Adventure's of Adyson and Brock Van Tassell

Ady's Nutcracker

2012-01-16T21:50:00.002-06:00

Here Ady is on the last night of her Nutcracker Dance performance. She was so cute and did such a good job!! Even though it was a long week, with too many late nights for a 4 year old, she made it through. We have now moved on from dance lessons to swim lessons. And Ady is happy to inform anyone that she is now brave enough to put her head underground(water). Brock is liking the pool too, and it looks like we'll be spending quite a few more family nights at the Rec Center.

Stone Age

2011-12-04T21:04:00.003-06:00

Well, we finally have internet again. We were without internet at home for the month of November and felt like we were living in the stone age. We had to go to the library or to our parents' houses just to check our emails. It was awful.

During November Ady started attending preschool and she loves it. I am not sure if she is learning anything but she always looks forward to attending school. She is in her cousin Landon's class and I wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper and easier to just schedule play time with Landon twice a week because that is all she ever tells me that she does at school. Hopefully Ady will soon be able to count correctly to 20 or say the abc's correctly and then I will feel better about spending money to send her to preschool. Brock seems to really miss her when she is gone and gets so excited when she comes home. Brock has started going to nursery at church and hates it. He screams and cries as soon as he realizes where he is going. Kasey and I rotate who has to take him in and then pry ourselves away from his clutches while he cries and has the saddest look on his face. Today Ady gave her first talk in Primary. She did so good. She had the whole thing memorized and wasn't even a bit afraid of speaking at the pulpit.

Brock has started wanting to use the potty and now uses his toilet every morning when he gets up. This morning we awoke to some weird sounds coming out of the bathroom. After a quick investigation we found Brock and Ady in the bathroom with Brock sitting on the toilet. Ady informed us that she got Brock out of his crib and helped him get his diaper off so that he could use the potty. I looked at her and asked how she got him out of the crib and was told "Dad, I used a chair, then I picked him up. Don't worry, I didn't even drop him." Not sure what to think about this. Lately Brock has really wanted to have a book read to him. All the time. He is constantly bringing us books to read. This is a major development because a couple of months ago he wouldn't sit still for more than about 18 seconds at a time. And that was only if he was having a drink or taking a bite of some food. But now he loves to sit with you and read a book. Brock is also finally starting to say a few words. But never on command.

Yosemite

2011-11-12T14:44:00.007-06:00

After we went to Disneyland we continued our vacation by going to Yosemite. Kasey and Ady are really big into Disneyland and all, but it is not as much my thing. I really love National Parks. And I enjoyed Yosemite more than I did Disneyland. Here we are at Yosemite Falls.
While we were walking through this meadow we saw this buck. We saw lots of coyotes and deer.

El Capitan was impressive, but I definitely liked Half Dome the best.
This is us at Vernal Falls right before we decided to be crazy and climb the stairs up to the top. Note to others who have interest in hiking to Vernal or Nevada Falls, don't take kids with you!
I have to show a picture we took of Nevada Falls from Clark's Point just to prove that we made it this far. We all had a bit of a cold and did not take enough water for the 2000 foot vertical change and 6 mile round trip hike while carrying kids. Great view, but when the ranger tells you that it is a 6 hour round trip hike and not a hike for kids, believe her.
Here we are at the Tunnel Tree. The Sequoia's were freakishly huge and very impressive at Mariaposa Grove.

Disney Vacation

2011-10-30T11:37:00.008-05:00

After several years of promising to take Kasey and Ady to Disneyland, we finally went. For the last couple of months Ady has asked everyday if we are going to Disneyland today. Well last week we finally said "yes, today we are going." Then our flight got delayed. We sat in the Salt Lake Airport for about 3 hours, and Ady's patience was really tested. But once we got there, she was super fun to watch and hang out with. She wanted to meet all the characters, talk to princesses, and ride the rides. Brock, he wasn't as picky, and occasionally decided it was more interesting to wander off and explore by himself. Good thing we had several uncles, a couple of aunts, cousins and grandparents to help keep an eye on him!Last year at Christmas, Kasey was talking to Brian and Jennifer and thought that it would be fun if Carissa and Landon(and Brian and Jennifer) came with us and we all went to Disneyland. Then she told her parents and said they should come too. Next thing I know, Melanie and Ryan are invited and then Blake is invited, or maybe told he is coming. All in all we had quite a crowd. So how many people ending up going with us?
I am a bit of a crazy vacation planner. I like to do tons of research and make sure that not only are we getting a good value on lodging and other things, but I like to research crowds and off the beaten path options. Well I really dropped the ball this time. Really in our group there was only 15 people. The rest of those people in the picture were people from Utah on UEA break. Yup, that's right, all that research and I didn't know it was UEA(Utah Education Association). Seemed like half of the families in Utah were at Disneyland. Even so, we managed to have fun.
The kids loved going over to Pirate's Lair(formerly Tom Sawyer's Island) and looking for the treasure. The whole time the 4 of them were walking around saying "Aaarr".
And Ady got to meet or see tons of characters. If you notice, she is wearing a princess dress and all day long workers at Disneyland called her princess. Every time she would smile so big. (And yes, she is wearing pajama pants under the dress).
For the most part we tried to be at the parks early and stayed till they were closed. The kids did great. They were having so much fun and were excited so they did a good job of the long hours. But, as soon as we would stop, they crashed hard.
Ady started out wanting to ride every ride at least once. But I think this is where that all changed. We took her on the Tower of Terror and as you can see from the look on her face(back row in pink) she did not like this ride. She was holding on for dear life and screaming the whole time. The rides she did not like were Tower of Terror, Space Mountain and Star Tours. Star Tours was really funny because I told her that we were going on a space ship and she thought it was real. Part way through the ride she started saying, "dad, we're gonna die." And when it was finished I asked her if she was okay and she said, "well, I didn't die, but I thought I was going to die."
Brock really liked the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland and the Toy Story ride at California Adventure place. Brock's favorite thing wasn't the rides though...
Brock really loved playing with his cousins, especially Asher(who he is trying to wake up in this photo) and Carissa.
And for closing, here is Ady showing her awesomeness while wearing the 3-D glasses for the Bug's Life show. 4 days at Disneyland and one day at Knott's Berry Farm. Kasey and Ady could probably handle going back tomorrow, but I need a few years before doing that again.

The First Season Ends

2011-10-07T14:37:00.007-05:00

Well usually I give Adam a hard time when he writes a really long blog. But I suppose this time I am also guilty. We survived our first season in the “North Woods” as owners of our own business. That’s what people say…just survive your first summer, and then each year it gets better. Starting your own business is hectic. At the same time it is rewarding to see all the changes and improvements. People always ask us how our summer has been. I usually answer “fun and crazy.” Adam’s usual answer is that “we learned a lot”. Both statements are very true.

Here are some examples of fun. A few mornings ago, we had some customers eating breakfast in the dining room. The kids were helping me clear a table for some people staying in the Bed & Breakfast who had eaten earlier. A table of 4 was observing us and commenting about what good “help” my 4 year old and 1 year old were, as they would carry one glass-at-a-time into the kitchen. As they were talking about Ady she walked right over to them with the glass in her hand, complete with her turtle neck, blue dress, purple coat, and princess shoes, flexed her arm muscles and said “Look how strong I am!” They of course, humored her, and she spent a good 5 minutes talking to them. She is taking after her Dad(the talking part I mean, I haven’t ever seen Adam go flex his muscles to a group eating breakfast)!

Another reason I know she is taking after dad is that she is a great story-teller and tour giver. She has a great story from this spring about the seagulls in the back of our truck. You should ask her about it if you get a chance. Also, if you know Adam, and understand that we have a very historic lodge, you wouldn’t be surprised that he will give several tours each day to people who stop in. Adam’s tours are all about Charlie Boostrom being the first white man to come up the Gunflint Trail to live with the Indians, and about how he built a cabin so his wife would marry him, and how he picked Clearwater Lake to be their settling place with the Lodge being finished in 1926…and on and on…. Anyway, starting about mid-summer, every once in a while you could over hear Ady in the lodge telling people, “Do you want me to show you a moose? And over here is a rainbow fish. Etc. Pretty fun!

We also had some examples of crazy. I think people realize beforehand that all things usually won’t go as planned or as expected. But we had some things happen this summer that we never would have thought of. Two examples: In July, the State Government of Minnesota shut down! Although we are located at the edge of a national park and didn’t get affected that way, we were affected because no one could get a fishing license for nearly 3 weeks. Over 60% of the people who come up to our area, say that fishing is either their 1^st or 2^nd reason for coming. That was a pain. Then, just this last month, the Pagami Creek forest fire took place. This fire has now been recorded as the worst fire in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area spreading almost 100,000 acres. In fact, at one time, the fire spread 5 miles in just ½ hour. Luckily, no one was harmed, and lucky for us, we are far enough away from the fire and it finally has been recorded as under control.

We also did learn-a lot. We learned a lot about our business- things like marketing, being employers, bookkeeping, outfitting for canoeists or kayakers, taking care of overnight guests, and all sorts of hospitality things. We learned a ton about being owners of a property—things like taking care of a water system, a septic system, a heating system, and all those things. We learned that we like working together and we actually do a pretty good job together. As we have worked together as a family for something it has definitely created a stronger bond one with another. So much time, planning, praying, patience, work along with dreaming, remaining passionate, and harnessing our ambitions has gone into this project. It wasn’t easy. It would have been easy to give up so many times and just decide to get a 8-5 job somewhere instead of getting a place and business of our own. I don’t know many people who have the same passion and drive to really know their dream, and to go after it like Adam did. We also appreciate my Aunt Laura and Uncle Carl, as our partners in this venture, for believing in us and giving us a chance to go for the dream.

While I am at it, I should also thank our parents, who rode a lot of the start-up roller coaster with us to actually get a place of our own. They also supported the ambition and the long road here(even though they probably thought we were crazy-and still might:D) They also both came out this summer to visit and help out-which they did a lot!

Well, we have been winterizing everything here and will be headed back to Utah in a couple of days and then on to California for a much needed vacation! Wish us luck on our loooong car ride back! In closing here are a couple pictures taken in the last week from right in front of the resort.

The fall colors are so pretty and we love the way things look right now.
We have been able to see the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights a few times this summer. Last week when this set was going Adam and I took a boat and rowed out in the middle of the lake to watch. It was pretty cool and very beautiful. This is the picture that one of the staff took while we were out watching the sky dance.

Summer Fun

2011-09-01T11:06:00.010-05:00

Labor Day weekend is almost here and it looks like summer is about finished. This will be a summer that our family will never forget. While we may mostly remember the insane hours worked or the occasional difficult customer, we did have some moments that we want to remember.
At the start of the summer we bought Brock this little four wheeler for him to scoot around on. Well Ady and Brock discovered a "more fun" way to ride the 4 wheeler. Brock and Ady have both managed to wipe out going down the little hill in front of the lodge, but that hasn't stopped them from doing it again and again.
Kasey and Ady took an afternoon to paddle/hike to Rose Falls. Here they are in front of the water fall. Ady is turning into quite little canoeist/hiker girl.
I was able to get away twice in August to do a little "research" on fishing in the area. We get a ton of questions about fishing and now we know a little more about a couple of lakes. This is one of the fish I caught that night, this one is a 19 inch Smallmouth Bass.
One of the kids favorite activities this summer was roasting marshmallows or "smashmellows" as Ady calls them. Ady is even able to do it sometimes without catching the marshmallow on fire. If you look closely at Brock you will see that he has one on his stick and one in his hand.
And what does Brock think about those sticky white messy mallows? Well, he likes them a ton, and everything else that gets stuck to them as he waves his stick around. Usually we find that he eats a couple pine needles, some ash, some dirt, maybe some grass and a whole lot of marshmallow.
Here is Ady and Brock sitting in front of the totem pole at our lodge. Seems that even though we often feel like we are in a little over our heads as we learn our new business, we enjoyed our time together.
And our final picture for today is the picture from the dock looking down the lake. We have spent countless hours working together this summer trying to help others enjoy their summer vacations and time on the lake.

July

2011-08-03T14:57:00.006-05:00

Once again we find ourselves realizing another month has passed and we haven't found time to blog about our adventures. So here we go with a quick recap of our month.
Grandma and Grandpa Van Tassell came to visit in late June and have been with us since! The kids love having them around. Ady had fun one day with Grandma when they were making a pie. Ady and Brock also both love to go to the lake and swim.
We got a new item to rent-stand up paddle boards- and they have been a huge hit. Ady and Kasey love them and you will often find them out in the evenings paddling around. Ady is getting to the point where she doesn't want to do it with you, she has to do it herself. She has also started to kayak on her own.
Brock has also decided that he likes the paddle boards, but generally doesn't paddle around on his own. Brock seems to have decided that he doesn't want to talk. He understands us pretty well, but he will not verbally respond. He points, shakes his head and grunts. Ady seems to be able to understand him just fine and we are trying to get her to stop translating for him.
Kasey decided that I was getting stressed and needed a break so she sent me off yesterday for the afternoon. I took a kayak and headed across the lake and then hiked to the top of the palisades. The view was amazing and I had a nice respite from work.

Rise and Shine

2011-07-08T22:16:00.007-05:00

Brock and Ady are very different sleepers. Usually Brock gets up early and Ady sleeps in. Normally Ady sleeps through anything and Brock wakes up if Ady breathes loud. Well, this morning Brock decided that Ady was sleeping too long and we think that he wanted her to play with him.
Brock must have decided to take measures into his own hands because this is what we caught him doing. Brock was whacking Ady with one of the water noodles.

When that didn't do anything he next went over by her head and was intently studying her. After what seemed like a moment or two of internal debate he looked back at us pointed and then grunted.
Then he started to slap Ady's face and grab her cheeks. Well this definitely made Ady wake up but only long enough for her to push him away.
Not to be detoured, and having just discovered that physical contact produced results Brock lunged onto Ady's bed and began to climb on her and give her big hugs.
This time Ady woke up smiling and hugging him back.

However, she still didn't get out of bed, so Brock grabbed a stuffed animal from her in an attempt to make her get out of bed and play. Good thing they have each other, who knows how they would entertain themselves otherwise.

Ady's First Log Rolling Lesson

2011-06-30T22:52:00.008-05:00

I love when you find hidden treasures. It is even better when they are close by. We were invited by one of our neighbors to come over and try Log Rolling (or Rog Lolling if you ask Ady) Well is just so happens that Jenny, our neighbor, is a 2005, 2006, 2007, World Champion Log Roller. She took 2nd in 2008, and then had a baby in 2009 and Breast Cancer in 2010. She is back training to compete this year though! Amazing! So this is the Awesome Pond that is just a short walk down the road and then up over the hill. All set up for log rolling and boom running!Here is Ady getting her first log rolling lesson. Outside arm up- inside arm behind.

Finding her balance.
Ady's first fall off the log.
Brock watching the action, and showing off his new haircut-buzzed with the beard trimmer!
Cousin Rashel giving it a try. Also notice in the background the other 2 running on the log like its solid ground. Believe me it's much harder than they make it look.

Jenny Boom Running. This was amazing to watch. They run over 10 logs without falling off.
I didn't try the Boom Run---yet, but I did try the log rolling in the shallow end. I was wishing I would have tried this when I was a lot younger, and then maybe it would have felt(and looked) a little more 2nd nature. Even though I didn't dress for the event, it was so much fun!

And here is Brock giving it a try too. We are excited for more fun times up at the pond!

Flower Power

2011-06-26T07:23:00.005-05:00

After several days of pouring rain and horrible wind we are now back to summer. And boy are the kids glad that they can go outside again. I always find it amazing at how fast things can change in nature. We had a storm as bad as I have ever seen up here that settled in and beat down on us for 3 and a half days straight. Then two days ago we woke up to the bluest sky and a beautiful warm day. Not only did the sunshine feel nice, but it seemed that flowers everywhere bloomed overnight.
Ady and Brock love being outside. Ady loves to pick flowers, she always tells us that "flowers make me happy". Brock doesn't seem to care too much about flowers except that he likes to pull the petals apart. But he does love to roll around in the grass and play.
The kids weren't the only ones glad to be outside, we were also happy to have them outside.

Ady's first camping trip

2011-06-15T21:32:00.003-05:00

I took Ady on her first overnight camping trip last week. I needed to do some research on some camp sites and portages between lakes. So Rashel(Kasey's cousin), Ady and Grandma and Grandpa Haddock came along. The first day we got started really late because I couldn't get away from work. We didn't get to our first campsite till just before dark. Ady told me she loved cooking on the fire and sleeping in the woods in a tent. She was such a good sport. This is us by the fire while dinner is cooking.
We paddled 15 miles and portaged another 3 miles on day two. Ady was very cheerful most of the day and she will definitely be invited on a future trip. We took a side trip and hiked over to Johnson Falls. Many of our customers ask about short day trips so we made sure to visit one of the options.
Ady said that she liked the waterfall, but it wasn't her favorite thing. When asked what her favorite part of the camping trip was she will tell you that it was watching Grandpa fall in the lake. Yep, that is right. We all got a good laugh when Grandpa Haddock flipped the canoe over and took an unexpected bath. Fortunately the canoe was empty and he had some dry clothes. When Ady got back to the lodge, she immediately ran up and told Kasey about Grandpa falling in the lake. It was pretty funny.

Sorry we haven't been posting much lately. We have been very busy working 14-16 hours a day. We are trying to keep our lodge blog updated a couple times a week. You are welcome to check it out at http://clearwatercanoeoutfitting.blogspot.com/.

2011-05-21T22:19:00.003-05:00

Ady decided that Summer is basically here. And since we live on a lake she decided that it was time to go swimming. The ice just came off the lake 10 days ago and the water temperature is probably not yet in the 50s. But here she is, ready to get in the water. She basically got herself ready. If you take a close look you can tell that she is prepared for anything. She has her towel, her bathing suit, a jacket in case it gets cold, sunscreen, a scarf(in case the water is as cold as mom and dad said it would be), her mom's flip-flops so that she can walk down to the water, and a beaded necklace thing so that she can look good. Kasey and I assumed that she would stick her toes in the water and realize how cold the water is and be done. She jumped off the dock in the shallows, had a somewhat surprised look on her face and got out of the water. We all laughed pretty good and then we were the ones who were surprised as she got back in the water. She stayed and played in the shallows for about an hour. I kept checking on her because I was worried about hypothermia. She says that we need to go swimming again, but this time everyone else has to get in also.
Brock is really starting to become independent. He loves to just walk around and get into stuff. He has also discovered the swings and loves to swing with Ady. As of yet he hasn't fallen off. Brock has discovered that the lodge has even more places to create messes than our old house. His new favorite activities include getting all the candy off the candy shelves, dumping out the cup of pens that is under the cash wrap, pulling out as many brochures out of the box as he can, messing up the postcards and leaving hand prints on any glass he can find. Brock is really sweet and has decided that he likes to give kisses. Wet open mouthed kisses.
Kasey and I are staying plenty busy trying to learn all the ins and outs of our new business. We generally start working about 6 am and try to be finished by 10 pm but often are still going well after that. Everyday it seems that we discover something else that we didn't know we didn't know. I was able to slip away from the lodge for 6 hours on Friday morning and took a short canoe trip through 4 lakes. One of the lakes had a really neat hiking trail that we hiked and discovered a really neat cliff that gave great overlooks.

Like Father, Like Daughter

2011-05-04T17:55:00.003-05:00

Ady has become quite the literalist. I'll let everyone guess where she gets it from. Hint: It is not me, and I am positive it is genetic. For example, I will often tell Ady to go get her shoes on. She doesn't say no, doesn't say ok, doesn't move to do what I tell her. She says "They are not shoes, they are boots, Mom!" "Oh, of course." I say(because this conversation goes on everyday at our house). "GO GET YOUR BOOTS ON!" I just want action, and she just wants to make sure I'm right.
Another example. I say "Ady, go get in the car." She replies "Its a TRUCK!"
And finally the other day as we were flying to Minnesota, this was the conversation:
Mom: Look out the window, Adyson. It's all white; we're in a cloud!!
Ady: No. No we aren't.
Mom: Yes we are. Look.
Ady: No Mom, we're in an airplane.

