Odds & Enz

After our crazy October, November was thankfully pretty low key. We explored the area a bit more, with trips to Nubble Lighthouse and Plymouth, MA. We are trying to squeeze everything we can into our last bit of time here in the east!

Donuts from the best shop ever, Little Bigs. The west just doesn't quite do donuts like the east, and I'm sure going to miss the many bakeries out here.

Crossing one of the many rivers out here.

Stopping for the most delicious sandwich I have ever eaten at a random gas station.

Beautiful Nubble

There were a couple seals that kept popping their heads out at the kids in this little bay, but I couldn't quite get a picture of one.

Ryley signing his real life, big boy, we worked really hard for this moment, first attending job contract with Utah Valley Emergency Physicians! We are so excited!!!

And to make the moment even sweeter, our best friends from Maine were right next to us, signing the exact same contract. :) Wahoo@

The day we thought we helped make history. But now, at the very least, we are more motivated to become involved in politics than ever. Watch out Utah, here we come! ;)

Evy practicing her gymnastics

Mia and her best buds

Logan's self portrait

My future scientist

Mia wanted to know how big a blue whale actually was, so we measured and drew one on the street in front of our house. We got a lot of funny looks, but it was super cool to see how big one actually is!

Me being creative with seashells. It's a little tiny nativity!

Christmas shopping at the bean

Pizza making kiddos

These ladies are hilarious

If you find Mia, you will find Evy

Eve's allergy tests that confirmed her egg allergy. We are now the proud owners of a lot of epic pens.

The cast finally came off! Wahoo! The poor guy couldn't quite look at his beat up arm with all its scarring and scabs for a bit, but after playing with lots of putty and rock climbing, he now has his full range of motion back! Yeah for awesome doctors!

Evy found the pumpkin pie.

Ry teaching the kids anatomy with the turkey heart.

The day after Thanksgiving we took off for Plymouth, MA and scored this super fun, kind of sketchy motel on the beach. And by super sketchy, I mean we were woken up by the lights of a police car and some sort of arrest happening in the room next to us. Ah, yet another story for the books.

Evy wouldn't let go of that pizza for anything.

There were these random lobsters everywhere around Plymouth at the historic sites.

Plymouth rock! These kids' great grandmother x23 was the first person to step onto land from the Mayflower!

So cool

We walked around burial hill for awhile and saw a lot of really neat graves from the 1600's.

The bay the Mayflower came into

After walking around Plymouth for a good long while we ventured off to Plimoth Plantation, which is a 17th century village with actors and everything.

James Chilton, his wife (name unknown) and his daughter Mary are our ancestors! James died while the Mayflower was still in harbor, so he is either buried at see or out on the peninsula. His wife's remains are in this tomb. Mary is buried in a cemetery in Boston, the same one Paul Revere is buried in. We actually walked by her grave a year ago when we visited it, but didn't know we were related until we did our research for this trip.

This is how we felt about most of October:

So this is how we survived it:

After returning home from Oregon, we had a few days to relax (read: wait for the swelling in Logan's arm to go down) before his surgery.

I should have taken all the "you can do hard things" talks in General Conference as a warning. ;)

Sweet Mia is super awesome at her swimming lessons!

Evy longingly looks on every time, just waiting for the day she can jump in!

What happened when I asked Mia to make a play dough self portrait.

Then, before we knew it, it was the day of Logan's surgery. I, of course, was a nervous wreck, but had to pretend to be brave because this guy was totally showing me up. He walked right in, was super excited about the TV in the room, and never once teared up. I was so proud of this kid! They let me go into the OR with him while they put him to sleep, and he was such a goofball, making jokes and giggling with the laughing gas. My heart was torn out of my chest when I had to leave when he finally conked out, but he did so great. They wanted to try a closed reduction, but there ended up being a muscle that got caught between the two broken ends of the radius, so they had to open him up. They also put a wire in his arm. I was expecting Logan to be super grumpy when he woke up, but he was the sweetest kid, asked for a popsicle, and kept telling me it was weird to have a numb arm. On the way home (while still kind of loopy) He told me that there were either 1000 balls bouncing around in his arm or 1000 people shooting off fireworks. He also created pumcporn, which is apparently pumpkin + corn. I love this kid so much!

