Leukemia

My brother-in-law's Leukemia is back. Again.

It is hard being so far away from my family and not being there with them through these hard times.

Please pray for Lani (my oldest sister) and Casey and their 3 wonderful children.

They are one of the strongest couples I know and have been through so much together. I hope they can make it through this one more time, and hopefully the last time.

Playground

My friend Cora took these pictures at a playgroup we had in June.

She just emailed them to me and I thought they were so cute and I wanted to share them with everyone. I didn't even know she was taking them! Thanks Cora!

Cassie loves this ball so much. It goes everywhere she goes.

A blown out tire

We have been having a lot of fun with friends and family these last couple of weeks.

My poor kids are so tired of being in the van. We drove to Salt Lake yet again this last week to spend time with Candace and her family.

On the drive there, the van tire blew out (I was alone with the kids) and I had to pull over on the side of a very busy I-15. I gave the kids all the candy I had so they would be happy and got out of the van, looked at the tire, looked at the on-coming very large and loud trucks, looked down at the tire again, and thought to myself, "Self, I can do this". I have never actually had to change a flat tire by myself, but I have been taught many times and thought it would be simple. I am cheesy, so I said a little prayer and then got down under the van and looked at a very old and rusted spare tire. Then my prayer was answered. As I was looking under the van wondering in my mind how I was going to do this, feet magically appeared from nowhere. A very nice man from Billings Montana took over and finished the job for me. Good thing he showed up because........we had no jack in the van. Also, our tire was stuck on so tight that he almost couldn't pull it off. Then the sight of the donut about scared the guy off. It was so old and rusted and......only half full of air. So he followed me to Pocatello going 50 m/h with our blinkers on and made sure I made it to a tire shop so I could get a new tire. What a nice guy he was. Those Montana folk sure have good hearts! Now don't be mistaken, but this picture is not of our van. I found it on Google, but our tire looked almost like this one.

We made it to Candace's house and had a great time with her and her kids. Dylan and Katelyn fought a lot, but they had fun together and it was so nice to spend time with Candace. She has a beautiful home and a wonderful little family. Thank you Candace for all you did for us!

A long drive

We made the 26 hour drive across the country last Saturday and Sunday.

It was the longest drive I have ever done. Okay, so we made that drive a year ago when we moved to Michigan, but even then, with two separate cars, this trip still seemed to take longer.

The kids did pretty good, probably better then I did. We stayed in Nebraska at a hotel Saturday night and the kids loved swimming and staying up late jumping on the beds.

I have never been so happy to see this Idaho sign in my life as I was on Sunday near the end of what seemed a never-ending drive. Dylan also would not stop asking where Grandma and Grandpa's house was. Him and Cassie both were so excited to FINALLY get to Grandma and Grandpa's house. It has been fun to see all of Nate's family and spend time with them. I will post pictures in August after we make the loooooooooog gruelling (is that a word?) drive back to Michigan.