What a FUN Sunday! (not)

So on the Sunday before my birthday...let's see, what day would that be? May 19th? I think that's it.... Troy had a really REALLY rotten day. I pretty much did too.

This is what happened.

We were having a nice regular day. It was the early afternoon, and we were in just getting ready to take Emma to see a friend for a little while when Troy suddenly let me know that his lower back was spasming. Within minutes of trying to stretch it out or find a comfortable posture, he was in the fetal position on the living room floor, convulsing and vomiting. Turns out that I can get a bowl to a person really really fast when it's a puke emergency.

It took about an hour for Troy to decide he would let me take him to the emergency room. He was beyond miserable. We called two dear neighbors, Cuz Jason and Bobby, to come give him a blessing and help me get him to the hospital. I literally could not have done it. Troy was not mobile and he needed more than one of us to hang on to him he was shaking so hard.

So...any guesses? What was Troy's mystery illness?

You got it...Kidney Stones!

After another couple of hours involving lots of drugs, fluid, more puking and me trying to keep him breathing after the really good drugs kicked in (morphine did not really help), he had a scan which revealed two kidney stones. One was still in the kidney and one was on its way out, which was causing the problem.

We enjoyed a little more time there at the hospital before going home and getting Troy some rest and LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of water with lemon juice in it. We had heard this could really help.

You know what's funny? It's now almost mid-July and he still hasn't passed a stone, nor has he had another episode of kidney stone movement. At this point we are pretty sure that all the acidic lemon juice just disintegrated the stones. At least we sure hope so - we'd prefer to never repeat that experience ever EVER again.

We figured that Troy developed these stones in part due to an amazing job he's done of shedding some pounds over the spring; more than 30! He's done a great job. But friends, if you're on a weight-loss journey be sure to not skimp on the water, okay? Because...you do not want to go through this. Trust me.

Matthew Day, Year 12

This year's celebration was a quiet one. There weren't many changes we made to our annual celebration of our baby Matthew. We all take great comfort in celebrating just the same way. This year Matthew's birthday was on a Sunday so instead of buying a take-out dinner we made a picnic and headed to our favorite park up in the hills behind the capital. We made sure to get extra balloons in case of balloon mishaps - experience has taught us that much at least! We really just enjoyed a quiet afternoon - Chase brought his guitar and climbed up a tree to sit and play. Romney cuddled up in the hammock and read a book, Emma romped around and played on the swings. Chase also had a lot of fun with a camera and the flowers and his guitar as well. What a sweet afternoon.

My favorite part is always writing our notes to Matthew, though I never quite know how to put into words just what I want to say. I love taking the time though to ponder and meditate on these feelings about a member of my family whom I long to get to know someday.

We had a wonderfully successful balloon-release this year as well. We strolled up the park pathway to the top of a rise and set them free where they just soared. A great year for the balloons. I suppose that means that next year we should expect a dud of a release. But whatever. I still love this annual family holiday. I know I write pretty much the same thing every year, this being the 12th, so it can't be that original or meaningful with new insights, but I must record this day. It's such a special one for our family. I should rename it the annual Preslar Day of Getting Along. We all love each other a bit more on Matthew's day.

Massive Marvel Marathon

It was 12 years in the making. Twelve YEARS! Little did I know, that first time I saw Iron Man, way back in 2007, what the scope of the Marvel Cinematic Universe would entail, what fans my family would become, and how much popcorn we would consume in the process of seeing every single Marvel movie in the theaters. We just love this franchise, this Universe, this alternate reality that I sometimes emotionally visit.

Over the 12 years there were 22 movies leading up to the final hurrah - not that there won't be more, of course there will be more, but the last of this era. The last of the Avengers movies, Endgame, came out on April 26th. As a family we decided, in early March I think, that we wanted to rewatch all of the movies to build up to the climactic ending. It was quite a feat, I will tell you what. We had more than a month to do it, but still 22 movies is quite the tall order! It was so much fun though, and really kept our spirits up during the long cold spring. Weekend nights, sometimes double features on Sundays, and even occasionally on school nights, we would turn one on and enjoy them all over again.

