the boys

It's really hard to get pictures of both the boys. Inevitably one will be looking away or moving too fast or screaming at the other one for whatever reason. I tried and tried to get pictures of them. No success. So I waited until they were just hanging out. Mason is playing on the iPod; Eli is playing with my lens cap. You can see about half of each of their faces. Close enough.

Also, I love toes. 


I

Sympathy Pains

I am way WAY behind on writing. Life has been full. Full of fun. Full of family. Full of activities. But it's looking like I'll have some extra down time...

My dad had surgery this past week. It wasn't another big scary one, just a small scary follow up one. At work on Friday my stomach hurt a little and I joked to my co worker that I was having sympathy pains for my dad. By the time I was loading bags on the plane I knew something was really wrong. As soon as the plane was off so was I. I limped to my car and drove to Kristi's to pick up Eli. Jase and Mason were up the canyon on a Fathers and Sons campout. I couldn't get off the couch. Something made me laugh. Laughing made me cry. Finally, I decided to go home. Kristi had to put Eli in the car for me. Driving was only bad when I had to move my foot, and since I was driving the manual Ford, it was a lot.

The rest of the evening is a blur of really bad pain, calling Jason a lot even though I knew he didn't get reception, and various people advising what to do. I packed for the hospital and then decided not to go. Mom and Lisa offered a world of help but I decided I simply wanted to go to bed. Eli got up once that night. It was really hard to take care of him.

I spy my awesome dual side traction socks.

Saturday was quite the day. I woke up and the crazy pain gone but my right side felt like I had been kicked by a horse. Jason came home early from camp out with more good news. Mason had been sick and was throwing up. I felt better but realized better wasn't good enough. Jason took care of the kids and I went to the hospital. Lisa showed up to keep me company while they ran tests. Everything looked normal so when they said hurry and get into a gown the surgeon is ready to go I was really shocked. Lisa went to the kids, Jason came to me, and I went to surgery.

According to the surgeon my appendix was 2-4 hours from bursting.

Now I'm laid up, Mason is still sick, Eli won't sleep, and Jason is taking care of all of us. I still can't stand up straight but the pain is much different. The pain meds help the pain but make me sick and I have bad headaches so I'm not taking them anymore. Family help a ton. But I can't hold any of my boys and that is probably the hardest part.

for the record

Although I write about most of our adventures on Mason's site I thought I would include a few pictures of our summer. Then I realized I'm the one who takes the pictures so I'm not going to be in many of them. I found these two, one of the Gator Farm and one at Pensacola Beach.

So, for the record, I was here.

if YOU could hie to Kolob...

The day Jason left was a sad, dreary day. After a few hours of moping around the house, I realized I needed to change my attitude or else this would be a very long separation.
I said to myself, "Self, Buck up! What would make you feel a lot better?"
To which I responded, "An adventure of course!" We invited Mason to join us and headed out.



The weather was windy (as always) but it was Free National Park Week and we all know how much I love a good deal. It was too appealing not to go to Kolob. We walked the scenic Timber Creek trail. Mason road on my shoulders on the way there (when did he get so heavy?) and explored EVERY rock on the way back.

Many years ago I started taking pictures of my feet when I went somewhere new and exciting. I call them Foot Prints. When I get around to it I'll post my foot prints from Connecticut, New Zealand, Mexico, and Hawaii. I've taken some fun shots, but I think this is the most special foot print I've ever taken. It's easy to see why.

For more of just Mason, click here.