This wire has since come out (rather painfully) and he gets the cast off the day before Thanksgiving!

The day after the surgery Logan really wanted to get out of the house, so we went to Pumpkin Valley Farm, thinking to celebrate the fact that the stressful part of our month was over. Ha!

Mia and her very best friend, Ellie

Every fall our pine tree sheds tons of these surprisingly soft pine needles.

The other day I put Mia in timeout on the couch. When I glanced in that direction, I couldn't see her anywhere. So, I walked around the house, shouting various threats and punishments if she didn't get back on the couch. Then I heard the giggles. This girl! Can you see her?

When Evy was napping, Mia wanted to play outside with me. And by play, she meant cover me in pine needles, steal my phone, and take random pictures of everything.

Obligatory New England apple picking!

It looks pretty calm and peaceful, but actually we were freaking out the entire time because we had to decide by the next morning what job Ryley would take from all the offers that came in. Which meant where we will be moving our family next July. We had to make the decision that our lives have been leading up to for the past 10 years. Ahhh! Talk about stressful.

Apple donuts!

Mia passing on her Chi to us.

Obligatory New England leaves. It was so incredibly hard to choose a place to move to when Maine looked like this. I never want to leave Maine!

Happy peaceful, beautiful leaves. Logan happily recovering. Our minds mostly made up about our next move. And then...

The huge Evy armpit. I noticed a bump in Evy's armpit on Saturday morning. We took her to the pediatrician on Monday. They ran a whole bunch of scary tests on her, and after 24 anxiety and tear filled hours, we got the great news that it probably wasn't cancer. We got her on antibiotics, but by Thursday this thing had swollen to the size of a baseball. After a trip to the pediatric surgeon and a long day in the emergency room, Evy was taken into surgery. Exactly a week after I kissed Logan as he was put to sleep in the OR, I held my sweet Evalyn as she was put under in that same room. An incredibly stressful hour later, one of my new favorite people, Dr. Neilson, came out to tell us that everything had gone great and it was simply a huge abscess. That he had scraped out really well.

She also woke up pretty happy from anesthesia. She was starving and downed two pedialytes, two cherry popsicles, and a cup of ice before we were finally let out of the post surgery area.

When we got back to her room (we were admitted) she leapt at the McDonalds the sweetest friend ever had brought our family and promptly downed my Big Mac.

She was so bored in this hospital, since we were in isolation until her labs came back to make sure her infection wasn't something scary. (It wasn't)

We played in the closet

Under the crib she refused to sleep on

On the crib

Seriously, the cutest thing in a hospital gown.

We were released just in time to enjoy some fall leaves.

And try out some Halloween costumes. :)

And have one last, beautiful beach day

Mia now gets the trampoline all to herself, since her brother isn't allowed back on for at least 6 months, doctor's orders.

Look at my front yard!

and my side yard!

And my backyard!

Out of all of the beautiful leaves, this was Logan's very favorite one. :)

Evy pumpkin carving

The kids picked their own designs. I shouldn't be surprised Logan and Mia picked terrifying ones!

Ry wanted to join in with the creepy theme, so did the boogey man.

This girl finished her antibiotics, and the swelling has finally gone all the way down. We don't think she will need another surgery, so my cortisol levels are slowly returning to normal.

This kid turned 7!!!!!!!

He wanted a snaffle (snorkel), and camping/hiking gear.

And, of course, a skylanders cake.

What a wonderful little man this kid is! This year has flown by, and he has grown so much. He is completely independent (well, he was until the whole broken arm thing). He can read like a champ, and can hold adult level conversations, which is so fun. He comes home and tells me all about his friends' views on politics, and he is currently very concerned about the refugee crisis and is very worried about all the homeless now that cold weather is approaching. He cares so much about others, and is the best big brother! He loves swimming and soccer and hiking and bike rides. Mostly, he just loves friends. And running. Keeping him from breaking his other arm this past month has been the challenge of my life. We love this growing boy so much, and are so lucky to have him in our lives!