It made it quite the anticipatory build-up to get to Endgame. And let me tell you, that movie did not disappoint. At least not for me. I loved it. Tears, laughter, lots of feels. The kids and I all shed some tears. I was lucky enough to see it twice - our good friend Jon had company tickets for the preview night, so Troy and Chase and Romney and I went - IMAX and everything. Awesome. And the very next morning we had tickets with the Moores. Since Troy had been able to see it already, he was happy to not miss work for a second viewing, so Chase brought his friend Zoe. I loved seeing it twice in a row, loved seeing it with family and friends....I'm still kind of not over it. I'm actually still in a bit of Marvel-withdrawal. Maybe we'll have to watch them all again...

Dumb photos of movies, but I had to show off my 24-hour countdown that I set up on my watch

This Year's Chicken Story

Last year's horrible odds did not prevent us from trying again on chicks this year. Last year we purchased a total of six chicks. One died within a few days and three of them turned out to be roosters. So we still have two of our chicks from last year's batch - Delta and Blue. They are great layers and have melded in with the original chickens very well, of which there are three left. (We lost one last October.) I seem to remember declaring that we were not going to pick chicks from IFA again - especially because we learned that the chickens we get, small ones called Bantams, do not get examined for gender like the bigger chickens do. However, it is very tempting when you go to IFA and see the large carts full of sweet baby chicks chirping away so alluringly. We could not resist. Also we figured that there was no way the odds could be that bad again. And we were right! The odds were bad, but not THAT bad. 

We picked out a new breed this year - Frizzled Bantams. Well, three of the four we picked out were this breed. And we saw Chase making eyes at a breed called the Japanese Bantam - hey, why not? He picked out a sweet and very tiny little one of those and three of the frizzled. Two of them looked pretty frizzled already (long frizzy feathers) and one was just white and puffy, but Emma had her heart set on that one so she came home with us too. 

The kids of course deliberated for a while on their names - in times like these, when new and exciting things are happening, the kids meld into this unified team and they came up with some very cute names. The two frizzled bantams, one orange and one black, became Liz the Frizz and Burnt Toast, respectively. Liz is pictured above, along with the Japanese Bantam, who got the name Momo. The last, Emma's little puff ball, got the name Sweetie. I'm happy to report that Sweetie is living up to her name. She's small, very light weight, so so so so soft and fluffy, and an absolute sweetheart. I may even dare to say that she's snuggly. 

Interestingly the chicks were not THAT big of a deal for us this year. The kids happily took care of them but didn't really play with them the same way, constantly check on them the same way, or seem as devastated as last year when we heard the first cock-a-doodle-do

We had suspicions on the gender of Liz and Toast very early on. Sadly these are the two that are actually really frizzled, but they were big, they had huge combs on their heads and they were bossy. It took until about June but yes, we heard crowing loud and clear and so we had to carefully spy on them to confirm who the culprits were. We still had a few tears from Emma, but not the absolute heartbreak of last year.

I'm declaring it once again this year. No more chicks from IFA. (You must hold me to this next year.) We will do mail order or something.

Happily we still have two of our chicks and they are awesome. Sweetie has these long feathers over her feet and is just gentle and silky. I wish she were my lap dog.  Momo is tiny! So little and can fly. Actually Sweetie could a little bit too - we had to clip both of their wings. That was nerve-racking the first time! Now we're used to it - we've had to do it multiple times with Momo since she seems to want to roost in the trees at night. She barely even looks like a chicken. More like a road-runner or little hawk or something. But she loves perching on your shoulder and arms and hands - very happy to hang out. Darn that chicken poop - if it weren't so unpredictable and stinky I would seriously want to hang out with them like normal people pets. You know, like our other ones... the tortoise and lizard....wait. I think there's something wrong with us.

Weirdest Weather Ever

I think it's important to document that the spring of 2019 was the weirdest.

For starters, it stayed so cold and so gray for what felt like decades. We just could not get sunny warm days. We waited and waited - we made it through eternal January and horrid February and by March were hoping for at least some sun even if it was still cold. But no. And by the time April rolled around we had resigned ourselves to an onslaught of rain storms the likes of which our valley has pretty much never seen.

