San Diego!!

The last of our summer travels was to San Diego with the Rodgers clan. My parents rented out a beach house for a week that was as close as you can get to the water. We had a great time, it was so nice and relaxing. We drove to Mesa on Friday night and spent the night at my parent's house to break up the driving a little. Saturday morning we drove to Yuma and stopped to visit our friend Cynthia for awhile. It was great to have a stop right in the middle of the drive, and of course to have a chance to visit our friends that we don't see very often. After that we continued on and Conner slept the rest of the way so it worked out perfectly. It was dinner time by the time Cade and I arrived so we just picked up some food and then took the little boys to walk along the beach before it got dark.

Here is a sunset view from our beach house.

And a daytime view. We should have brought binoculars because we saw a few dolphins and sea otters from the window but it was a little far to get a good look.

On Sunday we went to the Mormon Battalion Museum. It was more interesting than I thought it would be. One of the workers mentioned that it is the 2nd most visited church site, only Temple Square in Salt Lake gets more visitors. And then Nauvoo is 3rd, I believe he said. After that we walked around the San Diego temple, which of course is beautiful.

Panning for gold at the Mormon Battalion.

Ashley, Caryn, and R.J. at the temple. The Jensens left before we arrived so Carol Ann wasn't able to be in the siblings picture.

Just cute little Alyza

Having family game time

On Monday we spent most of the day at the beach. I was planning on the water being fairly cold, which is too cold for me because I'm a wimp when it comes to cold water. But actually the water wasn't too bad, unfortunately though it was cloudy most of the week so being out of the water was surprisingly cold. I even used my towel as a blanket now and then. We bought a beach umbrella just for this trip and never even used it because most of the time we wanted to be in the sun to stay warm.

No trip to the beach is complete without building a sand castle.

Those who helped on the masterpiece: Tyler, Blake, Tyson, Emma, Conner, Caryn, Eli

Lounging around during one of the few sunny times.

R.J. taking a picture of us from the beach house.

On Tuesday, Blake, Ashley, Cade and I went to see some tide pools. It was really pretty, and the cloudy weather made it the perfect temperature. It was also great that my parents stayed at the beach house while Conner took a nap so we didn't have to drag him along and carry him up and down lots of steps.

 Grandma and Alyza hanging out.

Conner playing peek-a-boo with Alyza

Just before the tide pools we stopped at some nearby monument and there was a submarine taking off.

Don't fall in!

The pictures do it no justice. Also I'm not posting a lot of them because I just looked terrible in them.

On Wednesday we just lounged around more. I don't think we even got in the water. In the morning some of us went on a walk in the other direction and found this marina. Then the kids played at a nearby park for awhile.

Playing on the beach.

How has this kid not tired of this game?! It was a lot of work to push that truck back and forth through the sand everyday but he insisted on doing it.

On Thursday the Entrekins and us took a ferry to Coronado Island. Since we took our sweet time getting ready for everyday, we didn't have a lot of time once on the island. Ashley and Blake high tailed it over to some famous hotel, while the Johnsons sat and had lunch. It was a nice little boat ride for Conner though.

Emma did all of our hair the same.

Friday morning Cade went to see some aircraft carrier by himself. I didn't think it was an activity I cared to spend money on. He said it was really interesting, and it must have been because he was there for hours. Then we spent one last long afternoon at the beach. Poor Conner was worn out from all the fun and fell asleep in my arms and stayed asleep for over 3 hours.

Carol Ann had a little business to take care down at the beach.

Cade and Blake boogie boarding. 

Conner really did like going in the water, at least up to his thighs, but for some reason he did not want to get in the water at that precise moment. 

Saturday morning was clean up time and then we headed out. Of course right as we were leaving our car wouldn't start, but luckily the Jensens were prepared with jumper cables and got us right on our way. Sometime during the week our camera gave out so we didn't get to take pictures of everything, including when my MOM wanted to race me down the beach. I couldn't believe it, but we did it and she kept up the whole way (mind you I was carrying Conner and a baby in my stomach).

 Thanks for the trip mom and dad!!

