Cowboy Up!

I think I have mentioned earlier this year that Grant's teacher this year is a real life COWBOY. He is a great man and a very good teacher. He is also a very WANTED teacher. One of the reasons every child wants to be in Mr. Prince's class is for his weekly ROPING TOURNAMENTS. This year Grant was lucky enough to be put in Mr. Prince's 5th grade class. For the first half of the year, Grant didn't really participate in the roping. So, I asked him one day why he wasn't roping with all of the other kids. He said it was really hard and he wasn't very good at it. I told him he probably just needed to practice a little more. You see, this is Mr. Prince's first year teaching 5th grade. Many of the kids in Grant's class had Mr. Prince the previous year for 4th grade. They had already been roping for a year. Grant said he wanted to try roping and that he would practice more.

He started bringing home their little practice bull and a rope on the weekends. Then he started participating in some of the tournaments. For Christmas we bought him a cowboy hat. At first he struggled, but soon began scoring 3's (a perfect score) more frequently. In the tournaments the kids are grouped into pairs. One person on the team does HEADING and the other person does HEELING. Heeling is the harder of the two. Grant got really good at heading, but his partner usually had a tough time with the heeling. I told Grant he should practice heeling. If he could get really good at the harder part, then whoever he was teamed up with for that week could have the easier part. So he practiced heeling, and got better and better.

This week, he and his partner WON! They each scored a 3 for a combined score of 6 and did it in 18.94 seconds. YAY Grant!

"INCONCLUSIVE"

The day March 16, 2011 will not go down as one of my favorites days in my life. I was working and we had a fairly large patient load that day. Not a big deal, but my dad was going into surgery just above my office. He had developed a cyst, of pretty big proportions, on his face. It started behind his ear, but then grew in the past few months out towards his cheek. The doctor had tried to do a little biopsy in his office, but the test had come back "inconclusive". He decided it probably needed to come out, so my dad was scheduled for surgery.

I had a slight break in my morning, and I quickly ran upstairs to wish him luck before he went in. My mom and dad were in the waiting room and we talked a little about the surgery. They said the doctor had said the surgery would be anywhere between "one and five hours, but the doctor thought they could plan on two". I said, "Are you kidding, this is dad we are talking about, the surgery will be at least 5 hours". We all laughed, but knew darn well I was right about that. Well, I was able to talk to him for a really short time before he was called to the registration desk. That was my favorite part of the day. The lady called "Lester". My dad turned to my mom and I and said, "I'll get that straightened out real quick". He then approached the lady and said, "That's Jim by the way". Then I listened to my mom talk about how it is so lame when parents give their children a name, but then call them by a completely different name. For heaven sakes, call your child by the first name you give them so my poor mom will stop getting so upset. (Okay, so I am exaggerating quite a bit. But I know this does upset her because this is not the first time she has mentioned this.) I wished my dad good luck and went back to work.

At lunch, I went upstairs to get an update from my mom. They had taken him into the operating room and they were projecting the surgery to take about two hours. Again, I went back to work and finished my day. After work, I went back upstairs to see how things were going. At that point the nurse had been out to talk to my mom and had said the surgery was going to be a quite a bit longer, so I went over to physical therapy to have my neck worked on. (AHHH that was another highlight of the day). When my appointment was over, I went back upstairs to see how things were coming along. That was when things started to go downhill. Right after I had left, the doctor had come out of surgery to tell my mom that the cyst was not on top of the nerves in my dad's face, like they had thought, but rather underneath and intertwined in the nerves. The cyst was very attached to the nerves and looked malignant and was very "worrisome" to the doctor. They had cut a small portion of the cyst out and had sent it to pathology. About 30 minutes later, the nurse came out to inform my mom that the pathology report on the cyst had come back "inconclusive", there was that word again. The doctor was going to cut out a bigger portion and send more tissue samples over to pathology. It was very important for the doctor to find out if it was cancerous or not because that would determine the next step in the surgery. If it was not cancerous, they could leave a portion of the cyst attached to the nerve and just cut out what part they could. If it was cancerous, they needed to get ALL of it out. This would mean sacrificing the nerves in his face, which would leave the left side of his face paralyzed. His eye would not be able to open and close, his face would droop, and he wouldn't have use of the left side of his mouth. As you could imagine, my mom was a nervous wreck. Although, she really did compose herself very well. But we knew she was falling apart inside. Two hours later, a nurse came out to tell us the pathology report said it was NOT CANCEROUS!!! Yippee. My mom cried and told the nurse she wanted to kiss her. Well 6 1/2 hours after my dad had gone into surgery, it was finally over. The doctor came out and recapped the surgery for us. It had been a VERY DIFFICULT procedure, they had had to cut one small nerve and my dad would have some paralysis in his upper lip, they had to leave a portion of the cyst in- which they cauterized but that didn't guarantee it wouldn't come back, the initial pathology reports said benign- but the tissue had to undergo greater testing and we wouldn't know for sure for another 5-7 days, but other than that- the surgery was a success.

