Greetings from Hawaii

Shane's sister Heather came and visited this past week. She arrived with some of our favorite treats from the island....we love her!! She was so excited to see Shane without all of the hospital parifanalia going every which way, since the last time she saw him was 4-23-08. Heather was only here for five days but we found the time to get the really important things in, like eating out and shopping! We did even get to cousin Heidi's house for cake and ice cream since Isabelle turned 1yr. old. Most of Heidi's family was there so it was a really nice visit with extended family.
Our week was going relatively smooth until ex rays of my mom's hip came back positive with a hip fracture, meaning surgery. So Monday evening we were at the hospital waiting for a room. Followed by Tuesday waiting for her surgery which happened at about 7pm. Wednesday was spent in the hospital spending time visiting with Grammy, as Jake calls her and with Dave (my brother), Lisa, Spencer and Ryan....the two cousins from SD. Today, we found a great rehab hospital for her to recuperate in. I am ready to spend some time outside of Hospitals!

oops... forgot the pictures

Top is Haley then Jake
Bottom is Jackson and Maddy, all on the first day of school 8-11-08

A new school year begins....

One of my favorite commercials a few years ago was "It's the most wonderful time, of the year." I think it was done by Staples, but it could have been Wal-mart. This was not at Christmas time but at the beginning of school. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I really enjoy the summer with them home but I was ready for all of us to get into a schedule again. Life has been a bit bumpy for awhile so getting a little more scheduled will feel good, I hope.
It is hard to believe that Haley is a junior in high school, Jackson is in 8th grade, Madison is in 6th grade and Jake is in real pre-school this year. No more play school for him. Although, Jake is feeling a bit slighted because his school doesn't start until after Labor Day. No major malfunctions were reported for the first day, but we started another list of what is needed for the year. Haley was a Toro Link Leader on the first day which meant that she got to help students find their way to classes if they were lost. Jackson was able to find all of his classes, no worries, he assured us, and he knows everybody in the 8th grade! Maddy was supposed to be on live TV to give morning announcements for tech club at school, but they were not quite ready on Monday. So all in all life is good and we are so blessed!

A trip to the beach

We thought a change of scenery might be a good thing, so with a little bit of planning and a lot of luck we went to San Diego the last week of July. We planned a couple of days at the beach, some school shopping and a day at Sea World. It was great to be at the beach. The waves were great for boogie boarding, body surfing and wave jumping but it was overcast and windy, so it was a bit chilly for us Arizoner's. But we stayed most of the day and had so much fun that we went back for a second day. It was equally as fun but the kids said that it wasn't Mexico. I think all of the advertising Shane has put out there for Rocky Point is starting to stick with the kids....way to go Shane. But one thing I know for sure is that our kids love the beach no matter where it is.
While we were there Jake met some new friends... Slimy, Sasquach, and Little Foot(left to right). He played with his snail friends all afternoon and drug them all over the yard. He was sad that we couldn't bring them home but he loves this picture of them. There was lots of swimming. Night swimming, day swimming, swimming in just the hot tub and of course swimming at the beach. I think we should be good until fall break!
Sunday we went to church in Del Mar and then we spent some time on the San Diego Temple grounds. We all agreed that it was a beautiful place to send some time together. The last leg of our trip was a day with Shamu. As you can imagine some were more excited about this day than others. But when the day was done, all had a great day. Jake by far was the most excited about everything, but really liked being down in Shamu's house. But we were all a little disappointed in not getting soaked in the soak zone at the whale show. Although, no one smelled like a fish during the ride home. -sara

Life started again...

It is somewhat hard to believe that it has been 6 weeks since Shane came home from the hospital. Time has gone by pretty fast most days. The daily care for his legs has gone down to about an hour, which is good news for all involved. He continues to improve. Not as quickly as he/we would like but we are grateful for his progress and we continue to give thanks for all of our miracles.
I have kinda enjoyed the whole blog thing, so with many words of encouragement, from many others, I am going to change our update blog to a family what's going on blog. I hope you enjoy.

-sara