Thank you Craig's List

Obviously I did not make this purchase. Matt isn't home all day so I don't think he knows what he has done to me. Oh well, the kids love it and I am sure it will be a hit with all the neighbor friends.

Camping--kind of

Every year we go to Idaho for a McGarry family camp out. Normally we camp on some of my dad's property or go to Tear Drop Lake. This year's plans were complicated by Ben's broken arm and a family reunion. We did some quasi-camping in my parent's backyard which was just as fun and a lot less dirty. We cooked and ate all our meals outdoors.

Even when it was raining.
We've been taking a picture of the grand kids on a camper step since 2003.
This year's version.
We try to avoid tvs and such when we are camping, but this time we watched a movie outside.
We set up a tent for some of the kids to sleep in. Ashtyn was the only one who made it the whole night. I enjoyed sleeping in a bed and having a working toilet & shower available.

4-wheeler rides are a favorite. This year Noah learned to drive his own. I was cool with it until Ben fell off the back. At least Noah is cautious and wasn't going very fast. After he quit crying, Ben described the experience as "awesome."
Cat tails or corn dogs?
We don't take the horses camping. But since they were conveniently located, Michelle & Jeremy saddled some up. Zack always likes to ride, this is the first time he rode by himself. Grandpa gave him a quick driving lesson and he did really well. Indy is a good horse for kids.
Ben surprised me by wanting to ride and for riding so long. He rode Jazz all by himself.
I have bad luck on horses so I never ride. Jazz seemed to be a safe bet so I got on when Ben was finished and competed in a friendly barrel racing competition. I won't be signing up for any rodeos, but I did do the barrel pattern correctly. It's harder than you think. Michelle put up the fastest time. Scott was the most interesting/frightening to watch, as his run was part barrel racing part saddle bronc riding. I am glad I didn't get on Ratchett, he was being naughty and I would have been thrown off. Congratulations to Scott for staying on.
Ashtyn couldn't get Dixie to obey so Dad had her follow him around the barrels. Back in the day Dixie was a barrel horse so all Ashtyn had to do was hang on.
Little kids like to be roped.
We also did some bow & arrow shooting.
I wonder what kind of plan Zack and Haylee are making.
After a McGarry family reunion we went boating.
We took all the kids over to a dock with a perfect swimming spot.
It was nice and hot until a sudden wind storm hit. It blew several flip flops off the dock and if it weren't for Michelle, we would have lost all our snacks. We huddled in a corner for a little while before we gave in. By the time we got back to the main dock we were soaked (sitting in the front of the boat was a bad idea) and freezing. A few brave souls decided to stay but the weather never did get any better. It was still a blast even if the weather was lame.
We try to take a family picture on the last day of a camp out. This year, my parents were hosting the McGarry family reunion, so we got to shower first.This is everyone except for Ash and Rob.

Thus far

We've been busy this summer. Here are a few pictures from our adventures. (I am a little behind in posting so some are of Ben before the broken arm.)

These are at the sand dunes in Snow canyon. It wasn't super hot outside but the sand was too hot to run around on. We settled for digging and looking for shapes in the clouds.


One of the clouds looked like a heart, but it blew away before I could get the boys to let me take a picture. They always complain about pictures.

A little hike. Zack decided to keep NaNa company in the car.

There is a cool park near Mike and Dianne's house. They have all kinds of unusual playground equipment. This is the only picture that you can see their faces in. The rest are in motion and not good.

St. George sunset:
We had some Idaho visitors so we went to the zoo
and while the big boys went to Raging Waters, the little kids had to settle for the Gateway
and Old Navy. They may have had more fun doing this than playing in the water-let's just say a mannequin lost an arm. Fun for the kids, not so much fun for the adults.
We toured the Conference Center. Little kids don't really like long tours. But they did sit still for a few pictures.


Ben lost both teeth beside his top front teeth which gives him a goofy smile. Hopefully they grow in by school picture time.

This was unexpected

I've done the whole cast thing before so I knew what to expect. The person scheduling Ben's appointment with the orthopedic doctor warned us that we would wait. She was right. Instead of putting us in a room after the x-ray they had us wait in the casting room, which is wide open and carries sound like you wouldn't believe.

I tried to keep Zack occupied so he wouldn't sing his funny (they are not funny) potty word songs. We played "I'm thinking of an animal" and debated the pros and cons of various cast color choices. Ben was restless and sat precariously on a too high bench wiggling too much and making me nervous that he was going to break something else. And then the way he was moving his wrist made me wonder if it was even broken. I half expected the doctor to come in and declare it all a big mistake.

When he finally walked in, he took one look at Ben's X-ray and asked me what kind of insurance we have. That's not a good sign. He showed me how Ben's bone was broken and said they couldn't accept that much of an angle and a whole bunch of stuff I couldn't follow because Zack was playing with the oxygen machine and Ben finally did fall off the bench. He told me that they would get Ben into the hospital first thing in the morning so he could fix it. Not a big deal, but Ben would have to be put to sleep and he'd wake up with a cast. What? Why? Huh? And then the nurse was asking me allergy questions and giving me surgery instructions. I made his "post-op" appointment and left wondering what had just happened.

It took me all day to get a handle on the whole thing. Apparently I am not good with surprises. I don't ask important questions. I couldn't even remember much of what Dr. Ritchie said. There was some v-word he said multiple times, but I couldn't recall what it was. Ben knew (volar) and had to tell me more than once.

This morning at 6:45 we checked into the American Fork Hospital for a "closed reduction of the left wrist." Luckily they used gas to put him under and did the IV after he was out. All I know is that the doctor pushed the bone back into position and put him in a cast. See, all fixed.
Before he aligned it, the bone was broken so that it was pointing down (and would have touched where the k is on the picture). It only happens about 10% of the time, usually the break goes up, and they just cast it and off you go. Ben will be sporting the above the elbow cast for 3-4 weeks and then can hopefully move on to a shorter cast for another 3-4 weeks. There goes his summer. At least he can swim and it doesn't hurt him too much. Now if I can just keep him out of the roller blades and off the skateboard we should be ok.