A Slice of Heaven Served up With a Side of Hell

Excuse me while I scream.

We were back in the doctor's office tonight.

Kean has, yep, two more ear infections.

His third set in a months time.

Who knows if they are the same ear infections that never cleared up.

All I know is he's miserable.

Those are his toes sticking above his shoulder while we waited.

 He's on antibiotic number three (a stronger one for a longer time).

and we've been ordered to see his ENT.  Today's doc suspects

an underlying sinus infection is to blame.

Well at least we had a few days break.

We went up to Sun Valley for the weekend-- mostly

so I could testify at a hearing on behalf of Camp Rainbow Gold.

They are trying to build their own camp on a pristine

piece of property up a canyon.

Unfortunately, the uber rich neighbors don't want it in their backyard.

 It was a long, long and depressing experience.

It's a good thing we made up for it in fun the rest of the weekend with the family.

The snow was unbelievable-- cars and homes buried.

 We saw signs of avalanches everywhere-- even Baldy,

the big ski resort was closed down for a few days while they

set off charges to trigger avalanches.

We spent one day with our favorite Camp Rainbow Gold counselor,

Jaime and her family.  The girls couldn't get enough of her

little baby, Maeve.

 She took us up this amazing sledding hill...

 where, I'm not sure if we talked more or sledded more.

 That night we all relaxed at the hotel.

 On Saturday, we took a leap and got Byron back in skates and on ice.

The last time he tried skating, he skewered his leg, got a metal plate,

10 pins and was on crutches for months and months.

 He said it was playing with his mind-- but after a few minutes

he settled in and boy, did we have fun.

 Kean sat in that little chair for a whopping 1 and a half hours

while we took turns pushing him around.

 He was in heaven.

 Hopefully, he's hanging on to all those fun memories while

he feels so lousy.

Poor kid.

Lucky Ducks

For those of you who don't live in Idaho-- I feel sorry for ya.

It takes us just over an hour to get up to some of our favorite spots in the mountains-

we love to go up and relax around Lake Cascade.

Not too far from there is this fabulous little hot springs

and on this crisp morning, we had it all to ourselves.

 On a few occasions, we've hiked in to find a few

naked folks.

No problem-- we just tell the kids to look the other

way when they get out.

 It is such a lovely setting, Holland and Reese

asked for a photo shoot.

 Of course, Byron and I had to do our own version.

 Sunday after church, we took a family hike.

 Bryon and I each took one of Kean's hands and he even hiked

up quite a ways until it got too steep.  Good therapy, eh?

Holland found these formations that looked like giant toes sticking out.

We sure love where we live.

Actually, we've loved everywhere we've lived.

We are pretty lucky that way.

Snaggletooth

We're sad summer is coming to an end in a few short weeks.

Kean can't get enough of "swimmin' at Gobily's".

 And while he can't swim, he can go down

the slide until everyone's arms are exhausted from

catching him.

 He's learned a new trick though---

going down the slide on his tummy and his back!

 The boy is an absolute daredevil.

 And if he's not rocketing down the slide, he's jumping off

the diving board.

Evidently, plain ol' swimming is dull, dull, dull.

 He was on... oh, round 847 when he slipped and hit his face,

knocking out his other front tooth and scratching up his face a tiny bit.

He wasn't phased by the blood, just annoyed he had to get out of the pool

for a while.

And get this, the kids and their friends found his front tooth at the bottom of the deep end!!

The tooth fairy can finally come for him-- if he only cared.

Well, better than that, the "Sweet Tooth Fairy" came to our 

house in the form of our friend Shannon Bluth.

She brought her famous, mouthwatering strawberry pie.

Yes, it is as good as it looks.

 She saw that Kean got clocked in the face on the last day of summer

school and decided he needed a strawberry pie.

 Nothing makes you forget about a sore cheek than fresh strawberries

and a sweet crust, right?

The Show Off

Today was one of those jammed packed days.