Our Dream

2011-04-28T21:36:00.005-05:00

Well, our dream has finally taken off. On Monday we signed papers to become the new owners of Clearwater Lodge and Outfitters. After many years of dreaming, much planning and a few shortcomings we finally closed on a purchase of a resort. The lodge is in Northern Minnesota and we are now preparing to open for business in 2 and a half weeks.
I snapped this picture of the main lodge today. Yes that is snow on the ground in a few places. Hopefully that is gone soon and the brown grass becomes green. We have so much work to do. Today we took out a wall in the lodge to extend the retail store and to put in a new grocery store. In the next few weeks we will be redoing the kitchens in a couple of the cabins and adding a loft to another cabin. Hopefully things go smooth and we can get the cabins to a point where they can be rented on a regular basis.
Here is what the store used to look like. And this is what we did today.
Kasey and I are so excited with this opportunity. Ady today told me that she is also really happy to live here because she has a swing set at her new home. We know it is a huge project and something that will take some luck and a few blessings to fully realize our dreams here. But we are just so happy that this finally happened. We've come so close a couple of times only to see things fall apart have been hard at times. But to have a chance to do something that we have dreamed about and worked hard for is an amazing thing. We would like to thank all those who have supported us in this endeavor and hope to see some of you up here for a visit someday. If you want to look at the website, it is www.clearwateroutfitters.com. If you would like to help us out and support us please find us on facebook, look up Clearwater Lodge and Outfitters and click "like" button. The more fans we have, the more easily people can find us through a search. Or if you really want to help, post a link to us on your blog, that will help us have a better Google rating. Thanks again for everyone for all of your support the last couple years as we have been actively working towards this dream.

Duct Tape

2011-04-26T07:45:00.003-05:00

I was thinking this would work for one of those "you might be a redneck if" jokes. I began the long drive from Utah to Northern Minnesota and after about 12 miles the tarp was flapping and starting to move around. I had attempted to tuck all the sides of the tarp under the load so that the weight would keep it in place. Didn't work. So I pulled off the freeway in Henefer and bought some rope. This worked for about 700 miles. I had to readjust the rope a couple of times, but it held until the 30 to 45 mile an hour cross wind of South Dakota started shredding the tarp. Early on the second day the tarp got a rip in it and that was when things started unraveling fast. I adjusted the rope again, looked a bit like a spider's web when I was done. An hour later the first section of the rope snapped. Then another, and then another. So I pulled over, got a new tarp and re-setup segments of rope. After a half hour signs of the previous problems started showing. So I pulled over again bought a cargo net. 23 miles later the cargo net snapped. Now not only was the cross wind trying to push my 4500 pound box trailer sideways, but it was raining and I needed to keep the boxes in the back of the truck dry under the tarp. I swear that tarp was trying to get loose and was more of a sail than a protection. So I bought some bungee cords. Those broke too. Now, no where near a store and knowing that I had to do something I tried to combine the remains of the cargo net, the segments of rope and the remaining bungee cord. 3 miles later that failed. So in my frustration I grabbed a roll of duct tape and started trying to get the tarp to stay still while I worked on a way to keep it attached. After I got done with my moment of craziness I looked at the tarp and what do you know? The tarp wasn't flapping in the cross wind. So I tried to drive a ways, and when I checked it again in 15 minutes I began to wish I'd have just tried to tape it down 4 hours earlier when the first tarp ripped open. So after two tarps, 50 feet of rope, 4 bungees and several stops to re-adjust, duct tape was the answer. Moral of the story, always carry duct tape.

Brock's Birthday Party

2011-04-22T21:56:00.008-05:00

Since we are moving to Minnesota again (I am already here, Kasey and the kids are flying up tomorrow) we decided to have a combined birthday party for Ady and Brock. We did on Brock's birthday and got together at Classic Fun Center in Sandy. The kids really seemed to enjoy themselves. We got them tickets to play on the giant inflatable bouncy things. Brock took a while to warm up to the idea and never did like the slides. But the others loved it. Oakley wouldn't even wait for her parents to go with her, she just kept climbing to the top and going down the slide.

Ady, Landon and Carissa enjoyed some of the kid rides. I like how Ady looks like she is trying to hang on because Landon is a bad driver.

Poor guy, you'd think the birthday boy wouldn't have to ride by himself.
No worries, Brock found a better game. Actually, this used to be one of my favorite games too. Just whack whatever pops up!
Brock found out that he loves cupcakes. And you have to like his technique; grab cupcake quickly before mom changes her mind, hold it with both hands in case mom decides to take away tasty big people food and shove it in your mouth as fast as you can.
Brock really enjoyed his cupcake.
Lately Brock has been obsessed with balls. Doesn't matter what type, basketball, football, foam balls and even Ady's pink princess kickball. So we decided that he needed to have his own ball to play with. Kasey talked to Ady and explained that Brock was going to get a present for his birthday and asked if she wanted to give him something. Ady was very interested in getting him a present so we took her to the store to pick out a ball for him. She was very cute, she made sure that he didn't see the ball and snuck it up to the cash register. He has really seemed to like having a ball of his own that Ady won't take away from him. Well, happy first Birthday Brock!

Brocks 1 yr cardiology check up

2011-04-10T23:17:00.003-05:00

So here we are with Brock turning 1 and very grateful for a great check up at Primary Children's Hospital. After an echo-cardiogram and an EKG, Dr Su visited with us about Brock's heart condition. He was very happy with the results, which make us very happy also. Even though it took 2 procedures, it appears Brock's heart is doing very well. It still isn't perfect--the valves are still a bit thicker than normal, and his pressure from the right ventricle to his lungs is at a 15(normally under 10)but it is so close to being normal that we don't have another check-up for a year!
Last year, if we would have known that in one year we would have been having this kind of appointment, I don't think we would have believed it. We didn't know there would be anything wrong until several hours after Brock was born. That was the start of a very challenging week. With how crazy it was, I've wondered about the question "Would it have been better to have known about his heart before giving birth?" I'm still not sure the answer; in some ways it would have been easier, like not having to life flight our baby to Primary Children's and wait 3 days for his procedure, but in some ways it would have been harder, I mean, I am already completely incapacitated during any pregnancy, so any added stress of knowing my child might not be okay may have done me in.

I think Adam was the blogger during most of the "Crisis Year" we had last year, but I just wanted to add a few things I remember about Brock's birth and some of the things we learned. We had actually hoped to have Brock in Hawaii while Adam was attending BYUH, but things worked out, so we moved when I was about 5 months pregnant. I had been to the doctor and had a couple ultrasounds in Honolulu, I vaguely remember the ultrasound technician saying something about something (probly the heart) not looking quite perfect, but that it was perfectly normal that things don't look quite right and its common that things just get back to normal as the baby grows. It was nothing to worry about. So I didn't think much about it, but now when I look back, I think that this was the 1st time we could have seen that something wasn't quite right, but there was no real reason to see it, so we didn't.

Well, nothing more was ever discovered and Brock was born in the afternoon on a Monday; during the delivery, each time I had a contraction, Brock's heart rate would drop. This was really the 1st time I may have felt something might not be quite right, but the doctor assured us that nothing was too abnormal, and that a falling heart rate could be caused by so many things that it once again wasn't anything to worry about. So like the optimist I usually am, I just kept hoping things were normal.

Later, after being moved to postpartum, the nurse came in to check up on Brock. She was listening to his heart. She listened more, and then her lead came in and our nurse asked her to listen to his heart. At this point I was paying attention to them and thinking "Why are they continuing to check him?" This was the 2nd time i felt something might not be quite right. At this point the nurse confirmed to us that Brock had a heart murmur. But, like the other "problems," it was normal. Many people have heart murmurs, they usually grow out of them, and we were assured that it wasn't anything to worry about.

So later after family visited, we noticed Brock's coloring wasn't real great.(notice the feet above) This was the 3rd thing that made me feel like something wasn't quite right. Well, they told us again that it was normal for babies to take a while to change color, and that when they are born it is normal for them not to be "pink." Well, we are glad that that night we had them take him to the nursery, since we later learned that he would have quietly passed away while we slept had he remained in the room with us. We later learned that a babies PDA will slowly close after birth, which causes the color to worsen if a valve or something isn't functioning correctly. And since we would have been sleeping, and in a low light room the grayish color isn't as noticeable, his heart would have slowly failed that night. Babies aren't hooked up to anything and no alarm would have gone off if his heart would have stopped. Sometimes we think back on how close we came to waking up and finding that Brock didn't make it through that first night.

It was in the nursery that the nurse there noticed his worsening color and had him sent to the NICU. The next phone call to our room in the middle of the night confirmed my previous inklings that something wasn't quite right and started a very long next few days. A few days where I pretty much cried the entire time. A few days where I saw a much anticipated and needed relaxing postpartum rest, disappear and be replaced by fear worry and stress. A few days of a very stressed family, waiting for a procedure to see if our son's heart was fixable.

I think sometimes the thoughts we have prepare us for the things to come, even when we aren't sure what exactly is going to happen. Looking back, we learned so much and received so much comfort and care from others. The road with having a child born with a heart defect was a bit rough and trying sometimes, but we've made it and now are very grateful for a pretty healthy baby boy who brings a lot of joy to our family. Our belief in prayer and faith of others has increased as well as our gratitude for those who remembered Brock in their prayers.

Mellow vs. Wild

2011-04-05T00:08:00.005-05:00

People say that no two kids are the same. I don't know about the superlative nature of that statement. But I do know that our kids are very different. Ady is full of energy and a touch past high strung sometimes. Sometimes we call her our wild child. She only has two speeds, wide open throttle and out cold. She sleeps in, and is a very deep sleeper. Brock on the other hand is totally mellow. He loves to chill out. And he is so calm compared to Ady. He wakes up at the slightest noise and never ever lets us sleep in. Don't believe me that Brock is super mellow? Check out this picture.
Yep, that is fingernail paint all over Brock's head and face. Ady decided that she wanted to paint Brock. And do you think that Brock objected, nope, he just sat there and let her paint him. Kasey and I were upstairs and thought, "sheesh the kids are quiet, too quiet". Went downstairs and there the kids are practicing their artistic ways of expressing themselves. Hopefully someday Brock will figure out how to say no to Ady, and won't always go along with her half-cooked ideas.
Once Ady realized that she was in trouble she decided that the best way to get out of trouble was to let us know that she also painted herself a little. She had a very small drop, that is covered up by her finger.
Well my winter traveling is over. I completed the last sport show for this year. I was in Minneapolis, MN this last week and in Madison, WI just before that. I enjoy the pressure and difficulty of sales, but am glad that I will not be spending several weeks on the road again till next winter. By the way, something funny that Ady said last night. Ady was acting up at Grandma and Grandpa Haddock's house and Kasey was telling her to knock it off. Ady said something back, and Kasey told her if she was going to be sassy, she wouldn't get to play outside with her cousins. Ady's response was "I'm not sassy, I'm Ady.

Ady has also finally gotten past naming her stuffed animals generic names like horse, dog, and mouse. She informed us the other day that her blue stuffed dog she got for Christmas from Aunt Melanie has the name of Rufus. We asked her why she named him that. After about 5 tries to figure out her answer, I think we figured out that it was because he says "roof, roof!" She also decided to name her pink horse Buddy. No reason that we can figure, except Buddy is what we call Brock a lot...

And even though Ady can be a handful at times, she still is great to have around and I'm glad she keeps me company while Adam is gone. She can and does do and say some very cute things. This week that Adam has been gone, we traded vehicles with his parents. I was driving home and getting used to truck driving and mentioned to Ady that "I miss my car." To which Ady immediately replied "I miss my Dad." She makes sure to always bless him in her prayers too. "Please bless Dad while he is away on the airplane" Someday she might realize he actually gets off the airplane, but I just think it is pretty cute that she remembers him so I don't bother to correct her.

Teething and Climbing

2011-03-27T18:04:00.004-05:00

Somebody is definitely growing up. Luckily he is a little more cautious than his sister. He climbed up on his own and then decided he couldn't go any further, so he just kept grunting and whining until I finally got him down.

Next, I know you can only see the 2 bottom teeth in this photo, but he does have 4 on top too; it's just harder to get a picture of all of them. Especially when Ady decides she needs to take over the camera.

and for one last picture: no, this is not of Brock, but we were going thru some of the pictures we have because Ady often requests to look at the pictures we have of when we took her to DisneyWorld. Well, she was in the same age frame as Brock is now and we came across some of her. Funny thing is...she thought it was Brock. They look pretty similar huh? Definitely some different boy/girl traits, but we won't complain that they look alike. In fact, last year in Minnesota, people would see us and and say "Oh, you have 2 kids, and they look so alike. Are both of them both of yours?" like it wasn't normal to have 2 kids from the same parents.

Kasey asked me to add something to today's blog so: I wanted to share something that happened today at church, Ady said something pretty funny. The speaker was talking and I was half paying attention, and half trying to keep Ady entertained/quiet. I heard the speaker mention Alvin Smith and then something about his death, and then something else. I looked over at Ady and she had this pained look of terror. I leaned over and asked if she was okay. She said, "Daddy, if Alvin died, Simon and Theodore will be so sad." I hadn't realized the kid ever listens in church.

Life in General

2011-03-04T00:58:00.011-06:00

Dude was so tired. And so hungry. But while Kasey was mixing some rice cereal, crash went his head and down for the count was this little man.

Ady has this thing for finding one of our cameras and taking random pictures. Here is one of her random pictures. Aren't we all glad to know what she had in her mouth?

Two weeks ago I was in South Bend Indiana for some business and decided to visit University of Notre Dame. I am so glad that I took some time for this excursion. What an amazingly beautiful campus and interesting pieces of history. This is the Golden Dome. They suggest that when you go inside to lay down on the floor to get the best view of the painted ceiling.

This is a picture of the interior of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, a cathedral on campus. Absolutely beautiful building. The stained glass windows, painted ceiling, the huge vaulted ceilings and all that devotion to Deity was awe inspiring. I was very grateful that they allow photos to be taken.

At various alcoves in the basilica are different displays or pieces of art. This was my favorite piece of art. No idea who it is done by, but neat none the less.

Last week I had a trip to Minnesota and while there I attended a dog sled race. It was pretty neat but would have been way better if the temperature could have been above zero degrees. The race was comprised of 16 ten dog teams. And yes the dogs are wearing socks.

Young at Heart

2011-02-07T22:26:00.006-06:00

I heard the other day that the average human moves 11 times in their life. Well, Ady is 3 and she has moved 10 times. And we are probly moving again soon, so I hope she is well above average on this one, and will move a couple more times, cause while I love having the kids, someday she will need to move out on her own. Anyway, with moving so much(and knowing that we will be moving), we really haven't accumulated many things. We yard sell things because it is cheaper to buy them at the new place, rather than packing and transporting them. I hope we are getting closer to finally settling down, and being able to accumulate some things--like a kitchen table, instead of the flimsy card table we are currently using. Yah, that would be nice. But no matter. It just helps us remember that the most important things in life are not things, right?

So, what we do have is what we need and what was packed up in boxes in my parents barn during our time on the islands of Key West and Hawaii. Since we have moved so many times, Adam sometimes wonders why I keep some of the things I do, and I, likewise, wonder why in the world he keeps what he does. Well the other day I was going thru one of my boxes and found this cute Korean Han-bok that I got while I was there serving a mission(and have only kept it 7 years-but well worth it in my opinion.)

Ady fell in love at first sight. She was so excited to wear it to church. She had so many people tell her how pretty her dress was. What was funny though, was that on the walk from sacrament meeting to her primary class, she walked down the hall saying "Ola, Como Esta?" to everyone. She got some pretty funny looks...A girl wearing Asian attire, speaking Spanish. Thank you, Dora the Explorer. I tried to teach her how to say "Hello" in Korean, but "Anyanghashimnikka" is pretty hard to learn, and she couldn't quite get it.

Anyway...I have another funny story from church. We attend the ward where I grew up and Adam told me this after we finished our block meeting when the men and women split to have class. All the adult men were in a combined class and the teacher was asking who was the youngest there. He looked around the room, and saw a guy who was several years younger than Adam or me, and pointed and said he was pretty young, but then he looked around to see if anyone else was younger. Then the following conversation pursues:

Teacher: "Oh, I know who is the youngest, it must be this guy on the back row." He looks at Adam.

Adam(who has Brock sitting on his lap): "Me?"

Teacher: "Yeah, how old are you?"

Adam: "Uhh...29"

Teacher: "Oh(pause), Sorry, I thought you were younger"

Adam(under his breath): I guess its not the worst thing in the world to look younger than I am."

Then the 50ish-year old guy sitting next to Adam says, " I wish I looked that much younger than I am."

This is even funnier since recently it has become very apparent that Adam's hair is thinning and he is convinced that he is going bald. Adam claims he will soon be a fat, old, bald man. So proof that I am right and Adam doesn't have to worry yet about looking 40.

I guess when you have a husband who looks like he is still 18 when he is gonna be hitting the big 3-0 on his next B-day, its not really a bad thing. I guess he'll just have to keep carrying his ID around, especially if he wants to ever drive a rental or BYUH car(but thats another story.)

Well, no matter what one looks like, I think its more important if you still feel "young." And as long as Adam doesn't hurt himself at the local high school's wrestling practice, where he helps out, he is still young enough to play with the kids. Here is Ady making her Dad give her a horse ride--her and her elephant, and her dog, and her doll, and her stuffed horse.

Ady Style

2011-01-24T18:38:00.006-06:00

Ady still isn't over Christmas. I am pretty much okay with it, since I like Christmas enough to celebrate it all year if my husband would let me. This morning again, she asked me if Santa came last night. A couple of days ago I came downstairs and Ady informed me that she made a Christmas tree. Here it is.

A stuffed animal & toy collage on top of some blankets on top of a pilates ball on top of a bean bag. I love it that she doesn't need much to do what she wants. (and its probly good for her cuz it fits our current vagabond lifestyle) Its like the saying "The richest man is he who needs the least."

Here is a picture of Brock, too. I can't believe how big he is getting. Ady and Brock love to play with each other.

And now that Christmas is over, I had some time to do a project for us. I embroidered our names on our Stockings!(finally)

I love being able to use my mom's stuff. My Mom and Dad actually took off this week for a business/pleasure trip, so I get to take care of my mom's store, and now that I know how to embroider, I've even been able to do some jobs that came in. Its just been a little inconvienient that Adam is gone the same week for business also, but all in all, we are doing good. Especially since Grandma VT came and helped for a couple days last week. I've always been amazed at how single mothers do it, but once again I am reminded how much being a mother takes if you don't have help! But I've also been reminded how much I love my kids...and my husband.

Growing up fast

2011-01-19T13:34:00.008-06:00

We have been wanting to get a family picture taken, but as of yet haven't done so. Kasey even got us an appointment at a studio, but then I had to leave for a business trip the week that we had the appointment. But before leaving, I decided to take pictures of the kids to show how big they are getting, and how great they look. We asked them to stand by a wall that is blank and hold hands. So this is what we got at first.
Ady wanted to "help" Brock. We kept trying to get her to just let him be. But no, she wanted to hold both his hands and help him stand.

After some love unfeigned and gentle persuasion(commonly called threatening, bribery and pleading) we got her to let go of one of his hands. Of course Ady decides not to smile.

So then we get Ady happy again and she starts grinning and I take the picture and not only does Ady open her mouth, but then Brock decides to not smile. Come on kids, all I want is one nice smiling picture.
So in the end this is what we ended up with. Aren't they good looking kids!? And here is one of Brock by himself. When we got done he just kept standing there smiling so I took an extra one of him without Ady helping/harassing him.

The Last Couple Weeks

2011-01-16T12:17:00.005-06:00

Lately is seems that our life has been filled with shoveling snow, making t-shirts, and cleaning up after two very messy kids. A couple of days ago I told Ady that she had to clean her room. She wanted to watch the Tinkerbell movie, so I told her she could watch when her room was clean. She got this funny look where her eyes get real big, opens her mouth and looks at me like I just asked her to turn into a baboon. "The whole room!?" "Do I have to clean it all by myself?" I told her that she made the mess and that I am tired of picking up her toys and clothes so yes she had to do it all by herself. We went up to her room and I got the box for her legos, the hamper box thing, and the toy box. I got a chair, put the boxes by me, and told her to put the correct items in their boxes. I've never seen anything so ridiculous. Ady would grab one lego and walk it over to the box. Then she would grab one sock, or one toy and put the item in its box. Sometimes she would grab two legos, but then she had to stick them together walk the 5 steps across the room, take them back apart and put them in the box one at a time. Took one hour and 7 minutes to do a job that should have taken less than 10 minutes.

I am tired of winter. I hate shoveling snow and miss winters in Hawaii and Florida. I for one can't wait for winter to be over.

Kasey loves working over at her mom's store. She has been learning how to use the embroidery machines and working with vinyl. I'm starting to worry that she is going to want to buy an embroidery or vinyl machine of her own soon.

Brock is all over the place. He has figured out how to climb up stairs and loves to climb up the stairs and then whine till we go up, get him, and bring him back down so that he can do it all over again. Brock can stand on his own now for a couple of seconds and we are worried that he will be walking soon.

