A Trip to the Zoo

Thursday was the first full day of school for the elementary kids. After the rough start I decided to do something fun with the little ones who aren't in school yet. I had bought a year pass to the zoo back in July with the intent of using it soon...well, I'm not pushing Jeff around in a wheelchair! I decided it would be easier to just take the little ones until Jeff could walk on his own.
We started at the monkey house...this little guy was right in front of us...then proceeded to grab the fence with his tail and hang upside down...Joran and Maren just squealed...then he moved off down the fence...I'm not very "quick draw" with the camera...



We then went to see the elephants. One of the elephants just had a baby so they were in isolation for a couple more weeks. There was one in the exhibit...he was close to the fence eating. Maren just sat and watched him. When I asked her if we were ready to move on this is what she said, "But I love him!" Needless to say we watched him eat for a little longer.

Next to the elephant exhibit, there is this gigantic elephant...out of the truck comes all sorts of noises and it even blows water...Maren was scared of all of this, so we had to hurry and take the picture before it started again.


Next we visited the rhinos...they were also eating. They had a window we could look through and watch, but it didn't photograph well, so we went for the next best thing.


We saw others animals along our way, but the next funny thing happened at the giraffes. We watched these outside for a few minutes and then went inside. There was a baby giraffe in with two other giraffes. The baby would walk right up to the fence and look right at you. The mommy giraffe went to the bathroom right in front of Maren...all she said was uh-oh. I told her someone would come in and clean it up. That night as I was laying next to her before bed we were talking about the zoo and all the animals we had seen. I asked her about the giraffes...she told me they were messy and someone had to clean up their grapes...it took me a minute to put together that she was talking about the mommy pooping (I have to give it to her -it looked like purple grapes!). I still smile about that one and we did clarify that mommy giraffes don't poop grapes...


After coming up the hill, they were ready for lunch. We had our picnic next to the animal carousel. It worked for good bribery in eating their food before going for a ride. Maren chose the babylion ( the three new tiger cubs were out, but were sleeping in some bushes so we couldn't see them)

Joran chose the lemur that we saw jumping all over.


Off to the gorilla and ape exhibits. It seemed to be nap time here so once again we settled for the statue. Our zoo visit wouldn't be complete without a picture next to the measuring gorillas...



To finish off our trip we had to get our picture with our heads in the lion fountain...Maren reached up to touch it's teeth just as I was taking the picture.




On the way out Joran and Maren cooled off in the water ball...


It was a fun, quick trip for us...had to be home when the bus arrived! We're going back in a couple weeks to visit again...maybe it will have cooled off some by then!

Bus Update

I just thought I'd update the bus situation for you. We found out Connor(and some of the other kids) had been given the wrong info on where to catch the morning bus. It is now in front of the school not in the back like we were told.
The second day he got on the bus just like he was supposed to...whew! at least that is what I thought. I called and told me that they had a sub driver to bring them back to school. The driver had been told to take them to Bonneville High (In Ogden!) and the kids told him they went to Roy. He proceeded to drive and when they got almost to Bonneville they voted on who was to tell the driver they really did go to Roy. He thought they were joking and didn't want to go back to school...now if you knew/saw the kids on the bus you wouldn't have second guessed them. All of the kids are taking college classes in junior high, they don't joke about school-need I say more???? It's ok to think it...we tell Connor he's part of the Nerd Herd all the time...we tell him that the only thing keeping him from being their leader is that he is athletic too- I guess that makes him a nerdy jock! :)

Connor's Sweater

Connor is the Vice President of the Honor Society, which means he is a student body officer and wears this lovely, $$$$$, sweater. The day we got it we had to take it back to the maker...they had spelled his name wrong after telling them multiple times how to spell it.
Here is the first day pic again because it is the only one I have of him wearing it.


This is one of the front lapels

Here is the other side the sleeve (the year of the office, not the graduation year) and the front of the other side with his name

This is the back of the sweater with school emblem and mascot

It will sure keep him warm during the winter, but he isnt' enjoying wearing it right now!

First Day of School

I have learned/am still learning that no matter how well prepared for things something out of my control happens!

The morning started well...everyone got up, showered and dressed in time for scripture study at 6:30am. Jeff now has to drive Connor to Roy High to catch his bus at 7am (he is taking some Weber State classes at a satellite school and then they bus him back to the junior high for the remaining classes). Here is the picture of Connor before he left (he loves his student body sweater, but was dying by the days end...it is wool-no air at the school and it's about 100 degrees here. They are required to wear it all day the first week to assist the new 7th graders or kids new to the school.):



Jeff taking Connor to the bus, if you look closely, Connor is holding his hand up so I can't get another picture of him.


Cheyenne left just after 7am to catch the bus.



As I started to get the rest of the kids ready, Cheyenne texted me asking why Connor was still in the High School Parking lot. Connor hadn't taken his phone that morning (the pockets in his shorts were too shallow and he didn't want it falling out) so I had her run to the High School so I could talk to Connor. The bus hadn't come. I hurried and put a pony in Annicha's hair and took a picture...apologizing for not being able to get them on the bus the first day. Annicha broke down...I didn't really have a choice considering Connor's class was starting in 10 minutes. Here is the picture of Boston, Sierra and Annicha before I left.

I picked up Connor and two other boys that were there and drove them to the other High School and then went back to the elementary school. That was the deal I made with Annicha to get her to go on the bus. I found Annicha playing outside...she was doing great until it was time to go in. She panicked...remember from my previous post about not meeting her teacher? She was wrapped around my leg and wouldn't let go. I helped her unload her supplies to her room and she started crying. Her teacher didn't say a word to either her or me...I felt awful leaving her crying at her desk...I'll admit it now...it made me cry as I left. I was so mad that all the circumstances-from not meeting her teacher to me not being able to put her on the bus and having to go to the school and leave her crying ruined her day.

