Not feeding the ducks

So apparently ducks that eat to much "people food" can become undernourished and have problems with their wings, and maybe even lose the ability to fly well. At least that's what the "Don't Feed The Ducks" sign at a nearby pond said. So we just looked at them instead. I just really like these pictures, mostly, and wanted to post them!

Catch those ducks!

Caught 'em!

Spontaneous summer moments

Most of my favorite moments with my kids are the spontaneous, non-planned fun things that just . . . happen. I love it when we have a day where we can just be together without something we're rushing to. I think I've overscheduled us a teeny bit this summer - we are always going somewhere. And I think I need a time-out! Like I said, most of the moments that bring me true joy are relaxed, unplanned moments where I am just being with my family. When I'm too busy to enjoy my children and have one-on-one quality time with them, no matter how worthy the activity, I'm kind of missing the point.
These pictures are one of those rare, spontaneous times where we just decided to walk across the street to the park and have fun. I think my kids are pretty good kids - it makes me feel really content when I stumble across moments like this - Tristan pushing his baby sister, and adoring little brother on the swing.


So lesson learned - slow it down and enjoy life!

Cameron, the diabetic boy

This isn't really in order now, because these pictures are from May 3rd, but I just now had Tristan show me how to get the pictures off my phone onto the computer. We had a very long weekend then. I had just noticed for the last week that Cameron had been having to run to the bathroom to pee several times an hour, and was constantly thirsty. Anytime we went anywhere, I had to mentally map out before-hand how close the bathroom was, and plan extra time in our outing to stop what we were doing to run to the bathroom. Once I mentioned this to Tristan, he immediately said he thought Cameron had diabetes. Now Tristan has kind of a tendency to jump to conclusions with medical things - I call him a bit of a hypochondriac, so I didn't really take him seriously at first. But pretty soon, we called his brother Tyler, who is diabetic, to come over and check Cameron's blood with his glucose meter. As you've probably guessed by now, the reading was very high - actually so high that his meter couldn't give us the exact number because the meter only goes to 600! So Tyler stayed at our house with the other kids while we whisked Cameron off to the hospital. He didn't think much of it at first when we told him we had to take him to the doctor. We figured out just why he was being so accepting of our little excursion when he commented "The Doctor's gonna' fix my finger" as we entered the hospital. To get the reading on the glucose meter Tyler had to prick his finger, twice, and Cameron thought we were going to make his finger all better. This story still makes me a little emotional because the emergency room visit was the exact opposite of healing his little "owies". That initial admission to the hospital was the worst part of the whole weekend. He was poked and prodded mercilessly by nurses over and over again, and he just looked so shocked and confused. Here he was trusting with child-like faith that his Mom and Dad were taking him to nice people at the hospital who were going to fix his "owie", and we were just sitting by letting them give him even more! My heart broke to watch as the nurse tried FOUR times to get on I.V. started in his little arm. I felt about ready to punch her and take my boy and run! Once we got admitted though, things got a little better. He was so brave, and still is. By the time we got home from the hospital, he didn't cry anymore when we had to poke his finger, or when we had to get him a shot. He seems much happier and healthier now too. The shock initially of the diagnosis was hard - he's so little! But we are dealing with it now, and I think we are doing really well. Counting carbs and checking blood and giving shots is becoming more and more second nature to us. We feel so blessed to live in a time where Cameron can live a long, happy, healthy life with all the modern medicines and technology out there. We look forward to getting him an insulin pump sometime in the future - we think that will help his life be even more normal. And we thank our Father in Heaven for helping us through this trial with loving friends and family members who are always there in an instant when we need them - whether it be a phone call, a special care package, or helping out with the kids. We love you and thank you for helping us through this learning curve and throughout life in general!

Cameron really had fun once we got upstairs to the Pediatric unit. They had tricycles, and this cute little tractor, and even a little playroom.

This one was too cute - Thomas the train underwear are always fashionable under hospital gowns!

T-ball season begins

Tris and Cam just started T-ball - here are some pictures of their first game of the season. Cam is the jr. member of the team. They let him be on Tristan's 5/6 year old team so they could be together.

Can you guess what our theme is this week? . . .

. . . BUGS!

This week we've been learning about bugs, so our field trip was to the John May Insect Museum. Luckily almost all of the insects at this place stayed safely behind glass (they're all dead specimen)- I'm not a big fan of holding tarantulas and that kind of thing, and I can just imagine the screaming that would come from my sqeamish children if it were one of those places! This museum was full of insects from all over the world. The owner apparently has been all over the globe collecting rare bugs.

Here are Becca, Tris, and cam along with their youngest aunts - Hannah and Sally.

Reese acted a little bit like a 2-year-old for this trip!

I love this picture of her classic pouting pose. She will sit right down wherever she is and turning the pouting up full blast. She even said once "I'm going home!"

This picture is only on here because I'm pretty sure this is one of those gross bugs from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that crawls all over Indiana Jones and that blonde lady! I'm shivering now just thinking about it!!

Making Navajo Fry Bread

Becca working her magic with the dough.

Almost ready to cook

Trister approves!

I didn't mention in the last post that Our field trip to the Cliff Dwellings was part of "Native American week". The kids picked a bunch of things they wanted to learn about this summer, and that was one of them. Here are some pictures of us that same week making Navajo fry bread - I learned the recipe from my favorite roomie of all time - Carmellia! I turned out pretty good - I think she'd be proud of me!

Visiting the The Cliff Dwelings

Becca, Tristan, and I took a little field trip last week to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. The kids had a really good time. It was fun to have a "big kid" field trip too. I love my Cam and Reesey - but I really don't think they would have appreciated our little outing!Here we are in front of a family dwelling

I think the kids' favorite part of this museum was how hands-on it is. You can climb through the little doorways and go inside each room to really look around. It was really cool inside too, temperature-wise, I mean. It was pretty hot and sunny the day we went, but it was very comfortable inside the dwellings.