Celebrations for the Bub

Mark got his stitches out but I think that's going to be a gnarly scar.

We're supposed to keep some strips on it for a few more days.

We followed up with the maxillofacial surgeon and he said he was looking really good and could resume more normal foods. It's been nearly 2 weeks and Mark was so ready for a hamburger. We are supposed to use pain as a guide. He loved the burger but did comment that it hurt a little to eat. We'll have to take it easy.

Maxine wanted to comfort Mark from afar. She ordered a stuffed animal and it finally arrived. Mark says it's really soft. 

Cute! 

Stop Hurting Your Chins!

Okay, now it's just getting ridiculous. Jack was riding his dirt bike and hit a rock. It went out from under him and he slid on the ground for a while and scraped up his chin.

Luckily his was just a little scraped. He even had a full-face helmet on! So now both of them have scraped up faces. 😲 Seriously, stop it.

Lehman Caves

Over Spring Break, we had loosely planned to drive to Carlsbad Cavern in the RV. Then Mark fractured his jaw and we adjusted our plan. Lehman caves is only 3 1/2 hours away at Great Basin National Park and is cool on a smaller scale.  

You can tell Mark is feeling better but we are being very gentle with him. We blew a tire on the way. Bummer. We were almost there. We tried to get it fixed ourselves but alas, we needed a tow company to come with tools. 

We were still able to go! The caves were cool.

I enjoyed going again!

It was nice to get out of the house. Mark is moving around a lot better. Still just wants a hamburger though.

Healing up Bub

He's looking pretty dead but I promise, he's alive!

We went for a walk because his legs are the only part of him that's unhurt. He was having an okay time but smiling hurts. 

A few days later, we almost got a smile out of him. He's so tired of smoothies. He wanted pizza wagon so I cut it up super small and fed it to him. He was frustrated it took so long to eat because he couldn't chew. 

Going slow but we'll get there.

Busted Face for Spring Break!

Warning: These are gross pictures.

The first day of Spring Break started off with some sadness. Mark was riding bikes with Archer and Talon and wrecked on the road. He was on the big hill by the mailboxes. He was pulling a wheelie at a fast speed and as he landed, the bike went out from under him. I was at the house and Talon came running in saying Mark was hurt. Mark was walking up the street, holding his torso very still. I had ordered pizza and threw my credit card to Jack and said, "Pick up the pizza! I'm taking Mark to get checked out!"

I took Mark to the urgent clinic but they sent me to the E.R. to get him checked out. Oh! He was hurting. 😭 

It was Friday night in the E.R. I really dislike the E.R. We had to wait for 1 1/2 hours to get back. He was just sitting by me and bleeding and crying. 😩 When we finally got back, they gave him some morphine and he was able to calm down. His chin looks bad but he was road rashed all over his upper body. They took xrays of his wrist, elbow, shoulder, chest, and hand. They took a CT of his jaw.

Then he fell asleep because it was around 10 p.m. Poor thing.

I'm glad he could finally rest for a minute. While he was sleeping, the E.R. doc had looked at the CT scan and could see a jaw fracture. He thought he might need his jaw wired shut. 😳 A maxillofacial surgeon still needed to look at the CT and he would say for sure.

Then they woke him up and stitched him up. Three stitches on the inside, ten on the outside. 

The E.R. doc said the maxillofacial surgeon said that it was fractured but not all the way through. He would not need his jaw wired shut but couldn't chew for 3 weeks. 😵 Smoothies, yogurt, ice cream, applesauce, etc.

We got him home and got him to bed. He had pain meds over the next 3 days and needed help eating and moving around. His whole torso hurt.

It was also hard for him to close his mouth. I'm guessing it made the stitches pull. Such a bummer way to start Spring Break. 

I'm glad he didn't break anything else, they took so many xrays! I'm glad he had friends around to go get help. I'm grateful for morphine! We follow up with the maxillofacial surgeon in a few weeks. 

Sometimes I Have No Title 😂

Maxine was at a service project and found a lizard I think? Look at all the citrus fruits in the background! 😍 Miss my girl!

Merril and snow biking 💕

Rhino Rally 2022

Wade, Silver, Merril, and Jack rode in the Rhino Rally. Ryan Rosenberg was on a team with Jamis but I don't have a picture of him. 

Mark really wants to ride it. Wade, Merril, and Jack both finished. Silver was a DNF. Wade's time: 3:25:51, Jack's time was 3:39:23, and Merril's time was 3:44:35. Jack said it was super hard to ride for that long. 

We were the spectators! Merril thinks Mark with ride in the kiddo class next year. 

St. George Temple Legos!

I failed to mention that Merril got me this St. George Temple Lego set! I've told him that they are so cute at Deseret Book but they are like $80. I just don't feel like splurging that much on knock-off Legos. The kids and I put it together and it's so cuteeeee!

It came with a little married couple. It also came with instructions to send away for a set of missionaries. So we ordered those as well.

They came a week later and we put Maxine and Sister Maughan on the temple grounds!

I intend to switch out the hair color so it matches the sister with whom Maxine is serving.

Oh, and Maxine found a killer place to get ice cream. It's called Bruster's and she's saying that we have to try it!

Conscientiousness Award for Mark

Awards are given out at Coral Canyon every quarter. This quarter, Mark received the Conscientiousness Award from his teacher.

Mark's teacher said he's always polite and helpful. That makes a Mama heart happy!

 

Pie and Hiking for my Birthday!

I just wanted to hike and eat pie for my birthday!

We hiked to the Snow Canyon Overlook trail. It was a little cold and windy, not gonna lie. I was glad some friends were able to come! As we were talking, Tiffany, said that she'd never been camping. 🤯 I couldn't believe it! 

Later we had pie! Yay! Merril was singing some tunes.

42 feels just like last year. Feeling good! 

More Eye Trauma

Mark's had a rough time with his eyes. He was riding his bicycle and came home and complained of something in his eye. I tried to flush it out with saline solution but it wouldn't come. We had another follow up scheduled for his dart to the eye so we just went to the same doctor. He did the follow up and used a tiny set of tweezers to remove the foreign object from his eye.

The doctor said it was like a piece of a nut shell, something concave. It suctioned to his eye. He held very still while the doctor was using the tweezers. He said that most adults aren't as brave as Mark. He did great!

Valentine's Day!

Daddy's still riding home from Cabo but I got home a lot faster. Delicious Valentine's Day dinner. But let's just be honest, everyone just wants the fondue.

Because it's so dang good!

It hasn't been a tradition for that long but I feel like if I stopped doing it now, people would be sad.

Cabo Adventure

We planned an adventure with Merril, Darryl Zitting, and Darryl's father in law, John Davis and their wives. The guys were going to ride motorcycles down to Cabo and the wives were going to fly down together. Two days before we were to fly, John Davis' wife became sick with a cold. She tested negative for covid but she was afraid she would test positive at some point in the trip and not be able to get home. Shauna decided to stay back. I decided to fly down by myself. Merril picked me up from the airport and away we went.

We came out to El Arco. It's a cool little arch that's only accessible by boat. 

Poor Darryl and John didn't have their wives with them but Merril and I had a great time.

We stayed at this nice place! It was like condos but someone had theirs rented out through airbnb.

Tacos!

The rest of the biker gang.

And then I flew home by myself and the motorcycle gang rode home. It was also the first time that I've boarded a plane from the tarmac and not in a jetway. That made it fun!

There's was plenty of room on the plane and that made it pleasant! 

Home again to regular life!