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Happy first birthday to my tiny, perfect Ellie. This is the first time I have taken the time to write down her birth story and everything that happened last year in December. Unlike most birth stories it was not a fun one to write, but I feel it is an important part of the history of our little family regardless. If you don’t want to hear a sad story, just stop here and know that today is our baby girl’s birthday. (This story is more just the basic overview, I am going to do one more post with my experience of everything and more in depth details of what I went through at the hospital.)

December 10, 2015:

I woke up that Thursday morning feeling a lot of pressure and my back hurt. I took a warm bath and tried to ignore the pain. It was so bad I could barely sit. Nick asked if he should stay home from school, but I told him to go. I went to volunteer at the gym daycare from 9:30-11:30. I was still in quite a bit of pain but tried to push through and just not sit down. At about 11:00 I was sitting in one of the rocking chairs and I suddenly felt like I had peed my pants. I went to the bathroom only to find that it was blood and it had already soaked my pants all the way to my knees and was still coming. I tied my coat around my waist and told the daycare supervisor what had happened. I headed for the hospital, crying and shaking, Declan in tow. I called Nick on the way. I remember saying “I’m bleeding” and he responded “from where?” which of course sent me into hysterics. He knew the answer, he just didn’t want to believe it. Declan was pretty good at the hospital, thank goodness. I had an ultrasound and the tech said, “there’s the baby and it’s doing just fine”, which seemed really strange to me, I thought for sure this pregnancy was over with the amount of blood I had just seen. Nick’s friend gave him a ride to the hospital and he made it just before the doctor came in to talk to us about the results of the ultrasound. They told us I had a sub-chorionic hemorrhage. He suggested bedrest and said it was a good problem to have and that baby would be fine.

For the next 21 days I believed that everything would be OK. We announced our pregnancy on our Christmas card. After all, I was past the 12 week mark and the doctor said everything was going to be fine.

We went about our normal holiday activities (Jonah is a master gingerbread house decorator, he loves doing this at Grandma’s every year), with me trying to take it easy for the most part. Our amazing neighborhood helped watch kids and make meals for us so that I could rest while Nick finished his semester at the U. I felt very well taken care of!

The doctor did weekly ultrasounds to check on our little Ellie. It was fun getting to see her so much. She always wiggled a ton at every ultrasound. The ultrasound tech said when I was 14 weeks that she was 90% sure that it was a girl. So we named her Ellie. It had been a girls name that I had wanted for a very long time and it felt like the right name for her. The doctor said the hemorrhage was growing, but that it was still OK. I did not bleed anymore after the first day that it happened, so I assumed this was a good thing. They said she had a two vessel umbilical cord which can sometimes indicate a problem but is actually quite common and does not always mean there is a problem. 

We debated whether or not to go see my family for Christmas. It was the first time all of my siblings were going to be in one place in I think 7 years or so. We decided as long as I took it easy and keep stress to a minimum, and stayed for a short time, it would be OK. The trip proved to be stressful from the get go though. On the way we stopped at a rest stop in Lima, Montana. Our car would not start after, wouldn’t even turn over, we had never had any problems before. Everyone who stopped at the rest stop refused to help us jump our car. So we found a tiny gas station nearby (pretty much the only thing nearby) that had a small mechanic shop in it. The mechanic charged us $50 and jumped our car, thank goodness it worked. Then we stopped in Missoula for dinner. We thought perhaps the car not starting was a fluke so we turned the car off again, and it would not start. Luckily we found a nicer person willing to jump our car. As we neared Lolo pass it was getting dark and the roads were bad. When we arrived at the pass we discovered it was closed. There were over 20 vehicles off the road and it was going to take hours to clear. At this point we were all super tired. So we turned back and went to the silver dollar inn and stayed the night. The sad thing is we were only about an hour from our destination where my family was staying at a ski lodge. We made it the next morning, after jump starting our car again. As soon as we arrived we had to deal with the car. We replaced the battery and thank goodness it worked. Then, while Nick took the kids sledding, I took Kate (we brought our dog as we could not find a sitter over Christmas) to Nicole’s house to hang out in her barn. Jonah refused to go skiing so Nick went with my brothers and Dad one day and Jonah did some sledding (Declan refused to sled, too scary for him, we tried lot’s of times). There was a huge water park at the ski resort and the boys LOVED that part (Nick even tried the surfing simulator, by far my favorite thing from the sidelines). And of course hanging out with all their cousins and aunts and uncles. I mostly sat on the sidelines and read. Although, one time when they went sledding I rode the gondola up the mountain with them, and I still feel guilty about that particularly bumpy gondola ride. It’s interesting, when you lose a pregnancy you over analyze every little thing that you did and wonder if that is what did it. But really, there is no way to know, but the guilt can make you crazy.

