We had a nice time celebrating Father's Day with Greg. He didn't get much down-time but he was happy with our gifts; gum and a new battery for his leaf blower.
He also got this cool hat from the Hispanic guys that work for the city in the summer.
Charlie got to go to Boondocks for her friend, Sarah's birthday and she had a blast.
And Mark is healing nicely. He's down to just three bandages and feeling nearly 100% better.
The top is the most recent, June 23 and the bottom photos are from May 31st.
It's been a fairly quiet week minus a late night call from Isaac who was pulled over for going 112 on the highway! These kids are going to be the death of me! That's the third Tuesday in a month that involved a call I wasn't happy to get. Thankfully the highway patrol officer was cool and only made Isaac call his dad instead of giving him a ticket and impounding his car. I don't know if he thought we'd be harder on him then he could be but he did mention he didn't feel Greg should be punished and since his info is attached to Isaac's car it might have caused him some unwarranted hassle so he let us decide what to do with Isaac. Lucky for Isaac he doesn't have a record with the law (yet) and he's lucky it didn't involve anyone or anything worse. And I really hope he learned a lesson!
Next week I get to go to Moab for girls camp with the young women in our ward, which should be fun. And hopefully the kids survive without me for a few days.
It's been a nice week and thankfully only positive things happened. We had a fun tent city but honestly it wasn't a 'city' just a 'tent' but still fun. We had a great turn out for Sunday ice cream and I realized I could capture a perfect view of the fun from our outdoor camera and even thought the quality isn't the greatest it does give a better view.
Charlie and her buddy Kat with cute Beau Ray.
Kayli has some crafting skills and kindly made me this wreath for the front door. I love it!
Our balloon buddy came back to visit the neighborhood Saturday morning. This time he went behind our house.
Tent city breakfast was a win.
Aunt Ninin snuggling cute baby Harley.
Greg and Josh bravely took Charlie, McClane and their cousins J.J. and Lexi on a hike after breakfast. They didn't get as far as they might have hoped but they had fun and even found a little friend along the trail.
Four kids under the age of 10 are more interested in exploring then getting to their destination.
Horsetail Falls trail is an adventure even without making it to the falls.
McClane and his new little friend.
Charlie likes to document things.
Charlie also likes posing for photos especially when she's got something new to wear.
I finally caught Isaac with his new niece, Harley.
And here's a great view of what Sunday ice cream 'socials' look like on a nice, warm Sunday evening.
I think this gives a great glimpse of why Sundays and homemade ice cream have become so special for us.
Mark is still healing nicely and we're hoping to get some great before and after photos that the wound care clinic took at his visits each week so we can see the true miracle of his healing process. As of now he's only wearing three bandages total and is feeling confident those will be gone soon.
Work has gotten quite stressful for Greg and he's already had a gutful and it's only the middle of June. Some rain in the forecast would be helpful but I don't see that happening anytime soon. The rest of us are just keeping our heads down and trying not to add to Greg's stress and trying to enjoy our summer break.
We've had a simpler week but also some fun stuff. Our weekend started with an awesome hot air balloon floating very near the house. We got to see baby Harley snoozing at the park and I even caught my two boys at work. The two youngest had a blast putting together another fun Kiwi Co. project or two and of course we've been watching Mark's healing process, which is going along quite nicely. It's helpful that he's young and relatively healthy.
I love seeing hot air balloons and this one nearly landed in our neighborhood.
She looks pretty cozy and relaxed.
Now this is a style choice not everyone can pull off.
The top photos are the most recent and the bottom photos were taken six days prior. He's definitely healing but it's still pretty gross!
Caught Carter working the other morning while I was out on my morning walk.
Isaac was also 'hard at work' along side Carter.
McClane and Charlie are loving these Kiwi Co projects and thankfully McClane can do them without much help.
On to the wooden crane. To say he's proud of these projects is an understatement. This crane went everywhere with him.
We're looking forward to tent city this weekend and maybe I'll get a photo or two to post for next week. I'm sure it'll be a fun time.
We started our week off with a fun neighborhood breakfast for Memorial Day.
Good food and great friends!
Our wounded boy is healing quickly and here's a few photos of his wounds after a week of healing. They look even better then this today but these are the most recent photos I've taken. He's moving a little better, he's no longer needing daily bandage changes and he starts a new job on Monday so he's nearly back to normal function and hopefully he'll be fully healed soon but there's no doubt he's going to have some gnarly scars on his knee and shoulders.
Yuck!
And despite Mark's injuries I'm still partial to motorcycle rides.
The poppies are in full bloom and Greg captured this great photo the other day while he was driving around doing his work duties.
Blooms in random places.
Charlie got to spend the day with her buddies and made her second trek up to the Y. She's done this hike twice and not a single other member of our family has done it even once. Lucky girl!
