Yellowstone with Spencer Cousins!

Our saving grace when we left texas in August was that we had cousins coming to see us very soon! Clay, Maurine, Avery, Landry, Mallory, and Ellie flew to Bozeman so we met them there to spend a couple of days in Yellowstone with them.  

We came to Bozeman the night before so we could spend the night with our Phillips cousins! As usual, it was a blast for everyone.  We sure love getting to be with Sayler and Hayven (and their parents...heee heee). Here they are snuggled up before bedtime.  We spent the night and left the next morning to meet up with the Spencer crew. 

We met at a grocery store, stocked up on snacks and lunch stuff, and hit the road to Yellowstone! The drive was beautiful and the weather was perfect!  Our first stop was the Grizzly Bear and Wolf viewing place.  Avery decided Montana was a good place to loose another tooth! 

There was a cool TeePee inside the Bear thing (thats what I'm going to call this place since I don't know the official name of it.) 

We watched the bears find their snacks....

...one was shaking the snack out of a tree! It was pretty neat to watch.  

Little wolf pups inside the wolf den. 

We left there and drove on in to the entrance of Yellowstone and almost immediately saw buffalo. 

First stop: Old Faithful.  We timed it pretty good so we didn't have to wait very long.  We did not have very good placement because that dude with the stripped sweater on is in every single picture. Every. Single. One.  It was fun to watch and pretty amazing that it really is so timely....and....well.....faithful. 

The rest of the evening we spent driving to the different prismatic pools along the road.  The different colors were really neat! I was pretty clueless to what Yellowstone was really all about, so it was fun to see all the bubbling water everywhere.  It's crazy that all of that is there! 

This might've been one of our favorites.  I think it was called the Artists Paint Pots. We got there right as the sun was going down, so it was beautiful and no one else was there so we had the whole boardwalk to ourselves.  That translated to the kids being able to run wild and free through there.  It was really neat.  

Ellie WAS in this picture. She was just on Clay's back. 

 Props to Uncle Clay for doing double duty with the little girls in pink. While on this trip, Jaylie June learned the phrase "2 girls".  If she and Ellie were doing something together it was "2 girls".   

Why does it just seem like the peak of perfection to see your brothers loving your kids?!

We stayed in the park til after dark and drove out to the town of Gardener where we had a little cabin on the Yellowstone River.  By the time we got in to town, most kids were asleep and starving.  There weren't many options that late but we found a restaurant and got a nice late dinner (Landry slept through most of it) and made it to our cabin around 11pm.  The kids were pumped to be there and the loft upstairs had enough beds for them to all sleep together so that was so much fun.  Kanyon woke up early the next morning which wasn't awesome, but seeing these elk out our balcony window across the river WAS AWESOME! 

They walked right up the street like they were headed to school! Crazy! 

We enjoyed seeing the town in the daylight the next morning.  This entrance to the park was super cool and a great place to line up the munchkins! 

We spent most of this day in the Mammoth Hot Springs area.  

Here was Mammoth Hot Springs, and according to June, Quinn, and Mallory, it must've been one of the saddest places on earth.  

Now it seems klp was a little sad.  

Just a huge bull elk chillin' in the yard.  No biggie.  

These 4 sure had fun running around together.  klp rode in the stroller some and walked along with them some if there were handrails.  It was fun watching them take it all in together. The kid version of "take it in" of course.  Much different than the adult version. Ha! 

This is a huge group of Asian tourist that were obsessed with our kids.  They were taking their pictures and asking us questions.  Except we don't speak whatever language they were speaking and they didn't speak English. But it sure was entertaining to hear Kory try to answer the guy's questions. 

We made a fun stop at the Boiling River.  We didn't get in because all we had was the clothes we were in, but it was a neat spot.  

After a fun stop at the boiling river, the Phillips crew had to head out.  We had cows to move that evening, so we left around 1 or 2 that afternoon.  Clay's crew stayed the rest of the day and saw a little more of the park.  I hated we couldn't stay, but such is life with cows. 

My only regret is that we didn't get a group picture in front of the park sign.  Oh well. It was a great "vacation". We look forward to going back and seeing more of the park.  

Finally Back to School

 Kanyon's mystery virus bought him another week of summer, but after the Labor Day weekend he was all set to go to his first day of school.  We worked on his little sign the night before.  He's done really well with his name lately....even though this time he tried to make his "n" look like a "k".

