All By Our Lonesome

A couple of hours ago we said goodbye to Dave and Gillian. They are actually gone. For the first time in our lives Ben and I are living on our own, without any family around. We are feeling a bit lost right now. Two and a half years ago we made a bold and sudden decision to move here to Midland, and it was the best decision we've ever made. We knew no one, except for Dave & Gillian, and they essentially adopted us into their family and made us feel at home. They have done so much for each one of us individually and as a family, and we cannot thank them enough for their kindness & generosity. They will be missed.

Ben's Feet

Last year, Ben had surgery on his left foot due to what's called an Accessory Navicular bone (Kidner Procedure). Unfortunately, it's a congenital defect and he had the same surgery on his right foot yesterday. Although the doctor said this surgery went a lot more smoothly than the last one, the recovery so far has been much worse. Due to minor complications, he ended up spending 32 hours in the hospital, as opposed to the 5 hours he spent last time. He says it's the first time he's spent the night in a hospital (although he's spent more days in the E.R. than anybody I know). Thank goodness Dave and Gillian have not moved yet or else we could not have gotten through the last two days without them and Lauren.

Can you notice a difference?

What a wuss:)


Finally home and sleeping like a baby

Miracle Toy!

Last week I broke out Katelyn's old walker to see how Samuel would like it. Katelyn never got much use out of it because we lived in a carpeted apartment. But now the majority of our house is tiled and Samuel has always been extremely active, so I thought it might be a nice change from the bouncer. He had been fussy for about 20 minutes and as soon as I put him in it for the first time, he stopped. He immediately took off and was happy for about the next half hour. Now he'll cruise around the house in that thing forever. It's his, and my, favorite new toy. I love tile floors!


It's a good teether too!

Happiest Place On Earth!

Every summer for the past 11 years, my family has vacationed at what the Castleton's consider to be the happiest place on earth, Lake Shasta(except for Linda). It's a gorgeous lake in Northern California with tons of trees, clean water, and almost always perfect weather(except for this year with all the fires and super low water). We go with 4 other families from our home Stake and live on houseboats for a week having the time of our lives wakeboarding, floating, cliff jumping, playing games, watching movies, eating good food, not sleeping, and on and on... We even have our own testimony meeting on the one Sunday we are there, which is my favorite Sacrament meeting of the year. This year Ben couldn't come and this was my first time traveling with two kids, so my sister Debbie met me in Vegas to help with the rest of the trip(can you say 'lifesaver'). The whole week was really hard without Ben and even though I'll never do it again, it was still totally worth it. Thanks Grammy & Poppy. Can't wait until next year!

Katelyn has always LOVED the boat rides...

but Samuel couldn't quite decide how he felt about it

Katelyn's new best Shasta buddy, Caitlin Redford

Grammy & Katelyn floating

Samuel & Aunt Stacey

My little flag girl

Katelyn driving the boat, in circles

'till next year...

Samuel had a major milestone while we were at Shasta. For the 10 minutes I was outside for, Poppy and his Uncle Gavin witnessed him roll over for the first time. I know it's not very exciting to most of you, but we are your typical annoyingly proud parents who want to share every little moment of our child's life. Enjoy!