Thankful - updated with pictures

My dad and brother preparing to cut.

It's funny how quickly an unexpected incident can put your life in perspective.

The kids and I came to Utah for a quick visit with the family and to attend our adoption agency's annual picnic. We always look forward to time with friends and family, even though there's usually a little family drama in one way or another.

This time the drama took a very different and scary turn. On Saturday, we were in Kamas, Utah, helping my brother get a load of wood to heat his home this winter when a tree that we cut down hit my dad from behind.

My dad, niece and nephew pulling down the tree.

At first we thought it had hit one of the kids, and then when we realized it was my dad, we feared he had been crushed by the tree. There was a lot of blood and a gash had been opened in the back of his head, later requiring 14 staples (without anesthetic). When we got a closer look, we realized he was just inches from a sharp quakie (quaking aspen) stick that could easily have impaled him.

My brother holding my dad's head and bloody rags.

My dad getting in the truck with a diaper as a bandage.

Bloody branches.

He was taken to the emergency room in Park City where they discovered he had bruised his heart. This was even more serious than the head injury because he has an aneurysm in his aorta and has had trouble with his heart recently. He spent all day long in the emergency room and was later transferred by ambulance to the trauma unit of the hospital in Provo, about an hour away.

 Staples in his head - still bloody

 Staples in his head - washed up

My dad is home and doing pretty good. My mom and I had to laugh when we asked how he was doing and he said, "I do have a bit of a headache." He's tired and sore, but I'm so grateful that he's still with us and that in about three weeks he should be back to normal.

So many things could have happened. And so today, I am just thankful - for many things.

I "Heart" Adoption!

One of my friends sent me an e-mail with a link to a video, so of course I assumed she'd been hacked and it was spam. Turns out it's an adoption video that has lots of pictures of my family in it. I didn't even know it existed! (I was reminded that I submitted the photos a couple of years ago for an FSA video.) I love the video (it made me cry). I love adoption.

I "Heart" Goodwill

I have become a Goodwill junkie (okay, so maybe two weeks in a row is not an addiction). Today we got Baylie this cute pink bike helmet for $1.50 (it's way cuter than the red one and it matches her bike), a $1 clip on tie for Jalen and this super cool keyboard for $3. The keyboard can be folded like shown here or stretched out to one long keyboard. It has lots of neat features and I probably should have saved it for Christmas.

Now I just have to teach David to share with the other kids.

Poop in the Potty

Baylie FINALLY pooped in the potty. And I'm ashamed to admit I seriously considered taking a picture of it. It was such a big moment! I got so excited, Baylie said I was scaring her.

To celebrate we went to a bounce house. It was so much fun. I can't believe we hadn't been there before. It was a super fun place.

We're still waiting for a repeat performance. But progress is progress!

I Like to Ride My Bicycle

One princess bike at Goodwill - 8.00

(retails at Wal Mart for 69.00)

One helmet from Goodwill - 1.50

One set of training wheels from Wal Mart - 10.00

Making this memory - Priceless!

Great, Great Grandma

I only knew one of my great-grandparents. She loved me and would always say "Bless your heart." She gave us honeycomb and applesauce cookies. She was very old and frail and we had to yell when we talked to her. I loved her, but never got to do much with her.

I love that my kids have a great-grandma and that she's young and fun. As soon as we found out that Gigi (formerly called Mamaw by David, but now known as Gigi) was coming to visit, Baylie would say "I just LOVE my great grandma" or "I can't WAIT to see my great grandma." When I said I was excited to see her too, the reply was "She's not YOUR great grandma, she's MY great grandma." Gigi lives in Dallas and we don't get to see her nearly enough. We had such a fun visit.

We went to the zoo. The birds were eating again. They've been kind of slow lately. (I took the picture behind glass because Baylie freaks out about the birds, so my shirt is reflected in the glass.)

We rode the carousel (I love this picture).

Jalen isn't old enough to ride the ponies, but the zoo employee thought Jalen was so cute he should get to wear a helmet.

We fed the giraffes (how cool is that?).

We went to Charleston and I drug everyone to Fort Sumter. Here we are waiting for the ferry.

Here Baylie is waiting for the ferry.

I was surprised at how small the fort was. It was very cool to be in the place where the Civil War started. I was disappointed that there wasn't any kind of a monument to the slaves who had to sacrifice their lives to rebuilt the walls as they were blown down.

Baylie kept us informed of important facts.

I think everyone's favorite part was the ferry ride.

Especially the on-board entertainment.

Afterwards we went to Maurice's for some awesome South Carolina (mustard based) barbecue.

After we dropped Gigi off at the airport today, we went to the Reed Gold Mine, site of the first documented gold find in the U.S.

They taught us how to pan for gold.

You start with a big pan full of dirt and rocks. You wash all the mud out, pick out the big rocks and then wash out as much of the remaining small rocks as possible.

Jalen mostly just played in the water.

At the end, if there is any gold, it will show up at the very end. Not everyone finds gold, but - EUREKA - Baylie did!!
It was teeny tiny and we were amazed that you could find a little speck of gold in such a big pan with all those big rocks, little rocks and mud. Even though it's small, it's heavy and moves through the water from end to end so quickly that it makes a little noise when it hits bottom. Very cool.

David and I had already struck gold.

We will miss Gigi. It was so fun to spend time with her and not have to share her with anyone.

Variations on Bedtime

Back in March I posted about David and Baylie's bedtime ballet. (See HERE for original post.) The ballet has since developed several versions.

Beat Box Version

Cowboy Version

Ninja Version

Jalen sometimes chooses to participate and sometimes doesn't, although he usually chimes in on the final note. Tonight he just wanted to watch the filming.

Extreme Makeover

I used some coupons to get eye shadow for about 45 cents. Baylie was very excited to have her own make up.

So excited, in fact, she wanted to share her new treasures with Jalen.

Jalen wasn't really feeling the joy.