We actually took a vacation this year. It was really fun….for most of it. We went on a lot of hikes. I didn’t take that many pictures. Scott took a lot more pictures and got a lot better pictures than I did, but he wanted to post his pictures he took on his blog, so I am only going to steal a couple of his pictures.

Here’s how the vacation went:

Day 1: Drove to my parent’s house and stayed the night

Day 2: Went to church

Day 3: Drove to calf creek. Approximately 1 hour after we arrived, Berkley fell and hit the van (I think…neither Scott or I saw him fall, we just heard the screaming), and cut his face open just below his eye. We drove back to escalante, where they put 3 or 4 stitches in, and luckily it didn’t cut the corner of his eye open or else we would have had to go somewhere else where a specialist could stitch his eye. He looks really dirty in the pic, but amazingly somehow the stitches stayed very clean. This is one of scott’s photos. I’m not sure why, but when you tell Berkley to smile, this is what he does.

Day 4: Went on a 2 mile (4 mile roundtrip) hike to a natural bridge. I didn’t really take any pictures on this hike. So, I will wait for Scott to post some. The kids did really good. We crossed a river 5 different times to get there. At one spot it was deep enough for them to stop and swim for awhile.

Day 5: Hiked to calf creek falls…..Super awesome hike, but long. It his 6.8 miles roundtrip. We took our time and let the kids go slow and took lots of breaks. We left about 8:30 am and got back around 5:30 pm. We stayed at the falls for a few hours. The kids had a lot of fun at the falls. They swam, built sandcastles, and played a lot.

Here they are starting out on the hike. Everything was going good.

Then, Keaton got tired, and decided to hold onto the backpack Scott had on. So not only was Scott carrying Berkley on his back, but he was also pulling Keaton along on the trail.

Scott gave the kids rides on his back.

This is the waterfall at the end of the hike. It was sooooo hot hiking to the falls, but when right before you get to the waterfalls, all the sudden there are a whole bunch of trees, and the temperature drops drastically, and the water is nice and cool. Hopefully Scott can get some of his pictures up soon. He has some good pictures.

Day 6: Scott’s parents joined us and we hiked the upper falls trail. It was a steep hike. I think this hike was 3 miles roundtrip.This hike also had a neat waterfall at the end, but I liked the other waterfall better. didn’t really get any pictures on this hike.

Day 7: Drove to Green River and stayed in a motel. I got to shower…..that felt soooooo good.

Day 8: Drove to the San Rafael Swell, and looked at a few things out there…..Oh I forgot to mention throughout this whole trip, Jaxon was keeping track of how many lizards everyone saw. He wanted to make a pie chart when we got home of all the lizards everyone saw, but I think he forgot. I think he ended up seeing about 51 lizards, and with Grandma Davis’s help, he even caught one. He also became quite the dragonfly catcher. I’m not sure how he caught so many of those poor dragonflies, but he somehow figured out how to catch them……anyways, we went to the San Rafael Swell mostly to go see the government caves. Scott and I had gone there with the LDS institute class when we were attending CEU. The caves were really awesome. I guess the government built these caves and were going to use them as an underground protection site, but it turned out the caves ended up not being sturdy enough, so they didn’t use them. Anyhow, from what I can remember they were super awesome. But, when we got there we found that the caves had been mostly destroyed and it was also gated off. I was disappointed to see all the grafitti everywhere, and the terrible things written all over the rocks. It was obvious it had become some kind of “party” place for young kids. That part of the trip was dissappointing for Scott and I…..However, the kids loved it. They found a bunch of bullet shells, and even some bullets that hadn’t been used yet. They could have cared less about the caves. They were more excited about how many bullets they found.

Then, after being disappointed at the caves we drove out the “wedge” overlook. It’s a really neat overlook, and I don’t think I got any pictures of the overlook, but I did get some other interesting pictures.

It’s not really a vacation unless you get a flat tire is it? What’s even worse than having a flat tire?

Our spare tire was also flat. It was a good thing Scott’s parent’s were there. Him and his dad jumped in there car and raced back to town, and were able to get the tire fixed right before the shop was going to close. Scott’s mom and I stayed at the van with all the kids, and suprisingly it wasn’t all that bad. Scott and his dad were back a lot faster than I thought they would be, and everyone was okay…..kind of. I can’t remember what point this happened, but at some point while we were at the overlook, Keaton was messing around and pulling on Grandpa Davis’s shirt. Grandpa told him to stop, but he didn’t listen, and he fell and smacked his head on a rock. There was blood all over, and I couldn’t tell if it was bad enough to need stitches, but we got the bleeding to stop, and then went into town and ate dinner at Wendy’s. Keaton wore Grandpa’s hat to hide the blood in his super white hair. It seemed like he was doing fine, until we got home late that night. I went and put Keaton to bed, and a while later heard him crying. I went down to see what was wrong and there was blood all over his pillow. So, Scott and I got out the super glue and glued his head shut. I think I need to start taking super glue with me wherever I go. It’s a good alternative to stitches. We did make it home, so that was good. It really was a fun trip for the most part, and I was amazed at how well the kids did with all the hiking. Over all we hiked 13.8 miles…..I think. I think I remembered the miles right on all those hikes.

