Our trip to Utah...

Our trip to Utah was amazingly fun and surprisingly a fairly enjoyable drive up and back. It all started when we drove to Pinedale on Sunday June 29 so that we could meet up with my parents and borrow my grandparents 5th wheel trailer. It was so fun to see my grandparents and allow my kids to get to know them better. G absolutely LOVED the seahorse rocker toy that Grandpa showed him. He could rock out all day.

We headed out Monday morning at about 9:00 and drove the bumpy roads in the desert wastelands referred to as the reservation. Stopping every few hours for a 10-15 minute break did miracles for the boys (mostly G's) outlook on traveling. Somehow with all the ~30 hours of driving that week when asked if he wanted to go for a ride he would emphatically nod and say "yah, yah, yah!" This is the way to "camp" - of course my Aunt Kristi's family prefers to "camp" in the nearest hotel. I guess that works too! :)

The reunion commenced Tuesday afternoon as we all checked in to Altamont Campground. It was neat because we reserved the whole campground (consisting of 10-15 tent sites with a HUGE ramada covering a fire pit and a dozen tables). It was suprisingly warm when we got there - definitely in the upper 80's or lower 90's. Our first night there the evening activity was to ask Gma and Gpa Loveland questions about there childhood and life memories. My favorite story was about when they were barely engaged and had scheduled a trip to Salt Lake to pick out an engagement ring (they were both from Idaho). Well, on the trip down they experienced some car trouble. When they had it serviced a handkerchief was discovered in the oil filter causing major problems since no oil was getting to the engine. To save the car the engine would have to be replaced. Needless to say, Gma said that her engagement ring doesn't have as big of diamonds as it could have had but she still gets the nicest comments about how lovely her ring is. Upon returning to Idaho she found out that her ex-boyfriend is the one that had put the handkerchief in the filter in hopes that their car wouldn't work at all, therefore cancelling the trip to SLC to get a ring, perhaps with high hopes of dissolving the relationship and having her for his bride... too bad! Ha ha ha! I guess he felt badly about it and always said that he wanted to pay them for the problems he caused but never had the money to do it.

The next day was full of exploring the beautiful surroundings, playing all kinds of games (I had fun playing Nertz), and learning about some of my Gpa's ancestors. The story of Chester Loveland is one of my favorites. G had a hay-day with all the dirt. He is such a boy!

Here is B and me getting ready to go exploring. I don't remember the name of this river, but it was just one or two stone throws away from where we camped. I loved going to sleep to the sound of its babble.

G decided to explore something else :). This was a common sight up there - do you think he got some dirt up there? He LOVED this tricycle and especially loved it when someone would push him around on it. His legs weren't quite long enough to reach both pedals. He could reach one or the other, but not both.

On Thursday many of us hiked up to Timpanogas Cave (thanks to Mom and Dad for watching the boys for me - we never could have made it with both of them). It was absolutely breathtaking. First of all the hike up there was hot, long, hot, steep, and hot. I think I heard that it was 1.5 miles each way, but I would say that going up felt like 3 miles and going down felt like 1. Here's our little hiking crew: Eric, Gavin, Sam, Brinn, Maren, and Becca.

We met some more of the Loveland clan up at the top and gratefully got to rest for 15 minutes before being taken in for our tour of the cave. (Becca, me, Maren, and Kourtney)

On the way up I was wondering why we had our jackets tied around our waists since we were sweating our guts out on that hot, long, hot, steep hike. Upon entering the cave I gained an appreciation for that jacket. It was cold - a chilly 43 degrees cold. Only about 20 people are allowed in each guided tour. There are three caves that have been connected by man-made tunnels. They were discovered individually in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The second cave was discovered by the grandsons of the man that discovered the first cave. They noticed a strange hole in the mountain and dropped rocks to estimate the hole's depth. About 50 feet was their guess. So they went home and built a 60 foot ladder to allow for some error. Well, they put their ladder down the hole but soon discovered that the hole was much deeper than 50 feet, but rather closer to 120 feet. Once their ladder ended, they shimmied and inched their way down to the bottom with wooden pegs in their mouths that held a candle on the end. Somehow they were able to explore the cave and still get out. Their ladder can still be found as you look up in the crevice of the cave.

I thought this next picture was particularly fascinating. Our tour guide asked us what this looked like. We all thought it resembled some sea creature. It is a fossil of coral. This cave and mountain had once been covered by water (can we say Noah?). Amazing!

