Well that didn't go as planned

What a week!  If you are my Facebook friend then you already know that this week went differently than planned. Here are all the details. 

I started out Monday morning feeling so on top of my week.  I woke up early (AKA before my kids) and went for a little walk to the stairs that are built into the side of the hill that is a few blocks away from our house.

The stairs are steep and I was winded by the time I reached the top.  I told myself that if I came and walked up the stairs every day this summer I would probably get to the point where I wouldn't be winded.  I thought that sounded like a great goal, and vowed to do it every morning that week. 

Back at home I got Derrick up so he could be ready for Miss Christy when she arrived at 8:00.  He was still eating when she showed up.  He was so excited to go with her that morning.

Veronica woke up and said, "MOM! It's an EXCITING DAY!  We are going to BEAR WORLD!"  I had to remind her that we weren't going to Bear World until Friday.

Our craft for the day was to dye some of Lydia's sea shells.  She's had these in a container ever since our last visit to a beach in Florida (AKA July 2016).  I saw this on a 5 minute craft video and thought it would be something fun to do with the shells and a way to display them.  Basically the process is similar to dying Easter Eggs.  You combine hot water, vinegar, and food coloring and then add the shells.

After about 20 minutes we had some cool looking shells.  We wanted to mount them to a large letter L, but we waited to do that until they were completely dry.

We met up with Derrick and Miss Christy for lunch in the park.  We were at the same park as the ELC kids and teachers.  Derrick was so excited to see Miss Wenda and Miss Chelsy.  He ran over to them before he even came to say hi to me.

We did family training at the park.  Miss Christy talked about the importance of Self Care and I was like, "yeah, I've got that. I know all about taking time for myself." Later in the week those words would come back to haunt me.

The day wasn't super warm so I'd been debating whether or not we should go swimming at the Bannock Reservoir.  But by the end of lunch time I was sweating.  Plus we really wanted to try out our new floating tubes.  So I decided we'd go swimming.

We went home and changed into swimming suits and then got everything into the car.  We stopped at a gas station to fill up the tubes and then we headed to the lake. 

The tubes were SO.MUCH.FUN.  I didn't get a lot of pictures because I basically spent all the time sitting in the tube.  Usually when I'm at this lake I just kind of stand or sit and watch my kids.  But with the tubes I can sit in the tube and float around the water with my kids. Veronica shared a tube and we floated around a lot. There was kind of a strong breeze that kept blowing us into the really shallow areas.  Veronica would hop out and pull our tube back to the regular shallow area.

Later Lydia came over in a tube.  I hooked my foot through the rope around her tube so we could float together.  When it was time to move us Veronica could easily pull both tubes.  Charlotte eventually hopped in with Lydia and we all had fun together.  Derrick stayed near shore and played with his water cannon.

Here I am showing of my rediculously pale arms.  Obviously I need some more beach time.

We didn't stay as long this week as we had the week before.  It honestly wasn't that hot and so after about an hour we were all shivering.  So we went back home.

I was really close to the end of Warbreaker so I settled down on the couch to read that while the kids watched a movie down stairs.  I finished the book and it was great, but I'd read through the time when I should have started dinner.

No one seemed that hungry anyway so we all just had peanut butter and jelly.  I asked the kids if they wanted to go to a park, but most of them said no.

Derrick started getting antsy and asking about riding his bike.  I've been really hesitant to take the kids on a bike ride because their skill levels vary so much. Veronica is still learning the basics of pedaling and breaking and so she is much slower than Derrick.  I could just see myself in a situation where Derrick was way too far ahead while Veronica sobbed in the back. But I was okay with taking the kids to the church to ride around in the parking lot.  Since it was Monday there wouldn't be any activities going on at the church and I figured it was a good night to go there.  Veronica could practice riding while Derrick could get his wiggles out.

So I told everyone to grab their bikes.  Lydia didn't feel like riding so she just walked with me, but Charlotte, Veronica, and Derrick each rode their bikes.  Derrick would ride out ahead of us, but he would wait at every corner for us to catch up.

Soon we were at the church and the kids started biking.  Veronica did a great job and quickly did better at pedaling and breaking than she'd ever done before. I was mentally predicting that she would probably be ready to ride without her training wheels either at the end of this summer or early next summer.

I'd brought the picnic blanket so Lydia could relax on that.  She started crawling around and collecting pine cones.