Ady loves being in the sunbeam class for primary at church. Every night we try to sing a song with her before she goes to bed. We usually let her pick the song to sing. But lately she only asks for two songs, the Sunbeam song and Rudolph. I've tried explaining to her that it isn't Christmas time, but she doesn't care.
We have managed to find time to just relax and play around. Recently we got a couple of new Wii games. I bought Kasey the Super Mario Bros All-Star game for Christmas. And I had a Cabelas coupon and after combining it with a gift card from Melanie and Ryan, was able to buy the Cabelas Dangerous Hunts 2011 for 11 dollars. Kasey has decided that it is a pretty sweet game and we go on hunting safaris together. As you can see, Brock likes to hang out and watch with us. Tomorrow I am leaving for Cincinnati where I will be attending the 2011 outdoor expo and boat show. Then the following week I will be in Chicago for a business meeting and the outdoor expo there. I'm pretty excited for the shows and having several days to check out all the new gear and boats that will be on display!

Christmas Activities

2010-12-30T13:01:00.011-06:00

I had the best Christmas that I can remember in a long time. Ady woke up and the first thing she said was, "did Santa come?" Grandma and Grandpa Van Tassell came to visit late Christmas Eve and Ady got to open her presents with both Grandparents watching. For several weeks now Ady had been asking for a red present from Santa Claus. Well, the jolly old man came through for her, both Ady and Brock got a red present from Santa.
No, those are not all Brock's and Ady's presents. We all went over to Grandpa and Grandma Haddock's to open presents. Grandma and Grandpa Van Tassell happened to wrap Ady's presents in red and Ady thought that she had died and gone to heaven. She got 3 red presents! here she is in this photo holding a couple of them. She didn't want to put down her presents.
The look on Ady's face when she opened her present from Santa was spectacular. She yelled out, "Look, a lego train and it has Toy Story too!"Brock was mostly just interested in climbing on the packages. Ady then handed out presents to both Grandparents, her mom and me, and to Blake and Leslie. And of course, Ady wanted to help, (ie. do it all herself), everyone unwrap their presents.
This is what Kasey and I made for our parents. Kasey thinks that people have a hard time remembering everyone's birthdays. If you didn't know Kasey thinks that birthdays are a personal holiday and is second only to Christmas. Kasey found a picture of a birthday calendar online and thought we could "easily" make one. Ended up being not nearly as easy as she predicted.
We have had quite a bit of snow this past week. And everytime we get new snow Ady wants to build a snowman. Sometimes she wants to build other things too. Like a dragon or turtle. The other day she wanted to build a sea horse in the snow. I told her to go and ask Blake to help her. So she did.
We went up to Bear Lake the day after Christmas with Kasey's parents and visited Kasey's grandpa. We also took Ady sledding. She had soooo much fun.
Ady rode down the hill the first few times with either Kasey or me. But then she wanted to do it all by herself. She would laugh and giggle the whole way down the hill. We were laughing pretty hard just watching her.
Today I decided to give Brock a hair cut. He had 3 inch hair in some places and not much in others. It was a pain to get him to hold still. He loves chewing on "his" toothbrush, but even that wouldn't keep him still. Kasey ended up restraining him while I buzzed his head.

Christmas fun

2010-12-21T21:59:00.004-06:00

We have this village Christmas set that Kasey and I bought in an after Christmas sale our first Christmas. It has been in a box and hasn't been seen since then. So this year we decided to get it out. The kids love it. Ady likes to re-arrange, on a nearly hourly basis, the villagers and trees. And Brock loves to shred the fuzzy stuff that is supposed to be snow. If you look closely you will see that there are tress in the middle of the road, a cow out by the road and shredded fuzzy stuff all over the floor.

Santa

2010-12-09T20:15:00.005-06:00

Last weekend the town had a Christmas celebration and we took the kids to see Santa. Ady was so excited, she kept telling us that she loves Santa. Kasey invited her mom to come along and we thought that we'd be able to snap a picture of the kids with Jolly Old Saint Nick. As you can see, Brock did not want to be jolly for the picture. Brock is at that stage where he only wants mom or dad. Usually only mom. Even the candy cane couldn't get a smile out of him.
Even though Brock didn't enjoy his meeting with Santa, Ady loved it. Before we went we rehearsed with Ady a conversation with Santa. We practiced asking her if she had been good, and what she wanted for Christmas. Well sure enough, Santa asked her the questions and do you know what her response was? She told Santa she wanted a red present. She has since seen Santa two other times since then, and everytime she tells Santa she wants a red present. We told her that we were pretty sure that Santa would get her a red present. The trouble is that the very next day she wanted to know why Santa hadn't brought the red present yet. Seems Ady has some time frame issues.
Ady never seems to stop talking these days. And she has serious issues with volume control. Last Sunday during church she just kept asking questions and talking. When the sacrament was being blessed and passed amongst the congregation I tried really hard to get her to be quiet, or at least quieter. So I sat her on my knee and got out a few pictures of Jesus. As soon as I opened them, she excitedly(in other words very loudly) said "look dad, its Jesus." I reminded her to be quiet and to try to whisper to me. It worked for a brief moment. But then she started asking me if I loved Jesus. I assured her that I do. Then she asked me if mommy loves Jesus, I told her she does. Then she asked me if I wanted to know who she loves. I said "yes, who do you love?" In a very confident and loud voice said, "I love Santa!" I told her that we were looking at pictures of Jesus, not Santa and asked if she loves Jesus. She said yes. And we looked at another picture. Then she asked me why I love Jesus. I told her a brief and short 3 year old type of answer. Then she asked me if I wanted to know why she loves Jesus. I said "yes, please tell me." Ady said, "because Jesus is going to bring me lots of red presents and come down the chimney, and mommy says I have to give him cookies." The lady in front of us couldn't help herself, she started laughing.

Sometimes Ady is very sociably awkward. Bold, usually not shy, but very awkward. She thinks that every kid who is about the same height at her is her friend. Basically that is her only requirement for her to be a friend. So often in the grocery store she will see some kid who we don't know and say "look dad, its my friend." We have become accustomed to this and just nod. The best part is hearing the other parent ask their kid if they know us or Ady. Last night we went to the Christmas party at our church and Ady saw another girl who was about her height. Immediately she pointed and told us that the girl was her friend. I asked her if she knew the girl's name and she said she did not. We told her that maybe she should go over and talk to the girl. So Ady got up and walked over about three tables, stood right next to the girl's chair, leaned over till her face was maybe 3, probably 2 inches away from the other girl's face. And there she stood, watching the girl chew her food. Didn't say anything, didn't move, just stood there waiting for the girl to notice her. Of course the girl noticed, she leaned away a bit, and gave Ady one of those weird looks that could be interpreted a dozen ways, none of them being particularly friendly and tried to ignore Ady. After about a minute Ady left the girl and came back to our table. Kasey and I had found Ady's antics to be far more interesting than the talent show we were supposed to be paying attention to. I asked Ady if she had made a friend, and she said that she had, but she didn't know her name. Finding the program to be vastly less interesting than Ady, I decided to see if we could extend this side show. So I rehearsed how to ask the girl her name and how to introduce oneself. Ady went back over, stood right next to the girl, leaned in close and didn't say anything. The girl's mother had seen the proceedings and told Ady that the other girl's name was Rachel. Without being asked Ady finally got bold enough to say something. Very loudly. And in a guttural, throaty yell said "ADYSON". Of course everyone one around us heard and now we weren't the only ones being entertained. The girl's mother correctly interpreted Ady's outburst to be her name and said something to the effect of, "nice to meet you Adyson". I assumed that Ady would go back to being shy. I was wrong. Ady turned to the mother and in a very loud voice, clear not guttural this time, said "I was baptized". Now, I didn't even know that Ady knew the word baptism. I had seen the picture that Ady had colored and brought home from her nursery primary class last week. It was a picture of a baptism. But I didn't know that she knew the word. Then the girl's mother said, "oh, you've been baptized have you?". Ady said, "yes, in the water". Then Ady turned around and walked back to our table.

Kasey nearly breaks my knee

2010-11-28T20:21:00.006-06:00

Kasey has been wanting Ady to join a dance or tumbling class since she was a week old. I kept on insisting that we wait till Ady wanted to join the class. Well Kasey convinced Ady that she wanted to learn to dance and tumble so last week she started her class. The class is about an hour long, half dance and half tumbling. Ady loves it. And so does Kasey. Of course Ady saw the other girls wearing tutus and leotards and thought that she wanted one too. So Kasey bought a leotard and Melanie made Ady a tutu. Ady still has trouble pronouncing certain letters, and she often gets her L's and R's mixed up. So today Ady was wanting to wear her "reotard". This of course caught us a bit off guard and we asked her to repeat herself. This time she was very clear. She wanted to wear her retard. Kasey spent several minutes trying to help Ady say leotard, and sometimes Ady says it correctly, the rest of the time, she wears a retard.

Ady loves the tutu that Melanie made her and wanted to do the dance that she learned while wearing the leotard and tutu. So Melanie got out her camera to record it for all of us. What she didn't expect to catch on video was Kasey's wicked Wii golf swing.

Snowman

2010-11-21T23:08:00.006-06:00

We got about a foot of snow in the last 24 hours. As soon as it started snowing Ady wanted to build a snowman. She has never built a snowman before, actually she hasn't been around snow much at all. But her favorite song is a nursery song about a snowman. So I told her that if she waited for today that I would help her build a snowman after church. Of course, I was somewhat expecting and maybe even hoping that the snow wouldn't stay. But it did. And so out we went.
Ady also helped me shovel the walks and driveways. Her way of shoveling is a bit different. She lays her shovel down and using her hands she scoops snow into the shovel. Then she drags the shovel over to the side and calls me over to help her dump it out. I thought we were done being outside in the snow, but Ady found out that her cousins were out next door building more snowmen. So we had to go join them. Ady helped build 2 more snowmen, one snow turtle and enjoyed a snowball fight. She was soaking wet and smiling when we finished. She informed me that tomorrow we have to do it again, but this time, she wants to build a snow dragon not a snowman.

Brock is really getting better at crawling. He still scoots mostly but knows how to get up on his knees and crawl. He has also started to pull himself up and stand. He loves being played with and will laugh and smile if you play with or tickle him. Ady likes to play ring-around-the-rosies and patty-cake with him.

This summer Ady started saying her whole name. We found her to be pretty funny when she would introduce herself as Adyson Van Tassell. She would even shake hands with us and introduce herself. So then my reply would be that I am Dad Van Tassell. She refuses to accept this. She says that Kasey and I are not Van Tassells. I have tried explaining that we have the same last name as her, but to no avail. Well we found this town in Wyoming.
Maybe someday Ady will realize that her and Brock aren't the only Van Tassells out there. Ady said something kind of funny the other day. She had just gone to the bathroom and I asked her if she went potty. Her response was that she had not gone potty, she had gone pee. Well, Kasey has gotten after me several times about watching what I say and do around Ady because she will copy or repeat us. We thought that "potty" is a better term for a 3 year old to use than pee. So I asked her if she had gone poop or potty? She told me that she had gone pee. Obviously I'm not careful enough at times. Trying to figure out how to better explain why we wanted her to say potty not pee I crossed over to the toilet to flush the handle. Looking in I saw that she had indeed pooped. So I turned to her and said, look you went poop and potty too. She looked right at me and said, "no dad, I went poop, pee and potty three".

Signs

2010-11-15T01:10:00.004-06:00

I found some "odd" signs recently. I wasn't able to get pictures of all of them, like the billboard in Chicago about Carlos Boozer. But I did take pictures of two of them, and I thought I should share them. Here is the first one.
This is a sign at Ford's Theater, the place where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The sign says that firearms are prohibited. Now, I know that signs like this are in other places also, but I found it somewhat ironic that it was here. Maybe they should have had the sign up some 140 years ago?
I have never seen a parking sign like this. Not a drop off area, it is a "Kiss & Ride".

Why we don't climb on stuff

2010-11-08T23:25:00.005-06:00

Ady climbs on everything. Sometimes I swear we spend all day telling her to get off this or that. It doesn't matter; the fence at the zoo, the kitchen table, the back of the couch, me, every rock that is bigger than her, and anything else that seems inviting at the time.

Maybe this time it was partially our fault, obviously Brock was put on the cannonball. We were at Fort McHenry near Baltimore a few weeks ago and as soon as Ady saw Brock on the cannon ball she wanted to climb on the cannon. The funny thing is that I was able to catch what happened next.
She was putting her foot on the cannon and it slipped off and down she falls. Next frame...

The funniest thing about this isn't that she fell. It is that Kasey never moves and is smiling the whole time.

Halloween & Whatnot

2010-11-02T21:29:00.015-05:00

For Halloween this year Brock was a bumble bee and Ady was a horse thingy. We went with Nat and Thayne to their ward party and to the mall to go trick-or-treating. Ady was all over the trick-or-treating thing. Ady borrowed a costume from Natalie. Her costume included a hat, but she didn't like wearing it. Basically her costume was a horse with a pair of stuffed human legs on its back so if she stood right it looked like she was riding a horse. At the mall there was a news crew and the camera man must've thought Ady was cute, because he came over and put her on TV. Of course Ady didn't want to say anything except "Giddy-up". We stayed in Buffalo for about a week. And yes, we did go out for Buffalo Wings while we were there. Then we got back on the road and went to Kirtland Ohio.
Previously Kasey and I have been to Nauvoo Illinios, the Palmyra New York area and the Independence Missouri area to see LDS church history sites. But in order to make it to see Wicked in Chicago we drove right past Kirtland in 2007. But not this time. We went and toured a couple of buildings like the Newel K. Whitney store and home. But the neatest thing we saw was by far the Kirtland temple. The tour was exceptional, and the guide was very knowledgeable. Just in case you were wondering, Ady refused to be in this picture.
Before we made it to Buffalo, we visited Will and Emily in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They took us to Hershey and we went to Chocolate World! As you can see in the picture, Audrey and Ady are very excited and are avid chocolate fans.
The day before we went to Gettysburg. The visitor center is extremely informative and interesting at Gettysburg. I think that we all learned so much while we were there. Although Ady was far from quiet while we walked around the cemetery, we gained even more respect for those who made so great a sacrifice for us. Here we are standing in front of the memorial which is placed where they believed President Lincoln stood when he gave the now famous Gettysburg Address. The night before we went to Gettysburg we stayed with my Uncle Dick and Aunt Kathryn.
The day before we went to Gettysburg we visited Philadelphia. It wasn't exactly on our way, but how could one be so close and not go? Liberty Hall was under construction, but was still awesome to visit. The tour was amazing and although usually I make Kasey stand in the photo, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to have my picture taken in the very room where the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were signed. What an amazing place to visit! We also at Philly Cheese Steaks, visited Christ's Church, toured the US mint, saw the Liberty Bell, and Walked around Ben Franklin's post office/home/and publishing building.
We were driving somewhere, I honestly don't remember where, and I looked out my window and saw these trees with their leaves and thought it looked pretty cool. Of course, when I pulled over and got out to take a picture Kasey thought I was nuts. Our trip is now over, we are back in Minnesota and tomorrow will be hooking up our trailer for the long drive back to Utah. Should be back in Utah this weekend.

Ady On The Roadtrip

2010-10-24T12:50:00.009-05:00

This past year we have had many changes, or at least moments that changed our lives. Business dealings, car wrecks, heart conditions, move(s), graduation, family death(s) and so forth. Occasionally we get asked how we deal with things. Most of the time people just think that we are nuts, and those that don't, probably should. With our decision to hit the road for a while, and to travel the countryside while we wait for some business dealings to be worked out, we have been asked several times how our kids handle everything. Well, being as the question(s) has the term "everything" I'm supposing that different people may have different things that they worry about. But many probably worry about the lack of stability, the regular all day driving, lack of finances and a few other things. So I thought I would answer a few questions if I can. First of all the driving. This should help give you an idea of how Ady deals with it.

We have done a ton of driving. And to be totally honest, sometimes we can get pretty tired of each other. But most of the time, Ady and Brock have been great. They are great troopers and we are all learning how to deal with each other. But my favorite parts of the drives are when they are both asleep. (Kasey's favorite part is when mommy is asleep).
Sometimes we get up really early, like we did this day when we drove to Philadelphia. And then the kids are fortunate and usually end up taking a nap. And we have decided that Brock is easier to carry when they both fall asleep. If you look at Ady's hands, you will see our tickets for the tour of Independence Hall. Everywhere we go, Ady always asks if she can carry the tickets. Problem is that she will occasionally destroy them, and the methods of destruction vary greatly, sometimes lose them or otherwise rend the tickets unusable. So I almost always tell her no. And this makes her very sad. But, as you can see in this photo, occasionally, when I can be absolutely sure that they will be able to be used for their intended purpose, I do allow her to carry the tickets.

Finances-sometimes people worry about us financially, heck we worry about our finances, or lack of. But don't worry too much, no one is going to starve or be forced to run around naked. (It is getting too cold for Brock to just wear a diaper anymore, so he too will be clothed). Ady has learned that she is not made of money. We took a tour of the U.S. Treasury Department Bureau of Printing and Engraving. That is where they print dollar bills. And Ady learned that if she was made up of 100 dollar bills she would be worth 978,000 dollars. Ady is beginning to understand money. If she sees a penny, she will stop and pick it up. Then she brings it to me and asks me to hold it for her. Until recently this hasn't been a problem. But now, she sometimes asks for it back. When we stayed with Melanie and Ryan, Melanie would spoil Ady. She bought things and even took Ady on a carousel ride. Ady now asks for all sorts of things. My response is usually that I don't have any money. So then she will turn and ask for the penny that she found earlier. Usually I just ignore her, but sometimes I try and explain that it takes lots and lots of pennies to buy something or a whole dollar. I hadn't thought much about where this may lead, but today on the way back from church we stopped at a red light. There was a man who was walking up to the windows of all the cars at the red light and asking for a dollar. Being the tightwad that I am, I didn't even roll down my window when he approached our car. However he wasn't detoured and this was the conversation that followed.
Man(yelling at the window):Do you have a dollar?
Me(shaking my head):No.
Man(still yelling):will you give me a dollar?
Me(not looking at him):I shook my head no again.
At this point the man walked to the next car. I assumed the conversation was over. I was wrong.
Ady(in a very excited voice):Dad, I want a dollar, will you give me a dollar?

Stability/structure. We have been told that we aren't highly structured parents. We don't have scheduled nap time, bed time and sometimes scheduled meal time for our kids. We usually say something about our schedule and how we are trying to do the best we can in our situation. Sometimes this response meets some form of approval. As for the stability, well we are trying, and maybe someday we will leave our life of being vagabonds. Kasey and I sometimes wonder how much our moving around affects Ady's concept of home. About a week ago Ady and Aunt Melanie had a conversation that went something like this.
(Ady had been talking about staying at Melanie's house).
Melanie:So Ady, can I come to your house and stay with you sometime?
Ady:No, I don't have a house.
Melanie(laughing a little bit):Oh, well can I come to where you live and visit your home someday?
Ady:I don't know where I live, I don't think I have a home.
I like to think that Ady is learning a valuable lesson that Home is a concept or idea that one works on achieving where ever our family is, not necessarily a location. She does pretty well traveling around with us on our adventures. And as you can see in the picture of her and me in the jail at Fort McHenry, she would probably be happy where ever, as long as she has her family.

Petting Sheep on Vacation

2010-10-17T20:54:00.001-05:00

When we go to a Zoo Ady just wants to stay in the petting zoo. I guess it really shouldn't surprise us that at Mount Vernon she "had" to visit the sheep pen 3 times. This time, Brock also wanted to pet the sheep. Like his sister, he has no fear.

Mount Vernon was pretty neat. I wish that they would let you onto the 3rd floor and didn't hurry you through the house so quickly. I enjoyed learning about Washington as a farmer. I hadn't realized how much Washington had contributed to the world outside of politics and war heroics. I was thinking about men like Washington, Franklin, and Jefferson. Not only were they great men in history for their political achievements, but they were also inventors, and some of them were literary geniuses.
We went to the Udvar Air and Space Museum by Dulles Airport. It was neat to see planes and craft such as the Enterprise, Enola Gay, and many others. But this one was Ady's favorite. It was the "sharptooth plane".
We went to the Library of Congress, and it was amazing. Immediately after taking this picture I looked to my left and saw a sign that said "no photography". Oops. Seriously, I didn't know till after taking the picture. In my opinion this building is a top 5 for the D.C. area.