My dad was finally brought down into his room where he would stay the night. He was slightly alert, talking minimally and asking short questions, but not really opening his eyes. He looked very feeble and unsure. He asked what time it was and then asked how long the surgery lasted. When my mom told him, he said, "Oh no, what happened?". My mom then told him the details of the day. When she was finished he asked, "Are you being truthful? Are we going to be okay?". I about burst into tears. He seemed so scared. We told him everything was great, especially considering what could have happened. He seemed to relax and I left so he could sleep.

Was the surgery a success? At this time the feeling is "INCONCLUSIVE". The doctor feels confident that it will be, so we are going on faith. We hope that further pathology reports have good news, but for now, we wait.



Well if that wasn't enough drama in one day...

When I got home, I asked Gracie to shower so I could put her hair in curlers. I had just started doing her hair while she was trying to take out her earrings. She was really struggling to get the earring out of her left ear. I set the brush down and proceeded to help her. I noticed she had a big chunk of hard bloody puss on her ear. I put some rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball and started to clean her ear. I found another big chunk of that crap on the back of her ear as well. Then I realized what the problem was... THE BACK OF HER EARRING WAS EMBEDDED INSIDE HER EAR LOBE! The skin was growing over the top of it. I about threw up! My hands started shaking, and I was so upset. Normally, I am very calm in these types of situations, but after a long, stressful day- I was having a hard time staying in control. I was able to work a portion of the earring back out of her ear. Then I went and got Russ. I needed some steady hands. I explained what had happened and then told him what I needed him to do. He was able to thread a safety pin through the little hole in the earring back. This kept the back from being pulled all the way through her ear while we pulled out the post. Russ did it perfectly. We got the earring and it's back out of her ear and then I used about half a bottle of alcohol to clean it out. Russ was sick to his stomach when it was all over as well. Poor little Gracie was scared to death! I know she was in a lot of pain, but she was very brave as we took care of the problem. Today, her ear looks just fine. I am amazed that it wasn't purple or raging with an infection. So, ask me today if I am glad she got her ears pierced, and I will answer my feelings on the matter are "INCONCLUSIVE".

It's about time...

If you look close you will see...Gracie who is turning 8 shortly, lost her very first tooth two nights ago. It was very exciting. But the funny part was Grant decided to show her up and lost 2 molars the same night! I didn't take any pictures of his mouth because you would feel so sorry for the boy! He hardly has any teeth left in his mouth. And the few teeth he does have are covered in braces awaiting the arrival of his other permanent teeth.

Needless to say, the tooth fairy is now out on the street looking for another job thanks to the Hyde kids. If you know of any high paying jobs... keep her in mind- because Gracie has four more teeth that are loose.

Arizona

We left for Arizona just 18 hours after returning home from Mexico. Garrett had a baseball tournament in the Gilbert area. After another day of long travels we met up with my parents at their hotel. They had gone down the day before to see some of their friends and scout out the area. They had found the easiest route to the baseball fields and since Garrett had to be at the park by 7:00 am, we decided to stay with them the first night. It was a little crowded, but we did just fine.

The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn to get ready. Papa took Garrett over to the fields for warm up, then the little kids, my mom, and I drove over a little later. They played at the Big League Dreams Sports Park. It was amazing. The fields were built to replicate the major league stadiums. For instance, Garrett played at Wrigley stadium, Fenway Park, Yankees stadium, and Angels stadium. They had stadium seats for the fans, a play area in the middle of all the fields for younger kids, indoor concessions/restaurants where you could still watch the games, etc. It really was classy. I've included some random pictures of the different stadiums.