Derrick soon got bored of the level parking lot and wanted to ride down the grassy hills behind the church.  Last year we'd watched some kids do a bike race down hills at a park and Derrick has never forgot it.  Lately he's been talking about racing down hills and winning a trophy.  So I let him go live his fantasy on the hills behind the church.  He would push his bike up the hill, and then ride it down the hill.  He'd let the momentum carry him all the way down the hill and then ride in a big circle around the church.

After his first run he rode past Veronica who was still practicing in the parking lot.  He told Veronica how fun the hills were and told her to do them with him.  So she followed him over. She pushed her bike a little ways up the hill and then hopped on and rode it down the hill.  She LOVED it.  Soon she was doing it over and over again.  Here's Veronica going down the hill.

And here's Derrick going down the hill.  You can hear Veronica yelling, "I love it. Yeah!!!" In the back ground.

At this point my biggest worry was that we were going to rip up the grass.  I was trying to figure out a way to go home without disappointing Derrick and Veronica too much.  

Then Veronica took her bike up the hill for another run.  This one started out rougher than the other ones had.  I don't know if she'd gone up higher than before or if she was on a steeper area than other times, but she didn't start out with the same level of control she'd had before.  She seemed to get onto the pedals too late and wiggle a little too much.  When she reached the bottom of the hill the bike crashed in a tumble of metal and limbs.  

I watched the whole thing and as soon as she crashed I took off running.  Charlotte and Lydia were there immediately too. Veronica was shrieking in pain. Not the whiny whimpery crying that comes with being the baby of the family, but honest to goodness wails.  I knew that sound.  I made that sound when I was hit by a car and dislocated my knee.  This was not good.  

She was starting to stand up as I got to her.  She was grabbing her left shoulder and saying, "It HURTS!"  My phone had fallen out of my pocket while I ran so I told Charlotte and Lydia to find it.  I was certain we'd have to call an ambulance.  But as I looked Veronica over I started to rethink that plan.  She wasn't bleeding and she didn't have any obvious swelling. I had her bend her arm and move her fingers.  Everything seemed to be working.  

I also realized that calling an ambulance would create it's own set of problems.  Just what exactly was I going to do with the three other kids if I got into the ambulance with Veronica? And how would I get home from the hospital afterward? No, in this instance calling an ambulance wasn't a great idea.  

I carry a first aid kit in my backpack and so I had an ace bandage.  Veronica loves getting her ankle wrapped up in the bandage, and I wondered if wrapping her arm would help her feel better.  So I haphazardly wrapped the bandage around Veronica. It wasn't really doing anything other than letting her know that I was trying to help.  I hoped it would have something of a placebo effect. 

It actually kind of worked.  Veronica was still crying, but had changed from yelling to whimpering. I gathered our things and told Lydia to walk Veronica's bike home.  We walked the three blocks home with Veronica crying the whole way.  

My theory was that she'd just bumped something hard.  I hoped that if I gave her pain medicine and put an ice pack on the sore area she'd start to feel better.  

We made it home and put the bikes away.  We went into the house and I told the other kids to get into their pajamas.  I took Veronica into my room and took the ace bandage off.  I wanted to get a better look at her shoulder so I helped her take her shirt off.  When she lifted her arm to take her arm out of her sleeve she started yelling in pain.  She told me should couldn't lift her arm.  

That's when I knew we had to go to the hospital.  I wasn't sure what was wrong, but I had a hunch it was either a dislocated shoulder or a broken collar bone. Neither of which was something that an ice pack could fix overnight. 

But I still had the three other kids. Who could watch them?  My first thought was our neighbor Brooklynn. The kids don't really know Brooklynn, but they do know her family. Brooklynn's dad is our ministering brother, her older sister Monique was the kids' after school babysitter before she got married.  I texted her right away.  

Since I wanted to cover my bases I also texted another young women in the ward who lives nearby.  I sent a text to my Ministering sister.  And I put a message up on our ward Facebook Page.  When I was done with all that I got a message back from Brooklynn.  She could come and would be there soon. 

She arrived with her mom Rachael.  Rachael offered to come to the ER with me as moral support, but I declined. I was feeling okay emotionally and my only real worry was how boring I knew the ER would be.  

There was no sense putting Veronica's shirt back on so I just wrapped her up in my trusty black fleece blanket and carried her to the car.  Then we drove to the ER.  As we drove up I laughed to myself, "Hmm, I'm been here before, but I don't actually know where to go because the only time I've been to this side of the hospital was when I was in an ambulance."  Fortunately these things are labeled well so we found the parking lot.  