Here are a few more pictures from the trip:

Jaxon and one of the dragonflies he caught, and Scott “Bear Grylls.” To stay cool Scott got one of his shirts wet and put it on his head.

And for those who want to see some pregnant shots of me, I will put some up another day. I’ve spent too long on the blog. I even had to kick Scott off the computer, so I could “quickly” update my blog. Now he needs the computer back.

Parker turned 6 years old, and we had a small bday party for him. For part of the party, Scott drew this awesome picture of darth vader on the driveway, and then we let the kids throw water balloons at him to “kill” him. After they got all the black off the sidewalk, Vader was officially gone. Also, for the party, I decided to get the swimming noodles and was going to make swords out of them, or light sabers. I thought I would just put black tape on the bottom of them and let them be floppy so there would be no chance of hurting each other. Well, Scott saw the noodles and asked me what I was going to do with them, and I told him, and he got all excited and went to the store and bought pipe to put in the middle of them and made them look all cool. I’m not sure who had more fun with the light sabers, him or the kids. The kids still love sword fighting him with them.

Scott “Vader” fighting off the Jedi Knights.

My last post was very confusing, so I thought I would make sure everyone knows, we are not having twins. And, yes it is a GIRL!! We are super excited….well mostly. Keaton and Berkley still don’t seem to like the idea, but I’m sure they will love her once she gets here.

Today I had my 2nd appointment with the OB. The baby’s heartbeat sounded good, so that was good news. Everything else looked good, too. Life has been CRAZY the last couple of weeks. I started having really bad stomach cramps about 2 1/2 weeks ago. It was bad enough that all I wanted to do was lay on my bed curled up in a ball. I finally decided to go to the instacare, but once they found out I was pregnant, they said I would have to go to whatever hospital I would be delivering the baby and just go to the ER. Well, I hate the ER really really bad, so instead I just went back home. The next morning the pain was gone, so I just decided to tell my OB about it at my next appointment. But, then that Friday night I woke up in the middle of the night with stomach pain again. I tried to just go back to sleep, but mostly I was up all night. Finally, the next morning I decided I needed to go to the ER and just make sure the baby was okay. It was Saturday or else I would have just tried to get in with my OB. So, I drove to the ER, and after running some tests and the pain finally settling on my right side the doc decided I had appendicitis. They didn’t do a CT scan, because they were worried about the baby. But, my white blood cell count was way high, and because of where the pain was they decided to take my appendix out. They put me under general anesthesia, and the surgery went good. I did have appenedicitis, so I guess it was good I went to the hospital. Since I am pregnant they made me stay overnight just to watch me. And, I don’t know what kind of pain killer medicine they were giving me, but it was not good. It was supposed to be something that is safe for the baby, and I had a little button to push so I could get another dose every 8 minutes if I wanted. At first it worked okay and it made the pain go away, but then I started feeling extremely sick, and I pretty much puked up everything I ate at the hospital. I stopped pushing the button for the medicine, because of how sick it made me feel, so I was in pain and felt terrible. I would try to eat a little bit at a time, but every time I ate anything it all came back up. And, when I have an empty stomach and I’m pregnant I get even sicker. By the time I got to go home, I was hurting pretty bad, and for most of that week I just laid in bed. If I got out of bed everything seemed like it was moving. I felt like I was on a boat and I was sea sick. I’m feeling much better now. I think Berkley had a really hard time when I got home. He was sick with a cough, and just wanted me to hold him, but the doc said I wasn’t supposed to pick up any kids or hold them. So, he mostly cried that whole week. Now he’s super clingy. He doesn’t want me to get out of his sight. The doc also said I need to take it easy for 4-6 weeks….yeah right. That doesn’t really work with little kids.

