Mom's Birthday

My Mom's birthday was on the 19th of July, but we were not able to get together and do anything that weekend.  So today after the swim meet we met for a late lunch early dinner at a pizza place and had some cake.

Mom and Mikayla

Hailee, Mom, Landon hiding in back and Ashlee

Mikayla, Hailee, Ashlee, Dylan, Mom and Landon

2015 Swim Season

After taking a two year break from swimming, Ashlee decided to do swim team again this year.  She did a great job.  Today, at her last meet of the season she ended up getting third place in her heat for the breast stroke.

Deacon/Beehive Cotilion

Our stake does deacon and beehive activities that they call Cotilions.  They basically teach them dance ettiqute.

Miakyla did not want to go to the activity.  But her friend Allison, begged her to go so she wouldn't be alone.  Mikayla went and said it was funner than she thought it was going to be.

Idaho Trip

For a while now we have been wanting to take a trip to Idaho.  We had originally planned on going during spring break, but with John's wisdom teeth, broken jaw and arm issues it wasn't possible.  John only had two vacation days left for the year, so the only way we could squeeze the trip in was on 4th of July weekend.  Friday was a paid holiday for the 4th since it fell on a Saturday this year and then Monday and Tuesday he used his last two vacation days for the year.

We left Thursday afternoon after work and drove to Elko.  We had some interesting weather that day.  We had rain, wind and dust, something you don't expect in July.  We arrived to Elko a little after midnight.  Long enough to get some sleep and continue on early in the morning again.  From Elko we went to Shashone Falls in Twin Falls Idaho.  Very pretty place.  Lots of green grass, trees and a nice lake/swimming/picnic area too.  Very clean too, nothing like you would see at a lake at home.

Mikayla and Ashlee at the state line just outside of Jackpot

Shashone Falls.  Notice the rainbow?

After a brief stop at Shashone Falls we went to Idaho Falls to Dave and Diantha's home and spent a couple days at their house with them.  We went up to Rexburg so Ashlee could see what BYU Idaho looks like, did some site seeing around Idaho Falls, watched the 4th of July parade, watched fire works along the Snake River in front of the Idaho Falls Temple.

 Rexburg Temple

 Ashlee and Mikayla in front of the Rexburg Temple

 Rexburg Temple

 Rexburg Temple

 Rexburg Temple at sunset

Fourth of July Parade in Idaho Falls

Snake River in front of the Idaho Falls Temple

Idaho Falls Temple

Fourth of July in Idaho Falls.  Mikayla, Ashlee, Madison and Gavin

John, Mikayla and Ashlee along the Snake River in Idaho Falls

Idaho Falls Temple in the background along the Snake River

Snake River

Idaho Falls Temple

Sunday morning we left Idaho Falls and drove to Mountain Home Idaho to Pam's house.  Pam prepared a nice lunch and delicious homemade ice cream.  We vistited with her and her family for a few hours and Carl and Pam gave us a tour of Mountain Home.  I screwed up and didn't get any pictures of our visit. From Mountain Home we went to Boise.  We spent Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night is Boise and checked out the Boise, Kuna, Meridian, Star, Eagle area.  We had a little bit of extra time on Tuesday so we went and toured the state capital in Boise.  Nothing like our state capital here.  Very clean and quite, the area it was in was clean, no security to go through, no metal detectors, nothing.  Mikayla took lots of pictures of the capital.

We enjoyed our trip to Idaho.  It doesn't get dark in Idaho until after 10pm at night so that was weird.

After 9pm in Idaho and still daylight

 It was nice to see green grass and trees, since everything back at home seems to be turning brown and dying because of the drought California is in right now.  We didn't see any graffiti, or streets littered with homeless people, the towns were clean, the malls were bright and clean and rather empty, in comparison to our malls.  Complete strangers would wave at you and say hello to you.  A gentleman at the capital offered to let us park in his space since he still had time left on his parking meter.  The van door accidently got left open at a mall in Idaho Falls and when we returned our car and all it's contents were still there, along with a nice note saying that they found the door open, didn't see anyone in the van, so they shut our door and wished us a happy 4th.  At home our car would have most likely been gone!  Totally different environment there compared to California.

Makes you wonder what makes places so different from one place to the next.  The people, the culture, the local government, beliefs,  social services, etc.  I believe it is all of these things.  Makes you also wonder how come the states that are suffering so badly, don't ever stop and take a look at what other places are doing right and implement some of those things as well.  Unfortunately too many of the states in bad shape, think that what they are doing is right.  We are living in a society that views right as wrong and wrong as right and everything is so twisted and turned that many have forgotten what they believe and what truly is right.

Throat Growth

In March I took Mikayla to the ENT for a routine ear check.  She has to have her ears checked about every six months to make sure everything is ok.  The doctor looked in her throat and asked me if I had seen the growth in her throat.  I had no clue she had a growth in her throat.  The doctor said it may just be something viral, but it may be tonsil tissue too.  He said to keep an eye on it and if it didn't go away soon it would have to be removed.

A couple months later Mikayla came home from school sick with a high fever and a sore throat.  I took her to the urgent care and she tested positive for strep.  The doctor at the urgent care saw the growth and said the growth may be holding the strep bacteria and that's why she has strep.

A couple weeks later after Mikayla finished her antibiotics, I took her back to the ENT and he came to the conclusion that the growth needed to come out.  He said the bigger the growth got, the harder it would be to remove and the more problems she could have.

We decided to try to have the growth removed in the office, to avoid having Mikayla put under anesthesia again and to save money.  Mikayla was afraid of the whole procedure because the doctor said he would need to carterize it off, all Mikayla knew, was that meant he was going to burn it off and she was afraid of what that might entail.

Today she had the growth removed and she did a fantastic job.  The doctor said she did better than 99 percent of adults.  He was amazed at how well she did.

She only had pain for a few days.  The doctor told us to expect a 10 day recovery, but she did great.  When we returned for her post-op appointment he was surprised at how well she did.  The growth was sent off to be tested and it was in fact a viral growth.  He said it was a good thing we removed it, because it had a rather large base so it would have continued to grow.  There is a chance that it could come back, but the doctor is pretty confident he removed all of it.

Volleyball Camp

This week Mikayla attended volleyball camp with all her friends that she attended girls camp with the week before.  Mikayla and Allison were moved up to be with the older girls, based on their volleyball skills, so that made them happy.  Mikayla loves volleyball and had a fun week at camp.  They ended their week of volleyball camp with a pool party at a friends house.  A friend that Mikayla just met at camp.  This group of girls had so much fun together the last two weeks.

Karah, Brooke, Allison and Mikayla

Allison, Mikayla, Karah, Ashlan, Brooke and Jocelyn

Everyone that participated in the week long camp.