I'd told Veronica that she didn't need to be brave in front of the lady at the desk and it was okay if she cried.  I wanted everyone to know that I had a hurt baby. We also talked about how she'd been to this hospital before during the teddy bear clinic.  So she sort of knew what to expect.  I'm not sure she knew what I was talking about. 

I carried her into the ER and then held her while we waited in line.  I was hoping a crying 5 year old might help us get a room faster, but nope.  We had to wait in line for about 10 minutes.  Then we had to wait in the lobby for another 10.  A nice lady bought us a bottled water from the vending machines.  She was in a lot of pain herself, but she went out of her way to help us.  That really touched me.  (Especially since the hospital staff didn't seem to blink an eye at my crying kid. Honestly they could have at least offered me a wheel chair for her so I didn't have to hold her.)

Eventually we were taken back to a room. By this point it was after 9:00. The accident had happened around 8:00.  Veronica stopped crying so much when we got to the room and she was able to lay on a pillow.  The tech hooked her finger up with a heart rate monitor and got some details from me.  (Apparently people expect you to just know your child's height off the top of your head.) He turned on the TV and found Zootopia on the Disney Channel.  Veronica liked that and she got really focused on the TV. 

Then we waited and waited and waited.

The head nurse came in and took a look. She was happy to hear that Veronica had been wearing a helmet.  She told us radiology would be in soon to take and x-ray.

The X-ray was probably the best part of the visit.  A happy lady came to get us and brought a wheelchair.  Veronica rode in that and I walked along behind her.  The x-ray ladies wanted Veronica to stand for the x-ray, but she was so shaky and forlorn looking when she got out of the wheel chair that they said she could do it on the bed.  So they helped her get on there. The bed was cold and Veronica was still shirtless so one of the ladies ran to get her a headed blanket. That made Veronica feel much better. They had a lead vest for me to wear so I could be in the room with Veronica while the x-rayed her.  When she was all done they gave her a sticky hand toy for a prize.  She really liked that.

We didn't see the x-ray until it was almost time for us to go home, but this is what it looked like.  Yep a broken clavicle AKA collar bone.  No wonder she was in so much pain. 

We went back to our room and waited for the official diagnosis.  I'd been texting Brandon since we'd made it to the room and I updated him on everything.  To his credit he asked if I needed him to come home.  I told him that there really wasn't anything he could do so it was best if he just stayed in Twin.

A nurse came in with a dose of Tylenol for Veronica.  I'd given her Ibuprofen at home, but they explained that we could alternate Ibuprofen and Tylenol.  I've always heard this, but I've never had a reason to do it until now.  They also brought a little sling for Veronica.

Veronica started to get sleepy.  Soon she was nodding off.  Of course this was right about the time we could get discharged.  I hated to wake her up, but I was really looking forward to getting back home.  We left with instructions to follow up with an orthopedic doctor the next day.

I'd been a little worried about Veronica's emotional state.  The whole time we were at the hospital she'd been quiet and distant.  Any time anyone asked her a question she stared at them with something that could be described as disdain. At one point I'd wondered if she was going into shock and I was glad that we had the heat rate monitor to alert us if that started dropping.

But as soon as we got home, Veronica perked right back up.  All the kids were still awake and they were so interested in seeing Veronica.  She proudly told them all about riding in a wheel chair, getting a picture taken of her BONES,  having a little thing on her finger, and getting a sling.  I was like, "oh good, she'll be fine."

Charlotte and Lydia fussed over Veronica and made sure she was comfortable.  Even Derrick was very concerned about her.  He sat next to her and tried to kiss her a few times.  It reminded me of the first time he ever saw her.  He'd been only 17 months old, but he'd bent down and planted to sweetest kiss on her little baby forehead. 

Brookynn's dad picked her up so I didn't have to worry about getting her back home. I realized that the kids were far too wired and it was far to late to have anything resembling a normal bed time routine.  So we opened up the couch bed and I let the kids sleep there.  Charlotte and Lydia slept at the top of the bed and Derrick laid across the foot of the bed.  Veronica slept in my bed with me right by her side.  I expected her to sleep fitfully from all the pain, but surprisingly she slept through the night.

Tuesday morning was a bit of a blur.  Our schedule for the day said we would go bowling.  That was definitely not happening.  Instead we moved Veronica from the bedroom to the living room and looked at her x-ray.  I made phone calls to the doctor.  The ortho didn't have any openings for that day so we made an appointment for Wednesday.  I also made an appointment with Veronica's primary care doctor for thursday. And I found baby sitters for the kids for those times.

