25 Yearssss

For our Unanniversary, we went night wheeling and then to Denny's, to commemorate the 25 years since we met. More friends showed up to Denny's but I forgot to take a picture of us there. They've been the 25 best years of my life. Merril makes everything better. I'm not saying we always get along but we very often get along. I love him more than ever! Happy 25th babe!

 

Sterling Scholar

You're looking at the new General Sterling Scholar for Hurricane High School! Juliet was competing against a few boys who thought they had it in the bag but she's pretty accomplished and she had a great shot! Mr. Vick told her the day before, to be funny. He said, "You won." She responded, "What?!" Hehehe.

That's all her. She gets it done. Now Maxine and she will both have their pictures on the wall at Hurricane High School forever! I still like to visit Maxine's General Sterling Scholar picture!

 

Mikayla Aerial Silks

Aerial silks has been an interest for Mikayla for a long time. Recently, a studio converted the old Cinema 6 movie theatre into a cool place for dance, theatre and aerial silks. Mikayla just happened to ask at the right time and looked it up. She's been going for a few months but I just got a picture of her. She seems to like it and a friend from Hurricane started the same time and we carpool. 

 

Thanksgiving 2024

My girls have been able to visit the giving machines that align with the church's Light the World campaign. I've never been and was excited when they came to Red Cliffs Mall. There was a big line because the giving machines leave on November 30th. 

We spent Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Campbell's house but they weren't there. Lol. Justin and Rachel's family and Jared and Emily's family were there. Justin and Jared made the best turkey! Everything was so good. 

I didn't take any pictures of us getting a Christmas tree. Jared and Justin's family both came. Merril didn't want to get his foot wet so he stayed in the truck. Maxine and Juliet helped me saw down the tree and get it loaded. We're strong girls. Merril's almost better and the pins come out next week. The tree got home and we got it decorated. Yay!

We have amassed so many ornaments! I don't know it I'm going to be able to keep collecting them from cool places. It's a lot! We might need to whittle out some of the gift ones. I love remembering our adventures when we decorate the tree! So many cool ones!

Applebee's Because We're Silly

Sometimes it's hard coming up with a new place to go out to eat. I asked Merril if he'd come with me to Applebee's. Merril's so good natured that he agreed. He got the bourbon street steak and an oreo shake. Evidently, we were bougie tonight.

 

Getting Back to Normal

Merril is able to walk on his foot now so he's getting more done. However, he's not supposed to get his foot wet because the pins are sticking out of his toes. If they get wet, infection has a direct pathway into his bones. So, he has to keep his foot dry and he is wearing a garbage bag on his foot. On the days that he works a lot, his foot gets tired and he's ready to rest at the end of the day. He's getting better!

 

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Baja

Despite Merril's foot, he was able to go to Mexico with team for Baja. He's trying to convince me he's taking it easy. But look at that face! He's loves Baja.

Shawn's race bike ended up dying part way through the race so in the end, there was only one race bike.

There was a big moon for the race and Merril snagged this.

Even with pins in his toes, he rode a few small road sections of the race course. They wrapped his boot in a garbage bag and duct taped it to keep out any rain. He had to shift with his heel. What a crazy guy! Everything went well though and everyone got home safely. He took the knee crutch and a scooter but by the end of Baja, we was walking in the boot and said his foot was feeling pretty good. "It was a miracle of Baja!"

Utah Tech

Maxine started at Utah Tech this fall but I haven't gotten a picture of her yet. She's excited to be taking classes again but misses Utah State. I feel for her, life is crazy like that sometimes. She never wanted to go to Dixie. It's fun to have her back at the house though. She probably won't live in the basement for very long. She's almost 22 and I understand if she wants to get out there and live her own life. 

She was able to perform at an open mic night at the college though and I was able to go watch. She performed one of her own songs, I'd Peel An Orange for You. She got a lot of good feedback from the audience. 

He Won't Go to Bed

Mark and Maxine are the two kids in the family who tend to stay up later and sometimes they stay up together. I'm glad she's home for a bit to make these types of memories with Mark. He looks like a fish to me in this picture. How is his eye like that?

I guess he decided he needed to try and fit in the nightstand? Lol.

 

Surgery Day

It was time for Merril to get surgery. He was excited to get it done so that he would have some time to recover a little bit. He still wanted to go to Mexico to help support the guys who were racing in the Baja. It seemed to me that the nurse indicated that it was going to take an hour for surgery, so I went for a walk. The surgery center is located close to the St. George Temple, and that's where I ended up walking to. It was kind of chilly. My face looks cold. I came back and still waited for another hour, but they said he did great. Now he's got pins in his foot, and he's not supposed to put any weight on it until it starts to feel better.

He was in pain for a few days but then it started to feel better. He didn't even need pain meds 4 days after. So that's great!

Maxine's Feeling 22!

For Maxine's 22nd birthday, she wanted to go to Ninja. We made this elaborate plan to drive to Cedar City after she was done with work. Her birthday fell on a Tuesday. We tried to go right after work but it didn't happen because Ninja isn't open on Tuesdays. So we decided to go to Sakura instead. We thought the wait wouldn't be too bad on a Tuesday night but it was over 45 minutes. But we were hungry and we didn't want to go anywhere else so we waited. 

