Kidd Family Camp and Josh's Ordination

Our family wasn't able to spend a whole lot of time at the family camp this year.

The day we went up, our matriarch, Grandma Kidd fell at the nursing home and Mom was involved taking care of her and so we missed seeing her there.

Ben had lots of buddies willing to play ball with him :)

Josh and Matt both helped out with skits...

The second night, Abby took Matt up (Josh was working, Andy had meetings and I was not up to chasing Ben around again).

Mom took a couple of shots of them participating in the classic Minute to Win it game of the Oreo on the face...

It's always good to see everyone...wish we could have spent more time there.

Josh received the Melchizedek priesthood and was ordained an Elder.

Both sets of grandparents and Jo and T were able to join us.

It was a pretty neat experience.

We were so grateful for so much support...from both sides of the veil.

Family Pictures!

For one of Andy's gifts THIS year (haha :) I gave him the gift of family pictures.

He has been saying for a long time that he wanted us to get some new ones...especially before Josh heads off on his mission.  Through the years we've had some family members take some with the best camera (or phone) that was available to us but our last ones that were done by a professional were 10 years ago...yikes!

So I contacted our good old friend Casey who did our wedding pictures and he was only happy to do it for us.  We had wanted to go up to the trailhead of Wayne's Loop where there was a great spot but a few days after we hiked it Andy ran into an old student that lives near there and he told him it had just barely been closed.  I had Andy drive up and scope out the situation for us and sure enough, it said due to insufficient parking the trail was closed until the city could do something about it...AND a No Trespassing sign had just been put up exactly in the spot we wanted our pictures :(  I was sad since I had wanted to try that spot for sentimental reasons.  It is in the same area as the place that Andy proposed.  Ironically, Andy said there was a family taking pictures there when he went to check it out.

Luckily Casey had another spot that he thought would be great so we went there instead.

It was so fun to see him and catch up a bit since it had been years since we had talked.

He and Andy met while they both worked on the grounds crew of the Logan Temple in college.

Ben was struggling...he had just come out of his really rough patch a couple of days before and he was not in the best mood.

I was stressed because of course I wanted these to turn out great but could not get Ben to cooperate.

 Well, Casey worked his magic and we actually got some shots of Ben smiling and not too obviously struggling to get away :)

This one is my favorite!!! 

I stressed over the clothes and color coordinating...I even ended up paying about $20 in shipping to get the right size of shirt for Ben on time.  I found it at Old Navy and wanted to base everyone else off of that one shirt but they didn't have even close to his size so I ordered it online.  Looking back on it I wish Josh and Abby weren't in the same solid color but, oh well...I'm just happy we got Ben to smile :)

Father's Day and Celebrating Andy

 A couple of years ago for one of Andy's birthday presents I had told him I would go on a hike with him and take him out to lunch after.  This sounds really pathetic but we never ended up actually doing it.  Last summer we wanted to try again but it was always too hot or there was too much smoke in the air when we had a free morning.  So this year we were determined to make it happen.

There was an unusually cool (in the 70s) forcast one day in June so we took advantage of it and went up to Wayne's Loop.  Even with our super dry, drought of a year it was still green and beautiful!

We had such a pleasant time together.

Coming down off of the mountain we saw the cutest goats on the road.  I made Andy stop so I could get some pictures to show Abby.  She gets a kick out of things like that :)

Then there was Father's Day...

My cute dad and hubby :)  

Dad utilized the golden chair he bought for Josh's graduation parade.

This was another catch up celebration for Andy.

Since he was not feeling well on his birthday we took him out to lunch a couple of weeks later.

He chose Cafe Sabor.  It's a fun old train station and trains still use the tracks just outside on occasion.  One did while we were eating so we watched it go by...

Abby trying to get Ben to look at the train...

It's not often that we actually go to a restaurant to eat since it's so much easier with Ben to just bring food home but it usually ends up being good when we make the effort :)

Happy belated birthday to Andy!

June Odds and Ends

Just a few things from June...

This is my Coral Charm peony that only started blooming last year and so far only gives me one precious bloom per year.  I love the color so much and wish the bush would do better.

Our bishop is a talented wood worker.  His job is building beautiful staircases but on the side he likes to make longboards.

He presented a challenge to the youth of the ward which included reading the Book of Mormon, and memorizing the theme.  If you completed the challenge you got to enter your name in a drawing for one of two of his longboards.

Matt and his second cousin, who also lives in the ward, won both of them.

They are seriously impressive and feature Captain Moroni.

Matt has enjoyed learning how to ride it.

One of my good friends from high school came into town so those that were able, including her twin sister, gathered for lunch at a favorite local spot.  It is always good to see my friends from high school.

I remember being told more than once that your high school friends don't really stick with you...it's your college friends that you stay close to.  Well, things couldn't be more different for us...I guess it could be because these guys also ended up being my college friends :)  Of course I met lots of new people in college but none of them became friends that I keep in touch with like I do these girls (plus a few more who are missing)

For our community Heritage Days Josh's improv troupe from school was asked to perform.

Andy and I went and watched.  It was fun seeing him on stage one more time :)

Ben went through a rough few days in June.

We had started a new med (Epidiolex)  but either it wasn't working or hadn't had time to kick in yet.

He ended up going without sleep for about 63 hours and was most likely in non convulsive status epilepticus for about 50 hours or so.

I ended up calling the neurologist on call at Primary Children's because we were so concerned.  She gave us instructions on how to increase his meds safely and told us to get back to her if things didn't improve soon.  My parents came to visit soon after we did that and he immediately perked up but once they left he went back into his stupor.  It took several more hours before we felt like he came out of it.

That was probably the worst episode like that we have seen.

Here he is with Andy and the kids trying to cheer him up...

These just break my heart...

His poor little eyes were so bloodshot!

On a lighter note...I found him like this one morning when I woke up.

He had pushed his head up inside the  pillowcase as he slept :)