We had a busy July we left for Yellowstone a few days before Mom and Dad via Scottsbluff, NE so we could go see Chimney Rock. We stayed the night in Torrington, Wyoming. Before making our way towards Worland Wyoming to stay with Lindsey’s sister, Candace and family. for the night Around lunchtime in Casper we decide to make about an hour and half detour and visit Independence Rock, Devils Gate, and Martins Cove. The kids were pretty amazed by this size of Independence Rock and were determined to climb to the top it. We started on one side and went across the entire top and down, not as easy as it may look. We weren’t able to do a whole lot at Martin’s Cove, but we did see a little video with a brief history and the kids were able to try and pull the handcarts around a little loop. We would like to go back someday and do the longer trek and go down into the cove. We past by the Sixth Crossing on our way to Worland but didn’t stop. That night we spent with Candace and the next day meet up with Mom and Dad Cottrell for our Yellowstone Trip. Mom already wrote about Yellowstone so I won’t repent to much. Adam and Lindsey got some nasty bug bites in Burlington, which we annoying and hurt, from that point on we smelled like bug spray, so help prevent anymore nasty bits. Sarah would get nervous every time we came to close an animal and roll down our windows to look at them. She was doing better towards the end the week. Some highlights are Lower Falls, Grand Canyon, Steamboat, Grand Prismatic, Old Faithful, picnics, play string games, grizzly up so close, buffalo at our first stop, a buffalo at that liked to hang around the Canyon Cabins, and our last night blocked our path from the parking spot to our cabin, and of course being with Mom and Dad. They took good care of us and we all had wonderful time. As mom mentioned Lindsey and the kids were dropped off in Star Valley and the took Greg down to Salt Lake to fly home and work for the week. The next day all of Lindsey siblings ran a half marathon and the whole family went cheer them on. They are trying to get her to run it with them next year…..It rained that afternoon so we all hang out and the kids watched a movie. We spent week relaxing mostly. We went the park a few times, out to lunch, eating the snow cones, swimming, playing with kittens, jumping on their trampoline, playing with cousins, and tubing in the slough (a fresh water spring that forms that makes a stream). The kids were having great time until we moved up river little. Isaac decided he had enough so Lindsey waited on the banks with him while Grandma Jane and Sarah one tube and Adam on another decided to float down a little. Adam was really enjoying it, but Sarah decided she was done and so Grandma Jane put her up on the bank and told her to walk back to me (Lindsey) only problem it was the other side. Sarah was fine until she decided to cut across on want she thought was land but ended to be the most swampy part and worst place to cross. She freaked out, and I wasn’t about to go and get her. I kept yelling for her just run across she kept getting stuck and lost both of her crocs, which made it worse. Once she was across she jumped in a one the deepest parts kicking and screaming, and quickly grab her. She would have been fine if she would have walked up the bank more and straight across from were I was standing, but she was in hurry and afraid. It was a little crazy, we were both not happy. Grandma Jane felt bad and we only found one of her crocs. Sarah ended up getting new croc like shoes at Children’s place and flip flops (which she has always wanted) from Grandma Jane since we lost her other ones. We left on Friday and Salt Lake and did little shopping at the Park City Outlets and stayed they night with Uncle Taylor (Lindsey’s Mom’s brother). The next morning Lindsey and the kids went to Wheeler Farm with a good friend from Omaha. Then they went to go and visit Lindsey Grandma Rose in a rehabilitation center were she was staying after she had fallen and broken her back. She is 91 years old, her health is good, but she is becoming very frail and needs care 24 hours. Then they went the hotel pool to go swimming before picking up Greg at the Airport. The next morning we went and visited Temple Square for a few hours and then back to visit Grandma Rose before heading to Star Valley again. On the they way home we stopped and visited with Aunt Louis in Evanston since she has never met Lindsey or the kids. We also stopped in Almy Cemetery just outside of Evanston to see were some Lindsey’s ancestors are buried. On Monday we hiked to intermittent springs it is any easy trail. We made the bottom the falls and you are able to go the top but it was to slippery from snow melt this year. On Tuesday