Then we spent Christmas at Nicole’s beautiful new house. The boys were excited that Santa found them in Idaho and as usual loved every minute of Christmas. Jonah says Christmas is his favorite, and Declan is finally old enough to really enjoy and understand it. We had a good holiday with family. The day after Christmas we headed for home, anxious for another ultrasound to check on our babe. (Taylor was proposing to his girlfriend that day and we were so excited for him and wished we could have helped build a bunch of snow men for his proposal, but we couldn’t have helped much and we needed to get home.)

We made it home without a snag on our drive. Although it dropped well below zero as we got into southern Idaho, yikes. I remember thinking on the way home that I didn’t feel like my baby was OK anymore. My stomach felt more flat than usual. I tried to ignore the feeling. The night before the ultrasound I told Nick what I had been feeling and told him to prepare himself for the ultrasound, that the baby might not be OK. He said he was sure it was fine and that I always get paranoid when I’m pregnant, which is true.

December 30th, 2015:

We went for the ultrasound at 4:00 pm. The ultrasound tech and I had become buddies as I was there a lot. This was the first ultrasound that Nick was able to come to. Usually she was very talkative and friendly, she seemed to really love being an ultrasound tech and would point out things to me that no other ultrasound tech ever had, like the baby’s bladder and how you can tell if it’s full and how much it holds. This time was different though. She was very quiet. And looking at the screen I could tell it was different. She wasn’t moving. She looked more skeletal than usual, I just remember she looked really bony. Nick finally broke the silence and asked the question that sat like an elephant in the room already… “is there a heartbeat?”. The ultrasound tech immediately burst into tears. “I’m looking…I’m sorry…I’m having a hard time…I don’t think I see anything…” She grabbed a box of tissues and handed it to us. I didn’t cry. Not at first. I was in shock. Because it was 4 pm, the doctors had all already left. They led us to an office to sit and wait for the on call doctor to come talk to us. We waited for what felt like an eternity (I think it really was about an hour). And then the tears and all the emotions came. Disbelief. Anger. It’s just not fair. Dr. Jones finally came and said he could admit me to the hospital and induce that night or we could wait to go into labor naturally. I really liked Dr. Jones more than my usual Dr. so I decided to do it that night while he was on call. We went home and I frantically cleaned the house. I wanted to come home to a clean house, it felt like something I could control in this out of control situation.

December 31, 2015:

We went back to the hospital and induced labor. She was born at 5:45 am the next morning. She was 5.5 inches and less than half a pound. We spent the day with her and then had to find a mortuary to take her body. She was tiny and perfect. The hospital had a lot of different services for people who lose a baby. They took photos of her, provided a tiny pink blanket to wrap her in and put a tiny pink bow on her head. They did these incredible hand and foot molds and prints. And they provided a cute little box to put it all in. Someone also apparently raised funds to donate teddy bears to siblings when a baby is lost, as an eagle scout project. When the staff asked if I would like some for my boys I lost it. I had not even though about how this all would affect them yet. It was so nice to have those teddy bears to give them to squeeze while we told them about their baby sister.

The hospital is not allowed to give a price list for mortuaries, they only give names and numbers. Nick had the difficult task of called around. The first few he called were very cold and stated their prices. But then he called Utah Valley Mortuary and they expressed how sorry they were and just genuinely cared about what we were going through. At that point Nick didn’t even care what the price was, he just decided that was the last call he was making. They ended up being way cheaper than the other mortuaries anyways so it worked out. And in fact, in the end, when I went to pick up Ellie’s ashes they refused to let me pay a dime. I could not believe how well they treated us through the whole thing. (Nick paid them back by taking photographs of their new building for their website, we were so glad to be able to give back to them.)

We love our Ellie and miss her every day. It has been an interesting process attempting to grieve as a family. We each have our bad days on different days and we each deal with it differently. It has been hard, to grieve and also help my children grieve. It has definitely affected them in ways I did not anticipate. Once while playing with some other little kids one little boy had a little sister who kept bothering him. Their Mom said to Declan “aren’t you glad you don’t have a sister to bug you?” and Declan responded “I do have a sister, Ellie. She died.” I know that was super uncomfortable for her but I am so proud of my kids that they feel like they can talk about and remember their sister. Today in remembrance of her we will eat some birthday cake and release one pink balloon. We will not forget her and the impact she has had on us, we love you Ellie!