The boys played well during the tournament. They played teams from Denver, CO., Kaysville, UT., Seattle, WA., West Covina, CA., etc. It was fun to see how we compared to kids from different states. We won a few and lost a few. Three of the games that we lost were within two points. I was pleased with how well they did.

Garrett had a tremendous fan base there. The Ellsworths (Brent, Kami, Gavin, and Savanna) were able to come along. Brent's entire family lives in that area, so they had another incentive for making the drive. They were able to come to a few of the games in between family activities. They even brought some of his family members along, Jolynn, Connor, and Brilynn.

And of course his biggest fans, Nana and Papa were there to support him.

But, one of the greatest highlights of our trip was having the Carters with us.

Russ' sister, Lisa, and her family live in Maricopa. It was just 30 minutes from where Garrett was playing. After the first night we stayed with them. It was so fun to be able to spend so much time with them. Lisa let her kids miss school to come to the games and play with us. Grant and Gracie were so happy to have Preston and Ava to hang with. They were such good sports to put up with so much baseball in one weekend. Gracie and Ava were absolutely inseparable for 4 days. We wish that we lived closer to the Carters!

After Garrett's game on Friday, we were able to attend one of the major league Spring Training games. It was the Oakland A's vs. the Texas Rangers. We were sitting RIGHT NEXT to the A's team. The kids thought it was fun to jaw with the players and try and get their autographs. You can see from some of the pictures how close we were.

I think MacKenzie was becoming a baseball fan after seeing a few of the players! Again, the Carters were such troopers to come with us to ANOTHER baseball game. It made it so much more fun for me and the little kids to have them with us. Thanks Carters... we love and miss you so much already.

After the game, the boys got some autographs from a few of the players on each team, and the coach of the Rangers. They didn't get as many as they would have liked, but it was still exciting for them.

Anyway, Garrett played great the first two days.

Then on Friday night, he began to not feel well. I gave him some Motrin and didn't think too much of it. He had been out in the sun all day, plus we had been traveling so much in a short period of time. I figured it was all just catching up to him. When he woke up on Saturday, things did not look good. Garrett was very sick. He played in his first game and fielded really well. I swear every ball got hit right to him in that game. But even though he played well, he looked miserable.

By his second game he could hardly move. He spent the entire game curled up in the dugout, in and out of sleep.For those of you that know Garrett, you know how ABNORMAL this is! I kept trying to get him to go to Urgent Care, but he wouldn't leave. He stayed and even batted in the third game (not well, but he gave it all he had at that point). They lost the third game on Saturday by two points which knocked them out of the tournament. I don't think Garrett cared too much at that point. We went to Urgent Care after the game to be told Garrett "has a cold". Well, he ended up having the flu. He was basically in a semi-coma for 5 days, flat on his back, high fever, not able to eat or move. Then Grant got it as well starting Sunday on the drive home... it's been a fun week!

Other Highlights of the Trip...

After Garrett's first game on Saturday, the Carters took Grant and Gracie with them to the fishing derby. That was by far Grant's favorite part of the trip. He caught 3 fish! Can you tell who he is the son of? I had to stay with Garrett, so I didn't get any pictures. So sad! After the fishing derby they went to Preston's football game. Garrett and I missed that as well. Again, so sad. But, it was fun for Grant and Gracie to be there and Grant gave me the play by play re-cap of Preston's game on our drive home the next day. Apparently, Preston played about every position possible. And according to Grant, he is the greatest football player on the team by far! Way to go Preston.

We also were able to meet some of Brent's family. It was fun to get to know Jolynn and her kids a little better. They were very sweet to come to some of Garrett's games, and we were able to go to breakfast with them on Friday morning. We know they must really love Brent to want to come and hang out with him at a (almost) stranger's baseball game. Anyway, the Ellsworth's invited us to a BBQ on Saturday. We were sad that we weren't able to go and hang out with the entire Ellsworth clan. I would have liked to get to know all of them a little more.

All in all it was a great vacation. Arizona is beautiful. The weather was perfect, 80 degrees. The company couldn't have been any better. The fields were amazing. The competition was good. The tournament was very organized and impressive. other than the flu, we had another fabulous trip! Thanks again to the Carters for being great hosts, giving up beds for us, and providing great entertainment!