Miss Christy picked Derrick up at 11:00 and later we met up with them at a park in Chubbuck for lunch in the park.  We had plans to go to the Chubbuck Library for their craft day after lunch, but Veronica was in a lot of pain before we were even done with lunch.  So we parted ways with Derrick and Miss Christy and went back home.

I put Veronica down for a nap and was feeling pretty tired myself.  Charlotte and Lydia had been planning to do an lemonade stand after the library and so they were anxious to do one.  I told them to give me an hour for a nap and then I'd help them set up the stand.  They didn't like that answer and asked if they could just set it up all by themselves.  That sounded wonderful to me.  So I laid down on the couch and they took care of making the lemonade and moving everything outside.  An hour later I woke up and checked on them.  They were sitting under the table so they could be in the shade.  Business was slower than usual so they didn't make as much money, but I'm sure they made some great memories.

Derrick came home around dinner time, but I honestly don't remember what we had for dinner.  I think it was another peanut butter and jelly night.

Charlotte and Lydia played in the back yard and found an inch worm.

I'd hoped that maybe we'd be able to go to a park in the evening, but instead Derrick started throwing a near tantrum.  Veronica was also in a lot of pain and spent some time crying.  I found myself stuck between them.  I'd been debating whether or not to attend the Relief Society Activity I was in charge of on Thursday evening.  Tuesday evening's events showed me that I probably should stay home with my kids.

Later that evening, after the kids were in bed I finally had a chance to talk to Brandon on the phone about the accident. We'd been texting all day, but hadn't had time to talk.  So I told him all about it.  While we were talking I saw a squirrel climb over our back fence.  It started walking through our backyard.  Suddenly I realized it was way too big to be a squirrel.  It was a raccoon!

I've seen raccoons in the alley, but never thought they would come in our yard.  The little guy acted like he owned the place and didn't really back away when I got close for a picture.  He wandered around our yard for a bit and then climbed back over the fence.  Then he reappeared in the neighbors yard.  He looked like he was following a bug around.  I watched for probably 20 minutes while I talked to Brandon.

Wednesday found us attempting to find normal.  Derrick had therapy with Miss Annie in the morning.  Charlotte and Lydia and I worked for a couple hours cleaning up their toy area. I wish I'd taken a before picture.  There was a huge pile of toys on the floor.  We got them all cleaned up, somewhat sorted and put away, vacuumed the floor, and voila the girls suddenly wanted to play down here again.

At lunch time we went to lunch in the park at Raymond Park.  We met up with Derrick and Annie there.  Veronica did much better this time, and even played on the playground for a bit, but she got tired and started crying.  So we went home.  

Poor Lydia was having a rough day too.  I don't remember what she was mad about, but she was hysterical about something when we got home. So I put Veronica in my bed on one side and put Lydia on the other side.  Then I sat in the middle and held their hands and talked to them.  Lydia's problems boiled down to the fact that she likes predicable routines and life had been anything but predictable.  Between Veronica's pain and Derrick's Derrickness we'd been shuffling and cancelling plans for two days.  

She told me she missed having journal time at school so we found her a note book for her to write in.  She sat down and recreated some of the things from her classroom. 

I loved this writers checklist that she wrote from memory.

Spending time writing and drawing really helped her refocus and she was doing much better after a little while. 

Veronica's ortho appointment was for that afternoon.  I dropped the older kids off at Brooklynn's house and took Veronica to the doctors.  We didn't have to wait long which was nice.  The ortho explained that Veronica's bone would heal itself.  It would be a little misshapen for a while, but over time it would reshape itself.  There's no way to cast a broken clavicle so the best thing would be to keep in in a sling.  They gave us a sling with better padded straps and an additional strap that went around Veronica's waist.  The doctor told us to follow up in a week for another x-ray.  

I was pretty certain our Bear World trip on Friday would have to be rescheduled, but Veronica kept holding out hope.  I asked the Doctor if Veronica could ride the roller coaster at Bear World on Friday.  He said he didn't recommend it.  Veronica was crushed by this news. She cried until I pulled out my phone and showed her a time when we could go to Bear World again. 

And that was that.  We picked up the other three and then went back home.  

Derrick was eager to get back onto his bike (he hadn't seen Veronica's accident so he had trouble connecting the bike to her injury) and so finally I let him get his bike out and ride in the alley behind our house around the block on the sidewalk in front of our house.  He went around and around.

I was determined to feed my kids an actual dinner that night so I made pancakes.  Everyone ate them.  Whew.