My parents came to visit for the weekend and then my Dad flew home and my Mom stayed to watch the kiddos so that Nick and I could get away for a few days during his fall break. Nick wanted to go check out some shows in Vegas, so we did. It was a fantastic little break from the kiddos. And I actually got to see and talk to my husband for more than a few minutes a day. School takes up all his time these days, but I am proud of his hard work.

We loved all the fake Italy stuff. Like the Trevi fountain, which was not nearly as crowded as the real one.

Nick wanted to see Penn and Teller, a comedian magician act with these two guys. He loved it, I was so so about it. Nick was super excited to see them doing selfies with people after the show. Sadly ours is out of focus, but still fun.

When we were going to pick up our tickets for Penn and Teller we got pulled into a time share thing and made an appointment to waste a few hours of our lives for some cheap buffet and cirque du soleil tickets. SO bright and early the next morning we set off for our free breakfast and sales talk. It wasn’t too bad…until we got to the end and we had told them ten times that we had an appointment for a massage at 11:30 and it got to be 11:30 and they were still holding us captive. I found that to be disrespectful as they had said they would be done at 11. But the massage place waited for us so we were able to de-stress after, which was perfect.

Cirque du soleil was fantastic. The people in that show are so talented its amazing what they can do with their bodies. I think I sat with my mouth wide open most of the time.

The Venetian hotel was a nice little reminder of Italy, much cleaner though. Makes my heart ache thinking of being in real Italy.

We saw the volcano show and the water show.

Eiffel tower! Remember when we could hop over to the real Eiffel tower in the same time it took us to get to Vegas?? Gah, I miss it!

We had fun texting Nick’s parents our photos of (fake) New York (they were actually in New York at the same time, too funny).

We stopped on our way back and did a little hike in Kolob.

We also stopped at a gas station where we found our cokes with our names on them, next to each other. We were meant to be!

My parents came to visit Park City for a weekend…but I honestly can’t even prove that my Dad was here…I have no photos with him! Sorry Dad! Or of Taylor and Cody and Haylee who came up to Park City as well. My parents rented a really nice apartment with a kitchen up at the base of Deer Valley resort that we all stayed in. It was fun to get up in the mountains and spend some time with family.

It is the perfect time of year to come, so beautiful. While My Dad and brothers went mountain biking (and Nick and Haylee studied) My Mom and I took the kids on a treasure hunt. And we found lot’s of beautiful yellow treasure!

We went to Olympic park and did the little kids ropes course. Jonah of course zipped right through it. Declan sat in the car with Grandpa taking a much needed nap (for both of them, lol).

And Nick and I went on a little baby mountain bike ride. He didn’t think he liked mountain biking but after trying my Dad’s bike out he said it was kind of fun! Thanks Dad!

Jonah had his fall festival at school on Monday, this is apparently their big event. It was pretty fun. There was some mix up about a dance that Jonah was supposed to perform, he didn’t understand that it was like a flash mob and he was just supposed to do it if he heard the music. SO there were some tears when we were leaving and he had not done his dance. But we convinced him to do it for us.

 

After the weekend we left for Vegas and my Mom stayed with the kiddos. I think they had a lot of fun. She even took them to corn belly’s. (And didn’t make them do the big corn maze, lol. Jonah freaked out when she asked…he remembers being lost last year…he hates being lost.) Thanks Grandma!

I spent most of September attempting to potty train little man. He wants to wear underwear and he will pee on the potty but he will also pee in his underwear 5-10 times a day. Sooo…at the end of the month I sort of gave up. We will revisit that idea later.

We went on a hike up to Battle creek falls after school one day.

Jonah found nature’s velcro. And so did Kate. They were much harder to get off of Kate.

We went to seven peaks to go swimming on labor day.

This is how Jonah’s hair looked when he left for school for picture day. It did not stay like this for pictures, but it was worth a try.

I was caller number 8 for a radio giveaway and won tickets to the Utah state fair and to a concert. I took the kids to the fair and Nick to the concert. We saw an alligator show and there was an albino alligator, Jonah was sooo excited, he loves albino anything.

They had this cute little activity for kids to do that was run by the FFA. They had to put on an apron and do all these fake farm chores and then they got paid and could buy a little treat at the country store. The boys did it twice.

