
Live Life * Tell the Story
Beth had the opportunity to participate in a Princess Summer Camp. She’s getting older and this Princess stage is not going to last forever, so it was really nice to see her still enjoying dress-up and play with the Disney Princesses! She got to spend three days with various princesses and got to do SO many fun activities! She had a blast and it will definitely be something she will always remember!
Beth’s first session was a Frozen party and she got to be with her favorite princess, Anna and her sister, Elsa. She was so excited to wear her Anna dress. She got to make a wand, had ice cream, had a snowball fight with cotton balls, and was crowned a princess!
Next session was the Adventure camp with Merida and Rapunzel. She got to paint a lizard, shoot a target with arrows, stuff a bear, make a wish with balloons and danced with ribbons!
Then came a Luau with Jasmine and Ariel. She got to paint a treasure box, taught Jasmine to hula,made sand necklaces, and made headbands to go with the hula skirt and lei!
The last session was a Spa Day with Belle (her 2nd favorite) and Aurora. Belle did Beth’s hair and nails and Aurora did her makeup. They got a butterfly treasure box with beauty supplies.
Joey was laying on a leather couch at our vacation home, squirming around trying to get comfortable.
Beth, hearing the noise, asked her brother “Is there a storm outside? Because I think I hear thunder…”
JJ pointed to where Joey lay squirming, and Beth said “Oh, it’s just daddy moving around.”
Yea, apparently Joey now rivals a storm.
This is going to be a rather long post….but I needed to get the memories posted!
Amidst an emergency room visit and sickness, our Spring Break Vacation was actually a time of relaxation and peace. I really enjoyed the time of leisure. I mostly stayed away from the computer. We watched movies, we played the Wii, we did puzzles, I made meals for the family, and we just spent quality time together. It’s just nice to get away from normal life from time to time.
It all kind of started on Wednesday, April 4th when the kids and I used different flavors of Kool-Aid to dye our Easter Eggs. It was so fun and I can’t wait to try new flavors out next year. Before we dyed the eggs, the kids used crayons to draw designs on the eggs. We found out that the blue Kool-aid turned out the best!
The next day (April 5th) the kids still had to go to school and I cleaned and packed and prepared for our trip. In the evening, Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen and Uncle Clint arrived. We had a good visit before all heading off to bed.
Friday, April 6th, the kids skipped school and helped me with the last of the cleaning and packing. Grandpa and Grandma had some errands to run as well. Finally in the afternoon we we were ready to leave. We traveled the 2 1/2 – 3 hours to Eden, Utah, also stopping to pick up some KFC for dinner.
We arrived at our vacation condo and started unpacking and settling in. I was taking the last stuff up the stairs to Joey and I’s room and Beth and JJ followed me up the stairs. We had opened the windows because it was a little stuffy. As I went through the door with Beth close on my heels, there was a gush of wind that slammed the bedroom door shut……with Beth’s poor left ring finger with it. She just happened to be turning around to talk to her brother and her finger was right by the hinge when this all happened. I quickly opened the door and was shocked to see the blood pouring from Beth’s finger. I was also shocked to see that I could actually see Beth’s bone and the skin around her fingernail was just hanging off. Beth took one look at her finger and just started bawling, with the tears streaming down her face. I went into panic mode and Joey ran up the stairs and picked up his little girl and ran her to the kitchen.
After a quick Priesthood blessing and getting some ice for her finger, we rushed off to the hospital that was 1/2 hour away in Ogden. Thank goodness that Grandpa & Grandma were there to take care of JJ. Beth was in a lot of pain on the way down. Joey is amazing when things happen – he stays completely calm, while I panic. He drove, while I held on to Bethie Girl. We tried to keep her distracted, but she was in pain and really scared to go to the hospital. We started talking about how it could have been worse and it was awesome to hear Beth say, “Well, it could have been worse – it was my left hand instead of my right hand, so now I can still use my right hand.” We kept talking about how much we were blessed and it really seemed to help her.
Once we got to the hospital (at about 6:30pm), things got a lot worse. Beth was really scared to be at the hospital for some reason, even though we told her that now we had doctors/nurses to take care of her. The worst 15 minutes or so of my life were when they brought in the big needle to numb up her hand. She screamed and we had to hold her down and tears were gushing out of her eyes and she just kept saying, “No, I don’t want it, please don’t let them do it!” They gave her 2 shots by the knuckles of her finger and it was so hard to watch that happen. I just held her other hand and kept whispering calming words to her, as my own tears flowed from my eyes. I wished so hard that I could take it for her. It even made Joey tear up, not being able to do anything for our little girl. But finally that was over and it numbed her finger so well. It took the pain completely away from her and it was such a relief for all of us. Beth had to get a x-ray of her finger and it was actually kind of a fun adventure for her since it didn’t hurt anymore. She liked that they showed her the pictures of her hand. She was fine seeing the x-ray picture, but she wouldn’t look at her finger anymore (ever since that one glance at it after it first happened). It was extremely scary for her.
Another relief came when they told us that nothing was broken. Unfortunately, they had to call in a hand surgeon and he was at the other hospital, busy with other patients. We ended up waiting about 4 hours before he was able to meet with us. In the meantime, we watched some tv, played on my phone, and the nurses brought Beth some coloring pages to color. It was such a relief to have her out of pain. Joey and I both went through some waves of emotions about having our daughter go through something like this, but we made it through.
