Amber's New "Toy"

Last week Amber was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. This is a form of diabetes that many women contract during pregnancy. Many times it goes away after the baby is born. However, it is an indicator of future things to come.

Amber received a new electronic device. Amber has to prick herself four times a day and put a few drops of blood on a strip that inserts into the meter. It then tells her what her blood sugar level is. She has to chart herself and her eating six or so times a day and meet with a dietitian each week to monitor her progress.

Amber got the hang of the device pretty quickly and now pricks herself as often as a drug addict. We were going to test it on me, but the electronic strips that only work one time per prick cost $20.00 per set, so I guess I'll hold of testing my blood for the "fun of it."

Amber's readings have been really good since we got the meter. It is forcing her to eat smartly. If anything her blood sugar level has been too low - never too high. Hopefully her eating habits will rub off on me and do me some good too.

Story Book Park

I just thought I would share some fun summer pictures.

We have this really great park in Burley called Storybook Park.
Most of the equipment and time to build it was donated by members of the community.
Each piece of it has a person's name or a business name, according to how much each person donated.

The kids have so much fun, in fact sometimes we really have a hard time leaving.
Most times it ends with really bad bribery!

I cannot believe how much my kids are growing up.

Here is a shot from one corner of the park, doesn't it look fun?!?

We made these fun tie dye shirts two nights before in a mother daughter party at the church.
I think I should go into business they look so professional! Just kidding!

And finally, here is the pictures that I almost had to pull teeth to get. I'm just trying to pretend that Brad isn't thinking of giving me the finger (I won't go there...lol).

Grand Adventure

Twenty years ago to this month, I went on one of my first Young Men's adventure activities. On the day of the annual Arbon Valley fish fry in Knox Canyon, Steve Purdy took all of the youth on a day long hike up to the highest peak in Power County & Arbon Valley - Deep Creek Peak. We had a great time, and I have always remembered that activity.

Last year, shortly after my back surgery, someone posted a geocache on that peak. I was in no position to go and get it last year, but I vowed that I would be the first person to get that geocache. Well, it has been almost a year since the cache was posted and no one has gotten the cache. We were up in Arbon this weekend, and I wanted to take Aylee and Johnathan on the hike to say that we were able to tackle the mountain.

Monday morning we packed a lunch and some water for the trip. We borrowed Dad's truck and were going to drive up to the top of Knox Canyon to get on the ridge that takes you right up to the peak. This is the easy way up to the peak, but I had a six and eight year old with me, so we figured that would be the best route. We had planned for about a three hour trip.

On the way up the canyon, we ran into a snag. There across the entire road was a tree that had fallen in Sunday's windstorm.

We got out of the truck and analyzed the situation. We put the truck in four wheel drive and tried to go over the smaller part of the tree on the side of the road. However, we just pushed the tree around which started pressing against other still-standing trees. I could just see me knocking down another pine on top of my Dad's truck. We decided to start the hike from that point instead of doing anything to Dad's pickup.

I got out the GPS to try to determine how far we were, but there were too many trees in the area and I couldn't get a good lock on the satellites. We walked about half a mile on the road before I got a lock. After reading the map, I realized that we had a good 1.8 miles as the crow flies to get where we had hoped to get with the truck. On a mountain road that would translate to about 2.5 or 3 miles of hiking - just to get to our starting point.

It had only been about 20 minutes to go three quarters of a mile on the road, but Johnathan was already way behind us and complaining that he wanted to go home. Aylee kept trying to bolster Johnathan's spirits by telling him how cool it would be to get to the top of the mountain. I was starting to wonder if bringing Johnathan was a good idea. However, I decided that if we were to even get close we would have to leave the road and head up the mountain the hard way. That would at least get Johnathan's mind off of things if we were climbing rocks and navigating fallen trees and scratchy brush.

We made a quick turn to the left and followed an old logging road up a steeper side canyon. after about ten minutes on that trail, we hopped off and started bushwhacking the mountain to go straight up to the top. The going was really slow and Johnathan was having a hard time being happy and keeping up. Finally I found out that if I was holding his hand, it would give him more confidence. I ended up holding his hand for a lot of the trip and when I was doing that I hardly heard a complaint from him.



By about 12:15 (the time I had hoped to be on our way back) we finally reached the ridge where we expected to get to originally with the truck. It had been a very hard climb. In those two and a half hours of climbing we had only gone half of a mile. The peak was still over a mile away as the crow flies. It was then that I gave ourselves a time of 1:00 before we would turn around and go back - we were already way behind and I didn't want people worrying.

Now that we were on the ridge, I figured the kids needed a well deserved break. I let them sit down for a few minutes. Aylee sat down for only a few seconds before I heard her screaming and yelling. I looked over and she was frantically brushing herself over and over and freaking out. I asked her what was wrong and between sobs and tears, she said that she was sitting in an ant pile. Sure enough, big red ants were everywhere. I told her to get off of the pile first and then brush off later. She did so, but got quite a number of ant bites in the process. For the next five minutes she kept jumping at every black bug or speck on her clothing. That was the turning point for Aylee.

