So we are officially decided on going to law school in
Moscow Idaho! Yay for Idaho… right? We
will be making the move the first week in August. I’m surprisingly excited for the move. It feels very refreshing to be taking the
steps that will lead us closer to our goals, and I feel safe knowing that this
is where we are supposed to be. It’s also
exciting to be on another journey with our little family that will be getting a
little bit bigger very soon. However I do
know there will be challenges along the way.
I feel that we are all up for the trial and that we will adjust very
quickly. I guess I’m still not sure how Owen
will react regarding the new addition to our family, but I can’t imagine that
he will be too upset considering how much he loves all of his cousins. My guess is that he might just be a little
confused as to why I’m not just looking and his face every second of the day. I can honestly say the only part that I’m
totally dreading, besides saying goodbye to everyone again, is packing all of
our stuff up. I’m so tired and pregnant
I really don’t know how we will do it.
Well enough about that, we went to Yellowstone. This was Cousin Sam Neff’s last adventure
with the family before he left on his mission.
We will miss him, but he is being a great example to our little
Onie. We shared a Cabin with Shannon and
Jill and that was a wonderful adventure.
Mike and I were lucky enough to score the only room with a door. The drive up wasn’t too long compared to
other’s we have taken. When we finally
got there Owen was in heaven. In Owen’s
eyes there is nothing better than dirt and rocks. So this was the perfect place for him.
That night we had tacos for dinner, they were delicious and Owen liked them
too. When it comes to food 90 percent of
the time Owen will not let me feed him. So
I’m very used to putting food and his tray and letting him eat until he starts
throwing it on the floor,then I
know that he is not hungry anymore. But
we didn’t have that option so I tried to just share mine with him. He ate some but in my defense it didn’t seem
like much.
When it was time for the kids
to go to sleep I wanted to make sure he wouldn’t be hungry so I gave him some
of a granola bar and got him a bottle of milk.
Normally Owen doesn’t drink a whole thing of milk before bed, but he was being very cuddly and just kept
drinking. When he finally threw the
bottle aside it was almost gone. I
thought to myself 'good he will go bed with a full tummy.' Well that was an understatement because about
two minutes later he coughed and it all came back. And not just a little bit of food. It was a lot of food!!!! I mean it was everywhere. So I yelled for Michael to come help. Meanwhile Jill is prancing around the cabin laughing
and saying things like "I just hope he’s not going to bed hungry." I sat in a pile of throw up while everyone
in our cabin is running around and giggling.
I do have to give credit where credit is due. Jill did immediately take Owen out of my arms
and give him a bath. Apparently I packed him pretty tight.
We all get up in the morning and head off to
Yellowstone. I grab a bag of chex mix because
we were with the group and weren’t going to be in the cars for too long. Plus I wasn’t in charge of snacks or lunch
for that day so I thought we’d just grab some treats from the other cars at one
of the stops. Well unfortunately we let
some random car go in front of us and got separated from the group. We didn’t have any cell phone service and our
walkie-talkie died cutting off all communication. We weren’t sure where
everyone was stopping so we drove around looking for them. At this point we had eaten all of the chex
mix and it was definately time for lunch.
The only thing that kept going through my head was how ironic it was
that I stuffed Owen so full of food the night before and then starved in the
morning!!!! I felt so bad that I didn’t
have food for him that I was ready to have Mike pull over at a camp site and
ask someone if we could steal some crackers for my son. I know it sounds silly that I was so worried
but I just felt bad that at this point we had been in the car for about 4
hours. Owen was being such a
trooper but I knew he was hungry so we
decided to say a quick prayer that we would find our family and some food.
About 20 minutes later we saw a gas station and we decided
to go get some food for Owen and let him out of the car for a bit. As we were looking for a parking spot a navy
blue van with a cute hart shaped wheelchair sticker on the back window pulled in
front of us. Hurray for family decals! The rest
of the trip Mike wouldn’t let any cars pass us and we never got lost again J.
Yellow Stone Pictures.
Grizzly bear with Owen.
Eating pinecones.
Luv mah momma.
Nunny is as tall as owen.
Riding high.
Steamy hot stinky pool.
Eating rocks.
Too Cool.
Big kisses.
Leashed up.
Pirate boy.
Thugg Life.
Couldn't tell which one was his.
Not Prada but still cool.
Sleepy.
Primary Children’s.
Primary Children's is an amazing hospital and they help so
many kids. Up until this point we have
never had to take Owen anywhere near there.
The last couple of days we were in Yellowstone I noticed Owen was very congested
and coughing a lot. But he seemed to be
dealing with it just fine. I knew it had
been a long trip and we just needed to get home. Luckily we were leaving in the morning so I wasn’t
too worried. That night he didn’t sleep
well and his breathing was heavy. He
kept coughing and gaging so I brought him bed with us because I knew he wasn’t
feeling himself. Owen had gotten sick a
few times before this and it affected his breathing in the same way. So I was glad we were on our way back home.
As we continued to drive into the night Owen would fall
asleep. I knew that he wasn’t feeling
his best but sometimes it’s hard to tell just how bad he is feeling because he always
so playful and happy. He finally passed
out as we were arriving in Salt Lake City.
The rest of the night was awful he couldn’t sleep and coughed so hard he
threw up. Mike grabbed and took him
into the shower to wash him off and hopefully get some of the gunk of his nose and throat. I went
and got the nebulizer with some meds that the doctor had told me to use help
him breathe better. We got him all
cleaned up and Michael held him as I gave him the medicine. When I was done Mike handed to me and said we
need to give him a blessing. At that
moment I could explain how grateful I was to the priesthood and for having
husband that was able to pass a blessing from our Heavenly Father to our
children.
After Mike gave Owen a blessing we were all able to sleep for
a few hours. In the morning we took him
to the doctor and they gave him another treatment just like the one we had done
in the night. Then they tested him again
to see if it helped. It did, but not
enough so they sent us up to primary children’s where they hooked him up to a
bunch of monitors and had a breathing specialist come look at him. He said that he needed to clean out the gunk that
was in lungs and that it wasn’t going to make Owen very happy. The specialist recommended that if it would
be to upsetting for me then I should leave the room. Michael said that I should go and that he
would stay so I let him because I was barely hanging on at this point as it
was. When I came back they were giving
him steroids to help open up his lungs and a double dose of the breathing
treatment. Owen was finally getting some
good air in his lungs and fell right to sleep.
About an hour later they came and said his breathing was not consistent
enough for him to go home tonight and that he need to be hooked up to oxygen. I was so grateful that they could help and
keep him safe. But I was so sad that he
had gotten that sick I just kept thinking that is was my fault because of our
trip and lack of sleep. Even though I know
that this thing just happen sometime I still feel responsible. I try so hard to make sure that he is happy
and has everything in the world that he would want or need. So when something like this happens and I can’t
just fix it or ease his pain then it’s heartbreaking. I’m felt so lucky so have Mike with me. He stayed up all night with Owen at the
hospital and held him and loved him so that I could finally get some sleep as
well.
In the morning Owen started to perk up again he was eating
and laughing. It was so refreshing to
see him happy and awake. They released him
from the hospital and said we could just give him breathing treatment at home until
he was better. All and all it was a wild
experience and it makes you count all of your blessing that much more. I will always be grateful to Primary children’s
for helping my sweet Onie get better.
Hospital pictures.
Car wash with Daddy!!!
Forth of July fun!!!
Trying to eat the sparkler.
Trying on hats at the store with his cosin Mya.
Foldding his arms. He is such a good boy.
Cabin fun!!!
Eating a stick.
Playing with all the Nickell cousins.
This boy loves animals so much.