The whole family. Its great having this up to date picture (until September when baby Entrekin is born)

Vacations, Vacations

We spent the last month going on lots of little trips and vacations. And now that I'm feeling good again and have some time I will finally write about them. The first trip was an impromptu camping trip. Cade had to go to Chinle (on the Navajo Reservation) for work so Conner and I tagged along and spent a night camping. The next day we drove through Canyon de Chelly with the husband of one of Cade's employee's as our guide. He used to be a guide there, so that was fun.

We have a toilet bucket to go camping with, but Cade said this campsite had a flushable toilet and he didn't pack our bucket. But the toilet was some contraption that involved pouring a bucket of water down the toilet to flush it and I just really didn't like the looks of the whole thing. (I'm very picky about the facilities that I use.) So my only other option was to just go around our campsite. This wasn't very easy since there were almost no trees or logs around and other campers pretty close by. I couldn't find anything to lean against so Cade tried to demonstrate how I should position myself to pee. I'm not sure he really understands the female anatomy because doing it his way would mean I either had to take my pants completely off or get them completely soaked. Anyway, I managed a way that involved the very small tree and picnic table that you see in the picture, and Cade as a barrier from any possible onlookers. But in the middle of the night I had to go again, really badly. So I got brave enough and went by myself and about a minute after I got back in the tent I started hearing some funny noises. For a minute I thought it was a dog from the campsite over but it was getting louder and then definite growling. I looked outside and I thought for a second that it was a bear, but it turned out to be a wild dog standing on his hind legs on our table, trying to get into our cool chest. Thankfully we hadn't left any food out. It ended up being 2 wild dogs and I woke up Cade and he tried to tell me they couldn't hurt us because we were in a tent. I told him that was ridiculous since they could tear our tent to shreds if they wanted to. Luckily though Cade's flashlight scared them off and he moved the cool chest into the truck. But if they had come just a couple minutes sooner I probably would have been eaten alive while I went to the bathroom! 

You can see the ancient rock writings in this picture.

How would you like to live in houses built in crevices on the side of huge rock walls? 

It was a little uneasy just driving our truck under rocks that could potentially crush us to smithereens at any moment. 

More houses- I sure wouldn't run out for errands if I had to go to so much work to climb up to my house.

That weekend the boys went on the Father's and Sons camp out and had a great time. A friend brought his Ranger and they spent a lot of time riding around in it.

Conner wandering away, maybe following this guy in the ward.

Conner and Kase in the Ranger.

Its amazing how messy Cade will let Conner get.

A few days later we went to Utah for Sam's graduation and mission farewell. On Tuesday we drove to Flagstaff and stopped to cash in on a free breakfast that a payroll client of Cade's had given him. And we can't be in Flagstaff and not watch some trains for Conner. So we wasted about a half an hour waiting for a train to come by and then we were on our way again. We drove to Cade's grandma's house in Toquerville, Utah to get out of the car for awhile. Then it was back on the road to Pleasant Grove. We spent the night at Ashley's house and drove back down to Hurricane on Wednesday. By the time we got there it was too late to do much so we just had dinner and visited with family. On Thursday Cade, Sam, and their grandpa went on a very successful fishing trip and then we were off to the graduation. 

On Friday we packed up again and went camping in East Zion on some property of Cade's uncles, with all of Cade's immediate family. This was by far the best camping spot we've been to. It is just past some lodge and cabins that also have a swimming pool, playground, miniature golf, restaurant, and zipline. But best of all the lodge had a lovely bathroom for public use and it was just a quad ride away! No more risking my life around wild animals. We were only there for about 24 hours so we didn't pay to do any of the activities, but its nice to have the option for longer trips.

Conner hanging out in the gift shop while I use the restroom.

Playing on the playground.

Driving a dump truck into a bush.

Riding the horses, always a favorite of Conner's.

I was so amazed that Conner picked up this caterpillar, he's more of a look but don't touch kind of kid. But as soon as it started crawling up his arm he freaked out and flung his arm around until it fell off, and I don't think it lived much longer.

