First Day of School

On Monday of this week, we got to go meet Clara's teacher for the new school year.  She seemed super nice and Clara was excited for the first day of school after having met her teacher.

Tuesday was our little Jack's MRI.  We had to be at the hospital at 6 am.  Jack needed to be sedated for the MRI since there is no way he would hold still long enough to get the pictures they needed.  Since he had to be sedated, he had to be fasting for 4 hours, so this little guy was fairly  hungry, but he wasn't too fussy.  Here he right before we went back.  He had is IV in already!

They said the MRI should take an hour to an hour and a half.  Two and a half hours later, they FINALLY called us back.  I guess Jack was so hungry, he kept waking up, so they had some troubles getting him to lay still.  It nearly brought me to tears to see him hooked up to all the machines again.

But even being heavily sedated, he kept his oxygen levels up!  I didn't realize how hard having oxygen was until I was able to not have it for a full week!  It's been so easy to go places. 
Jeremy took the day off for the MRI, so we decided that since it was Clara's last day of summer, we would do something fun.  So we headed to the local splash pad.

We were only there about 20 minutes before the kids were freezing. They tried to lay on the warm cement, but Clara informed me it wasn't warm enough.  So we went home and played some Wii games as a family.

We found out that night that Jackson's MRI was normal.  So we have no more oxygen AND no more specialists! Hurray for being done with that chapter of our lives!

School started on Wednesday.  We were up bright and early, but we were ready and had time to take a few pics before she needed to get on the bus.  Here is my beautiful Clara on her first day of 2nd grade.

And last but not least, Jack likes to pretend he's a big boy now and sit in the big kid's chair.

Fabulous Friday

This past Friday truly was a day of wonderful accomplishments.  We started the morning bright and early by attending my brother's graduation.  He graduated from BYU with his PhD in Physics.  He gets to teach at BYUI this fall.  I am so proud of him!

Here he is with his amazing family:

Matt with our very proud Mom:

And last, but not least, with my family:

Also on Friday, our little Jack turned 5 months old.  I can't believe half of a year has almost gone by since this little cutie came into our lives. 
The last wonderful thing that happened of Friday is that we got the phone call we've been waiting 5 months for: Jack no longer  has to be on oxygen!!!!!

There is a part of me that is still in shock.  I find myself still leaving enough time to switch out oxygen tanks before we have to leave.  Or I find myself searching for the tubing when I go to walk downstairs.  I feel like I'm forgetting something every time we leave because I don't have nearly the amount of things to carry as I usually do.  But oh how I'm loving my new sense of freedom!

Other things about this week (even though they didn't happen on Friday.)  We found some extra money this week so we took our kids out to eat, something we hadn't done in a very long time.  They were thrilled to get King Julein crowns from Wendy's!

And of course, they had to try it on Jack Jack

Also this week, Jeremy and I were able to cash in on a prize that Jeremy won from the radio station.  We got most of our gas paid for, the hotel room paid for, and a Rod Stewart concert paid for all by Z103!  We left Saturday morning, checked into the Ceazar's Palace in Vegas, attended the concert that night, then left early Sunday morning to come home.  It was a very quick get a way, but one that I will remember.

This last week was such a great one, I'm very sad to have it over.

Beck Reunion

Jeremy and I were in charge of his family reunion this year.  We had been to Rockport State park before and were really looking forward to camping there this year.  However, the weather decided to not cooperate with that plan.  So we camped the first night at Rockport.
Since we knew the rain was coming, we decided to play in the water Thursday night instead of on Friday.

We then ate a very late dinner, played games, and just enjoyed being gathered in one spot.

The rain wasn't supposed to come until 10ish on Friday morning, but I woke up at 6:30 to the sound of rain drops.  We hurried and got our tent put away and then Jeremy helped everyone else with their tents as I stayed dry under the pavilion.  It was supposed to rain off and on all day long and have lightning and thundershowers as well.  We decided not only would it not be safe to be out in a thunderstorm, but it would also be wet and cold for our little kids (and me!)  So we left after breakfast and met up at our house for lunch.  On our way out of the campground, we saw some deer right by the side of the road.  We had been seeing deer on and off as we camped, but the kids loved seeing them up close!

We spend the entire rest of Friday at our house.  I was grateful that everyone was so willing to change plans around to accommodate the weather.  We had crafts, played games, and even enjoyed being outside when the rain let up a little.

We ended Friday night with a talent show.  I used to dread these until I realized that some kids actually do like performing in front of people.  I loved seeing all the variety of talents our family has.  We had singing, dancing, story reading, art, piano playing, and even some scooter skills!

Saturday we met for breakfast and Dave and Melissa's and then headed to a nearby park for some outdoor fun.  We played 500, frisbee, flied a kite, blew some bubbles, played on playground equipment and then enjoyed the splash pad when it got hot.

Now I get to spend today cleaning up from our wonderful weekend!  Here is Joe just chilling in our grass as Jeremy and I set up our tent to let it dry out. I had found him a few times like this at the park.  When I asked him what he was doing he said, "I'm just resting."

Two Buck Tuesdays

I decided to take atvantage of Thanksgiving Point's Two Buck Tuesdays.  Every Tuesday in August Thanksgiving point reduces all their entry fees to $2.  Usually it's pretty packed, so I was grateful that it wasn't too bad at the dinosaur museum. Joseph had never been before, and Clara was 4 the last time she went.  It was great fun to watch them enjoy it.

My little Joseph hates getting dirty, so he stood with his hands in the air rather than playing in the water/sand activity.

When it came time to dig up your own fossils, he watched Clara do it for 20 minutes before he finally decided he was bored enough to get dirty.  But even then, he only took one step into the sand pit.

And here is another picture courtesy of Clara. She dressed Jack up and took the picture.

I love how fascinated he was with the wand.

McCleve Reunion

Jeremy's Mom had her family reunion this last week.  It's always a big one since she comes from a family of 10 children.  This year we got to go see different sites around Salt Lake City.  We spent a lot of time with our immediate family to begin with, but got to visit with extended family that evening and the next day.
The first site we visited was a place called Gilgal Garden.

I had to put this picture up since it shows the address.  It's the most random place surrounded by several homes in downtown Salt Lake City.  But it was definitely worth checking out once. It had quite a few stone statues including one of Joseph Smith as a Sphinx.

I'll only post one more picture of the artwork there because some of it is just a little too creepy/just plain odd for me to post about it.  (And that way you'll want to go see it for yourself!)

After we saw Gilgal Garden, we headed over to the Daughters of the Utah Pioneer museum.  I had never been there before either, and I LOVED it.  It has the wagon that Brigham Young used to cross the plains, it had the wooden leg of John Moyle.  John Moyle is the man who walked from Alpine to Salt Lake City every week to work on the Salt Lake Temple.  It had several of Brigham Young's things along with other very interesting pioneer artifacts.

Here is a house made entirely out of sugar.

And here is an old fashioned fire engine.

From there we enjoyed a picnic lunch on the lawn of the DUP museum. Jack was loving just laying out and looking at the trees.

After the DUP and lunch, we headed over to Temple Square.  We spend most of our time in the Joseph Smith Memorial building at the family history center.

The kids loved playing with the kids activities they have there.

We then headed over to a stake center in West Valley were the rest of the reunion took place.  The stake center not only had a pavaillion full of picnic tables and a huge grassy area, they also had playground equipment the kids could play on.  It was overall a great reunion.  Our kids didn't want to leave when it was time to go home.