Baby if you're good to go...

LET'S GO DOWN TO MEXICO!

Alright, I know that sounds scary these days with all of the gang violence and killings that are shown daily on news here, but we really were in a very safe area! Russ' work sent he and I to Mexico again this year. We decided to take the kids with us again since last year was the greatest family trip we have ever been on. The kids were very excited. They couldn't wait for warm weather, non-stop food, Miami Vices (virgin, of course), beach, pools, and fun!

This year we stayed south of Cancun at the Azul Sensetori Resort. It is located just 20 minutes south of Cancun. We know the Cancun side of Mexico much better than the Puerta Vallarta side so we were anxious to show the kids where we hang out when we travel there.

DAY 1 We left on the 24th of February from the Las Vegas airport. We had to be there at 5 am. We didn't get much sleep the night before, but we really didn't care- we were all too excited to get there.

We flew to Phoenix where we had a short layover. Then we were off to paradise. Our room was nice and was literally 15 feet from the pool. Grant and Gracie were very excited to have a jacuzzi right in our room.

After we checked into our room, the kids changed into their swimsuits and headed straight to the pool. They played there for just a short time because we were all hungry from traveling all day. We explored the resort for a short time while we waited for dinner.

After dinner we explored a little more before calling it a night. The kids were exhausted! We soon found that the sleeping accommodations were not the greatest (our only complaint). But as you can tell from the picture, the kids were too tired to even notice! We did rearrange them a little and everyone seemed to sleep well.

DAY 2 We woke up the next morning and went to breakfast. It was yummy with made to order omelets, fresh fruit, waffles, pastries, and a nice buffet, plus a chocolate fountain. The food was not quite as good as Puerta Vallarta, but it was still tasty. After breakfast we went to the beach to play around. There was a ton of coral which made it almost impossible to play in the ocean. Gracie played in the sand, Grant looked for ocean treasures, and Garrett and Russ went in search of fish. I relaxed in a beach chair and soaked in the rays. Ahhhh- so fabulous.

After playing on the beach for a little while we headed back to the pool. On the way the kids discovered the shuffle board area and ping pong tables. They loved shuffle board. We really don't know the rules of how to play the game, but we made up our own and the kids had a blast.

We ALL played in the pool for most of the afternoon thanks to Russ, who made sure we were all thrown in. The pool had big basketball hoops, a lazy river, and a swim up bar where the boys could order virgin Miami Vices and Pina Coladas. That night, we had Russ' awards banquet and company dinner. We explored a little more that evening and found the "Teen Breeze". It was a room that catered to the teen population. It had pool tables, a ping pong table, Foosball, air hockey, a huge screen TV with music videos blaring, Play Station, Wii, a basketball shooting game, popcorn and drinks. This is where we hung out every night after dinner. I think it was one of the highlights for the kids.

DAY 3 This was a really fun day. We ate breakfast and headed down to the beach for snorkeling. Russ had found a really nice beach area that was perfect for snorkeling. We saw some really cool ocean life- star fish, ray, barracudas, flounder, hermit crabs, conch, etc. Gracie was hesitant at first, but she caught sight of a small barracuda and began chasing after it. She did really well where she could touch, but when she got out deeper, she was very nervous and would cling to Russ for dear life.

After snorkeling we went to the pool where they had set up the "Wibit". A huge blow up gymnasium for the pool. The boys, including Russ, played on this for hours!

Gracie was not a huge fan of the Wibit and wanted to go to the kid pool. I took her to the other side our room where there was another fun pool, with a slide, a climbing wall, and splash pad. Eventually, the boys came over to the smaller pool. They played on the slide with little Lou and had a slam dunk contest. Russ slept, and I took a ton of pictures.

That night we went to dinner and then went for a walk on the beach. It was beautiful. The sun was setting and temperatures were perfect. It was very breezy, so the pictures are not that great, but it was still very fun.

DAY 4 We rented a car just for the day and drove down to Boca Paila, Russ' most favorite fishing spot in the world. He was so excited to show the kids "the flats" where he spends his time when he travels to Mexico. Russ was not feeling well when we left the resort. About 20 minutes into the drive he pulled over to try and puke. Then he had me drive!!! The last time I drove in Mexico, I got pulled over and the "policia" took my driver's license and said they would give it back to me when I gave them cash. I ended up not having to pay anything because all I had was a 10 dollar bill with a small tear in it. They do not accept torn money in Mexico so they gave my license back and told me to leave. Needless to say, I was nervous about driving there again. However, it was very uneventful and I have no story to tell. We finally made it to the Boca. We got our rods ready and hiked out on the flat.