Now that we were on the ridge, going was a lot quicker. We were really making good time. Aylee, however, was done. She was now the complainer saying that were weren't even on the right mountain and that she wanted to go home. Johnathan, on the other hand, had his second wind and he was the one pumping Aylee up. Pretty soon Johnathan was tired of waiting on Aylee and hearing her complaints so he went on ahead of us. As he walked the ridge line he lifted his arms in the air and yelled, "This is the best day of my life!" He then took off racing up the top of the mountain that we were on.



By 1:00, we were only a half a mile away. We could see the peak from where we were, but I knew that if we were to continue to the top, we would be extending our time by at least 90 minutes - I could just see search and rescue teams scaling the mountains looking for us. I found a rock outcropping where we ate our lunch in the view of our goal. We were now at over 8,000 ft in elevation. I explained to the kids how we were going to have to turn back. They understood, but Johnathan was really wanting to try it still. We, however, turned back for the truck.

Going back to the truck was quicker than climbing up, but it still had its challenges. I tried a shortcut from the one that we took earlier only to find ourselves a bit lost. I had the GPS so we weren't really lost, it is just that I expected to find the road or the logging trail in the bottom canyon. It turned out, however, that in our shortcut we had entered a smaller hollow that was two ridges away from the road. We were in very dense underbrush and the going was very difficult. I was glad that I had the GPS because I knew that if we kept going in the direction of the GPS pointer we would get to the truck, but man it was a weird experience -- the mountains can be so misleading.



We got to the truck by 2:30. We were exhausted and sore. All of us could hardly walk on our tender feet. We arrived to the farm at 3:00 to the welcoming party. We had not reached our goal, but I was glad we had turned back when we did. Dad explained that he had decided that at 3pm they would start looking for us. I could see them going up the canyon and finding the pickup in that unexpected spot and not knowing at all where we had started our climb.




The hike was hard, but the kids did very well. I was proud of them. They ended up going on a much harder hike than they had subscribed too. Although we didn't make it to the top, it was a great experience that we will remember together. It helped us rely on each other. I remember being dead sore and tired at age twelve after finishing that hike. Johnathan was half the age I was when I had made the climb. Aylee is only just over that. We have some amazing kids.

As for Deep Creek Peak...I still want to be the first to find on this cache, so next time we have a day to kill we're headed up again...this time with a chain saw!

Glen again and Connie

I just thought I would write to update everyone on my dad. He had surgery again yesterday, and all went well. The doctor was able to remove some skin from his outter thigh, more than he thought he would, but that was ok. So far the skin graft is doing well. Even though it is painful, dad is doing wonderful. He no longer has the wound vac, and doesn't have to go to therapy at all this week. And the doctor is also coming in special to his office on Friday to check on him, he normally won't see patients on Fridays. Things are good. Mom is getting a little down I think. I feel so bad sometimes because I cannot spend as much time as I would like with her. Between my kids activities, and work, and running all their appointments and errands....sometimes I wish there were more of me. If you get a chance, I think she would love to see or her from all of her family. Thanks so much for the support.

A visit to Grandma Call

Over the weekend we went up to Idaho to spend time with Mom and Dad. Arbon had stake conference on Sunday, so Amber and I took the kids to visit Grandma Dorma. We had a great time visiting with Grandma while the kids played with the various legos and toys stashed in Grandma's closet. Of course the kids got hungry while we were there, and I hope they didn't eat her out of lunch meat and ice cream bars.

Grandma shared with us the story with how she and Grandpa met. Most of it is in her journal, but it was nice to hear the full story.

We had a good little visit. The kids always love to visit Grandma, so I am glad that we were able to get there to visit her while on this trip.

Fathers and Sons - 2007

On Friday, Johnathan and I headed out to our ward's seventh annual "Father's and Son's" campout. This was the first time in seven years that I was not in charge - for at least part - of the campout. It was really nice to go and not have to worry about anything. Johnathan and I had a great time.

We got there about 3pm and searched for the perfect tent site. We found one surrounded by trees. As soon as we were done with the tent, Johnathan and I went for a little hike on the Blackhawk trail. On the trail, Johnathan discovered what we dubbed the "Teeter-Totter-Tree". When we originally passed by this tree, Johnathan stopped dead in his tracks. I asked him what was wrong. He said that he heard a teeter-totter and was scanning the mountainside for signs of the apparatus. We then noticed that there was a breeze, and that the tree we were standing to would wave in the breeze and make a metallic squeaking sound just like a teeter-totter.