The one bad thing about this campsite was how dusty/dirty it was. It was pretty bad, but Conner thought it would be great to lay it. Thank goodness for baby wipes, we went through those things like there was no tomorrow.

Riding the quad with grandpa, Logan, and Jeter.

On Sunday, during Sam's farewell talk, Daisy started having her puppies. We missed most of the births, but did get to see her poop out puppy number 9 and eat the sac and umbilical cord. Yummy.

Conner loved watching Tanner's turtle.

Ryan, Carly, Logan, Conner, and Jeter. All the boys are within 6 months of each other. Somehow Conner ended up 2 inches shorter than the rest of them.

Playing on the boat in the driveway.

Grandpa sure got a workout playing with these boys. They chased him around this circle a million times.

Playing with Sam before its too late.

Before we left on Monday, we took a trip to the splash pad. Conner still wasn't thrilled with it, but at least he wasn't terrified like last year.

 

 The next weekend we headed down to Mesa for Sam's endowment and Alyza's baby blessing. Sam went through the Mesa temple so he could go with one of his best friends from Cottonwood, who also happens to be Cade's boss's son. After the temple we had lunch at Bill Johnsons and then went swimming at Natalie's apartment.

Logan and Conner in the boat.

 

The final goodbye.

Cade, Natalie, Sam, Kameron, Tina, Russ. Tanner didn't make the trip down.

Alyza and Cade after the blessing. I just loved her little dress.

I just think this picture is funny because her hair looks a little crazy but its just Tyler standing behind her.

Tyson, Tyler, Eli

 After I told the boys to stand for a picture Tyler went running to his parents for his tie. I saw Jared getting frustrated with him for wanting to put it back on right before they were leaving and Tyler didn't tell him why he wanted it so badly. I meant to tell you Jared but I was busy talking to someone. So there you go, Tyler just wanted to look super nice for the pictures and you can't blame a kid for that :)

A cousins picture. Unfortunately Conner was exhausted and being a pill so he didn't make it into the picture.

Just a short 5 days later we headed off for San Diego. Thank goodness it was our most relaxing trip because we were getting a little tired of traveling by then. But I will make that a separate post after I get some of the pictures.

Our Little Conner

I recently noticed that Cade and I have stopped taking pictures of Conner doing everyday things so I've been trying to get us to pay more attention to that. So I thought I would share some of those pictures.

One day he was into making a fort with the chair in his room.

I was cleaning up in the kitchen for like 2 minutes and when I looked up I found toilet paper going across the house.

I followed it to find the culprit.

I also just took Conner to his 2 year well visit, only a few months late. He weighed in at 23 lbs and 12 oz putting him into the 4th percentile for weight. And he is 33.5 inches tall and for the first time making it to the 20th percentile for height. The doctor couldn't believe it. He said that usually when kids are that low in the weight ranks that it really shows but Conner didn't look particularly skinny to him. In fact, he made us go back out and he re-measured himself since he didn't believe it so much. But it was accurate.

Conner discovered all the shoes in the bottom drawer of his dresser and was really proud of himself for putting them on. I didn't have the heart to tell him they were on wrong.

Sadly though, if we re-measured today he would probably be off the weight charts and he now looks too skinny and little sickly. Two days after his well visit he came down with a cold. It was Valentines Day so we were thankful we had gone out a day early before all this started. The next day a fever came. He refused to take any medicine because of the taste, so I told Cade to bring a new kind home with him from work. Cade didn't get home until after Conner went to bed so he never got the medicine but woke up without a fever. Cade also came down with something, what we thought was the flu because of the chills and nausea, but he never threw up. So the boys spent the 3 day weekend recovering together, while I worked. But only Cade got better. Conner had a fever off and on for another week. His cold symptoms were getting better but he started sleeping, a lot. Sleeping all day in fact. One day he woke up about 9:30 and went back to sleep about 11 and literally slept the rest of the day and through the night and most of the next day. He did wake up fairly frequently, cried a minute, and then got in a new position and went right back to sleep. And of course we had to hold him the whole time because otherwise he couldn't sleep and would just cry and cry.

