Vacation 2010 Day 10

Day 10 of vacation was spent at Zion National Park. This is one of my favorite National Parks. I love the contrast of the deep green colors with the orange rock formations in the canyon. It became a family favorite on this trip because we were able to do some hiking. Because it was one of our favorites I took a ton of pictures at Zion. I'll only give you a taste here. If you want to see more, call me and we'll have coffee and look at them together. The kids also enjoyed counting the lizards. I think they saw a total of 16. We loved the falls. The first ones we hiked to were the lower emerald pool.

The kids loved the weeping rock trail...mostly because it was hot and the rocks dripped water on us while we hiked. It was also beautiful. On the way there we saw several deer and wild turkeys.

Our last trail was the riverwalk trail. It led to the narrows which is a place in the trail where the canyon is so narrow that you can only hike through the water. Unfortunately, since we were there in what is technically spring the water was too high to walk through the actual narrows. However, we did enjoy a splash in the river.

What a great day...it wore us all out.

This year's garden

Yep, the toe is broke. Well, I've not had x-rays done or anything, but a big purple line developed along the side of it and the whole top of my foot has a sickish purplely color to it. It is actually feeling better this afternoon. I'm not sure if it because of the 3 ibuprofen I took or because Joe finally convinced me I needed to stay off of it today. (It's kind of amazing...I can't walk very well but I can do the eliptical machine. Hurts like the dickens when I get off the machine, but...) Well, it was Joe telling me that I needed to keep off of it and the fact that it was so swollen at the end of the day yesterday that my sandel put a really decent imprint on it. Alright, enough about the lame foot.

I thought you might enjoy some pictures of our garden for this year. Planted were big boy tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, Marconi peppers, ancho peppers, and jalapeno peppers. Not planted, but growing are cherry tomatoes. Not planted, growing and pulled were some zucchini plants. I still have zucchini in the freezer from last summer. The gal with the green thumb at church shared some tomato tips with our MOPS group last spring that really helped with my romas this year. I've been pruning the "sucker" branches off. I love to prune. Just ask Joe...some plants I prune so much that he's convinced they will never see life again. But I have yet to kill anything by pruning. There's just something satisfying about snipping junk off of a plant. Anyway, we have the largest romas we've ever had. They are almost ready to ripen. I just keep hoping they wait until after VBS next week, but with this heat they will probably all be ready for salsa making the middle of the week. Good thing I have next weekend free. I just need to encourage my jalapenos in the same direction.

our jalapenos

maroconi peppers

the beautiful romas--one of about 5 plants

July at our house

So I'm pretty sure I broke my toe. It is the next to last one on the left foot and I know it would make me feel better if it turned black. Then I would feel a little justified in the amount of pain it is causing me. This really isn't a convenient time for me to have a broken toe. I've just gotten back into my exercise routine (you may have heard that Joe & I are participating in a weight loss challenge with the office staff at church) and I have VBS next week. Not sure at this point how I'm going to jump around on stage like I need to. I've really started praying that by next week the toe is back to normal. Joe (the medical expert in the house) says it is very unlikely. Sigh...

The middle part of July has been pretty active for us. Here's what's been going on....

