Nate and Lindsey

Our broken armed boy celebrated his "dirty 3rd-y" with an orange cast. He wanted an orange cake and got some Mickey Mouse figurines that he takes everywhere!

I had my yearly checkup with my midwife a few days before Kade's birthday. We talked about my hypothyroid and she decided to check to see if it was autoimmune. The day of Kade's birthday she called me with the results saying it was indeed autoimmune and I needed to change my diet ASAP starting with cutting out gluten. She said my antibodies were over 400 and normal is < 25. Thus started my gluten free journey.

helping make his orange birthday cake!

We celebrated the 4th at Oma and Opa's with cousins, swimming, a BBQ and fireworks!

Since our spring break plans to visit Arizona were ruined, thanks again corona, we finally made a trip down in July when we heard Nate's sister would be in town. Nate's other sister heard we'd all be in town and she decided to go down as well! It turned into a mini reunion and we had so much fun!

First, the doctor was not supposed to be in the office the day we needed Kade's cast off. We were leaving the next morning and he wasn't going to be back into the office for another 24 hours. Thankfully, it all worked out and they let him get it off one day early! He was very left handed before he broke his left arm but with the cast had to figure some things out right handed. When the cast came off he was still doing many things right handed and I was getting bummed, but since then he seems to have gone back to left, yay!

Next, Spencer's last t-ball game was the day we wanted to leave. Of course it was a late game but I'm glad we stayed for it. Plus he got a medal and team pictures after the game. We were packed and ready to go so headed straight to Utah afterward. We were staying at Nate's little brother's house and got there about 1:15am. The next morning we got up and drove the rest of the way, but we did stop for lunch at In n Out and eating a burger animal style is just not the same. Bah humbug. But, we got our lunch and took it to a dinosaur themed park with a splash pad. The boys loved that even though it was HOT! While we were eating under an overhang a lady commented that Garrett must have been playing hard since his cheeks were so red. I laughed because he hadn't left the shade since we'd been there! Why were we headed to Arizona in July?? We made it to AZ and had a great week!

The boys loved playing with their cousins. Kade and Max were adorable playing cars on the patio every morning. One morning I went out there and Max held up a car and told me, "this is a hot wheels." Kade picks up a car and tells me, "and this is a warm wheels."

proof that it does rain in the desert!

The morning after we got there things got exciting. Nate's mom had a nose bleed that wouldn't stop. She was eventually taken to an ENT and he pulled a vascular polyp out of her nose. Kind of crazy but we're so glad she's ok!

We went swimming at Nate's uncle's house, visited the temple grounds, took the kids to a splashpad, had a bonfire with smores, celebrated my birthday, watched fireworks, ran one time and about died because it was so dang hot, swam in Aaron and Alyssa's neighborhood pool, had my first gluten free pizza, shopped with Nate's sister and daughter (she's 9 and we wear the same size shoe!), Kade got to open more birthday presents, and once everybody left we took the boys to the Desert Museum and had the place to ourselves because no one else was dumb enough to go out in 100+ degrees! but we actually got a nice little storm and it tried to rain so it wasn't horrible.

We had our sister in law try her hand at talking some family pictures in the desert and I think she did a tremendous job, especially considering how uncooperative our children are! We've already printed some!

The best part of our trip was actually the way home! Nate's parents came with us and we stopped at all these cool Indian ruins along the way; Montezuma Castle, Tuzigoot, Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater and then we got an AirBnB in Flagstaff for the night and Nate's parents treated us to dinner. Plus the drive through Sedona was incredible! I want to go back and spend time there! The next morning we went to Wupatki and then headed toward the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, stopping at Jacob's Lake for lunch. We then drove back to Utah to stay with Nate's brother again. We didn't get in until 2:15am but it was worth it to learn about all the ruins and just to see the Grand Canyon is amazing and makes you realize how small you are or how vast the world is. It makes me want to see more!

The fun didn't stop there though, the next day we had tickets to Lagoon! This was maybe the one good thing to come from corona? You had to make reservations in advance because they were limiting the number of people allowed in the park. Because they were limiting the amount of people, the lines were almost non existent! The longest line we waited in was the log ride which was maybe 10 minutes? But most rides the boys could just walk up to and get on! We played at the water park for a bit and wore Garrett out and he slept in the stroller which was awesome!

