May 2015

 Life always seems to get a little more fun in the Spring and Summer....unless you live in Utah and have a season ski pass:) But we don't....so spring and summer bring much more entertainment around here.

More visits to the zoo...

Cinco de Mayo party at the Sorenson's house! Good times had by all! And SUPER good food!

Fun mid-morning visits to the park. I love being able to go running at 10:00 in the morning in the Spring and Fall....not too hot/cold. Just fun to get out for a run and let the kids play at the park!

LucyMae's teacher had the kids put on another amazing musical program for their moms for Mother's Day. They did such a good job!

And I loved the cute letter LucyMae wrote to me and got to read out loud in front of the class. LucyMae has gained so much confidence this year!

Visit to the temple. This time with friends that we were able to swap babysitting with! Love being able to go to the temple WITH Sam once in a while:) Even if he is a little weird.....;)

And we visited the DC zoo again.... fun to see the animals that we don't have at the Philly zoo.

Loved going with LucyMae on one of her field-trips to Spacht Sawmill. This woman was quite entertaining as she educated all these 1st-graders all about the details of trees.

Pretty HUGE and cool saw...Sam should have been the parent on this field-trip. It was right up his alley...

And then on May 14th I got in a crazy little biking accident. Details are long....but basically I got "hit" by a semi...well the trailer did. Thanks to the safety of the trailer James was completely uninjured, despite being flipped upside down and the handle-bar and connecting frame being run over by the semi. It was quite a tarumatic experience.....and very interesting to me to see how I respond in crazy situations like that.....at first I was just like "Oh my gosh...what just happened?" Then I was like...oh, I'm fine...I think we're all fine....we'll just be on our way. Luckily several witnesses stopped and didn't let me do that.

Basically, I was crossing an intersection at a cross-walk, and there was a semi in the right lane that I knew was there, but was not aware that he was in a right-turn only lane. I thought he could go straight or turn. And I knew he couldn't see me....so I waited after the light turned green to see if he was turning or going straight. I don't think he had his blinker on, b/c I didn't see that. But after he had pulled what I thought was far enough forward to indicate that he must be going straight, I proceeded to pull out into the street (I was on a bike-path that parallels a highway), to cross. And just as I made my way into the street, he started his now-tight/wide turn (which he has to do since he is a semi). I was like....OH CRAP!!!!! and started turning right with him to try to get out of his way....and just as I thought I was in the clear I was slammed to the ground. The middle of his trailer had caught the handlebar of the bike-trailer and flipped it over, which had in turn flipped my bike and me to the ground...HARD! And the next thing I knew I was up and pulling on the chariot to get it out of the way of the approaching semi-tires. I got it far enough that the tires only ran over the handle-bar and connecting frame. James was clear...but his head was only inches from being under the tire itself. And as soon as the tire was passed I was flipping the trailer right-side-up and grabbing my bike and getting us back up on the sidewalk and out of the street as fast as possible. I then dropped my bike to check on James, who never uttered a single sound....he was 100% fine! and unfazed.

The trucker had seen us in his side mirror after we were on the ground. He pulled over, as did a couple of other witnesses, and were all running over to see if we were ok. At first I was like "what the heck just happened?" And the trucker - being much more shaken up than I was, I think, was just like "I didn't see you...I didn't see you...I'm so sorry!" And then the super nice witnesses that pulled over were saying we should call the police, and I was like...I think we're fine....but luckily they and the trucker insisted. But somebody, when they called it in, didn't clarify - it was dispatched as a semi-pedestrian accident, and we were on County Line Road on the 202 - so we got responders from both counties. Within 2 minutes there were like 20 police cars, 10 fire-engines and 5+ ambulances, all with their sirens and lights blaring. It was crazy! But James was LOVING it:) The paramedics made sure we were ok and didn't want to go to the hospital, then left. The fire engines figured out they weren't needed, except for 2 that stuck around for traffic control. And about 5 police cars stuck around getting statements and details. I really didn't want the trucker to be in trouble and lose his job over it or anything...and he genuinely hadn't seen me...so we had it deemed a no-fault accident. We even hugged in the moment of realizing how much worse it could have been, and gratitude that we were both ok. And the trucking company volunteered to replace the chariot and bike. And after all was said and done, I started thinking about the day, and realized that there were several circumstances that had led to me being at the intersection at that precise moment that morning. Delays, without which, I would have been there 15-30 minutes earlier. I felt that perhaps there was a reason I had to meet him - Joseph Graves, from Philly. I did eventually write him a long note detailing those thoughts, and sent him a pass-along card of the Philly Temple. Haven't heard back....but who knows?

But then....before I realized it was going through insurance to replace the chariot and my bike (which was barely damaged at all), rather than the trucking company just taking care of it, I had looked up some sales and discount prices on things that I sent to the guy from the trucking company. All he did was pass those numbers along to insurance. So when insurance called me, and based on the low numbers/cost they had due to my trying to help the trucking company, they were only willing to cover half the cost (since it was a no-fault accident on the police report), and only sent me $700. A new chariot costs nearly $800 when it's not on sale (which it no longer was by the time I got the money)...so it didn't even cover that.

