He went to work in the morning, and then we went to get him in the afternoon to take him on an activity scavenger hunt -

We started out with a picnic in the park.

Then we went to the local ice cream shop for some yummy goodness. Then off to hit a bucket of balls at the driving range.

When we came home we had a yummy steak dinner, and then friends came over to help us eat some ice cream and cake. I think it was a fun day. What did you think, Wyatt?

I think it was a great day, thanks so much. I had a hunch I should have worn my golf cleats that morning, but the flip flops worked okay! I love you Anj and kiddos! – Daddy

“No I didn’t. It’s more of a statement than a question.”

On Monday they spent the afternoon preparing our valentines – signing their names, over and over and over again, each one for a different friend.

For Family Home Evening we made sugar cookies, and decorated them with pink frosting. Each love frosted their own. Everett had patience for only one shmear and set about eating his. Olivia made sure the frosting covered all the cookie real estate in neat even strokes. And Calvin spread his thick, thick and globby.

The next morning, with Olivia at her kindergarten party, valentines autographed from the day before, a special treat for her teacher to boot, and Cal and eJo happy to play with Ila who came to visit, we set about making more cookies. Because who doesn’t need more cookies?

Chocolate chip to be exact, Wyatt’s favorite.

Later, Olivia, Calvin, Everett (and Ila) went to a neighborhood valentines party. More signed goodies, more treats coming home! During the break I took Wyatt a little gift of home made cookies. We promised no valentines – but home made definitely does not count. (And then he broke the treaty and brought me home tulips. Two Lips – it makes me smile).

And then the little loves finished their party, and home we went for a sugar crash. Daddy came home early to play, and with a little dinner in our tummies, we set out to give valentines to all the friends in the neighborhood we had missed.

And when it came bed time the kids went to sleep without a peep, happy and high on sugar, exhausted on activity.

That was Valentines Day 2012.

ten years ago today wyatt and i were celebrating our first valentines together by getting on an airplane and flying off to china. salt lake city was the toast of the world, hosting the 2002 winter olympics, and we were leaving the glowing hulabaloo for an unknown adventure in the heart of asia.

that morning i handed wyatt a brown paper bag – my first valentine to him – a few of his favorite candy bars for the flight, and a baseball, signed by yours truly.

and we spent the rest of the day in the air – watching the map on the in flight navigator as we climbed northward along the pacific coast, over alaska, across the bering sea and down the asian side of the pacific. it was very boring.

which sidetracks me to a list:

seas traversed in one way or another:

the bering sea
the baltic sea
the red sea
the dead sea
the mediterenean sea
the sea of galilea
the adriadic sea
the caribbean sea

interesting.

well, there should be more to this story than there is. but really, all of our very first valentines day was spent on airplanes to beijing. how romantic is that?

oh, don’t you worry, there will be a post tomorrow about our tenth valentines. it’s much more interesting.

And he’s a boy. I think he thought I was encroaching on his manhood. Anyhow, in his typical jovial way, he scribbled this out:

Fish -

_______________________________________!

fill in the blank w/ gushy & romantic stuff.

Love,

Wyatt

And so I did.

Jared and Wyatt working on the deck (or sleeping on the job!)

Today I was in my room folding laundry when I heard a knock on the door. Then the door opens, and I hear a voice calling for me, but I don’t recognize it. When I come out it’s Jared, but he sounds funny.

He says: “Can I use your hubablaboo?” (And I understood him to mean, can I use your bathroom) And I look at him trying to decide if he’s being funny – but the humor is falling flat.

And he says again: “Can I use your hugbalkasdf?”

And I ask “what” and he says: “I need to use your habuskavoo”

And I ask him: “Wait, are you being serious?”

Then he pushes past me and starts going towards the stairs. He says: “I need to take a baloogavajoo.” (I understood him to mean, I need to take a shower. But then I could tell there was something seriously wrong. It reminded me of my neighbor Kathy)

And I grab his arm and say – “Use my bathroom, don’t go downstairs.” (I didn’t want him to go downstairs because I was afraid he would fall or pass out and I wouldn’t be able to get him back upstairs. At this point I knew he had to go to the doctors).

