October Camping Trip

October 2014 - We took a camping trip up near Truckee with Kaulana and Michelle and their girls. We took the Teryx and dirt bikes with us. I was really nervous about Kurt being on his bike but he really wanted to ride.

There were beautiful fall colors all around.

And, of course, we had to take jumping pictures.

I love this picture of Kurt and Evan. I was driving the Teryx behind them so getting a picture was very tricky. This was my best one. They were both standing up riding - a boy and his dad. So sweet!

So beautiful!

Evan had a major wipe out on this trip. His biggest yet. We were on the dirt road back to camp, which was a pretty smooth road. Hailey and I came around a corner in the Teryx and up ahead we see Evan's bike on it's side off to one side of the road and Kurt's bike on it's side off to the other side of the road and a pile of bodies in the middle. My. Heart. Stopped. I didn't know who was hurt or what had happened. Hailey was driving so I told her to GO, GO, GO! In her shock, she came to a complete stop. I told her to GO again so she went a little bit and stopped again. I finally got out of the Teryx and ran to the bodies. Evan was on the ground and Kurt was bending over him. Evan had hit a tree root that he didn't see because of some shadows on the road and had flipped over his handle bars. This kid goes up the craziest hillsides and does some amazing things but it was a tree root on a normal road that wiped him out. Poor kid. After sitting there for awhile, he calmed down and was able to ride back to camp. Ever since this fall he has been pretty timid on the bike. Overall, this was a very fun and relaxing trip. Can't wait to go camping again!

A Time Out and Hank Smith!

September 2014 - I signed up for Time Out for Women and my girls, along with their friends, signed up for Time Out for Girls. These are 2 day events where speakers from our church come and speak to us. They are inspirational, motivational, hysterical, joyful, and wonderful events. And we were super excited this year because Hank Smith was speaking to the girls. We LOVE Hank Smith. He is a LDS youth speaker that is just amazing! We own every single one of his CD's and my kids love him (ok, Kurt and I love him too!). And the girls were going to get to see him LIVE! Oh, man, were we excited!

And Kurt and I were also very jealous. I wanted to see Hank Smith speak in person too! I kept brainstorming ways to sneak into the girls room so I could see him speak. And talk about jealous! Kurt was joking about dressing up as a girl so he could sneak into the event and see Hank too! I honestly think there was some seriousness to his joking!

Well, the first day they made an announcement that there needed to be a change in the speaking program for the Women because one of the speakers needed to attend a funeral. There was a hole in the speaking program and guess who they decided to have fill in? HANK. SMITH. No way!!! I was going to get to see him too! How awesome was that! When I text that juicy little info to Kurt, he was doubly jealous!

We got to meet Hank after the event finished on Saturday.

Here we are with Hank:

We also got to meet several other amazing speakers. I had a ton of photos but now I can't find them. I have no idea what happened to them and how they disappeared but these few photos remained.

 Here is Kayla with Calee Reed. She is an amazing singer!

This is not a very good picture but Noelle Pikus-Pace is in there. She won silver medal in the 2014 Olympic Games in skeleton racing. She spoke to both the girls and the women and was amazing! She is in the back, just under the 2 girls heads. I actually got some great pictures of my girls with her but I have no idea where they went.

This was an amazing event and we can't wait to go again this year!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful women in our lives. We are so truly blessed to have so many amazing mothers, aunts, sisters, cousins, and friends that we get to call family.

This Mother's Day we are especially thinking of our moms. Kurt and I were both blessed with 2 amazing moms! Why we both had to lose our moms so early is beyond us. We say it was because we needed so much help and they could help us better from Heaven. They probably have a whole team of angles working to keep us going down here. =-)

Robin and Richard are wearing white.

I never had the opportunity to meet Robin. She passed away before Kurt and I met. Kurt says his mom picked me for him. He knows she had a hand in getting us together. Her biggest challenge was buying time for him while I grew up as there are almost 6 years between us. 

Richard and Robin

From the stories I have been told, she was a truly remarkable woman. If you wanted something done, she was the one to go to. She was also loved to cook and sew. I truly wish I could have met her here on Earth and I can't wait for the day we meet in Heaven.

Robin

 Oh man, how much I miss my mom! I can't even begin to describe it. Not a day goes by that I don't think about her. This past year has been especially rough without her. I have felt the impact of her loss so much. Sometimes you just need to talk to your mom. Sometimes you just need to hear her voice or feel her arms around you to make things better. A mom's hug can soothe a troubled soul so much. And it is really hard when you can't have that. I would give anything to talk to her again. I miss her so much!

Linda and Dave

 My mom was so fun to be around. She always had a positive attitude and had a great way of getting through things. I sure could have used her during this last year. I know she would have helped me so much. I am sure she did help a lot from Heaven but it sure would have been nice to have her here with me.

Linda and Dave

If your mom is still alive, please cherish her. Not just today on Mother's Day but everyday. Even those days that she may be driving you crazy because some day she may not be there and you will give anything for her to drive you crazy again. Appreciate the fact that you can hug her, call her and talk to her!

We are both so grateful for the moms that we had and for the years we had with them. We love them so much and can't wait for the day that we get to feel their arms around us again. 

We love you both so much!

Happy Mother's Day!

Labor Day Ride

September 2014 - We didn't pull a camping trip together for Labor Day so we took a ride with some friends instead. We went up to Cisco Grove and explored the area. We found this lake and the kids had fun playing on some rocks in the water. Kayla is sitting on an rock that was just at water level so it looked like they were floating on water.

The boys, Evan and Nik, on the rock.

 Hailey on a slightly larger rock.

 Teaching Hailey to drive.

Beautiful views while we ate lunch.

