Vacation post (a little late)

I'm finally getting around to posting about our vacation. Since we lost our sweet little Odie the day after our return and as life slowly got back to normal and picked up as usual, I haven't had time to blog about our activities. I'm determined to do that today!

We went to my sister's house in Las Vegas. And it's ALWAYS a fun place to visit. She and her husband are amazing hosts. We had a great time.......of course, I won't go into details about the "mishap" we had on the first day when Jacob decided it would be fun to hide under one of her corner tables in her living room and literally KNOCK OFF the BEAUTIFUL marble (and very heavy and expensive) globe sitting on top. Luckily IT didn't break (whew!), but it happened to land on a plastic storage cube, which DID break into a million little pieces. Just a little stressful at the time.....but we won't dwell on that now, will we? (That was pretty much the only "disaster" that occured, so that was good).

Anyways......

My sister has a hot tub, which of course, is filled with cool water and my kids had a blast "swimming" in it. Here are a few pics:

We went to Chuck-E-Cheese's, of course, which is a must when we go to Vegas. Yeah, I know we have one of those here too, but we don't make it there often.....I guess we reserve it for when we go on vacation, for some reason.

We went to a water park too and that was so much fun for the kids. I hate to admit it, but I haven't taken my kids to one for years.....I know, I am such a lame mom. But that made this time just that much sweeter. It wasn't that hot (as Vegas goes), so the adults even enjoyed sitting and basking in the sun. Everyone enjoyed it!

This is me and my sister, Wendy!

I even think Eric had fun. He didn't get wet, but he DID swing!

And then we did the famous chocolate fountain! The trip is never complete without doing that. SO MUCH FUN!

This is Alexis, my neice. She was supposed to be mine! :) (And what I mean is.....I was supposed to have a girl in my family and name her Alexis. But that didn't happen, did it? Let's not rub it in...) But she's a cutie! At least someone in the family got an Alexis. And you can't tell that she enjoyed the fountain, can you?

And here is AJ and Jacob. I was helping AJ get dressed one morning and found in his drawer an outfit that I thought, at the time, was Jacob's. As it turned out, they had twinner outfits, so we had to dress them alike the next day. It was so cute!

On the way home from Vegas, we stopped in Cedar City and stayed a night. We went to a concert of the Hughes Brothers. They actually grew up here and we were in the same stake. They now live in Branson, MO and perform daily shows. But they were in Cedar City for the 4th of July, so we decided to plan our trip around one of their concerts. It was way fun to see them, since it's been like 20 years or so.....probably more actually. We also ran into a few friends from high school that live in Cedar and it was awesome!

Driving back from Cedar, we decided to stop at Cove Fort. We've actually never been there. And honestly, I would say it was one of the highlights of our trip. There is a special spirit there and it was really amazing to hear about the pioneers and SEE where they actually lived and what they did on a daily basis. I highly recommend it to anyone who has a chance to visit.

That about sums it up! We had a good time. Of course, all the happy smiling faces in the pictures are a little deceiving......there was also fighting, kicking, screaming and crying along the way. But what trip would be complete without that? It just wouldn't be the same without it!

Jacob turns 5!

Okay, my baby is 5 YEARS OLD! I can't believe he's going to start Kindergarten this year. He's a young one and I hope he's ready.

He had his first "friend" party this year. It was so fun and he was super excited. We had a pinata, played games, and ate cupcakes and ice cream. Here are a few pics of the special day!

The two little demons.....er, I mean....brothers.

The cupcake tower. Pretty cool, eh? (the extent of my decorating talents)


blowing out the "cupcake tower."

grabbing the candy from the pinata.

Jacob's gift from us....Iron Man. It's not like any of us have even seen the movie, it's just a cool costume, ya know?

The day was a huge success. We love you Jacob. You're a cutie and we're so glad you are a part of our family! Happy Birthday!

Open mouth....insert foot!

Okay, so, the other day (actually it was a couple of weeks ago), Eric and I were in the kitchen and he was slicing some cheese for himself to make nachos. He was having a hard time cutting it, so he asked me if I would do it for him. This is how the conversation went:

Eric: Mom, will you slice some cheese for me?
Me: (Lazily) Yea.....I'll do it.
Eric: How do you cut it so perfectly? I can't get the slices that good.
Me: Eric, do you know how old I am? I've been cutting cheese for a long time.
Eric: (slight pause in response, and with a big smile on his face) Mom, that sounds really funny. This is what you just said, "I've been cuttin' cheese for a long time."

Like I said, "Open mouth, insert foot!"

(It was actually really funny and we got a good laugh out of it). Never a dull moment! :)

Odie

We went on our vacation last week and got home on Saturday afternoon. Sadly, the next day we had a tragedy in our family.

Our sweet little dog, Odie, passed away.

He had spent the week at my brother's home while we were gone and we arrived to pick him up at around 4:00 on Saturday afternoon. When we got there, my brother told us that he had thrown up that day, just a few hours before, but that he seemed fine. When we got home, he was extremely thirsty and guzzled tons of water. It was a hot day and we didn't think much about it.

Saturday evening we could tell he didn't feel well, and he threw up a few more times. We put him to bed thinking that he would probably be better the next day.

But as the day progressed on Sunday, he was not getting better, but worse. By about 8:00 in the evening, he was really sick and not doing much of anything. So we found a local pet emergency hospital and decided to take him in.

When Todd got there, Odie's heart stopped as soon as they tubed him. It started again on its own a few seconds later, but he wasn't stable. The doctor said that Odie had Addison's disease. It was going to cost $1500 to try and stabilize him and keep him for the night, and then a lifetime of expensive medication with no guarantee of normalcy. It was one of the hardest decisions we've ever had to make. But in the end, we felt that we had to let him go. It was heart-wrenching!

Todd was with him for his last minutes and then he was gone. Todd brought Odie home, so that we could bury him in the morning with our family. By this time, it was after 10:00 pm and our kids were in bed. We decided not to wake them and tell them the news. Todd and I didn't sleep much that night. In the morning we had to tell our children of the tragedy. It is something I will never forget.

And then, we dug a hole....

Said a prayer....

And laid Odie's sweet little body inside.

It was a very tender experience and one I will never forget. This was the first time my kids have had to deal with death and there have been many heart-felt, teaching discussions following Odie's passing.

We don't have a marker yet for his grave, but we'll make one soon. His absence has left a huge hole in all of our hearts. Yesterday was a day of sorrow and sadness. It was full of tears and pain. And now we all miss him terribly.

We love you Odie. We're sorry you got sick and that we couldn't take away your pain. You will forever be in our hearts! Life just isn't the same without you. We miss you!!