2nd Week of June--End of School!

Tuesday June 9th

 Field Day at the elementary.  Lydia and the other 6th graders were in charge of running the stations.  Lydia was at the Limbo station.  This is Bella and her friend, Brooklyn.

 I came to help out, but they had everything under control, so I just wandered around.  Bella liked the sidewalk chalk.

 Lydia was reading a book, because not many kids wanted to do the limbo I guess.  

 Brooklyn and Bella playing with the parachute.  

 Hiding under the parachute...too bad the picture is blurry.  

 hopscotch

 otterpops

 Limbo!!

Wednesday June 10th

 This is my mom and the flowers I sent her before her big heart surgery the next day.  I talked to her a bit on the phone and she sounded really good.  Of course she was nervous, but she was doing good.  Our family (and extended family) and I'm sure many others had a fast for her and for her surgeon.  Mom and dad were supposed to be to the hospital early, like 6 am to get her prepped for the first surgery of the day.  I think it was supposed to be at 8 and it was supposed to take about 4 hours.  Yikes!  I sure love her!!

Thursday June 11th

My parents had flown my oldest sister Tiffany out to help out with mom, since my dad was sick and weak with mono.  So, she was group texting all of us what was going on throughout the day.  They took my mom back to surgery but before they could start, there was an emergency with another patient so there was an hour delay while the surgeon helped the other patient.  When he was about done, they put my mom under anesthesia and got her all ready.  But, before they could start, the same patient that had the emergency was having more complications and the surgeon had to operate.  So, my poor mom was under anesthesia (and totally fine)  for awhile with no progress being made.  I don't think the surgery got started for a couple more hours.  

Meanwhile...back in Oregon...

 Lydia was having her 6th Grade completion ceremony.  

 All the buddies her age from church.  She's pretty much grown up with these kids.  Blake, Peng, Elise, Kali, Taylor and Lydia.  

 Her and her teacher Ms. Kolstad

 Back at the hospital...this is my dad waiting.  Poor guy, he was so tired and worn out.  I think my sister said that the nurse brought him out a pillow.  So, they finally started operating at noon and it took a little over four hours.  But everything was successful!  My dad went home soon after so that he could get some sleep.  

It was really hard not being there in Utah with all of this going on.  My sisters (Tiff and Charee) did a fabulous job keeping everyone up to date on what was happening and answering our questions.  I just wanted to be there with everyone.  It was especially hard later that evening when my mom was waking up.  She was intubated and they had her arms tied down so that she wouldn't wake up and pull the tube out of her throat.  My sister Tiffany had been there since 6 am and she still had to drive back to Wellsville, so she was ready to leave.  They stayed with her for a bit, but when they were ready to leave and were saying good-bye to my mom (who still had the tube in and couldn't talk) she had started crying.  I'm sure she was in pain and trying to deal with the fact that she just had major heart surgery and was probably scared.  It just sounded so sad.  I wished more than anything to be there with her--it just hit me really hard and I had to walk away from my dinner and have a good cry.  My sister Tiffany called me because she knew I was pretty emotional and we had a good talk.  It was so sweet of her to call, when I'm sure she was just as emotional.  

They finally took her breathing tube out around 1 am, I'm sure she was glad to be rid of that thing.    She had some hard days of course, but recovered really well, really quickly and is grateful she had the surgery.  

Friday June 12th

Last Day of School!!

Some fun summer goodies for the last day

Sign for the garage

Here comes the bus

Here come the kids

Looking at the goodies

One last picture of the school.

These are pictures that Lydia took on the last day.  She was pretty sad about leaving Free Orchards.  She started kindergarten the year the school opened.  

She was pretty emotional.

The teachers all stand out by the bus and wave goodbye to the kids.

Picture from the 1st day of 1st grade...

...and the last

1st day of 4th grade...

...and the last

1st day of 6th grade...

...and the last.  No more elementary school for this girl!!

1st day as a freshman...

...and her last

After Maggie got home, I took them out for ice cream at Sonic.  Not sure why Noah's grumpy.

Saturday June 13th

Paige had an activity girls service project with their dad's at someone's house.  After they did the service--yard work I think--they played this game.  I've seen this before in other places and it looked so fun!  You put shaving cream on a shower cap and then the other person throws cheese puffs and tries to get them to stick on your head.  I thought these pictures were so adorable!

End of May

Thursday May 21

 We had a really big thunderstorm this day.  This is very rare for us, so we all (except the little ones) loved it!  Here we are waiting to watch some lightning...

 Just a few minutes later, there was a flash of lighting and right after that, a big boom of thunder.  Lydia took the picture right after it happened.  Turns out that lightning bolt struck a tree a few streets over from us.  Pretty wicked!

 Lydia enjoyed the storm immensely!

 A shot of the sky

Saturday May 23rd

 This is the roll of carpet that Jim and Georgia ordered to put in the bunk house (the room in the barn they are redoing for a hangout for the grand kids.  They were installing it this day.  

 laying it out before securing it.

 Georgia commissioned a lady in her ward to paint a tree on one of the walls in the room.  It turned out pretty cool!  It's a family tree and her plan is to have everyone put their hand print up around the tree as leaves.  