Of course we took a trip to the D.C. temple.
We also took time to go to a masonic temple. This is the George Washington National Masonic Memorial. Very interesting building and lots of neat information of Washington and his masonic history. In my opinion too much of the tour was based on "contrary to Dan Brown's novel" or "unlike what was shown in National Treasure", but still a good tour.
I don't think the tour guide meant to create interest in Dan Brown's books or in the National Treasure movies, but after learning about the Knight's Templar we did go and watch the first National Treasure movie that night.
This is the main great hall and has a big statue of Washington in his masonic robes. The neatest thing about this building was the architecture. The front of the building is built in Greek style, the 9 story central tower is Egyptian style and this hall is Roman.

More vacation

2010-10-13T10:40:00.009-05:00

Last night we drove out to Manassas/Bull Run National Battle Site Park. I really liked it. And then afterward we went and visited our good friends from Key West, the Johns. At first Ady and Betty didn't get along, mostly because Ady wasn't being very friendly, but when we left Ady was crying and pouting in the car because she didn't want to leave her new friend. And she didn't like leaving their cat either. However, the cat was probably very glad that Ady left. We didn't intend to be at their place so long, but we spent 5 hours just sitting around talking with them. Good friends are invaluable.

We enjoyed walking around the battlefield and looking at the cannons, old farm houses, and whatnot. But what Ady really liked was the caterpillar that I found for her. "Ooooh, look dad, so soft and nice". She carried the poor critter for about a half mile before I made her put it down. She liked feeling it crawl around, but definitely didn't like it when it pooped on her hand. I finally was able to convince her that the caterpillar had a family and needed to go home. She cried and cried telling me that she wanted to take it home for a pet. She said the caterpillar said that it wanted to be in our family. After the traumatic seperation, Ady pointed out every squirrel, and one praying mantis, and asked me if they also had a family. Yup, they do. Do they have a mommy and daddy like me? Yup. Is this there home? Yup. Are they in the same family as my pet caterpillar? Sure.

This is the stone bridge that was rebuilt shortly after it was destroyed in the battle. This would be where the Union army went across in the retreat. It was this bridge that the fleeing army encountered a turned over carriage from one of the spectators who had come out to view the battle.
Here's Brock enjoying being out in the nice sunshine.
Of course we walked over to where Brigadier General Thomas Jackson made his now famous stand and became immortalized as Stonewall Jackson. I tried to explain to Ady the significance of this part of the battle and a little about Stonewall. Ady stood there looking at me the whole time and when I finished just said, "Ooooh".
Here is Kasey, Ady and Brock standing by the statue of Stonewall Jackson.
We also spend another day wandering around the National Mall. I really liked seeing the Supreme Court building. So far we have been enjoying our little vacation and have really enjoyed seeing some family and friends. Ady and Brock have been good sports about all the running around and long car rides. Ady has provided a bit of amusement with bathrooms. A couple days ago Ady stood with me, in front of the men's restroom screaming that she was not going in to the potty unless the picture on the door had a dress. I almost let her just wet her pants in the hall. Fortunately she is small enough that she can be picked up and plunked down on the potty. However, she learns very quickly. Yesterday, when we were in the visitors center at Manassas Ady announced to everyone in the vicinity that she needed to go potty. The park ranger pointed to the sign and I reached for her hand. Ady said "no, I go by myself." And off she ran. I was able to convince her to go in the one without the dress picture, but she promptly ran into the stall and locked me out. So custodian was cleaning the mirror and seemed to be enjoying listening to Ady tell me that she didn't want me there and she had locked me out. He even liked it better when she said "dad I done pooping, please help me wipe". Of course I stood outside the stall and with a smile said, "no, you locked me out."

Road Trip Trouble and an Anniversary

2010-10-09T16:44:00.009-05:00

So after spending so much time the night before we left packing, we still got a little bit of a late start for our road trip to Virginia. But we left, eventually, about an hour late. We gave our selves some cushion and weren't too worried about being late to Brock's big cardiology appointment in Duluth. On the way, we called the hospital to ask for specific directions. And we were given bad directions. So we got lost in Duluth, and ended up being about 30 minutes late. I should have realized that maybe this was an omen of things to come. The Clinic was super nice about us being late, and the check-up went really well. Brock's heart is doing better, and they are hoping that as he grows his heart will continue to get better. He is supposed to have another big check-up in 6 months. This is great news, much better than the every month or so that we have been doing. After the appointment with the cardiologist I was ready to get on the road.

But Kasey remembered that her ring had a bent prong and that I had bought the ring in Duluth. So she wanted me to take it in to get fixed. So we drove back across town and got the ring fixed. Then Kasey wanted to buy some fruit and healthy snacks for the road trip. After we finally got on the road, we were 3-4 hours behind my previously assumed schedule.

We told Ady that we were going to visit Aunt Melanie. Back in July, Melanie had invited Ady to come visit her in Virginia and Ady was really excited to go see her. She asked about every 17 minutes if we were at Melanie's house yet. Every time we stopped to get gas, she asked if we were at Melanie's house. When we stopped to change a diaper, she asked if this was Melanie's house. Every once in a while, probably about every 32 minutes, she would ask if we were still on our way to Melanie's house. After driving for several hours we finally got across Wisconsin and everyone but me was asleep. I was getting very tired and saw a sign for a 30 dollar a night motel. So I decided to pull over and we got a room. Ady looked at the motel with a somewhat worried look and asked if we were still planning on going to Melanie's house.

The next morning we got stuck in traffic for a while in Chicago and it was late afternoon by the time we made it to Indianapolis. Things were going along okay, we were behind schedule, but still okay. And then Ady said, "I need go potty". I looked up and there was an exit with a service station. I was just getting ready to take off the cruise control, when all of the sudden, we had a problem. My dash lit up with warning lights, and my power was reduced. So I kinda coasted down the off-ramp and Kasey took Ady to the potty while I looked at the vehicle. The ABS light, the service engine light, the 4 wheel high, and the maintenance needed lights on. I'm definitely not much of a car mechanic. But I am a guy, so I know the usual drill of at least pretending like things are under control and I know what I am doing. I popped the hood, checked the bearings for heat, felt along the axel joints, sniffed around for burnt smells, checked the oil and even checked the tire pressure. Just like I expected all those things were fine and of course I still didn't have a clue what might be wrong. So I got out the trusted owners manual and looked up what each of the lights mean.

I couldn't remember which lights had come on so I started the car back up. It fired up just fine, and what do you know, no lights were on and the vehicle sounded fine. I decided that maybe we had just hit a bump and had some electrical fluke thing happened. We put the kids back in the car and away we went. A couple hours later, just after 6 pm when everything is closed. It happened again. This time, the lights stayed on and we the car was most definitely not running correctly. The owners manual was very clear on what the one light meant. It meant that the vehicle had gone into "limp home mode". Sure enough the vehicle wouldn't go very fast, had almost no acceleration and we were "limping" along. We were in the Columbus Ohio area and had to get another motel while we waited for a car mechanic shop to open in the morning.

Kasey handles these sort of things fairly well. Me, not so well. Actually, not well at all. My guess was that we had some computer or electrical problem and I was sure that it would be a couple thousand dollars. A couple thousand dollars that we don't have. And then I have to pay 50 bucks for a motel room that we hadn't budgeted for. So instead of getting to Virginia late that night we found ourselves entertaining Ady by playing with the Thomas the Train set at a nearby ToysRus store. When we left the lady at the door said the oddest thing. Fully expecting her to say something like- good night, see you next time, thanks for coming- the "be safe" was somewhat weird. Made me wonder if we were safe.

We had to call 3 Ford dealers before we found one that could look at our Explorer that morning. When we got there, we waited about 2 hours for them to tell us what was wrong. By this time, Ady had either eaten or crumbled and spread all over the couch thing, all the free cookies that they had for customers and I had worn a path on the floor in the waiting area. They told us that we had one of two things wrong, either it was a "simple" and "cheap" 300 dollar rear wheel sensor, or our throttle body needed to be replaced. My eyes were already bugged out with the cheap 300 dollars and then the lady made my stomach hit the floor. They don't have any throttle body parts, and they can't find any anywhere in the U.S. I asked what does that mean, and was informed that if that was the case, they would make us an offer for our vehicle for parts and we could use that towards a purchase of a new vehicle, or we could leave it there for a couple months if need be. My already dismal outlook got decidedly uglier. I told the lady that that wasn't really a good option for us.

She tried to make some small talk and asked what I do for a living. I really wasn't in the mood, and didn't want to get into a complicated long discussion about entrepreneurs and setbacks. So I just said that I'm looking for work. I know that she was just trying to be nice, and that it wasn't her fault that we were in this situation, but the look on her face almost made me feel better. After 7 hours, several tries at various things, a new set of rear wheel sensors, 5 test drives and if we crawled underneath we'd probably see a bunch of duct tape, we were told that they thought we'd make it to Virginia. Just the thing you wait to hear, "you'll probably make it, but if not, we've written down some other things that might be the problem, you this to the next guy". Knowing that the previous quote was 300 dollars, and that other stuff had been done since, I greatly feared finding out what our bill was. I went to ask the lady and she looked around, saw that no one else was around, leaned down and in a near whisper told me that she had given us her employee discount. We still had to pay 250 bucks, but I think that was about half what we should have. Duct tape is expensive you know. We thanked the lady, paid the bill and very nervous and apprehensively got back on the road. We did make it to Virginia a little after midnight. But I haven't dared to move the vehicle from where I parked it. Maybe it was just the rear wheel sensor, who knows, the Ford place doesn't.

After some recovery sleep, we spent the next day with Aunt Melanie walking around the National Mall. I've always wanted to go to D.C. Always wanted to see my Nation's capital. I was very excited to see this place that millions of visitors see every year and is somewhat of the symbol for our great country. So when I came out of the metro station and saw this, it made me a little dissapointed. Dirt walkways, patchy grass-actually very little grass, mostly weeds and a reflection pool that was so dirty, filled with algae moss and bugs I was seriously dissapointed. But then we started exploring and things somewhat improved. We went to the National Natural History Museum and I decided two things: first, Ady goes through a museum very fast, and second, that isn't always a bad thing. There were tons of stuff to look at, but so many people and with so much to see, we needed to move to see it all. So Ady led us on a tour.
This was Ady's favorite, the room with the "three-horn" the "long neck" and the "sharp tooth". Ady would walk up to one of the displays, put her hand on her hip and say "everybody, let me show you this-this is a monster". And then she would say, "let me show you something else" walk to the next display and say "let me show this bad guy-this is a sharp tooth". All through the museum we looked at 3 things. Sharp tooths, monsters and bad guys. Made us laugh pretty good. If it didn't have big teeth, sharp claws or look altogether scary, Ady would walk right by it. She liked the kids discovery area. She especially liked looking through the microscopes at the butterflies.
We walked around a looked at the Washington Monument.
Kasey really liked the Washington Monument. I really liked the Lincoln Memorial.
In addition to wanting to blog about our trip thus far. I also wanted to write a little about what day today is. Today is Kasey and my 6th anniversary. While going through this week and having several hours in the car to drive and think. I was thinking about all the different choices I've had, and all the different ways my life could have gone. I was particularly thinking about all of our ups and downs and how well Kasey handles it all. Kasey has always been very supportive of my dreams and ambitions and I don't know anyone else who would put up with all of this. Most of the time she even seems to enjoy our little adventures and goes along happily. These last few months especially have been volatile and difficult at times. Yet Kasey keeps on going and still supports me in chasing a dream. I don't know of anyone else that would go through this much with me and still be willing to keep smiling. We laugh sometimes because we don't have much in way of possessions. We have moved so much that we never accumulate much of anything. But we have had some great adventures together. And loved having the adventures together. So on this day that we remember our past 6 years, I am looking forward to the future years. Don't know what exactly might be in store, but know that we will have great adventures and be together for them.

Homeless--Again

2010-10-04T15:06:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow we leave Minnesota. Not the position we hoped we'd be in right now when we came here 4 months ago. I asked Kasey what she thought about the lack of stability in our lives right now, and her reply was that she is "kinda used to it after the last 6 years." Ouch. Being as we don't know where we are heading next, aren't sure when something is going to happen, or even if something is going to happen makes it too expensive to just continue waiting around. We started packing up and Ady asked why I was packing her toys. I told her that we were moving and would be taking them on a trip. She said, "Oh, we take the toys in the trailer to another place again?" Obviously my family has moved too much. So the question then is where do we go? Well we don't know. We are waiting on another possible deal, but have no idea the if/when thing. Kasey has been wanting to go East and visit her sister Melanie. So I called Melanie and asked if it would be okay if we visited her. She said that would be fine, and wanted to know when and for how long. I asked if it was okay if we came right away, and stayed for "a bit." So that is our new plan, we are going to visit Melanie and Ryan in Virginia. Were not exactly sure how long we will be there. Now I know that some of you may be wondering how that helps us figure out a new game plan or how that prepares us for the next challenge. Well to be honest, it may not. But we decided to go this route for now. We are heading East tomorrow at daybreak. Here are some pics of our last couple weeks in Minnesota.
Ady and Brock sitting on a log with leaves of various colors in the background. And yes, that is Ady's hood. She likes wearing her coats backwards.
This was the view from our living room window two nights ago. Definitely going to miss those views.
And of course, the thing I will miss the most.

Being Domestic

2010-09-19T18:02:00.005-05:00

I made Ady a dress. She even likes it. Here it is. It has pockets, a zipper, and sleeves. I also even made a scrunchy to match, and I even made me a skirt out of the same material. I think I am pretty proud of myself for doing it. It always feels nice to finish something. The fact that I know how to sew is something I should probly be more grateful for. I remember not liking sewing growing up. My mom taught me to sew, and then a few ladies from 4-H helped as well. I had to do a project or two every year for the fair. I usually got it done the night before it was due, had to unpick and sew everything five times, and was a big frustration to finish. Now that i am just trying some things on my own, for my family, with no time frame(other than my kid outgrowing it before I finish), and nobody to judge the inside to see if it was correctly sewn, it is not so bad. So thanks Mom for being persistent and giving me a talent to make and repair things. I think it is diminishing these days in the world, but is worth a lot.

Also, since staying home with the kids, I also get to hear alot of Ady and her funny sayings. The latest has been "Don't talk to me Pigtails." I don't know where she gets it, but whenever she doesnt' want to hear what I am telling her this is what she says. She will once in a while change pigtails with Sam(Sam-I-Am, from Green Eggs and Ham). So "don't talk to me Sam!"

Ady also says "I love you too" alot. You never have to say it first, but she always adds the too. The other day it was very funny because I wasn't real happy with her and was lecturing her and she just looks at me and says "I love you too, Mom" all sincere. It was one of those times you just have to stop and think and laugh. I'm glad she knows she is loved no matter what.

The last funny thing, I think I can blame on Adam; whenever Ady or Brock may do something not quite convenient, like spill milk all over, he'll say "oh, Kid!" Well Ady has also picked it up. It is so funny to hear something go not quite right for her and she'll yell out "oh, Kid!"

Some of you may have noticed that this is my first blog post in quite a while...more than a half year to be exact. We have had a lot of crazy or unexpected things happen this year. Adam is the one who has all the credit for keeping our posts updated. I am glad he does. Adam has been a rock thru all of it and I am really glad that he is a team blogger with me and picks up my slack. Plus, he is a good writer as well. If I could only get him to finish writing that book he started!

Grandpa's Funeral and Glacier National Park

2010-09-08T21:01:00.007-05:00

My grandpa Hamner passed away last week. He was 81 and had cancer and Alzheimer's. He had been suffering for a few years now and is finally not in pain. Being as we had no company to take over, we decided to go to the service which was in Idaho. The service was nice, and short-which is a definite bonus in my book. Now we are on the way home and we decided to go through Glacier National Park on our way home. Here we are at Lake McDonald.
And here is Brock smiling while walking around at a lake in the park.

I have been trying to teach Ady how to skip rocks this summer. So far I have failed miserably. Well here we are at this beautiful lake and there are millions of rocks so I thought we'd try again.

Take a look at this picture and you can see one of the reasons why Ady has been unable to pick up the concept of skipping rocks. (Look at the size of the rock in her hand.)Tomorrow we will be taking the "Road to the Sun" drive through the park. So we'll leave you with this last picture of the Lake McDonald with the mountains and sky reflected and the perfectly clear water.

Our deal is dead

2010-09-02T08:39:00.003-05:00

Well after 4 months of negotiating, studying, debating, dealing, praying, thinking, arguing, auditing, working with banks, and all the other stuff you have to do when you pursue a purchase of a business we have pulled the plug on the deal. Although we actually terminated the contract almost a week ago, we've been feeling somewhat discombobulated and didn't feel like blogging about it. However, it has been made clear that ignoring the situation, isn't changing the situation. What a weird and crazy ride this summer has been. Those who have been aware of the collapse of the deal have asked some interesting questions to us, such as: do we feel that we wasted several months here?, or do you wish you hadn't tried?, did you make a mistake in your timing?, and of course the standard-what now? Being that this blog is something akin to our family online journal I thought I'd address some of these questions.

The first question being was this summer wasted? That answer is no, and I am responding emphatically no. We have had many adventures, learned a ton and met some great people. Kasey and I have had a goal for some time now to pursue the acquisition of an outdoor recreational venture, preferably one that is family oriented, and this experience in no way detracts or hinders us in our pursuit of that dream. In fact we still feel that we have progressed and furthered our capacity to operate such a venture when we someday get to that point. As for do we wish we hadn't tried, well some days it does feel that way a bit. Knowing how close we were to being in possession of such a property and business is a bit painful. However, we do feel that we would have regretted not trying, and sometimes one needs to chase a supposed dream to find out if that is what they actually want. Then when one arrives at the supposed destination, one is more fully able to decide if that is actually the desired destination or merely a launching point for a larger more grandiose or simpler more realistic dream. Simply put, we feel that we made a good decision to pursue the opportunity that was presented to us, but have now decided to change course a little bit. As for the third question, timing. Timing is always an interesting thing. Especially in today's economy with banking regulations being tightened, property values falling and lines of credit being more difficult to obtain. The short answer is that we have determined that the time wasn't right to make this specific purchase, but the time was right for us to investigate and put ourselves in a position where we could make an educated decision. All along our goal has been to pursue such a business venture. But our goal was not to simply possess or own the business, it was to operate and be successful in the endeavor. During the process or pursuit of this business we have learned that the business was not cash flowing as we had originally thought. While the location was fantastic, the general facility was incredible, and a decent foundation of repeat business, there were issues that were going to cost money, fairly substantial amounts of money to rectify. I put together what I felt were very realistic projections. They included my assumptions on the current marketing needs, gear/equipment overhaul and such along with a gradual growth due to the current economy. The bank asked a ton of questions and then approved us for a loan of 80% for the value of the business. However, they used my projections as a base and did not value the business as highly as the seller had, thus the total loan amount was less than what we needed. After having a week to step back and look at the situation we have realized how important timing is. Did we mess up with our timing? I don't think so, but I do think that the time is not right for this venture at this location. Given the continued decline of the economy; risk and return on investment is all important. So while the timing was a factor, it is not something we are upset about. As for the final question-what now? That is being worked on. I am working on the next step. We are looking at some job options, along with starting the process of investigating some other businesses that are for sale. We feel that we are in a good position to make a great decision and find a great deal. We are not looking for a deal, we aren't looking for a good deal, we are looking for a great deal. We don't want to settle for good when our pursuit is something great. The effects of this economic recession have driven and are continuing to drive down prices of land and businesses. We feel confident that there is a great deal out there and if we look hard enough, we'll find someone who wants to sell at a price that makes it a great deal. Until then, we wait patiently and continue to work and learn so that we are prepared when the right opportunity presents itself.

On a more lighthearted note, I threw 9 strikes in a row on Wii bowling the other day and shattered our Wii bowling record with a score of 279! Here is a photo to prove it.

Our "e-fish-ient" Kasey

2010-08-21T21:47:00.005-05:00

Kasey thinks that she is now a fisher-woman. In fact the other day she claimed to be very "e-fish-ient" with her fishing pole! We went fishing 3 times this week and twice she out fished me. This is the first Smallmouth Bass she has ever caught and she said she needed a picture with her fish to go along with all the pictures of fish I've caught. Ady was pretty funny about the fish. She wanted to touch the fish and kept saying "look Dad, look at what mommy got". Ady was very proud of her Mom's fishing skills.
This was our latest evening family canoe outing. Perfectly calm water and amazing colors. And yes, Kasey caught the most fish this night.
And another random sunset picture .