There were all kind of neat shapes and sizes of stalagtites and stalagmites. Research shows that they grow an 1/8 of an inch every 50 years. Some of the shapes of rock forms are referred to as popcorn, bacon, flow rock, fingers, etc based on the way they look. There were a few formations that looked just like a rotisserie chicken, St. Bernard dog, dinosaur, alligator, and others.

She said that these next two should meet together in approximately 187 years. Amazing!

On Friday we checked out of the campground and went to the 4th of July Provo Parade complete with a few HUGE balloons, bag-piping bands, missionaries from the Provo mission, High School bands, amazing floats, princesses, etc, etc, etc.

Afterwards we walked to Gma and Gpa Lovelands for some more cousin time and a tasty BBQ picnic. My grandparents live right across the street from the MTC and have an amazing backyard. They say that they'll get deer and elk coming right up to their back window. Crazy animals! It's right in the middle of the city!

Do you like his pose? He stood like this for a few minutes...

A neighbor Gpa was driving his grandkids around on a little train. They invited to take G for a spin. I wasn't sure what he would think of me placing him with some complete strangers and wondered if he would stay sitting or try and climb out. I think it's safe to say that he LOVED it!

He's definitely getting to the stage where he wants to copy anything anyone does. He saw my cousin Jace playing his Nintendo DS and thought that was pretty cool. G found something that resembled a Nintendo DS (really a little picture holder with a recording sound feature), climbed up on and couch, and "played" just like him. Cracks me up!

In order to get back to AZ in time for Dad to do his bishop duties and for me to do my organ and choir director duties we packed up and headed out around 4:00 that afternoon. What began as a normal drive home got a little more eventful than we had planned. We made it through Moab but then decided we shouldn't drive all the way to the next city to stop for the night because it was getting dark and my Dad was getting tired. So we pulled off at what looked like a storage unit in the middle of nowhere. At about 12:30 that night we abruptly wake up to a fierce pounding on the door with a voice shouting "Grand County Sheriff. You're parked on private property and must evacuate immediately." Apparently whoever owned this place found out there was a trailer parked for the night (on the 4th of July) and they wanted us off now! So, we loaded my sleeping boys into their carseats for a 30 minute drive to a safe and public place to stop for the rest of the night. I'm just glad we made it home okay and that my Dad didn't have a heart attack right there and then. Sure scared me half to death!

That little vacation was just what I needed. A nice change of pace, a chance to see cousins I've never met before, cooler weather, etc, etc, etc. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking me with you!

Has it really been 5 years?

Yesterday Jared and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary - well maybe I should replace the word "celebrated" with "had." We didn't really do much yesterday in the way of celebrating. I was in a bad mood (probably the result of the emotionally and mentally exhausting week we've had and a lack of sufficient sleep) and we had a huge monsoon storm (hooray for that... it lifted my spirits... until we discovered that it leaked into our house). Anyway, we have grandiose plans for tonight to make up for it. We're going to try and go out to eat at perhaps Texas Roadhouse and then to the temple to do some family names that Jared's aunt found.

These past five years have been wonderful. I really am so blessed to have such an amazingly "perfect for me" husband. We've grown and matured in our love for each other as we worked together to make it through the tough times. It's been fun to share our hobbies and interests with each other over the years. While at the reunion in Utah last week I joked with myself that Jared would be proud when I wondered out loud if there was any fishing available at the nearby river and springs that we visited. Never before did I get so excited about the possibility of seeing some deer or elk on our drive through the mountains until Jared. I love his enthusiasm for the outdoors.

I love you Hun! Happy Anniversary!

The results of the testing...

When Mindy and I called the hospital on Monday before leaving the valley the nurse said that Dad had gone in for a "procedure" (she wasn't allowed to disclose any specifics), but said that he should be returned to his room at ~7:00 that night and that it is typically just an overnight stay after that. Great! Even if it was just overnight, we still wanted to be there for Dad - we didn't want him to be alone. So Mindy, Jase, me, Jared, G, and B loaded up in the car and drove to Tucson. We got there around 8:00 and were happy to see that my Dad's parents were there sitting with him. Brett drove up that night too so that he could be of support. Jared and Brett gave him a wonderful priesthood blessing that night - blessing him that he would be given opportunities as he has several hours alone in the hospital to make a plan in changing his nutrition and exercise plans that he might be an example to his children and grandchildren for many years; that he would feel peace; and that the doctors would know what is best for his body and be able to think clearly and work efficiently in the coming surgery.