But now he’s kinda fighting me on this, and trying to go downstairs. So I tell him no, he can’t go downstairs, in fact he has to go with me, RIGHT NOW, to the doctors. And I start pulling him to the door. At the same time I call Wyatt – because, miraculously, my phone happened to be in my hand. I tell him he better come home RIGHT NOW and take Jared to the ER or I’m going to call the ambulance.

Jared sits down on my bench because he can’t go any further. He’s trying to talk to me, but every fourth word is just jibberish. Then he starts throwing up.

Wyatt comes home and they rush off for the ER (made a stop at the insta-care first, they told him to go on to the ER). At first I thought it might be carbon monoxide poisoning, as did Jared – between the words he could say, and what I could interpret (I think the spirit must have been with me because I was able to understand him pretty well in spite of him not talking clearly at all).

Anyway, that was a little after noon today. It’s now almost six. They determined it wasn’t carbon monoxide poisoning but a brain aneurysm instead. Wyatt took him to Alta View, and after a CT scan there, they transferred him via ambulance to the IMC hospital. There they did an angiogram? (where they put dye in the blood and then scan the brain to see where the bleed is) and as of ten minutes ago, we just got news that they are taking him in for surgery to stop the bleeding (brain surgery – I wonder what sort of scars that will leave).

Of course the doctors are covering their liabilities and told Lois and Harry that Jared might not make it through the surgery. But I had a very calm and confident feeling earlier this afternoon that Jared would be ok and everything would be all right. So I have this confidence that things will be ok.

Granted, it’s not my brother, so maybe I don’t have the initial panic, plus, I’m not a very panicky person anyways, but I just haven’t been able to feel scared today. I just feel peace that it will be fine.

Wyatt came home when they took Jared to do the angio. Right now he’s over at the neighbors, helping him put on a new roof, like he promised he would. I would get a babysitter – but alas, there are none to be found. I’ve called all of the ward and neighborhood, but everyone’s busy. I wish there was something I could do for Wyatt. It seems a little ridiculous that he’s roofing a house when his brother is in brain surgery – even if I have a confirming feeling that everything will be all right. So that’s where we are at.

Saturday – October 15th

We went back to the hospital that first night, after Jared was out of surgery. Jacob and Melinda also came down from Logan as soon as they heard, and so Jacob, Wyatt, Harry, Lois and I were all at the hospital, waiting. Jared was pretty much out for the rest of the night, but it was good to see him.

Wynn and Heidi came up on Thursday, and have been here ever since. I think it’s good for Jared to have the support of his family, even if he is pretty much asleep all the time. They kept him sedated for the first two or three days, but now don’t have him on any sedatives. He’s still kinda in a fog, but he is able to convey what he wants for the most part. When people ask him yes and no questions he seems to answer with clarity. He also is moving all his limbs, which is good.

The doctors say he will be in the hospital a minimum of three weeks. After that Heidi thinks he will be a rehab facility, which makes sense. Wyatt is in the process of tracking down all his info – bank accounts, insurance, etc. to make sure everything is taken care of. Between that and going back and forth to the hospital, he has had a very emotional and stressful week.

I am just trying to hold down the fort here at home – keep the kids going, and the house going, and have a place for people to come during the day when they take Jared to do tests, etc.

Anyhow, he did great – blowing bubbles, floating on his back, smiling for his mamma when she wanted a picture. Mmm . . . sunshine and babies. Is there anything better?

Wyatt came home early, ready to play! We rode 4 wheelers up and down the street and around the neighborhood looking for people to play. We found Jill and Alan, who came over and had home made ice cream in the shade of the tree, and the kids ran around playing freeze tag in the sweltering heat.

Later we decided a small fishing trip was in order. We packed Calvin’s new pole, and the other gear, and decided to try our luck at the Discover Park pond – which is about a mile down the street from grandma’s house.

As it turned out we had great luck. We caught no less than four fish (maybe more, there was part where I left and took Olivia and eJo to the playground, leaving Wyatt and Cal to do their thing).