Believe it or not, after 30 minutes Russ said he was too sick to continue. WHAT?!! Are you kidding me? His favorite fishing hole in the world, and he was too sick to fish? It was true. We went back to the Boca, and the kids fished from the bridge with all of the locals for a little while.

Then we were off to Tulum. I again drove while Russ kicked back his seat trying not to puke. He winced and squirmed and moaned every time I hit a pot hole, which is literally every foot for 10 miles. It takes almost an hour to drive 17 miles. Anyway, I finally made it to the main highway and drove to Tulum. The kids and I toured the ruins while Russ slept in the car. I think the kids were pretty impressed by them. We recently finished reading the Book of Mormon as a family and I think the kids could see some of the Nephite/Lamanite characteristics of the ruins.

Next we went to Playa Del Carmen for a little shopping. Gracie bought a little sun dress. Grant bought sunglasses. Garrett bought a new necklace. I got my supply of Mexican vanilla. We didn't stay long because Russ was so sick. I didn't feel comfortable wandering the streets there with three kids by myself, so Russ came along. We had promised the kids we would take them to buy something fun, so we wanted to follow through with our promise. I could tell Russ was miserable so we made the shopping trip really quick. The kids were happy with what they got. That night when we got back, we put Russ to bed and the kids and I went to dinner, the teen breeze room, then to a different restaurant for dessert. It was all in all a very fun day for the kids and I.

DAY 5 We left the afternoon of the following day. We ate breakfast and the kids went to paint a little project while Russ and I packed.

I wish I could say the adventure ended there, but our flight home was quite eventful. Garrett was seated next to two 18 year old boys from Canada. He had traded seats with a lady so she could sit next to her husband. He received quite an education from these boys. "Garrett, do you know why our country is better than your country? Because our legal drinking age is 18." They proceeded to take their shirts off during the take-off and have Garrett film them while they talked about their drunken adventures in Cancun. They showed him their new belly button rings, pictures of their friend's new butt tattoo that read Brian and PJ's B****, and other good quality information that included the F word in every sentence.

It was only supposed to be a 2 1/2 hour flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. We were right on schedule and in the process of landing when the pilot came on the speaker and announced that the airport would not allow us to land due to thunderstorms. He said we were going into a holding pattern until the storms passed. After an hour, the pilot came back on and announced that we were out of fuel and that we were going to land in South Carolina and refuel, however, they did not have customes at that airport so we all had to stay on the plane. After refueling for an hour, it was time to take off. We began taxiing out to the runway when the pilot came on and said the thunderrstorms had reached South Carolina and the control tower wouldn't let us take off. We sat for another hour and a half. We got to know Brian and PJ really well during this time. They were actually really funny!
After 2 1/2 hours of sitting in the plane at the airport in South Carolina, the pilot announced that the flight attendants were going to serve a little snack and some water. We were all so excited since we hadn't eaten in 8 hours. However, two minutes later the pilot announced that we had clearance for take off. We had this really, really crabby flight attendant and Brian and PJ had not impressed her when they took off their shirts. Anyway, at one point she was walking by and Brian asked what snack they were going to give us back in SC. She said, "Oh, it was just some little cookies". Brian asked, "Can we still get some?" She just turned and in her nasty smoker's voice said, "Nope" and she was never to be seen again. It was pretty funny.
After going back into a holding pattern in NC, we finally landed. We had missed our connecting flight to Las Vegas by 3 hours. We couldn't get another flight out until 8 am. We had to get a hotel room there in Charlotte. We got to the hotel at midnight, ordered pizza, finally went to bed sometime after 1 am, and had to get up just after 5 am to catch the shuttle back to the airport. The kids were exhausted. The all just laid down on the floor of the airport while we awaited boarding.

We finally made it back to St. George late Tuesday afternoon. We did a few loads of laundry, packed up the car, and the kids and I were off to Arizona for a baseball tournament within 15 hours! (post to follow soon)