"Hey look at the mess I made with the Frosted Flakes!"

Eight days after getting sick he said his ear hurt. We all know what that means, but I thought I would wait until the next day to take him to the doctor, just to make sure his ear really did hurt before I bothered taking him in. But soon he was sticking his finger in his ear and it was coming out wet. I was pretty sure that was a bad sign so I gave in and took him to the doctor. I kind of thought he also had another fever but didn't bother to check it. When the nurse was looking him over he had a temperature of 103. I'm not sure how I was so off on that. After BARELY eating for days (one day he had about an ounce of a smoothie and 5 frosted mini wheats for the entire day) he now weighed only 22.5 pounds. He lost a pound and a half in one week. And as my mom says, "He just lost everything he gained in the last 6 months!"

The nurse immediately gave him the exact same medicine I had given him a few times for his fever. But this time, within minutes he was coming alive, more than he had been in over a week. The "doctor" (she isn't actually a doctor but I forget what her credentials are, maybe a nurse practitioner) that was seeing walk-in patients is a lady I have seen before and not liked. I quickly remembered why I didn't like her. Our regular doctor takes his time, chats with us, answers any and all questions we may have. This lady was just starting to tell me what she was going to do when she walked out with her laptop and told the nurse the plan. I thought she would come back in to finish discussing it with me but instead she just typed things up in the hallway and disappeared. She had said she was going to give him a shot of something I had never heard of to "jump start" him getting better. I was ok with that since he had been sick for so long. But she also said we would have to wait in the office for 15 minutes to make sure he didn't have any kind of reaction. I was curious what those reactions might be but didn't get to ask. The nurse reassured me though by saying she had never seen any reaction to it. The "doctor" had also said that he had a bad ear infection and that she would get a prescription that we could start in the morning. She said it wasn't ruptured and that the wetness had probably been melted ear wax from his fever.

 Once a week a local gymnastics place lets kids come and play for free and they all love it. Here is Conner in the foam pit.

With his good friend Sophi

A few hours after going to bed Conner woke up crying. Then we noticed the crap dripping out of his ear and figured his ear drum had ruptured. He was understandably upset and we didn't know what to do so we thought we should pick up his prescription. I only assumed it was where we normally go since the "doctor" hadn't said anything about where to get it. But the place had no prescription for him. Then I was really annoyed. I called the after hours number and informed them that he was not dripping ear wax and that the prescription wasn't where it should be. The triage lady said she was going to call the "doctor" and I was glad she was going to disturb her at 10:30 pm. The "doctor" reported back that we couldn't start the medicine until the morning since he already had the shot and that she wasn't surprised his eardrum ruptured because it was the worst she had ever seen. It would have been nice if she had mentioned that to me in person and let me know what might soon be occurring. The triage lady also said that kids feel better once the ear has ruptured because the pressure is gone and he should feel better in "a few hours". I was not excited to listen to Conner's pathetic moaning/crying for a few hours, but luckily it only lasted about 45 minutes and then he was back to sleep. I still can't believe his ear infection got so bad before he ever started complaining about it. I guess I can believe him when he says something hurts.

Here is the bloody ooze collecting in his ear.

By the next afternoon Conner was finally feeling much better, but not great. Now it has been 3 days since his eardrum ruptured and it is still oozing pretty steadily. This morning he had a fit and cried a long time, which set off a cough attack from his cold, and soon after that the oozing was much bloodier for the rest of the day. His ooze has gotten all over his pillow, my pillow, some sheets, clothes, and pajamas. Overall Conner is getting close to being back to normal, but he still complains about his ear sometimes and is a little cranky. I was so happy to be able to leave the house with him after 9 long days stuck at home. But now he is looking too skinny and scrawny to Cade and I so he is getting extra cookies to get him looking back to normal.

I didn't know about this until I happened to go through the pictures on Cade's phone. Apparently this is what the boys do when I'm working.

I wish I had a picture of our scrawny Conner but it hasn't worked out. It probably wouldn't be noticeable in a picture anyway. Hopefully he'll be looking like himself again soon, his face looks funny to us now.