The No Good Very Bad Rotten Weekend - Mostly that is

It's late and I am exhausted, however, before I go to bed I want to share my very eventful weekend. Although because it is late and I am exhausted the writing will likely be sub par at best.
I have been babysitting my brother Doran's 2 girls while he has been in Maui, cause I'm a super cool sister like that. This past weekend Orem City held it's annual Summer Festival. As a family we look forward to this event every year. It sort of kicks off summer for us. The weather this year was wet, rainy and cold. I turned on the heat in our home, it was that cold.
Friday. I promised the kids I would take them to the festival which includes a carnival. A carnival with those horrific, smelly, dirty rides. I mean what would a carnival be if it didn't have disgusting rides? Oh, and of course there is nothing like paying the equivalent amount of money for the carni tickets as we pay for our mortgage. And lucky me, this year Tom was at work so I was fortunate enough to take 7 kids by myself. But we had fun. Oh yes, we had fun. We had fun. We had fun. Maybe if I say it enough times I'll be over it and we can go again next year.
Friday night. At 10:30 Miles woke up screaming. He was screaming that his ear hurt and did not stop. I gave him medicine. Drops in the ear he wouldn't stop holding and also advil. I mention 10:30 because our pediatric after hours closes at 10:00. After about 30 minutes of him screaming so loudly that the entire neighborhood heard him I took him to the E.R. As usually horrible infection. The doctor sucked a bunch of really gross stuff out and he continued to scream. He has an infection in his middle ear as well as the outer part of his ear. The second part is what is usually referred to as swimmer's ear. Lake Powell syndrome for him. We see our ENT and Audiologist Tuesday. I was up with him until about 3:00 in the morning. It was a very long night.
Saturday. Summer fest activities resume. We planned on going to the parade and setting up camp in a good spot for the fire works. I planned a little better and asked my friend to come with her daughter. At the last minute, literally as I was getting kids ready for the parade my friend Joel Wright called. He is running for Utah County Commissioner. He asked us if we would join him in the actual parade, he was called minutes before he called us and was told he was able to be the last participant. I've been helping with his campaign a little which I have mixed feelings about. I can't recall ever in my voting life voting for a republican. However, I know Joel and though we went the rounds in high school A.P. History; Utah County could really do well by having his values and integrity as commissioner. So we marched in the parade. We held signs, gave out stickers, yelled to the crowd to vote and the kids got to throw candy. It was really fun, and then we were able to get a decent-ish spot for fireworks. The kids LOVED the fireworks. Basically, up until this point it was a great night. Then we drove home. My van was rear ended by a drunk driver. A drunk driver who was kind enough to pull into the Rite Aid parking lot behind me to see if there was any damage. He could barely stand up and from 10 feet away I could smell the stench of cheap beer. As I walked closer to him he tried to turn away. I didn't mention anything to him, only that we were fine. I got into the car and told Hannah my niece to get his plate number. She did, I called the police and about 2 hours later they called me telling me they found him and he was under the influence. I think they found him right away but waited to call me. Anyhow, I'm glad he only rear ended our van. There were so many families on the roads that night, driving home from the festivities, he could of killed someone or himself.
Sunday. We went to church. I had all 6 kids dressed, clean, fed and out the door at 9:05. We were late, but not nearly as late as we could have been for being up so late. It was my week to teach my young women. The lesson was about sharing the Gospel. I love these kinds of lessons. I had read it a few times and on Friday morning as I was looking it over I thought about how cool it would be to have my sister in law Kim's mom and her aunt speak to the girls about their conversion story. It is such a beautiful and inspiring story. They are from the Island of Jersey England. Their story is lengthy so I won't go into in this entry, but they did a fabulous job. There was a strong spirit in our class. I truly hope the girls felt it. The ripple affect from missionary work is amazing. Kim would have never married Adam thus not becoming my sister, she would have ended up somewhere besides Utah I'm sure. I am so grateful she IS my family eternally. Also, my friend Ann who is in the ward listened in and she has another fabulous conversion story. I wouldn't know her if she hadn't found the missionaries. She never would have ended up in Utah. Ripple affect, it's cool.
I wish Sunday, the weekend in general had ended there but it did not. Miles decided to jump off our ledge which separates the kitchen from the tv room, he was trying to land on the love sac which he has done many times. He missed the love sac and hit our vacuum - I think. I don't really know because all 3 witnesses gave me different stories. He wandered around crying and because it is a short jump and he wasn't crying to loud for the first 5 minutes I thought 'great now he will finally learn.' Then, the crying stopped. I looked for him and couldn't find him. Silly me, didn't think to look in his bedroom. He was in a very deep sleep in his bed. In his 3 1/2 years of life he has NEVER gone to sleep on his own. I tried to wake him up, I carried him to my bed and he was out, dead weight. I called Tom in a panic. He told me to do make sure I could wake him up. I stood him up and put a little water on his face while Tom was still on the phone. He whimpered a little then out came the vomit all over the bed, me, the floor, everything, Tom was still listening, I think we both knew this was serious. Another E.R. trip. I was panicked yet trying to keep calm because kids were everywhere. I texted Tom telling him to come home. Head injuries scare me. I loaded him up not bothering to get out of my own puked on dress. I gave Risi the spare cell phone we have and told her to call my mom to come get the other 5 kids. This meant with the 4 she is currently raising, plus Dorans 4 and my 3, well this Sunday my incredible retired parents were going to have 11 kids. We got to the hospital with more vomit on the way. He was also really struggling to stay awake. They got us in a room quickly which is also scary because there was a waiting room full of people. He had the CT scan and we moved his head into a small space then taped it down and he never woke up. I was more than freaked out. I had this awful fear that Heavenly Father was going to take him from me. I prayed. I cried and I prayed. Then we went back to his room and were told it would be 20 minutes for results. Liars. It was more than an hour. Then my sweet dad walked in, he found us. He had a white shirt and tie on prepared to give him a blessing. Not long after the doctor came in and told us there was no visible brain injury or skull fractures. It was just a concussion. Just a concussion. Tom walked in right about that time as well. We were able to take him home. He was actually quite animated for about 2 hours after he did finally wake up in the hospital. Then he once again became very tired and went to sleep for about 4-5 hours. Tom had to get back to work so he left, but I was so grateful he made it home even for a short time, Miles and I both needed him. After the long nap he was up for about another 2 hours then went back to sleep. He slept next to me only getting up once to throw up again. He also complained of a bad head ache. So I gave him some medicine and he slept until 10:00 the next morning. He was pretty mellow Monday until mid afternoon then he was back to his usual crazy, wild, very boy self.
It was a long strange weekend. It was strange because while we had some fun, it was also so very not fun.