Ady tries to kill Brock

2010-08-11T18:42:00.007-05:00

Today we had to go into town so that I could get training on from the Forest Service for issuing permits for the BWCA. When I came out I saw Kasey walking with the kids on the far side of the parking lot around the bog/pond that is there. Ady was pushing Brock's stroller and you could hear both Ady and Brock laughing. Ady would run forward with the stroller and Brock would laugh which in turn made Ady laugh. I was halfway to them when today's chaotic moment occurred. Ady's running with the stroller had put her 10 yards ahead of Kasey and she started running with the stroller again, however, this time after a few yards of running she decided to give the stroller a good shove and let go of the stroller. Of course there happened to be a bit of a turn in the path and the stroller went right off the walkway, through the cattails and into the bog/pond. Kasey took off running to fish Brock out of the water, found the stroller upside down, with Brock strapped in and completely submersed underwater. Brock was not very happy, but calmed down fairly quick. He did have three pretty large scratch marks on the left side of his face from the sticks and cattails in the pond. Crazy kids, can't leave them alone, they might kill one another!
Monday night for our family activity we went swimming. Actually Ady and I swam, and Brock and Kasey just put their feet in the water. Ady was so excited when we told her that we were going to go swimming. She loved jumping off the dock, and the water felt so nice after the last couple of very hot days.
Here's Brock and Kasey enjoying the nice evening. Kasey kept sticking Brock's feet in the water and Brock would just start bawling. After his plunge earlier that morning he was terrified of water. Even when we gave him his shower he cried when he got wet. Before today he loved bathing and has never shown any issues with water.
Ady did pretty good at trying to kick, float and dunk her head in the water, but her favorite thing was riding on my back while I swam around.

This is a picture of the fog lifting off the lake while the sun was coming up. The water was perfectly flat and looked very picturesque.

The Last Two Weeks

2010-07-28T06:33:00.013-05:00

Well, we've had a very busy last few weeks. First Grandpa and Grandma Haddock came and visited us. Of course Grandpa and I had to spend a couple of days on the lake fishing. Grandpa really wanted to catch a Northern Pike, so here we go, he caught one. Actually he caught about 10 of these. We also went and picked wild blueberries and raspberries. The last night they were here we had fresh fish, fresh blueberry cheesecake and Minnesota wild rice. Yummy!

While they were here we also spent some time playing around and visiting some local attractions such as the North American Bear Center. Ady really liked looking at the bears. Two of the bears were very active and playing. Then Kasey, Ady and Brock left with Grandma and Grandpa to go back to Utah for Brock's check-up and a couple of family get-togethers. Kasey took the kids to a Clark family reunion in Wellsville. Things seemed to be going well, and then Saturday night someone from work came over to our house and told me that I had a family emergency and that Kasey needed me to call her right away. Fighting off feelings of panic I ran down to the lodge and got a hold of Kasey. Then Kasey told me the kind of news you never want to hear. Kasey's youngest sister's husband, Brandon, had killed himself. We were both shocked. Suicide is one of those things that you hear about, but never think of anyone you know actually doing it. And then to have someone in the immediate family, someone that you actually knew, had spent time with, always assumed would be there at the next family get-together to be dead hits you pretty hard. Suicide is one of those things that you always assumes wouldn't happen to your family. As Kasey and I talked questions came tumbling out, some of them answerable but too many have the answer of "I don't know". Emotions including anger, guilt, shame and deep sadness get thrown together all at once. We decided that Kasey would stay for the funeral, but that I would stay in Minnesota. Then Monday at Brock's Check-up it was decided that Brock would have another surgery and the surgery was scheduled for the following day. Kasey called me, and we decided that I should join her in Utah for a few days. So I got off work, got in the car and headed South. I stopped in the middle of South Dakota for a nap and eventually arrived in Utah 25 hours after getting off work. Brock's surgery went "okay". The doctors said that it wasn't exactly what they were hoping for, but it was an improvement. They don't know if he will need another surgery later, but if he does, they will probably do open heart surgery.

We were able to spend a couple days "relaxing" with family. Don't get me wrong, seeing people is always nice, but I'm not sure I felt that the time was relaxing. We wanted to spend time with both of our families, so it was back and forth a couple times. Juggling multiple family schedules, figuring out priorities and still remembering to smile was hard at times. We went to the new Trafalga with my family and Ady loved it. She must of rode the rides 100 times or more. Wore me out just watching her. With Kasey's family we enjoyed a family dinner and took a family picture. After the funeral we got back on the road and headed for Minnesota.
Being as the funeral was in Blackfoot Idaho, and we had our Yellowstone vacation cut short this last May with Kasey's kidney stone, I asked Kasey if she wanted me to drive through Yellowstone this time and give her an opportunity to see Yellowstone Falls. She thought that was a good idea and a so Yellowstone trip #2 it was.

A very nice lady saw me trying to snap a picture of ourselves and took this photo of all four of us at Artist Point. Of course since we were healthy, we couldn't just do a normal lookout point. Kasey wanted to hike down one of the trails. So we did. We went on Uncle Tom's Trail down to the lower lookout point of Lower Falls. In addition to the path, there are 328 metal steps that traversed the side of the cliff. Of course Ady decided that she wanted to wear her plastic flip-flops and was completely useless on the steps so she ended up on my shoulders. Kasey and I were pretty tired when we were done. Not to worry though, Brock and Ady were as chipper as can be after the climb back up!

The view at the bottom was pretty neat. The roar of the falls was really loud and you could feel the spray. After we left the falls we enjoyed the drive, once again marveling at the beauty of Yellowstone and had fun trying to point out the animals before Ady could find them. Once again we were successful in finding a Grizzly bear with cubs! After it got dark we left and headed East again. Of course, as soon as we left the civilized area, Ady told us that she had to go potty. So we asked her if she could make it to the next bathroom, she replied "No Dad, I need go in woods". I found the nearest pullout and quickly got her out. So there we were, just off the road, in the dark and Ady was doing her impersonation of a squat-which means that she was squatting while leaning back with me holding her under arms keeping her balance and there she was trying to see what was coming out. Well that was taken care of and we were about to get on the road again, Ady was in her seat and she informed us that she had to go again. She was holding her stomach and making a funny noise, so I quickly grabbed her and ran back over to our spot. This time I could tell that we didn't have much time, so I just pulled her shorts and panties off and she didn't even wait to squat. Of course she was impressed that she could go in the woods and wanted to see what was going on back there. The problem was that she didn't think she had a good vantage point so she decided move for a better view. Not to worry, I caught her foot just before she stepped in her mess. Then when she was in her new position pointing at her accomplishment she proceeded to add an additional deposit. By this time I was sure she was done. Just to be safe, I asked her. She told me she was done. Seriously she looked right at me and told me that she was finished. So I walked back to the car, got the toilet paper out again and returned. Then as I was wiping her bum she pooped on me. Freaking unbelievable!!

After driving all night and with no further incidents with the children, we arrived in South Dakota early the next morning. I was ready for a short break so we went and visited Mt. Rushmore. After leaving Mt. Rushmore we spent another day and a half traveling home. Between potty breaks, McDonald's playpens, fuel-ups, and Brock's feeding breaks we finally made it back home at 9pm Monday night. 25 hours to drive from Minnesota to Utah, 52 hours to drive from Utah to Minnesota.

Sunsets of Minnesota

2010-07-19T15:37:00.004-05:00

As some of you may know, I love taking pictures of things, as long as the photo has no people. I sometimes wonder if this is something I get from my father. See my Dad hates being in photos. I have taken it a step further, I don't really like anyone being in my photos. But I really enjoy taking pictures of anything related to nature. Kasey does insist that I take pictures of the kids, and sometimes I will even put her in a picture. Here in Minnesota I am in an amateur photographers dream. We have the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises. So I decided to share some of the pictures that I've taken this past month of sunsets on the lake.

I just like how the colors came out on this one. Although I would never be caught wearing purple and orange(thank goodness I'm a Jazz fan and not a Suns fan) I think that in a sunset the two colors go together really well.

I caught this sunset through the trees and was worried that it wouldn't turn out well. But after loading it on the computer I decided that I kinda like it.

This is my favorite one, I really like how the clouds look like they are on fire and that same effect is reflected on the water.

Moving day.

2010-07-03T22:54:00.005-05:00

We moved into a more permanent place this week. Great view of the lake and way more room. Ady was worried as we were packing up and decided she wanted to personally move a few of her things. Even though I explained to her that we were just going down the road, she didn't want to lose her stuff for another month. So here you see her with her favorite sippy cup, her princess Belle water bottle, her current favorite stuffed dog, in her hand is a purple ducky bath toy and a todder chew toy that she likes to give brock, and if you look closely at the pocket on her dress you will see that it is stuffed with things like bouncy balls and a fishing pamphlet that she got from me. Quite the character.
So on one hand you have the negative effect of having moved so much that our three year old fears for her toys when she sees us loading a box or suitcase. But on the other, we had as good a time as any Christmas morning with Ady when we unpacked our trailer and pulled out stuff that has been in boxes for either, one month(since leaving Utah), or 6 months(since leaving Hawaii), 2 and a half years(since leaving Key West), or for 4 and a half years(since moving to Key West and leaving stuff in storage). Ady loved finding her old stuff and things that she didn't know we had and even some that we had forgotten we had. Ady has an awesome sense of fashion(Kasey blames me since I dress her in crazy combinations on a regular basis). Here she is wearing purple snow boots(it was in the 80 degree range), a summer dress, several kukui nut leis, a cheap bead necklace, and a light jacket. To make it more interesting the boots are about 5 sizes too big, but she wore them all day long.

And finally here is Brock in his life jacket. He hates it and cries most of them time when it is on, but hopefully he will learn to adjust. I also think it wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have to lay him down in the bottom of the canoe and allowed him to look about.

When we were looking around for somewhere to move into for the summer we commented on the amount of open space around the apartment and mentioned that it would be good for Ady to have somewhere to run around. The landlord was right there and he quickly told us that she shouldn't be allowed to run around unsupervised. His tone wasn't suggesting that we wouldn't watch her, or that she would cause problems so I looked at him somewhat curiously. He then went on to inform us that wolves and bears in the area make it unsafe for children to just play outside unsupervised. We left the appointment and were discussing how odd a comment that was, and were sure that we'd never heard that line before when looking at an apartment. Kasey of course was worrying and asking me how many bears are in the area, do we need to worry much, do you think we'll ever see one, how many people get attacked each year... I immediately began to inform her that bear sightings are rare, and we'll probably never see a bear or wolf, and the guy was a little off his rocker. Just as I got done saying this I had to slam on my brakes as a bear came out of the woods in front of us and crossed the highway. Two days later I had to slow down for a wolf. I guess in Northern Minnesota you keep an eye on your kids when they are outdoors, and one eye on the woods.

Evening Canoe Rides

2010-07-02T08:53:00.003-05:00

We have finally got a signed purchase agreement and have been pretty busy the last week or so trying to learn all we can about this business that we are getting involved in. In the evenings when things slow down we usually like to take a canoe out, and paddle around the lake or fish. Ady is so funny when we catch a fish. She wants to touch each fish but will close her eyes while doing so. She gets super excited when she sees the fish on the end of the line and starts screaming "fish, fish, fish" and we sometimes have trouble the canoe violently rocking as she will be moving all over the place trying to contain her excitement. Then as soon as we let the fish go adn watch it swim away she will turn to me and say, "again Dad, catch another please". She is a great fishing buddy. Last night we were out and I asked her what kind of fish should we catch and she said, "a big one, catch a big big fish Dad, okay?". As of yet, we have no big fish to report but together we are working on it.

Ady loves being out on the water, Brock, not so much. He does okay as long as we are paddling, but once we stop to fish, he starts to cry.

North Shore

2010-06-20T19:48:00.013-05:00

So we have been here in Minnesota for 3 weeks now and we are still not sure if or when anything may happen with this business that we are trying to get involved with. We have spent the last 3 weeks holed up in a cabin that we are staying in, watching movies on our computer, driving into town to play at the park, and driving around the region enjoying the beauty of the Northwoods. The other day at the park we were blessed to overhear this conversation between a handful of 13 year-olds talking about some 9 year-olds who were playing baseball at the park.

13 year old number 1: "yo, check out those loser 9 year olds"
13 year old number 2: "yeah, for reals, how lame is that"
13 year old number 3: "remember when we were that young?"
13 year old number 1: "yeah, back then we thought that we we actually legit cool dudes, and now look at them, they think they are cool."
13 year old number 2: "don't worry when they get to be as old as we are, they will know how lame they are, and appreciate being as old as us"
13 year old number 3: "yeah, then they might actually be as legit and cool as we are now, but probably not, because they still won't be us."

Besides listening to conversations between 13 year olds, we took a day and drove the North Shore of Lake Superior. We drove up to the Canadian border and then followed the highway that runs along the coast of Superior. We started at the living history heritage site that is right on the border. There we toured the fort that has been restored, learned about the rendezvous where the trappers and Indians would get together, toured the facilities and stayed until Kasey was bored(she doesn't particularly like this sort of thing).
When we were touring the "Great Hall" at the fort we were told that sometimes hall was used to hold dances. The tables would be moved and the benches were moved to the sides to create space for the dancers. Ady heard the word dance and wanted to show that she doesn't need anyone to move tables or benches for her to be able to dance.

Next we visited a half a dozen water falls, one was half in Canada and half in the U.S. and was 130 feet tall. Some of the falls we stopped and hiked to see and some were visible from the roadside. This is a picture of how we hike.

We visited Split Rock Lighthouse, which was built to help ships navigate Lake Superior's rocky shores during storms(the year before the lighthouse was built 30 ships wrecked in one storm that had near 100 mile hour wind and 30 foot waves). Ady obliged us with this pose.
All in all, even though we are frustrated with the lack of progress with our business deal, we have taken time to enjoy our surroundings and the time with each other.

June Update

2010-06-08T11:22:00.007-05:00

For starters, Brock had his big check-up on his heart this morning, and the results weren't exactly what we were hoping for. He will have to have another surgery, probably in the next few months. He acts and looks like a healthy baby, but it seems his heart still isn't working quite as well as it should.

As for our move to Minnesota, things haven't been fully finalized on the deal yet, so we aren't doing much with the new business yet, but are hoping that things will be taken care of by mid next week. Due to the confidentiality agreements and non-disclosure statements that we have signed we can't give exact details yet but we will be working at an outfitter in the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness. For those of you who don't know, or didn't read about my trip last June, the BWCA is a large, 1.2 million acre, federal preserve that has been set aside for non-motorized outdoor recreational activities such as hiking, snowshoeing, canoeing and other such activities. Every summer roughly 200 thousand people enter the BWCA at various entry points that are designated and controlled via permits. Most of the people rent or bring a canoe and camping equipment and then will paddle through the BWCA. So what we will be doing is running an operation that will provide lodging the night before you depart and all the gear, food and equipment for your trip. We will also arrange for your permit, transport you to your drop-off site, set you up with a suggested route, answer any questions, and then pick you up at the conclusion of your trip and bring you back to the lodge for your vehicle and a shower. When we are legally able to, we will post the link to the company's website. If anyone is interested in going on such a trip, I will be going on 10 to 12 five day trips this summer in order to learn the most popular routes, fishing spots, and choice photographic points. I would prefer not to have to go on each trip by myself and would welcome any interested person as a "research" partner.

Since we have been here, we have been enjoying some of the local points of interest. One that we went to is the Wolf Center. It is a place where they educate people about wolves with exhibits, interesting presentations, and a wolf viewing area. Here is Brock hanging out at the viewing window.

We also went for a short hike on a trail near the cabin we are staying in and at the end of the trail was this 35 foot waterfall.

Road trip and Ambulance rides

2010-05-29T00:04:00.015-05:00

Since we are moving to Minnesota to work full-time in a company that operates during the summer months, we realize that we won't be able to take summer vacations for the next 15 or 20 years. So we decided to route our drive through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and enjoy a family road trip. Of course pulling a trailer with all our possessions and having two young children have greatly redefined our idea of the notion of a road trip. Of course we started out by leaving several hours later than planned, and had an unexpected stop to pick up a prescription refill in Evanston WY for Brock. On top of that, it seemed that we couldn't get the potty breaks and meal break to line up with each other and had to make stops in Randolph UT, and Afton WY. So instead of getting to our first stop early in the afternoon with time to relax and look around Jackson Hole Wyoming, we got there late in the evening, didn't get to see much, and had used price as our main factor in finding lodging and ended up driving for forever up this steep pass(pulling our overloaded trailer) that wasn't in our direct route. But Thursday morning we awoke, ready and determined to make up for the previous days mishaps and enjoy Grand Teton National Park. This is what we found.

Snow, and lots of it in a few places. Ady as you can see, wouldn't wear her coat even though it was in the low 50s and had to play in the snow even though she was wearing a skirt.

This is Jenny Lake, we really liked this place. It was so beautiful and peaceful. The water was perfectly flat and as you can see the reflection of the Tetons on the water was idyllic.

Here is another shot of Jenny Lake, I like this photo since you can see the rocks on the lake bottom through the extremely clear water.

This is shot from the side of the road of Jackson Lake with the Tetons behind the lake and a herd of elk grazing in a pasture.

We ate breakfast at Jackson Lake Lodge and Ady found this bear in one of the lobbies. She would stand in front of it, raise her hands and growl at it. I asked her what she thought of the bear, and she said "it is like a monster". Ady loves monsters, she loves the movie Monsters Inc. and loves playing monster, meaning that she runs around growling and chasing anything or anyone who will run away.

We finally made it to Yellowstone early afternoon and at first I was really disappointed. After the picturesque mountains and lakes of Grand Teton NP, the 2 feet of snow at the Southern entrance didn't go over well. Then we went to Old Faithful and my disappointment didn't improve. I felt that Old Faithful was overrated. Some think that it is the highlight and main attraction of Yellowstone, but it didn't connect with me. And all those crowds of people waiting around to see hot water be shot up. So we left to find something else to look at. And the next place was better. We found a bunch of Bison on the road and they had calves with them. Ady liked seeing the babies and mommy animals. We thought this was a real treat, with the calves and them being right on the roadside. But after about 40 more groups of animals right on the road and many with young, we realized that animals on the roadside wasn't a rare occurrence, still special just not rare.

Our next stop was these cool pools of boiling hot water that were this pretty blue color at the center, but then became almost any color the further you got from the center. Here is Ady again, and yes, once again she wouldn't wear her coat so yes, she is shivering in this picture.

This is the edge of one of those pools, and you can see that this one has orange and black lines going around it. Really neat designs and amazing colors at this place. The pool is being hidden by the steam.

Later, after waiting for construction on one of the passes we finally made it to Mammoth Hot Springs. The hike up was along a boardwalk and I swear there were a thousand steps. Which at the end of a long day of driving, and then hiking around at high altitude is bad enough, but with Ady wanting to be carried up each flight and then wanting to hold hands, count to 3 and jump down each individual step I had to tell myself a thousand times this had better be worth it. And it was.

This is the Canary Spring and we thought it was pretty cool. Another amazing natural formation. The colors, stepped-almost terraced pools and the water flowing over it all was really something to see.

This is the lower falls on the Yellowstone River in the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. Absolutely breathtaking, the fact that it was raining really hurt visibility and of course made a lousy photo, but was neat to see none the less.

After being so disapointed with the first impression of Yellowstone, I was really glad we went. I think that this picture is more of what I was expecting, you know--herds of buffalo grazing by a stream with a mountain in the background. The snow and Old Faithful got me off on the wrong foot, but in the end, I like Yellowstone and would love to go back.

Ady was fairly non-committal about most of the animals until we saw these bears. When she saw elk she just said they were big deer, and the buffalo were just big cows. But for the bears, she went nuts. "Wook, wook, mommy bear and two baby bears." She kept talking about these baby bears all day. We actually saw 3 sets of bears, one grizzly with cubs and the rest black bears.
We had planned on spending more time at Yellowstone, but Kasey hadn't been feeling well all day and she ended up waking me up in the middle of the night and said she needed to see a doctor. So we went down to the front desk and were told that the medical clinic is closed, but there is an EMT available at all times. So the EMT came over and after talking and a short examination Kasey was put in an ambulance and sent to Livingston Montana(the nearest hospital) and our Yellowstone Vacation was over. They thought that Kasey was going to need an emergency appendectomy, but after the internal abdominal images came back they found out that she had been passing a kidney stone. So now we are stuck in a motel in Montana that is right by the hospital, hoping that Kasey will be able to pass this stone soon.

Aerobics and Minnesota

2010-05-26T02:04:00.004-05:00

Kasey does these aerobic workouts where she bounces around the room doing whatever some lady who wears a pastel swimsuit does on this old workout video. The fact that all the ladies in the show have make-up on, have their hair done, and never break a sweat during the workout is funny enough by itself. But lately Ady has decided she wants to join in. Much to Kasey's chagrin(she assumed when I was taking the pictures that I was cutting her out of the pictures) I have not only captured the moment, but I am sharing with all of you. Note that in this first picture Ady has her hands out and is facing the same direction that Kasey is facing. She could almost pass as if she is actually following the workout.