The "procedure" that was done on Monday was in the "CathLab" where they discovered that one of Dad's main arteries was 100% blocked and another was 60-70% blocked. They were able to do an angioplasty (balloon) on the one that was completely closed, but because of the location of the other blockage they couldn't do angioplasty or a stint... it would have to be bypass surgery. The doctors anticipated it would only be a double or triple bypass surgery to be done Wednesday morning at 9:00. Holly gave Mom a flight voucher to fly to Tucson Tuesday night. I'm so glad that Mom was able to come and be with Dad. I can tell that gave him greater strength and courage.

Mindy and I decided to stay through Wednesday because we wanted to be there for Dad and especially Mom as she waited out the many hours in the surgery waiting room. It was nice that we had our three kids (J, G, and B) to make the hours go faster as we played with them, changed their diapers, and fed them. Before that they had been kind of a challenge because Dad has been in the ICU where only two visitors are allowed at a time and no one under the age of 14. Anyway, they told us that we should hear from the surgeon around 1:00 that afternoon. Come 2:00 we still hadn't heard anything, but tried to remain patient. Shortly after Dr. Melton came out and said that Dad had done great and that he ended up doing a Quadruple Bypass Surgery on him! I'm just so glad he's safe and on the road to recovery now. Today is supposed to be the hardest day as far as pain goes. I'm glad he has Mom and lots of pain medication to help him through it.

We got to see Dad last night as he was starting to come out of the anesthetic. He could flutter his eyes and catch a glance of us. If we asked him questions he would nod or shake his head yes or no. When he looked at me and I said "Hi Daddy" he wiggled his fingers at me from the bed to say hi. It was sweet when Holly called and Mom put the phone up to Dad's ear. She talked to him for a good few minutes and when we asked him afterwards if he had heard her he nodded yes. That made me happy. After Mindy and I left for Mesa they took out Dad's breathing tubes so he was breathing all on his own. Today they took out the angioplasty and a few other tubes. They're also having him sit up every now and then which is pretty painful I guess. Mom has fed him some juice and also some chicken broth. This afternoon they said they'll be moving him out of the ICU and into a regular room. Hooray!

Mindy and I had to drive home last night to take care of our families which was bitter sweet. Good to be home, but I wish I was still in Tucson too. A big thank you to you for all of your prayers and thoughts. Thank you to my in-laws for so graciously allowing my family to stay in their home - we were well taken care of. And most of all I'm grateful to Heavenly Father for keeping my Dad here. I know that he's got more of God's plan for him to fulfill here on the earth. I'm grateful that there really was minimal actual damage to the heart and that medical advances allow for such amazing surgeries!

I hope he knows...

I just received a phone call from my sister Tressa letting me know that my Dad is in the hospital. At the reunion this past week he mentioned to me that he's been having chest pains for a few weeks - a pain that he can pinpoint, one that will go away if he sits down and takes it easy. Being a paramedic he knows the usual signs to look for when a heart attack is taking place. He's always heard it described as a constant ache throughout the chest. He hoped his pains were just a few ribs out of place - something that could be fixed by my brother-in-law Brett who is a chiropractor. This morning Dad decided to go to the doctor's office to see if he could get an appointment but they just couldn't squeeze him in. When they found out what his concerns were they sent him to the hospital. As they began the tests and evaluations they told him that he was having a mild heart attack right there and then! He's been flown to Tucson for further testing. I wonder if he's been having them all along. Strangely I feel quite at peace with all of this so I'm hoping that it's nothing too major and that he'll be healthy for a good long time once this is over with. We're all praying for him.

Okay, so it's been 10 minutes since I typed the last paragraph. I just talked to Mindy and I think we're going to drive down to Tucson to go and see my Dad. We know that this is exactly what he'd do for us in our time of distress. My Dad really is amazing and such a source of love and inspiration to me. I couldn't ask for a better Dad. He's taught me the gospel through his words, testimony, and example. He's always been there to support me in all my activities growing up and has given wise counsel as I try to be a good parent. He's an amazing cook. He plays with the grandkids like he's their age with all the energy and enthusiasm for life. He's willing to change even the nastiest of diapers. I know he'll always be there for me at the drop of a hat. I just hope he knows how much I really love him. I really hope he knows...