But in the interim I had decided to write a letter to Thule, who makes the Chariot now, to tell them about the incident and how thankful I am for their awesome product that basically saved James' life (he never even touched the ground in the whole thing), and express my regret that I would no longer be able to be a walking/running/biking advertisement of their product (because I literally was everywhere I went with that thing! People were always asking what that amazing stroller/trailer I had was/where did I get it?, etc.). And within a couple of weeks I heard back from Thule, sent them some pictures of the damage, and they asked if they could send me a free replacement!!!!! THULE ROCKS!!!!! Above is a picture of where the frame was fractured. It has some jimmy-rigging that Sam did to make it usable for a trip to New York before we got the new one. But, it was completely fractured at that spot.

And this is a picture of the gnarly bruise I got on my hip. And this is after it was starting to look a bit better. It was HUGE and painful and ugly!

So that was the crazy, yet cool experience of the month for me!

And then while Sam took the boys on the Father's and Son's campout, I got to take the girls to the school carnival...

And I love these bushes in the Spring!

And the boys had such a great time on their campout...in the rain!

And there as a good rock-climbing place nearby....not good for kids though since you have repel down to it...

Fun date-nights = free babysitting b/c of babysitting swap, free date b/c we just went for an awesome, humid, and sweaty run on the trails around Forbidden Drive!....ok...not totally free b/c we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Chipotle. But super fun and cheap date.

Visit to the district art-show to see some of LucyMae's art displayed. She is so proud to have her art on the wall there. Hers are the ice cream and the trees about it I think...

Then Joy School Graduation was upon us! I made fun little chocolate graduation caps. They weren't nearly as cute as the ones that Christy Robinson in Rapid City made...but they were still fun to have.

Such a cute little group of buddies!

Marci agreed to be master of ceremonies in my place this year...I've done it for 3 years in a row...thanks Marci.

Everyone's family flags

And Tyler Page took on the role of "father's comments about how awesome Joy School is and how awesome the moms are":) He did a great job - pointing out that between the 4 of us moms we had kept Joy School going strong through one major back injury and surgery, 2 babies being born, and cancer (my melanoma). Pretty good I think.

Hayley and Lyndi

Receiving their report cards....

And graduation certificates

Can you see their tiny little hair-clip graduation caps I got at the dollar store? Way easier than making big ones...but perhaps not as cute and picture-worthy.

A great group! Hooray it's over! But sad that this group is gone....onto Kindergarten for 3 of them. And Trina and Andrew and the Cupp family moved back to Utah. It was good while it lasted though:)

And a quick trip to New York with the Cupps (minus their dad who was already in Utah for his new job. Trina followed a month later.) She wanted to experience NYC before they went back to Utah, but was too scared to brave it by herself with her 6 kids, so I volunteered to go with them. We're always up for some fun in the big apple:) It proved to be a rather hectic, but very fun day!

My kids sure do miss them! Such good buddies - and good kids!

Sam got trapped by the Times Square characters....they were pretty mad when he didn't hand over any moola. And I can't believe some of the other characters  that pose for pictures with people in Times Square for $. Girls with nothing but painted-on clothes....they should not be allowed to do that right? What about indecent exposure laws? What is wrong with NYC and the world?

The military had a couple big tanks on display for exploring in the middle of Times Square...the kids loved it!

Such crazy buddies. Much more fun to look at pictures of them acting like this, than to actually experience it after several hours of shuttling 10 kids around NYC.

And fun in Central Park while we eat some dinner. Thank heavens for playgrounds!

As usual, the big hit with most of the kids is the subway. Sam got a pretty cool picture of it I think.

I even had a fun NYC-style experience on the crowded subway at one point when a lady trying to squeeze on the already full car gave me a dirty look because of my stroller that was taking up it's fair share of room. I said "sorry", she got all huffy that I should be over in the corner. I explained that those people were already over there and we couldn't fit. She insisted they would/should move. I just said there's no point in crying about it now, and then she got all hot and bothered and started calling me names I don't want to repeat. I don't remember all that she said - but I know I got a little hot and bothered too. And then some black guy smushed near us was like "Can't we all just chill out and get along?" It was a good, classic NY moment.

And we officially wore our kids out!

And then LucyMae turned 7! My baby girl is 7 years old!

So excited about all her presents....

a little disappointed she didn't get an Elsa dress...but she kept to herself pretty well, and was just grateful for what she got! Her birthday was on Memorial Day this year. So we got to go to a ward BBQ for lunch, where everybody sang to her and the 3 other people in our ward with birthdays on Memorials Day! And then we went to a little pool party with some friends from our ward. And LucyMae somehow got the idea that the whole pool party was for her birthday! SCORE!

We love jumping pictures if you can't tell:)

Keeping my little man warm for a bit...

And finally her strawberry birthday cake! What a happy and fun birthday girl!

And this was our farewell send-off for the Cupp family: picking up our bed that we had loaned her for the month, and delivering some cookies and cards. So many fun kids. We will miss this great family!