we went of to Rexburg and having lunch at Big Jud's on the way. Our family of 5 couldn’t finish the 1 lb. hamburger. We enjoyed visiting campus and seeing the changes made there, it has grown a lot in 10 years. We were planning to go spelunking at the civil defense caves but Greg and Adam needed to get ready for their big hike the next day and get to bed earlier so we headed back to Star Valley. Wed Adam and Greg planned on hiking to Surprise Lake in the Tetons, but they turned around about half way there. About five minutes from the trail head the first hiker headed down and he said that there was bear, they had bear mace so they kept hiking. Some of the other hikers they passed said they saw it some said they didn’t. About .3 miles later Greg was leading the way around the corner and was like “WOW that’s a big bear.” So they slowly backed up and head back down the trail. They then meet up with an older couple and decided it safe to head back up with them, this time they didn’t see the bear. They hiked another 2 miles eating lunch along the way. before turning around. On the way down again hikers warned them of the bear with cubs. They met up with group of people that seen the bear and cubs that was within .1 miles, they didn’t want to cross between the mom and cubs. By this time there 6-8 people in the group, so they decided to risk going through and making a lot of noise. Greg got his bear spray out ready to fire just in case. They did see one cub climbing a tree, and another on on log. A few minutes later they did see the mama bear and the last cub. They tried to take picture but they couldn’t see it well. They made safely to car and always enjoyed Colter Bay and Wendy’s. While they were hiking Lindsey, Isaac and Sarah spent the afternoon at her brother Robert’s house were the kids enjoyed playing the dirt, ditch, and mud. The next day we headed back up the Teton’s to do another hike, picnic and swimming. We went across Jenny Lake on the ferry and hiked 2 miles round trip to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. They kids did great, Hidden Falls is good little hike and the Inspiration Point is little more difficult but they all did it. We spent Friday mostly getting ready to come home and taking some family pictures. We headed home on Saturday and stopped in Laramie for the night. It was fun trip.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Packers Newsletter
Rob had a 5k at his work and they also sponsored a kids 1k.
Luke was so excited to do this and would practice in the backyard. They had the
kids run around the baseball field at American Express 3 times. He was loving
that all of Rob’s co-workers were cheering him on. He did such a good job and
only stopped to walk a couple times. He got a little trophy and a t-shirt.
We did two backyard projects this summer. We put in two 4 x
4 raised box gardens and we did an 8 x 8 sandbox. The gardens went in fast and
we only had to move one sprinkler!! (I think we have rearranged all of our
sprinklers in the backyard at least once.) We have gotten a ton of tomatoes and
are overwhelmed by cucumbers, but the kids love it. None of our strawberries
have made it inside the house because Sophie eats them all.
The sandbox took a LOT of work. There is a huge 80 year old
tree next door that shades half our yard, so we wanted the sandbox under that.
The only space to put it was where a 10 x 10 cement pad was that the previous
owners used as a dog run. We obviously don’t have a dog so we tore the cement
out, but left a one foot border of cement around where the sandbox would go. We
found out the cement was 10 inches thick and had rebar in it! It took SO long
to break it all up. Nic even broke a sledge hammer trying to pound it out!
After that we built the frame and had sand delivered. They dumped it in the
street and we had the entire neighborhood playing on the sand pile before we hauled wheelbarrow loads full to the backyard. It has been the place to play
since then. The knocks on our door to play in Luke’s sandbox haven’t stopped.
It doesn’t matter what hour it is! It is a great toy!
Sophie turned two in June. She is so fun and has grown into
such a girly girl. She’s always trying to put on my heels and sneak my makeup.
And her toes are always painted pink, her FAVORITE color. She is talking like crazy! She isn’t the best
eater. She’ll eat one or two bites of any meal and be done until the next meal.
She is very different than Luke and I because she has a major sweet tooth! I
can’t get Luke to eat a popsicle or ice cream, but Sophie will sniff it out and
inhale! She loves nursery and all her little friends. She officially doesn’t
take naps anymore. Well she hasn’t all summer now. She is a very tired little
girl by the end of the day.
