Autism and Alex

My cousin Kris has a son who is autistic. She and her husband Mark are incredible parents and deal with many challenges that I could never imagine. I admire them for what they are able to accomplish. They have put together a video to share with the young women and young men in their area to help those kids know more about Alex. I couldn't help sharing this with all of you. Maybe it can help more of us understand autism just a little bit better. Oh, and you may want to have a Kleenex at hand.

The link is www.thepingrees.blogspot.com .

Celebrating the 24th (sorry, I know it's long)

We started our day off early on the 24th. Levi dragged us all out of bed at 0500. He had plans to run in the Hinckley, Utah annual Fun Run. It started at 0800, so with a 2 hour drive ahead of us, I guess we had to get up early. All I can say is Levi had 3 grumpy people with him in the car for the drive down. Thankfully, by the time we arrived to Hinckley, we were all coping a little better. Hinckley is Levi's hometown, I think it has a population of 100. Well, maybe it's more than that, but it's pretty small. They go all out on the 24th. There is a parade, a bbq at the park and then it's wrapped up with a rodeo that night. So, Levi and his sister Brenda started their morning with a good old healthy run. The rest of us had some breakfast, sat in the shade, and waved as they went by. Then it was off to the parade. A small town parade is the best. The floats may not be as fancy, and you my have only one marching band, and not quite as many cars with people you don't know driving them, but you get candy thrown at you. If you are a kid, it doesn't get any better! If you are the mom, don't let it hit you, it can hurt. Luke and Cort collected huge bags of candy. We have so much I think we will be able to use it for Halloween. It may be a little hard, but no one will remember what house they got it from, right!?

After the ever important diet coke run (it was already 1000, and I had not had one yet!), we headed over to the park. The boys played a few games and after a few speeches, Levi's dad recited a little cowboy poetry. Always good! Levi, the boys, and I then dragged ourselves to lunch and to the hotel room. Luckily, the room was ready early. Levi and I were just going to take a little nap. Almost 3 hrs later we woke up and were grateful our boys had managed to entertain themselves without causing any damage. Whew!

After another diet coke stop, it was out to Hinckley to sign the boys up for Muttin' Bustin' at the rodeo. It's a lottery draw because so many kids sign up, Luke was lucky enough to draw out. At least that is what he thought before the event. Cort did not draw out. He hung his head down and slumped his shoulders over and walked over to tell me. I wish I had that on video. The kid knows how to put on a show! Luke was so excited about it. Levi asked Luke if he had butterflies in his tummy before going out for his ride. "No, Dad" was his answer and I can imagine it came with a little eyerolling. Not sure where he gets that from. Brenda barrellraced and then the muttin bustin began. It was exciting. The sheep quickly took off and the cowboy or cowgirl would hang on with all they had. Luke made it out of the shoot and lasted a couple of seconds and then off he went. He wasn't quite quick enough, and the sheep was trying to get out of his way, unfortunately, Luke was stepped on in the process. After being stepped on the head by the sheep, he was not feeling so lucky, but he walked away with only minor scrapes and bruises. Levi got Luke to cowboy up and go get his T-shirt for making the ride. At this point, the kids were exhausted, I made a huge sacrifice and took them back to the hotel for a little swimming and sleeping. And of course, made a stop for a diet coke on the way. Levi then went back to the rodeo and had a great time with no children and no wife to be seen. He claims he wished we were there.

Luke after his run-in with the sheep. He's sure makes a good cowboy in his hat and chaps.

The best thing about sleeping in a hotel is the black out curtains. You can wake up at 1000 and have no idea you have slept in that late. It is fabulous. This is how our morning started. We were in no hurry on Friday, so we took our time getting ready. Grabbed breakfast at McD's and drove out to say goodbye to Brenda at the house. We were gearing up for a full day of Trilobite hunting. For those of you don't know what that is, too bad. No really, it's digging for bug fossils in the rock/mountains west of Delta. All 3 of my boys love it.

Luke "catches" a trilobite.

Luke and Cort attack the wall of rock.