Of course they loved all of the animals. And especially all the baby animals.

Declan figured out how to do a front roll while we were at the park one day. And did it about fifty times for anyone that would watch him.

And Jonah’s class went on a field trip to the Hogle zoo. I was a chaperone and got to take this awesome little group around the zoo. They had a fun dinosaur display going on in the zoo with these really realistic and sometimes moving and blinking (or even spitting (spraying water at you)) dinosaurs.

Jonah has been obsessed with Volcanoes for awhile now (a few years really). He did a report of volcanoes for his “expert research” for kindergarten this past year. For his report he learned about Yellowstone, the super volcano, and REALLY wanted to go see it. So, since Disneyland just is not in our budget at this point with Nick in school, we decided Yellowstone could still make a dream come true. Jonah and Declan LOVED it. Jonah was a little nervous at first, knowing that Yellowstone is a super volcano and all. But once we got there and got the campfire going and rolled out the sleeping bags, he was over the moon.

We almost cancelled our trip due to a recent bear attack very near the campsite we reserved, but we decided to be brave and went anyways. We didn’t see a single bear. And the day we rolled in they caught the culprit and euthanized her and sent her cubs to a zoo somewhere. I will never look at bears in the zoo the same.

We were actually in more danger from the bison than bears. We were surrounded at one point on a trail and had to wait for them to pass. Very scary actually. Otherwise, we had a great time.

So Beehive geyser went off right as we started our geyser stroll. It only goes off once a day and they don’t have any idea when it will be until a smaller “indicator” geyser next to it goes off a few minutes before. It is taller and wider than old faithful. It was our favorite.

August 22nd. The day I have been working towards all summer. My very first half distance triathlon. 1.2 mile swim. 56 mile bike. 13.1 mile run.

Here I am in the water at the Utah lake state park preparing for the in water start at the end of the boat ramp. Nice warm water. No wetsuit for me. Look at all those suckers with wet suits.

Here we go! The swim was…interesting. It was super shallow. I could touch the whole way and there were many times when I was basically grabbing the mud on the bottom to propel myself or standing and diving back in. I was so dirty when I got out. I don’t think the liner of my shirt will ever be white again. The water was so dirty that when I put my face in the water it was complete blackness.

 

The bike ride was great. It was an out and back around the south end of the lake. I cruised along pretty good. On my way back I lost my legs, my speed dropped from 20 miles an hour to about 16 and I literally could not make myself go any faster. That lasted about 15 minutes and then I was able to get my legs back. (After the race when I grabbed my bike it had a flat tire…a lot of people got flat tires on the ride. I must have had a slow leak towards the end, I’m hoping I didn’t actually ride on it completely flat!)

The run was pretty good. It was really well supported so that was nice. My right foot was hurting quite a bit for the last 5 miles or so, but I just tried to ignore it. I started to get a rash under my arms. The last mile I pushed hard and passed a lady in my age group which bumped me up a place…which ended up being awesome because….

(The time on the clock is from when the first wave started.)

Much to my surprise, I place 3rd in my age group!!! I was shocked when they called my name. They said the time first and I thought I had barely missed it but then they said my name! WAHOO!!!! 5 hours, 38 minutes. I kept my run time under a ten minute mile and my bike time around 19 miles an hour. My transitions were just over a minute (took me two minutes at spudman). And my swim was decent. Overall I am super pleased! And although I was tired, and filthy dirty from that nasty swim, I felt pretty dang good for having gone 70.3 miles.

Now I think I will do nothing. For awhile. Then I’ll think about maybe doing another triathlon, maybe.

Thanks for watching kids for us Julie and Ted! And thanks for cheering me on ALL summer and ALL day for my race NICK!!!

Here’s what we were up to in August:

The beginning of August marked the peak of my training. My hardest week included a total of 18 hours of training. I was exhausted! I was so excited to start my taper for the race and just do the race and be done for awhile. This training has taken up all my free time this summer. I have barely seen my husband and I have no social life. I have almost given up many times…there were days that I was so exhausted that I wasn’t sure I could make it upstairs to get in bed. But there were also beautiful realizations of how strong I am, physically and mentally. And sometimes my training was very enjoyable.

I did the alpine loop a few times, trying to add some elevation to my long training rides.

Jonah and Declan have been enjoying there weekends with Daddy at the fun center. Thank you Grandma Lloyd for the pass of all passes!
We got a coupon for a free day at the bouldering gym down the street from us. Mr. Jonah was of course in heaven. And Declan tried it out a bit. It’s a cool gym because they have this big blob in the middle that you climb up to the top of and stand on and then there are climb down spots. Most bouldering gyms there is no top to stand on and you have jump down.

