Our Nephew, Ben

I have one of the cutest, most loving nephew's out there. Actually, we are lucky because all of our nieces and nephews are pretty amazing but I may be biased.

However, right now I want to talk a little about Ben. He is such a cute kid. His parents were excited to know they were having another child. Ben seemed like a needy child. He always wanted to be held, be close to someone. Knowing him now, I believe it is because of his loving nature.

Ben loves to play with other kids. He loves his family. One of my favorite things is to watch how excited he gets when Sammi or any other cousin comes to play. I love when he runs over to give me a hug.

Ben is a little older than Sammi. Sammi started making noises, sounds, and speaking what is considered about average for her age. Ben would make a few noises but really struggled when it came to forming sounds and words. I know it was hard for his parents, especially to hear Sammi ask for things and express herself and not have Ben do the same.

After a lot of stressing, worrying, tests, and doctors' visits, he has been given a preliminary diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech. "Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a motor speech disorder that first becomes apparent as a young child is learning speech. For reasons not yet fully understood, children with apraxia of speech have great difficulty planning and producing the precise, highly refined and specific series of movements of the tongue, lips, jaw and palate that are necessary for intelligible speech. Apraxia of speech is sometimes called verbal apraxia, developmental apraxia of speech, or verbal dyspraxia. No matter what name is used, the most important concept is the root word “praxis.” Praxis means planned movement. To some degree or another, a child with the diagnosis of apraxia of speech has difficulty programming and planning speech movements. Apraxia of speech is a specific speech disorder. This difficulty in planning speech movements is the hallmark or “signature” of childhood apraxia of speech." (www.apraxia-kids.org)

Ben says very little. There are stories of success and hope that one day he will speak like other kids.  However, there are some stories with a different outcome. Whatever happens in Ben's life, I know that he will be loved and he will be giving love to others because that is the kind of boy he is.

I hope Ben and his parents know how much they are loved and I want to do what I can to help so I wanted to share a little with you and ask that if you can help, go to www.apraxia-kids.org to learn and help.

The easiest way to donate to the group is to shop through Amazon using this link. Please help as they continue to search for ways to help these kids looking for ways to best express themselves.

Helping out

Here is my annual post about helping out in the community. I have added to my donation and volunteer website list. I haven't added it but if you have ever attended the Festival of Trees and wanted to help out, here is the link to see how you can help.

Side note: I heard from one of the events organizers that the Utah Festival of Trees for Primary Children's Hospital is the only one that runs on all donations and volunteers. Other states and locations have trouble receiving support and many times have tried to see what this one does and offers that makes it so popular.

I think now it this perfect time to start thinking about this stuff. You still have plenty of time to work any costs into budgets or plan or whatever. I know that Thanksgiving and Christmas are the big giving times but shouldn't we always be willing to help out.

My other blog

Really, I can't begin to say or explain why (especially since I am so great at updating this blog) but I started a separate blog. I wanted to keep this one about me and my family. The other one is about things I think about, questions I have, and other random ramblings.

I had originally planned (about 2 months ago when I first put the blog together) to open with different posts. There are about 3 in the works. Over the past week or 2, I have had the feeling to write and share a particular post. It's taken me actually 3 days of fighting with that feeling between knowing what I need to do and actually doing it because of fear and anxiety.

My hope is that it will spur conversations, questions, and open up dialogue. I welcome people to share their true thoughts. Some posts will be more serious while others hopefully a little more fun.

The blog can be found at blahblahmythoughtsblog.blogspot.com.

Tough Mudder Tahoe

We finally took a trip without the kids. Well, the past 2 trips without kids have both been for Tough Mudders. It was a good time anyway. Jake signed up for a Tough Mudder at Lake Tahoe. Not my preferred way to see Tahoe but you take what life gives you huh. We had a great time driving and staying with Jake's brother, his wife and her family. I love when other families make you feel like family. 

We arrived Friday night and enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the lake shore. The view was beautiful, the food good, and the company so awesome.  

The next morning we got up and ready to head to the Tough Mudder. The place Kristine's family booked was right next to the course so after enjoying breakfast and taking pictures, we walked to the beginning of the Tough Mudder maze.

I call it a maze because we had to stand in line for quite some time (that wound around the shops at Tahoe's ski resort) to check in. At which point we then rode a ski lift up to the starting line. If that doesn't tell you what the course would be like maybe fact of 2700 ft in elevation change over the entire route will. This was the busiest Mudder we have been to. It was part of there "Global Mudder: weekend.

Tons of people waited to start the race. This group just jumped in. I didn't get as many pics this time because I was using other people cameras and stuff but they all start to look the same after a while.

Devil's Beard

What the back of your shirt looks like after running through mud.

