Tuesday, August 18, 2015

July 2015

7/4 - Independence Day Parade:  Annual parade and lunch at Morgan and Amy's home; good times.




7/5 - Owen was in charge of treats for family night (I think we have an elf that switches our job board around because it seems like Owen's always in charge of treats, ha ha!).  He was adamant about trying a new recipe that he made up.  He wanted to make brownies inside of cookies.  It was very labor intensive, but everyone (especially Matt) loved them.


7/6 - This summer I had the goal of reading "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" to my youngest two since they hadn't been introduced to the magic of the series yet.  They were both hesitant to listen to me read it (especially Will) but they became hooked!!  In fact, Will snuck the first book and finished it on his own AND was on to the fourth book by the time I finished reading aloud to Owen!  When we finished reading #1 we had a movie viewing party with the whole family complete with frozen butterbeer, licorice wands, acid pops, and chocolate frogs.  This started a weekly tradition of watching the movies together with a caveat... We have a "rule" that you have to read the book before you can watch the movie.  Owen's too young for all of them so he just played Minecraft (happily, I should add) while the other kids watched the shows.


7/8 - In one of my "bee in my bonnet" moments I ran to the store and picked up some dye to color my hair.  I called Biffy right after I got it and she had me come right over so she could help me apply it.  What a cute bestie! 


7/8 - While I was getting my hair colored by Biffy, Owen was enjoying his first cooking class of the summer.  It's done by one of the teen girls in our neighborhood and she does a spectacular job with these kids.  For this class Owen made Kool-Aid pies.


7/9 - I went to the oncologist today to get an injection that shuts down my ovaries.  It hurt a lot more than I expected it too.  I think my nurse nicked a muscle or something because I was in bed in pain for the rest of the night and all the sites on the internet said it normally doesn't hurt that much.  Boo.  The picture of the right is an annoying side effect post-chemo... lovely, thick, downy facial hair.  It supposedly falls out in 2-6 months but I just shaved it off when it got uber noticeable.




7/10 - I try to exercise every single day; it's one of my biggest priorities (my chemo meds can cause heart damage, my hormone meds cause osteoporosis, and it helps with my depression to get those endorphins flowing).  One morning when I was exercising on the trail behind my neighborhood, I saw my cute, barefoot, youngest boy biking towards me.  He came to check on me and see if he could join my workout.  He lunged and squatted like a pro right alongside me and I just had to take a picture of him because this was one of those simple, small moments that made my heart happy.




7/7-7/10:  Lauren spent this week at Astro Camp.  She attended a field trip there this spring and was highly anticipating the overnight camp this summer.  I was a bit worried because she doesn't love YW girl's camp and I crossed my fingers there wouldn't be any problems... I needn't have worried at all because she ROCKED the entire week.  They woke up at 7 and went to bed at 10 and stayed busy the entire time.  She'd call before lights out every night, exhausted but happy.  This camp was amazing!!! Her favorite experiences at the camp were going to iFly, doing the space flight simulation, and building the medical unit for the Mars space station.




7/11: Airsoft War - this was one of Will's "must do" activities this summer.  Bradley and his friend Kory (who lives in WA but was visiting Utah for the week) helped facilitate the war.


7/13-7/18: EFY - Miriam and Cooper flew into town to go to BYU EFY with Bradley.  They all had a fabulous time.  Does it look like I made enough snacks for them to take???


7/13: Last Radiation Treatment:  My rads technicians Matt and Andy, and my nurse Nikki.  When I finished radiation they gave me this cute graduation certificate and also paid for my name to be placed on a Tibetan prayer flag.  One of the radiation oncologists climbs mountains as a hobby and he works with the "Radiating Hope" foundation to place these prayer flags on the mountains of Tibet.  The foundation provides radiation therapy to people that don't have access to the standards of medical treatment we're used to.  Super cool.


My adorable visiting teachers surprised me with cake and ice cream to celebrate the end of my treatments - yay!  The third picture (on the right) shows my healthy tissue compared to my radiated skin.  I went through rads like a pro and only got one tiny blister that appeared a couple of days after I was done.  I was super happy with how well my skin reacted.



