Halloween 2015

Annual pumpkin carving.  Since I had just broke my elbow and I was still in a sling and it was still quite painful, Dan had to help carve pumpkins.  Not his most favorite thing.  I just sat back and snapped some pictures. 

We had two Ninjas and a Turtle this year.

I will admit that I was not into Halloween this year.  My elbow took its toll.  I am actually surprised at how quickly a broken bone wears you down.  So I hopped in the van, opened the side doors and drove them around.  They would run from the van to the house and then sit on side with their feet hanging out while we went to the next house.  It worked great, even if it did make us the laziest trick- -or-treaters on the block.

Broken Elbow

On the night of October 22 I went out to play basketball.  I have found a group of women here in Twin who play twice a week and boy is it fun.  I have thoroughly enjoyed it and I love the exercise.  On this particular evening as I was running down the court I was tripped up and went down with both my arms extended.  I landed on my left palm first and then kind of rolled and hopped up.  I didn't feel immediate pain, but more uncomfortable and I noticed right away that I could't straighten my arm all the way.  I kept on playing for another forty minutes or so, but as I played it started to hurt a little more.  Then I couldn't catch the ball at all with that left arm or I did feel strong shooting pain.  Finally, I knew something was wrong and had to stop playing.  As I headed out to my car my arm started to really hurt and if I moved it or bent it at all it would seize up and then the pain would hit.  Blinding, horrible, can't talk or think kind of pain.  I got home around midnight and told Dan, who I had to wake up, that I think I had really hurt myself.  He told me to go to the ER, but I thought I could wait until morning and see how it was feeling.  I didn't want to pay an ER bill.  But as I got in the shower and realized there was no way my shirt was coming off because, by this point, I really couldn't move my arm at all or I would experience blinding pain.  Dan managed to get it off without killing me and I took my shower, with the pain getting worse and worse with a more constant throbbing.  I knew after the shower I needed to go to the ER.  Since it was so late I made Dan stay home with the kids rather than wake them up or wake up a neighbor to watch them.  I went to the ER and it was confirmed I had broken the radial head.  Since I had driven myself to the hospital they couldn't give me the stronger pain killers or I wouldn't be able to drive myself home so I lay there in pain.  Then the nurse came in to set the elbow.  WORSE. PAIN. EVER.  I have never had pain like that in my entire life.  It gave me a new understanding of how Braden felt when he broke his arm and was freaking out when the nurse tried to twist it when doing the x-ray.  They had to pin me down in order to get that elbow at a 90 degree angle because it hurt so badly.  Finally, they sent me home with those lovely pain killers in hand and the moment I got home I took them.  Lots of them.  And some muscle relaxants.  The combination of the two made me slightly psychotic, but oh so nice to feel like that.  Needless to say I have discovered that the muscle relaxants are a no-no for me.  Broken elbow is now on the mend.

Drawing With Friends

Have I mentioned that this little Landon kid is a social butterfly?  He just draws kids to him like a magnet.  He loves to play.  This other little boy, Aaron, lives two doors down and is about a year younger than Landon.  But, they have fun together once in a while.  

They decided to get out some paper and coloring stuff and went to work.  They drew pictures for about an hour and were so proud of their work.  I like to listen to their little conversations as they work and play.  They're just too darn cute.

Jazz Open Practice

I thoroughly enjoy the Jazz.  I watch all the games and follow what's happening around the NBA.  Because of this, my kids also know the Jazz.  Braden likes Gordon Hayward because he always scores the most points and Landon likes Rudy Gobert because he's the biggest.  Well, I had a chance to go the open practice the Jazz held and it just so happened Leslee and her family and Steven and his family were going too so we all went down to Salt Lake for a fun night.  We sat just a few rows back and it was really fun to see the players up that close.

Dalin has been really into cameras lately and took this shot with my camera.  I think it's Rudy Gobert and Joe Ingles.  Dalin was proud of his efforts.

This guy loved watching the Jazz Bear and boy did the Bear have some antics going on that night.  Landon was amazed at some of the stuff he did.

So Dalin had my camera and I ended up deleting about 30 pictures, but I just couldn't delete this one of some random kid sitting in front of us.  Dalin got him to smile and everything.  Oh, how this made me laugh.

Glad we went, I had a lot of fun.

