Things Fall Apart

Does it seem to anyone else that everything falls apart at once?  Things can be sailing along beautifully and then WHAM!!  What the heck??  For instance, this is our life as of late:

-A few weeks ago Ryan calls home and says he is doing mandatory overtime at work.  When he is not working, he is helping get ready for scout camp and helping friends remodel their kitchen.  So he is basically never home.

-Last Thursday I go into the doctor to find out why I have been having extreme chest pain for three weeks at the time. After doing an EKG and a chest x-ray, they decide it might be Pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the sac around my heart.  They tell me to take ibuprofen and wait.  O.K.

-Saturday, as I am out shopping with a friend, I get a call that the tires on our 16 year old Saturn blew while Ryan was driving home from the library with the kids.  Yay, we get new tires!

-Monday morning I notice a strange grinding noise coming from the brakes on our Expedition.  Yay, we need new brakes!  But WHEN am I supposed to have time to do that, because this week is day camp?!

-Wednesday, my chest pain isn't any better, but it is worse.  A friend offers to watch the kids while I go back to the doctor.  They give me stronger medicine and hook me up with a cardiologist.

-Wednesday night--Lincoln is up all night long with a high fever and vomiting.

And I might mention that we have a lot going on right now.

-My triathlon is on Saturday. I have been training for it for seven months.  No, I did not mention it to the chest pain doctor.  I felt like she had enough on her plate.

-Ryan and Isaac are going to scout camp on Monday.  Same day as my appointment with the cardiologist to get an echocardiogram and hopefully find out that there is no fluid around my heart.

-We are supposed to drive to Utah on Wednesday.

Really, there is just never a convenient time to have car problems, sick kids, or random heart disease.

On the flip side, Day Camp was a blast this year!  All four sessions were so much fun!

A Wonderful Blast from the Past

A few years ago or so, I was a crazy college student who was lucky enough to have some of the most awesome roommates ever.  We were a tight-knit little group and we did everything together.  We were all far from home and quickly became each other's family. We were together through thick and thin.  Our junior year came and we met a fun guy named Steve who started hanging around our apartment.  A lot.  One thing led to another and our dear friend Steve married our dear friend Micah.  I remember I was so happy when they got engaged because that meant I would get to see Steve again in the future.  Because I knew OF COURSE I would see Micah again--probably like ALL THE TIME, because we were THAT close and that is how my 20 year old brain thought things would be.  The rest of us eventually got married as well and we all went our separate ways--some to Missouri, some to Colorado, some to Kuwait.  No, seriously.  

Micah and Steve have been living in KUWAIT for the past two years because Steve is a super secret spy works for the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer.  KUWAIT.  Do you know it gets to be 135 degrees there?!  And I thought we were having a hot summer!!  Well, when your dear old college roommate/BFF/practically a sister lives in the Middle East, the chances of a quick visit to reminisce about old times is pretty much non-existent. 

But, thanks to the blessed State Department, and all of us taxpayers, Steve, Micah and their six children got to come home this summer for some R&R and we were so excited that they had some time in their schedule to make a stop in Denver!!!!

We didn't have much time with them, but it was so much fun to see them again.  Ryan has only met them twice and we haven't seen them since Isaac was a baby.  The kids all got along so well and we had such a wonderful time remembering how stupid we once were (although we discovered that Micah has a seriously selective memory!!)

How about a trip down memory lane? (Yes I own a scanner, but I do not know how to use it.  So pardon my pictures of pictures.)

Me, Micah and Steve

The year we made our own Thanksgiving dinner--and no one got food poisoning!

Me, Steve, Micah, Heidi and Ethan (on our laps)

Micah and Heidi with their future husbands...me with someone I have no recollection of.

What a happy day when two of my favorite people got married to each other and I got to be the bridesmaid.

So, Micah and I can go from this....

 

to this...

in a mere 17 years or so.

I'm not sure we have really changed all that much.

We used to always talk about how someday we would come back to BYU to drop our own kids off for college and we would meet up at our favorite Wendy's and chat.  Well, the girls have already met Abigail, their future roommate!

Thank you so much for coming, you guys!!  I love you!!

Fourth Festivities, part two

After breakfast we loaded up the car and drove up to Loveland for the day to celebrate with our dear friends.  We started off with a hike in the mountains near their home.

After our hike, we cleaned up and went over to Grammie's house for a BBQ.  (Not our Grammie, theirs, but we liked her too!)  We had a wonderful evening with the Crockett, German and Rehme families.



We loved the tree swing...

 



the parachute...

 


the snazzy food and beverages...

the

 the stimulating conversation...

 

and the house!!!  Oh, don't get me started on this incredible house!  Built in 1887!!!  It was like I had died and gone to heaven when I got to look through it!  There is even a HIDDEN staircase!!!!!  I could have interrogated Kayla's mom for hours about that house, but after our dessert of homemade ice cream, we really did have to be getting off to see the fireworks.

I didn't get any pictures of the fireworks--but they were awesome!  We were just lucky we got to see some; most of the fireworks in the state were cancelled due to the fires and dangerous conditions.
We got home LATE and have been paying the price, but I'd say it was worth it!!!

A Fabulous Fourth--morning edition

We started out the day bright and early with breakfast at the church.  Ryan was in charge of it because the Stohl's conveniently left town over the 4th.  :)  It went off without a hitch--the flag ceremony started precisely at 8:00 am and then we ate--the food was hot, ready and plentiful.  This is the way a church activity should be!!!

Reddi-Whip, anyone?

After the breakfast, the kids jumped on their bikes that we had tricked out with Fourth of July Bling and did a fun bike parade.

How is it possible?

This little guy

is ELEVEN?!

Another weekend, another camping trip

We took our annual trip to Cherry Creek State Park last weekend, and as always, had a wonderful time!  I LOVE our little oasis in the city--beautiful, clean bathrooms with toilets that flush and sinks that work, nice, secluded campsites, close proximity to the beach, hiking and biking, very short driving time and most importantly--NO BEARS!!!!!!

Family time.

Yes, folks, all of this...

came from this...