Aug 9, 2013

A day of firsts

Wednesday was a day of firsts. It was Cooper's first day of 1st grad and the boys and I walked him over to school in the morning. I could tell he was a little nervous, but also really excited. He found his teacher, Ms. Char, when it was time to line up and after that he was fine. He waved goodbye to me and off he went. It was a little easier to leave him this year, but I still waited anxiously all day for him to come home and tell me about his day. I asked him how it went and he just shrugged and told me "ok." I think he enjoyed it more than he lets on. :-)
Another first - our first trip to the ER for stitches.  That same day the boys were playing at the neighbors after school and Hudson took a header down their basement stairs. He face planted into the corner of their wall and received a nice gash on the right side of his chin. I took a look at it after the neighbor came to get me and it was obvious he would need stitches - the skin was gaping open. It was pretty gruesome. I drove him to the ER, where we had to wait 2 1/2 hours for him to receive 16 stitches. He was a brave little trooper. After the initial hysteria wore off, he just sat on the bed watching cartoons and playing on my phone, totally chill. He had a hard time during the actual stitching, but for all intents and purposes he was a rock. Literally. He would not smile or laugh no matter how hard I tried - he was a stone. My boys have already locked in that false tough guy act. ;-) I'm just glad the stitches dissolve so we don't have to go back to have them removed.
This is the 2nd time I've had to take him to Cardin Children's Hospital at Banner Desert (the first time was when he was 18 months old and swallowed a lithium battery) and I have to say I wasn't impressed either time. Unfortunately, it's the closest hospital to our house, so while I would like to say it will be our last trip there I'm not that naive. I'm raising 3 boys - its kind of inevitable that one will get hurt again. I just hope there's a long stretch before our next visit.

Aug 2, 2013

Summer 2013

Wow. I've been really bad about journaling, so maybe I'll start updating my blog again. That counts as journaling, right? :-)
This summer has flown by. We had a McDowell family reunion up in Heber, AZ. It was so fun to see all the aunts and uncles and even some cousins! We've spent a couple of great weekends in Thatcher, AZ with the Conrads and had an amazing trip to San Diego, CA.
The pics in this post are from our trip to San Diego. It was so much fun! We went for Randy's birthday. It was the boys' first time at the beach and watching them step into the ocean for the first time was such a fun and joyful experience. That sounds corny, but its honestly the best way I can think to describe it. They absolutely loved it. It was hard not to share their excitement and enthusiasm. We were also able to visit the San Diego Temple (gorgeous! ) and the Mormon Battalion Historic center. It was such a neat tour and afterwards the boys got to pan for gold, see how bricks we made, pump water and view the area from the tower on top of the building. The best part though, was probably seeing Cooper and Hudson dress up as soldiers.
We've had such a fun summer, but I think we're all ready for school to start. Cooper will be in 1st grade and Hudson starts preschool this year. For a few short hours it will just be me and Emmet. Ahhh, I do love fall.... :-)