Then we found another lake. The moms told the kids to stay out of the water. The dads laughed at us and said "you guys are fighting a loosing battle." And we did loose, big time. The kids, who I don't think have nerve endings that work, ended up getting completely soaked.

We strapped some logs together to make a raft.

The roots of a fallen tree.

Either we are getting ready to rob a bank or we are trying not to eat dust on the trail.

It was a great day and lots of fun. The weather was beautiful and it was really nice to get away from everything and just have fun with the kids.

Thank goodness for pictures!

The reality is that last year was HARD! Kurt's condition, my scare and surgery, Evan's surgery (which was unsuccessful), trying to keep the business running, more health problems and procedures for me, each child had issues arise from Kurt's hospitalization so we had to figure out the best way to help each one of them (which, of course, they were all different!), Evan's 2nd surgery, making BIG decisions about different things, dealing with problems at the business, etc. My nerves were shot. I had a really hard time. October and November were really hard months. I struggled bad. The stress of worrying about Kurt's aneurysm is exhausting. He has this large aneurysm just sitting in there and I was (and still am) constantly worried that it would (or could) rupture. I am doing better now with this but it still worries me. It is never out of my mind.

Looking back at those months, I couldn't really tell you anything good about them. I just remember feeling completely overwhelmed and exhausted BUT thank goodness for pictures! I look back at picture and realize that we had some great times during those hard times. We were so BLESSED! How easy it is to forget that during hard times. So I am choosing to look back and those months and see the good times. Here is one of them:

August 2014 - Kurt wanted to take his crew on a deep sea fishing trip. Our friend, Marty, knew how to organize one so Kurt and Marty invited friends to come along with our crew. We decided to make it a camping trip also. We had been discussing the idea of a puppy (but I totally wasn't ready!) and found some white labs that we wanted to visit down by Monterey. So we planned it out and made a trip to see puppies, stay at the ocean and then travel up to Bodega Bay, where they were leaving for the fishing trip.

I didn't get any pictures at the puppy house. They were absolutely adorable and so cute but, like I said, I just wasn't ready to take on a puppy. I knew my nerves and stress level just couldn't handle tackling that right then. We then drove to the beach at Seaside and stayed the night. The next morning we got up and walked down to the beach and had a great time!

Look at this amazing family that we have!

Our first attempt at a family selfie! Hey, where's Evan?

2nd attempt - there he is!

A jogger had mercy on us and took a picture for us!

The girls being silly!

Then we found this awesome ledge to jump off. I don't even know how long we stayed there jumping but we have a LOT of jumping shots!

The walk back to the trailer.

Then we drove up to Bodega Bay, where the ship was going to be leaving from the next day. We were able to park the trailer right in the parking area and this was our view right out our door.

 These are the most amazing guys we could ever ask for! They were so understanding during the weeks of Kurt's hospitalization. Kurt was so worried that he was going to loose his crew due to no work but they told us not to worry, that they would be there when we were ready. We are so truly blessed to have them work for us! Kurt wanted to thank them so we took them on this trip.

Evan and his buddies Hunter and Nik.

Ok, so the trip didn't go as expected. The water was really rough and the boat rocked a LOT! As soon as they hit the open water Kurt started throwing up. His system just couldn't handle the rocking motion. He started the trend was shortly followed by just about everyone on the boat. They pulled in hours earlier than I expected them and I got really nervous and thought something was wrong, possibly with Kurt (see, never out of my head) but they had came back early because everyone was sick. The only way Kurt and his buddy Erik could stop throwing up was to lay down inside the boat like this:

That was how they spent the majority of the trip. Yikes! I am pretty sure our crew doesn't want us to thank them this way ever again =-)

Despite the sickness, I think everyone has some fun. They all got some fish to take home so there was a small victory there.

Overall, this was a great trip and one that we won't forget about for a long time! I am so thankful for pictures to remind me of the good times during the trials! I am also so thankful for my family. We have so much fun together and I love them so much!

It's Been Awhile!

Wow. Time is flying. I have been wanting to post for so long but just haven't had time.

Right now I have 4 loads of clean laundry waiting to be folded and put away but thought I would take some time for me. Kurt is at a home show, 2 kids are off at play dates, 1 little 3 year old is napping and Kayla is resting as she was up early this morning to babysit for a neighbor. All is quiet around here. Such a rare occurrence and I am going to take full advantage of it!

Where to start? Where to start?

The last year has been crazy. And hard. But we are making it through and, dare I say, starting to feel "normal" again. (I feel like I have just jinxed us so knock on wood, throw some salt over my shoulder, do the hokey-pokey and anything else to un-jinx us!) It has taken us a year to try to recover from Kurt's scare last year. I don't think we will ever be the pre-hospitalization normal again. We are having to find a new normal.

{Man, I am having a hard time writing and expressing myself. This is a lot harder than I remember. I guess I am out of practice!}

I have recently realized how much I miss blogging. I think it is very therapeutic for me. Every time I go back and read a past post, I really enjoy it and love the memories it brings me so I have determined to post more. I am sure no one is even reading blogs anymore but I will do it for me because I need it.

So what's new?

Well, here is quick update:

We got a puppy! His name is Cooper and he is super cute. We are a dog family and really missed having one around so Cooper was the kids' Christmas present. He has been a lot of fun!

The day we brought him home.

3 months old

We have taken a few camping trips (posts to come later . . . maybe).

Evan had surgery again in December. This one was a success!

We pulled Kayla out of school and started homeschooling her in January, which has been SO good for her!

I can't think of too much other than that. Life has just been busy.

Well, now that I have the first post under my belt, maybe the others will come a little easier. Here's to more posts!