Summer Fun - 3 year old style

It is the beginning of summer, what shall I do first?

Let's start off small and cute by dancing a jig.











Cute . . let's see. Is dumping the powder in the bathroom cute?













How about basking in the sun at Grandma & Grandpa's after getting wet in some back yard water fun?











I know I'm cute at my gymnastics class. At least Coach Gil tells Mom that I listen and perform well. For some reason Mom doesn't think I do that as often at home.















Now I know it must be OK to take all my books off the shell to make room for . . .














My sleeping babies.













Now, what will I do with the rest of my summer?

LEGO LAND

We are still alive. Just got stuck on Face Book for awhile. So now it is time to update a little on the blog.

Levi got some time off to go to a national PA convention in San Diego. Aly and I stayed home, but joined him at the end of the convention. We had plans to take Aly to Lego Land and Sea World. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. Both days were overcast and misty. We did go to Lego Land since we had pre-purchased the tickets. Except for all the water entertainment not functioning due to the weather, it was a perfect day.





Alyson LOVED the park. We spent five hours there and she couldn't stop for a minute. This is Aly's look as she watched her first roller coaster. The lines weren't very long, but Aly still got a good lesson in waiting her turn.







Some of the water features were running, and there was enough there that if we had let her, she would have gotten soaked. She thought she was cool stuff when she was able to jump on the circle before the water came on.

They had thrill rides and calm rides. She was excited about everything. Needless to say she did not stay awake during the 45 minute car ride back to our hotel. It was worth the exorbitant prices to see the joy on her face.

Missionary Training Center

On April 22, I was at the MTC with my brother and his family. They were delivering their first missionary, Kevin. I could have gone "home" for his "farewell", but I knew there would be a lot of family and friends there to support Kevin and his family on this new adventure. So I opted to go be with them at the MTC, or as a family friend refers to it as the "Mother Torture Center".

Delivering a missionary to the MTC is a huge emotional experience. Huge in that the heart takes on many emotions. There are tears of joy, pride, sorrow, separation anxiety and all other feelings in between. We discussed a lot of these feelings during the two days prior to Kevin crossing the threshold of the MTC.

Almost every Wednesday of the year, hundreds of families send their missionaries into the MTC, and 99.9% of them are crying when they leave their missionary behind. Why does the family cry? This is what they have prayed for during the last nineteen years (for the boys.) Now that the time has come, they don't want to let go. Why??? There is joy that their son/daughter has made the decision to serve our Heavenly Father as a missionary. We know that this missionary will return a changed person. Usually for the better in all facets of life. So why is it so hard to let go? Probably because there is limited communication during this time.

Well, there was one added emotion for my brother and I (yes, I know his wife and daughter also had the following thoughts on their mind.) Our mother died 30 years ago, and April 22 is her birthday. Our father died five and a half years ago. My brother and Kevin were both very close to him. My dad was able to see me off at the MTC and I know I was surprised to see his tears when I left. Today, I know he was all grins with my mom. I also know that my parents were present with us. Sitting there during the meeting, I reflected on my time at the MTC and how I had felt my mother's spirit close to me. Now, I know Kevin will experience a similar feeling with his grandfather, my dad.

The MTC is a hollowed place. There is a spiritual battle being fought there 24/7. I haven't felt that peaceful and closeness to my Heavenly Father in a long time. I wanted to stay there longer, but they do "push" you out quickly.

So my reason for going to the MTC was to support my brother and his family. I think I received much more support from them, and had more of a spiritual experience than I had anticipated. I shed a few tears during the meeting, but alone in my car I was overcome by the experience and grateful for it.

Here are a few pics of the entry and farewell:


Here is Judy putting on Kevin's missionary name tag. I'm disappointed you can't see the orange "dork" dot.



Although they look all smiles, Judy is crying.



And here is the big bear hug from father to son.

The Lesson of Take Your Medicine

So here is this seemingly cute little three year old playing doctor. Who could pass up getting her this dress up when her dad is a PA? Anyway, she loves to "listen" to your heart beat, and with this new outfit came a prescription pad. That is what she is handing to me . . . my prescription. How ironic!

Let a month go by, and she comes down with a whopping head cold. One day she begins crying and tugging at her ear. She has never done this before and I take her to the doctor. He discovers both ears are infected. So he prescribes an oral antibiotic. I tell the doctor she has quit taking any kind of medication and inquire about getting a shot. The doctor explains this would be a series of one shot for three days. Ah, we'll try to force feed the medication. We are scheduled to return in two weeks. I pick up the antibiotic and ear drops at the pharmacy.