Dressing Up

As we've all seen before, Landon likes to dress up.  He has super hero costumes and toys that he just loves to wear.  Well, now we live next to some little girls.  Landon has said several times that he thinks Brooklyn is beautiful, and I think her little sister Tynlee is the cutest thing I've ever seen.  They like to dress up too, only they don't have brothers so it's everything princess.  Landon hasn't skipped a beat and dresses up right along with them.  Oh, the influence of a girl.  They are good little friends.

Proud Momma

So Braden really likes to earn money.  He'll try anything to get me to pay him for various things.  He does the dishes every night and cleans things up that I haven't asked him to clean in the hopes that I'll pay him for his efforts.  At the local toy store he found a toy airplane that looks real, is made of metal, and has really cool features that he really wants.  The cost is $7.99.  I've told him to put it on his Christmas wish list or save up his money until he can afford it.  He really wants this airplane.  He saved until he made it up to $6.00.  Then, the other day he came home from school and excitedly told me he found $2.00 on the side of the road and could we please go buy his airplane.  I told him that I didn't have time right now, and that I would like for him to think about his purchase for a day or two before he spent all his money on a toy just to make sure he really wanted it.  He agreed.  The next day he started asking me questions.  Here's how the conversation went:

Braden: "Mom, if someone steals something really small will they still go to heaven?"

Me:  "I don't know, what do you think? What have we learned at primary and in our conversations at home?"

Braden: "Well, I know one of the commandments is that we shouldn't steal."

Me: "Does that mean even something small?  

Braden: "Yes."

Me: "So what happens if we choose not to follow the commandments?"

Braden: "We can't live with Jesus."

Me: "But remember we can always repent and say sorry and then it's like we never did it because Jesus died for us. Right?"

Braden: "Yeah."

Then off he goes to play with his friends.  I didn't think much of it because Braden and Dalin often pepper me with all kinds of questions, so I just figured it was one of those questions.  But, later that night Braden came to me with some crumpled and slightly damp one-dollar bills.  He said, "Mom, I stole these out of your purse so I could buy my airplane, but I'm repenting now and sorry.  I promise I won't ever do that again. Now I can still go to heaven."  

The relief just poured out of him.  I was floored.  First I couldn't believe my little innocent baby would steal from me, and secondly I was proud and excited that he felt guilty enough and then brave enough to fess up and give me the money back and apologize.  I nearly cried. I told him I was really disappointed that he would choose to steal to get what he wanted but that I was very proud of him and thought it was very brave of him to come and tell me, knowing he could get into real trouble.  I gave him a hug and sent him on his way.  I couldn't bear to punish him further because I felt like he had punished himself enough.  Now he knows it's better to work for your money and earn it honestly than to try to steal or cheat your way into getting what you want.  He has since worked and earned some extra money and, added to his allowance, he should soon have enough to buy his airplane, if he still decides he wants it.

Exploring Sawtooth

We are in a new place so we need to do some exploring.  Twin is kind of out in the middle of nothing with nothing but desert surrounding it.  So we have to drive a ways to get to any mountains.  The major mountain chain is Sawtooth and it's absolutely breathtaking, but you have to drive a ways to get there.  The Salmon River is apparently one of the most popular rivers for avid fishermen, so Dan tells me.  He says people come from all over the world to fish it.  I'll just have to take his word for it.

We stopped at this viewpoint to see the Sawtooth mountains.  You can see them in the background, although pictures never do them justice.  They are made of granite which gives them a very sharp and jagged look to them, hence the name Sawtooth.  

And here's the Salmon River.  It smelled like death.  It was horrible.  We caught the end of the Salmon run when all the fish come from the ocean and up the Salmon River to spawn.  And then, of course, they die.  Huge fish, hundreds of them, dead in the water.  Yuck!  It smelled just like a river full of dead fish would smell.  

Landon made a bridge.

Haha.  You can see Dalin here covering his nose.  It really smelled bad.

Little guy and I went for a walk down this path while the others fished and this cute little critter followed us.  I think he was hoping for a handout, but we didn't have any food so he sat and ate some kind of seed.  

You can see his giant cheeks.  He just kept stuffing them in.  He didn't seem to be worried about us at all.  We had fun watching him.

The outdoors never get old.