Mikayla's 2nd broken collar bone...

Poor chiquita! We were at Juliet's volleyball game and Jack and the littles were outside playing on the grass in the dark. Mikayla was running and Jack was chasing her. She stopped short and Jack plowed into her. She fell on the grass and came into the gym crying. She wouldn't be consoled and after looking at her deformed right collar bone, we figured it was broken. We went home and helped her to sleep and went to InstaCare the next morning. We were 1st and sailed right in!

And we were right, that thang is BrOkEn!

We were referred to an orthopedic doctor because the InstaCare doc said that collar bones normally just go back together if left in a sling but she was a little worried about the distance of Mikayla's fracture.

We saw the orthopedic doctor and he said that she's young and it's still within an acceptable range. Her break has 13.1 mm of separation and under 20 mm is okay. 😳 He said she needs to be in that sling and sleep with her arm lashed to her body.

We are not allowed to raise her arm at all for 4 weeks but he's confident she won't need surgery and it will grow back and remodel itself over a period of months.

A kid at her table at school broke his collar bone a few weeks ago. Her teacher said she's never had a child with a broken collar bone and this year she has two at the same time!

As a throwback, Mikayla is my only child to have broken a bone. This is her right but she broke her left collar bone at 19 months, this same time of year! It was a week before Mark was born and she fell out of a high chair. It was less severe and she healed in two weeks without a sling. Wow! She must have weak collar bones. Ha ha!

Downton Abbey Movie...

I found a friend who wanted to see Downtown Abbey with me! Yay! I knew Merril wouldn't want to go and it would be hard to catch him up on 6 seasons of content. Mandy and I snuck away on a Tuesday morning while the kids were in school

We were there with all the senior citizens in the area because Tuesday is the cheap day! All seats are $5 and popcorn is $2. The theater was full! It was a crack up to laugh with all the old people. It was good times! I have the feeling we are going to have more adventures when Mark is it first grade. I can't wait!

Goodbye hair!

Maxine loves her hair but she's got a ton of it and it's long! She was ready to say goodbye and layer it.

Say goodbye to the long locks!

We all think her new short hair makes her look like her cousin, Stephanie. She's loving how light it is and it's such a fun, dramatic change!

Jack the mountain biker...

Jack had a mountain bike race in Cedar City. I was really afraid it was going to be super cold and wore a ton of layers. 

I brought snow pants and coats for the littles so they wouldn't be cold either. 

I may have over prepped.

Jack has improved a lot during this past year, "because he's so good." as he said. He moved to intermediate this year and he finishes mid pack. 

Piles of pants...

I've been saving pants for over 10 years! I've wanted to do a denim quilt for even longer than that! I started cutting denim squares over the summer and I finally feel like I have enough to start sewing. It's just over 200 6.5" by 6.5" squares. I've seen patterns that look like subway tiles and liked the way it looked. Laying them out is hard. I want it to look random but that's harder than it seems.

I was worried it wasn't going to come together as nicely as I imagined but it's looking awesome!

Here's the quilt top all stitched together. I need to figure out what to do for the bottom but this was the hardest and most time consuming part. And it's done!

Merril's Japan trip...

Merril went back to Japan to talk to guys about buying cars there and got some tag a longs. This is Tokyo Sky Tree.

Here are the tag a longs in front of Tokyo tower: Wade, Ryan, and Ryan's Dad-Joe. 

They found the Tokyo Temple.

They went to the Hiroshima Bomb Memorial.

They went to Osaka to see the crazy, Vegas-style lights.

In Nara, there's a huge wooden structure that houses one of the largest Buddhas in the world.

I spy Ren and Gunji!

And this big wooden samurai.

Merril said that these guys are not huge fish eaters so it was a little tricky finding things to eat but they all survived. :)  

Jack's Mountain Bike Race Richfield and the Coolest AirBnb Ever!

Merril was gone riding dirtbikes in Idaho so I loaded up the crew for a mountain bike weekend in Richfield. We stopped in Beaver to get ice cream at the Beaver Creamery. It's something I've always wanted to do but we usually don't have time. We weren't in a big hurry so I made the executive decision to stop. It was delicious! We tried some squeaky cheese on the way out but Juliet was not a fan.

Our AirBnb in Salina was also a tumbling gym and we had full access to the facility without anyone there. It was awesome! The foam pit was the favorite! Unfortunately, Juliet overshot the foam pit and hurt her foot almost immediately. She was upset that her foot hurt and now she was going to have a harder time playing on the equipment. :(

We got some Tylenol in her and she was able to keep playing but I could tell she was favoring it.

The next day we went to the race! I stole Merril's team shirt to support!

Jack finished 42 out of around 100 boys. I feel like his technique has improved a lot since last year and it was fun to watch him race.

Afterwards we ran back to the tumbling gym for another hour to play and clean up before it was time to come home. 

Recovery for my Mom...

My Mom has gotten to the point in her recovery to start physical therapy. She loves to swim and the doc said if she swims 2-3 times a week, he won't send her to traditional physical therapy. She can't drive yet so I've been taking her. Mark comes too. We go on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Dad takes her on Saturdays.

It's been good for me because my S.I. joint is acting up from running. I love running but it might not love me. So I've been doing my stretches and swimming and it's been great! Mom says her foot and ankle feel good for the rest of the day when we swim. On the off days, she says it gets sore. But everyday is a little bit better. This recovery is taking longer than she'd like but she is steadily improving.

Labor Day at Toquerville Falls...

We loaded up with some Subways and headed out for Toquerville Falls because Summer is coming to a close! Mikayla liked these chip bags at Subway. :)

Maxine brought Ellen and they said they weren't going to get wet. Maxine ended up jumping in the waterfall.

Jack and Kayla were having fun with the frogs.

On the way home we got a flat tire on the Expedition. We had all the stuff to change it so it only took about 20 minutes and then we were back on the road again! No worries!