4 Stunning Stallions and a Handsome Hawk

I am just getting around to posting about the first day of school, which started August 11th. We are excited to begin a new school year. It is also fun to have our cousins at Sunset with us again this year.

Grant is in the 5th grade this year at Sunset Elementary School. He is in Mr. Prince's class. Mr. Prince is a cowboy from New Harmony, UT. During the summer he lives on his ranch and does real cowboy stuff. Mr. Prince teaches his kids how to rope and has roping contests on Friday. He has been teaching for 25 years and we are looking forward to a great year with him. Grant has his cousin, Gavin, in his class again this year. They get along really well and we are happy that they get to be in the same class for their last year in elementary school.Gracie is in 2nd grade at Sunset Elementary School. She is in Mrs. Svedin's class. She has several of her friends from last year in her class and has already been in trouble for talking too much. It is going to be a long year!

Garrett is in 7th grade at Tonaquint Intermediate School. This year he is in PAC (Principal's advisory committee). There are eight kids in PAC and they share the leadership responsibilities of the school. His assignment for the first quarter of school is to give the announcements and lead the pledge of allegiance each morning. He also has keyboarding, science, pre-algebra, language arts, and art. (No pictures of the first day- that would be too embarassing)

the annual HYDE-out

This year the annual Hyde family reunion was held here in St. George, Utah. We had a fantastic time out at Sand Hallow reservoir Friday night and all day on Saturday. The festivities involved playing in the sand, riding wave runners, throwing footballs, lots of eating, plenty of visiting, and just having an all round good time. Here are some pictures of the all the activities.
Little Lain Hyde (son of David and Tiffani) playing in the sand
Cameron Hyde (son of Kurtis and Tina) working on his sand castle

Gracie and Samantha (daughter of Jill) building sand castles

The mud slinging begins....Garrett was a good sport and allowed the little kids to coat him in mud and bury him later. I think the little kids loved this part of the day. All of them got involved and were giggling as they repeatedly scooped up the muddy sand and covered all of Garrett.

Jonathan (son of Jill) showing off his quarterback skills.

Tiffani (David's wife) showing off her skills.

Max (son of Kurtis and Tina) drying out after playing in the water.

MacKenzie (daughter of Lisa and Robert Carter), Lisa, and Lily (daughter of David and Tiffani) enjoying toys. Lily was almost as crazy of a driver as Kenzie.

Jill and her kids, Samantha and Maurice playing on the wave runner. Sammy screamed and screamed while Jill put on her life jacket and carried her out in the water. You can tell by this picture once she was on the wave runner, she had a great time.

Gracie and Shyla (doggie of Jessica and Joey Starr). Gracie held this poor dog ALL day. Shyla was ver good and just let little Lou tote her around like a baby doll.

Garrett and his BIG cousins were OUT OF CONTROL on the wave runner! I think Reese flipped them off at least 3 times. Reese was the only grandkid old enough to drive without an adult on the machine... I am not sure this was a safe trio, but they had a blast.

Grant feeling triumphant after burying his big brother.

Preston (son of Robert and Lisa Carter) taking a little swim.

Lily swimming to shore after a spin on the wave runner. She is one of the funniest and most quick witted little girls I have met. She was great to just hang with all of her boy cousins. Unfortunately, there were no girl cousins her age but she just fit right in with the boys.

Macy (daughter of Kurtis and Tina) enjoying the sandy shore.

After Sand Hallow we cleaned up and went to a park near our house for a BBQ and more play time. We had a great time being together and are so appreciative to David and Tiffani for organizing the reunion this year. They did a wonderful job! Thanks to all who came and shared in the fun. We missed the Jolley family and Nathan's family this year. Hopefully, we will get to see them all soon.

Star Scout

Garrett is quickly progressing through his scouting ranks. This last week he was awarded his Star rank as well as 6 other merit badges. This is really so very foreign to me, coming from a family of all girls. However, I am quickly learning the lingo and the processes of scouts. Luckily, Garrett is very self motivated and I do not have to do much to push him along. It also helps that his dad is the scout master and is SOOO on top of where Garrett is and what he needs to be working on. Russ gets Garrett books from the library to learn about certain things pertaining to a merit badge, then Garrett actually sits down and studies them. I don't have to do anything except wash his uniform. I feel guilty whenever I receive a mother's pin, because truth be told... Garrett does all of the work and Russ gives the little encouraging that is needed.