I feel okay documenting this fact since it is now July and we have officially made it through. Even June stayed quite cool. I guess it was about on par with the averages, but since for what seems like years we've been above average it's felt down right chilly. This week we had a day in the 90s, I think only the 2nd or 3rd time we've made it into the 90s this whole summer. Yesterday, Independence Day, was wet and we wore sweatshirts to fireworks. It's been weird.

Why I feel like I need to mention this is beyond me. I just wanted to say...we made it through a very gloomy spring. Yay us.

Spring Break 2019

Whelp....I'm behind. So behind that it's starting to feel crushing. I mean seriously, I have months of things to catch up on. And the longer I put it off the more overwhelmed I feel. I kind of know why I've been struggling to blog - it's this post in particular. I have no idea how I'm going to blog this. We have about 500 pictures from this Spring Break trip, and each and every one of them makes me very happy. This was a fantastic trip and it will be a very happy memory all my life long.

Here's what we did. Troy's best best buddy ever since 2nd grade is this wonderful guy named Mike. Mike happened to marry a 2nd cousin of mine, Katrina. She and I visited the same property in the mountains outside of Oakley, Utah all our childhoods long, and stayed in next-door cabins and played on the same swing set, likely together sometimes. Our grandpas were brothers. Anyway, they are a wonderful couple and we love them dearly though we don't see them as often as we would like. This is now partly due to the fact that they have taken jobs at the schools in Monument Valley in the very VERY most south eastern corner of our state. They live on the Navajo Reservation in a spectacularly beautiful place. You know, I can't remember if I have ever been to Monument Valley in my life. I have seen so many images and in so many movies that I don't remember if I have ever been there in person. We decided to spend a few days of the break visiting them.

I was actually a little nervous about this trip, partly because I just really wanted a happy family trip together and I was afraid that we would announce the trip to our kids and they would moan and groan because this would be an outdoorsy, hiking and walking-type trip. Not lounging by a pool or riding rides or something. I was so pleased when all three of the kids seemed quite eager to go.

We left on Tuesday and drove to Moab. We decided to spend one night in a hotel there and get up early and hike to Delicate Arch. I know a big piece of Troy's heart is still in Moab - he spent so much time there, mountain biking and hiking with friends. It is a place that is deeply dear to him and I know he was so excited to show it to his kids. Moab has changed a lot - the tourist industry has really taken hold there and the increased number of hotels and motels was slightly staggering. Even I noticed the difference.

Before we hit Moab, however, we made our first magnificent stop of the trip - Dead Horse Point, just before sunset. This was the first place where I realized that we were in for a great trip. The kids did not take lightly the magnitude or the beauty of the place. They were all excited to be there, they all were amazed at what they were seeing, they were so happy. I will try to not repeat this sentiment a thousand times over this post because that was true for the whole trip and it really just filled my cup.

Our hotel was a slight fail but with a remedy - we specifically picked it out because of the pool. We wanted the kids to be able to swim at some point during the trip. It really would have been nice for us to be told that the pool was closed and under construction before we booked. But happily, the place had a sister-hotel down the road and were letting people swim there. We enjoyed getting out and swimming, mostly hanging out in the large hot tub actually. Lovely evening.

We were thrilled with our hike to delicate arch. We went pretty early in the morning - there were no lines to get into the park but even so the trail was pretty busy. It was so gratifying to see the kids' excitement and awe as we viewed the arch as well as some other sites in the park. Romney especially was loving it and is hoping for some additional trips to Moab to hike with her dad.

It was at Delicate Arch that we started a running joke - Chase spent a lot of his spring doing much exercise and stretching, becoming able to do the splits. He loves doing the splits, especially in random public places. We had him do the splits under the arch, and pretty much repeated that photo in every single place we went. We have  a lot of photos of Chase doing the splits.

After Delicate Arch, we visited a couple of other spots in the park like Balanced Rock and the visitors center.

After all the hiking, the kids were famished. The hotel's free breakfast did us right, but by the time we had spent all the hours in Arches we had some hungry kids. We headed over to the Moab Diner, a favorite spot of Troy's which seems to have stayed about the same, and fed the kids. They all ordered massive meals and we were a bit skeptical but as you can see, no one had any trouble cleaning their plates. Except the lettuce leaves.