Now this picture is a much more realistic view of Ady's exercise routine. Note that she isn't facing the TV, and more importantly, her eyes are closed. After about ten seconds of some loose interpretive form of doing what Kasey was doing, Ady just starts bouncing around, spinning circles, swinging her arms, sometimes jumping or kicking...basically she just goes nuts. Realistically this is also how she dances, so maybe she is just trying to dance to the beat during the workout?

And now for the big news... we are moving to Minnesota--Today. I know, I know, so many of you have heard for years about how we have been wanting to move to Minnesota, well it seems that day finally arrived. We are excited to have the opportunity to do what we have been dreaming of, talking about, doing research for, and preparing for over the last few years. We will provide more details when we legally can, but we are finally headed North and will be hoping to see many more beautiful sunsets on the lake.

Entertainment:

2010-05-22T19:36:00.004-05:00

Brock's hair does a mohawk pretty well. So the other day we gave him one and Ady looks and says "Wook, Mom, Wook, Brock's a shark!" Then she claimed he turned into a dolphin. Ady is pretty entertaining, sometimes it is even good entertainment! Ya gotta love the things kids say. And Ady is getting a bit better at pronouncing words, but I have to admit that I am gonna miss her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It went something like this "Twinkie in the sky, Twinkie in the Sky you are, Twinkie in the sky".

Insurance

2010-05-15T13:35:00.004-05:00

Before Adam and I got married we had an interview with our Stake President(sorry, I don't remember his name) from our USU stake. He gave us 2 items of advice before we left the meeting. The first was to love Heavenly Father and make Him and His way the top priority in our life and marriage-things cannot end up on the wrong path if we are following Heavenly Fathers plan for us. The second was to make sure we had insurance-never gamble with putting your family in a situation that might put your family in so much debt, it would potentially damage and definitley strain, the families future ability to live a more fulfilled life, or have to think to consider money before more important things. Life is already fragile.

To this day, I don't know if that was inspiration to tell us that, or if it was just his advice that he told to everybody, but we committed to make sure we always have insurance. And it has been pretty dang expensive sometimes, especially when you don't have an employer with benefits. Before this year, I was figuring that by following his advice it was pretty much, more or less, a guarantee that nothing will happen. Isn't that how it goes? If we didn't have insurance, something would happen?

This year, things all changed. We were in an accident with our car and if we had no insurance, we'd be out alot of money and a car. Then we had a baby and he needed heart surgery and was in the Intensive Care Unit for a week. We would be in ALOT of debt right now, and working for a very long time to get out of debt, if we didn't have insurance to pick up most of that bill.

Ya know, now that I have used it, I'd definitely rather not have to use insurance and pay all those premiums that seem paid for nothing at the time, except for the small chance something might happen. But now all the money I've paid over the years to insurers will not even come close to compensate what they've paid for us this last month. So, even though they are sometimes a pain to deal with, the importance of being insured has been made aware to us. I am so so grateful for that advice, and the resolution we made when we were engaged to follow it.

Birthday fun and Brock's Blessing

2010-05-11T23:49:00.008-05:00

Well last weekend was Kasey's and Adyson's Birthday. Kasey turned 29 and Ady turned 3. I was unable to be there for either of their birthdays as I was in Minnesota looking at a property, but Kasey told me all about it and Ady even sang to me on the phone. For some reason Ady thinks that she should sing the happy birthday song to herself. As you can see in the photo from the last post(if you can't tell what it is, don't tell Kasey) Kasey made Ady a "Nemo" cake. Ady loves the Finding Nemo Movie, and thankfully Grandma and Grandpa Haddock have a copy so she can watch it once in a while. The best part is that Ady is confused with Nemo's name. If you've seen the film, you know how Dory gets mixed up once or twice and calls Nemo 'Elmo'? Well Ady also is mixed up and calls Nemo-Elmo. We have given up trying to get her straightened out. It isn't too big of a deal except when we go somewhere and they have an aquarium with a clown fish. Then it is always the same scene, several kids pointing and saying "look there's Nemo", and then you will hear Ady correct them, "No that is an Elmo fish." For Kasey's birthday, She went to the Cheesecake Factory with her parents. I got back from Minnesota the day after Kasey's birthday and we headed down to my parent's house to have a belated celebration. Rachel, Sam and Jett came up and we went to a Korean Restaurant for dinner and then to Chuck E Cheese. We went there last year and I swore if I ever had to go again I wasn't going to eat the pizza. So I was really glad we ate first this time. But we got a bunch of tokens and had a lot of fun watching Jett and Ady play. We were about the only ones there and it wasn't too chaotic.

Here is Ady playing skee-ball. This was one of the best games value wise per token. Ady liked to roll the ball but wouldn't roll hard enough for the ball to make it over the lip. So the ball would just come back, and Ady would get another try. After a few misses I'd roll the ball in, and Ady would grab the next ball. Usually you only get to roll the ball 9 times, but Ady she had at least 3 times that many tries. We didn't catch it on the camera, but she even tried throwing overhand a few times.

Sam and I got playing this shoot 'em game and Ady wanted to join in. So she ended up on my lap doing her impression of aiming and yelling, "shoop it dad, shoop it" right in my ear.

Ady and Jett loved riding all the slow motion rides. Surprisingly enough, Ady didn't even mind sharing the rides with Jett.

Since I was in Minnesota, Kasey decided to go buy her own birthday present. Personally, I think this is the best deal ever. The way I see it is, Kasey likes to shop, Kasey likes to buy herself things, and Kasey likes to get new things for her birthday. I hate shopping, have a hard time picking things out for Kasey and always worry that she won't like it, (a few of my previous gifts, including the gift I gave her for our first Valentines, have ended up being thrown out or taken to a thrift store. So I felt this was a win for everyone--Kasey got to go shopping, didn't have to hear me complain, I didn't have to go shopping or complain, and Kasey got a a present that she actually likes and will use.

This past Sunday we had Brock's baby blessing. It was a beautiful day, the sun actually decided to join the party, and we had a fun outdoor barbecue get-together after church with family. It was really great to see so many people. Brock will be one month old tomorrow and we have so enjoyed having him in our lives.

Ady's Birthday and Brock's Checkup

2010-05-05T10:22:00.006-05:00

Although most thought she was turning 4,(it must be the long hair) Ady had her 3rd Birthday! She loved having her relative friends come and help eat her Nemo cake(just in case you couldn't tell what it was). Yes, I attempted to be domestic and make Ady a cake. It's a good thing my mom, who is artistic, helped out or it would have been a big whale-ish looking orange and white blob.

After singing the cutest version of "Birthday to You" to herself, and trying to blow out all 3 candles at once several times and never quite making it, she opened her present. If you can’t tell by her face in the picture she was more than ecstatic to get a pink unicorn stick horse. They were selling them at our hometown grocery store and every time we walked past them, Ady had to stop and pet the pink horses and since we could not pry her away easily, she would usually end up there the whole time while we got our groceries. It even makes horse noises and plays the Lone Ranger song. We already are hoping the battery dies soon. Happy Birthday Ady!

Brock had his check-up with the Cardiologist. It was good, good, and not so good. First he got to get rid of the oxygen! No more heavy tank to carry and tubes up the nose! Also his right ventricle has become less thick and is not clamping together every time the heart beats. However his gradient pressure from the ventricle thru the pulmonary valve has gone up since we left the hospital 2 weeks ago from a 36 to a 50. Below 10 is normal. The doctor said this was moderate and that we should keep a close watch on him. If it continues to get worse, into the high 60's low 70's we will be looking at doing another surgery to open the pulmonary valve more because it is still only opening part way. If it stays the same then they will just keep monitoring him. Hopefully it gets better. We will continue to pray it does and would be very grateful for anyone else to pray with us.

Not that having any type of heart condition is good at all, but on the scale of heart conditions, Pulmonary Valve Stenosis is on the lower range of severity. Yes, it is a critical condition, but it is something that is treatable in today’s world of advanced medical science. The surgery Brock received was invented in 1984. Actually it was pioneered at Primary Children’s. And I thought having epidurals was reason enough to live in the 20^th century, but having our little boy survive more than trumps any other reason.

As we were talking with one of the nurses about all the possible things that could go wrong with just the heart developing, if you take that and add in all the body and its many, many parts, it is almost amazing that babies are ever born completely healthy. But more often than not, that is the case. Our bodies really are amazing. This experience has really strengthened my knowledge and I’ve felt a stronger testimony that God lives and is over all. Thanks again for all your prayers and support. It is truly felt.

P.S. Adam has been in Minnesota, so I’ve been driving around a lot lately. I realized I really haven’t driven much at all and especially not on the freeway since Hawaii. (being pregnant I always made Adam drive) As I first got on the Freeway I thought I was driving pretty fast, but I noticed a LOT of cars passing me. I looked down to notice I was going about 45 MPH on the 70 MPH Freeway. So I sped up, and felt like a rocket! I am still way too used to Hawaii highway speed limits.

2 kids

2010-04-29T15:13:00.004-05:00

Brock just hanging out.

Ady kissing Brock.

So the past couple of weeks have been very full- full of ups, downs, and alot of in betweens. In all of the roller coaster of emotions, I just wanted to add a couple of things to the great job Adam has done in keeping everyone updated with our lives. He has been the strong one to get us through this ordeal.

After and through it all, I have really realized how blessed we have been. We have mentioned several times that thru this whole ordeal, we have really been reminded of how intrinsically good people are. From having so many people care and pray for us and take care of Ady for us to how nicely we were treated by Primary Children's and the Ronald McDonald House, we have really felt so grateful for everything and everyone, and I especially felt a lot of love from my Heavenly Father. Although I don't wish it on anyone to go thru having a sick child, they really have such a neat program at the hospital, they really take care of you and your family. I would never have known about it had I never had this experience.

Being able to come home has been great. Although Brock is attached to a tank of oxygen, we have really enjoyed getting to know him, and he is being a pretty good baby. Ady still has a few more meltdowns than normal, but she is enjoying having Brock around as well--she especially likes to get 5 inches away from his face and yell "Hi boy!" over and over. Having 2 kids is so great. I am loving being the mom. It is way way better than being pregnant and way better than being pregnant with 1 kid. I hope my feelings don't change when Adam isn't around as much to help out.

Brock has been sent home

2010-04-20T13:03:00.006-05:00

Well Ady has finally been allowed to spend time with her new brother and we can see that it will take some time for her to adjust to him and the whole concept of him being part of the family. As you can see in this first photo, Ady doesn't want to touch Brock, or even be near him, or even smile for the picture. Yesterday, the hospital discharged Brock and we were told to take him home. Since Kasey has the flu I asked the hospital if we could just keep him there one more day but they said no. Kasey's parents also have the flu so I called my parents and asked if we could come stay with them for a couple days while people recovered and we could keep Brock away from the pukers. So then yesterday found me and Ady at the hospital filling out paperwork to take Brock home. After several hours of meeting with doctors, filling out paperwork, and receiving training on the oxygen tank they were sending with us, they told us we could go.

During this time Ady had not one, but three meltdowns, all before we were off the hospital grounds. The first one came in the hospital room when I asked Ady if we could take the baby home with us. She immediately started balling and said "no I no want baby go home." After crying for a bit and taking a nap on a chair while I filled out paper work we finally made our departure. As we were walking out and went to pick up the car seat with Brock Ady then threw another tantrum. This one because I was carrying Brock and not her. She was screaming about wanting to be carried and why was I carrying the baby and not her. After I finally got her calmed down, I told her she either walked out or she was staying in the hospital by herself, Ady decided that she wanted to help carry Brock's car seat. So there we were walking down the hallway, three wide, me carrying Brock and Ady on the other side of the car seat, both hands on the seat and acting like she was about to pass out from the exertion of carrying her part of the car seat. I think the nurse that was wheeling the oxygen tank out behind us had a pretty good laugh about the whole ordeal.

When we got to the car I decided to move Ady's seat to the door that way she wouldn't poke or be able to reach Brock while I drove. Ady watched me move her seat, asked me what I was doing, and freaked out after I told her I was simply moving her seat to the side. I had no tolerance for her antics by this point, so I picked her up and forcibly strapped her in. The mistake I made was putting her directly behind my seat, Ady made sure I was well aware of her absolute disgust at not sitting in the center of the seat, not only did she scream and cry, but she kicked my seat relentlessly for a good 5 minutes. I tried reasoning with her while I drove, and I asked her what the problem was. I asked her if she could still see her Barney movie, which was playing on the dvd player, and she said through tears, "yes, but the baby can too, and I don't want to share my movie." I told Ady that Brock was facing backwards, was sound asleep and that he wasn't watching the movie. Ady didn't believe me, she kept telling me that he was watching the movie and she didn't want him too. By this time I was wondering how I was going to survive two kids.

Today has been a whole different experience. As you can see in this picture Ady is being very nice to her brother today. She has helped me change his diapers, held the bottle(quite firmly) for Brock when we feed him, got his binky a couple times(jammed it in his mouth once), told me when his oxygen tube slipped out of his nose(I came over just in time to see Ady trying to force both tubes up one nostril), and asked to hold him twice, and has kissed him and rubbed his head dozens of times, and my favorite was when she climbed up on the couch next to me and put her feet by his and said "look Dad, his feet are small, mine are big". We might survive being a family after all.

No more ICU!

2010-04-18T17:24:00.004-05:00

We had been told that if everything was looking good that Brock might be able to move out of ICU tomorrow(Monday), and out to the "floor". Well the doctors have been very pleased with his progress and decided to move him out of the ICU today! He is now on the third floor, in the Children's Surgical Unit and has his own room with a door, and bathroom. We've been told that he can now have visitors, even Ady will be allowed to visit. After the way the last few days have gone we are so happy that we are back in a standard, "regular" hospital room. If you want to come visit him he is in room 3073. While we are very grateful for all the prayers and support, we've also been very appreciative that we haven't been flooded with calls and visits the last couple days. But things are looking good, and he is really cute, so if you want to see him we are probably able to handle seeing people now. Tonight Ady will get to see him for just the second time ever. We are really looking forward to having our whole family together.

Finally feeling like a Mother!

2010-04-16T14:58:00.003-05:00

Kasey and I were talking about how hard some things have been the last few days and one of the things that Kasey said was really hard for her was not feeling like a mother. She said that she hasn't been able to do any of the things that you normally do for your child and she wished that they would let her hold him a little more, feed him, change his diapers and just basically be a mother to him. Well today they finally let Kasey feed her little boy. She was so happy to be able to hold him and give him a bottle. If it wasn't for the nurse standing there the whole time and all the cords keeping Brock connected, you could have imagined we were just sitting at home with our baby boy. We both got a chance to hold him for about 30 minutes this morning and he really seemed to like being held. He snuggled in pretty well and liked holding our fingers.

Brock had another echocardiogram, or EKG which is an ultrasound of the heart, and things look pretty good. He still has a hypertrophic artery, which means that his right ventricle chamber is too thick. But the prognosis looks good. The doctors have decided to take him off the prostaglandins, which is the hormones that they have been injecting to keep patent ductus arteriosus, or PDA, which is an extra valve in babies when they are in utero to help with circulation. This will cause that valve to close, and we will be able to see if his heart can function normally. If so, then he will be able to leave the cardiac intensive care unit in a few days.

The Surgery

2010-04-15T14:40:00.002-05:00

Brock had his surgery today at 11 am. The process took about an hour and a half and went really well. Yesterday the hospital helped get us a room at the Ronald McDonald house which is only a couple minutes from the hospital so that we could be closer and more easily able to visit Brock. While we were checking in a worker there asked us if we would like to go to the Jazz game. We were a bit confused as to why she would be asking us, I was initially appalled that she was going to try and hawk tickets to us given the situation. But she explained that they had received a charitable donation in the form of 20 tickets and asked if we would like some so that we could have a break from the whole situation and could enjoy an evening together. Kasey very quickly accepted the tickets, they even gave one to Ady and we ended up at the Jazz game a few hours later. Although the Jazz forgot that the game was important and got absolutely abused by the Suns, we enjoyed the experience. At the game they announced that Deron Williams' charity had supplied the tickets. I was very proud to be wearing his jersey after I found out that he, or at least his charity, had made it possible for my family to come to the game.

This morning at breakfast, Ady puked a little. Then about 20 minutes later she puked a whole bunch. So there we were, getting ready to go back up to the hospital and Ady was puking. (She did manage to let me know early enough in advance on the third time that I was able to get her to the toilet). We decided that Kasey should go on up and be with Brock and I would stay with Ady till we could figure out what to do with her. After a little while Daron came and got her and I was able to join Kasey at the hospital at about 11:45 am. At about 12:30 we were paged, and they took us into a room with a cardiologist, and then they showed us clips of the procedure. Literally they had video footage of the surgery. We got to see the pulmonary valve before, the balloon being inserted and inflated, and then the size of the valve after the procedure. The valve is now a normal size and the doctors were very happy with the results. They did tell us that one of his ventricle chambers and outflow valve have grown excessively thick and will need time and possibly another surgery to repair. The doctors said we just have to wait and see what happens over the next few days, weeks and even months. We were so glad to hear them talk about months rather than what needed to be done in the next few hours. Brock is breathing normal room air right now, and is enjoying holding his Grandma Van Tassell's thumb. Once again we are so grateful to all the prayers and support for Brock and our family during this time.

Today-A day of waiting

2010-04-14T13:36:00.004-05:00

Here's Kasey enjoying a moment getting to hold her baby. Brock has taken well to the medication stuff that he is hooked up to. He looks much better than he did, he is now a normal color, no more gray or blue color. The cardiologist talked with us today and they are planning to have him in surgery about noon tomorrow(Thursday). So I guess today we just hang out and wait. The waiting is kinda hard, but it beats having people rush around and then having them take your baby away to rush him into surgery. I figure that since they are comfortable waiting till tomorrow, Brock must be okay. Yesterday I counted about 15 cords, wires and hoses coming in or out of him. Today I only counted 8, so I guess that is a good thing. Both our parents came up last night and got to see Brock, and then we went out to dinner together. I think getting out of the hospital and enjoying a meal together was good for us, Kasey even smiled a couple of times. We are very grateful to all of the prayers, thoughts, and support for our family from all of you and will try to pass along updates as we learn more. Here is another picture of Kasey holding Brock and you can see in the background some of the machines and monitors that he is hooked up to.

Pulmonary Valve Stenosis

2010-04-13T16:21:00.002-05:00

We FINALLY made it to Primary Children's Hospital and just met with the Cardiologist and FINALLY found out what is going on with our little guy (well kind of found out, I'm not sure we totally understand). Kasey is exhausted and is sleeping, so I thought I'd share a bit of what has happened in the last 24 hours. Kasey delivered an 8 pounder at 4:47 pm yesterday afternoon. He was pretty fussy for a bit and we were thinking to ourselves, "sheesh Ady didn't cry this much the first day." We finally got him calmed down about the time the grandparents showed up. (Watching the Grandmas be forced to share him was somewhat comical). About midnight we asked the nurse if they could take him to the nursery since Kasey was exhausted and needed some sleep. When the nurses got him into the Nursery, which was much better lit than our room-since we were trying to rest, they noticed that his color wasn't right. So they ran some tests and found out that Brock wasn't getting enough oxygen. They sent him to NICU and we got called and woken up. I told the physician that called to do whatever tests were needed, and let us know. I assumed that meant in the morning they'd have some paperwork for us.

No. We got another call about an 90 minutes later asking us to come down to NICU. We'd never been woken up in the middle of the night and asked to come down to NICU. This was when the first real worry crept in. We got lead to NICU and we saw our little baby hooked up to these machines and had numerous hoses coming out of him. Worry was quickly replaced by all out fear. The nurses brought some chairs over and asked if they could get us a drink. We knew this was a bad sign, not only is getting someone something to drink and having them sit down a way to deliver bad news, I saw a sign on the way into NICU that said no food or drink. We knew that if they were offering us a drink and bending/breaking rules this was not a good sign. We were informed that something was wrong with Brock's heart, and that they wanted to life flight him to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake. However, due to the snow storm they couldn't fly him, so they took him in an ambulance instead. We were told that something was wrong with a valve and surgery was needed, but weren't told much more. They told us that we had a few moments and allowed Kasey to hold him. We asked if we could pull the curtain and I gave him a blessing. 10 or 15 minutes later, at about 4 am they took him away.

