Saturday, July 28, 2012

Nick's Birthday BBQ

Nick decided he wanted to have a barbecue with some friends for his birthday and in true Nick fashion, it centered around having it when a certain girl was available to come. :) It ended up just being a fun, casual evening with yummy food and ended with all of them crowding in the theater room downstairs watching the Olympics. I had to take this picture through the window because Brian and I were "excused" after the food was made and set out. I do need to teach Nick how to be a little more subtle, however, since when we set out the doughnuts and ice cream for dessert he came in and got a nicer, glass dessert bowl than the ones I set out and put a doughnut and both kinds of ice cream in it and served her. Sweet, yes; subtle, no...hahaha. But it just wouldn't be Nick any other way!!! :)




Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Time Flies...


Nick turned 15 yesterday and we celebrated by taking a trip to the DMV on a crowded Monday for him to take the test for his Learners Permit. It didn't quite hit me though until he got up this morning to drive me to the grocery store. As I was sitting in the passenger seat next to him I couldn't help but think about this day 15 years ago when I had to leave the hospital without him in my arms. It was one of the hardest days of my life to leave my tiny little premature, 3 pound baby in the care of the of the competent doctors and nurses in the NICU unit at LDS hospital in Salt Lake. I was having such a hard time leaving that the sweet nurse broke the rules and let me hold him for a minute before I left. I think we were only home for about 2 hours when I looked over at Brian and told him he needed to take me back to the hospital to see my baby boy. And like the good husband he is, he did. 

For the next 3 weeks I spent every waking moment sitting in the rocking chair of the Newborn ICU unit next to his incubator waiting patiently for the 20 minutes of time that I was aloud to hold him each day. It's also about the only time I looked forward to changing diapers because at least then I could touch him, even if it was through the holes in the incubator. But as he has proven throughout his life, he was a fighter and exceeded all expectations. I was told to expect a two month stay for him in the hospital but he came home 3 weeks after he was born. 

The 15 years since that day have absolutely flown by, but I have appreciated each and everyone of those days! When you're given "survival odds" by the doctor before you deliver your baby, you appreciate every moment you have with them!!!

I love this boy with all my heart and so grateful he is my son! 

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Happy 4th of July

Last Friday I saw a coupon on the Living Social site for 1/2 off paddle board rentals at Jordanelle Reservoir and purchased 4 of the coupons almost immediately. (Which I'm glad I did since they told me there were 600 coupons put on the sight and they sold out in a day and a half.) I have always wanted to try this so I was pretty excited to give it a go. I quickly found out that it's a lot harder than it looks and my 2nd key learning was that I'd lost all ability to balance...haha. I was proud that I actually achieved the standing position twice but the second time I quickly ended up in the lake...I'm not sure that I ever actually paddled from the standing position. Nick however was a pro and loved it. Hailey was a little freaked out about being in the middle of the lake on this little board and didn't want to try to stand up...which is ironic since she is the competitive swimmer in the family. Brian was doing pretty well until he wiped out watching me wipe out and then watched his oar sink to the bottom completely out of sight...I'm thinking they should have warned us the oars didn't float and he probably would've gone after it faster. They did end up charging him less than they wanted to because the company they ordered the oars from didn't tell them they did not float like normal oars either...so with the oar charge we pretty much paid what the original cost would've been without the coupon. Oh well, it was a very fun way to spend the afternoon!

 This was pretty much the only way I could get back to shore. :)
 After paddle boarding we ate lunch by the lake then headed home to get ready for a BBQ that evening.
 Nick of course was most excited about the fireworks (legal, safe fireworks)!
 We haven't bought the "Old Navy" patriotic shirts in a few years but I decided we needed to this year, only to find that they were sold out of the kids sizes so they got plain red ones.

 ...and I even made a patriotic cake that I was pretty excited about how it turned out! :)
 The night ended with the fireworks display and as I'm going through the pictures from the evening I'm realizing I have none of our family that came over to celebrate with us other than my two cute nieces in this picture. :) It was fun to spend the holiday with family that we love!!!