Utah Trip - Part 2 - Chris and Michelle's

While I was at Michelle's the kids elementary school had Backwards Day' and dresssed backwards. This is Brooklynn ready for school.

She had her shoes on backwards but changed them around before she left for school.

McKenna ready for school.

She's dressed backwards!

The school had a Crazy Hair Day'.

Michelle does such an outstanding job with the girls' hair!

McKenna sort of reminded me of Pippy Longstocking!

Lauren had more straw in her hair and it was cute, but being 11 she toned it down.

Brooklynn with cupcakes in her hair, complete with cherries on top!

Kirsten after playing hard! Yes, she made the car mess! :o)

I took this picture from Julie's. We also made buck eyes, peanut butter balls, at Michelle's house and the kids did a great job helping out!

Michelle in her Professor McGonegall (sp?) attire!

She had to help out at two parties, McKenna's class and Brooklynn's class.

I should have posted this picture a little further down. Oops!

McKenna's 3rd grade class and the other 3rd grade class had an Economic Fair where the kids had to make things and bring them to sell. It's the way the two 3 grade classes raise money for the year for their class field trips. They also learn about the environment and recycling, economics, etc. The fair ties it all together.

The other 3rd grade class.

Inside McKenna's classroom.

McKenna selling her Duct Tape wallets and coin purses. They sold out in two hours! Her class raised $300.00 ! Good job!

Michelle made these cute vampire mini pumpkins!

Our finished carved pumpkins!

R to L - McKenna's pumpkin with tongue sticking out. I think it was Brooklynn's mini vampire pumpkin. The next one I made with the blemished face.

R to L - My pumpkin, Tyler's Sasquatch, Lauren's heart.

R to L - Michelle's Mrs. Potato Head, so cute! Brooklynn's pumpkin and Chris' pumpkin.

Michelle creating Mrs. Potato Head

McKenna having a ball with her pumpkin!

Lauren working on the heart.

Tyler working on Sasquatch.

Here's our happy crew!

Kirsten's favorite place, patrolling the hallway!

Halloween - Lauren as a lady pirate.

Brooklynn as a witch. A good witch!

McKenna - Lady Vampire!

Michelle is the room mom for McKenna's 3rd grade class and they had a Harry Potter theme. She made this 'Sorting Hat'. She had all the kids names on cards and in a container and divided the kids into 4 groups-Griffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepump, Slytherin. I'm not sure I spelled those right.

They gave them Halloween pencils for the wands. They had a potion class and made 'Gak', They made made broomsticks out of their pencils for their magic class. They did such cute ideas. She could tell you about that.

Michelle helped in Brooklynn's class and she had to make 'bones' for the blood, marinara sauce. She made about 108 bread bones!

I love her eyelashes!

The kids scored big on Halloween night and had a bucket load of candy! It was a busy time while at the Gleeds household! What a blast!

While dad was there he was able to fix their sink and replace old outlets in their kitchen and one in their master bedroom. I loved going out to check on the chickens and helped collect eggs. They have 6 chickens and I wish I had taken pictutres. They are such beautiful chickens and I love their colors. The kids treat them like pets and the chickens don't mind being carried around. Roxy, their dog, is good with them. She's just a big old loveable dog and loves attention!

Utah Trip-Part 1 - Bob and Julie's

The first two weeks we stayed with Bob and Julie's family. This particular day was their Primary Children's Sacrament Program. They were color coordinated and looked gorgeous! The program was very nice and the boys did great with their speaking parts!

Quintin and Brynnly ready for church. Sweet!

My nose two days after my injury.

A funny thing happened with a basketball...I went outside to shoot hoops with Braxton. I had made a few 3 pointers and the last one bounced off the hoop and shot across the culdesac. I ran after the basketball and stopped it with my left foot, like trapping a soccer ball. As I was bringing the ball forward with my foot I was pitched forward. I knew I was going to fall, so I was prepared, no big deal, then 'whack' I did a face plant on the asphalt! That was a total surprise! Ouch! I saw stars for a second, picked myself up. Braxton was shooting his ball and I don't think he even knew I fell. My first thought was, "Well that was probably entertaining for any neighbors watching.' I picked myself up and checked to see if my nose was bleeding and my glasses were broken, 'no' to both. Whew! I told Braxton, sweetheart, it's time to go in. He was a little confused as we had only been outside for 5 minutes. I walk into the house and go straight to the bathroom to see what damage I had done. I took some Ibuprofen and sat down. I only sustained a light brush on the nose. Two days later light bruising showed up and my glasses fit snugly for 3 or 4 days. The swelling did go down and life went on. No raccoon eyes though! :o)

I made Carmel popcorn and it was yummy!

Braxton and his creations with Lego's!

Playing with Play Dough.

Playing with Play Dough.

Julie was 'Saturn' for Halloween. She had her 'own natural planet', baby girl Ward! :o)

Here is the Ward family all decked out in 'space' attire! Julie made the shuttle.

Braxton-astronaut; Zachary-shuttle; Brynnly-stars, Milky Way; Julie-Saturn; Bob-Mission Control; Quintin-space-black hole.

Braxton trying on the shuttle.

Finished shuttle!

Zachary and the finished shuttle his mom built.

Julie working on the shuttle.

Brynnly helped Grandma Guptill dip the buck eyes, we call them peanut butter balls, in chocolate! Yum!

Grandma Guptill and her helpers making buck eyes, peanut butter balls!

Braxton going up the ramp!

Zachary going on the ramp!

Julie and I (mom) made a skeleton out of plastic milk jugs.

