Sum, Sum, Summer Time

A whirlwind summer this year started off with a 12 hour car trip to Utah to see our sweet cousin baptized.  The monkeys had a great time with cousins playing outside, staying up way too late - due to the fact the sun doesn't go down until 9:00ish every night.

The weather was perfect and the week was spent visiting ALL the "mormony" spots around Salt Lake.  We even got to meet THE Clive Romney.  My Aunt is the Vice President of the D.U.P. (Daughters of the Utah Pioneers) and she arranged for us to come to the museum for a story hour where he was performing.  The kids got to participate in his songs and stories, singing, dancing, playing instruments.  All this was captured on my cell phone.  Fun, fun memories thrown into the pool 2 weeks later...silly me.

A whole day dedicated to "This Is the Place Heritage Park" Panning for gold, riding horses, making necklaces, climbing, running, riding trains.  All in a days work!

Of course, what day would be complete without ice cream?!

Thanksgiving Point...thank goodness for "hands on" exhibits!!!

My sweet cousin Russell

We even dragged Great Grandma along on anything we could!

Pioneer Museum.  The girls spent the majority of the time dressing up and dancing...they even got Grandma and my aunt to dance with them! That picture was left out to preserve the dignity of those mentioned.

Salt Lake Temple and Temple Square...highlight - watching ALL the brides around the temple!

After a week in Utah, we spent another 10 hours in the car and headed to California.  Beach time, pool time, Disneyland, the usual hot spots...you should know my routine by now.  The camera went missing during this time, most pictures were taken on the same phone that I threw in the pool...remind me NOT to talk on the phone while trying to clean the backyard and pool!

 

Then it was home time, but only for  5 days.  My dad decided to have a heart attack, and for journaling purposes, here's the story:  Thursday, Dad took his boys to Lake Powell for the annual "Guys" Trip.  While there he found he was having a hard time breathing with a lot of pressure on his chest.  He hadn't been feeling well for awhile and just chalked it up to "coming down with something".  The pain and pressure subsided on Friday and he went waterskiing as usual.  Saturday night came with the same pain and pressure and continued until Tuesday night, when at the temple, the pain got worse and he was super tired.  He sat down for a minute when another worker looked at him and told him he was having a heart attack.  Dad said he was fine and just needed to finish the last veil.  Darn man won't give up.  Mom and Brother Dickson persisted and mom took dad to the hospital.  On the way, they passed the Alicia exit (home) and dad said to mom, "just take me home, I'm fine, just really tired."  Mom refused and took him straight to the hospital.  At first the thought was he was fine because all his vitals were perfect, upon further inspection it was determined that indeed he was having a heart attack and had been sustaining one for several days - remember Thursday!?  He had seconds to live, and only the skill of wonderful doctors and a very powerful blessing, dad pulled through.  He had one artery completely blocked, and the other two were 70% and 30% blocked.  He now has a stent and is good to go.  It was touch and go for awhile and very scary.  All 8 of us rushed to his bedside, and while the rule in ICU is only 2 visitors at a time, the nurses quickly realized that there is no keeping us out when we are determined, and yes...ALL 8 kids were in the room at any given time, plus a wonderful brother-in-law and cute as poop nephew.  I ended up staying to help with the business while dad recovered and that is how we spent our summer.  Jeff was wonderful, and amidst many obstacles, managed to get the motorhome and the monkeys to me a week and a half after I took off in the middle of the night.  I tried to make it fun for them while working, we did manage to hit the beach at least 1/2 a dozen times, Disneyland 3 times and a wonderful neighbor's pool 3-4 times.  The weather was wonderful and they were able to play outside to their heart's content.  While the reason for spending the summer in California wasn't one I would have chosen, I'm glad we were able to be there and have fun at the same time.   Now it's time for school to start and attempt "normal" life again...whatever that is.