Lehi had their annual round up week. It is a huge deal
around here. We braved the crowds for the cow stampede down Main Street. Sophie
loved all the rodeo princesses and waved to each one. Our ward does a float
every year and the primary kids get to walk next to it. These floats are so
time consuming and are so amazing and huge. It is a calling I never want!! Our float
for the Mini Float parade on Friday night was a Dr. Seuss theme and all the
little primary kids were Sneetches. Luke got to ride in a wagon for the 3 miles
and I walked beside him. It was 100 degress and I died a little. Luke was great
and waved to everyone the whole time. All the adults had spray bottles and we
were soaking down the kids. Mom and dad came too, so that was fun for them to
see Luke. We went to the big parade on Saturday morning so Luke could sit and
watch and it was equally hot, but all the floats throwing candy made up for it.
That afternoon we had the family over for a little swimming
party for Sophie. We just had lunch and the kids swam in the pool and played on
the slip and slide. We had a gigantic chocolate cake with pink candles. Luke
made her a cardboard baby bed that he painted pink and purple and helped me sew
a baby pillow for it. He was so proud of himself!
For 4th of July we went to the Packer family
reunion up in Fruit Heights. Rob’s uncle has an amazing yard that is perfect
for all of us. There was a little kids parade, a gigantic homemade waterslide,
sand pile, and the traditional soft serve ice cream machine. All of the aunts
and uncles were reminded of a young Rob when watching Luke go gang busters on
the waterslide with no fear. Rob was quite the active little boy. We had to drag him away from it after 4
hours. That night we had Mom and Dad and
grandpa over for Chinese. Luke has been obsessed with all the fires around here
and always wants to watch the news about them. He heard there were lots of
places with firework restrictions and bans so he told us he didn’t want to do
fireworks this year because it was too dangerous. (His preschool was within a
few blocks of one of the fires a few months back.)
For Pioneer day we headed down to mom and dads and had some amazing ribs by Uncle Sam. It started to pour rain and luckily I brought the kids swim suits so they could play in the rain with Bryce. Luke agreed to some fireworks and he and Sophie thought they were great!
Stephensons June/July
I thought I wrote in June! Guess I have a lot to catch up on.
At the beginning of June we were still in Utah and we'd just gotten our car back from the shop with it's "new" (used) transmission. ($$$) We left the evening of Sunday the 3rd to head home. We thought we'd drive all night but by about St. George Addie was so tired (it was about 11 PM) but couldn't get comfy to sleep in her chair. She fell asleep for about 45 minutes and woke up screaming mad. She screamed for about an hour straight and even managed to get her arms out of her seatbelt. Ugh. We gave up and stayed over at South Point in Las Vegas. (Stopping in Las Vegas and realizing all our friends were gone made me so sad!) Addie woke us up early the next morning so we just got right on the road and drove to Fresno. We got in around 1 in the afternoon. Jacob had brought in all the furniture and boxes but nothing was unpacked. (Wait, it's August and we're still not completely unpacked. Oops.)
Our new house is older, I think early 70s. We have 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a dining/living room, a "den" and a garage. And the back yard is pretty nice, besides the part of the grass that is dead from the previous tenants' above ground pool. We like the space but the house has some quirks. The kitchen and dining have new fake wood floors but the rest of the house is carpeted in hideous dark brown carpet. Every room has a different light fixture. The ceilings have a really ugly popcorn texture and the walls are textured too. The sink is tiny. The water stinks, literally (we still haven't figured this out yet, but we're not drinking it!) And our neighborhood is not our favorite. But we definitely got the biggest/nicest house possible for the really affordable price. Jacob constantly says we're going to move as soon as the lease is up though.
Our ward is nice but we haven't really clicked with anyone. It's mostly got families with older kids and lots of seniors. Nobody has really taken much effort to get to know us, including the Bishop who didn't even introduce himself till we'd been here 6 weeks. But I'm still trying to go to Relief Society activities and meet people. I'm hoping when the weather cools down a bit there might be a play group or something. On a positive note, Addie LOVES nursery.
