The Silly Willies: August 2009

School starts in exactly one week. I am SOOO looking forward to a nice regular school schedule and, hopefully, less fighting amongst the siblings.

We have had a packed summer and lots of family time. We had intended to go to Oregon to visit my parents and spend a few days at the beach, but Parker broke his arm pretty badly right before we were to go, and the doctors told Parker his summer was officially over. No swimming, no skateboarding, no rollerblading, no bike riding, etc etc... The only activities allowed were reading, video games, and t.v. watching. It was hard to spend so much money on a trip that would require a lot of time in a lawn chair for Parker, so we postponed our trip to next year. Besides, I had a lovely trip to the ER myself for a gallbladder attack. I meet with doctors about that next week...I might be having surgery for that in the near future....we'll see.

Here's Parker's cast. He broke both bones right above his wrist. He was riding his rip-stick when he broke it...he had gotten his rip-stick for his 9th birthday from us back in June. He is actually a very good rip-stick rider. I've even taken him to a near-by skate park. But, just an unlucky fall that day. He'll have this long-arm cast on for another 10 days, then he'll get another short-arm cast for a couple more weeks. It was a pretty serious break...I'm looking forward to getting the bill from the on-call Orthepedic Surgeon:) Luckily, he's left-handed.

A good chunk of our summer was spent with Rob's family. His sister was expecting a little girl with a congenital heart defect, and we spent a bit of our summer preparing, and wanting to support her family thru the upcoming birth and life of their daughter. As most know we have also lost a young daughter to a serious birth/brain defect, so we knew what it could be like to have an unhealthy baby and some of the trials that come with that. We were blessed to enjoy our young niece, Merideth, for a few days, and we took our family to visit her and spend time with her and her family.

Garrison with Grandma and Merideth.

Addison, Parker, and Merideth.

Me holding Merideth

Rob with Merideth

We all enjoyed being able to spend time with her during her 9 days here on Earth. I also have to say, that although it was difficult at times because Merideth's circumstances were so close to our own when we lost Paige, it was a real blessing to feel able to give support and love to someone else. We had felt such love and support from our family and friends during our time with Paige, and it was nice to be able to turn around and give what we once received. In some ways it was healing for us. Like being able to hold Merideth and pass her around and truly enjoy spending time with her, something we really couldn't do with Paige because of her health issues, and also being able to be a splurging aunt and buy some cute little outfits for her to wear, again something we really couldn't do for Paige. I am grateful that Merideth's family was so willing to share her and allow us to be a part of her short life.

Although death can be such a difficult and sad time, it's also a time when family draws close together. Though, there were many tears, there was also time for laughter as family was able to gather together and cousins were able to play together.

Here are the terrible two's! I mean the adorable two's!! Senika, Natalie, Garrison, and Bethany. Cousin's all born in 2007!

Addie and Kira enjoying snow cones.

Parker eating a snow cone in the tree....and after seeing this picture is it REALLY surprising Parker broke his arm???

Rob and his sister Julie. Such silly siblings!!

All the cousins playing around the tree!!

And staying at a hotel is ALWAYS a vacation for the kids. The kids LOVED playing in the pools at our hotel stays!

And of course we had a wonderful 4th of July! We did our usual activities of parade, and fireworks. We also got to enjoy time with my family, as my sister's Julie and Sallie (and their families) came and spent some quality 4th of July time with us.

The cousins doing snake/worm fireworks

Kylie, Emily, Matt, with Uncle Reid (Garrison in the background)

Parker and Addie at the parade

Garrison at the parade

Another fun summer activity that we were a part of was the local production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". Rob played the part of the oldest brother Rueben, and Parker was a part of the kids chorus. It was a very time consuming activity as the boys had to attend a LOT of rehearsals. But it was a great show and they had a great time being a part of it.

Parker with some of the other kids in the chorus

Rob with his parents and grandma after the first show. Yes, Rob made the "Reuben" sign all by himself...very creative:) Also you can see grandma has some of the confetti from the show around her neck. Rob loves to talk the producers into making confetti a part of the show. It is a real crowd pleaser, as you can see Addison enjoyed it very much.

Did I mention that I helped with the stage make-up? So, even I was a part of the show. Rob has tried to convince me that I should be on stage with him...but that is SO not gonna happen! But, I do enjoy being a part of backstage:)

We also got to "host" our nieces and nephews for a couple of days as they got ready to attend the local EFY.

They were a bunch of crazy teenagers!!

I realize this was a really long blog entry, but wanted to catch everyone up on our summer activities. But, what we did the most this summer was just "hang out" with our friends and family, eat lots of popsicles, and play in the yard.