As for the week of being in bed, lots of people helped me out. I’m just thankful for everyone who came to help. Scott’s mom stayed with the kids while I was at the hospital, so Scott was even able to stay overnight with me. Some people in the ward brought some dinners and someone took our kids for awhile, so I could sleep. Anyways, lately I think I have been a little negative. I guess sometimes it’s hard to stay positive when everything seems so overwhelming, but I really am grateful for everything we have. Parker’s doctor never did call about his blood tests, so that means his blood tests were all normal. So that was good. Keaton’s eyes are doing good, and he probably won’t need surgery….although he did break his glasses yesterday. *Sigh* that kid has gone through so many pairs of glasses, but I guess better his glasses than something else. Parker’s joints are good, and he has been pain free for quite a while. The baby seems to be okay. We get to find out the gender in 3 weeks. We’ve got it pretty good I think. On the downside of things, our van didn’t pass the inspection today, so we have to try and fix it up, so we can drive it still. It will probably cost around $500 and then to get Keaton new glasses that could be another $300—good thing we are getting a tax refund!! Even though it’s kind of a pain, I still can’t complain. I enjoy being a mom and wife and having great kids and a great husband.

This morning my Grandma Yashko passed away. This is a picture of her at her birthday party in 2006. She was 95 this year. She has steadily declined in the last few years, and it was time to go. She lived a long very full life. She used to tell us amazing stories (whether they were true or not, I don’t know) about driving to school when she was in grade school (she lived in a very small town), her amazing horse “Old Jimmy,” getting her pilot’s license, a pet bear, hikes and campouts and a bunch of other stuff. She served several missions later in life and was constantly serving in the temple.

I found this that she wrote in response to a question posed by the LDS church news. She actually did do a lot of the things she mentions.

How to influence your grandchildren without becoming meddlesome

Set an example

I suggest the following:

- Set an example of daily service by attending the temple, serving in the Church and going on a mission.

- Give a Book of Remembrance, life stories, pictures of ancestors, Church magazine subscriptions and other helpful material for birthdays and Christmas presents.

- Participate with them in family reunions, outings, games and family home evenings.

- Take them to visit lonely neighbors and friends at Christmas time or Sunday afternoons.

- Stay with them when their parents are out. Serve them fruit and nuts instead of candy.

- Write to each at least once a month if they are living away from you. – Ruth E. Yashko, Lehi, Utah

I’m glad that Grammy finally was able to peacefully pass on. We’ll miss her!

Grandpa Davis put together a pretty sweet slippy slide for the 4th of July BBQ. Amazingly no one went to the emergency room, and Jaxon even managed to keep his cast relatively dry. (It was in a plastic bag). The slide was definitely the best part, way better than the legal in Utah fireworks that we lit off later. You can see some more photos by clicking here if you want.

So we spent memorial day weekend in Beaver, Utah with Kristin’s family. Beaver used to have this awesome billboard with a cartoon beaver riding a four wheeler in the mountains. If that wasn’t awesome enough, it also featured the tagline “Beaver: The Historic Land of Four Seasons.” That pretty much sums up what is special about Beaver. It’s got history, and every year, without fail, there are four seasons. Now there is another billboard touting the fact that Beaver won a prestigous award of best tasting water in the U.S. The water is pretty good, I have to admit.

Anyway, it’s always a treat to be back in the historic land of four seasons. Here’s some photos from the trip.

Sunday we spent some time at Cove Fort, a historic site for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Very good tour. This is about 65% of Kristin’s family. Two of the kids and their families are missing. Marchants, click on the photo for a larger version if you want a copy.

This is looking south of Cove Fort over one of the garden areas of the fort, and right is a detail of one of the fort doors.

On Saturday we went to the Fremont Indian State Park and hiked around and saw the museum. We tried to hike Bullion Falls outside of Marysvale, but we got rained out. Monday we had breakfast at the park across from the Marchants. As an extreme parent, I’m always pround when our children look past the safety rails and common sense and make a normal playground toy something truly dangerous. Oh, and speaking of living dangerously, Keaton’s cast is not the result of an injury, just part of his physical therapy to help him use his left arm.

Anyway, we had a good trip and we even spent a night at Maple Canyon outside of Ephraim on the way home. I put some photos on my photo blog.

Here is my lovely talented husband.  My parent’s gave us a wheat grinder for Christmas a year or two ago, and Scott thought it would be a good idea to hook it up to our exercise bike so we could exercise while grinding wheat.  Don’t ask me how he did it, because I have no idea, but it actually works really good.  It’s pretty cool, but I like to tease him about all his ideas that he has.  Maybe one day he will invent something that everybody wants and become famous….:)  But, for now he likes doing little things like this around the house.  It’s actually really nice having him around.  When something breaks, he will get right in there and fix it as soon as he can, and he really does a good job.  This exercise bike/wheat grinder describes Scott exactly.  I think throughout the day he is always thinking of some kind of little invention he would like to do.  Right now he wants to do a few things….convert our van to electric, make a side-by-side 2-person electric powered recumbent bike car, build a straw bale house, build a root cellar, and the list goes on.  But, for now the exercise bike/wheat grinder will have to do.

