August 30, 2011

Sean was gone at a Scout Training camp out for the whole weekend. He got home Sunday night. The kids were excitedly running out to the garage to meet him. Megan ran out and slipped or tripped and fell and hit her face right on our brick hearth. I ran out to help her and noticed blood running down her face. She had a good gash on the side of her eye. We checked it out, stopped the bleeding (it actually stopped pretty quick) and tried to console her while we made arrangements for the other kids so we could take her to the ER. She cried/screamed during this time. We headed down there, but by the time we got there she was doing much better, it wasn't bleeding anymore, she wasn't showing any signs of head trauma, etc. So we called Nurse Lindsay (Sean's sister) and talked to her about it. We decided to wait until Monday morning to call doctors, check out the wound again and then go to the Urgent Care if needed. She slept with us that night (so we could check up on her every so often during the night). The next day there was a good covering over the wound. I called the doctor and then the Urgent Care and asked them about it (they said the stitches would mostly be to help minimize the scarring). After getting all the opinions we decided to just butterfly it up ourselves and see how it heals. So she might end up with a little "character mark" (scar), but so far it's really been healing up well. She keeps wanting to take the bandaid off, but she's been good to listen and leave it alone. She also got a good scrape down the bridge of her nose and a few little ones on the side of her nose. Today her eye was swollen up. Poor thing - looks worse than it is. She's a trooper and is feeling great.

Aug 15, 2011

We did one final summer adventure (actually one of our only two trips this summer). And it all started with a blessing in disguise. I drove with the kids to Arizona to visit Grandpa and Grandma Dick. We were planning on me taking the Suburban. It gets a little better gas mileage than the van, and with gas guzzlers like ours every little bit counts. Two days before we were supposed to leave the air conditioning went completely out on the Suburban. Since I was driving through the dessert in the dead of summer we changed plans and I took the van. No one ever likes when something goes wrong on their car, but we were lucky with this one. I made it to Casa Grande with no problems (and we drove through three intense rain storms, which were kind of fun). The very next day Sean called and told me that the Suburban had broken down on him. He knew what the problem was right away was able to get it fixed with no trouble the next day (his boss let him use the company truck for the night). If I had taken the Suburban, however, it probably would have broken down somewhere along the way leaving me stranded with 4 kiddos in the dessert. Plus, then I would have had to have it towed and taken it to a shop to get it fixed (which always costs at least three times more). So who would have guessed a broken air conditioner would have really ended up being a blessing in disguise. Anyway, we had a great time in AZ: mostly swimming....because really what else can you do when it's 110 degrees outside. Megan learned how to swim under water and Nathan went from clinging on to me for dear life in the pool, to jumping off the edge with floaties on and wanting to do it over and over and over again. We also got some dental work done while we were there - just cleanings and check-ups and such. We saw Kung Fu Panda 2, which was super cute. After 4 days there I drove to Murrieta, CA to visit the Sorensen clan. We had lots of water fun there too. We went to Wild Rivers. Caelan and Ben wanted to go on any slide they could. I mostly hung out in the Kiddie areas with Nathan and Megan (I'm a little too big and pregnant to go down water slides). They all loved it. We also took a trip to the beach. Megan went out in the water, but never too far. She mostly liked to run out and then run back in before the wave caught up to her. She also had fun digging for sand crabs (and there were LOTS of sand crabs). We played in the water and sand and later had a fire and roasted hot dogs and yummy banana treats. Grandpa Sorensen made an awesome fort with the kids which was able to withstand most of the waves that came up on it. The kids played in the slip-n-slide in the front yard one day and went swimming in a neighbors pool another day. Dad and I went to the temple for the sealing of a friend. We got home
late Monday night.