We got to Primary Children's Hospital about 8 or 9 hours later after Kasey got discharged and we picked up some things that may be needed for a potentially longer hospital stay than we had planned. Those 8 or 9 hours seemed like forever. My mind kept racing around trying to think about what little I know about hearts realized that I know virtually nothing about human anatomy. When we got to Primary CHildren's we had a couple doctors, several nurses and a cardiologist come and visit with us. (Oh yeah, two social workers came by also). We were told that his condition is currently stable but he is in "severely critical condition". The cardiologist went on to explain that Brock's right pulmonary valve wasn't formed correctly and the heart isn't able to get enough blood to the lungs. He told us that we are fortunate and they believe that his condition can be surgically repaired. Somehow, I didn't feel at all "fortunate" hearing that our baby is in "severely critical condition".

The cardiologist must've been able to tell from the million and four questions that I asked, that I had no idea what a pulmonary valve is nor did I know what it does. He drew multiple pictures and labeled vents, chambers, and all sorts of things for me. I kept asking about long term scenarios and recovery time, and basically the answer to all of those questions is we have to wait till the surgery and see how it goes. They are talking about a minimum of one to two weeks for Brock to be hospitalized. (Hello maximum out of pocket for the insurance). They are hoping to not have to do open heart surgery, they plan on doing a cardiac catheterization. They are hoping to get him into surgery for Pulmonary Valve Stenosis tomorrow afternoon. That is about all we know at the moment. We appreciate all the support and prayers on our behalf and hope to soon be sharing a healthy Brock with all of you.

Primary Children's Hospital

2010-04-13T05:52:00.002-05:00

Brock's vitals started showing some low things, oxygen levels and heart rate issues or something like that. He was taken to NICU due to a heart murmur, and after some work it has been discovered that one of his pulmonary valves has a problem. He has been taken to Primary Children's Hospital for emergency heart surgery. We've had a bit of a rough night and would appreciate any prayers for our little boy.

Baby Brock

2010-04-12T21:43:00.005-05:00

Kasey gets to hold Brock for the first time.

Ady is not sure what to think of her little brother. Although she did give him a kiss on his forehead when she left, she didn't want to touch him and she is even covering up her new "I'm a big sister!" shirt in this picture.

Kasey wanted everyone to know that this is why her ribs were always hurting, his BIG feet were pushing on them. (Ady had really big feet too).

Brock may have come, but he wasn't happy at first.

Welcome Brock!

2010-04-12T18:03:00.001-05:00

Brock Alonzo Van Tassell born at 4:47 pm. 8 pounds 6 ounces and 21 inches long. Mommy and Baby are doing great and we'll have pictures as soon as I get a transfer cord for the camera.

Congratulations Patrice!

2010-04-09T22:55:00.002-05:00

Well it happened, I was beginning to think it would never happen, but it did. Someone beat me at picking the NCAA tournament. Yep, you heard me right, I didn't win this year. After three years of winning, I have been dethroned. Patrice, Kasey's Aunt, obviously doesn't pay any attention to the pundits on ESPN or any other sports site, and picked Duke to win it all. Blake and I thought this was pretty funny. There was no way Duke was going to win the NCAA tourney, everyone knew that they shouldn't even be a #1 seed. Before the final four, Patrice was in dead last, and then two rounds later (we use a weighted system so that all rounds are worth twice what the previous rounds' points were) she was all alone at the top. Since I wrote a whole blog about the NCAA tourney and about how I was the reigning 3 time champ, I felt that we should acknowledge that Patrice now has the bragging rights for a whole year. Sheesh, this year is gonna be tough. By the way, if anyone is wondering what position I ended up in, well let us just say that it isn't anywhere near the top.
One more thing that I wanted to share tonight is about Ady. She loves bubbles so very much. She would have us blow bubbles all day if we would do it. Last night Ady figured out a new way to make bubbles. I was helping her in the tub and all the sudden there were all these bubbles coming up in the water. I looked at Ady, and she had this really big grin and said "look Dad, I make bubbles". I laughed, and then when I looked at her again she had this really funny look on her face like she was constipated, and I asked her what she was doing. She told me that she was trying to make more bubbles. I got a pretty good laugh out of that.

What I really think about pregnancy

2010-04-03T09:37:00.007-05:00

Disclaimer: Don't feel obligated to read this, ...its long and about being pregnant...and I'm probly gonna complain a little, okay maybe a lot, but I haven't wrote much about being pregnant, so....here it is: the good the bad and the ugly...(please remember anything I say may or may not be the hormones!)

Lets be honest, I'm pregnant. That isn't hard to for me to remember (even though I've forgotten a lot of things the last 9 mos). I am ~39 weeks and I am huge. What is hard, is being pregnant and optimistic and motivated at all(notice the amount of blogs done by myself the last 9 mos). The countdown is getting closer though, so there is finally a light at the end of this tunnel which will be April 12th but hopefully sooner. But don't count on it...I am not that lucky.

Anyway, I have decided to write a blog to capture my real take about being pregnant. Its mostly so I don't forget these things in case I ever think about having another pregnancy, but also so it is recorded--since I have barely recorded anything since being prego and someday someone(like my kids) might just want to know; again I blame the lack of posts on the lack of motivation. If you ask my husband, he'll tell you pregnancy is a horrible thing that you finally get a kid out of in the end, but you just have to stand with your wife(or stand your wife(who is not really herself)) for a long 9 months. Thats probly cause he just hears me complain about it. All the time. Don't blame him, I don't. But lets start at the beginning...

I, after about 18 mos after having Ady, think I finally got over the horrible pregnancy she was and could at that point start not being completely opposed to having another kid. I don't know when things completely changed to deciding to have another one, but eventually they did because of one main reason, and that is that Ady needs a sibling. I like how my sister-in-law, Natalie, put having another pregnancy "It's best for our family." Thats how I feel. Pregnancy is just another necessary evil to have a sibling for Ady(it sure is a long necessary evil--at least I'm not an elephant, they have even longer 22 month gestation periods). The scriptures sure have it right when it says Eve would bear the burden of having children. I know, I know the saying...The best or most worthwhile things in life are the hardest. I guess it makes sense that because the thing is hard it is of more worth. Just makes me wonder though....How come some people seem to have such easy pregnancies? Its not like their kids aren't worth as much? Answers anyone?

Well, when I finally became pregnant, at least this time around I felt I knew what was coming. Sidenote: nobody told me the first time around about all the crazy and problem pregnancy things(okay, I was probly a bit naive too, but that maybe a little bit of a good thing cause sometimes it is better not to know what you are getting yourself into) Anyway here is a list of what I thought and what I was really getting myself into.

I THOUGHT I was going to be sick for the whole first trimester, maybe even longer; I figured the sickness may be even enough to have to take a few trips to the hospital for dehydration after not being able to keep anything down for days.

REALLY, I was sick, for about 4-5 months, but never was so sick to become dehydrated. People told me my second one would be better. I wish I had believed them. They were right. Maybe it was partly that I knew a little better how to take care of myself, or cause it's a boy, or who knows, but whatever it was I am grateful! Don't get me wrong...I was still sick and miserable a lot-vomiting, feeling nauseous, etc. but it wasn't as bad nor as much as the first time. I had saved all my sick leave for this purpose--and its a good thing too, I used it all but 1 hour.

I THOUGHT I would have horrible heartburn again

REALLY...I was right. I love Tums, actually, I have a love/hate relationship with Tums, they are my salvation, but they sure taste nasty after so many months of eating them like candy. (hope that wasn't the reason I had to have my Gall Bladder out 3 weeks after giving birth to Ady, but there is no gall bladder now, so that can't be effected anymore...hope nothing else is effected this time though)

I THOUGHT pregnancy would cure my acne again...

REALLY, It has now gotten rid of any acne...but I'd forgotten it took till halfway thru the pregnancy to do that.

I THOUGHT I would not have food cravings...in fact all food would just taste blah and my cravings would be more like "Okay, I think I can eat a plain baked potatoe and not puke"

REALLY, I found out that even though I have not liked to eat orange juice and raspberries my whole life, they actually taste pretty good to me now. However, I am still waiting to see after the baby comes if EVERYTHING tastes better like it did last time. Food just doesn't sound that appealing to me in the current state.

I THOUGHT about naming the baby.

REALLY....Adam picked out the name we think we will use. He just had to wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me it-ya know, in case he forgot the name he liked.

I THOUGHT having a baby would be so exciting

REALLY, I am really excited to meet our new addition, but this one is the second and we've been thru this before and its taking a long time.

I THOUGHT we can do this again.

REALLY, I hope I'm right, but I admit I am a bit nervous. I don't know why, we've been thru this before.

There are several more weird things that have happened expectedly or unexpectedly (huge blue veins, constipation, depression, hormones, bad circulation, more stretch marks, getting kicked, and the plain uncomfort of having what feels like a watermelon in your stomach) I'm not gonna write a whole paragraph about each of those. However, the one thing I seem not to have a problem with that others do is swelling! Yay--I didn't complain in that last sentence! Really I'm not trying to complain as much as be informative, but I know it sounds a lot like it. I just really want my body back! I am even ready to not use the "pregnancy excuse" anymore.

Although we've been through this pregnancy thing before, there definitely has been some new encounterings with health issues. Since this is already an open book about me...its continuing to be that, just a warning...

At the first Dr. appointment I couldn’t remember for sure and figured my due date should be about April 16. By the next appointment we figured my due date really should be April 9; we had an ultrasound that showed the baby being closer to the 16 date, but the Dr. said we could use the 9^th. I was happy with that until they gave me the 4 quad screening test, which is done from the 15-20 week stage. The test came back positive for a chance of Down Syndrome or Spina Bifida. That led to some interesting conversations and worry. The next step was to have an ultrasound to see if there were any signs of defect, I guess some people abort babies with those problems. That’s what the technician asked about at the ultrasound. We were just surprised cause we would have our baby no matter what. The ultrasound looked normal, and we even got to find out the sex was a boy(2 weeks earlier than normal). But they determined that the baby was not 15-20 weeks old at the time the test was taken, i was 14 weeks. So I retook the test. This time the test came out fine. But they did move my due date back. This time April 15^th was marked as the day. Fitting for me…the accountant having a baby due on Tax Day!

Things progressed I didn’t lose weight this time in the beginning when I was sick, I’m sure I’ll regret that later. Next I contracted a UTI. I got over that. Next we moved. We had found out that because I had previous insurance I could get insurance in Utah, this and having been blessed to be able to save enough money, I decided to quit my job and we moved back to Utah as soon as Adam graduated. I put obtaining insurance and a Dr. off till after the holiday and missed one Dr. appointment. The concern was actually because I was 30 weeks along at that point that many clinics wouldn’t take me because “they don’t take new patients that are that far along in their pregnancies.” Stupid liability issues-what do they expect? If you are pregnant you can’t move or change Dr's ever? Even if you had a previous OBGYN?

Anyway, I finally found a Dr. I even like her. She knows how much I don't like being pregnant. Things continued to be fine other than a couple minor things- the normal not feeling good and I contracted a yeast infection-my first-medicine got me over that. I've been having contractions on and off for months now. We just moved again when my parents rented their house out, the contractions get worse when I try to help and lift too much, but they eventually calm back down. I never had a contraction with Ady until they induced me... I'm not getting my hopes up, but it could mean I am progressing? I have dilated to a 3(I was at a 1 for a month with Ady).

We are almost to the end and they did another ultrasound to make sure there is enough amniotic fluid. There was, and we were reassured it is a boy. They tested for Strep B. The test was positive. Now I get to have antibiotics during the birth too. My Dr. scheduled my induction for the 12th, if it is not here yet. I cannot wait.

It seems that this time around, quite a few of my friends were pregnant as well, instead of just a couple, but they all just seem to be having their babies before me. I am getting jealous they are no longer pregnant and have their bundles of joy already. I am also thankful though, that we are in this together. I also want to put in here a thank you to all my friends and family who have helped out or support us. We are always grateful for that. I am especially grateful for Adam and Ady...they are ever supportive of me, and keep me going, everything from Ady talking to the baby-aka-my belly and telling it to come out, to Adam moving us twice, doing more than his share, and just listening to my complaints and continuing to encourage me. Thanks guys...you are way better than Tums!

Well, this is basically what I really think about my pregnancy, I know alot of people probly have it worse than I do, and I should just be grateful for a healthy baby. Its just hard to have an open mind about others worse problems when it is your trial and it seems so hard at the time. Now that I've got everything off my chest about it, maybe I can be more grateful and less selfish. Time will eventually pass. I will eventually not be pregnant and the best news: Only 1 more week!

Waiting for little brother

2010-04-02T14:25:00.003-05:00

If you can't tell from the pictures, Ady is really excited and says she is ready for her little brother to come. About every day she asks us "when baby come out?" or "can baby come play now?". Were pretty used to her mimicking things we do, but the other day when she had her baby up her shirt like mommy, really made me laugh. Notice the dolls head sticking out of her shirt, without even being told, she seems to know that the baby is upside down. Of course, Kasey is even more ready than Ady for the little guy to come out. She is soooo tired of being pregnant. And I am soooo tired of her being pregnant(mostly of her complaining about it). The other day at the doctor's appointment we found out that Kasey has a bacteria, called group B strep, and that it is could be potentially very dangerous to the baby. So they are planning on inducing labor on the 12th so that they can have Kasey on antibiotics during the labor. Kasey of course says that the baby will come tomorrow. I've been hearing tomorrow for the last two weeks.
We moved over to Kasey's parents/grandma's house for now. We bought a trailer and are ready to move to Minnesota as soon as the baby can travel. Everyone always asks us what are plans are, and then when we look at them weird and ask "what plan?", they look back at us as if we are weird. So if you are wondering, no we don't have a plan, at least not a detailed one. No we don't have somewhere to live yet. No we haven't bought a resort. And no I don't have a job up there yet. But we feel this is the best option for us, and are looking forward to another adventure.

Disney on Ice

2010-03-27T11:33:00.006-05:00

We went to Disney on Ice (it was my and Ady's Valentines gift) I had never been; its definitely for kids though. It was a cute show and the fact that Ady loved it and made it totally worth going with her. Gramma VT came along too. We first went to the princess gown showing. Cinderella and Princess Tiana came out and Ady loved them waving to her, she finally pushed her way to the front to make herself as close to them as possible, and I had a hard time getting her to leave. After we finally looked at all the princess gowns including Snow White, Ariel, Belle and a couple more, we went into the Arena to await the show. We sat close to the curtain and we found Ady over peeking thru it, she excitedly let us know that there were 'Cars' on the other side. But I think her favorite was when the show started and Mickey and Minnie Mouse(or as Ady says "Mica Mouse")came out. She might even rank Mickey Mouse over Care Bears these days...I guess that just means her Dad will have to take us to Disney World as soon as possible after this huge lump in my stomach comes out.

March Madness

2010-03-13T15:40:00.002-06:00

Well it is that time of year again, the best sports season there is. Tomorrow is Selection Sunday and that means that next week is the NCAA Tourney! Kasey tries to convince me that Christmas is the best season of the year, but I'm still convinced that March Madness is the best ever. Once again I've created my annual bracket pick'em game on Yahoo, so if you want an invite let me know. Remember those, who play the bracket pick'em game get automatic invites to the bowl pick'em also. Just a disclaimer for those thinking about joining, I think I have won the last three years in a row, so pick wisely if you are entertaining thoughts of winning this year. And remember the winner gets bragging rights for a whole year, so don't take this lightly.

Fairly Boring Lives

2010-02-19T17:26:00.004-06:00

Well, compared to a move, graduation, and a car wreck we haven't done anything that exciting recently. Just thought we'd update, this is kind of like our family journal so I feel somewhat obligated to come on and update once in a while. I feel like I can somewhat justify not writing in my personal journal because I keep this blog going. Anyway, We are staying in Morgan at Kasey's parents old place for a couple months while it doesn't have renters. I spend several hours a day on the phone and internet trying to track down real estate agents and resort owners trying to get information about their properties and potential deals. I thought we had a place all picked out and had about decided that it was the one for us, but someone beat us to it and made an offer that was accepted. We have a picture here of Ady and I at Cabelas in the back at the shooting game. I figure we better get Kasey and Ady used to the idea of fishing, hunting, canoeing and camping, so Cabelas is a great place to go and hang out. Really it is just my excuse to go to Cabelas. But Ady does love the fish in the aquarium.

And as you can see, Ady wasn't content just watching me play. She wanted to "shoop, shoop too." So I hoisted her up and she got a chance to shoop the targets also.

Monida Pass

2010-01-27T23:43:00.002-06:00

A week and a half ago I woke up and talked Kasey into driving up to Northern Idaho to visit my grandparents. We left a little later than we had wanted and we hadn't gotten as far as we wanted when the sun went down. The roads had been real good and we were a little ways past Dubois Idaho when we hit some black ice near the Continental Divide at Monida Pass. I tried to keep the car on the road but was unable to do so and we ended up going into the median that divides the freeway. We went in sideways, Kasey had time to yell "Oh Crap!" and soon left the comfort and safety of our four tires. We ended up on our side, in complete darkness with a very cold wind coming in my now windowless door. Adyson was quite confused to say the least, having never been on a roller coaster she had never experienced being strapped in while being jostled and turned about. Although she did start calling out to us right away, when I asked her if she was okay she responded quickly that she was okay. A gentlemen came upon us after a few moments and helped me get Ady and Kasey out of the vehicle. We had a couple of boxes of books that got broken open and then the books ended up in the snow(we had snow in the vehicle from the broken windows and the roll), several diapers ruined and my cup of change for parking meters and whatnot is somewhere in the median, but no bruises, scrapes, broken bones, cuts, whiplash, premature labor, or anything wrong with any of us. When I had finally found Ady's shoes and socks(she refuses to leave them on her feet when she is in the car) and climbed out of the vehicle myself, I was amazed at what I saw. We had clothing and junk outside the car, glass was everywhere looking at the slide marks in the snow I saw a 6 foot wide section where there were no tracks, indicating that we had been air borne at that point. I went over to the car of the gentleman who had come upon us and called 911 and checked on Ady and Kasey who were sitting inside trying to stay warm. I asked them if again if they were okay and once again both responded affirmatively. As soon as I asked Ady if she was okay she immediately asked me if I was okay. I smiled and told her that I was also okay. Then she said very matter of factly-"Dad we okay." Her simple statement struck me quite poignantly, I was worried about all sorts of things and feeling quite stupid for wrecking my vehicle,but her words caused me to really realize how blessed we were. We were all okay. After the officer had filled out his paperwork, the wrecker had come to tow our vehicle back to a wrecker's yard, we were sitting there in a small motel room in the middle of no-where and once again found ourselves looking for any sign of the wreck and once again failed at even finding a bruise from the seat belts. Even though we had only purchased our car less than a month ago and really liked it, and were totally unsure of what to do next we were profoundly grateful for our physical safety. We know that we were watched over that evening, and no matter what else, Ady was right, "we okay". The next day after I hitchhiked back to Idaho Falls and had obtained a rental car we continued on our journey to visit my grandparents. We had a wonderful time and we have some pictures to share.

Here is Ady when she saw a playground across this field. She didn't even hesitate just took off running.

We walked down to the river by my grandparents house. Ady really liked the river, she thought it was the same as the ocean and immediately stuck her hand in the water. No worries she soon figured out the water was a bit chilly.

Here's a picture of beautiful Coeur d'Alene Lake. We had a nice time visiting with grandma and grandpa and enjoyed the beauty of the scenery up North.

The Last Month

2010-01-15T18:36:00.005-06:00

Well it has been about a month since our last post. Although no one may have noticed that we haven't posted anything recently, I thought I'd update you on what we've been doing. I graduated on the 18th of December, and we left our warm and beautiful Hawaii two days later. When we arrived in Salt Lake City we were not only extremely tired from Ady being a bit of a pain on the flights and not allowing us to sleep, but the sweatshirts that we had bought just before leaving Hawaii proved to be grossly inadequate at keeping us warm. After spending a day car shopping we selected a vehicle, which gave us some measure of freedom and independence and began bouncing around, visiting friends and family which we hadn't seen in a couple years. Both of our families had some illnesses so we timed where we visiting, according to who was sicker. Christmas was fun, we enjoyed the casual unorganized activities with my family and the extremely organized chaos of Kasey's family Christmas activities. Ady had so much fun. She loved running around and having cousins to play with. Ady has shown us once again that she is a thrill seeker. I took her on a 4 story tubular water slide at the Legacy center in Lehi. When I asked her if she was ready, she nervously looked down into the total blackness and her voice shook as she said that she was ready. I pushed us off and I don't know who was holding who, on the way down. In the blackness we couldn't tell which way the next bend would be and Ady was making a shrill somewhat terrified "weee" most of the way down. When we came out and became completely submerged under water I grabbed her and stood up, she quickly wiped the water from her eyes, gasped and said "again? I go again Dad?" Not sure if she was asking if she got to go again or had to go again, I asked her if it was fun, and she said that it was fun and that she wanted to go again. Seeing that my experiment was a success and having proof that Ady had survived, we headed over to inform Kasey of what Ady had just done. Of course Ady wanted to show Kasey, and so back up the steps we went. Several runs later I had to tell Ady that it was time to go, and she immediately threw a fit, because she wanted to "lide one more time". A weel or so later we took her sledding and once again had to pry her away from the sleds when it was time to go. Take a look at this picture. Ady has been horse back riding half a dozen times. Always bareback, and by herself. No fear for this kid.