Here are some more pictures:

Some close ups of the bike….

Of course the kids wanted to try out the bike, too.

And here is the finished product….known in our house as “Daddy’s special cereal.”  Scott grinds up a lot of different grains, legumes, and seeds and then in the mornings we cook it like you cook oatmeal, and it makes a really good breakfast.  I know it probably sounds weird, but it really is quite tasty.

Today our internet wasn’t working.  I came down and got on the computer and shut everything down to see if that would help.  Well, it only took a couple of seconds to shut everything down, and then I went right back upstairs where all the kids were.  Jaxon came walking into the kitchen with his shirt off.  I thought that was a little weird and asked him why his shirt was off.  His answer….”because it’s polite.”  Well, okay whatever.  I started doing the dishes and after a while Jaxon comes up to me and asks me, “Do you like my hair?”  I look down at him and he has a couple of bald spots.  His shirt was off, because he was trying to cut his own hair.  Here’s the rest of our conversation.

Me:  “Ahhhhh!!!  Your hair!  It looks horrible.”

Jaxon (slumps his shoulders and looks at the ground):  “I should have left it (the hair) on.”

Well, while we had this conversation, I heard the water running in the bathroom, so I went in to see who was in there.  It was Parker….with a pair of scissors, more than ready to cut his hair, too.  Luckily I caught him before he cut anything.

So the moral is:  Put the scissors up very high.

I have pictures of the awesome haircut, and I will post them later.

All the pictures I posted during Christmas were pictures that Scott took, but I actually took some, too.  I finally downloaded them, so I wanted to slap some on here.  There are actually a couple of Scott.    Enjoy!!

I don’t really have a high place to set up our nativity, so it’s down where all the kids can reach it.  I kept trying to arrange it how I wanted it, but every time I went into the living room, someone had changed it all up.  Jaxon liked them all to be in a straight line, so the arrangement you see below is compliments of Jaxon.  Parker liked to just mix them all up, and Keaton thought they must have been tired, because he would always lay some of the people down on the chest.  I actually saw him doing it once, and he was pretty careful about it.  I guess all my yelling at them about being careful with the nativity sunk in…well, expect for Berkley.  Berkley of course, just liked to throw them all over the floor.  By the end,  the angel had a broken hand, but nothing else was harmed, and I’m not exactly sure if the angel’s hand had been broken last year.  I was quite pleased that the nativity people came out so good (just a few scratches).  But, it is funny that whenever I went into the living room, I knew who had been arranging the nativity just because they all liked it their different ways. 

Scott on Christmas day….

I think he was even more excited than the kids.  The first picture was taken by Jaxon, that’s why his head is cut off….okay, I took it.  The paper he’s holding says 1 year subscription to Make magazine.  I ordered the subscription too late, so that’s all I could give him on Christmas.

Swimming in St. George

Jaxon and Parker wanted to ride on Scott’s back.

And here’s the sledding…..

Sledding fun!!

While we were vacationing for Christmas, Keaton had a birthday…..

I know these pictures are lame, but it’s what I got.  As you can see, Keaton had a super amazing cake made out of 3 donuts.  He seemed to be pretty excited, though.  I feel bad for the little guy.  I bet he’s going to hate his b-day when he gets older.  I can’t believe he’s 3 years old….I don’t know where all the time has gone.  I remember being sad when Jaxon turned 3, because I didn’t want him to be that old yet.  Keaton is a fun little kid.  He can be very stubborn sometimes, but I think his stubborness has really helped him in using the left side of his body.  He honestly amazes me.  When they finally told me his diagnosis, in my mind I already started putting limitations on him.  I thought about all the things I didn’t think he would be able to do, but I was soooooooo wrong.  He is a good little athlete.  I’m amazed at how well he does.  He loves sports, and he doesn’t let his “disability” weigh him down.  After watching him these last couple of years, I would have to say that he can do anything he wants….whatever he puts his mind to, and is important to him, he will find a way to do it.  I’ve learned some really neat things from him, and he’s only 3.  I just love watching him.

And here is Berkley.  Any time a closet door or the refigerator door opens, Berkley comes running.  He could sit and play in the referigerator or closet for hours if I would let him.

And here are two pictures I didn’t recognize.  Jaxon has been sneaking into the closet lately, and I didn’t know what he was doing.  I’m pretty sure he took these pictures.  He’s not supposed to use this camera….the little stinker.