Blogging Backlog

I started this catch-up post before the events of the last week interrupted life as we knew it... when our biggest worries were the flu and the aftermath it had left. It's really long and has a lot of pictures.(once again, I wish I were experienced in collages)

We are all finally better at our house. The house has been swept, scrubbed and disinfected and the literally MOUNTAINS of towels, bedding and clothes have been washed(put away is another story).

So, I was in need of some serious catching up in the blogging department before the flu interrupted normalness at our house....and normalness was actually crazy busyness, but we are starting to get used to it.

As I mentioned before, we started off the first two weeks of summer with 2 extras tagging along with our brood. So, in an effort to maintain sanity, we frequented the park and pool to give my house a break from the 6 sometimes wild kids running through it.

Tavaci...
The girls had their Tavaci concert the evening of the last day of school. They absolutely LOVE Tavaci and we were all sad when Kelli decided to call it quits for the sake of spending more time with her family (so sad for the rest of us, but totally understandable).
Here are the pics of them decked out in their super-fancy-show-duds. Naturally, they were less than cooperative when posing, but I've come to expect it.
South Dakota...

After the Tavaci concert, we went home and slept for a few hours and then got on the road for South Dakota to attend Chris's grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. The celebration was held at a park in Sturgis that was super fun. The kids had a blast on all of the equipment that included slides made just for climbing, lots of climbing walls and this little teeter-totter something that Chris and Mikala are shown demonstrating.

As long as we were in the area, we had to do the tourist thing and check out Mount Rushmore, Storybook Island and Old MacDonald's Farm(a crowd favorite).
Mount Rushmore
Unfortunately, it was freezing cold and raining and when we went to Mount Rushmore, this was all we could see...fog. Grace is showing her sisters where the faces are supposed to be.
It was really ok though, because we had just been there last fall.
The littles enjoyed the visitors center...
especially this little attraction where you choose a piece of the mountain and pump(not sure if that's the correct term) the dynamite and blow part of the mountain away on the screen.
Old Mac's Farm
My kids absolutely LOVE Old Mac Donald's farm. When you buy your admission there, it is good for 3 days, so we went back a few times since they were having so much fun. The kids loved feeding the animals and riding the ponies. There were lots of little baby animals that were so sweet. This sheep stood by the machine and helped himself when you tried to buy food.


Pig races...
We rode little horses...and pet BIG ones. This one actually bit Emma's shoulder. I think he was trying to taste her hair.

Bottle-feeding the babies...

The girls were amazed that this bunny was hanging with the chicks.Owen loved chasing the chickens and turkeys.



Storybook Island
Storybook Island is another one of our favorites and the best part is that admission is free.

Well...

Well, the funeral is over and we have learned a lot over the past week. We learned or at least realized the enormous impact parents have on our life and how incredibly hard it is to say good-bye. We also learned that we have a lot of friends...we have literally been showered with hugs, condolences, flowers, food, cards and kind thoughts and prayers. We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love we have felt in the past week.
It feels as though we should somehow feel a measure of relief or closure now that it's over. We said good-bye, the service turned out beautifully. Instead, the hurt is still there and as raw as ever. And where before we had funeral arrangements occupying our time, energy and thoughts...now, we face moving forward and it seems daunting to say the least. We must somehow begin to know a new normal where, for now at least, emptiness and longing seem to reign. We still have many commitments that will continue to keep us on the run, but the loss is always there occupying our thoughts and there will be quiet moments when it will seem unbearable. We felt one such quiet moment the other evening once the funeral was over, the dinner was cleaned up and family had headed home....then it hit us, we just laid on the bed and cried again. Lily came in and this was our exchange.
Lily, "What are you guys doing?"
Chris, " We are thinking about grandpa and how much we miss him. What are you thinking?"
Lily, "Just about having some ice cream."
We laughed for a long time and it felt good to cry from laughing rather than emptiness.
We are so thankful for our family and the happiness our children bring into our lives. We wish they had more time with their grandpa so they could know from their own experience what a great man he was, but we are thankful for the time they did have with him. For the most part, they are too young to fully grasp the fact that he is gone. Grace is just old enough to understand on some level and it hits her now and then and she sits and cries for a while.
As young as Owen is, we know he won't remember Lloyd, but we know he loved him. When we took him to the funeral home during the family viewing, Owen was so excited to see him and kept pointing and saying "grandpa". When we brought him close, he leaned in to go to him, he kept kissing him and every time he pulled away he'd laugh and wait for Lloyd to play with him. We were thankful for the experience, it made us remember all the times they played and laughed together and we realized that although Owen is small, his grandpa has made an impression on him.
We are so thankful for the knowledge we have that there is more to life than this earthly existence. We will miss sharing happy family times and being able to pick up the phone and call him for advice, but it will only be for a season. We will be together again. Thanks again for all your kind words and prayers.

