Brock goes to Disney World

The very day that I had my knee surgery (February 16) Brock left for Disney World for a school trip with the school band, orchestra and choir.  This trip was almost a year and a half in the making, he earned all the money (1800 dollars) and was so excited!  He had to leave our house at 3 in the morning!  

I obviously wasn't there, so I don't have much to say about it, but below are a lot of pictures.  He mostly hung out with his best friend, Cameron and then Audra Marriott (from our ward, her mom, Christina, also went and helped  them a lot) and their band friend Jason Rupp.  He told me he loved it and it was worth the money.

They had to wake up at 3 am in Florida to catch their flight home.  Tired kids!

 

Knee Surgery

Back in October I woke up with some slight knee pain.  After some "walking it off" and stretching it didn't seem to go away.  It wasn't terribly bothersome and I didn't remember hurting it, so I ignored it and went along with my life.  I mentioned it to Jason after 2 weeks or so and wondered if "this was my new life".  It wasn't enough to go to the doctor (maybe a 2 out of 10), but if something was wrong I didn't want to make it worse by not addressing it.  This continued for about 2 months, at my "well check" in December for my birthday I mentioned it to my primary care doctor and she didn't seem too concerned.  Well... about a week later I woke up and my pain had shot from a 2 to an 8!  I made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to see what was wrong.

3 doctors, an x-ray, and an MRI later we found out I tore my meniscus.  I don't know how, but I did.  We decided to go straight for surgery since our insurance was good, and late winter/early spring is a good time in our family for me to "heal", as it is our slowest time of the year.  The real bummer was having to cancel our family spring break trip to Moab.  

The surgery was weird, they thought they could "repair" it, which is a more invasive surgery, so I needed to plan on "being down" for 6 weeks, but once they were in there t hey could only remove it which carried only a 2 week recovery.  But as so many surgeries go I wasn't really "close to normal" until about 8 weeks, and as I sit here, 12 weeks out, things still aren't normal.  There have been a ton of spiritual lessons I have learned and am trying to learn, but honestly they have been hard and deep.  It has struck to the very center of some of my largest weaknesses.  But I am trying hard to learn the lessons and live them.  

My mom came out and helped for a week.  That was so great!  She did so many wonderful things, but I wasn't around to take any pictures of them!!  I guess that shows how much she did, I hardly came out of my room.  But she was a "mom" to 6 children for almost a whole week.  She really did do almost everything.  Dane and Eve were in heaven and loved every minute of it!

Jason really did take over for almost 6 weeks.  It was amazing.  Those 6 weeks were really hard for him professionally, personally, and spiritually - seperate from my surgery, so to add this on top of his already difficult challenges seemed large, but he stepped up (as he always does) and did what needed to get done.

The babies were good to allow me to slowly ease back into it.  Just like when I am pregnant or just have a baby they understood that they needed to be gentle with me and that I couldn't help them with everything.

This is us for our first outing post surgery - it was mid March.  We were all so happy!

 

Trek

They boys went on Trek this summer.  Again, I was so sad not to be asked to go.  This was a humbling summer for me.  But I was so excited for them.  They were pretty excited but they had no idea what was really in store for them.  But when I picked them up they were adorable.  They said it was the most spiritual experience of their life.  The best thing they had done in their life.  10 out of 10.  haha. 

There are a few comments from each one below.

i was scared at first but as it went on i love it more everyday - B

It was nice to see so many people who would like to live like that, I know that it is a good thing to know what the pioneers went through. -B

i was really nervous at first. (i will add more later 

every day we would huddle in front of a empty space in the grass. this was our makeshift auditorium. they had speakers and stuff set up so we could hear them. they would then teach us how to dance, they would give us a spiritual lesson, and we would sing. they would do this every morning and evening. it was a lot of fun.

this was my family. they were awesome. i was the youngest in the group by about a year, but they still treated me with kindness. we were all like a family. 

that is Penn Smith. you might not know this but that is me in the background. i picked out a hat that has a face guard. it was amazing. it kept the wind and sand out, and it looked absolutely the best. everyone thought it was weird and to say i didn't care was untrue.

My friends. 

We could still see them but it nice to meet new people. -B

The ward picture at the end was great though the sun was in our eyes . but we where like one big family. -B

I don't want to forget my trek family, they were great to me and we all liked each other. (though some people got better family.) they where all great, i was even blessed with some one i knew in my family. -B

in the end i is a thing i will never forget the lesson and the fun and the food. thank you to all the people who try to put on trek for everyone that can do it. -B
 

ok - I can't get Noah to write about Trek.  So here is what he told me and what I know.  He loved trek.  One of the best things he ever did.  His "ma and pa" were the Murri's (from our ward), but he didn't know anyone else in his "family".  He was by far the youngest and felt really out of place.  He felt like they didn't really see him as equals, but as the week wore on that changed and they became some of his dearest friends.  They became a really close family.  Andrea told me that he saw Noah and one of the older sniors have some "big" conversations and that Noah was asking him for life advice and he was giving it.  One of the boys was one of the most popular boys at Vista High School and Brock was pretty jealous that he and Noah were "friends" now.   

Braces and Glasses

When I started blogging it seemed that I needed and did document every detail and milestone of our lives, I still desired to capture that, but with so many kids in so many different ages it is hard to remember to do so, and I have learned that the best part of my blog is capturing the seemingly ordinary and mundane things. However that has given way to leaving out life events that should be documented.  

For example, I don't think I ever even did a post about the boys getting braces.  So here is that post.  The boys got braces.  I don't really believe in braces, unless you look terrible, neither of them did.  So Jason took over and did the braces thing.  Not because I refused to do them, but because I couldn't really care about what the orthodontist was saying.  They both tolerated getting braces on well.  Not much complaining.  

As the years wore on we discovered a few things about ourselves.  1 - we don't follow rules very well.  We/they didn't change their diet at all, still ate gum, popcorn, and sticky candy.  2 - Noah did very well.  While he still ate what he was supposed to he wore his rubber bands correctly and is still wearing his retainer correctly and always told me when he broke a bracket.  3 - Brock did not do so well.  He never wore his rubber bands or retainers and didn't even notice when he broke a bracket.

4 - We eventually had the ortho take their braces off even before they were "done".  We learned they would never really be "done" and it really wasn't worth it.

So... here is the post for getting their braces off.  This is the before picture (that I asked Jason to take), and I never took an after picture.   

And for another milestone post I forgot.

Eve got glasses!

My friend Kayleen said to me one day "are her eyes going crossed?" and with that I called the eye doctor and made an appointment immediately.  I had been through this with Megan and I didn't call quick enough, I know not to make the same mistake.  We went to the eye doctor and sure enough she needed glasses.  She is not nearly as bad as Megan was/is.  I am not 100% sure what her future with glasses will be (and neither do the doctors).  She will need eye surgery to fix the crossing, after that she may or may not need glasses.  

It took about 2 or 3 months for Eve to take her glasses seriously.  Because she didn't really "need" them, she didn't see them benefit.  She either didn't want to put them on or took them off every 10 seconds.  I was constantly going back to stores, parks, and homes to find her glasses.  But we are pretty good now, she takes them off about 2 times a day, but only at the house and she usually always knows where she put them.