• We've been borrowing some videos from the library for our evening entertainment. (There just hasn't been anything child worthy on TV lately.) The other day Nathan talked me into letting him get a nature video Deep Blue. It's not that I'm against nature; I'm just not a fan of some of the videos about nature. Anyway, we settled in to watch it with me warning them that if it got crazy on evolution we would be turning it off. It actually turned out to be pretty good, right up to the point that they started showing the killer whales. After seeing them in a action, I'm kind of wondering who at Sea World thought it would be a good idea to try to tame these mighty beasts. They had a scene where a pack of killer whales attacked a baby gray whale. After 6 hours they wore the mama gray whale out and killed (yikes!) the baby gray whale. It was really horrible. We had major tears going on with Nathan and I'm afraid he will probably never watch a nature video again.
• On the same theme of nature, a monarch catepillar somehow ended up on my foot outside last week. So we brought it in a put it in Sara's "butterfly pavillion". It ate and ate this last week and we woke up this morning to it hanging upside down in the pavillion. Here's hoping for a butterfly in two weeks.
• The girls had an Anne of Green Gables marathon while visiting their aunt a few weeks ago. Now I know who Ashley reminds me of...Anne of Green Gables! She is now devouring the books and her dramatic side has come into light even more in the last week. She was in tears when we took the video back to the library yesterday (yes, they had to watch them again when they got home). I think there may have even been utterances of "how shall I now live?"
• Speaking of Ashley, she lost a tooth this last week. It put me in a panic when she came upstairs one afternoon with blood coming out of her mouth and she announced a tooth fell out. I didn't know she had a loose tooth and you just never know what is going to happen with that child. Fortunately, it was one that was suppose to come out this time.
• We have VBS here next week and once again I'm in charge of it. I guess that sounded a little like I didn't want to be in charge. I enjoy it. It could be an interesting week. Last year we had 38 kids on our first day and ended the week around 60 or 70. We have 41 preregistered for this year. Here's hoping we have enough of everything!
• I've been studying Hebrews this summer. I usually end up my Bible study with more questions than answers. But it has been really good to be in the Word.

We are off to the orthodontist and to do a little shopping...that will be fun with a broken toe. Oooo, maybe I can drive one of those little carts at the store....

The herd is back!

Okay, just to start out, I will finish blogging about vacation, but it may have to wait until after VBS is over. Oh, wait, then I'll be in preparation for the beginning of school. Well, I guess I'll just have to finish it before VBS. It will get done. I promise.

So, yep, the herd is back home again. Not to be confused with "Back Home, Again in Indiana". They just came from spending two weeks in Indiana. No, they are back home in good 'ole Illinois. We had gotten several complaints from the neighbors about our children missing. I'm serious. The ones across the street even came over to greet them this evening. Yeah, our street is pretty quiet without our children around. There is only one other house with kids on our block and they only have two girls. Elementary girls tend to be quieter than 4 & 6 year old boys who are outside playing cowboys. Within thirty minutes of being home Nathan had been a cowboy, a superhero, and an army guy.

So I've been transitioning from an eerily quiet house to a somewhat organized chaotic one. How is the patient, you may be wondering? John is doing fine. Our biggest issue right now is trying to balance the activity. It is kind of hard to "play quietly" when you have three other siblings that really have no desire to do that. And it becomes apparent very quickly that he really doesn't yet have the stamina to sustain a day full of imaginary play with the others. They had a superhero/cowgirl club meeting this morning downstairs and that was about all he could handle.

This post wouldn't be complete without a quick comment on what I learned while my kids were gone. I'm convinced that God designed us to have personal interaction in part so that we would recognize our desperate need for him. I was feeling pretty good about myself...rather self-righteous, to be honest...after spending close to two weeks with either no children or one child. My sin nature was downright under control. It literally took about 30 minutes of my children being home for me to recognize that, oh, I guess I'm not has righteous as I thought. I'm thankful for that though. I'm thankful that I have four kids and a husband that help reveal to me (not by their actions, but by relationship to them) the edges that need to be refined by the Lord. I pray that once my kids are gone I will be wise enough to build close enough relationships with others that I can continue to recognize my sin and my need for a Savior.

On the agenda for tomorrow: a free movie at the local movie theater and maybe a stop a the new HyVee. Yes, we have HyVee now. I'm so excited! This one comes equipped with a sushi bar. Now we just need to add a Fareway and a Meijer to make our shopping repertoire complete.

John's surgery

So for the third time in my experience as a mother I took one of my kids in for surgery yesterday. It never gets to be an easier experience. There are different challenges with each experience and with experience comes ease in knowing what to expect. BUT it is never easy to send your child off with stranger (I don't know that nurse!) and go sit in another room while he/she is put to sleep and surgically messed with. Even a "simple and routine" surgery such as removing the tonsils, adenoids and getting some nose work, isn't "simple and routine" when it is your child that is involved..it is down right traumatic. All that to say, I'm glad it is over. I feel so blessed that it was just "simple and routine" and that all my kids that have had surgery have had no problems. Yesterday it all went as planned and he was such a great patient for everyone.

