How much can losing a penny set you back?

So I'm sure that most of you have heard about the lost penny, but just in case here it is.  Last Saturday Jake found a penny in the front room and was so excited.  He was watching football with his dad after a grueling morning of soccer.  Reed noticed that Jake was sucking on the penny and asked him to stop putting the penny in his mouth.  Jake obeyed, but as most little boys do, returned the penny to his mouth as soon as his dad looked away.  I was in the kitchen and heard Jake scream, "my penny, my penny.  I swallowed my penny"  He ran in the kitchen and was trying to spit it out.  It turns out the penny was already to far down for him to get it out.  We didn't know what to do, whether to take him to the hospital or just let nature run it's course.  So I did what I always do and called my mom.  She told me that I needed to take him to the hospital to make sure that everything was okay.  Thank goodness she is much smarter than we are, and told us to take him to the Emergency Room.  Jake and I headed off leaving Reed and Cole at home because we didn't think Cole would enjoy sitting for hours in the waiting room.  After the initial check in and examination we discovered that the little penny he swallowed was stuck in his throat.  This particular hospital didn't have the special pediatric doctor that was required to extract the penny so we had to be transported to another hospital 20 minutes away.  But as you will see with this story it just can't be as easy as putting him in my car and driving him.  They wouldn't let me take him at all, we had to be transported in an ambulance! 

Jake was pretty excited at first when they put him in the cool gurney.  Then he got a little apprehensive the longer we rode in the ambulance.  

Then after we got to the hospital he was pretty scared.  

He kept asking how they were going to get the penny out. A second x-ray 3 hours after the first one revealed that the penny hadn't moved an inch.  So they called the specialist to take it out.  At this point Reed and Cole had made it to the hospital, where Reed and I switched and I took Cole to get something to eat.  Thank goodness for our good friend Melissa, for picking Cole and Reed up and taking them to our car at the first hospital.  She is a lifesaver.  About 8 hours after we got to The first hospital and 12 hours after he swallowed the penny, they finally got the penny out!  Of course they had to schedule an Operating Room and put Jake under anesthesia,  but we got the penny back and I think we will give it to Jake when he is 18 as a lucky penny or something. For now it is in a special place, where neither Jake nor Cole can swallow it again!  I will post the final amount of our bills after we get them all.  Anyone want to take a guess? Of course we are just glad Jake is alright, we love him so much even when he does silly things like this.

The Competitive World of Four-Year-Old Soccer!

 Jake's new soccer team is just a lot of dribbling, scoring and fun!  Jake has been in soccer for a couple weeks now and is loving it.  We have a practice on Thursday for an hour and games on Saturday morning.  It is mostly funny to see how fun it is to watch four 4-year-olds try to learn the game.  Jake has improved since the first week and he loves to go to practice and games.  

They actually do drills and learning games to teach them the basics.  Then for the games they  play 2 on 2 which is great because they all get some time with the ball.  They play for an hour and take water breaks every 10 minutes to break it up.

Here is Jake's fan club Cole and Prego mom minus dad, who is usually standing on the sidelines helping referee.    

We have loved going to the games, watching Jake and being together.

 

Here is a great clip of Jake in action if you are interested.  

Utah County-- Part 3

The last leg of our trip was in good ol' Utah County.  The boys spent their days playing with cousins, Nana and Papa and friends.  Here are a couple highlights of our days at Nana and Papa Mcbride's home. 

There is nothing like a wagon ride with Papa and all the cousins, especially when Papa lets you drive!

The boys LOVE Papa's backyard-- it has everything from a tire swing, tepee and treehouse.  As if that wasn't enough we also threw in a couple swim days;)

On Saturday Mom, Dad, the boys and I all headed up to Tibble Fork Reservoir for a little outdoor fun.  The boys were loving the the canoes, mud and little wading streams.  It was a hot day so the freezing river felt like heaven!

Another fun day trip was when I took the boys to Bridal Veil Falls.  We had so much fun.  If you can believe it has all the elements of a great time for the boys water, rocks and rocks.

I wanted to share a little treat I enjoy all the time.  

Can you believe my dad made these drums!!! Cole was scared at first but when he finally got warmed up he couldn't get enough.

I didn't take enough pics so I need to get a couple copies but one of the best days we spent was when Rachael and her girls and Papa joined us at Thanksgiving Point Gardens.  We had so much fun and my dad got some great shots.  If I can ever get on top of things I will post them.  

