Summer Sunshine

Next up we met up with the old roomies at Spanish Fork Reservoir! 

We do much chatting on Marco Polo, but it's good to get a little face-to-face time with them and to give our kids a chance to play together!

Next up was the Bountiful 24th of July parade. For people who like to sweat.

And for people who like candy thrown in their face.

We squeezed in one last outing with Teresa's family at Wardle Fields Park.

Lining the kids up tallest to shortest proved to be more difficult than anyone was prepared for.

 
I always feel like we have four sets of twins when we're together. It's so fun for everyone!

Newland amped up the summer party by coming to town! Within three seconds of his arrival, he and Carson were inseperable.

We went to The Treehouse up in Ogden for a full day of fun.

And a little work.

That night we went to the rodeo which was much more fun than any of us were ready for. I didn't expect a comedy show to accompany the cowboys, but I was laughing through the whole thing. It was one of my favorite days of the whole summer!

Just when we thought the rodeo couldn't woo us any more, they ended with a motorcycle trick show that gave certain little boys dreams of one day backflipping through an arena on a dirtbike.

Summer cool down.

As family started coming to town for my parents' talks and the reunion, we made our way to Ben and Haley's house. Jonah had no trouble conking right out with all the excitement we'd been having. His dirty toes and suspended foot are evidence of his exhaustion.

Haley won my boys over by showing them how to make cotton candy one morning!

Then it was off to meet up with the cousins at a park for the renioning to begin!

Jonah again tells a story with his sleeping positions. This time, his glasses are telling us he's ready to hit the lake!

Traveling for Busy-ness

It was while my parents were in town, visiting on their way home from their mission, that my mom said, "Sarah. It's going to be so weird to be back in Utah and not have you there. I wish you didn't move away."

I thought that was the perfect segue to propose my last-minute plan for the summer. 

You see, Jeff had just learned he would be traveling for work two weeks in a row and then he would have his "duty week" the third week of the month. Basically, it was 3 weeks of me having the kids by myself.

I realized we would be heading to Panguitch right before Jeff's busy month, which was about halfway to Bountiful, so I began to wonder if I could maybe convince Jeff to drop me off at my parents' house and then I'd send him on his travels. He'd be traveling for business, and I'd be traveling for busy-ness -- because 4 boys do better when they are busy and we were running out of activities to keep us entertained through the long, hot days. 

Everything fell into place. My friends were all pretty free, so I would be able to arrange get-togethers with them, it lined up perfectly with the Thomas Family Reunion at the end of the month, and Jeff got the okay from his boss to travel back and forth from Salt Lake instead of from Vegas.

I just had to okay my travels with my boss...

"Well Mom..." I started. "I want you to remember you said you wished I hadn't moved away..."

I saw the fear strike her as she braced to hear how I would twist her words to my benefit. 

"How would you feel about us moving in for the whole month of July?..." 

What's funny is, my parents were very clear when we moved into their house that we would absolutely need to be moved out before they got home from their mission. I was so proud of us for moving out weeeeeeeellllll before our deadline, but wouldn'tchya know, we would...in a way...not be moved out of their house when they got home. Whoops!  Despite us moving back into their house, my parents were very patient with all the little helpers who were eager to assist them in getting their house ready for their upcoming party. 

Lincoln kept my dad company with each row of lawn my dad mowed.

My mom was quick to offer me moments of peace by distracting my boys so I could regain my sanity or go for a run. 

Jonah had his very own pitching machine. 

And my dad had four little sugar machines to help remind him of his long lost Slurpee love for 7-11 day. 

I'm super grateful my parents welcomed us into their home for the month because it allowed me enough time to schedule in a colonoscopy while I had readily accessibly babysitters. I had this itch to get a colonoscopy that had been nudging me for a few months, but I never could figure out the logistics of getting one done in Vegas. I even tried to call a few places but they never called me back or they were going to make me go to a few appointments before they would let me go in for a colonoscopy. I didn't have that kind of time!

First of all, I have a million kids and I didn't want to have to find multiple days of babysitting, and second of all, I was supposed to get a colonoscopy in my TWENTIES because my dad has a frightening family history of cancerous colons. I had put it off long enough and I just needed to get the procedure "behind" me. 

I was able to find a Utah doctor who would get me right in for a colonoscopy just based on my family history and even had availability while I was there. Everything fell perfectly into place once I had the thought to get it done while I was in Utah. I couldn't shake the nagging feeling I needed to get it done, and I was glad to finally have an appointment scheduled. 

The night before I was to begin prepping, my sister saw me eat a watermelon slice and she informed me I wasn't supposed to eat nuts or seeds in the days leading up to my appointment. I had read that, but I interpreted that to mean don't eat a loaf of Chia seed bread or something, but a watermelon seed hadn't even crossed my mind as problematic. I also wasn't really noticing the things I was eating in preparation quite yet because I didn't think my prep started until the day before my appointment, and I had neglected to realize I was supposed to be slightly modifying my diet in the week leading up to The Great Colon Cleanse. 

