Life at our house has been busy. I've been traveling a ton lately for work (California, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Minnesota in the last 6 weeks). This week I've got an exhibit for the lodge at the International Sportsmen's Expo in Salt Lake. We have our dates picked to head back to the lodge next month. Kasey has been busy making shirts and playing basketball. Her church team won the stake tournament and the first round of region play. Brock is getting to be more trouble than we thought possible. He is extremely independent and sometimes downright mean. However sometimes he does say the funniest things. The other night he was saying the prayer at a meal and it went like this. "Heavenly Father, thank you for today, thank you for our family. Thank you for-hey dad, did you know I have my head bowed?". I quickly told him that I had noticed and thanked him for remembering to do that, then asked him to continue. He did. "Please bless the food- hey dad, did you know that condors always have their heads hunched over like this? I like to do it so that I can be like a condor. I like condors they are big and kinda scary but I like them". Before I could figure out how to respond he continued. "Please bless mom and Ady-hey dad, did you know that condors live in the desert and eat dead animals? I learned about them when Diego had to rescue one. Did you know that Diego is an animal rescuer?". This time he expected a response. My response was, "are you finished praying, I'd like to eat."
Ady is doing really well in school. She has finally decided that she likes to read. A couple of nights ago she picked Green Eggs and Ham for her bedtime book. We have read this book probably a thousand times in the last 5 years. But this time was a first for us, Ady decided she wanted to read it to me. It took at least 25 minutes, but she read the whole thing. I've never thought that much of a 62 page book, but she had Brock mesmerized and you could tell she was very proud of herself, probably almost as proud as her dad was when she finished. Kasey was gone to a basketball game, but I am sure that she will get her turn now that Ady has decided that reading is fun. We took our annual trip to the Ronald McDonald house a couple of weeks ago. This year the kids had collected 3 jars of pop tabs (no we didn't drink that much soda, we collect them at the resort). They were very excited to give them so that some sick kid's families could be helped. Each time we go there, it is both a scary reminder of our ordeal with Brock's heart, but also a nice reminder that there are wonderful people out there trying to help. I know that Kasey and I will be forever grateful to all the people who helped us out at that time and will forever marvel at the strangers who stepped in during our time of need. I'm glad that the kids like to collect them and it gives us a chance to talk about our blessings and why we help others.