Boys and cowboy boots, couldn't live without either of them!

They spend all day out in the sun hammering in the rock. It's hard work. I watch and read a book. It's hard work too. Levi's Dad works out at the U-Dig fossils and the boys try to go out at least once a summer to dig and play in the dirt. On our way to and from the fossil dig, we did a little geocaching and had a successful hunt in all four of our caches. It's about time too. We haven't had much luck finding the caches up here in the city. We were a little worried. Send us out in the desert in the middle of no where and we find 100% of them. Go figure. Next we headed back to Hinckely to say goodbye to Grandma and the Colonel, grabbed some dinner and we were on the road to West Jordan around 8pm. Somehow we managed to squish a lot of activity into a little over 36 hours. I'm exhausted just typing about it. In fact, I think I'll go take a nap.

P.S. Just one last picture. It was 9pm and we were driving home, Levi pulls of the road and gets out of the car and starts taking pictures. I wasn't the happiest person waiting for him to get back into the car. It could have been I was a little tired and onery, but I doubt it. When he does get in the car, he says "I needed to get a picture of the windmill". I may have rolled my eyes and said "whatever" and then we were off again. Well, here is the picture, no fire around, just an incredible sunset. Seriously, how did he do that?

More Summer Fun

Luke reels it in.

The day after we got home from the lake, Levi bravely got the boys up early and headed off to go fishing. This left me with a whole day to myself. It was super hard to be alone. Shopping, getting a pedicure, enjoying a great book. It was a rough day. I was all alone. It was sooooooooo sad. I get teary just thinking about it. Oh wait, this is about fishing, so anyway, they went with the Colonel. I think they went to a lake down by Gunnison, but you should probably not quote me on that. I'm not really sure how Luke and Cort do it, they always catch something. I don't think they have fished and come home empty handed (to bad for me). But, seeing how this isn't about me (I know, it's hard to believe), I am always happy they have had such a good catch and had a great time with their Dad and Grandpa. This time they managed to bring home the 7 fish that Luke caught. The couple that Cort caught went home with Colonel. I am lucky enough to have 6 trout and one albino trout (totally gross) in my freezer. Yeah for me!!!Cort admires his own catch of the day.

Luke will be starting second grade in a couple of weeks. It's amazing how fast time can fly! Being that he is 7, we thought he was way over due in learning to ride his bike. I think it would have happened last summer, but I wasn't sure in my ability to help him. So, I decided this was something that could wait until Levi was home. So, with a little encouragement from Luke's mom, Levi and Luke headed out to see what they could accomplish. It was a bit of a rough start for him, and I was a little worried about what Luke would do when he fell. He impressed us with his attitude, and would climb back on and try again. Levi realized his seat was a little too high. He got that fixed and now Luke rides like a rockstar. We can't keep up with him, but Cort and his tonka bike sure make a good effort!

Gettin' away

Sandie has turned into a big slacker (or she has been really busy). Tara and Sandie's mom have already posted the events of the holiday weekend, and here we are in the middle of the following week. But I won't let all you bloggers and blog stalkers down, Sandie has sent Levi to the rescue.

So as Sandie was pointing out in the previous post, Bear Lake is not just a vacation, or just camping, or just the annual pilgrimage to enjoy the holiday. Bear Lake is the culmination of friends and family and everything that makes little kids smile. We had such a great time with everyone there. We had fun with Uncles Lee and Joe (Uncle Animal), our new friends the Platte's and the Hodge's.

So we took full advantage of what Bear Lake has to offer. Starting with Big Bear Pizza, mmmmm.....mmmm...mmmmmm. Smores, and now more easily assembled thanks to the folks at Nabisco for making the perfect square sized graham crackers.

We convoyed up to the Minnetonka Cave, it was awesome; one set back, there is not a restroom inside the cave. And you can't take your drinks in with you. That's okay, they might get too cold, it is only 40 degrees in the cave.