The "before" picture. John was so fascinated by everything going on in the hospital that he forgot to be nervous. He was also stunned that Ashley forgot to tell him that he got to wear special PJs for the event. He loved the slippers so much that he requested to bring them home.

His first picture sans tonsils and adenoids. He immediately chomped down a popsicle that he declared "delicious". The first thing he requested from mom and dad when he saw us was "I want to go home.". We concurred so he quickly met all the requirements to be discharged and was out the door about 2 hours after his surgery. Then we all went home to "sleep it off". We are now in the middle of a Star Wars marathon. What a great way to recover.

a quick update

So I have obviously taken a break from sharing our vacation story. Not to worry, I will finish it...at some point. We've been taking a another mini-vacation the last couple of weeks. This one was (and is) filled with medical issues, having friends visit and visiting family. We've been swimming, fishing, and hanging out in hospital waiting rooms. The kids spent last week with their Grandpa and Grandma Snow. On the fourth we transitioned and went to the other Grandparents and enjoyed a house filled with aunts, uncles and cousins. As far as the hospital visits go...Joe had his "routine" colonoscopy last week. He hadn't had one in four years so it was time and everything came out normal. Well, normal for him. He still has crohn's disease so obviously his small intestine doesn't look like yours or mine. Anyway, today we head down to the hospital with my John-John. He is getting his tonsils, adenoids, and some nose work done. It may be a rough few days, but I have high hopes for how he will feel once school starts. If you've ever heard John talk you know that this has been coming for awhile. After his surgery it will be interesting to see if he still enjoys onions, olives and tuna salad as much as he does now.

Anyway, just a little update from the heartland that seems to think it is Florida this summer...steamy days with afternoon storms have become the normal here. Hopefully we still have some limbs left in our trees by the end of summer!

Vacation 2010 Day 9

We said good-bye and headed for Utah on Day 9. John decided his stuffed animal would enjoy listening to my iPod as well.

Our first stop of the day was Hoover Dam. From this angle, Joe couldn't really figure out why it was such a big deal.

So we crossed over the dam and saw the other side. This is not a great picture. It was pretty difficult to get a good picture from a "free" position. (It even cost to just go into the visitor's center). This is probably the last time I'll get to drive (I should say "ride") across the dam. They are in the process of completing a spectacular bridge that will go above the dam. It is for security concerns. They had some pretty serious security checkpoints on the way into the dam.

The kids next to their first palm trees.

We left our quick stop at the dam and drove through the corner of Nevada which included Las Vegas. We drove a little of the strip and the "got out of dodge". We are not real big fans of Nevada. Kind of ugly and you feel like you need to take a shower after you cross over into Utah. Oh, and FYI, southern Nevada Subways don't take Subway gift cards. Seriously.

Just outside Cedar City (our next campsite) we stopped at the north end of Zion National Park and saw Kolob Canyon. Ahhh, beautiful.

My two "mishaps" in the last two days

Mishap #1: I've been a little skittish about sickness in my house lately. I'm not usually a "oh no, a low grade fever. I must run my kid to the doctor" kind of a person. But with the amount of strep we've had and a kid that we think is carrying it, I've kind of gotten that way. So yesterday when Nathan started acting a little off and running low grade fever and a reddish throat, I jumped at the chance to make a 1:15 appt to get him checked out. I had called at noonish so I was feeling really blessed that our popular doctor had something available. (The receptionist was even shocked.) As I rushed out the door I seemed to recall that all I'd really eaten for lunch was some watermelon. So I grabbed a banana and went on my way. Once we arrived at the doctor my eyes were having difficulty adjusting to the light in the office. After we got back to the examining room it became very apparent to me that I needed to either find some sugar or a nurse. I did find some candy, but still needed the nurse. Nothing like having to have your child sit in the office chair to be examined because his mom was laying on the examining table sucking down a protein shake. I'm still not completely convinced it was a blood sugar issue (they tested it and it was 105, but that was after the stick of candy), but you can be assured the next time I go to the doctor it will be on a full stomach. It definitely goes up on my most embarrassing moment list...

