First Visit to the Dentist!

Slade and Daisy went to their first dental appointment today! I was a dental assistant until I had Slade, so I prepped them as much as I could before we went. I was a little nervous about it, but they ended up doing amazingly well. The staff there was very impressed and relieved to have such cooperative kids.

This is just after having their x-rays done.

Jamming out to the music while waiting. It was hilarious!



Slade getting his teeth cleaned. They gave him some Spongebob sunglasses that he got to keep.

Daisy showing off her sunglasses.

Daisy getting her teeth cleaned. She loved Mr. Slurpy (the suction) and was so happy when she was allowed to hold it herself.

First of all, yay for dental insurance! Second, the kids did such a great job. I took them to San Tan Prediatric Dental with Dr. Steve Montoya and he was great with the kids. He talked to Slade about not sucking his thumb anymore and promised him 5 tokens if he stopped sucking his thumb by his next appointment. You get a prize for each token you receive. Slade has such a bad overbite that causes him to have a lisp. But, no cavities! Good job Slade!

Daisy has two teeth that are fused together. I obviously knew this and was concerned what the teeth underneath looked like. Turns out the fused teeth should fall out just fine and be replaced with nice adult teeth, so no more worrying. She also has a slight overbite and we need to slowly start working with her to stop sucking her thumb as well. No cavities for Daisy either!

Our Utah Adventures

After two years, we finally made it to Utah to Skylar's parents house. We had a great time!

They have a new puppy and the kids loved her! Okay, Slade loved her and Daisy was terrified of her unless she was in her pen. Slade enjoyed letting her jump all over him.

But, he is allergic to dogs. Don't worry, we knew this and had the Benedryl ready to go. This was just the beginning of the redness and swelling that he suffered but he had such a great time with that dog!

The afternoon didn't end there. Slade took a tiny chunk out of his hand when he was outside and had a crazy meltdown. He insisted that he could not use his hand. A few minutes later he took a chunk out of the bottom of his foot and once again had a major meltdown. Seeing how he couldn't use his hand and now his foot, Grandma Stock propped him up on pillows on her bed and let him watch cartoons. It was quite entertaining.

Maylee LOVED the horses! She couldn't get enough of them!

One thing that I have come to terms with, is that Skylar enjoys trapping, killing and skinning animals. On this trip, he trapped 5 raccoons and 1 squirrel. I'm just happy I won't be seeing them hanging up in my home!

Ever wanted to know what a skinned raccoon looks like? Well, there you go!

Don't you worry. I talked Skylar into wearing gloves...

Poor guy.

We had the opportunity to hike down Bryce Canyon and it was amazing! Slade hiked the whole way while I packed Maylee and Skylar packed Daisy. It was beautiful there and I would love to go back.

Just starting out...

Maylee did wonderful. She eventually fell asleep and never fussed.

That is the trail down there. It was very steep so the trail did a zig-zag and wasn't too bad.

Daisy loved being in there. She fell asleep too.

Slade and Daisy with their Hoodoo!

Marlee, Grandma and Grandpa Stock.

We visited Monrovian Park which was absolutely beautiful. I was only able to get one picture before my camera died.

Slade loved having the freedom to pee outside wherever he wanted at Grandma and Grandpa's. Even if he was inside, he would run outside to pee.

We enjoyed riding the horses! I forgot to get a picture of Slade and Daisy next to their horses. Slade's horse is named Shooter (because of his ultrasound pics) and Daisy's is Daisy. All the grand kids but Maylee have a horse named after them so far.

Daisy loved the horses too. We thought it was funny how she was not afraid of the horses, but terrified of the puppy!

Maylee loved being outside. The horses were moved closer to the house and she really like to watch them run around as well as the puppy.

Skylar's dad works at Aspen Ranch, which is for troubled teens. He takes care of the horses/horse program, I think. It was neat to hear about how the horses are used for therapy for the kids.

Oreo. The boy that named her said she looks like an Oreo blizzard.

I absolutely love this picture.

Harriet the donkey.

The first time the kids attempted to swim, they thought the water was too cold and they didn't last long out there. We waited for a warmer day to try again, and they had a blast!

Those of you who don't really know Daisy, this explains her perfectly.

Every night before bed we would have family prayer and when Slade would say it, he would pray that he would be able to find bugs the next day. He spent most of his time looking and finding bugs. He was in Heaven! He has a nice spider in that cup.

The kids love when Grandma breaks out the riding lawn mower!

We went and saw the 100 Hands cave. It was really neat! The Indians used blood to leave hand prints on the rock.

Roasting marshmallows!

YUM!

S'MORES!! Daisy ate all of the chocolate.


Slade was the fireman and put out the fire!

My in-laws live about an hour from the Manti Temple and I was really wanting to do a session there before we left. They do live sessions and I had never seen that before, so the last day we were there Skylar and I headed out at 6am to make the 7:30am session. We made it just in time and we were so glad that we did! It was awesome of course! I hope we can do that every time we visit.

Skylar and I were also able to go to a hot spring in the mountain not far from his parents house for a fun date. The water comes out of the mountain from a small hole and trickles into a pool of water made in the rock. The water was SO hot! It took a little while to get used to how hot the water was but it sure was nice and relaxing. We watched shooting stars and had a great time. To get to the hot spring, we drove down a long canal, crossed the canal by holding a wire rope thingy and walking on wobbly wood. I was terrified and Skylar thought it was funny to make the wood shake even more while I was trying to cross. Haha, such a funny guy.

We are very grateful for Grandma and Grandpa and Marlee :) for putting up with us for two weeks! We had such a great time! I enjoyed relaxing on the porch swing while the kids played and looked for bugs and Skylar did a whole bunch of odd jobs and skinned animals. It was a much needed vacation!

When we got home, Slade asked, "Why do we live in Arizona, Mom?"

I said, "Why? Don't you like Arizona?"

He said, "No! Can we go back to Grandma's tomorrow?"

Thanks again for the wonderful vacation! Hopefully it won't be another two years before we make it back there!