Finally the hand surgeon showed up. Unfortunately by that time the pain meds were wearing off and they had to give her another couple of shots. It wasn’t as bad this time because it was mostly numb. Then, they cleaned the wound up and the surgeon sewed her up, using 4 stitches. They let us know that they call it a partial amputation and she would eventually lose her fingernail, but that it would heal just fine. They put a splint on her finger, bandaged it up (in pretty purple and blue bandages), and sent us on our way. It was after 11pm at this point and we were tired and hungry. We stopped to get some ibuprofen and tylenol at Smith’s before heading back to the vacation home. On the way home, Beth’s finger started throbbing and I was sure that we were going to be in for a long night. Beth kept asking “why did this have to happen” and “this is the worst vacation ever.”
When we arrived, we found JJ still awake and really glad to see us. He had been pretty anxious and worried about his sister. He gave a bit of a hard time for Grandpa and Grandma. We were able to visit with him for a bit and get him to go to sleep. Grandpa was already in bed and Grandma and Uncle Clint were ready to go to sleep too. We got Beth in her pajamas and put her in bed with us. By this point she was not hungry, but Joey and I took turns eating. Then, Beth just konked right out and surprisingly didn’t wake up all night. Joey and I did not sleep well after the whole ordeal and thinking that Beth was going to be in pain.
There was a few times where Beth needed some medicine, but throughout the whole vacation, she was just happy and calm. The prayers offered by all of our friends/family were heard and answered by our loving Heavenly Father. I know that he was with us and I just feel so blessed. Beth was able to enjoy the vacation and, besides just having to use one hand most of the time, did really well. I’m just so grateful for this true miracle that our family experienced.
On Saturday, April 7th, we had planned on going on a hike, but we decided that that wouldn’t be a good idea for Beth. So, Grandpa and Grandma went into Ogden to run some errands and meet Uncle Lane. We had a quiet morning just kind of settling in and relaxing. I began making preparations for the evening’s Easter dinner by making some crescents, putting the ham in the crockpot, and preparing the funeral potatoes. Uncle Clint and JJ were quite the buddies and had a good time playing the Wii together.
After Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Lane returned, we went on a drive around the Pineview Reservoir and explored the surroundings. It was quite the adventure with “Hospital trips, billboard watching, dead ends, and bears with chainsaws!” Just kind of a joke that came up as we were driving. We were driving around, getting a little lost, finding deadends and billboards, and all kinds of funny things. We were saying how this vacation was just so exciting, being sarcastic, and it ended up being pretty fun because we were all together and that’s what really mattered anyway. We were able to find President David O. McKay’s home in Huntsville on our drive.
On Easter Morning (April 8th), we woke up and had did our traditional Resurrection Rolls and talked about the Savior. I also started a new tradition with some special plastic eggs, filled with scriptures and a special symbol that represented the scripture. It was special to read these with Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Lane and Clint. The Easter Bunny found us too. There was candy and the kids got Squinkees – Beth’s was Disney Princess and JJ’s was Disney Cars. The kids had a fun time playing with their squinkies throughout the rest of the vacation.
It was sad to say goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Lane and Uncle Clint. It was so fun to have them stay a couple of days with us.
Most of the rest of the vacation wasn’t really eventful, but it was nice to just spend time together.
We played the Wii and watched lots of movies:
We did a lot of coloring and crafting and decorating:
We then had to have cake and ice cream!
My daughter loves to read. That should come as no surprise to my family since her parents are both read-a-holics. I have really enjoyed seeing Beth come into her love of books. She has her favorites – she’s really into the Rainbow Magic Fairy books and the Magic Treehouse books right now. But she also loves when a new issue of the Friend comes and she basically reads it from cover to cover.
But there is something that she doesn’t enjoy reading as much – Baggie Books. Her school has a reading program where they achieve different levels of reading by bringing books (in ziploc bags) home to read to their families. She gets a new book every weekday to bring home and read. These are small readers that get harder/longer as they level up. Actually Beth is on the higher achievement now and brings home 2 books to read every day. Anyways, she’s never really too enthused by these book choices. She still reads them out loud and does a good job and sometimes she does enjoy some of the stories. But a few weeks ago, she brought home a book that interested her so much. It surprised me a lot – enough for me to stop what I was doing (making dinner) and actually sit down next to her and discuss it.
The name of the book was Telling Stories Through Art and she kept reading it and exclaiming things and showing me the pictures. Almost every paragraph ended with “Wow. That’s so interesting!” It was adorable to hear that coming out of her mouth. I probably shouldn’t have been so surprised that the history and paintings of indians would interest her. Growing up, many of my family vacations were to visit historical sites and indian ruins. It’s something that my Dad really enjoys and I always enjoyed it too. But its also something that I haven’t really shared with my children before. I’ve never really visited with them about historical sites and stuff and obviously its something that I need to remedy. Beth hasn’t stopped talking about the indian carvings and paintings and how she wanted to see some “for real.” I am definitely going to have to do some research and see if there is some places we can visit. How neat to see that Beth is experiencing a new interest in history. I can’t wait to visit some new places with her and I hope this love just grows. I think it will be really fun for her to learn and grow through the history of our country and the history of the people on earth and even the history of the people in the scriptures. I’m excited to share more of this with her!
This week’s recipe | CHICKEY PASTA A delicious pasta dish that is light and yummy! The chicken pieces are heaven – in fact, you could just make the chicken and use as homemade chicken nuggets! Chickey Pasta Save Recipe Print Recipe My Recipes My Lists My Calendar Ingredients2 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into[Read More…]
I am DeDe Smith of DesignZ by DeDe and I’m the proud creator of the TearZ, ScatterZ, and many more collections! I am a Digital Scrapbook Designer. I specialize on creating digital kits that help customers scrapbook the special moments in their lives. I hope that you can use my products to share your story[Read More…]
I am so thankful that I started writing some of my memories down about this trip on the blog, because I think there is a lot I could have missed! I’m so thankful to not forget these stories! I didn’t write everything down, so from now on this album might not be as detailed, but[Read More…]