Spencer wanted to ride some of the big rides so I went with him on Wicked, one that goes straight up and straight down. The whole way there are signs saying secure loose items like cell phones, hats and sunglasses. So I spent the few minutes waiting tucking in my phone and sunglasses without even thinking about Spencer wearing a hat. We got on the ride and I was SO nervous! We make it straight up and on the straight down I see Spencer's hat fly off, it hovered for just a minute I even tried to grab it! He yelled, "my hat!!" and then just started crying! The ride's still going and I'm alternating between laughing at his sobs, screaming myself, and telling him to calm down. By the time we got off he was just sobbing. I think people thought I was a terrible parent because they assumed I forced him on the ride and it scared him. The reality is he forced me! And even though he was crying about losing his hat, I think it was covering that he was scared on the roller coaster. As we got off I asked one of the attendants if there was any chance of getting the hat back, they said if we stayed until close and went to lost and found they collect all the lost items and return them there. The next roller coaster we went on we could see his hat so I knew we had a good chance of getting it back and sure enough as the park closed it was there at lost and found! Yay! Happy to end on a good note, it was a fun and exhausting day!

The day we got back from our big Arizona adventure, my little brother, his wife and baby flew into town for the week! We hadn't seen them in almost a year so we were excited to see them! We packed tons of fun into one short week starting with a belated birthday celebration for my sister and I. The next day we went to the lake for an afternoon of boating, playing in the water and eating too much junk. Wednesday we rode our bikes to Fanci Freez for lunch and ice cream! Thursday we went up to Bogus to ride the mountain coaster and the tubes since the rest of their summer activities are closed...corona.

Later in the week we hiked to Table Rock, first time this year. Spencer did great, Kade made Nate carry him the whole way and I carried Garrett in the backpack half the way, the other half he walked by himself.

sleepover with Oma and cousins

What a busy month!

Nate and my dad took the boys to a reservoir they'd been scoping out for a while. It was a long drive and a late night but they had a ton of fun, caught some big fish, made plans to go back, and did/have multiple times now!

Spencer played his first organized sport (he was supposed to play spring soccer, but that didn't happen thanks to COVID). He played t-ball! His best buddy was on his team and they were hilarious and totally oblivious to anything else, it was totally adorable! They played 2 games a week for something like 7 weeks and I really enjoyed watching him and I hope he'll want to play again.

We had out first experience with a broken bone! One morning Nate and Kade were wrestling around on our bed, Nate threw Kade and he stuck his arm out to catch himself and then he just let out a cry that made us know something was wrong. He immediately started babying it, didn't want to move AT ALL and just laid on our bed for about an hour whimpering and holding his arm. Nate called our previous bishop who works in orthopedics and asked him what we should do. We really appreciated him!! He called the place and warned them we were coming so that when they got there they got called right back for x-rays and sure enough, buckle fractures to both the ulna and the radius. Poor Kado! They put him in a splint and ace bandaged it with a sling and told us to come back in 2 weeks. Since this had happened right before lunch time, and it had been about 4 hours, Nate told Kade he'd get him an orange milkshake (those are Kade's favorites) when they were done at the doctor. So they get in the car to go get milkshakes and Kade vomits all over himself and the car seat. I think the adrenaline finally slowed down. It was a rough day for him!

It didn't slow him down!

We went back 2 weeks later and they hard casted him. Luckily they had orange! The blessing part of it was that the orthopedist we were seeing specializes in legs. The lady there that day who was the one doing the casting specialized in hands and arms! We felt lucky because the doctor warned us that the cast may fall off, ha. But she did a great job and she did say this was probably the smallest cast she'd ever done.

We went back to the yurt!! The same one we went to in 2014 when Spencer was 6 months old! I'm so glad we made it up there! The Rice's came up for the day on Saturday and the dads went to scope out their hunting spot. The rest of us went on hike/walks, played games, dug in the sand, laid in the hammock, ate junk food and relaxed. Spencer did great biking in, we still required a few trips for Nate and Opa back and forth. It was fun and we just hope Oma can make it next time!