While the kids were at school I took Joran and Maren and we made school bus cookies and did laundry. I don't have pics of the cookies, but I do have one of Maren as she was waiting for me to change the laundry.
She has started this jumping thing...she jumped down the bottom step and fell forward into the corner of a wall...we had a huge bump with the blue/red line that threatens stitches...Joran was a speedster in getting an ice pack (one with princesses on it) and Maren let me hold it there until the swelling went way down.


We decided to walk to the bus stop and meet the bus in hopes that Annicha would forgive me for the morning.

Here are the after school pictures:

Here is Boston-the first off the bus


Annicha-happy to be home you think?


Here is Sierra, Annicha's friend Aubrey is in front of her


It was a long day and I am so glad it is over. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Maren's "Friend"

Maren has made good friends with a young man that sits behind us in church...his name is Cameron. She rubs his hair and smiles at him, and occasionally he'll take her and look at a book with her. Well, Cameron left for Utah State this past week. He had had a difficult weekend so Maren and I put together a little gift bucket for him. It was full of treats and a framed picture of Maren so he wouldn't forget he-from what I understand he really took it with him! Here is the picture we sent with him (did you catch the subliminal message on Maren's shirt? It's her BYU shirt- he is an Aggie!)

Connor Strikers Tournament and Back to School Night

The strikers tournament started the day after Jeff's surgery. All the games were in Layton, just at different fields. I took Connor to the first game on Wednesday evening...they won 12-0.
The second game was on Thursday night...which also happened to be back to school night for all 5 of my school kids and for Jeff. Jeff has taken one of my older girls (Sierra) during the day to be his legs and help get his room ready. The junior high's scheduled time was early enough to go to before we had to leave for the game...we made it to most of the teachers with just enough time for Connor to change and then off we went again. (I had told the elementary kids we would have to go the next day since I couldn't be everywhere at once) :( Connor's team won the second game 3-0. This game however had a complication...I had a tire blow about a mile from the field. I was driving the van which Jeff usually drives and didn't really know how to change the tire. I hurried and called another mom to see if she could pick up Connor and take him to the field so he wouldn't be late. While I was doing this another parent drove by and picked him up. Luckily the mother that I called brought another players dad to help me change it...he was a lifesaver. There was no way Jeff could have helped me!
The next morning I was buying two new tires...at least it happened to me and not Jeff...that would have been bad.
Friday we tried to visit the elementary teachers...2 of 3 weren't at school...which probably led to the trauma on the first day -I'll get to that in the next post. The friday game Connor also won 2-0. That meant he would play in the championship game the next day( The championship game was at 1pm...did I mention it was 100 degrees out for all these games?)
The game didn't start well...Connor's defensive wing wouldn't move...2 goals were scored against them because of this (his old coach was sitting next to us-I should say pacing repeating over and over how this boy was doing the same thing as last season!)
It didn't get any better...at least they didn't shut Connor's team out or out score us by much, but the ref gave the other team a goal that was way offsides (you should have seen the President of our soccer club and the trainer hollering)...it should have been a tie game. The boys took it well considering they had previously shut out this team and they had more points overall than this team (the tournament standings are weird, I don't know why we even played this team again since we had already beat them; they had a loss and we were undefeated-doesn't undefeated = winner????) Anyway, here is the picture of the medal...the other teams were the same only said first...

Jeff's Surgery and Grandpa's Bus

Jeff's surgery
I guess I should start with Jeff's surgery. As some of you recall, Jeff had his right knee done back in December. It went fairly well so we thought before our insurance changed we better do the other knee (not just for fun-it was worse than the right). Anyway, the only day they could get him in was August 18th...the day after he was to go back to work. We didn't think too much about it since he was walking well the day after surgery last time.
When I met with the surgeon after surgery, he informed me Jeff's knee was worse than he thought. Jeff basically had no cartilage in his knee. To try and remedy this they drilled holes in his bones to fill with blood and form scar tissue to hopefully cushion the bones. I was thinking "gross!" but didn't think much about it until he said no weight on the leg for 6-8 weeks. I think I sat in a state of shock! He's looking at me saying he'll be fine on crutches or in a wheel chair for that long right? blahblahblah is all I heard after that first statement.
It wasn't a quick in and out like last time either... one of the meds they gave him made him very sleepy so he couldn't keep his oxygen and heart rate up where it needed to be to go home. He got really sick on the drive home...I was still in shock and my head just spun.
Once we got home he did fine. He ate a good dinner and went to bed and felt fine in the morning. He hasn't had any pain meds at all and is getting around pretty well. Connor has nicknamed him "crutchy". Since it is his left knee and he hasn't had pain meds he can drive himself around. The hardest part is getting in and out of the vehicle with crutches.
I did take a pic of Jeff after surgery...on my phone so until it comes off no pictures for this post.

Grandpa's Bus
After the sick incident on the side of the road (on the way home from the hospital) we came around the corner and saw a school bus parked just up from our house. Grandma Johnson had driven the Davis girls soccer team to play the Roy girls soccer team. The field is just up the street from our house so he thought he'd stop by.
He told the kids he'd let them look at his bus. This was a great blessing...you might think I'm nuts, but Joran gets so upset each year watching the others ride the bus. He was so excited I can't even express...he didn't show it in the pictures (he's noticed the others complain when getting their picture taken and has now started following).
All aboard...

Everyone on the steps for the picture


Joran sitting in his seat

Maren the rebel standing (my guess-the seats are too high to see over)


They had a fun time-Thanks Grandpa!