This Week's Top Ten

1.  Hiking Stewart Falls.

Jeremy heard about this great hike up by Sundance that we thought would be perfect for Labor Day. Xander, of course, was still recovering from his surgery, so we had to get a babysitter for him.  Since we were already leaving Xander, we decided it would be easier to leave Elli too.  At the last second, Jesi backed out.  I'm telling you, we were counting our lucky stars that these three were not on the hike!  (They aren't exactly our biggest troopers when it comes to long, hot hikes.)   We've definitely been on longer, more strenuous hikes, but not with all the littles!  Taylor was awesome and backpacked Sophi all the way up.  Lexi did great on most of it, but was pretty exhausted by the time we got to the top.  I kept thinking how much harder it must have been for her-- it takes so much more energy when you have to hold someone's hand the whole way and be led around rocks and over dead trees.  I mean, imagine how tense you would be hiking a mountain while blindfolded-- this is essentially what it's like for her-- she expends a lot of energy.  It wouldn't have been nearly as hard for her if the trail hadn't been so full of rocks.  The falls were beautiful, but by the time we got there, Lexi wasn't having fun anymore.  It broke my heart that she worked so hard to get there and couldn't even see the beauty of it all.  There were some people at the falls who had come from a different starting point on a different trail that was supposedly quite a bit shorter.   I decided to go down that way with Lexi, while the rest of the group took the original trail back so they could get to our car and then drive and pick us up.  As we started down, I wondered what in the world I had done!  The trail was super rocky and narrow and I was trying to lead Lexi by myself.  Unlike the original trail we took, we weren't passing many people.  Part way down the trail, I was startled to hear what sounded exactly like a cougar or some other big cat.  It was an unmistakable sound, and unless someone was trying to be funny and imitate a cougar (quite possibly the case) I am quite sure that it was one.  At that point, I told Lexi to jump on my back and I piggy-backed her at a much higher speed down the trail!  She's a big girl, and I was exhausted by the time we made it down the mountain, but we did make it!

 

2.  Seeing the Mathenys!

Some of our dearest friends from Tennessee came into town this week to drop their oldest daughter, Meredith, off at BYU Idaho.  This is one of the world's greatest families!  They have five beautiful children (one adopted from China!) and we feel so blessed to call them our friends.  Meredith is truly just pure gold.  If my boys can find someone like her to marry, life will be fantastic for them!  There really couldn't be a prettier, sweeter girl-- I have a feeling she will have more than one boy chasing after her by the first day of school.   Heather (mom) is one of my favorite people ever.  (I have been blessed with two best friends named Heather!)  It was so much fun to visit with her and Michael and catch up on their lives.  They live in Georgia now but if I had it my way, they would live next door!  (By the way, as I'm writing this I'm realizing that I didn't ever write about our other visit from Tennessee friends-- the Merediths-- which was equally awesome!  I'll have to find pics and blog about that, too!)

3.  Sophi's Birthday!

Already blogged about this.  Love that girl!

4.  Getting invited to "The High-Fashion Fashion Show."

Starring Jessica on her fabulous pink runway, of course!

The Emcee

Um, a little small and ragged, perhaps?

5.  The ward campout.

Ok, we'll just call it the ward dinner.  We weren't able to actually camp because Xander decided to go and get a 104 degree fever which landed him back in the hospital on Friday.  After doing bloodwork and examining his leg (which had turned red and hot) they determined he had another infection and he was admitted overnight.  Jeremy took the rest of the crew to the dinner while I was at the hospital with Xander.  Apparently Jesi took it pretty hard that they weren't going to camp and was sobbing on the way there, but she was able to recover and have an "awesome" time.  In fact, Jer said that everyone loved it and had such a great night.    Xander was pretty miserable at the hospital, but the antibiotics are doing the trick and he was able to come home today.  We are praying mightily that the fever doesn't come back so he can stay at home-- otherwise, they'll have to admit him for several days to do another course of IV antibiotics.  UGH.  Poor boy!!!  This has not been a fun 6 weeks for him, to say the least.

I don't have pics of the ward campout or of X-man at the hospital, so I'm subbing a random, cute pic of Lexi instead!

Well, I was going to do "Top Ten" but being as how I am falling asleep at the computer, I think we'll leave it at "Top Five."  (:  It's been an exhausting day.  Actually, it seems that every day is an exhausting day!  I'm sure all you mommies relate all too well!

Goodnight!