7/13: Dinner BBQ at the Schwab's home the night I finished radiation.  We were there to celebrate Marcus and Krischelle's family being in town.  We love meeting up with that extended family.  Lauren had all the kids enthralled with her stories and games... she's got a gift with kids. :)


7/15:  Bike Ride to Station Park - This is something we did last year and had great success with it so I wanted to do it again.  The kids biked there (about 5 miles) like pros!  We went to Harmon's and got snacks then went to the movie.  I LOVED it, the kids thought it was ok.  We got Panda Express for a late lunch and then biked home.  Everything was going great (minimal complaining, etc) until we were 1/2 way home and then Owen had enough.  It was super hot (what was I thinking doing this ride in July?!) so I tried to be patient but I was pretty worn down as well.  Luckily, Matt got home from work early and he drove to pick Owen up.  Overall, successful trip, but next time we'll do it on a cooler day. :)


7/18:  Dinner with the Green family - After EFY, all the Greens that were in town came over for a dinner to chat with the Hydes.  Fun night.


7/19:  Snowbasin Hike.  Matt, Will and I went on this hike one Sunday afternoon.  Nobody else wanted to go and we didn't want to deal with uncooperative hikers so it was just us three amigos.  We had a lovely time together.


7/20 - Annual Walker Swim Party:  This is one of Will & Owen's favorite traditions of the entire summer.  We missed it last year and I didn't hear the end of it!  Lots of fun with the whole family!


7/21 - Will wanted to make some bagels from scratch.  They didn't quite turn out as we'd hoped but it was a fabulous first try for both of us.  Boiling those buggers while maintaining their shape is tricky!


7/22 - Port Removal Surgery: Dr. Morrell removed my port.  I was super nervous for this surgery but it ended up not being bad at all.  The whole taking the tube out of my jugular vein freaked me out and I was awake for the procedure but as long as I kept making conversation with the everyone I was ok.  The picture below is of the port.  Obviously, the white tube is what hooked into my vein and the purple heart shaped piece is what they poked into for infusions.


7/22 - Owen's big day... it started off with his 2nd cooking class (while I was getting my port out).  That night he spent hours working on K'nex and built a few cool bridges.  He also started working on a doggy needlework craft that we got for this summer.




7/24-7/26 Park City Getaway:  We started our weekend with my favorite bike ride of all time.  I seriously had a smile on my face almost the whole way (even though 1/2 of my kids were complaining - the smile still stayed!).

When we were about 1/2 mile away from the end of the ride, Will and Owen went down a steep grade tunnel that goes under the highway.  This was a horrible time to discover that Owen's brakes were broken... he rammed right into Will as he went downhill!  Those poor kids had a major crash and were lucky to not be more injured.  Some of Owen's injuries are pictured below (he likes the documentation) but Will did not want his owies photographed (he does NOT like the documentation). 

 Saturday we swam in the condo pool, went to a fun lunch at one of our fave places (Red Rock), watched a movie (Ant Man) and finished off the day with Cold Stone ice cream:

Bradley, Matt and I snuck out that night (the younger three had a movie marathon in the condo) and we went to a wedding.  The ceremony was for our neighbor from Park City, Tyler Alden.  He was one of our favorite kids from back then... he babysat our kids, weeded our yard, was the older brother of one of Bradley's best friends, is an amazing pianist and overall kind person.  We were honored to witness their vows to one another.  I especially loved the reception because we chatted with SOO many friends, neighbors and ward members... it was amazing to instantly reconnect with all those people and look back fondly on our time with them.

Sunday we went on a bike ride around our old neighborhood and played in the school and park playgrounds for old times sake.  Lauren wanted to get a picture on the ladder that Matt built for her and Bradley to help them cross the fence to school.  Ahh, good times... 
















































































2 comments:

  1. Oh my Gosh I should have taken notes! This post was extra super packed with goodness.:)
    I love that Owen takes a cooking class from a girl in your Ward, he looks like he loves it! It looked like Lauren had a ball at Space Camp! Drew would have loved something like that!
    I loved the pictures of all the bike rides and hikes and I LOVE that you lay it on the line when the kids are NOT HAPPY about all the strenuous exercise.:)) It makes me think that we weren't too hard on our boys, even though they could complain with the best of them.:)
    It is amazing how fast your hair is filling in; before you know it, it will be long and hot and you will be thinking back fondly of the cooler times. hahahaha.
    I was surprised they took your port out so soon, I was reading about a gal who had her port in for 8 or 9 years! Maybe she is the exception, not the rule.
    Holy Hannah that was a lot of treats for 3 kids, how long were they supposed to be there? Maybe treats for each person in the Dorm?? ;-)
    Yay for all the summer fun, sorry your injection was so painful. :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. What wonderful memories. I'm glad you were able to go and do all those fun things in Park City. Yay for Lauren and her camp, it sounds very interesting. I can't believe how grown up Bradley and his cousins are getting. Crazy! Your port was uber scary looking! Gulp, I'm glad it didn't hurt too much, but I would have been so nervous. You're one tough cookie. It looks like you had a very eventful and full end of summer.

    ReplyDelete