In Summary...

Okay, so my last post was in February of 2017. I guess it's time to catch up on the last three years. So here's a quick summary.

1. We did a lot of hiking. Here are some pictures from a few of our hikes.

2. We went to Lagoon in May 2017.

3. Peter and I went on a 10-year anniversary cruise from Miami to Cozumel in July 2017. The boys stayed in Idaho with Grandma and Grandpa Stott.

4. Peter took the boys on a trip to Colorado in September 2017 while I stayed home and completed some projects. One of the nights they all slept in the back of the van together.

5. We went camping at Oak Grove in the fall of 2017. It was beautiful but very hard to sleep due to the drunk loud college students camping next to us.

6. Here are a few more pictures from the fall of 2017.

The boys' first trip to the Grand Canyon

The boys and their friends taking leaf pile jumping to the next level.

Halloween

7. One night in the fall of 2017, Peter went to bed really, really early. I didn't want to go to sleep yet, but everyone in the whole house was sleeping so I couldn't make noise or go upstairs. I decided to cruise around on Craigslist and Zillow. When Peter woke up in the morning, I told him that we needed to go see a house and some kittens. We ended up getting both...and all because Peter went to bed too early!

Kitties: Chicken and Waffles

 8. Ambrose learned how to ride a bike without training wheels on Christmas Day 2017.

9. In the beginning of January 2018, we moved.

House we moved from.

House we moved to.

10. We spent a lot of 2018 painting, replacing lighting, getting new appliances, and remodeling our master bathroom and upstairs laundry room.

This is what the kitchen looked like when we moved in.

This was our mustard yellow dining area.

This was the blue living room next to the mustard yellow kitchen.

Here's the kitchen and living room after we painted, got a new fridge, and replaced the ceiling fans.

11. We found out that our new house had a scorpion problem.

12. In May 2018, we went to Peter's Grandpa's funeral and the beach in Los Angeles.

13. In June 2018, we went to Idaho for Jace and Dylan's wedding and Silas' baptism. While there, I became a "cowgirl."

14. In July 2018, we went to the Grand Canyon. Peter and the boys had been before, but it was my first time there.

15. In August, Kodie, McKay, & Deacon came for a visit and we went back to the Grand Canyon where we went on a super memorable, fun hike.

16. School also started in August. It was Ambrose's first year of school and all three boys got to be in the same school.

17. All three boys played flag football (but for some reason I only got pictures of Ambrose).

18. For Halloween 2018, Gideon was a taco. Ambrose and Silas wore matching washer and dryer costumes.

This was the year that one of our neighbors set up a table with a whole bunch of truly random things and let the kids pick their trick-or-treat. Ambrose picked this antique bar of soap thinking it was candy because it said "milk 'n honee." Gideon picked this apple clock.

19. In May 2019, we went to Yellowstone and to see Clay and Amber's family. It was fun but freezing cold. We saw lots of wildlife--including big horn sheep, grizzly bears, black bears, bison, a fox, and a moose.

20. In August 2019, Silas and Ambrose switched to a new elementary school so that Silas could do an accelerated learning program. Gideon started his first year of intermediate school and ended up joining band which he really likes. For Halloween 2019, Gideon went as a turkey, Silas as a hot dog, and Ambrose as a whoopee cushion.

And that concludes the whirlwind tour of the last three years! I'm sure that I've missed some things, but it's better than nothing.

Silas' Accident

Last Friday Peter went to work, but almost immediately came back home because his coworkers weren't there yet. A short time after he came home, the boys left for school. The next thing we knew, Gideon came running inside bawling and screaming "Silas got hit by a car!" I cannot describe the sick feeling that flooded into my heart. I thought he was dead. The possibility that he was only injured did not even cross my mind. Peter and I both went tearing out of the house and found Silas lying on the lawn near the intersection, surrounded by people. He was conscious, but there was blood on his face and one of the witnesses was saying that his face had been run over. This ended up not being true, but I didn't know that at the time, so I worried about brain hemorrhaging. I worried about internal bleeding. Police showed up very quickly and an ambulance soon followed. The EMTs checked Silas for major injuries and said that he was stable enough that we could drive him to the ER, but that he needed to get there soon just in case there was internal bleeding. We got to the ER and they did Xrays and a CT scan and drew blood. They had a really hard time getting a vein for the blood draw and IV, which was maybe the most painful part of the ordeal for Silas. It was really hard to hear him screaming while they kept poking him. After a long time in the ER, he was cleared to go. There were no broken bones. There was no internal bleeding. He was sore, his front two permanent teeth were knocked loose, and his lip and chin were cut up, but that was it. He took it easy the rest of Friday, slept well that night, and woke up feeling great. He ran around playing on Saturday like nothing happened. He didn't even bruise. I feel like there was an angel there protecting him and breaking his fall. I also feel blessed that Peter was home when it happened.

Favorite part of my morning so far: Ambrose giggling with joy when I told him that he gets a birthday every year!