It will forever bother me that his hair was all messed up in the front for these pictures.  It looks like I fluffed his bangs...which I did not.  His hair was long and out of control at the time, but he had not grown 80's bangs.  Oh well.

As usual it was a "journey" to get a picture where he was looking and smiling.

The sign was a little tricky.  "Hold it up!" "No, not that high" "Higher" "Not in front of your face".......

SUCCESS!!!!! (props to Daddy for acting the fool behind me to get him to smile and look)

Here is the school boy at his new 1st grade desk!  The teacher on the left is the aid that they hired for him last year when we moved here. She stays with him all day.  She's his sidekick...or is he her sidekick??? Either way, she gets him through his day and we love her.  She truly loves Kanyon and wants him to do well. She is diligent and works so hard to get the most out of his days.  He loves "Mrs. Shelley" and we count her as one of our greatest blessings right now.  The school experience would be a totally different story without her.  Kanyon's classroom teacher is Ms. Armstrong on the right.  She is great and once we knew who his teacher was and would tell people around town, we heard so many wonderful things about her.  She was prepared and excited to have Kanyon in her class and does a great job including him and also pushing him to learn more and more.  He also has a recourse teacher where he goes a couple of times a day. She is young, energetic, and focused so we think she's going to be really good too.  She's new to the school this year but some of his therapists at school had worked with her before and had lots of wonderful things to say about her.  We feel like his school takes great care of him with nothing but the best in mind for him. I know a lot of people have to fight for their kids in school and thankfully that has not been our experience in Longview or here in Lewistown. I am so grateful for the people we have working with him and for their willingness to make it work for everyone.  

And y'all, the boy is LEARNING! 

His first week (he only goes to school Tuesday Wednesday and Thursdays) was a little rough. He was super tired and spending a lot of time walking back and forth to all of the different places.  But by the end of those first 3 days, they had made his schedule more efficient and he was rocking and rolling! A lot of his struggle is how much he cries and gets upset.  He is not anywhere near the developmental level of his classmates, so he has a much harder time coping with things throughout the day that most of the other kids just move right on through without a thought.  Not to mention his physical disabilities that make lots of things more challenging.  Even something as simple as holding his paper in place while he writes can be challenging when you've only got one "good hand" and you're using it to write! Shelley is there to navigate through the ups and downs of his emotions as well as provide physical support and assistance when he needs it.  There is NO WAY he could make it through a day without her. And anyone around him would have a hard time making it through the day if Shelley wasn't there with Kanyon!  I hear very little from him about his days, but Mrs. Shelley write a recap of his days every day for me.  It gives me things to ask him about and gives me a glimpse into his day that I can't get from him.  I LOVE that she does that for me! They knew he loved to swing and the school didn't have any swings that worked for him so the school ordered a new swing for the playground just for him so he is loving his recess time.  He loves his new green swing! 

He continues to learn new things little by little. He can recognize almost the whole alphabet and is learning more and more letters that he can write on his own.  Letter sounds mean nothing to him, so at this point in the game, sounding things out and learning phonics isn't going to be his thing.  We think he will be able to learn sight words, so that is where we are going to start.  Numbers are a mystery and he has a hard time counting to 10.... usually he gets stuck at 6.  He's totally in to patterns now which is funny because EVERYTHING is a pattern to him! As with most things, the unfolding of his learning and how he can show us what he knows is a bit of a mystery so we are all learning and adjusting as we go.  But the bottom line is we know that he is learning and getting new things! He is taking it all in and we are just trying to figure out the most efficient way for him to be able to express what he knows.  A lot of times, just the act of having to say something out loud causes his wires to get crossed so that he isn't able to express what he knows even when its things we know he knows.  When everything is overwhelming and so hard for him, there has to be a way to streamline and simplify his assessment or "proof" that he knows something. It is and might always be a constant search for the best way to do that, but I am confident in his teachers and I look forward to seeing what this boy is gonna do.  And equally excited to see HOW he's gonna do it! He finds a way! 

Our Last Days of Summer

After our trip to Texas, we had a few days of summer that I'd better document....nothing special,  just things like.......

 sitting on the potty in the outhouse as happy as can be  

...and enjoying the serenity of the creek with your hands in your pockets/in your overalls. 

 Quinn got to spend the day with Chief checking the cows in the summer mountain pasture. 