Jonah started first grade! He will be attending a Chinese immersion program. It is a public school but it is outside our area. It is a lottery to get in and we got a spot! It’s a 15 minute drive…so it takes me an hour every day to drop off and pick up. But we are hoping it will be a fantastic opportunity for him!

Declan and his friend Isla.

More friends, Jayden and Sawyer.I trade child care with their mom. It has worked out fantastically for both of us. (Except her kids are super easy so I’m pretty sure I have the better deal).

Declan loves his ukelele.

Jonah loves his dog.

I found our old car! With an Italy sticker on the back! (Not really, our car is in a junk yard in Italy).

A bird pooped on our window, big time. The laughter in the car was raucous. What is it about boys and poop?

Here’s what we were up to in July:

4th of July fireworks at the neighborhood party. (Side note: fireworks are not a soldier who has been deployeds’ friend. July is a rough month in our house, especially since because of Pioneer day being a big deal in Utah…people pretty much set off fireworks every night the entire month).

We went to a big event in Orem where they had the Candy Bomber from WWII fly over and candy bomb everyone. But there were tons of people and they only dropped a few candy parachutes, and the didn’t drop them where they said they would…so it was kind of a bust. But I do love the story of the candy bomber.

I also drove up to Ogden one night to go to my friend Megan’s baby shower. She is my friend from Italy and it was so nice to see her. I can’t wait to meet her baby!

Jonah beat his record climbing the rope at gymnastics, he got way higher than this photo.

Nick’s Dad’s family had a family reunion up at Heber Valley camp. We went up and spent the night and did a fun ropes course swing. Jonah loved the swing. When I did it Declan cried for me the entire time…that boy loves his mama. Nick got to see cousins he hasn’t seen in many years and found out that many of them live within a few blocks of us, lol.

Dress like a cow for a free meal at Chic fil a day! Free food? We are there! And let’s be honest, it’s pretty fun to see a bunch of people dressed as cows. We slapped these outfits together in about five minutes. Not bad eh? It was faster than cooking dinner!

Our little cowboy rockstar with his two obsessions this month, his boots and ukelele.

Jonah lost his very first tooth! It was super wiggly so I grabbed it and it popped right out.

I’ve been out training a lot. And enjoying the beautiful scenery. Sometimes there are benefits to running even in the rain. Like getting to see the double rainbow when it stops. Or seeing every sun set and sun rise. Or having people call you crazy for going out in a hail storm because you have to get your training time in and you only have so much time in which to do that (early AM and evenings after the husband gets home). Kate is loving all the runs as well.

My coworker was cleaning out her house and decided to give us her kids’ old k’nex set. Jonah has been in heaven, especially since she had the instruction book and it has 50 different things to build. He is an awesome builder.

We took a weekend trip to Burley, Idaho where I competed in the Spudman, Olympic distance triathlon. Burley is a small farming town (that my Dad actually grew up in) and they don’t have a lot of lodging…the spudman brings in almost 2,000 people. So they open up the golf course (at the start/finish line) and you can camp on it. So we did.

On our way down we stopped at the golden spike monument and made it just in time for a reenactment. In Jonah’s words…boring! The trains were beautiful but the reenactment was quite boring…every important person at that time had to make some kind of speech about the monumental moment when the tracks met and the golden spike was driven in (which it wasn’t really, they kept it. And there was more than one golden spike, several states made golden or silver spikes for the occasion. When they removed the golden spike and put a regular spike in, the important guys attempted several times to drive the spike and missed. They had to get a railroad worker to come do it for them. This was the best part of the reenactment.)

I was so nervous about the water temperature the night before my race. I don’t have a wet suit and I was worried that I would regret it. But despite pretty much everyone else wearing a wet suit I jumped in and the temp was great. The visibility however was horrible. I couldn’t even see my own arm.

The race went super well and I did it way faster than I was expecting. I got stuck in a peloton (a big glob of bikers) during the bike portion and it was actually super fun and made me way faster. I wasn’t really even tired afterwards, I think I could have gone faster. My total time was 2:35. I placed 10th in my age category and 54th for all females. And the competition was tough, so I was happy with my results. It was good practice for my race coming up in August that is twice as far!

Big thanks goes to my awesome husband for hanging out with antsy kids for three hours while waiting for me to do my thing. And watching them every time I go out to train.

