Accident Prone Makay

We have been in San Diego with my parents for almost a month now. Ryan left for Officer Training Camp on Sunday. He called me after his first day there and was proud to report that he hadn't cried yet. I am working on registering our kids for school which will start in two weeks. We have gone to the beach a couple of times, the pool and last weekend before Ryan left we went camping.

The camping turned out to not be so good. With five kids running around wild, out in the wild, an accident is bound to happen. And who would that accident fall upon? Our accident prone child of course, Makay.

It's the saddest thing ever. It was about 11:30 in the morning and the kids were playing with ropes. While no one was looking Makay lost her balance (we don't know if she tripped or what) and fell into the fire pit. There was no fire going but we had one that morning so there was lots of hot embers there. She landed on her right elbow and hand.

My mom was the closest so she grabbed her and pulled her out, Ryan and I were running over by this time. My mom tried to brush the hot ashes off and her skin started to come off to. Ryan grabbed the ten gallon water jug and took of the top so we could put her arm in it. Between Makay and my's screaming we had drawn some attention of the other campers around us. They were great to run and try to find a ranger. There was a nurse in the next camp site to he came over and tried to clean her up as best he could.

Ryan and I drove her to the ranger station and they gave us directions to an emergency care place about twenty minutes away. We drove back to our camp and decided that my mom would drive Makay and I and Ryan would stay with the other kids. We got to the emergency care place and they said they needed to send us to a special burn unit. Poor Makay was so good about waiting, and it's good because that's all we did for most of the day!

We drove to downtown San Diego, another 30 minutes, to UCSD Hospitals burn unit. We finally got in there at about 2:30 and they took a good look at her burns. First they gave her some good drugs, poor kid deserved them, and then cleaned her arm. The nurse took a cloth with warm soapy water and just started to scrub, it was horrible to watch. All the dead skin came off and then they cut off all the blisters that had formed. We found out that most of the burn is a second degree burn with is good because it will be able to heal by itself. But there is a small area on the under side of her arm near her elbow that stayed white, a third degree burn. We still don't know weather she will need surgery for that part. The skin is burned so deeply that the cells can't regenerate themselves.

They taught me how to clean and dress her arm so I have been doing that the last couple of days. We go back on Thursday again to see how it's healing. Things are looking good so far but the doctor is still worried about the third degree burn area. She is the toughest kid ever. The doctor and nurse couldn't believe how brave she was being on Monday when we went in for a check up. She hadn't had any pain medicine before hand and the nurse really had to scrub but she didn't make a peep.

It's so hard to see your child in pain! I want so badly to be able to take it away from her, she's so young and Innocent to be going through so much pain. It just proves how vibrant her spirit is though that she can still act like a normal kid and not complain about the inconvenience of eating with her left hand or not being able to go to the bathroom herself. We will keep everyone updated when we learn more and I think I may have some pictures to share. It sounds morbid but I thought she would want to see her arm when she grows up and has a big scar on her arm that she doesn't remember getting (cross your fingers!).

Parting with Pittsburgh

I have to make this post a quick one because we are piling into our car and moving out of here in less then 12 hours! (and there is still a good amount of work that needs to get done in that time. . . along with sleeping if we can) Our last two weeks in Pittsburgh have been . . . well . . . hell.

I know, it's terrible to say but it's true! The weather has been awful, in the 90's every day with humidity in the 90's too. Normally this kind of weather isn't fun but you just go to the pool and wait it out. We haven't been able to do that though because we have been packing and cleaning.

I don't think you can fully understand the misery of humid weather until you have actually experienced it. For instance, last night I was scrubbing our bathroom clean with a fan in the doorway turned on to high. I had to take my glasses off because they kept fogging up, the sweat was pouring off my forehead so bad that my eye brows weren't doing their job and I was sliding all over the place on the bathroom floor because my legs were sweating! Sick! Crazy! Yuck! I hate sticky weather!!!