Mishap #2: So I was outside this morning, barefoot, cutting fresh flowers to beautify my home. I had a couple of lilies in my hand when I stepped on something slimy. My first thought SNAKE!, of course...because we all know that snakes abound in my yard (we haven't seen one since we moved in so it made complete sense to me that this would be a snake). I screamed and then proceeded to throw my flowers in the air. I looked down and no, it wasn't a snake (shocker!). It was dog poop. And to make it worse it wasn't my dog's poop (she only goes in the backyard). It was a neighbor's dog. Somehow it is worse when it isn't your own animal. It is kind of like changing someone else's baby's diaper is much worse then changing your own kid's diaper. Sigh....fortunately I have been having an excellent morning so I'm determined that this will not damper it in anyway. Still...it was pretty gross. Oh, and in case you are wondering, it is worse to step on it barefoot. Joe was trying to convince me just last night that it would be better and easier to clean up if you were barefoot. The grossness factor totally makes up for the fact that it is "easier" to clean up.

Vacation 2010 Day 8

Day 8 of vacation (which happened to be a Sunday) started somewhat chilly. Nathan decided he needed to make his socks into leg warmers.

Our plan for the day was to see the Canyon early in the morning and then come back for some laundry, swimming and general relaxation before we started packing to leave the next day. Joe was hoping to see some elk so he commented "Kids, look out the window. This would be a good time of day for them to be out." Sara decided to tease her dad a bit with the comeback "Yeah, it is also a good time of day for cows and horses." We'd seen several cows & horses masquerading as elk. Sadly, we didn't see any elk.

All was going as planned until we got about 5 miles from the Canyon and John threw up. So we all prayed that he just got car sick, turned the car around and changed our plans for the day. We did about 4 loads of laundry, Joe cleaned out the car, we took naps, we swam, and then we headed back to the Canyon for the evening. The quote of the day came from John while were at the pool. Joe said "We will be leaving the pool around 2". John replied "So we'll be leaving at either 1:59 or 2:01?"

This little guy is the desert spiny lizard. The shuttle buses that we were riding had pictures of different animals you could see at the Grand Canyon. This lizard was one of the animals pictured so the boys were super excited to spot him. While at the Canyon we also saw many ravens. They also were pictured in the bus so everytime we saw one John would say "There is a common raven". We also saw a gopher snake at one of the overlooks.

Vacation 2010 Day 7

Our campground and "home base" for two days sat next to the Kaibab forest. In fact. our cabin looked out on the forest. As a side note, you may have heard about Kaibab recently in the news. Part of it has been on fire and it's not too far from our campground. So the timing of our trip was just about perfect. I'm wondering if the campground is even open right now. Most of the trip (when we weren't staying with friends or family) we stayed in KOA kamping kabins. They have two room ones that were perfect for us and most have air conditioning! As you will hear in future days, this Horn family doesn't do well when we get hot. We are rather spoiled I guess. The kabin also makes it easy to relax and not worry about rain or thunderstorms while camping. You will also see why this is important in future days.There was a small trail in the forest and the boys decided to go in search of jack rabbits. They were successful and we also watched one while we ate breakfast. We took it slow on this morning of vacation. We'd been packing up and heading out pretty quickly everyday until now, so we were ready for a relaxing morning to enjoy sausage and eggs in the midst of the pine smell. Mmmm, nothing like that smell combination.

The rest of the day was spent with "oooo's" and "ahhhhh's" as we saw the grand canyon. It was also filled with "hold my hand!" and "no, Ashley, no one is going to fall over the edge". Here are some pictures from that day.

Our first glimpse of the Colorado River.

We stopped at a couple of overlooks and rode the canyon shuttle up to Hermit's Rest. Then it was back to the campground for some swimming in the heated pool, some fun, and some good rest.