Then Charlotte and Lydia took showers and I put their hair in hot curlers.  They were having a manners teaparty for activity days.  They'd been told to wear fancy or princess dresses.  At first Charlotte had bristeled at that and said, "Don't they know I'm a WILD girl."  But then she'd decided that she did like getting fancy after all.  She put together this outfit complete with crown.

Lydia had found her old wedding dress costume when we cleaned up the toy area so that's what she decided to wear.  I can't believe how much she's grown.  This was down to her feet when she was four.

Here they are together.  They had a really great time at the activity.

I dropped them off at the church and then Derrick, Veronica, and I went back to Raymond Park.  Derrick's therapy company was having a barbecue.  I wasn't sure if we'd be able to make it so I hadn't said anything about it to the kids.  So they really didn't know what we were there for.  Derrick ended up playing with two giant Labradors.  Veronica and I ate cookies.

On our way back to the car we met a cute shih tzu.  Derrick and Veronica can't resist any dog.  Oh an this picture is a good one of what Veronica wore every time we took her out in public.  Mostly she ran around shirtless at home.  But when we went anywhere we'd put a button up shirt on her, but only put it on one arm.

We went back to the church and picked up the girls.  Then we went home and everyone went to bed.  I'd been planning to talk to Brandon after the kids were in bed, but my voice gave out while I was reading to the girls. With all the craziness from the past few days I'd barely noticed that I had a pretty bad cough/cold.  It caught up with me that night.  So I texted Brandon that we'd have to talk another night.

I was getting ready to turn on Gilmore Girls when Derrick came into my room crying about his ear.  He said it hurt and asked to go to the ear doctor over and over. Veronica had been asleep in my bed, but she woke up an complained about Derrick's crying. So we moved her to the couch and I brought him into my bed.

Over the next two hours I tried everything I could think of to help his pain.  Pain medicine, oils, an ice pack, a hot towel, watching Gilmore Girls, not watching Gilmore Girls, and on and on. No matter what I did Derrick kept crying about his ear.  It reminded me of when he would have ear infections when Veronica was a newborn.  I was grateful that he could at least talk now and tell me what was wrong.  But it was still so sad.

I googled home remedies for ear aches and found that I'd already tried just about everything.  One suggestion was to chew gum.  I figured why not and gave Derrick a piece.  He chewed it for about 5 minutes and then spit it out.  Then he laid down and FELL ASLEEP!.  It was after midnight and I was so happy he was asleep.  He slept through the night which I was grateful for.

In the morning I called up the doctors office.  I told them I was already coming in that morning for my daughter and could they please squeeze in my son so someone could look in his ears.  They were able to fit him in.

At 9:00 my friend Khyleigh came over to watch the twins and I took the other two to the doctor. Derrick was pretty chipper and had fun laying on the exam table while we waited.  But as soon as the doctor walked in he said, "My ear hurts, look at it."  She did and he had the beginning of an ear infection.  She prescribed antibiotics.

She also took a look at Veronica's arm.  She asked how Veronica was sleeping and I said she was sleeping through the night. So the doctor said we didn't need any other pain meds besides Tylenol and Ibuprofen. Oh and here's a picture that shows I finally got Veronica to wear a real shirt.

We went back home and relieved Khyliegh from the super easy task of watching the twins play barbies.  Annie came to pick up Derrick at 11:00 and later we met up with them at lunch in the park at Caldwell Park.  On Thursdays in June a church hosts something called Friend Zone at Caldwell in the afternoon.  They provide lots of fun activities for free.  The kids loved it last year so they were really excited to do it again.

Here's Veronica and Lydia eating at a table.

Here's one of the temporary tatoos.

Derrick LOVED the bubbles area and spent most of his time there.  Annie stayed with him and helped him with any activity he wanted to do.  I was able to relax on a blanket.

Charlotte was really excited about this tatoo.

There was a little coloring area where the kids could make something for Father's Day.  Father's day was something I'd barely had time to think about that week so I was glad the kids had this chance to do something.

Charlotte had brought Antler and had fun posing with him.

We watch the Parent Trap recently and the girls have decided to copy Annie and Hallie's bandana style.

After the park we went to pick up Derrick's medicine and then to the Marshall Public Library to watch a movie.  Again Annie and Derrick me up with us there.  The movie was Ferdinand which I've seen already. So I wasn't too interested in watching it again.  I went and found a book (Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose) and sat outside the movie room and read.  Annie was keeping track of Derrick and I wasn't worried about the other three so I felt fine basically ignoring them.