A Tremendous Loss

Lloyd Edwards, Chris's dad, passed away last night. Today is Carla's birthday. I should be posting a Happy Birthday tribute to an incredibly strong, loving and resilient woman who has been an inspiration to us all. Instead, our hearts are literally breaking for her. Our hearts are breaking for us. We are hurting. We weren't ready. We never thought he'd be gone so soon. We already miss him terribly.
It's hard to believe we only have our memories left. One memory I hope I never forget and I wish my kids were older so they would never forget was how much Lloyd absolutely adored his grandbabies. He literally overflowed with love when he was with us, it radiated from him. Every time we walked through the door he rushed to meet us and hug his grandbabies. He never turned down a chance to have them over. Even yesterday, when I took the kids up to say good-bye, he opened his eyes and mouthed the words "Hi" and "I love you." It took every ounce of energy in his frail body and he never opened his eyes or tried to speak again the whole time we were there. But it was so important to him to acknowledge us that he mustered everything in him to let us know he loved us. We LOVE you Lloyd! You have left a legacy that will never be forgotten.

When mom is sick....

kids must cook breakfast for themselves...
I wandered from my bedroom to the kitchen in a flu fog, to find this...



...and a little salt to finish it all off.

Quarantine

We have officially quarantined ourselves. We will not be leaving the house in the near future as 3 of our 4 littles are currently puking. We have even had synchronized pukers...as in one puker puking in the toilet and one in the bucket all at the same. So, if you need to reach us, may I suggest a phone call or email perhaps?....since dropping by would quite possibly be hazardous to your health.

Seriously!?!

Ok, so we have pretty much disappeared from the blogging scene the last few weeks and posts about what we have been up to are forthcoming...
BUT I needed to get this posted while the experience is fresh. Today was my girls first day of gymnastics in Powell. I signed them up BEFORE I knew that Chris would be teaching summer school and I would have extra kids for the first couple weeks of summer...but who knows? I probably would have signed them up anyway because I'm just a little crazy like that.
Anywho, Grace rolled into a somersault wrong this morning and hurt her clavicle. She isn't a crier, so she never cried, but I was pretty sure it was broken by the way it appeared and how she was acting. Unfortunately, Grace's session was first, followed by Emma's session, then Lily's. So, she had to sit through their sessions before I could load up my 6 kids and head back to Lovell and take her to the doctor.
They couldn't get her into the clinic until late afternoon, so I went ahead and took her to the ER when we got back into town at around noon. We had a DELIGHTFUL doctor who shall remain nameless, but feel free to take a wild guess if you are at all familiar with the local docs.
He walked into the room, grabbed Grace's arm and moved it all around, felt her clavicle and wiggled it around a bit until she was crying for the first time since the initial incident and then he proceeded to tell me that it wasn't broken, but he'd order up some x-rays anyway(just to prove it to me, I guess).
Um...well...yeah, it was broken. Not just hairline fracture broken.....two ends overlapping jotting out in different directions broken. By the time our sympathetic doc came back after seeing the x-rays, he was at least admitting that Grace was probably in a fair amount of pain...seriously, ya think? Perhaps he just assumes most people who wander into the ER, do so because they are bored and have money burning a hole in their pocket.
Grace sporting her new brace. Unfortunately, she will be missing out on the rest of the season of t-ball(her dad is coaching, so he won't be missing it), gymnastics, art camp and swimming lessons. Poor girl.