Kean had Physical Therapy with Andrea this morning

and she tried to work him while I did a radio interview

on Baldapalooza over the phone.

He wasn't too cooperative.

 Which was kinda scary in that we had the Special Ed

teacher and the Speech Therapist from the school he will

attend next fall coming to the house to observe him.

Get this though, he was on fire for Maureen--

a total show off for the ladies.

 This afternoon, we dropped Kean off with my parents,

picked the girls up early from school and headed to the airport

to see Mark Moomey come home from serving a church mission

to Holland.  He's been gone for two years.

 Mark and Tim (in the middle) both worked for Byron

for a few years leading up to their missions.

So it was good to see "Slave Boy #1" and "Slave Boy #2"

reunited with their master!

 The girls and I had made posters to help welcome him home.

It was such fun to see him after all this time.

 Then it was "make sure the pool works" time at Grandpa

Bodily's house.

He's been getting it cleaned up and warmed up

for Greer's birthday party tomorrow night.

 Kean was a wild man.

I have a feeling we'll be living in this pool for much of the summer.

The Soul Surfer

Whoa, did we have a busy day today.

So much for the lazy days of summer.

My morning was chewed up with Baldapalooza meetings 

and picking up Kean's meds.

The afternoon was spent meeting with hospital executives

and Kean's doctors to plan out the Hall of Heroes

in the children's cancer area in St. Luke's.

We're creating a hall with professional portraits of some of the

children battling cancer-- telling their stories to inspire new families

and let them know they are not alone in their journey.

We also presented a check to MSTI to pay for the Hall of Heroes

(even though the amount on the big poster check should have

read for a thousand dollars more).

Tonight, Byron, who had way more energy than me,

took the girls swimming.

Reese spent her time with her arm tucked in her swimming suit

pretending to be the girl from "Soul Surfer".

 Kean got in for a little while (until his teeth were chattering).

He is the wildest man in the pool.

I vacillate between freaking out over what a maniac he is

and giggling over what a maniac he is...

Burnin' Down The House

Any excuse to party seems to be our motto lately.

We let Holland throw an end of the school year party--

but this one had a twist.

First off, though, we let Greer and Reese each invite friends.

And the whole group started out with a swim.

 Then since they were freezing in the 80 degree temperatures,

they all had to warm up by making s'mores.

 Here's the twist, Byron built a bonfire out on the edge of the garden

and all the kids took turns throwing all of their school papers into the flames.

 It was grand.

They each took turns-- kind of like at a funeral--

saying their goodbyes to the past school year.

I think this is going to become a yearly tradition for us.

Swimming, S'mores and burning homework

turned out to be a pretty popular idea.

The Fish Bowl

Our award winning next door neighbor, Grandpa Bodily

not only opened his pool this week, he heated it up.

Giddy doesn't begin to describe the girls.

Kean went for his first dip and was a wild man.

He was eating it up... well, more like swallowing it up.

I swear he was trying everything to keep up with his sisters to

the point he kept pushing away from us and dunking under-- 

only to come up smiling.

Gotta get that kid some swim lessons asap.

The Rodeo Queen

I think the kids would rate today as a Super Saturday.

Kean got in his requisite lawn mower rides while the girls

headed to the lake for a friend's birthday party.

 I must've had the wrong friends growing up.  'Cause I don't remember

going to any birthday parties where we got to surf, tube and picnic at the lake.

 My poor, deprived children never get to do anything fun, do they?

 Less than an hour after they got home, we headed over to the Bingham's house for a BBQ.

Their children raised four pigs for 4H this year (3 were auctioned off at the fair) and the guy in

the foreground is headed to that great frying pan in the sky next week.

Byron (who grew up on a farm) got Miss Fearless to climb on top of their cow.

 Don't ask me how she stayed on.

The next little girl who climbed aboard twice-- didn't even last long enough for her dad to get a picture.

We sure love living where we live.