The finishers.

Since it was a big weekend, there were lots of extra booths and sponsors. Bic was giving haircuts. I actually think they wanted people to either go mohawk or shaved head for something they sponsored but they gave Jake a regular haircut.

You really trust someone cutting hair in a BIC tent?

We rode the gondola down and walked back to the condo. Cleaned up and got food. Tahoe is very pretty and very similar to Park City. The next morning we woke up and jumped in the car for a long drive home. Because of this trip, I really want to go back to Tahoe sometime to do things I enjoy doing; exploring, water skiing, hiking, adventuring. Maybe one day.

Thanks to Kristine's family for allowing us to tag along. We had such a great time. And thank you for mailing me my shoes after we forgot to pack them with the dirty clothes.

August Fun

We like to play. We spent quite a bit of time down in Salt Lake because my brother Jeff returned home from his mission. (Sorry Jeff, I didn't get any pictures on my phone or camera.) We went down to see him at the airport. Then that week we went down to the Aquarium. (The pics are a little funny shaped because they were taken with a phone.)

We crossed a bridge.

And rode a whale.

 Hugged a penguin. Well Sammi anyway. Ellie wouldn't.

Sammi really enjoyed the penguins.

Although Ellie did want to touch a star fish.

I think Sammi hugged every stuffed animal in the gift shop.

Oh, he's so cute. 

 The aquarium is pretty cool. There were so many things to see. Of course some favorites were the otters, penguins, sharks, and rays.  It is hard to pick favorites when me and my kids love seeing animals. We really liked it. One of the workers said that in the future, they plan on bringing more birds into the tropical forest area to continue with breeding programs. Its just a little too busy and the birds aren't quite used to all the extra people yet.

After we drove to Grandpa's work to get cookies and ice cream. Outside, Ellie and Sammi had to climb on the pillars. Ellie successfully made it to the top.

The next day, an old neighbor was having a birthday party for her daughter right by my parents house. She invited us over to play for a bit. They splashed and played until their lips were blue and they were shaking (cold hose water). 

Of course, at night once the kids were down to sleep, we made Jeff stay up way late and watch movies he missed seeing while he was gone.

We spent a lot of time traveling down to Salt Lake in August and although there aren't pictures of most of it, here's the list of reason's we made the drive: Jeff coming home, his homecoming, dropping the kids off while we went to Tahoe (for a Tough Mudder), bridal shower for my sister Stef, farewell for Jake's nephew, and probably more I can't remember now. It may have been busy but it was fun. We love family.

Neighborhood Bear Lake

For quite a few years now, my parents neighborhood has been getting together and planning a trip to Bear Lake. It is always a blast. We love going when we can make it. Since we live a little closer, we just made it a day trip this year. 

The girls loved playing in the water and building sand castles. Sammi liked being Godzilla even more. It took several tries to build more than 3 towers without Sammi stomping on them and knocking them over. It upset Ellie, but they finally were able to get some put up. 

While the girls stayed at the beach, played with Grandma, and went for a boat ride, another group of us went to Bloomington Lake. This is one of Jake's favorite little places. Now I finally have a video of me going off the rope swing (normally this doesn't happen when you are the photographer.)

Thanks to the neighborhood for letting us come hang out at the lake. It is so nice to have neighbors that close.

Aggie Ice Cream Tour

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! We went up to the Aggie Creamery to learn about how they make the famous Aggie Ice Cream. Did you know it takes 4 days to make a batch of ice cream? That's one of the reasons homemade isn't as creamy. The time and the cold.

Waiting in the classroom

Just so everyone can hear, they meet in a classroom first and talk about making ice cream and then show a video about it. Aggie ice cream uses milk they get from local dairy farms, generally those also associated with the school.

Are we ready yet?

Sammi did not like going into the sub-zero freezer where the ice cream is stored. Negative temps were just a little too much for her to handle. She wanted back out before everyone came in. Ellie wanted to see how long she could stay in there. Luckily she has daddy for that.

At the end of the tour, you can either pick a small cup serving of ice cream or a single scoop cone. Ice cream is ice cream to Sammi so she just wanted one without the wait. She had cookies and cream. I had cookie dough (super solid as they had to grab it from the sub zero freezer). Jake had True Aggie Night, which is my new favorite flavor (raspberries and cream ice cream with dark chocolate covered raspberries mixed in). Ellie had orange sherbet.

We love ice cream. Yum.

So good, it surprised Ellie.

Cheese, I mean ice cream face.

After we drove up the canyon a bit (since we figured no one was super hungry for dinner yet). There is a fun little hike around second dam, I think that's where we stopped. There were people fishing and swimming. We just walked around the pond.

Such a fun day. We live in a great place.