We had a great time in Utah seeing all our family and friends.  We can't wait to come back next year.

McBride Family Reunion- Utah Part Two.

We had a great Family Reunion with the McBride side of the family.  Paul's Family was in charge of putting it all together in the middle of trying to finish building their beautiful home and for that we say thank you!  Everyone had a blast, but most of all it was just fun getting together and being our crazy-selves. This is the only family picture we got-- Awesome!

A great shot of my cheesy man... loving his Grandma!

I wouldn't want to be in there but here is one of the perks of having a hot tub.

Yellowstone Pictures:

One of the best shots of the trip;) they always have so much fun together.

I think that Cole thinks he is smiling, or posing I don't know but I love it.

 Most of the cousins.

Taking in the sites.

Some Cabin Fun:

A huge hit with the kids, Aunt Rachael did a little face painting.

 Boating pictures are the best!

 

Aly and Kaitlin hang with us on the boat.

What a sexy man up there wake boarding outside the wake-- Ladies I know your jealous, He's all mine!

A day at Island Park Res. is just what we needed.  

I love this picture of Jake-- he is practicing his modeling looks.

Utah Trip Part One

We got back from Utah a while ago and I figured I would finally start to blog all the pictures. I figured I would try to blog in 3 installments to get all the fun in.

  The flight was great for me, because I got to see the Star Trek movie for the first time while Reed sat by the kids.  Overall, there were only a couple meltdowns which is pretty good for us.  

The first leg of our trip was a great stay at Jack and Wally's house.  Here are a couple of the highlights. 

 We took a ride on the new FrontRunner train from Ogden to downtown Gateway

The kids had fun at the splash park with Syd and Mitch.  

It's always fun running through the sprinklers with the cousins. 

I think the boys think that even bath time is more fun in Utah.

Loving the arid Utah air! (oh yeah and the Popsicles)

Nothing like a good water park on a HOT Utah day! 

Getting pretty good in the water since his swim classes:)

We had such a great time in Ogden, it was a perfect way to start our vacation.  The boys were loved and loved and loved until I don't think they could stand it.  

Water parks and Fishing Holes

We had a couple fun outings I wanted to share. First the boys and I joined some friends at a great water park for little kids called Signal Hill.  

Jake loves his friend Logan, they could play all day long.

We had so much fun with all the friends, slides and water.   I only found my camera half way through so I might sneak some pictures from some other people and stick them on later;) 

Jake doesn't even mind getting splashed in the face.

Fishing Holes

The next weekend our friends Jared and Owen invited us to a fishing pond close to their home.

 The boys were so excited to be going fishing with their Uncle Jerry (or uncle Mary as Cole would call him).  We didn't get there until like 10:00am but we were amazed at how fast you could catch a fish. Here is an example (you can tell in the video but Reed had barely put the hook in the water)

All of our casts got the same reaction from the fish, the best was the fish I caught with no bait-- I am a pretty talented fisherwoman;) I get it from my dad.  

  (Two of my sweeties.)

It was a good thing all the fish were willing to give our boys an exciting fishing trip instead of a regular one.  

I don't know how long they would have lasted if we would have actually fished for real;) 

Reed made licenses for the boys, you know, so they would be legal. 

Bend a what's???

Bendaroos!!!! 

So ever since last Christmas, when the barrage of Bendaroo commercials poisoned his mind, Jake has wanted his own bendaroos.  I tried to pacify him with a couple of pipe-cleaners, but even while enjoying our "bendaroos" I think in his heart he knew his mom was pulling a fast one. He would say things like, "Mom, you can make anything with bendaroos!" Or "Mom, I don't want to bend over backwards for Bendaroos"  That last one was in response to their promises that "You'll bend over backwards for Bendaroos".  So after what seemed like an eternity of asking for bendaroos his Aunt Kim promised to by him his very own set.  The day the package arrived Jake was overjoyed with anticipation -  he couldn't wait to unfold the magical mysteries of the Bendaroos.  Once we open up the box, the fun began - well for Mom anyway.  I spent the next hour molding, as best I could, all the wonderous animals Jake could think of.  We made 2 ducks and 2 spiders and they played with them all afternoon.  When Dad got home I promised the boys that he would make them the coveted gorillas -- which took like 100 bendaroos and some tin foil;) Here is some footage of the actual excitement

If you can't tell the Gorillas are in spaceships;)

Everyday is a new adventure when Jake asks the question, "Can we make something with my bendaroos?"  Thank you for all the fun Aunt Mimi.