After our hike, Johnathan ran off to play with friends. I didn't see much of him that night until dinner. I made him a polish sausage, and then treated myself to a T-bone steak. Amber had laughed at me because of my well-balanced meal that I was taking. So I accomodated her by taking some cake with us. So, we had Steak and cake.

That night we enjoyed a short fireside conducted by the Bishop. We went around the group and talked about something that they remember about their fathers. I talked about the time that Larin Ward and I loaded up the four-wheeler and his odyssey and headed up Lake Canyon together as young boys. We had a great time until the Sun was going down. Then, I started to realize what we had done...we had left our homes and parents to go into the lone and dark wilderness. I was getting quite homesick and scared. Then, we heard an engine in the night. It was Dad and I think Vance came along too. They stayed the night with that grateful young boy.

Anyway...after the fireside, Johnathan went with friends and played some night games. He had a great time, but he has started to realized that he is not as fast as other boys. It really hurt his feelings that he was so slow. I guess that is something we are going to have to work on. Anyone know how to teach someone to run faster???

After a nice night's sleep, we got up and made breakfast for the camp - pancakes, ham, eggs, and Tang. We cleaned everything up and put our tent away. We had to get home for Johnathan's baseball game, but before he headed back up north, we grabbed a geocache called "Utah Valley Overlook". It had an incredible view of the valley below.

We had a great time together. It is fun to go on these campouts with my kids. I sure enjoy every one.

Glen

Just thought I would let everyone know that my dad had surgery on Monday. He was going to have to wait till Tuesday to even see the surgeon (the dr was leaving on wednesday for his vacation - and wouldn't have been able to do surgery for about 2 more weeks), but seeing that I now have Doctor friends since I run the OR schedule, the surgeon agreed to do surgery Monday morning bef0re even seeing him in his office. Wow that was a long sentence....lol. He had a colonoscopy which was very overdue considering he has not had one in almost two years, since his cancer surgery. The doc found everything normal, no bleeding, polyps, or cancer. He also was able to debride dad's leg wound. He didn't know if he was actually going to be able to do this or not, since he did not see it till minutes before surgery. They thought they would have to send him to the plastic surgeon in Twin or Poky. Things went good, and he was able to go home that afternoon after surgery. He has not been home since he broke his leg April 15th! He started Physical Therapy as an outpatient on Tuesday, before he had been doing it while at the rehab place. Today he got his wound vac that will prepare his leg for skin grafts right as the surgeon gets back from vacation about the 18th. Dad is doing well, he is so happy to be home and feeling better. Now if we can just get him out of the habit of wanting to be in the wheelchair..lol.

1 Kings 18:41
And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink;
for there is a sound of ABUNDANCE OF RAIN.


I awoke in the night and I could hear that WONDERFUL sound of rain out my window.
I just laid there and enjoyed it, and gave thanks to my Father in Heaven
for such a beautiful morning.

We're having an afternoon this weekend!!!

As of yesterday, our weather down here has taken a quick turn to cool and rainy. Last night we had high winds all night long that scattered my proverbial sheep - thus preventing me from counting them as I tried to fall asleep.

I looked at the paper this morning to see what the prognosis is for the rest of the week. Looks like we will have rain and cool weather for the rest of the week. But, if you will notice, on Saturday, we have a "Chance for an Afternoon". How nice, I haven't seen one of those in a while! :-)

All Stars!

This Summer Aylee and Johnathan have entreated our family to practially an every day baseball schedule.

Aylee is on an all girls softball team called the Thunder Team. She is the official team catcher - you should see her in action. They do everything on the field, and so far, they are undefeated. They have tournaments coming up!


Johnathan is in a Coach-Pitch league. They bat and play outfield, but the coach for the team pitches the ball to the kids when they are up to bat. They really don't keep score yet, but it has been a good start for Johnathan.

We have softball/baseball games or practice on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. It has been quite the experience for our family. We sure are loving it!

New Toy

On Saturday I made a quick run over to East Provo to take a look at a motorcycle that was for sale. I took Aylee along with me as a little date. We talked to the owner and he said that he was moving back to Hawaii. He had to get rid of the bike and wanted to sell it as quick as he could. I gave it a good test drive and then started to ask him questions. Before we got into the price talks, Aylee kept trying to help by saying, "Dad, this is the cheapest one of all the bikes you have been looking at." I kept shushing her, hoping that I wasn't losing my negotiation position.

We haggled a bit to where I was able to get him to go down from 2,100 to 1,800 on the bike. He also threw in a helmet, cover, and a five gallon container full of gasoline :).

It is a 2002 Honda Rebel - 250cc. I was surprised with the power that it has. I took it on the freeway today and hit 75 without any problem - however, I backed down to 60-65 because I don't really like the thought of my body traveling that fast in free air.

I have driven it about 30 miles so far and have really enjoyed it. So I guess that leads me to my next question...anyone looking for a cheap 50cc e-ton scooter??? ;-)