On our way back from the triathlon we went through city of rocks and did a little hike. The boys were in heaven finding all the “crystals” …they have been obsessed with crystals lately so going on a hike with millions of them was like winning the lottery for them.

We downloaded a “tour” for our hike. That little hook on top of that rock is called a picklehaube.

We have started to harvest some things from the garden. The boys love it. This is my first real garden (I did some planters in Italy, but did not have land to do a real garden). I am not amazing at it but it’s working at least! Check out that big carrot!

Here’s what we were up to in June:

Hanging out at the park.

Lot’s of wildlife and beautiful scenery on my morning bike rides. I see pretty much every sunrise and sunset these days because of my training. I joined the adult swim team in American Fork and the pool is outdoors so even my swim training is outside and I watch the sun rise over the mountain each time I breath.

Jayden and Declan were playing house and decided to take a nap. I’m OK with that!

Jonah and Declan ran their first race. The Utah Valley Marathon does a free kids 1k and they get a T-shirt and get to eat the marathon finish line food! We might have to do this one every year. Jonah was super nervous at the start line, I think because there were so many people, and he said he really wanted to win. He thought it was dumb that everyone got a medal. I think he changed his tune when he saw the food though. Even little Declan ran the whole way, although he ran with Daddy and cried the whole way because he wanted Mommy.

Being a recreational therapist is such an awesome job. I got to buy a million flowers for my patients to take to old people. So fun.

Petting zoo set up in the city park for a day. Declan loves all critters.

We ride bikes pretty much every day, weather permitting.

My work did a summer party at boondocks, they provided lunch and even a bag of tokens. We just wish Nick could have come, stupid school. Jonah was LOVING the go-karts. Declan got tired really fast and fell asleep so I sat with him while Jonah rode the go-karts 10 times.

We decided to check out the local Lehi rodeo. To be honest, I’m not sure we will go again. The cowboys were subpar and my children did not enjoy going too much. There was however a pretty cool “half time show” from a guy called buffalo bill, with one arm, who had buffalo go on top of his trailer.

Ignore my ugly face in this photo and look at the pile of children attempting to sleep in my lap.

Even if they did not like the rodeo much, Declan gained a new love for cowboy boots. I got the boots out for him to wear to the rodeo and he now wants to wear them every single day. Silly little cowboy. It hurts pretty bad when he steps on your toes with those boots.

The rodeo is a big deal in Lehi, they have a whole week called “Round up week” and it includes a parade and the petting zoo at the park and all kinds of activities.

Declan is obsessed with these little back packs that you can check out at the library. Once a week we go swap out our back pack. They have little activities or toys or costumes and a book. This is supposed to be a police officer costume. He loved it so much he wore it to the park. With his cowboy boots of course.

What’s summer without going swimming and then stopping for shaved ice? Yum!

Jun

What we did in May:

My Mom stayed a little longer than my Dad and was able to help me pull off a friend party for Jonah. It was waaay more work then I had thought it was going to be so I was super glad to have my Mom! Jonah requested a batman theme. We tried to keep it to 6 friends for being 6 years old but we weren’t sure if more than two were going to show so we invited extra and then they all showed.

Then we had a family party as well, with two grandma’s and a grandpa.

Jonah made a “birthday hat” for himself. He’s so creative.

For his Birthday at school they had me come read his favorite story and then the kids get to ask Jonah questions about his other favorites.

Rock climbing at the legacy center.

Declan watching Jonah do gymnastics. This little boy gets to do a lot of watching his brother do stuff. He can’t wait until he is big enough to do stuff too!

Declan got really quiet while Nick was cleaning (I was at work) and he found him like this. Rough day apparently!

Rock climbing at the fun center with Daddy while Mom works.

We learned all about the Earred Grebe and why he can only land on water when I found this little guy that had crash landed on the road. We found him a ride up to the bird rescue in Ogden.

Jonah had a “gymnastics meet”. It was super fun to watch him do his thing.

At the end of the school year every school in Alpine school district apparently does this dance thing…every class has a dance they do to a song. It takes awhile to watch every single class dance but it’s totally worth it when your own kid gets up.

Lehi fun center with Daddy on the weekend.

I am spending lot’s of time riding my bike, running and swimming. Slow and steady, I hope I’ll be ready!

Rock climbing in American Fork Canyon. This boy loves to climb.

School graduation ceremony.

At last summer has arrived! Let the BBQ’s begin!