Levi struggles with the idea of giving her an antibiotic with an ear infection which she never did complain about after leaving the doc's office. We half heartedly try to get her to take the oral meds and she continues to refuse. Her head cold gets worse and she has fevers and chills, but still never complains about her ear or anything. For the next two weeks she either slept in our bed, or made her demands to go downstairs and we (meaning Aly and I) slept in the recliner.

Two weeks have passed and I return to the doctor to explain that she never took the meds, but she did take some Advil the night before. Levi caught her at a groggy moment when she didn't fight. Our doctor looks at her ears and explains they are still infected. He goes on to tell me that they have found that in some cases ear infections have gone on to meningitis with small children. OK, that got my attention and I got serious about the fact that Aly needed the meds. Back to the pharmacy because the original meds was no longer viable.

That was Thursday. Do you think we could get Aly to take the medication? We tried various ways to slip it to her, but she was sly to our ways. I even tried to force it in with a syringe, but she coughed and sputtered and it all came back out. (wardrobe change!) We can't imagine where she gets her hard headedness from. So on Sunday, Levi checked her ears and they were still infected. Monday we were back at the doctor's office.

Aly went along with things for the first shot, but cried as soon as the needle went in. Then to add insult to injury we had to wait 15 - 20 minutes before we could leave to make sure she didn't have a reaction. Today she got her second shot. She doesn't mind going to the doctor's office because she can watch PBS in the waiting room. She got nervous when we were called back to the room, but she didn't begin to cry until the nurse came in with the medicine tray. And again we had to wait the fifteen minutes before they would let us leave.

One more day of the tears and betrayal. I just hope she learns her lesson. I have tried to re-enforce the reason she is getting the shots is because she wouldn't take her medicine. My only fear is that by the time she gets sick again and needs acetometifen or ibuprofen she won't really remember the consequences of her actions. We'll just have to wait and see.

What We Did

In my last post of "What Woud You Do", most of you agreed with what my friend Kendra and I did. We started at Carinos and ended up at Olive Garden. Although, paying $5 for two sodas was a shock. I think Carinos made more money from us for leaving. Thanks for all your comments!

What Would You Do?

Here is the scene. You and a beloved friend are going out for lunch. You decide that Italian is the cuisine of choice. Now you just need to decide which delicious restaurant. The closest Italian dining establishment is typically a little more pricey, but it is close and you are hungry. So since it is the lunch menu, you and your friend go in to check it out. You look over the menu before being seated and decide the prices are within limit.

So you are seated and are served your drinks. Still looking over your menu, neither of you can decide what you want to eat. The prices are a little more than you wanted to spend. You've already been served your drinks, but you haven't ordered. That other Italian restaurant just seems to be more what you wanted. So . . . .

Do you stay or do you go? Let me know your decision. I'll let you know what we did in a future post.

Jingle Bells?

Just some cousins sitting around the table serenading one another. I tried to get them to sing Jingle Bells. It almost worked.

This ought to make some parents and grandparents proud. These Marler kids and Bachler kid sure had a good time.

What did we do for Christmas?

We had a great Christmas vacation. Levi had a week plus off from work. On the 24th we awoke early to drive up to Utah and spend Christmas with Levi's family. We had a wonderful time visiting with all the relatives, playing in the snow, having a baby shower and going to Jumpin' Jacks. Aly was up by 7 am every morning, but she was up late (past 10 pm) every night. She had so much fun playing with all her cousins.

Here is Tyler, J, Marissa, Carter, & Aly


Aly was definitely spoiled by Santa this year. We have kept the gifts to a minimum in years past, but this year the mama elf went over board.

Aly with her new doctor set

An Ariel doll from the Little Mermaid

Best of all, the sack!



We also got to visit with two of Karen's nephews and met three great nieces/nephew that we haven't met before.


Joel & Brett - the two nephews




Joel, Lily & Rachel - nice to meet you Lily



Autumn, Seth, Cole, Bridgett, Kailey & buried is Brett. It was good to meet Bridgett & Seth.



It was a full trip and we had a ton of fun. Even Levi & Karen had fun playing with parents, aunt & uncle, siblings and all the the nieces & nephews. Thanks for the memories!!