling some unusual motivation to update the blog the last couple days and since I am looking for any reason to avoid packing, I figured I would start updating on our Summer happenings.  The beginning of May my beautiful niece, Marissa, got married.  I was lucky enough to be able to be a part of it.  Thank you girls, for making me feel young again.  That was seriously the funnest weekend I have had in a long time.  I think we need to have another bachelorette party just for the fun of it sometime soon.  We need to use our free classes, right??  :)

the

The end of May we spent a week visiting my brother and his family who were living in Northern California on the Marble Mountain Ranch.  It was an awesome experience to go to a place that I never knew existed and get a glimpse of a different way of life than we are used to.  It is right in the middle of "Bigfoot Country" and there are just tons of tiny little towns strung along a long, winding, beautiful highway.  The school that my nieces went to had only 2 teachers in the entire school and their attendance actually influenced if they would need to keep the second teacher or let her go.  The way of life there really made me jealous, but there is no way I could drive on those roads everyday.  Anytime we went anywhere I had to prepare myself for a day of nausea.

This is our cabin.  Oh gosh, just looking at it makes me want to live there.

  

We had a little zip line right outside our cabin.  It was the perfect size, just small enough for the boys to be able to go on it, but big enough for it to be fun for me and Troy, too.

 Stockton sure took a liking to his cousin, Ireland.  It makes me sad that they don't get to see each other very often.  All of those girls awesome.

We spent a lot of time on the front porch enjoying the perfect weather and the peace and quiet.  The only downside was the mosquitoes.

One of the coolest things about the ranch is that it is almost 100% self sustaining.  They grow most of their own food and provide their own electricity.  It is run solely on hydro power.  We took a walk to see where they divert the water from the river to use.  It was beautiful and very cool to see.

We took a drive one day to the coast to go to the beach and see the Redwood Forest.  Just looking at these pictures reminds me how desperately I need a vacation and just some good family time with no distractions.

 For some reason Logan was terrified of the water.  He spent most of his time searching for rocks to throw and digging in the sand.

Stockton, on the other hand, spent the entire time getting chased by the waves.

We saw this herd of elk on the side of the road and had to stop and get a picture.

Troy's main motivation to go on the trip was to see the Redwood Forest.  He was very excited about it.  If you want to get him going sometime , just ask him about the Redwoods.  (Just kidding Troy, I love you!)  I am glad to have someone that enjoys learning about this kind of stuff so then I don't have to.

On our way home from the Redwoods I saw this sign posted on a billboard outside of a grocery store.  I just had to take a picture.  I am still debating contacting him just to see what kind of ideas he wants to kick around.