Well, Alex started football last week. I wish I could say I'm happy about it. Actually, I would be more happy except this is how he came home on Wednesday.
This is my sweet niece Valerie. She is Olivia's best friend and cousin. She looks pretty banged up here because she was riding a bike when she flew over the handlebars and landed on her head. Val's usually one to wear her helmet (she keeps it on the handlebars on her bike at home) but a neighbor came over with a cool bike she wanted to ride. She wasn't used to the brakes on the bike and was going down a hill when she stopped way too fast. She was bleeding a bit from the back of her head and the front was really bruised and swollen. She went into the house where my sister and brother in law tried to assess how bad the damage was. They knew it was serious when she went unconscious twice and they called an ambulance. From a CT the doctors could see the skull was fractured almost like a crack on an egg, but luckily, not completely cracked open like a melon (not my analogy). Had it been more serious she'd have had to have surgery to repair the fracture probably with metal screws or attachments. She had to stay in the hospital for 24 hours. I think this is a great reminder for me to make sure my kids always wear helmets. My sister says Val has become the poster child for the entire neighborhood and all the kids are now wearing helmets again. Valerie will be fine. She cannot run, jump, ride her bike or play hard for two months! Poor thing, she's 10 so that will not be an easy sentence. I'm glad she's okay.
When we're visiting my family in Utah we usually go to the pool several hundred times. My kids love it and I like it too because I get to read my book while the kids have lots of fun. Here's some pictures of our last trip to the pool. There aren't any photos of Alex because truthfully, he was long gone with Maddi and Carson (my niece and nephew) and I didn't see him again until we went home. This picture is Isaac and Dallon (my other nephew).
Isaac had a lot of fun. He was excited to learn that he could go on the slides and liked it. He also loved to jump in without his mom catching him. That was a new one for him as he doesn't like to get his face wet usually. But the life jacket gave him his new found confidence (not to mention his cousin). Dallon swims like a fish.
While we were in Cedar City we had a day when we were able to go to Bryce Canyon. No one else wanted to go with us, sadly. But Martin and I decided to go anyway. Isaac came with us because he had no choice. It's about a 1 or 2 hour drive from Cedar City to Bryce but the ride was beautiful (at least the parts that I stayed awake), epecially, when we got to the Red Rock Canyon. When we got to Bryce Canyon I was so excited to see how amazing it was. I was thinking how cool it would have been to be the first person or persons to ever see it. Of course, I wouldn't have had that nice road to drive right up to it and that paved path that we could take up to the top, so maybe not. I could not believe how hard it was to walk up to Inspiration Point. It wasn't far but the elevation allows 75% less oxygen into your lungs. Let's just say I could really tell the difference. I wanted to hike around the rim, but Isaac was with us and the word "hike" has inspired some pretty interesting behavior from him (think whining, crying, kicking, and yes, screaming). So we were only able to see the canyon from one vantage point.
You can kind of see Isaac's hiking attitude on his face in this picture. He's too big for me to carry anymore, but at Zion's, the day before, I did carry him on my back and so I was too sore to do that again. Look at my hot husband in this picture. Ain't he cute?