By then it was time to head out of Moab. We hit the road and started to make our way south. Mike happened to have meetings that day in Blanding and we met with him there. We got to poke around a cool little museum displaying some art and history of the little town before Mike began his awesome three day tour guidance of this south-eastern corner of the state.  He and Troy rode together in his car while I tried to keep up in the Landcruiser, not always very successfully. I was so happy for Troy to have these hours to spend with such a wonderful friend.

Our first stop was at some ruins. Now I have to say that we saw many ruins over the weekend. I am not going to be able to remember the name of a single one of them. I'm so sorry. What an incredible feeling though, to be in the presence of such ancient history, right where it happened. Mike was such a wonderful guide - he has really taken advantage of the time he's spending there and getting to know it, visiting everything he can, and he knows a great deal and shared so much with us. Here was our Thursday afternoon visit:

I think at this point some of our destinations are going to start blurring together...this was like four months ago after all. (Blush.) I want to pause to make a little list of things that really made this trip stand out:

* Chase doing the splits every where
* Mike and Katrina being wonderful hosts - they cooked for us every night - Navajo Fry Bread, Cambodian food night (egg rolls and pho) were the most memorable
*Their pack of howling and very sweet beagles
*Going to the High School where Mike is vice principal and getting to meet many wonderful folks he works with and seeing the cool facilities there which include Hogans as well as all the regular buildings and things high schools have
*Having a heart-to-heart talk with the kids about deep spiritual things while standing inside a half-collapsed hogan
*Troy accidentally locking his keys in the cruiser and as he was trying to jimmy his way into the truck, having like four people jump to his aid to try to help. We ended up unlocking the door with a long broom handle shoved through one slightly open window
*Seeing the John Wayne cabin - a small cabin whose exterior was used in a John Wayne film. We also enjoyed the accompanying museum.
*Learning about "Hat Runs" - no alcohol is sold on the Navajo Reservation, so anyone wanting some drives to the tiny town of Mexican Hat to pick some up.
*Seeing Troy soak up time with his friend he's had the longest


One really fantastic adventure was taking the kids through a very scenic little slot canyon, I think called Corkscrew Canyon or something. It was so impressive how familiar Mike was with some very remote places. We had a magical time hiking through it.

 We spent one afternoon driving through Monument Valley itself. I didn't realize that this was a thing. There's a loop that you drive and it takes you past all these amazing sights. We divided up into two cars - if we had had the minivan we could have fit all of us, but there were several places we couldn't have visited without the cruiser so I was so glad Inigo was with us and not the van. What spectacular sights!!

Mike also took us to see many sights that were near his home - practically in his back yard. These sights were a collection of ruins, arches and awesome climbing rocks that the kids did not get sick of. We all had a great time clambering around the rocks and hills. We did notice that we should have brought warmer clothing - we all were thinking that we were headed to the desert so we'd be really hot. It was the desert, yes, but it's not like the south west corner of that state that drops in elevation so drastically. It's just as high as Salt Lake City, so it was plenty chilly. 

One ruin was accessed through a tiny little keyhole. That was fun to climb through. I was very graceful.

Of course we also had to stop at "Gump Hill" and race to catch photos of the splitting Chase during breaks in traffic:

We also spent an afternoon driving up to Muley Point - another spectacular vista. This spot is near and dear to us because Troy and I went camping there when I was about 7.5 months pregnant with Chase. He was born, early, very shortly thereafter and we have always felt grateful that he didn't arrive during that trip when we were so far away from medical care. We always tell Chase that he was very nearly born in the Mexican Hat instacare.

I'm on picture over-load, as I knew I would be. I can only say that we had a marvelous trip. We are so grateful to generous friends for hosting us, being cooks and tour guides and information booths. What a great opportunity. I think I probably could have told these stories better and picked better pictures - we have hundreds from Mike as well as these - but in the interest of getting the blog caught up, I'm making good enough better than perfect and just posting this monster. Monument Valley, we loved you. We hope to return.