Sundance, Utah 2008

Because of this (left), we got to do this(right). Chris got 2 weeks off to recover and we decided the only place he could properly heal and relax was Sundance, Utah. We loaded the blondies in the car and started our 11 hour trek to the snow capped mountains.

On our drive we stopped and stayed in Vegas with our good friends the Standfields. They took us to a fun little gelato shop where the kids rolled down green hills and ran around.

The winter snow wasn't completely melted and Tucker couldn't wait to play in it. He found these huge gloves and insisted on wearing them. The little mound in the back was all that was left at the house and it served the blondies well.

Tatum of course had to sample the dirty snow.

This is my favorite store in this whole wide world. It's this amazing home decorating store the size of Costco and it's filled to over flowing with flowers and rod iron things and little nick knacks and I really wish this wonderful store was here. I would drive to Salt Lake and back just to go to here.

While we were there we had to take the opportunity to crash a Riggs pizza/pool party. Sterling's little girl Aspen and Tater had a great time swimming at Clayton's house.

While we were there Chris turned the big 28, SO old! Here's the little party we had for him. He got some softball shorts and his new favorite an ASU freezer mug.

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis, happy birthday to you!

One of our favorite things to do ended up being rides up and down the mountain in the jeep with the hood off. We took a Sunday afternoon drive and the blondies loved the wind blowing in their hair.

We ended up on our Sunday drive at the Sundance Ski Resort. It's one of the most beautiful places and we couldn't help but take a thousand pictures. Smile big!

There's a little pond with fish in it, I think we spent a good half hour looking for a fish.

Still looking for fish.

Family photos, it's a love/hate relationship! Aren't the boys handsome!




















Photo shoot. Chris, the aspiring model!

Tatum is also an aspiring model.

We went to Bridal Veil Falls and the blondies and their dad braved the icy water. SO pretty!

Another major hit was playing in the jacuzzi. The mountain home has a room devoted to this very thing and every day we got to swim.

The last morning we were there it decided to snow. Can you believe that at the end of May it's snowing! We were so excited to see snow and sad to be leaving the cold weather.

I love how appropriately Tatum is dressed for the fridged temperatures!

Chris' sister Jill and her husband, Sean, live up in Sundance and they were so sweet to let us turn their quiet house up-side-down. Our evening routine was putting the children down, eating ice cream and falling asleep to movie. It was really fun spending time with them!

Ruptured Appendix

Well, as you can see Christopher had a hospital experience, poor boy had emergency surgery. Wednesday morning he was having some lower abdominal pain and it also pained him to use the bathroom. He thought to himself, "I have kidney stones," and goes and visits a urologist on his lunch. Fortunately he doesn't have kidney stones just a pulled abdominal muscle. As the day progressed his pain worsened and by the evening he was pretty darn sick. He skipped the hellos when he got home that night, skipped dinner, and went straight to bed. He iced his stomach thinking the cold would relieve the intense pain he was having but it didn't help. He absolutely refused to be taken to any sort of doctor, let alone the ER. He thought he could simply sleep it off. The next morning his alarm sounded bright and early and he could not get out of bed the pain was so excrutiating. He asked me to please remove his socks, as he couldn't bend over or stand up straight for that matter, so he could shower for work. When he could barely walk to me for his sock removal I requested that he quit being a hero and get back in bed, he was missing work. He could not find sleep and so I got up and showered. Eight o'clock rolls around and he's dying, can't breath, can't walk, can't move, nauseous, pale, low fever. It's time to take charge I tell myself. I let him know who was boss...ME, demanded him to take a shower, and let him know we were headed straight to the ER whether he liked it or not. Banner Gateway is a beautiful thing. We were the only ones there, he was back in a bed in 3 minutes speaking to a doctor. Beautiful! They ran several tests including a urine and blood test. We thought surely they would come back positive for an appendicitis but they came back clean. I had visions of having to be a tough, insistent wife that something really was wrong but fortunately the cat scan came back positive for an appendicitis and I was spared the drama. At 3:00 he was taken into surgery and at 3:27 the Dr came to report it had indeed ruptured and they were able to remove all the infection. He said it most likely ruptured a month previous and if he wasn't so healthy and active he would be recovering in the ICU or dead. We're thankful he's active! Chris made a speedy and complete recovery. At his 2 week check up the Dr was completely amazed at how flawlessly Chris had healed. He said in all his years of practice he's never seen an appendicitis case as severe as Chris's recover so quickly and completely. A big Thank You to Grandma and Grandpa for unexpectedly taking our blondies for 3 days!