When the movie was over we went home and made chicken nuggets for dinner. Then we hung out in the back yard for a little bit. Here's Charlotte with her horse.

Everyone (except Veronica) had fun on the rope swing.

We went inside and the kids watched a movie while I kept reading.  I'd forgot to drink water at the park and so I had a TERRIBLE headache. I was so glad I'd decided not to try to go to the Relief Society Activity.  A few days earlier I'd offered to watch my friend's three kids so she could go.  She'd replied back with, "Thanks but you already have your hands full." At the time that had felt like an overstatement.  Sure Veronica had a broken bone, but I thought I was handling everything fine.  But by Thursday I did feel like my hands were full. Veronica was injured, Derrick had an ear infection, I had a cough and a headache, and Charlotte and Lydia each had small colds.  We were a sorry mess.

So I just laid on the couch and waited for Brandon to come home and rescue us.  He wasn't doing much better though.  He'd thrown up a bunch during the night.  He felt well enough to go to work all day, and to drive home, but he really didn't have much energy.  When he finally arrived home he fit right in with the rest of our mess of a family.

Our plan for Friday had originally been to go to Bear World with Brandon's parents during the day, and then camp at the St Anthony Sand Dunes Friday Night.  Veronica's broken bone cancelled Bear World and playing on the Sand Dunes, but we'd still through about camping somewhere.  But as the week had worn on I realized that camping would be a foolish plan until more of us were feeling better.  So that got cancelled as well.

What didn't get cancelled was the visit from Brandon's parents.  They still wanted to come up to Pocatello to see Veronica.  They arrived on Friday morning and brought her a get well present - a coloring book and colored pencils in a special holder that Jacque made.  Veronica loved it.

We still wanted to do something fun on Friday so we decided to go to Soda Springs.  Steve and Jacque had never been there so they were excited to go.  We all rode together in the Honda.  First we stopped at Hooper Springs.

The water is naturally carbonated.  Brandon filled up a pitcher of water and then added drink mix to it. It was like drinking soda.  We drank that with out picnic lunch.

There was a playground nearby and the kids went to play there.  Soon the adults joined them.  Jacque and Brandon played on the see saw together.

Then we went to the center of town where there is a geyser.  This geyser was unleashed by accident back in the 1930's or something like that.  It's on a timer so it erupts every hour on the hour.

It's a cold water geyser so you don't have to worry about the water being too hot. The kids played in the run off stream while we waited for it to erupt.

When it did erupt we played in the water.

Afterward we noticed some new signs that told people to stay off the geyser surface.  OOPS we'd played in the geyser last year and those signs hadn't been there.  The rules must have changed in the last year.

The kids were soaked and cold so we changed them into the back up clothes I always keep in the car and then we drove home.  It had been a fun time.

Friday had felt like Saturday so it was weird to have another Saturday the next day.  Derrick had been playing with his wooden train set all week and started asking to go to the train museum.  Luckily it was open that weekend.  We walked there and he practically ran the whole way.

Veronica came too and had fun with the toy trainset.

We went home, but ended up coming back about an hour later.  Derrick really needed his train fix.

In the afternoon Brandon took the twins to a birthday parky at Deleta and I took the other two grocery shopping.  That evening we watched Anastasia for movie night.

Today was Father's Day, but we didn't do anything special for it.  We were just too tired.

When I got ready for church I noticed how much clearer my skin is.  I've had a rash or some other sort of breakout on my cheeks for months.  I've attributed it to stress.  Well thanks to the Photofacial I had a few weeks ago it's almost all cleared up. All my sun damage on my forehead is gone too.  I'm pretty impressed by the results. I guess that rancher/spa owner knew what he was doing afterall.

Our neighbor has this big wildflower in front of his house.  As we walked to church we remarked that it's taller than all the kids.  So we had to take pictures of course. Here's Lydia.

And Charlotte.

And Veronica.  (Brandon somehow preformed a miracle when he got her into these clothes.)

After church we alternated relaxing in the house and relaxing outside.  Brandon was able to take a nap.  Then he got up and made hamburgers for dinner.  Later we had ice cream sandwiches for dessert.

We had a nice time in the backyard. Brandon and I looked at some homes in Twin Falls online.  We've been eyeing some and Brandon has met with a realtor.  He's hoping to go look at some this week.

The kids ate peas right out or our garden.  They loved them.

Then it was time to get ready for bed and Brandon started packing up his stuff to go back to Twin Falls.  He told me to try to have a normal week this week.  I'm hoping I can follow through with that.

And so ended week two of our summer vacation.