There were Sunday visits by the Springville Sweats. Truman and Jane remind me a lot of each other, which means Truman reminds me of my Grandmother because Jane does?
My conference center windows in the fall.
Muffin turned 15. She should remain 14 forever, even though she seems like a woman!
Truman celebrated the way you can when you're a toddler!
One of the most unforgettable experiences of this fall was driving to Amy's house to attend Time Out for Women. We stopped in Vail (I almost always make Dennis although he'd rather just drive straight through). I ALMOST persuaded him to take a hike I'd read about too, but then remembered he'd had some chest discomfort and that his doctor was mildly concerned about, and so no hike and instead, banished him to this bench while I scurried around Vail, soaking in the sights.
The first thing I did when we arrived at Amy's house was go with her to pick up Macy from gymnastics. Gymnastic is incredible to contemplate when you're like me and can barely summon the core strength to get up off the couch. Or, for instance, get into a canoe. You would think I would have ONE photo besides the back of Macy standing with the little girls on the left, but the rest of them were totally blurry! It's because they move so FAST!
Andrea flew in from North Carolina - woo who! and the kids engaged her in fooseball. I like this photo so much because of Carly and Coconut!
Tony and Cindy drove and brought all the kids except Reagan. Here is Dave showing incredulous Calvin some of the Lego inner sanctum in the basement.
Angie flew in too and YAY the gang was all here! We hiked Castle Rock. Dennis took the picture. Once again, he was banished from hiking. His chest discomfort had flared up the minute he started up this "easy" trail and I turned to him and said "I think you should wait for us at the bottom of the mountain," and he immediately agreed.
Then we got to attend Time Out for Women together and listen to Tony speak. It's surreal to think that goofball is Anthony Sweat. I guess the goofball is Tony and the inspired, endearing, capable speaker is Anthony!
That day was also October 6th and my 65th birthday so the fates intersected to bring me a most wonderful celebration. Amy had done so much work to buy balloons, and decorations, and card-making supplies galore and the kids worked so hard on them while we were at TOFW Friday night, so that when we got to her house I was totally surprised by these kids celebrating. Thank you everybody! AND they all pitched in and bought me a new iphone! AND Dennis and Dave hung out with the kids all Friday night and all day Saturday while we attended TOFW (with lots of help from Jane Marie).
Then we said our good-byes and headed back to Utah. The rest stops along the way were gorgeous!
One of the things we needed to get taken care of when we got back to Utah was Dennis's angiogram and probably surgery for a stent, although they didn't know if he would need one for sure. They wheeled him away for the procedure and 20 minutes later, he was wheeled back, accompanied by two doctors. They matter-of-factly drew this diagram on the white board in the recovery room, explaining why a stent was not going to help, Dennis needed QUADRUPLE BYPASS SURGERY!! They said it so routinely that I had to stop them and say, "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Here is the Dr.'s diagram of his poor blocked arteries. Those red blobs blocking all four arteries 90% and 80%? They should not be in the picture on a healthy heart! I'm so grateful he didn't have a heart attack!
Here he is the very day he returned home after a week in the hospital. Angie flew out to help us that week and it was wonderful to have her here, in ways large and small (even though we did pretty much keep her up all night one night when we were trying to decide at midnight if Dennis should go back to the ER because his heart was pounding out of his chest and it could have possibly been a-fib (it wasn't, whew). Angie heard us talking in the family room and got up and came to see what was going on. She was firm in her feeling that we should go to the ER. Dad was waffling, and Angie said in no uncertain terms, well, you know how I feel, you should go, but it's up to you of course, and she went back to bed and dad knew he should follow her advise and go. And we did and we're glad we went!
He was okay, but we were at the ER from midnight until 7:00 a.m.
Before the surgery, Dennis taught me the finer points of operating the riding lawn mower! I was baffled, but after three times doing it, now I get it. Isn't that how most new experiences are? .....the third time IS the charm!