Ady loves looking at Christmas lights, so of course we took her to Temple Square. It was very cold and Ady refused to walk, so I hoisted her on to my shoulders and away we went. I think I only made it about 2 minutes before I was tired of having her grab my ears, rotate my head and say "look dad, more lights". I don't know exactly how many lights are at temple square, but I'd venture that Ady pointed out just about every single light.

In addition to the Christmas activities, family fun and showing Ady new things like water slides, horses, and sledding, we have spent 5 days hanging out with/tending 5 of Kasey's cousins(ages 4-15) while their parents went to California. Ady really enjoyed playing with Eli, who is four. Eli varied between enjoying Ady's company and tolerating Ady. One day while driving around, Ady saw some cows, whose existence still surprise her, and shouted from her seat in the back, "Dad, look at dat". Before I or Kasey could say anything, Eli said in a very serious, bored, strait up voice, "yeah, they're just cows". Completely unfazed by Eli's lack of excitement over finding these "rare" creatures, a minute later we hear once again "Dad look at dat". I looked out to see some geese in a corn field. Once again Eli was faster at responding, and in that same "you've got to be kidding me to be even remotely interested in that" voice said "yeah that's just a corn field and they are everywhere".
We finally got our car in Hawaii sold, thanks to lots of help from our good friends Steve and Lauren. Ady has adjusted to having a new car and likes to sit in the drivers seat and act like she is driving it. Looking at this picture with her and her cousin Carissa maybe she has a future in racing. The best part with Ady is that you don't have to put in a quarter for her to enjoy the arcade.

I am still working at finding work. And we haven't made a decision about grad school. Right now we are just staying with family and will hopefully have a more permanent address, and answers to our future plans. Until then any questions you have about where are we, what are we doing, or what our plans are can easily be answered with, depends on the day, don't know or ask us tomorrow. All answers are interchangeable and arent particularly associated with any specific question.

Trivia-Which is better Summa Cum Laude or Magna Cum Laude?

2009-12-12T01:50:00.003-06:00

Last night was Adam's School of Business Graduation Banquet. They had a very nice dinner and Awards Ceremony. We didn't know what was better, Magna Cum Laude or Summa Cum Laude. We thought that Magna was better than Summa. Adam looked pretty silly when he congratulated a friend for getting Magna "which is the highest honor" and then the friend had to explain to Adam that actually it is the Summa that is the highest. Pretty funny that a guy who is awarded Summa Cum Laude doesn't even know what it means.
And next--how is it pronounced? I think we heard about 5 different pronunciations given by college professors last night at the banquet. They had a very nice dinner and Awards Ceremony. Adam doesn't like me to brag, (or make fun of him being a smart nerd) but I think it is very commendable that during the past 2 years at BYUH Adam has done so well, so I had to write about it. Last night Adam was recognized for graduating Summa Cum Laude and was also awarded the most outstanding student in his major. He got a nice award plaque, a gift basket with lots of Hawaiian Macadamia nut goodies-my favorite part, and the nicest lei we have ever had-Ady's favorite part as you can see!

Here is a photo of Adam's plaque. Sorry about the flash. Congratulations Honey!

what happens when your blog gets left signed in....

2009-11-27T13:04:00.012-06:00

This is Adam's little sister, Rachel. I have been living with Adam and Kasey this semester, watching Adyson and my own baby, Jett, as my husband has been gone for basic/AIT training stuff.
I've been waiting for the opportunity to post on their blog since I got pictures of Ady trying to breastfeed her baby doll....that's what happens when we all share Adams laptop and everything is left signed in!
At first when I got here, I was a little worried about Jett's survival being around Ady. As he was learning to crawl and pull himself up to a stand at the couch, she would go out of her way to knock him over. It's not uncommon for children to do such things when they fear competition for attention....but has still been extremely frustrating for me as it's my baby bonking his head on the hard wood floor every time.
Turns out....with a little effort....I may have convinced Ady that Jett can be her friend. They are now playing together and feed off each others giggles and she even lets him jump on her bed with her now!

Best part is that Ady now imitates EVERYTHING I do as a mother.....she is going to be a super sister!

She breastfeeds....(to be honest, I'm suprised it has taken this long before she started this)
She's teaching her baby to walk....
Feeds her baby cheerios....
Rocks her baby to sleep.....
Wakes baby up by poking her eyes out....(I didn't teach her this)....
Tickles her baby.....
plays with her baby....
More breastfeeding.....more discreetly....
Gives piggy back rides.....
And she also gives Anakin Skywalker pod racer rides.....

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T13:02:00.004-06:00

This is how much Ady loves the beach! I'm glad I finally got some video footage of her.

And by the way, it's a healthy boy! The ultrasound technician was very sure about it yesterday at our appointment. He now weighs 1 pound. We are very happy, actually I am very happy...and Adam is "just as happy as if it was a girl-it doesn't matter what it is, he would be the same." I just think it makes for a nice round even family. I am also half-way with the pregnancy...finally! I am feeling huge already-is that normal to just bulge out on the second one since you're already stretched? I'm very glad the 1st trimester is over, but the sickness lingers some still-along with all the other horrible pregnancy things like heartburn and lack of initiative to do much.
Even with all the lack of motivation, I was motivated enough to give my bosses a 3.5 week notice this week(I know- normally you give 2 weeks, but they already know Adam is graduating and they wanted as much notice as possible). I am on my way to my next job of being a full time mommy! I never thought I would be really excited to stay home, especially since we don't have a set plan, but I am. I am sure it won't be easy, especially if I am to become a great home wife/mom, but I am sure staying home as a mother will be the most valuable thing for my family.
Adam is considering going to grad school to get an MBA(no, he doesn't have a fever--and yes his study habits changed tremendously for the better these last 2 years). He is looking into returning to USU for their one year MBA program.
Well, just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We are so thankful for this life and the opportunities it gives us to enjoy, grow, become, and be blessed.

In the last month

2009-11-10T15:13:00.011-06:00

So I have been informed that it has been over a month since our last post, and Kasey thinks it is my turn to update the blog. For Halloween Ady was once again a Lady Bug. She still kinda fit the costume and being as we are preparing to move in 6 weeks, we decided to save money and just reuse the one from last year. She loves picking flowers, even these yellow ones which are basically a weed.

We've also been to the beach many times in the last month, and Ady loves playing in the sand. She even likes to be buried.

Sometimes Ady likes to be buried all the way up to her neck.

This is Ady playing with her cousin Jett at the beach. Ady seems to really like Jett at times, and is nice to him, and other times she is kinda rough with him.

Kasey's cousin Heidi and Aunt Patrice are here visiting right now, Ady loves to hang out with them and loved going to Haleiwa to get shave ice. She couldn't quite reach the hole for the photo, but you can see the top of her head and tell that she really wanted to put her face in the hole for the photo like everyone else did.
As for the the rest of the news for the month... We've been really busy. School is almost done for me. Kasey is looking forward to Christmas vacation and seeing family. We have one way tickets to Utah purchased, but no job or final destination lined up for us. I have another interview in a couple days. I've been trying to negotiate a purchase of a resort we like in Minnesota but can't come up with the 250 thousand dollars needed as a down payment. As for the baby, they no longer think that the baby has down syndrome, they have decided that the baby probably isn't as far along as originally guessed. Being as they thought the baby had a spinal problem or neurological problem we had to go in last week for lots of tests and a special ultra-sound. They measured the baby's various parts and determined that it was probably a week or so off in the guess of the due date. So the new date is April 15th and everything looks healthy now. Other than a crazed two year-old terrorizing her cousin, stress from doctors and a pregnant lady that lives here, and the lack of an answer to everyone asking us what we are doing and where we are going next, things are going really well with our family. Until next time...

It's our 5 year anniversary!

2009-10-09T16:14:00.002-05:00

5 Fabulous Years

4 Years College-almost done!

3 States-UT, FL, HI

2 Kids- (one on the way)

1 Great Relationship

0 Pets right now!

Yay!

Lego's Grand Opening in Honolulu

2009-09-05T21:01:00.007-05:00

No surprise, Adam being the adult Lego fan that he is couldn't miss the chance to go to the Grand Opening of the Lego Store in the Ala Moana Mall. Luckily his friend Eric, whose son,William, happens to be Ady's friend, is also a fan, and we all went together and Adam had somebody to be excited with him. (since I'm not exactly the kind to be ecstatic over this stuff) Here they are at the life size surf board exhibit that was being built out of Lego's. They even got to help build a block to go in the exhibit. Ady enjoyed it and liked playing with the Legos too-especially when she found the pink ones. Looks like Dad has a new friend he can count on for years to come to play Legos with him.

Update

2009-09-04T16:41:00.007-05:00

Well this is just an update to the last few rather vague posts. First just to let you all know that I smashed down the yellow M&M out of Ady's nose during Relief Society, thankfully before she could push it up any further to really get it stuck. However she did have odd color snot running out of her nose for the next hour or so.
Next, thanks for all those who have been concerned for us. We are doing as well as can be expected with a pregnant ornery lady in the house. I am due April 9. I think the sooner that gets here the better. However, on the positive side, this pregnancy and morning sickness is different than the last(if you know about that, your probly still surprised we are having another kid). I've only had a couple of days where I was vomiting and been really nauseous--unlike last time where I was soooo sick and vomiting about every 30 min for the whole first trimester. I am still not feeling well, but its way better than last time, so I can hardly complain. Maybe the difference is its a boy? I am also craving food this time, which is great to me, since last time I practically had to force myself to eat and nothing sounded good. But now, I feel better if I eat, and I feel like I need something in my stomach about every hour or I'll be sick, so I feel like all I do is sit at work or home and eat. I am also very exhausted, which i don't remember being before. So I pretty much eat and sleep. Well I make it to work usually too. Thats another nice thing is that BYUH and my bosses are very understanding and happy for us and I have some saved up sick leave. Its almost like it's expected for you to have a family and work here--unlike Key West.
I still have to thank Adam for pretty much doing everything from the grocery shopping to the laundry to putting Ady to bed every night. I just haven't felt good enough to do much, and Adam just fills in with what needs to be done even while attending school full-time. I know I'm not an easy pregnant lady to live with(sorry too, Rachel), but hopefully this 1st trimester will be over with soon and life will get easier.
On a cute note, we did go to the Dr. and have an ultrasound, Ady got to come with us when the time came they turned out the lights to see the screen better and she was sitting on Adam's lap while they took the measurements. It was all quiet. Then Adam asked her if they were looking at her little sibling and she turned around, put her finger to her mouth, and told him to "SHHHHH" It was so cute. And the baby is normal with a normal heartbeat, and we are very happy for that.

Family News

2009-08-25T19:00:00.006-05:00

Well I thought I could make up for the small quantity of posts recently with a quality post. You know what they say, quality not quantity. Of course Ady was very interested in the news.

Growing up and becoming independant

2009-08-07T14:43:00.010-05:00

Ady is probably better with a computer than I am. This morning when I got up, I heard a movie playing and went into Ady's room. There was Ady sitting in front of a laptop watching Care Bears. I assumed that Kasey must've gotten it set up before she left for work. So then I called Kasey to ask if she had fed Ady anything. But when I asked Kasey told me that Ady was still asleep when she left for work. That means that Ady got up, turned on the computer, went and got a DVD, put it in, started it, and hit enter when the menu came up. Pretty good for a two year old I'd say. Makes me worry that tomorrow I am gonna wake up and find out she walked to the store to buy some candy.

M & M

2009-07-20T21:39:00.002-05:00

What do you do when your 2 yr old sticks a yellow mini M&M up her nose in the middle of Relief Society?

4th of July

2009-07-06T17:08:00.004-05:00

Well we had tons of fun this last weekend. Being as it was a holiday weekend, Kasey got work off on Friday and we decided to start celebrating that day. First we went to Honolulu and took Ady to see the movie Up. We had fun and Ady was very cute to watch. She sat in her own seat and didn't even move for about 40 minutes. I kept checking on her and her mouth was open, eyes wide in amazement, and pure ecstasy written all over her face. Then about 40 minutes in, she was so enthralled that she wanted to share with us and everyone else in the theater. I felt a little tap on my arm and thought I would just ignore it. But no, another tap, this one a little firmer, and then I heard, "dad, dad, dad, dad" about 15 times. I looked over and asked what. She whispered, "bird, dad dere's a bird." I kinda chuckled and looked over to see if Kasey had heard. But no worries Ady wanted to make sure that her mom knew she saw the bird. "HI BIRD, HI BIRD, BYE BIRD, DAD DERE'S A BIRD, BYE BIRD." Sometimes I am amazed at how loud Ady can be, the rest of the time I am amazed that she isn't being really loud. Don't worry Ady doesn't discriminate, she also made sure to say hi and bye to the dogs. After the movie we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and got home late that night after a very fun family night out.

On Saturday had a barbeque and I grilled Aloha burgers with some friends. Then later we went to the store and bought ice cream and waffle cones. We eat a lot of ice cream at our house but never in cones. Kasey wanted ice cream cones so we decided to mix things up a little bit and headed to the store. Ady loves ice cream and we decided to just give her her own cone. She thought it was so cool. She could walk around and eat at the same time. She seemed so happy. However we aren't sure if she ate much. She likes waving her arms around and dancing when she gets really excited. Twice she dumped her ice cream on the sidewalk. Don't worry though, she quickly bent down, picked up the spilled scoop and put it back on her cone. but between the sidewalk and what you can see all over her, we don't know if she actually ate any. What we do know is she loves chocolate ice cream with brownie bits.

We spent 3 dollars at Walmart last year on fireworks, but due to rain never lit them. So this year we decided to get them out and light 'em up. First we walked around the community and watched as people who spent more than 3 dollars light theirs. Ady was pretty nervous for the first 15 minutes. But after a while she really warmed up to the fireworks and by the time we made it to the park to light our sparklers and bloomin flowers she was saying, "more, more dad, more pire lights pease, again, do again dad." Hope all of you had a great 4th of July.

Fill in the blank: Popcorn-opc=__________

2009-07-03T02:03:00.004-05:00

Adyson has decided that she really likes popcorn. She is also learning to talk now. So she has learned to tell us that she wants popcorn please. However, she doesn't seem to think that the middle of a word is all that important, and struggles with the "L" in please, so "I want Popcorn please" comes out like "I want porn pease." Ya, so she kind of forgets the middle part, and it makes it sound pretty bad. Normally we just laugh because she is 2 and we just tell her "it's popcorn, Adyson." But the other day we are walking down the isle of the grocery store and she sees the popcorn and starts yelling "Mommy, I want porn, I want porn. More porn pease Mommy." Although it was pretty funny we were a bit embarrassed and decided that we need to be more progressive in teaching Ady how to speak correctly. Of course, that is being difficult so for now we just don't go down the aisle with popcorn.

Blogging is Life

2009-06-30T15:32:00.004-05:00

Having just spent nearly 3 weeks with my husband off on his trip to Minnesota to look at a future business opportunity for us, I just want to write about a couple things. One is that I am grateful for internet and this blog, because we were both able to keep in touch and even see the others pictures and read the stories. I really appreciate a good thoughtful or funny blog. Blogging can be a good hobby. I think it opens a whole new world. Not only is it something Adam and I like to do, it can be a way to reconnect with old friends, keep in contact with those who are far away, it can be a venting means, it can be an aid to "keep a journal"; it can help a person express themselves. Great things can and have come from blogging.

The second thing I want to write about is although there are many things that could be said (good and bad) about blogging and what people blog about, I just want to thank all those who "Blog-Like-It-Is." I tend to sugar coat things--even in my own pesonal journal. I guess I just want to be forgetful of bad times or I just can't imagine to share something that could potentially be embarrasing to me. But a big thank-you to those who share real life-Iwa, Tara, my husband, Marie...just to name a few, there are more, but you know who you are. As much as I'd love to be a perfect woman/wife/mother...I'm not, and sometimes I just really appreciate reading about your crazy lives too.

BWCA Wilderness Trip

2009-06-21T20:17:00.015-05:00

So for the last two weeks I have been driving all over the state of Minnesota, and I do mean all over as I have driven over 1500 miles, looking at resorts and similar businesses. I have really enjoyed my time up here and I love taking pictures of pretty things like this sunset. Well I have also taken time to look at schools, hospitals, proximity to churches, and local attractions. So one day I went and visited 3 state parks. This lighthouse is at one of the state parks and I thought it was a cool lighthouse up on the cliff overlooking Lake Superior.

Last Wednesday I picked up my Dad and we went on a 4 day Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness trip. That means that we spent 4 days paddling through lakes, carrying gear and a canoe from one lake to the next. Well we survived the bugs, the awesome thunderstorm and our canoe disappearing one night. That's right, the morning after we took on a crazy thunderstorm I got up and the canoe was gone. I looked around for a bit and finally spotted it way down the shoreline and across the bay. Took me a while tramping through the woods to make it around to it but we got it back and continued on. So here are some pictures from our trip. Lookout, this is gonna be long, so if you wanna stop here, feel free.

So our first day started out like this, the water was glassy and smooth. We paddled for 12 or 13 miles this day. Not only did we paddle for a dozen miles but we had to portage 5 times. And along the way we saw some cool sights like this Island with its reflection.

This is one of our campsites. I liked the wildflowers that were all over at this spot. One of the funniest things about this trip was my Dad. Every time we would make it to a new spot, he would get out of the canoe, find a bare spot of ground or large rock, lay down and fall asleep. Seriously, he would fall right asleep for a couple of hours, never moving. The first day I thought I might have killed him but when I got close I could hear him snoring.

Of course we did some fishing! We went out fishing one evening and we caught about 50 fish. We caught mostly smallmouth bass, which are my favorite to catch. We also caught some walleye, a dozen northern pike, and a couple of other species. It was so much fun.

My whole life I've heard from my Dad how he hates fishing. Of course he hasn't been fishing for like 35 years and never with me. Well he decided to give it a try. He caught like 15 fish that one evening and even allowed me to take his picture with this walleye. If you know him at all you know how hard it is to get him to take a picture. And I only had to ask once, he didn't even complain about having his picture taken. It was kinda funny when we started though, cause it started raining so hard and he looked back at me and asked "what do we do now?" I told him we keep fishing. He gave me this look like I was an idiotic weirdo, but he kept fishing. By the end, it was me having to tell him it was time to go since the sun had set and we hadn't even had dinner yet!

This is a waterfall that we paddled over to look at. This is why we had to Portage between lakes, most of them are connected, but you can't canoe from one to another sometimes.

This was how the trip ended. Our last night we got to watch the sky turn orange and then pink and then purple. What a great last 4 days. I can't wait to do it again sometime.

sand and water

2009-06-16T01:45:00.004-05:00

We went to sharks cove last week and as you can see ady loves to play in the water...
and she loves to drink the water.

Ady loves to play in the sand...

and she loves to eat the sand.
I am starting to wonder if she is sodium deprived...I can't imagine how, but if she is, at least she getting it at the beach. We tried taking a sunset picture after swimming and playing in the tide-pools, but really we just got in the way of the sun...too bad Dad is not here to take our beautiful sunset pictures for us. We miss him! Today Ady was pointing to a picture of her Dad on top of the dresser, and she kept saying Dad, Dad, nice, nice, nice Dad. Then she would lean over and kiss the picture. I thought it was cute.

Adyson-self portraits

2009-06-14T15:33:00.007-05:00

Ady is into taking pictures lately. She always wants "my turn" on the camera. Here are some of her latest shots. If you can't tell by the next picture, she likes to hold the camera by the lens so she tends to get her fingers in the pics alot. She is so funny cause she hold the camera up to her face and squints her eyes and says "Cheese." I think she is taking after her dad with this fascination in cameras-except she likes to take pictures of people and especially of herself.

The next pics are Mom's portraits of Ady. I'm feeling good that I got a couple where she actually looked at the camera and smiled. I wanted to get her hair in the one picture cause it really is getting so long and she is only 2. According to my mom, I never even had hair until I was 2. Wonder where she gets it from?