a HEARTY life

I had absolutely, without a doubt, one of the most incredible experiences of my life on Monday. I was invited in with the thoracic surgeons to observe them as they performed an open heart (coronary bypass graft x 4) surgery. I was positioned on a stool at the head of the patient, looking straight down on his chest. I watched as the P.A. pulled the vein from the patients thigh to be used for the bypasses. I watched as he carefully prepared the vein, sealing off areas where branched areteries were cut off. I watched my favorite heart surgeon, Dr. Millar, make an incision down the length of the chest and then proceed to saw the patient's sternum in half... wow! Next, he very carefully cut through the pericardium, cranked open the rib cage a little wider, and there it sat... A BEATING HEART. It was so amazing. I also saw the left lung filling with air and deflating over and over again. I will not go into details for those who have weak stomachs, but let me just tell you... it was AMAZING! The surgeons were fantastic. Their hands were so steady and they were so sweet to me. They made sure I could see and explained every part of the procedure to me. I was so excited all day. Poor Russ had to listen to me all night as I described for him every detail of the operation to him.
The best part of the experience happened this morning. 18 hours after surgery, I was able to get the patient up and walking as I transferred him from ICU over to CVU. He was the kindest man I have ever met. As I got him into bed over in CVU, I told him that I had been in his surgery and thanked him for giving his consent so I could be in there. He said to me, "Oh, were you the one that got to see the surgery?". I told him that I was and what a great experience it was for me. He told me that if it helped me in my job, and if it was a learning experience for me he was thrilled to be apart of it. I told him he had a beautiful heart. Then he told me that he and his wife are going to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in October, and that she is what keeps his heart beautiful. It wasn't mushy the way he stated it. You could tell that he was very genuine and truly loved and respected her.
Anyway, I was so grateful for that opportunity. I now know that is a surgery I NEVER want to have. I am going to eat right and exercise everyday so that I don't end up in that operating room again... as the patient. The human body is absolutely amazing. There is no doubt that we were created by divine hands. We truly are walking miracles.

What did you do this summer?

Summer is exhausting! I always loved summer vacation as a kid. I liked not having a schedule, sleeping in, staying up late, vacations to the beach and EFY, playing with friends, etc. But I was always ready for school to begin again in the fall. Because truth be told, I loved having a schedule, seeing my friends everyday, getting up early, playing sports, etc.

Things have changed a little. I was anxious for school to be out. I was anxious not to have to wake my kids up at 6:30 every morning. I was anxious for them to be able to play with friends and not have a huge schedule each day. I am not sure what happened, but summer came and left and we never really had a break! I am not ready for school to begin again. What happened to sleeping in? What happened to watching cartoons so much that you have seen every episode at least 15 times? What happened to getting so bored of hanging out with friends that you couldn't wait to do math again (yuck).

Well when school begins again in 10 days and teachers and classmates ask the infamous question, "What did you do this summer?", my kids had better not answer, "nothing". I am going to re-cap our summer quickly to help them remember just exactly what we did do. In June we traveled to Cedar City, Kanab, and Richfield for baseball tournaments.

The first week in July we were in Park City for a baseball tournament, Allie's baptism, and a Little family reunion.

Then it was back up to Cedar City for Grant's All-Star baseball games. The next week Russ and Garrett were at scout camp. That is the longest I have ever been away from Garrett. They were back for only 4 days before Russ and the boys (Garrett, Grant, and uncle Chris) left for Yellowstone. They just got home last Sunday.

This weekend we were back up in Cedar City for the LAST baseball tournament of the season. Then this next weekend we have the Hyde family reunion (thank heaven it is in St. George and we will not be travelling too far, just to the lake!). School will begin three days later. Our lives are busy, but I wouldn't have it any other way! We are very blessed and lucky to have healthy kids, and stable jobs that allow us to have the experiences that we do.

Bitter Sweet

Baseball is officially over! It has been a really long- like 8 months long- sport season. We are happy and sad. The boys both had great experiences this year. Garrett was able to really improve as the season progressed. He was the new man this year on a team that has played together for three years. I think he struggled at first to really feel like he was a part of the team. But now he is just one of the boys and made some great friends. We learned this season that Garrett is FAST. He struggled with several different things throughout the season, but never with stealing. He is amazing to watch on the bases. He takes a HUGE lead off and loves to taunt those pitchers. Stealing bases is definitely his biggest contribution to the team. His coaches always look to Russ or I after he steals a base to say, "Man, he's fast".Russ and I learned a lot this season. Russ can now throw several different pitches (curve, change-up, four seam and two seam fast balls, etc.), is an expert in bat sizes, and now knows that baseball is almost as expensive as fly-fishing. I learned the baseball lingo, about tournament rules, and how to get red dirt out of white pants with navy blue piping down the sides that prevents the use of bleach!Grant was the youngest player is his league, yet did really well. He played with boys that were 10, 11, and 12. He had the opportunity to pitch, play short-stop and third base, and gained a lot of confidence. He was chosen to play on the 10 year old All-Star team. He was very excited. Grant is an amazing kid. He is so positive, always happy, and truly loves life. We were thrilled that he was able to have the All-star experience (even though he was out of baseball mode). His baseball season had ended in May, and we didn't find out he was playing all-stars until July! The best part was he got two cool new shirts, a new baseball hat, and little more experience.

We are a happy family...