She's a little go-getter!
Our ward had a really fun youth conference this week and today we made a small trek (all down hill) to the Draper Temple, which was really cool. There's been fun activities centered around history/ancestors and temple work and I've just been along for the ride and had a great time connecting with a lot of great youth in our ward. We love where we live!
Our bishop captured this great photo along the trail today.
Brock's cool hat was designed by our bishop, It stands for Mountainville 2nd ward and the back says Zion but with a 2 for the Z. Cool hats and all the youth and leaders got one!
And I'm cool with a selfie.
And can these two girls be any sweeter?!
Too precious!
We had Beau visit for a few hours and we wore her out. She couldn't keep her eyes open and it didn't take much convincing to have her lay down and watch a show.
Two minutes and she was out!
We've had a great week! Our first full week of summer was a success and we're looking forward to a lot more fun and freedom!
The week started out well, everything was going great, Carter got a much needed haircut, we got to spend some time cuddling baby Harley and Charlie enjoyed spending some time with her good buddy JT at his first communion ceremony. We even had the promise of graduation for Isaac and the final few days of school to enjoy. Sadly the whole week wasn't great, but lets start with a few positive photos before we get to the bad part of the week.
Carter, no question, is handsome and with short hair, beyond handsome!
Baby Harley is so sweet!
Harley even made her way to her first Sunday ice cream making session.
She was even awake for part of the night.
Auntie Charlie getting some Harley snuggles.
Charlie with buddies JT and Julius at JT's 'first communion' ceremony.
Who wore it best? Beau was a month old before this outfit fit her and Harley's only a week and a half. Both adorable!
Despite our crazy week we were still able to get to Lone Peaks graduation ceremony May 27th and celebrate Isaac graduating high school!
Isaac and his good buddy, Tyler.
Congrats to our handsome 18 year old!
Graduation was held at the Rio Tinto stadium, which was pretty cool.
All the 'in-person' supporters.
And DONE!
Here's a quick video of Isaac's name being read at graduation.
So on to the worst part of our week, Mark crashing his newly acquired BMW motorcycle! Let me just preface this tragedy with just a few of the miracles and tender mercies that occurred despite the trauma of the actual event. First and foremost, Mark, at least, had the wherewithal to wear his helmet even if the rest of his attire wasn't so smart, muscle shirt specifically! Also, there's no question that angels were in attendance because from his injuries it's crazy that he doesn't have even one broken bone or worse! I won't share the photos of his physical injuries he sustained, those might be a little too personal to share here on this public blog, but I will share a photo and video of his motorcycle and helmet. Lets just say he has a fair amount of road rash and needs a vat of Silver cream to slather over his injuries. That helmet will stay around as a reminder of how vital that piece of safety equipment actually is! Another miracle was how we found out about his accident. Because he's 21 the first responders are not required to notify parents/family so we would have never known about this accident if Greg hadn't had the thought/prompting to check Mark's location on the life 360 app. When he saw Mark was at a hospital he reached out immediately to Mark and thankfully got him on the phone right away and was able to talk with the ER nurse and get the low down on his condition and was relieved to hear he was actually pretty well off and able to be released that same night. Of course we made our way down to the ER right away. Seeing him lying in the bed all bloody and scraped up was a bit overwhelming but we were just both so happy he was alive!
Apparently he and his buddy thought it was a great idea to go on a ride around Utah lake and unfortunately they came up on a pretty share curve that Mark wasn't prepared for and going anywhere between 60 to 75 miles per hour he left the asphalt and tumbled/slid across the dirt and gravel. He definitely suffered a concussion and has some pretty sore muscles but I'm sure it won't be long before he can walk and move a little more easily. Sadly the bike wasn't registered or insured so there's no one but Mark to pay for this accident and what those costs might be are still a mystery for now. Lets just hope he can get back to full function soon so he can get back to working and earning money.
The front of the bike and his helmet definitely took the brunt of the impact.
The other little miracle was finding out our friend's towing company was the one that picked up the bike so we didn't have to search far and wide to find out where it was towed. It wasn't a cheap tow but it could have been way worse and now we know it's totaled and can walk away not wondering what shape it really was in. I'm also glad we could get our hands on the helmet. That's probably the best gift we've ever bought Mark! Here's a short video of Mark's bike from back to front, side to side. So glad he survived this accident and lets hope he's learned some valuable lessons from this experience. Between the scrubbing of his wounds and the frequent bandage changes, life for him is going to be rough for awhile!
There's more tender mercies I could go into but I've already gone on too long. Mostly this post is more for future reference then anything else. If you've gotten to this point, just know that we are very aware of who's watching over all of us on a regular basis and we could not be more grateful! Now on to a great summer break!