Each fish was admired for what it was: TINY.

The kids enjoying torturing each fish with pokes, and prods before throwing it victoriously back into the pond.

Wyatt enjoyed being stuck by flying fishing hooks a couple times, and mamma enjoyed keeping the kids from falling in the lake (Cal did fall in up to his knees, thus the under-roo pictures later).

Afterward we went to grandma’s house for a jump on the trampoline and Moose Tracks ice cream cones. I have a theory that the amount of crud on your face at the end of the day is in direct correlation with the awesomeness of the day. As you can see, it was an awesome day for these kiddos.

Puff - sometime in 1999 - 2000?! I remember I learned how to play "Puff the Magic Dragon" on the guitar when I lived in Russia, and I imagine this illustration has a direct coorelation to that.

-Deck

-Murray House

-Business

-Baby

-3 Children

-Summer

The other night Wyatt and I were talking about what the craziest things we’d ever done were (consolations to long boring days of work and cleaning and cooking):

There were the generic answers. You know, jumping out of planes, getting locked into Golgotha in the middle of the night, streaking a wedding, stowing away on a ship to get off the continent, or getting arrested on the Brazilian/Argentine border. All those make for good stories (sound much more exciting than they actually were). But Wyatt came up with one I had completely forgotten about.

It happened when we lived in China.

So there we were, minding our own business (as is ALWAYS the case),

at Pagoda Hill.

Pagoda Hill was our name for this funky little park in the middle of the city of Urumqi. It had a giant hill, and at the top, a giant Pagoda. The whole park was centered around this hill, and there were ponds and petting zoos and paddle boats and people everywhere. It was almost like a mini amusement park too, with an Alpine Slide type thing that cruised down the hill side, and a ferris wheel, even a small dragon roller coaster.

But after we had been there half a dozen times or so, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. There at the top of the hill, just to the side of the Pagoda, tucked behind some trees and bushes, was a small platform, and two little chinese ladies standing about, looking bored.

We went over to see what was up. And then we saw it: Giant wires coursing over our heads, down the steep hill, out across the freeway that flanked the park, and across the way into another mass of trees and bushes. By the vests and caribeeners and straps, we figured what it was.

But did we have the guts to actually do it? To strap ourselves to those wires, and go flying across . . . an eight lane freeway?

Wyatt went first.

He zipped across, traffic cruising just feet below his body. He disappeared into the trees, safe on the other side.

Next was my turn.

I checked each strap, even after the chinese woman had checked and rechecked. And then, through the pantomimes, I was told to start running.

I ran down the small cement ramp, and soon enough my feet were pulled out from under me as the slope and momentum carried me down, down, down the hill, over the fence, and across the lanes of traffic . . .

and then I began to slow. I saw the trees (I saw what was just beyond the trees, and began to prepare for impact). But then my body stalled, momentum gone, my weight not enough to carry me quite far enough . . .

And THEN I began to slide backwards on the slack of the line . . . back out over the freeway, to where semi trucks were cruising at speeds I felt uncomfortable with.

I dangled there, traffic below me, hung in mid air over the lane, bouncing now on the line, looking at Wyatt, whose eyes were big with -what – fear, amusement, disbelief?

And then another little Chinese lady came out with a long long bamboo stick. She stretched it out to me. I grabbed hold, and was pulled to the safety of the cement pad.

And that was the only time we ever rode the zip line at Pagoda Hill.

*At the end of the line, just out of view from the top of the hill, was a cement pad . . . and a cement wall, with a mattress placed vertically on it, with (sick Chinese sense of humor) a bullseye painted on it. After your death-defying ride across the highway, you were stopped by slamming into it and bouncing back onto the cement pad. Wyatt said that was not fun. I didn’t have the momentum to actually do this, but I believe him.

And bedtime stories by the fire

And the company of a trusty ol’ pal

And a brother

If you want to sleep in a bag right on the ground . . . but the spring weather just won’t cooperate . . .

Try camping in the living room.

This camp out brought to you by fire-maker-tent-setter-upper (and-taker-downer) Extrodinaire : Super Dad.