First Day of School 2018

This is the first year the kids haven't been in the same school. It was bittersweet.

Emily set off before dawn to ride the bus to junior high. She has been practicing cross country for the last couple of weeks so she already feels pretty comfortable with the school. It will be an exciting new adventure.

Jane went to 4th grade. She felt a little out of place going to school for the first time without her sister, but I am sure she will adjust. 

Only two more first days of elementary school and then Jane will head off to junior high too. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it...

Disneyland 2018

Disneyland never gets old! 

Every trip has its great highlights. Here are this trip's:

We got a theme park view room at the Grand Californian even though we paid for a standard. Yes!!! This was life altering.

Jane is finally going on some rollercoasters without complaint. Her favorite is Radiator Springs Racers (and also Big Thunder but she was going on that one without complaint last time). 

The Pixar fireworks show was AMAZING! It involved projection on the buildings on Main Street. We loved every second.

After Jane's Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique makeover, we ran into Gaston! Jane threw him plenty of shade. I was proud of her.

Chris talked me into getting ears for the first time.

The kids look cuter in them, though.

We got to go backwards on "It's a Small World". I know this is weird, but it was fun, as shown by the look on Emily's face. I think it was precipitated by some sort of breakdown or something. 

We can hardly wait to go back!

After all, it is the most magical place on earth!

Holy Hail

Guess what?! 

We're getting a new roof!!!

A Hike and Some Hail

Every year, we have a local holiday celebrating our town. 

Ironically, we usually leave town that day on account of the crazy, drunken cowboyness of it all.

We had planned to go to the Rockies, but we didn't wake up early enough and ended up hiking in the foothills instead.

It started off with a bad omen, when Emily saw a rattlesnake about a mile in. 

(Note Jane's ER bear)

But we continued hiking on, until we got to Horsetooth Falls, which was barely a trickle.

And that's where we took a wrong turn. I think we accidentally hiked somewhere around 9 miles. We only meant to hike 4 on account of Jane's recent head injury. 

Words were said. Fingers of blame were pointed. We were running out of water, after all, and the clouds were looking very dark and foreboding. Luckily they stayed just to the North of us. Late that afternoon we arrived back at the trail head with a tiny bit of water and even less patience.

Luckily, we were in the vicinity of Nordy's. 

All was forgiven. All was well... kind of.

Those clouds... the ones off to the North?

They were over our house. 

That's not snow. It's July. 

But we're used to it. It's been years since we went a whole summer without making a hail claim on our insurance. Luckily no serious damage was done... in this storm at least. 

Blood from a Stone

I shouldn't hate little kids. And I am praying for grace. But I'm finding that whole "love thy neighbor" thing a little difficult at the moment.

It all started out a normal enough Saturday. Jane played outside and then had some lunch and headed back outside to play. 

She'd been over at the neighbor's for about half an hour when the dad of the family came bursting through our front door, screaming for Chris, Jane a bloody mess in his arms.

Blood was everywhere. 

There was so much blood I could smell it. 

I couldn't even see how much of Jane's scalp was still attached to her head. After all, pale blond hair takes on a frightening color when soaked with blood.

And then I started to shriek. "Chris! We need to get her to the hospital NOW!"

Those of you who are nurses or doctors are probably rolling your eyes because you know about head wounds and blood. I'm an engineer. I don't see blood at work.

Chris decided he wanted to shower her off. so he could see where the blood stopped and the kid began. 

I let him while I sobbed to next-door-dad... "What happened?"

"Gabriel (next-door-kid) threw a big rock at her"

At this point, Chris yelled for me to dial 911. This is probably for the best because it prevented me from telling Gabriel's dad what I thought of Gabriel. I dialed the phone and started sobbing to the 911 operator. After some helpful information from the operator and the successful completion of the cleaning of the kid, we determined we could get Jane to the hospital ourselves. The cut wasn't as big as originally feared.

Jane and I rode in the backseat. Me pressing a cloth to her wound and she asking if she was going to die. I tried to calm Jane until we got to the hospital where, shortly after check in, Jane exclaimed, "I can't see!" and immediately crumpled.

It turns out that was Jane's way of telling us she was losing consciousness. 

She was rushed to a pediatric trauma room, where she regained consciousness and was seen by a doctor. 

And given a bear.

And a popsicle. 

"Tell it to me straight doc, does she have a skull fracture?"

"No."

"Brain damage?"

"No."

"Excessive blood loss?"

"No."

"Then why did she pass out?"

"Probably because of all this." (Doc waves his hands in the direction of all the medical equipment, but also in my general direction. I guess I had been a little over dramatic. But there was so MUCH blood.)

So it seems that Jane inherited Chris' hair color but she inherited my tendency to have massive panic attacks resulting in loss of consciousness. You're welcome, Jane.

Once the bleeding slowed and Jane's heart rate and blood pressure were normal, the doctor super glued her cut, which was much smaller than anticipated. She had a minor concussion which resulted in a massive headache and a lot of sleeping for the next couple days. 

Jane is just fine. And she's quick to forgive. I'm working on it.

Day of Independence

Happy Birthday America!

This year we celebrated with a morning hike to Hidden Falls in Curt Gowdy State Park.

The falls really are hidden so well that you can't see them. They are somewhere behind us in this picture. 

Then we went out to my folks' house to shoot off some fireworks.

They live in the county so you can blast crap off to your heart's content. 

Hooray America!

Maiden Voyage to YW camp

Emily got to go to Girls' Camp this year. 

It's amazing that she is actually old enough to partake in such a thing.

Part of me feels guilty that she's never been, but I hate camping so much. So very much. I would rather have a stomach bug for three days straight than camp for one night. 

But Emily loved it.

Apparently it involved tents and trees.

Also there were girls.

Emily loved the opportunity to bond with the other girls and I am grateful to her leaders that made it such a wonderful experience for her. She is already talking about next year. I hope to minimize my participation in this future outing because I've just been called as a Young Women counselor. We all have our crosses to bear.