June kept us busy doing lots of mundane tasks like registering the cars, getting new drivers licenses, changing the car insurance, setting up the utilities, etc. Jacob's car's check engine light has been on forever and in CA you can't get your car registered if it's on so he spent DAYS trying things to get it off. Finally he got it off just long enough to get it registered.
Jacob's residency orientation started June 18th and he started seeing patients on the 23rd. Every 4 weeks he'll be on a new rotation. His first one was "wards" which is one of the hardest. Morning Report is at 7 AM which means he has to be there with his charts done before that. Most days he didn't get home until 6-7 PM and at least once a week he had short call which means he was on until 8 but wasn't done with charts until at least 9. Once a week he also had clinic in the afternoon which meant he had to go back to the hospital afterward to finish his patients, which was always a late day. He got 4 days off the whole months, every other weekend. Needless to say, Addie and I hardly saw him and he was so tired.
Luckily, he started a new rotation the end of July and it has been great. ER at the VA. Twice a week he has the morning off then clinic in the afternoon. He always has the weekends off. He's usually home by 6:30 at the latest. It has been a nice change of pace! Good to know that not every single month of residency will be really hard.
Addie got hand, foot, and mouth early in July. It was awful. She didn't have the hand or feet rashes which was good but made it harder to identify. We went to the urgent care and they didn't know either. I finally figured it out by searching the internet. A week later we found out that the whole nursery had come down with it but nobody had thought to call us (and save us a trip to urgent care...) Addie went a whole week without using her binky because of the mouth sores (and subsequently not sleeping much) and I thought she might give it up for good. But then she found one and now I think she's more binky obsessed than ever. Oh boy!
Heidi and I have been having really great success with our business lately and that has kept me extremely busy. In just 2 months we've made it into the top 100 sellers of ALL TIME on the site we use and one of our products is currently the #8 most popular item on the whole site. It's been good to have that distraction while adjusting to the new place. I have a mother's helper who comes 2-3 times a week in the morning to hang out with Addie so I can work. She's a little younger than I wanted and sometimes Addie is too big of a handful for her but overall it's been good.
At the end of July we made a super quick trip to So Cal. We stopped in Santa Monica to visit my dear friend Emily and her family. We went to the In-N-Out at LAX where you can watch the planes land. Then we continued to San Diego to meet up with Jacob's sister Erin who was there on vacation with her little family. We met up with them at La Jolla Shores and enjoyed the evening there. It was actually pretty chilly (a nice change from Fresno weather.) Then we went to El Cajon (where Jacob's grandparents used to live) to go to this frozen yogurt shop that their Grandpa loved. It has a 30 minute line! The next morning we joined Erin's family at Singing Hills (a country club) to have breakfast with them and Grandma Bell and Jacob's aunt Lisa + her 2 adult children. Then we spent the rest of the day at the beach (a much quieter beach than La Jolla but it was actually an inlet so the views weren't as good.) Addie was in heaven at the beach! We took off mid afternoon to head home. It was a super quick trip but we're glad we got to go. It was really nice to get out of Fresno.
One of the things we've loved here in Clovis (when the weather was cool for a little while) is the Farmers Market.
At the beginning of June we were still in Utah and we'd just gotten our car back from the shop with it's "new" (used) transmission. ($$$) We left the evening of Sunday the 3rd to head home. We thought we'd drive all night but by about St. George Addie was so tired (it was about 11 PM) but couldn't get comfy to sleep in her chair. She fell asleep for about 45 minutes and woke up screaming mad. She screamed for about an hour straight and even managed to get her arms out of her seatbelt. Ugh. We gave up and stayed over at South Point in Las Vegas. (Stopping in Las Vegas and realizing all our friends were gone made me so sad!) Addie woke us up early the next morning so we just got right on the road and drove to Fresno. We got in around 1 in the afternoon. Jacob had brought in all the furniture and boxes but nothing was unpacked. (Wait, it's August and we're still not completely unpacked. Oops.)
