Visit to Utah and then Cancun

At the end of June, we flew to Utah for a three-week vacay. 

While we were there, my twin sisters got their mission calls! They actually just went into the MTC and CTM two weeks ago now. One will be serving in Arizona and one in Florida. Both Spanish speaking.

Dan also ran a Ragnar race with all four of my brothers and one of my sisters-in-law while we were there.

My family's house is the absolute BEST place for grandkids in the summer. There are baby animals everywhere!

Lambs

Gosling

Kittens

 And then there's Grandpa's motorcycle...

And Grandpa's back...

We were also able to meet up with some friends who used to live in NC--the Rappleyes! Fun times. 

And we went up to Idaho and spent a weekend in the Tetons with Dan's family. 

All of the six kids, four spouses, and eight grandkids were there. The babies aren't in this picture :)

Here's one with everybody:

And the brothers (+ Mike) put in a new wall in the loft.

So then Dan and I left the kids with the grandparents and flew to Cancun...

The first couple days we stayed on Isla Mujeres, which is far more beautiful than Cancun itself. We loved it. 

We met our friends the Vanderwerkens there.

We went swimming with whale sharks (which was super cool):

 (It is really hard to take pictures of them so I stole this from the interwebs:)

You usually can't see them quite this well because they only come up to the surface for a second and then go back down. 

The beaches on Isla Mujeres were the most beautiful beaches of anywhere I have ever ever seen. The water was shallow and warm and clear and perfect!

We went and saw the Mayan ruins in Tulum. It was like 110 degrees. I was only 4.5 months pregnant at that point, but I guess that combined with the heat and walking was tough on my constitution. I felt myself getting really lightheaded and had to lie down on the grass before I passed out. And then my hands started going numb, which has happened before to me when I'm not getting enough oxygen. All these nice strangers were trying to help me cool off by giving me fruit and coke and water and fanning me. I was sooo embarrassed though and started crying! Which made it worse, of course. But I quickly recovered and we continued on our tour.

This was right before I almost passed out. You can tell I'm not feeling well by that happy smile on my face ;). 

Check out the color of that water!

These guys are doing a traditional Mayan dance/ritual thing. 

These cute Mexican sisters were selling bracelets they made. Dan had fun talking to them in Spanish. The little one I think was only seven years old! And don't ask what is going on with my hair. I have no idea. 

We also went swimming with Sea Turtles (why do I have no pictures of this?!) and then swimming in a Cenote, which was freezing cold compared to the Ocean, but it was still really neat. There were lots of tiny fish that would come nibble on our toes if we stood still enough.

And did I mention the Iguanas? Huge, fat ones everywhere!

Basically, taking an exotic trip without babies is amazing. I hope we can do it again soon :). And next time I'd rather not be pregnant either ;).

Destruction Today

I'm going to take a break from catch-up posts and write about today.

All my married life, I have bought used dining tables/chairs off of craig's list whenever we moved in, and resold them whenever we moved out. They were always used and scuffed and old. Until last week. I was so excited to finally be the owner a lovely, white, NEW dining table. It was this one:

And it extends to fit more people. 8 if we squeeze.

I even bought a tablecloth to protect the loveliness. This morning while I was washing the tablecloth, Luke decided to try carving the top of my lovely new table. He took the razor out of my paper trimmer and used it directly on the table. There are probably 6 or 7 deep brown scratches on the top of it now.

So today was a sad sad day for me :(. I never knew I would be so heartbroken over a table, but gosh darn it! I took joy in that table, and now it is forever scratched up. I know this won't matter and I will surely laugh about it in ten years, but it is so frustrating right now to have kids destroy things! And speaking of destroying things--also today Ivy knocked off my porcelain blue and yellow cow salt and pepper shakers that I got from my dad probably fifteen years ago, and now they are in pieces. I'm sad about that too.

Feel free to commiserate by sharing any stories of your own destructive children :).

That One Time When Luke Bit a Hole Through His Tongue

This is old news by now, but here is the story. 