Our intentions to do a little Geo-Caching were postponed due to the boys' determination to get down to beach and enjoy the lake. Down at the lake shore, there is much to do; sandcastles, gathering sea shells, water fights, waverunners, inflatable tubes and boats, chilling under the canopies, and just taking a nap.

Uncle Dave's and Cousin Bethany's ATVs were the cat's meow. So much that the RICH County/Bear Lake Park constables did not pass up the chance to rain on the kids having a little safely supervised fun by issuing a citation for having fun and enjoying the day at the lake. It's not the officers' faults; they didn't have a single other group of people to witness riding an ATV.

The kids can't help themselves but to have a good time doing what ever it is that they want. Jennifer gathered the kids and had them involved crafts and they built they own sun visors.

So here is to our next trip up to Bear Lake. Thank you Richard and Shirley for sharing that little slice of paradise, it is building a lifetime of memories.

Blogger's Block

I've been trying to come up with a fun and creative post for the last couple of days. Here is what I have come up with, nothing. Not just a "well, maybe I could post about ....", no there is nothing coming to mind. I am having my first official blogger's block. I know eyes are being rolled, but I'm pretty sure it's a real term. Seriously, it is.

At our house we are preparing for one of our favorite weekends of the summer, it's the weekend we spend at Bear Lake. Normally, we go on the 24th of July, but this year schedules have been harder to work around, so the 4th it is. I've been hearing lots of rumors about the mosquito's. Not looking forward to that. I went shopping today for food over the weekend, spent just as much as I normally spend on 10 days worth of groceries. Add in gas, a long drive in the car (hopefully improved with the addition of a new DVD player that the boys can't wait to try), sitting on the beach in the hot sun, coming home exhausted instead of rested, just a little dirty, a pile of laundry, and whole lot of stuff to put away, I wonder why we do it every year.

Then as I was organizing some pictures, I realized this is why. My kids love every second of it. Luke asks when we are going again on the drive home. The thought of playing in the water, playing games with their cousins, smores, frogs, sleeping in a tent, and building whatever they can think of in the sand keeps them wanting to come back year after year or week after week if they had it their way. We get to spend time with my cousins and their kids, aunts, uncles, and my brothers and sister. In a way it's a little family reunion. And, although we might full of crazy people (seriously, "Uncle Animal" will be there), it's family and we love it.

For Mom

My mom is constantly reminding me and my brothers and sister about the importance of food storage. For example, last Christmas we all got a bottle of molasses. The year before we got a huge bag of beans. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it. I mean food storage is tough. Who has the storage space to collect a years worth of food for 4 people?!

Levi and I have been trying to clean out our garage for quite sometime. Everything from our basement was out there while we finished the basement. Somehow, we were both motivated to do it today. Why am I writing this? To show you the following picture. Holy cow! I had know idea we had this much.

There are 54 cans of food. Who knew! I had no idea we had that many boxes of food. Getting it all on shelves helped us realize how much there is. Now I have 2 problems. Some of it really old (1999), no idea how long I can keep it. The second, ummm, does anyone know how to use red wheat, dry milk, and pinto beans?

As far as the garage goes, we made a huge dent, but it is amazing how much we (okay, mostly Levi) can accumulate in 10 years. That being said, he got rid of a lot of stuff. A huge accomplishment for him. Well, someone may have been standing over his shoulder while he went through stuff, but still, he did a great job!

Our New Family Fun

The boys and I decided we would get Levi Guitar Hero for Father's Day. I thought it would be a great thing for the boys and Levi to do together. Little did I know. I had never played before, and I probably should have kept it that way. I was right that the boys and Levi have a great time playing. Cort even hits a few notes when he strums or holds down one of the keys. Luke is fantastic. Why is it a 7 year old can play that well? Levi has played before and picked it up quickly. I however, was not so good. But, I did not give up. No, instead of stopping when I couldn't hit a note, I kept trying. I should have stopped. Now I'm addicted. Last night after work I went down around 9:30. I was planning on playing for 30 min or so. After telling myself I would only play one more song over and over, I finally made it to bed around 1:30 in the morning. Does anyone know of a support group?