This BITES!!

Thanks to some adorable spider - Aaron ended up in the emergency room on Saturday night. He usually has a pretty good reaction to mosquito bites ... so, when he first showed me his leg Saturday morning - he just asked for the anti-itch spray (like he usually does) ... and it didn't look too terribly bad. Then, of course, he wore long pants that day - until he asked for more anti-itch spray that night - when I saw this:

Yowser! Lookin' a liiiiiiiittle more swollen than it should ... and his whole leg, knee down, was sizzling hot!

So - here he is at the Payson ER at 10:30 at night ...


Here's the nasty bite mark:


His ankle got so puffy!


The ER was soooooo busy (we went to Payson hoping for less busy ... but so it goes, I guess)! The doc put him on an antibiotic - wrapped the wound and told us to keep it elevated and on ice for the next 2 days. He had me trace where the red was with a pen on his leg so we could make sure it was not spreading by tomorrow (increased redness would equal IV treatment -- NOT what we wanted).

We didn't leave the ER until 12:30 am or so. THEN we had to wait in line at the pharmacy. Aaron was so tired ... sheesh! So was I!! He got to bed about 2 am - poor lil' dude - he didn't even wake up until I got home from church at noon!


Even though the doc said his leg would stay swollen for several days and not to expect it to heal very quickly - Sunday afternoon most of the red was gone. Haleluah! The swelling is going down fast too. It's funny, 'cuz Ty and I were talking just last week about how we haven't seen ANY spiders in our house this whole Summer. Well - Sunday ... I squished about 5 different bugs. haha ... we still think the bite happened sometime on the 24th -- we were outside all day. Getting through the Summer without a few bug bites is impossible ... but this was a little much for us! BEWARE OF BITES!

A Bit More Style

Marissa was really ready for something new with her hair. And so ... a few days ago - we decided to give it a trim just last minute.

Before:


A little trim:

Lookin' good so far, eh?

Then we decided to just go ALL OUT and give her bangs!


She wasn't too sure about how much hair came off, but she is very happy with the finished result. How darling does she look?


VERY Jr.-High-esque, if you ask me! :)

Our Yard - is a Very, Very, Very Fine Yard ...

We wisely had our trenches dug professionally in April .... so we could spend the next 2 months re-digging out all of the mud (thank you rainy months May and June)!


What a mess, huh? The sad thing is - the water filling those trenches converted to mud as it dried = back/neck breaking work.


James spent whatever dry weekends we had to install these beautiful sprinkler pipes:


Tyler helped as much as possible ... a lot of digging and moral support :)


Aren't they pretty?


Then we had cash ... er top soil ... spread all around. I'll tell ya what - I will NEVER use the term "dirt cheap" again. It's not.



And THEN we got our beautiful grass ... I love it. Thank you so much everyone for all the help!




Messy, messy work:




End result: Beatiful yard.


Next on the agenda: re-size sandbox and fill, trees/bushes/flowers, retaining wall in back, cement on left side, garden planted, walk-ways formed, fence ....

... it's a work in progress. :)

4th of July Festivities

We love getting together with the Rasmussen clan for lunch on the 4th. It really is one of my most favorite things. It doesn't hurt that we get entertained by Paul all afternoon ... :D! I just can't imagine the 4th without this get-together!


A little slip-and-slide fun:

Festive hair-do is a must .... :)

Some water-fighting ...


Paul is our main entertainment ...


And the kids love his water-fighting surprises/abilities:



Then we head over to the Jenson's for more water fun, yummy food, good company, and fun fireworks:

These cousins are just best buds. We're so grateful to be close enough to get together often:

Sweet Slip-N-Slide Moves:


Snap Fest:


Can you feel the love?






Love the 4th of July!!

Grotto Trail

We went on the coolest and funnest ... (which = easy) ... hike ever! I just loved it ... I think everyone really enjoyed it. It's this little hike up Payson Canyon called Grotto Trail.

The trail is pretty shaded and easy goin' all of the way ...

And there are several "balancing" parts which the kids LOVED ...

And lots of little streams to walk through ...

The kids took the balancing VERY seriously ... with arms spread out wide:

Or ... they chose to just tromp through the water rather than deal with the balancing (or they did both - back and forth - several times :D):


Tyler thinks (knows) he is stud material ... and here's Aar-Bear with yet another rock collected (as if we haven't had enough of those at our house lately):


The waterfall at the end of the hike is really cool - there are little "caves" that the kids can climb in if they want to get a little more wet:


Isn't it cool to be able to hike up to a waterfall?


Here go the boys and their dares to each other - to see who could stand under the waterfall the longest. Boys'll be boys, I guess. :) The water is quite icy.


Sopping wet ... but proud. Marissa chickened out at the last minute - turned around quickly to come back to shore - and then preceded to fall all the way in. :)!! She is seriously so entertaining ... and always a good sport. Sure love her!

We sure have good times with this cute Jenson fam:

Cute cousins:

I didn't make it all the way under the waterfall - but, I got my feet pretty wet! :) Here's Krystal in her all serious balancing mode:

Lori never fails to crack us up ... here are the girlies laughing their heads off at her funny comments:


What a super fun hike!! I can't wait to do it AGAIN!


Thanks Plonns and Jers ... and Lori-lou for a fun day!