Wait wait wait, how old is she really?

Here's a little snippet from a conversation I had with Rebekah this morning.

R: I want cheetos

S: It's too early for cheetos, you can have some later.

R: I want cheetos!!

S: No Rebekah, you can have them later for a snack.

R: I'm going to ask daddy...

Wait, what?! I couldn't believe she's picked up on that idea enough to even say that! Hold on, shouldn't she be 10 or a teenager or something before she tries to pit us against eachother and such?! Holy smokes, she's only two, going on 12 apparently.

My Friend the Mama bear

While up in Canada I went to Waterton which is the Canadian side of Glacier National park. It is amazingly beautiful and full of wildlife. On many occasions you can see bears, and almost always deer. My SIL Shanna, her son Clark, Rebekah and I took a drive up to Red Rock and was able to see, first hand, a Mama bear with her two cubs. In fact the Mama walked directly to and passed our car. It was very neat and terrifying, especially because we were in a CONVERTABLE. Even with the roof on we didn't feel like we had much protection because it was a soft top convertable. "Hello Mrs. Bear. Oh you want to eat me? Okay, just take a swipe at our canvas roof and here we are!!!"
Yeah. So here's a video I took of it.

Pictures from Canada

Eating fake ice cream cones with Clark in Waterton. Aunt Shanna bought these ones that have a little lever on the side that shoot the ball out in your face. Very fun.

Oh, Gorgeous!! Wish you were here! (Name the movie that's from for ten points.)

Enjoying the mountains, one yell at a time.

My close friend, the mama bear.

Hammin' it up for the camera.

Either the newest baby carrier or child abuse. You decide.

At the Japanese Gardens in Lethbridge, AB

Rebekah and Clark at the Cardston Parade, anxiously awaiting more candy.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or the Mounties, though they are obviously not Mounted right now. Hmmm, that doesn't sound so good. I was talking about on horses, but whatever.

Rebekah Update

I have had several people ask me about Rebekah the past few months and I have been meaning to post something about it for a while, so here I go, finally. Rebekah went to see Dr. Haymond in June and the most recent news is pretty much the same as before. In the past two appointments Rebekah has been measured as paralleling the growth curve. So far since we've been seeing Dr. Haymond she hasn't dropped lower or grown any closer to the curve, she has been steadily staying at a parallel rate with the curve, but below it of course. This is not really good or bad. It's good that she is not decreasing percentage wise but it's really good that she is not getting any closer to the curve either. SO...we are going to wait six months between appointments this time to see how she does. I certainly hope that she is at least paralleling the curve again. Dr. Haymond explained that this paralleling means that she is not Growth Hormone Deficient or Resistant, so that's a positive, but it's still not clear if she will need any treatment. In March I asked him about what we would do if they decide something needs to be done and he said Growth Hormone shots. So, that's what we will be looking at come December/January. He will recheck her growth, run/repeat a few tests (basic ones, no more MRIs) and from there if needs be decide about Growth Hormones or not. So yes, we are still in limbo. Thankfully I am not as upset about it as I was before. I am still disheartened at the thought of possibly giving shots to Rebekah every day and about her being much shorter than other kids her age. I am just getting used to dealing with this and worrying about it I guess. Either way, I keep praying daily for her and that's all I can do right now, right? Well, there's the update. I certainly hope that come December I will finally have something definite.

Hello Great White North

My little family and I went up to Aspen Grove in Provo for a family reunion last week. We had so much fun. I'm so glad that we were able to rearrange things for Nelson so that he could come with us. Aspen Grove is this awesome family camp up in the Utah Mountains. It has activities planned for everyone (honestly, even for the kids) all day long. Rebekah went to a little day care there each day so she could play with the kiddies her age and so that we could participate in the actitivies for adults. It is a really neat place and it's linked with BYU so almost all the workers are BYU students. It was comforting to know that all the kids were being left with safe, good people. Rebekah did well, and only had a break down on one of the days.
Nelson and I went hiking, learned how to make pottery (hopefully it made it home in one piece), did a high ropes course, played tons of badminton, swam, did archery, and several other things. The ropes course was scary. You had to climb up a verticle log, transition onto a rock wall up in the air, and then connect yourself and walk along these cables that were up in the trees. *Whoo* I was shaking so badle and my stomach hurt for at least a half hour afterwards. I'm glad I did it, but doubt I'll ever do it again. Nelson had a blast with the badminton. He'd never even heard of it before, let alone played it, but he quickly became crazy about it and he and some of my siblings/in-laws started playing it for several hours in the evening. Se'd actually stake out a court and as soon as dinner was over they were plying.
One of the silly, but fun things that I did was learn to play shuffle board. That was fun, and oddly enough I really wanted to learn. The next thing on my list of odd sports to learn in Curling. No joke. Anyone know of a place in H* to do this????

After a week at Aspen grove Nelson returned home and Rebekah and I headed to Canada to continue our visit with some of my family. It's been fun so far, though in truth there isn't much to do in the exact area where I'm from. I grew up in Southern Alberta where there are a LOT of cows and farms. Everywhere you go you see farm fields ready to be harvested. It has it's own beauty, and it's so amazingly flat. The sky is so clear at night, what with us being so up North and with there being virtually no light pollution, or pollution in general. The stars shine so bright at night and you can see so many it's almost unbelievable. Because the land it so flat so get to see the sky from every direction, from the ground up and back to the ground on the other side. What I mead is that as far as your eyes will let you see, you see the beautiful evening sky and STARS. It is one a the things I miss most about here. The stars and sky.

Behold the feedlot. Now just imagine the smell.


It's flat, I tell ya.


A beautiful sunset.

Breaking Dawn

Well well well. Breaking dawn came out a few days ago while I was in Utah. My SIL Shanna and I decided to forgo the long lines and craziness that was sure to be at any bookstore, so we headed over to the closest Walmart aroung midnight and got the book. We were driving up to Canada the next day and I would have been slightly annoyed with having twelve hours in the car to read if I had not got the book that night. So I stayed up for a few hours and then finished the rest during the first part of the drive.
So overall I liked the book. I thought it was fun, definitely had plot twists, and ended very well. Of course you always want more, but hey, it is what it is and I liked it. I don't want to give anything away so sorry this is impossible vague. So, read it, love it, and read it some more. If anyone wants to discuss it let me know!!! Plus, I'd love to see what other's thought about it, what they liked/didn't like.