a story for the books

my what a busy busy july we have had! with lots of visitors, and we have LOVED it! jared's parents came over a few days after kyle and carissa left. while they were here it was cow appreciation day at chick-fil-a. whats cow appreciation day you ask? its a day where if you dress like a cow, you get a free meal. um, hello.... sign me up please. free chick-fil-a? dont mind if i do thank you. jared dressed up and went over for breakfast before work. then he went back on his lunch break. and then yes, he went a third time and met us for dinner. 

parker was so excited to wear a cow costume.

for some reason, i couldnt convince jared's parents to dress up ;)

after we had dinner we headed back home to get the kids to bed. the rest of the night jared had been complaining about a pain right below his rib cage. he has complained about this a few times before but that night it seemed to hurt the most it ever has. i got to bed around 11:30 and by midnight i was awake with jared trying to help do whatever i could to stop the pain he was feeling. i think i dozed off again around 1am and by 2:30 he woke me up saying he was in so much pain that he needed to be taken to the ER. 

i knew he must really be in a a lot of pain because he NEVER goes to the doctor. ever.

thank goodness his parents happened to be in town so we didnt have to wake the kids up and drag them with us to the emergency room. 

by the time we got there and checked in it was just after 3am. i have to say this was the first time i have ever been to the ER and it wasnt nearly as exciting as i thought it was going to be. minus the drunk guy next door to us who was convinced the nurses and doctor were trying to steal his clothes, it was a pretty quiet night. they came in and did an ultra sound, and then we waited, and waited and waited some more. i think jared got a little nap in, but i did not. 

the doctor came in just before 6am with the test results and told us that it is his gallbladder acting up. the ultra sound showed some gallstones, but his white blood cell count was normal, indicating no sign of infection. he gave us the number to call the hospital surgeon, and gave us the clear to head home. we got home around 6:30am and parker and brooklynn were up for the day at 7am. it was awesome playing mom that day. 

he has his follow up appointment today, so we will see what they say about it! we were talking the other night, and minus seeing doctors and going to the hospital for having babies, we have been relatively lucky when it comes to the health department in the last 6 years of marriage.

im just so glad it's not anything life threatning. and if he does need to have his gallbladder taken out, its a relatively routine procedure. not ideal no, but could always be worse. so finger's crossed he gets some good news!

4th of july recap

we had some visitors this year for the 4th of july! and it was SO MUCH FUN!

kyle and carissa and their 2 boys kyler and brant drove over from rexburg on monday june 30 and stayed until the following monday, july 7. 

considering we had 3 kiddos that napped and 2 that are still nursed, we were still able to get out of the house a bit and play. 

tuesday was a pretty low key day. we just played at our neighborhood park and then here at home. on wednesday, we took them to settlers park, our favorite park here. it has a huge play ground and splash pad. kyler was a little hesitant and a bit overwhelmed with all of it, but we still had fun. we packed a lunch and had a picnic before heading home for naps and some air conditioning! 

thursday we ventured to the boise zoo early in the morning and the weather was great

. a bit overcast and not too warm. by the end of the zoo it was starting to really warm up and we were all tired, so home we went for lunch and naps. we played out in the kiddie pool in the backyard in the afternoon, and got some qdoba for dinner that night. we also had a a very fun late night trampoline session that night after all the kids were in bed.

friday was the 4th and we headed out to melba idaho for their parade. we found a great place to sit and watch it and the boys got just enough candy to please them. 

trying to get a picture of all of them sitting and looking was quite the task.

cant even believe that this is our family.... cause im pretty sure parker was brooklynn's age yesterday.

after naps we spent the rest of the day playing out in the backyard in the kiddie pool, jumping on the trampoline and having a fun water fight. 

 these two are angel babies! they were so content (for the most part) to just hang out outside with us. 

 brooklynn tried a graham cracker for the first time. it was a hit!

 parker LOVED the water fights. i mean LOVED them. he was right in the thick of it the whole time. every time the guys flung water at us on the tramp it always went RIGHT into parker's face. and he would laugh and laugh. it was so fun. 

 after a yummy BBQ we let the boys throw some poppers before putting them to bed.

 we tried some sparklers but it was still too light outside to see them. maybe next year we will keep parker up for fireworks.

after it got dark we headed outside to light off some of our own fireworks. before we lit them off we saw SO MANY fireworks being shot off all around us. we could stand in our street and look off into the distance and see one right after the other in different locations. it was fun.

it was a very fun week and holiday. it was a sad day when they left. i wish we could live closer to family so we could see each other more!