Lacorsse - Taylor

Taylor is playing defense for varsity this year.  It is a total change for her with the new coach and she is adjusting well.  She is so grateful to be playing after missing all of last year.  Here are a few pictures.

Phantom of The Opera

Ed surprised us and bought tickets for Phantom in Philadelphia a few months ago.  There are usually not night games on Friday for girls lacrosse, but wouldn't you know there was for this of all nights.  Taylor couldn't miss her game, but Cami got to invite a friend to take her place.  Sylvia is an expert in all things Phantom and we loved having her come with us.  We had good food, great chocolate from a little shop down the street, and loved the show.  The phantom was amazing and I even cried during his last song.  It was beautiful.

The theater was an absolute perfect setting for the show and we loved all the little details.  We stopped in the Kimmel Center to pick up our tickets and wandered around for a few minutes.

Ed's Skin

Ed and I are both very lucky in that we have olive skin and don't burn.  The down side to that is that we have not always been good about wearing sunscreen.  When we went to Puerto Rico I noticed that as soon as Ed went in the sun he had a red spot on his right cheek pop out.  It persisted, so I drug him into the dermatologist to see what they thought.  They were not alarmed, but said that it was definitely due to sun damage and that if we were proactive about treating it we could avoid more invasive treatments and removals later in life.  So I talked him into the treatment they recommended and got the prescription.  It is basically a chemical peel and is activated by damaged skin.  Unfortunately it is very painful and no amount of warning could prepare poor Ed for how much it was going to hurt.  You have to apply the medicine 3 days in a row and by day 3 he was really hurting.  We are well into the healing phase now and the red spot and other brown spots are all gone and replaced with new baby pink skin.  Now I just have to remind him to put on plenty of sunscreen every day to protect the new skin while it heals.  The moral to this post... wear your sunscreen!

Here he is at day 3.  Both cheeks are just full of blisters.

Here he is at day 5. 

I'll post some pictures of the healed skin soon when more of the redness has gone away.

Finger Injury

The same day that the girls were in the accident, Taylor had to go to the doctor for her finger.  She dislocated it in practice after getting hit by a stick and had to have a teammate put it back in place.  Needless to say, we wanted to make sure it wasn't broken and find a way to splint it so she could play.  X-rays showed it was fine, just some ligament damage, so they sent us down the road to a hand therapist and she made this awesome splint in about 10 minutes.  She shaped it so that she could grip her stick and it is hard enough to protect from future blows.  It was a long day for Taylor, but in the end she was able to play and didn't have to worry about losing her starting spot.

Ooops!

Taylor had her first scary car experience.  She was driving to school on a slightly icy morning when the person coming at her decided to dodge a pot hole and came into her lane.  She swerved to avoid them and her back end just kept sliding around until she went off the road and got really stuck in a ditch.  Luckily we have AAA and they came right out to pull her out.  The hill was so slick that the police called to have a salt truck come and salt it before another accident occurred.  Luckily, no one was hurt and the car came out with only some minor issues.  We are always grateful to make it through a scary experience unharmed.  I hate those phone calls when you immediately know something is wrong and your heart sinks, but am so grateful everyone is safe.  Good old Hank has served us well for over 10 years now and I'm glad we get to keep him a little longer.

Care Packages

Grammy was here for the weekend as well and we got busy putting together packages for Dallin.  There is very little familiar food available to him on Christmas Island and he has lost a lot of weight from being sick in the first few weeks.  We sent a series of boxes before with protein powder, meal replacement bars and other non-perishable goodies.  He really loved getting the food and since we know it will take a few months for it to arrive we got a bunch of boxes ready to send off again.  I'm always glad to have my mom here to help me on a project.  We were so excited thinking about him getting to have something good to eat :)

Jenna and Taylor

Jenna came to visit for Cami's play and Taylor's birthday.  She and Taylor are considering rooming together at BYU and I think they would have a blast together.  They are in constant laughter when they are together and this weekend was no different.  Here they are arm knitting scarves.

Dear Edwina

Cami was in her middle school's production of Dear Edwina.  She was a chorus member and got to dance and sing along to many of the songs.  She had such a good time going to practices and getting to know new people.  We are so proud of her and look forward to many more productions in the future!

Taylor's Birthday

Taylor's Birthday fell on a particularly busy weekend.  We had Cami's play, the Taylor's were in town, Grammy was in town, and she had SATs the next day.  We decided to have chocolate fondue after the play and invited a bunch of her friends to join us.  We had a lot of fun and were glad everyone could be there to celebrate.

Taylor is such an amazing young lady.  She is busy with so many activities, early morning seminary, 3 AP classes, Lacrosse, YW group, and just being a teenager.  We are constantly amazed at her talents and ability to accomplish goals.  Our family is blessed by her energy, determination, and compassion.  We sure love you Taylor!