When we got back from Texas we had a little Kory/Jaylie June birthday celebration.  Gram and Chief got Jaylie this vanity and they were all 3 primping. 

This little 2 year old was so very pleased and grown up eating her cookies and ice cream. 

She kinda looks like a thug, but I can't help but wanna squeeze her! 

The end of summer here meant the arrival of yummy peaches.  We REALLY missed our Pittsburg peaches this summer, but we got some that were pretty good! 

Evening walks home from Gram and Chief's house are way more fun when they walk with us! 

When Gram and Chief turned back to head to their house, Miss Priss pushed her brother in the stroller. 

We always love going to the park that's right by our house.  I was so glad for a few more trips before school started.  This is yet another example of the impossible-ness of my children taking a decent picture.  Quinn=SOOOOO over it. 

Jaylie June= annoying fake "CHEEEEEEEESE" smile. 

Kanyon=STILL hasn't figured out how to smile and open his eyes. 

Mommy Juney girl brought one of her babies along for this trip to the park.  

Baby enjoyed the merry go round, 

 and the slide. 

 We spent our last days of summer enjoying late bed times so we had plenty of time for dressing up like super heroes (but apparently not enough time to put on clothes). I might also mention that she insisted on going to get her stool to sit on when I took her picture.  She's learning to pose y'all.  Help. 

Super Modest Girl used her super powers to cover herself up for a picture. 

 I have loved having fresh wildflowers/weeds/alfalfa hay/anything else me and the kids pull out of the ground out in my house all summer.  Its hard not to be happy when there's fresh flowers all over the place. 

Nothing ends a great summer like an UNBELIEVABLE personal add in our newspaper.  Read it, then read it again because it REALLY does say what you think it says.  I can at least give the guy credit for knowing what he's looking for. 

Just when we thought our summer was coming to a close, it took an interesting turn.  Kanyon was set to start school on Wednesday and that Monday night after a fun birthday party, Kanyon had a seizure, then another one a few minutes later.  He didn't seem to snap out of them and calm down. I held him and he stopped having seizures, but he never could settle down.  His heart rate stayed SUPER high for a long time and much like we would feel if our heart was racing, he couldn't rest or even close his eyes.  We knew we needed to call someone.  It was 11:00 MT time so I had to call our neurologists office in Dallas and talk to the on-call nurse.  She told me she would let the Dr. on call know what was going on and give me a call.  THANKFULLY it was our Dr. that was on call that night and a few minutes later he personally called me back to talk which I thought was so above and beyond.  He could've just relayed info through the nurse, but he called me on his cell phone at midnight.  He was confident that this wasn't a prolonged seizure but he was concerned about the heart rate staying up so high for so long so he suggested going to the ER. Soooo around midnight, me and KanMan headed up to the ER.  By this time I could tell he was slowing down and it was coming to an end but we still wanted to get checked out.  So we walked right in and saw a Dr. immediately (small town perks). His heart rate had slowed down and he was finally able to fall asleep.  He also started running a fever.  So, the conclusion was that the high heart rate and the seizures may have all been the onset of a virus of some sort.  Several years ago, klp had a few episodes of this high heart rate thing and we were never able to come up with a reason (or a long term problem).  We came home and went to bed thankful that he was better, but still wondering exactly what sort of "bug" would start this way.  But if we've learned anything its that this boy's body reacts to things in totally unique and sometimes bazaar ways, so we think maybe this was one of those strange reactions. Our super nice neurologist in Dallas called personally to check on us the next day.We went and saw our pediatrician the next day (who we really like) and she still felt like it was a virus. She ran a strep test and a few others but nothing came back positive. Kan did end up running some fever for the next couple of days. He had a runny nose and he was pretty worn out for a couple of days.  As you see in the photo below, the virus made its rounds.  Q took a dive a day or two later.  He was croupy, congested, and totally sleepy and puney. Jaylie got it too and had a few rough nights and several days of being way croupy and coughing like a seal.  She never seemed to feel as bad as the other 2 did.  So, again we have another strange Kanyon medical episode, but thankfully it all turned out ok.  So we spent our last days of summer like this......

Everyone perked up (but still ran a little fever so we had to stay home) and what was supposed to be Kanyon's first day of school looked like this instead.......

playing in the rocks in the driveway

and going to the creek to throw rocks.  I'll take a few extra days of summer ANY time!!!  

So long Summer 2014, you were a GREAT ONE!!!!!