Our new house is older, I think early 70s. We have 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a dining/living room, a "den" and a garage. And the back yard is pretty nice, besides the part of the grass that is dead from the previous tenants' above ground pool. We like the space but the house has some quirks. The kitchen and dining have new fake wood floors but the rest of the house is carpeted in hideous dark brown carpet. Every room has a different light fixture. The ceilings have a really ugly popcorn texture and the walls are textured too. The sink is tiny. The water stinks, literally (we still haven't figured this out yet, but we're not drinking it!) And our neighborhood is not our favorite. But we definitely got the biggest/nicest house possible for the really affordable price. Jacob constantly says we're going to move as soon as the lease is up though.
Our ward is nice but we haven't really clicked with anyone. It's mostly got families with older kids and lots of seniors. Nobody has really taken much effort to get to know us, including the Bishop who didn't even introduce himself till we'd been here 6 weeks. But I'm still trying to go to Relief Society activities and meet people. I'm hoping when the weather cools down a bit there might be a play group or something. On a positive note, Addie LOVES nursery.
June kept us busy doing lots of mundane tasks like registering the cars, getting new drivers licenses, changing the car insurance, setting up the utilities, etc. Jacob's car's check engine light has been on forever and in CA you can't get your car registered if it's on so he spent DAYS trying things to get it off. Finally he got it off just long enough to get it registered.
Jacob's residency orientation started June 18th and he started seeing patients on the 23rd. Every 4 weeks he'll be on a new rotation. His first one was "wards" which is one of the hardest. Morning Report is at 7 AM which means he has to be there with his charts done before that. Most days he didn't get home until 6-7 PM and at least once a week he had short call which means he was on until 8 but wasn't done with charts until at least 9. Once a week he also had clinic in the afternoon which meant he had to go back to the hospital afterward to finish his patients, which was always a late day. He got 4 days off the whole months, every other weekend. Needless to say, Addie and I hardly saw him and he was so tired.
Luckily, he started a new rotation the end of July and it has been great. ER at the VA. Twice a week he has the morning off then clinic in the afternoon. He always has the weekends off. He's usually home by 6:30 at the latest. It has been a nice change of pace! Good to know that not every single month of residency will be really hard.
Addie got hand, foot, and mouth early in July. It was awful. She didn't have the hand or feet rashes which was good but made it harder to identify. We went to the urgent care and they didn't know either. I finally figured it out by searching the internet. A week later we found out that the whole nursery had come down with it but nobody had thought to call us (and save us a trip to urgent care...) Addie went a whole week without using her binky because of the mouth sores (and subsequently not sleeping much) and I thought she might give it up for good. But then she found one and now I think she's more binky obsessed than ever. Oh boy!
Heidi and I have been having really great success with our business lately and that has kept me extremely busy. In just 2 months we've made it into the top 100 sellers of ALL TIME on the site we use and one of our products is currently the #8 most popular item on the whole site. It's been good to have that distraction while adjusting to the new place. I have a mother's helper who comes 2-3 times a week in the morning to hang out with Addie so I can work. She's a little younger than I wanted and sometimes Addie is too big of a handful for her but overall it's been good.
At the end of July we made a super quick trip to So Cal. We stopped in Santa Monica to visit my dear friend Emily and her family. We went to the In-N-Out at LAX where you can watch the planes land. Then we continued to San Diego to meet up with Jacob's sister Erin who was there on vacation with her little family. We met up with them at La Jolla Shores and enjoyed the evening there. It was actually pretty chilly (a nice change from Fresno weather.) Then we went to El Cajon (where Jacob's grandparents used to live) to go to this frozen yogurt shop that their Grandpa loved. It has a 30 minute line! The next morning we joined Erin's family at Singing Hills (a country club) to have breakfast with them and Grandma Bell and Jacob's aunt Lisa + her 2 adult children. Then we spent the rest of the day at the beach (a much quieter beach than La Jolla but it was actually an inlet so the views weren't as good.) Addie was in heaven at the beach! We took off mid afternoon to head home. It was a super quick trip but we're glad we got to go. It was really nice to get out of Fresno.
One of the things we've loved here in Clovis (when the weather was cool for a little while) is the Farmers Market.
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