These were some of the activities I enjoyed while spending time with Bob and Julie and their family. What a blast! :o)

While dad was there he was able to do some repairs for Bob and Julie. He hung new towel bars in two bathrooms, fixed a leaky pipe under the kitchen sink, covered an opening in the ceiling where a big square hole was where they used to have a swamp cooler (now they have central air conditioning), straighten up the garage and made more space and filled cupboards for them. I played with the kids!

Neil and his titanium hardware!

The first picture below pretty much sums up how our trip coming back from Utah ended...not like we planned!

We went to Utah and spent a month. Neil started the first week of our trip with us in Utah and the last week. Kirsten and I stayed for a month! What fun! ... That will be another post! :o)

We left 11/11/11 from Utah to head home. A date we will long remember! We made such great travel time we decided instead of driving half way home and spend the night we would push to go home. We made it almost to Cle Elum, WA and hit an awful snow blast! We had a bite to eat in Yakima and it was clear, gorgeous and thought we could be home in 2-1/2 hours. Well...that didn't happen!

We were on our way to Ellensburg and then Cle Elum and an arctic blast of snow blasted the mountain. I was upset with the snow and road conditions. We thought about staying in Cle Elum and then two minutes out of Cle Elum and big road sign flashed, "Pass Closed".

It's 9:00pm and we turn around and go back to Cle Elum and pull up into a Best Western Hotel. There is a few inches of slush and snow and we park. Neil gets out and I hear this low voice calling...'Diana'. I didn't respond as I thought maybe somebody had the same name. I hear this low voice say...'Diana'... and I look out my window and there is Neil laying full body length on the pavement on his left side. I spring out of the car and carefully walk the 10 feet to where he is laying. The door entrance is another 10 feet away. It's slippery and slushy. He said he could not move his leg.

Wonderful people helped and went inside and told the gal at the desk a man is injured and broke his leg and can't move and to call 911. 15 minutes later an ambulance pulls up. I had brought a blanket, gloves and hat to Neil. They brought two other blankets and a cushion pillow for his head. He lay in the slush and water for 15 minutes before the ambulance arrived. Meantime, Kirsten is in the car clueless as to why I am not in the car with her. I left the car running to keep her warm. Needless to say, my anxiety level is through the roof and the ambulance drives off with Neil and Kirsten and I are check into the hotel. There is no way I can drive in the storm. Neil tells me to check in and stay put. The ambulance driver gives me a map to the hospital and assures me they will take excellent care of my husband and asked if I'd like to give him a kiss before they take him away. Of course I give Neil a kiss! He was so good-natured and told the paramedics 'he thought he'd drop in for a visit and inspect their concrete which had a psi of 4,000 and was very hard!' Chuckle! :o)

I know I took a picture of the hospital where Neil stayed in Ellensburg and of him in bed. I don't know what happened to those pictures??? The Kittitas Hospital in Ellensburg was superb! 10 star rating! They were so wonderful and what a blessing the night the ambulance got there the doctor and two nurses were LDS (Mormon). I had called the Ellensburg LDS church and asked for two men to go to the hospital and administer to Neil. They did. Neil's surgeon was awesome!

Neil had surgery on Saturday around 11:00a.m. It was almost two hours. They put a titanium rod down his femur. His femur was not broke. He had a deep fracture in his right hip. They had to put the rod down his femur to anchor the cross bar and screws to his hip. He cannot bear weight on his right leg for one month so the bones can heal and wrap around the metal. He can only put 10% weight on his right toes. He will get an x-ray in a week and see how he is mending.

Kirsten and I left on Saturday morning from Cle Elum to drive the 20 minutes to Ellensburg to be there in time for Neil's surgery. We spent the next three nights at a Best Western in Ellensburg that was 5 minutes from the hospital. The surgery went great! They let us come home the following Tuesday so I could drive Neil back over the pass before another snow storm was to hit the pass again. I had to take him straight to a rehab facility for one week so they could work with him with physical therapy and learn how to take care of himself.

This is the care facility teaching him how to strengthen his shoulders and upper arms so he can use a walker to get around.

More weight lifting.

There are weights behind the chair similar to the ones in the pictures above and he's pressing bars down and the weights go up.

Using bicycle exercises for his arms and shoulder strength.

Pictures LaRue, Matilda and Adelaide made for Grandpa.

In his room on his computer.

The front of the facility entrance in Puyallup, WA, 15 minutes from our house.

Kirsten watching her dad.

While Neil was at the facility I was at home and decided to cut 3 to 4 inches of Kirsten's hair off as it was getting too long.

I curled it the next day so she would be pretty for her daddy.

Neil's home! Kirsten is sitting with her chair buddy-daddy! :o)

I gave Neil a hair cut lat night! He needed one badly!

Neil was in the care facility for 1 week. He worked really hard and they were pleased with his progress. He was so glad to get out of there! He learned a lot and worked hard to get out but said that the food was going to kill him! No taste and didn't like a lot of it.

I am so grateful for the wonderful care they gave him and all they did for him. There was no way I could have taken care of him had he come straight home from the hospital. He can't drive for a minimum of one month until he can weight bear on the leg. He will have a therapist come to the house twice a week for at least a month. He works on his own exercises at home on his own. His work is undertanding and he is working from home for a month!

We are all doing well. Kirsten is glad to be out of hotel life and home and have her daddy home. She was a little confused about what was going on.

Neil has been extremely good natured and helpful and has not complained at all! He's been such a champ! :o) I am holding up well and I am glad this whole ordeal is fast fading behind us. I will never travel again in a snow storm! I don't like snow, to be in it or travel in it. When the snowflakes fall, I stay inside the house!

I have to say my anxiety level was extremely high for the first few days of the accident but I'm back down to earth and will be a great nurse/wife for him! I've taken care of Kirsten all these years, so I am somewhat prepared. Most of all I am so very thankful for the Lord's blessings, priesthood power and prayers and love from all.