It was a normal Sunday at church in June. I was in the primary room because I was conducting that Sunday. About thirty minutes before the end of church, Luke's sunbeam teacher came to the primary room door and urgently beckoned me to come out. When I walked out the door I saw Luke, crying hard, with blood all over his face and shirt. He had a paper towel in his mouth. 

His teacher explained that he had been carrying his chair to the front of the classroom and had tripped and slammed his chin on the top of the table. His teeth went all the way through his tongue. The primary president went and found Dan in YMs and then she offered to take Violet after church. My other friend in the primary presidency said she would take Ivy. Dan and I then drove Luke home where we researched what to do about punctured tongues. A lot of times I guess tongues heal on their own, but if the damage is really bad, they will need to be stitched together. 

Dan and I decided to take Luke to the urgent care center near our house. The doctor there agreed that the puncture was indeed a bad one, and he referred us to the Children's ER at Duke Hospital in Durham. He said that he thought the tongue would have to be stitched up and Luke needed general anesthesia (not something they do at Urgent Care). So we drove thirty minutes to Durham and then waited and waited (of course) to be seen by doctors in the ER. We were seen by nurses, student doctors, and finally a couple professional doctors. In the end they agreed to do nothing and that the tongue should heal on its own. Of course this was after the $500 co-pay for the E.R. (!)

Anyway, we are glad that nothing had to be done and that Luke was okay. Poor boy gets hurt a lot. His tongue healed up very nicely in just a few days, which was good because we were flying to Utah that Tuesday! But doesn't it stink when you have to pay doctors a bunch of money for doing nothing?!

Catch Up - Pics from June

June was so far back I can't really remember what we did, but I'm posting these pictures so they are all here somewhere :). 

Ivy likes to sleep in places other than her bed.

I had my first prenatal visit for this pregnancy. 

The doctors and nurses asked, "So was this pregnancy planned?!"

Violet had her ballet performance of Cinderella, so there were dress rehearsals and concerts which we all got to go to. 

Not sure if this video even works, but we'll try it:

Ivy climbed at the play ground....

And on the counter...

(She was looking for a potty treat!)

And there aren't any pictures of Luke in this one but the next post will be all about his tongue :). 

Catch Up - Aunt Michelle Comes to Visit

I haven't blogged in ages! Here are some pictures back when Aunt Michelle and William came to visit us in North Carolina. I was in my first trimester and so we flew her out to help us get through it :).  She actually had quite a rough flight coming out--her layover turned into an overnight event because weather in Houston (?) canceled all the outgoing flights. So she had to share a hotel room with two random strangers and William. 

While she was here we went strawberry picking. Then Chelle made strawberry jam for us!

We also went to the beach in Wilmington. And I was lucky enough to receive a lecture from a busybody stranger who thought I was letting my kids run too far.

Here we are at the nature preserve in Cary. They have watering days for little tots to come water their plants and learn about gardening. Good idea for free child labor, eh? Smart city, Cary :). 

And here is a picture of me and Michelle right before she flew back to Utah. She stayed with us for 12 days and we had lots of fun.

Spring Soccer

No, this isn't about the World Cup. I couldn't care less about that. Watching soccer on T.V. is even worse than watching football on T.V.! I have a hard time caring about any sport unless I care about the players :). I don't get how you can just pick a random team and root for them. Especially if it isn't a team from your state or your school. Why would you care?

Anyway, this post is about our kids' soccer teams. Luke and Violet both got to be on soccer teams with a local church here--Colonial Baptist Church.  I kind of wish our church would organize sports for kids!

 I'm so grateful that churches do these teams because it is so much cheaper than private or city leagues. It was only $30 for the whole season and included a soccer jersey and a trophy at the end for each child.

The coaches and assistants were all volunteers, and they were all wonderful. They would end their emails with things like "In Christ, Coach Eric" or other such faithful closing statements. I love how they are all so open about their faith.

In the middle of the hour of soccer they do a devotional where they read a few scriptures from the bible together. It is really sweet. And then the parents take turn bringing snacks to have at the end.

 We never got our kids the right footwear or shin guards...oh well. Next time :).

And Luke scored a goal on his last day! Quite a difference compared to his first week, where he only played for about 5 minutes and then wanted to hang out with me on the sidelines for the rest of the time.