Being a perfectionist, and hearing my sister tell me her doctor told her she had cleansed her colon to an exceptional level, I began to worry. Not only had I eaten a watermelon seed, but I had also been scarfing chocolate covered almonds with sprinklings of peanut-riddled granola bars. I was doomed to fail my colonoscopy. 

I spent the rest of the night curled up on my bed reading about how badly one has screwed up their colon cleanse if they ate one million kinds of varied nuts the day before cleansing day. Spoiler Alert: Yahoo Answers is a dark place to be with colon questions at 3:00 AM. 

Whatever polyps I feared I had were now becoming friends with the ulcers I was growing in my Googling frenzy. And worse, I'd never outperform my sister's rave intestinal reviews. 

The cleansing portion of the process was actually not as bad as the stressing portion of the process. The stressing about all the wrong things I ate. And the stressing of my inferiority to my sister. 

I became so stressed that I began dreaming about my colonoscopy. I dreamed I ate a donut while I was in the waiting room and a nurse came in and scolded me for eating a donut before informing me I'd have to reschedule my appointment, leaving me to suffer through the cleanse again. 

When I was finally at my real appointment, I was starving, and I was indeed craving a donut, so I was glad my dreams had warned me not to cave in to my cravings. The worst part was being so hungry. And dehydrated. And poking an IV into a dehydrated arm is not ideal. A donut would have helped ease my pain.

With the IV successfully in place, the nurse wheeled me into the room where I met the doctor who stared at me with much confusion as he asked why on earth at 31 I was subjecting myself to a colonoscopy. I tried to convince him with a report of my family history, but I still felt a little silly for being there. I got a little self-conscious thinking maybe I was overreacting. I sometimes overreact. If you couldn't tell from the 3 AM Googling fit. 

I slept. I woke up. And I very distinctly woke up. Like there was this moment and I was like, "Oh. I'm awake. I'm going to be awake now. I'm going to remember I'm awake because my mom is going to try to tell me I said weird things coming out of surgery, but I am going to remember everything I say because I am awake."

I popped my head up to let my mom know her wait was over and I had survived my colonoscopy. Like many anasthesia-ized humans, I was interested to know what time it was upon waking up, curious to see how long I had been asleep. 

"Sarah. That's the third time you've asked me that." My mom said. 

"What? I just woke up." I had just been dreaming. I could remember the dream I was having literally seconds before I spoke. I was so sure she had it wrong. 

"No. You've been talking." My mom informed me. "You even asked the nurse if she 'found any almonds in there.'"

The colonoscopy didn't kill me, but my embarrassment might. The doctor walked in to inform me they had found 3 polyps, one was 10 mm which seemed to impress my doctor. 

A nurse came in to discharge me, and though I knew it was an odd question, I just couldn't help myself from inquiring, "How was my prep?" 

The nurse gave me the same kind of look I give my kids when they ask me if I like their drawing for the 20th time as she gave me a tired, "It was good." with a smile at my mom like there was some joke I was missing. I was immediately disappointed I didn't get the same "exceptional" rating my sister got on her prep work. My mom then let me know I had already asked about my prep and the nurse who discharged me wasn't even the same nurse who was in the colonoscopy room with me. 

I laughed on the way home, now that I was a little more clear-headed and a little more in on the joke. I laughed about all my fears that came out through the process of getting a colonoscopy. The subliminal inferiority complex I have with my sister, the perfectionism that haunts me after one handful of rule-breaking almonds, and the polyps.

I had some overreactive fears come out, but I'm glad I overreacted about the polyp and listened to my "gut feeling" so that I have a few more years with the people I love, to eat almonds and to outperform my sister every 3 years from here on out on my colon cleanse. 

The best place to refill an empty, cancer-free colon is at Chuck-a-Rama!

We celebrated Ben's birthday almost as much as we celebrated my clean insides.

Haley planned a super fun party for Ben, complete with danger bowling.

It's like bowling. But with the thrill of potentially slicing your head open with each amateur throw of the axe.

You know we had to see as much of our Bess friends as we could while we were in town!

Teresa took us to This is the Place. And yes, if you're wondering, it's really confusing to explain to four kids who have never visited "This is the Place" that you're going to a place called "This it the Place."

Eli: "Where are we going today?"
Me: "This is the Place."
Eli: "What place though?"
Me: "It's just a place called This is the Place."
Eli: "But what's the name of it?"
Me: "...Banana who?"

It was so fun to see a new "Place!" We're glad the Besses brought us along!

And we're glad my parents brought us along to see an old place...Lagoon!

Eli purposefully rubbed his stamp onto his face right after entering the park. Because he's very much a 9-year-old right now.

We ended our Lagoon day playing in the fountains for one solid hour, beating the Utah heat, and being grateful the Vegas heat wasn't beating us! More Utah adventures to come!