Summer highlights

These are not all great quality pictures, however, I promised a summer re-cap so here you go.   Once we got past all the June rain, we had a fabulous summer.  We swam almost daily, we hiked, biked, scootered, camped, californiaed, (yes, the way we did it, made it an actual verb) had field trips, watched fireworks, played on the boat, danced, went to soccer camp, practiced piano, did summer chores, attempted to garden, and ended with Braden's high school football scrimmage.  I love summer with kids, this was our best so far.  They were my little buddies all day everyday.  I'm actually going to miss them while they are at school.  Thanks kids, most the time you are all pretty awesome. 

Friends, Family, good times

Robby

Robby and Miles

Heaton's pile of rocks taunting the kids to climb on

Moana, kids and I

'Ams, Me, and Mo

Mo and Risi jumping into the weeds

Risi and 'Ams

Leanna, me, Mo and 'Ams about 3:00 a.m.

My lifetime BFF's rolled into to town this weekend. Moana has been living in Harlem New York for the past 10 years maybe a little longer, an amazing artist, and poet. She is the youngest sister of the 4 Niumeitolu sisters I grew up with. 'Amelia and Moana are sisters. 'Amelia is currently living near Los Angeles and just graduated from California State University Northridge. 'Ams is a film maker and incredibly talented. Leanna is living in SLC and finishing up her schooling at the University of Utah, she also does a lot of volunteer work for several organizations. They are truly powerful, strong, intelligent women. I love them.
So, these are some pictures of Friday night and Saturday morning. They left me on Saturday to go to my beloved Moab. I couldn't make the trip, something about not being single and having 4 kids. Someday.

I didn't get any pictures of my last trip to California to visit Ryan's family. I forgot my camera. It made me slightly sick to my stomach to not get beach pictures this summer with Ry's kids. I have beach pictures of the last 3 summers. Regardless of the pictureless trip, we had a great time, and driving alone there and back was not so bad. I left Risi in St. George for a few days with her cousin Abby, she loved every minute of being with her. I think she felt like she was finally being acknowledged for the big kid she is by being left 'alone.' I missed the heck out of her, and was so glad when she came home 3 days later.

The summer re-cap will be coming soon. I will say for June sort of being a sucky month, this summer has been one of my favorites. We have played so hard and had so much fun, it makes me tear up to think it's coming to an end.

June is here

This top picture is of Robby's cast OFF of him. It was so disgusting after almost 8 long weeks. He is doing so well one week out of the cast. He is limping and by night time he is limping more dramatically than in the morning, but refuses to admit it hurts. There are also a couple pictures of Tom at Starvation lake, it is a few miles from where he works. And, then there are some adorable pictures of my new little nephew Sunia Sanft. He is the sweetest little baby ever! I think Kameron should let me take him for a few years, I'll give him back when he starts to say "No." Really, I could hold a new baby, any new baby for hours.
We are definitely having summer here. I think I have gone through a bag of popsicles today, and kids are outside having water fights. I'll try to catch up more later.