One night at the dinner table we were all miserable. Finally it got to Ryan and he half grunted, half yelled (it was very manly) took his shirt off and threw it on the floor. Immediately all the kids were doing the same. It's like they were waiting for any excuse to take their shirts off. I laughed so hard, and then pulled out the camera. We had a hot, shirtless dinner that night!




On a better note, we are leaving tomorrow to a land of moderate temperatures, light cool breezes and no severe weather warnings in all seasons of the year!!! (sigh of pleasure)

We met up with some friends from the ward this last week at a great little park for some pizza and fun. They are the only other family that has five kids also and we just love them! We are really going to miss them when we leave.


I forgot that this park has a splash pad so that is why our kids are running around half naked (again), or a little more then that in Makays case. It looks like a lot of kids for only two sets of parents huh? It was a great evening.

The kids have been in the back yard a lot since Ryan and I have been busy with the house. As you can guess, when there is a lot of rain things grow like crazy. I don't know how long it took these plants to swallow the kids bikes but one day the bikes were there and the next, they were gone! (This is the only place Ryan and I have ever seen where there are no sprinklers. . . anywhere. No one needs them!)

They kind of look peaceful don't they?

The kids have been good about trying to entertain themselves. Their "trying" didn't always work but they gave it a good effort. This is Easton getting creative with triangle dominoes. Does that face look happy to you? Maybe he's trying to tell us something about the way he's feeling. It's been hard for the kids to have their lives so disrupted.

When the days get too long and the kids can't "try" anymore Ryan and I have to come up with something. You saw the plastic bags parade (see last post if you missed it). Well we were running out of materials because we were packing everything up. So what could we use to entertain kids? We had paper. So, Ryan got creative with the paper. . . and it worked!! A day and a half of entertainment, woohoo!!

Let's hope we can get that lucky with entertaining them in the car for seven days!

creeds buried treasure and other summer tales

So Creed just celebrated his 5th birthday and what a party it was! Berni decided to throw him a pirate theme party and spent many hours preparing for the celebration.
These invitations had many piratey words like "buried treasure, loot, ye, plunderin, sea dogs, and captain creed." (The kids wanted very badly to assist with the part where Berni burnt the edges).

Amazing! Thats what comes to mind when I look at the cake scene that Berni made.

She spent many hours on this beautiful masterpiece...and then I chopped it up with a knife...

Here's ole "mad maky", strikin' fear into the heart of many a brave folk...well, maybe if her sword were turned the right way...shiver me timbers.

Aye, whats a pirate party without "pin the patch on the pirate"?...

and a hunt for buried treasure...

Creeds presents along with other pirate bootie (chocolate coins, candy necklaces and ring pops) made for some jolly pirates mates...

Heres captain Creed, the ole sea dog himself, makin a secret birthday wish...Arrr matey...may ye delite in a wish come true. Many thanks to the fair maiden "Beautimus Berni" for a very satisfyin' and plentiful party!

Okay, back to a normal voice now...

This is what happens when bored children use their imagination...well, our children anyway: The recycle bin replaces the dress up bin. (As for our parenting, Warning: to avoid danger and suffocation...hey we warned em.)

The kids have been surviving the recent heat wave by spending many an hour at the public pool...Don't worry, Creeds just practicing...

Beckham lookin all serious in his froggy goggles. He loves the water and enjoys falling over in it, now we just need to teach him how to get back up...

For the third of July (since 4th was on a sunday) we bought some sparklers and let the kids run wild before bedtime...yes it is light outside, a little lame, I know, but they still had fun. And no this isn't trick photography, Makay is actually sticking the sparkler up her nose. Please don't try this at home, she is a professional.

This last shot is of me being commissioned into the Air Force. a good friend from church who is a retired marine officer was able to swear me in. This photo came from our phone and is a little fuzzy but you get the picture...looks like lueitenant Button needs to work on his standing at attention...and on spelling leuitenant...yeah no idea. :)