 Kids playing while they secured the carpet

That night, we got a text from my sister that lives with my parents in Utah saying that my mom wasn't feeling very well.  She has a heart condition called Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.  She was planning on having surgery to get it fixed, but she had pheumonia at the time so was waiting to get better before she had her surgery.  My sister took her to Instacare since my dad was in bed with mono.  After being there, they decided to call an ambulance to take her to the ER.  I guess her heart was beating irregularly and they found it was serious enough for a trip to the hospital.  My sister then went home to get my dad.  

 They ended up having to shock her heart to get the rhythm back to normal.  They put her to sleep before they did that though.  They kept her there for an hour or two just to keep an eye on her and then she went home.  It was pretty scary to hear about all this and to see the pictures of my sweet mom in the hospital.   It made it hard to be so far away. I love this picture of my dad holding her hand as she is waking back up.  True love right there, folks!

Sunday May 24th

 Another Sunday evening spent at Jim and Georgia's house.  Garrett's sister Meggin and her family were coming the next day, so we helped hang up the zip line and get things ready for them.  

They even had a bounce house that they borrowed from someone.  

 Monday May 25th

 Passey's arrive!  Celeste, Amelia, Noah and Paige playing in and around the bounce house.

We brought over some of our dress up clothes for them to use while they were here.  Celeste as Jessie and Amelia as Snow White.

 Amelia, Celeste (now as Anna) and Paige.  Bella didn't want her picture taken.  

 Bella loved baby Hazel.  She held her a lot!

 On our way home that evening, we stopped at the Veterans Memorial Park in Cornelius for Memorial Day.  We wanted to make sure our kids knew why they weren't in school that day and why we celebrate Memorial Day.  It's neat having this park so close.  

 Tuesday May 26th

 This is a cute picture that Lydia took on the bus ride home.

 This day, everyone came over to our house and I cooked dinner for everyone.  Kids eating popsicles after dinner.  Garrett, Jake and Meggin left right after dinner to go to the airport to pick up Savann.  Jim and Georgia let Meggin's kids play here for awhile and then took them back to their house to get them in bed.  

Wednesday May 27th

Hanging out at our house again...Bella loving cute little Hazel

Friday May 28th

Garrett takes the day off and we all go to the temple.  After preschool, Noah went to a friend's house.  Jake and his girls met up with us after we were done at the temple and we went to lunch at a Thai restaurant.  

Later that evening, Garrett and I were invited to a charity auction dinner for Cure JM with some friends from our ward.  The theme was the roarin' 20's.  I didn't have anything to wear, so I got on amazon and ordered 3 dresses that I thought might work.  Luckily one worked!!

It was fun to dress up!  Maggie did my hair.

They had a casino set up so we played a few rounds of black jack.  I had never played in my life, so it was interesting.  All the money went to the charity.  Then we had a nice dinner and they had a live auction also.  

A picture of the room where we ate dinner.

Here's our group: The Nelsons, The Nissinens, The McKibbens and The Browns.  The Jensen's couldn't make it this year.  

Saturday May 30th

Today was a busy day.  Maggie had a dance recital that night, so she was gone at practice and dress rehearsal all day.  All the rest of us decided to go to the beach.  We headed down to Cannon beach for a picnic and some playing in the sand.  

 You'd think it was warm with all of these kids in their swimsuits, huh?  I don't remember the temperature--probably high 60's, but I was freezing!!

 They had a blast burying each other.

 It's always so windy at the beach!

 Cute Lydia digging a hole to bury herself

 Baby Hazel loving the sand

 Noah's turn

 Pixie sticks at the beach?  Not always a great combination!

Bella, Noah and Amelia

 Me reading a book and trying to stay warm!

 a group selfie

Meggin, Savann, Paige and Lydia

After we got home from the beach, Paige and I went to watch Maggie.  

 This is her social ballroom class--they were dancing the swing to the song "A Little Less Conversation"

This is her partner Sterling after the performance.  She danced with him to the cha-cha, to a song called "Heart Skips a Beat" by Olly Murs.

 Maggie and best friend Emma

 These are pictures from the cha cha.  This dance was for the dance team that goes to competitions.  She wasn't on this team, but her friends Emma and Spencer were and she gets rides from Emma's mom.  So she would always stay after class and watch them and do homework, since they were her ride home.  Long story short, one of the dancers knew that she wasn't able to perform.  So, Maggie quickly learned the dance in like 2 weeks and filled in for her.  

Sorry the lighting isn't very well--they were dancing under red lights and I tried to lighten them.  

 These are her friends Spencer and Emma dancing with her and Sterling.

 This is her regular ballroom class.  She's dancing swing with her friend Nathan.

 they are hiding in the back in most of the pictures because they are both tall.

 The end

Sunday May 31st

 After church, we went over for a BBQ and to hang out some more. 

 Lydia giving tractor rides

 Painting our hand prints on the tree

 They all look so excited!

 I got to hold sweet little Hazel

 Getting her hand print on the wall

 My turn

 Bella's turn

 Noah's turn

 Garrett helping

 Bella playing with Hazel

 Back outside playing in the sandbox

 A picture with all the cousins...not sure why Noah's so upset

Uncle Jake was teaching Maggie some swing moves.

May...done!