It must be the place to go if you have a birthday because everybody was getting the adorable little birthday dessert. We ordered sushi and it was amazing and now Maxine is 22. Wahoo!

She asked for a snowboard for her birthday. Dad and I were able to find one and now she can go to Brian Head to snowboard! 

I'm just going to tack this on here. Merril got a walking crunch so that he could get around a little easier without actual crutches or knee scooter. It's working out pretty well!

This Little Piggy

 I was making dinner and was almost finished when Merril called me. He'd been riding his dirt bike when his foot hit a rock and bent his foot back. He said it immediately went numb and then hurt a lot. He was wearing his boots, knee braces, helmet, and body armor. His left foot was hurting and he was driving to the fire station to get checked out by the EMTs. They got his boot off and said it looked like it needed an x-ray. I met him at the new Hurricane ER. He drove himself. He said it felt like there had been a walnut in his boot. I had to get a wheelchair to get him from the truck. 

The ER doc ordered some x-rays. Wade was here, cracking jokes and making us laugh. 

The x-ray showed two dislocated toes: his piggy toe and the one next to it. The ER doc tried to hurry and reduce it while Merril was awake and it was too much! Merril said that was the most pain he's ever felt. 

The next option included sedation. They gave him a ton of sedative and it didn't knock him out. He was loopy but still conscious. Two ER docs tried to reduce it but no luck. The on-call podiatrist from St. George was going to come over when he finished a procedure. So I ran home to eat and decided to grab my glasses in case it got late. 

The podiatrist arrived around 10:30 p.m. and sedated Merril and tried to put the toes back. He yanked and pulled and they wouldn't go back in. Merril woke up and we were told to go home and not put any weight on it and surgery was the next step. The podiatrist thinks that some of the tendons or other soft tissue is in the way of the toes. We'll follow up on Monday.

Halloween 2024

Halloween was amazing! Merril was a luchador.

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Juliet was a cat.

Maxine with strawberry shortcake and Leighna was Charlotte from The Princess and the Frog. Maxine and Leighna went to a Halloween party at the university.

Mark wanted one of those inflatable alien costumes. There were probably five at his school and they were all adorable

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Mikayla used my old Red Riding Hood costume.

I was just a generic Renaissance era lady. 

This is us carving pumpkins. We tried using a Sawzall but it was really only good for the top.

The pumpkins still turned out cute.

Mark got so much candy this year. Mikayla just wasn't as interested in getting candy so she trick or treated for the amount that she wanted and then she quit. Good times.

 

End of Mountain Bike Season

Juliet was able to be a captain this year on the mountain bike eam. She's a senior and now we won't have a mountain bike eligible age kid next year. It's going to be weird because we've been helping with the mountain bike team for 8 or so years. She got a nice hoodie and got the all-in award for being at all the races. She also got a cool yearbook that's just for mountain bike stuff.

Jack and Elder Marigza messing around. He's doing well on his mission. He's been in the Philippines for about a month. He's not starving so that's a relief for me.

 

Maxine and Tam

Maxine met Tam on Instagram years ago when she was still in high school. They've met in real life once before when Merril and Max were close to Canada, where she lives. She was born in South Africa and can't come to the United States because of some visa issue. So Maxine when to Canada to visit her and her girlfriend.

They hiked.

They also carved pumpkins and put them on their heads and descended on a random 7-11.

They glammed up and listened to live music. Cutesy!

Road to State Mountain Bike

Juliet has been sick with a little fever and just not feeling very well. She wanted to go to mountain bike practice but still wasn't feeling 100%. Thankfully, Merril went with her and after they unloaded bikes in the parking lot, she told her ride leader that she might throw up during the ride. Then they were separating into tiers and she passed out. She opened her eyes and she was on the ground. Merril went to get the truck and left her with a ride coach, she sat down, and passed out again. Ummmmm, what is happening? So Merril got her in the truck and the coaches gave her some gummies and she couldn't see very well. As they drove away, she felt like she needed to throw up and Merril pulled over. Juliet said she threw up a lot. Merril took her to some of his ambulance friends from rampage and search and rescue and they checked her all out. They gave her a gatorade but said she was the picture of health. Except she was passing out. They said she was probably just sick and needed to rest. This was on Wednesday.

State championships were a few days later. She was supposed to race on Friday but it snowed at the venue in Cedar City. All races were cancelled that day. We were relieved because Juliet needed another day to rest and now she didn't even need to decide whether to ride or stay home. She threw up again that day. On Saturday, she was given the opportunity to race at the end of the day because she's a senior. So even though she was a little weak, we set off for Cedar. It was still cold. 

Juliet had a million layers on because she was cold.

She had a chill race.

She said she felt fine when she got off the bike, which is awesome. I was a little concerned she would pass out on her bike, fall and get hurt but she made it without injury. Good job Juliet!

All these boys came to support Juliet. I'm sure they're there to support other people too.