Hlubb's Visit

 The week after my trip to California, some of my friends from Maryland flew out for a visit.Cathy was my boss when I worked during Cody's 1st year of dental school. We worked at a medical billing company. Her husband and almost 2 year old son came too. I had chemo brain the week they flew in. I had just hit my 90 day seizure free mark and drove down to the airport on Wednesday night. Little did I remember or know that there flight wasn't until Thursday night. Oh well, it is so nice to be able to drive legally again. 

Friday morning I took them to the Bingham Copper Mine, thinking it would be a different sort of tourist destination than most are used to. My parents and Heather and her boys met us there as well. Heather worked for Cathy during her time that she lived with us in Maryland. I haven't been to the mine since I was in elementary school and it's sure grown. This huge tire sits out front. These 12 foot truck wheels cost $25,000 each and each truck has 6 wheels. So $150,000 a truck and they only last for 1 year. That's one expensive truck!

The pit.

 After exploring the visitor's center I took Cathy and Steve downtown to City Creek and Temple Square. The flowers didn't disappoint. It was beautiful! Plus I have a gorgeous little model that likes to pose.

 The kids loved all the fountains.

 We went inside the visitor center to see the Christus.

 We live close to so many temples, but haven't taken our children to walk around them. It was a good opportunity to get close for them.

 On the Saturday they were here we took them to Park City. As we were walking out of the parking garage we ran into our good friends the Burnham's. Emily had her baby the next week.

 After I consumed my caramel apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, we took the Hlubb's on the Mirror Lake Highway scenic drive to the top.
The kids were able to get out, run around and climb on the mountain.

We traded in the pathfinder for this Chevy Traverse.

 I love this picture of my cute family.

 Sadly, this is the only picture I have of Cathy and I. Thanks for coming to visit!

San Fran girls trip

I was able to go on a fantastic weekend girls trip to San Francisco the beginning of August. One of my best friends from dental school arranged everything and she, me and our other friend all flew to Oakland to begin our adventure without kids/spouses. We took all forms of public transportation including the BART (subway system very similar to the metro in Baltimore), taxis, trolley, boat, and walking.

Katie and I started the trip off right with pedicures.

Oakland temple on hill, taken from the BART.

We stayed at the Hilton in downtown San Francisco. It was perfect. We ate lots of good food at places like Sears Fine Dining, Gotts to Go, Boudins, the Stinking Rose, etc. We saw things like China Town, Coits tower, Lombard street, the wharf, Golden Gate bridge and more (like actually ordering movies off tv to watch at night.) Good movies.

On Friday we had tickets to go to Alcatraz. That was a highlight. Very interesting to hear the stories and history from this place.

Inside of a typical cell.

 Views from Alcatraz. It was cold and windy, but beautiful.

We walked to the top of Lombard street.

Best shot we could get of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Katie and I would definitely run this bridge a few times a week if we lived close by. We were glad we didn't try to rent bikes to ride across, the weather was crappy and there were thousands of people everywhere.

Ate yummy sundaes and had hot chocolate at Ghirardelli Square.

Lisa, Katie, Carissa

Katie got us tickets to the wax museum. It's amazing how real artists can make these celebrities look.

We were able to take a tour bus around the city (best and cheapest way to travel) and our last day we finally made it onto a trolley. I had a fabulous time catching up with my girlfriends and relaxing on a much needed vacation. Thanks Katie and Carissa!

4th of July quick recap

On the morning of the 4th, we were woken up to bombs blasting in air here in Midway. I forget that every year our city shoots off bombs/cannons of some sort at 6am. Scares you right out of bed. I drove my kids over to Oakley to attend the 4th of July parade. I've been going to this parade practically every year since I was a baby. My kids and I love it and Cody stays home, like usual, because he hates parades. As long as I still get to go, no big deal. : )

 We had a BBQ with my family and one of Cody's cousins and her husband at our house that night. Midway puts on an amazing firework show for a small town and we have perfect seats on our front lawn. We did some sparklers and let the kids stay up for the fireworks off Memorial Hill.

Brett, Alysa, Cody, Dan

Grandma Sue and the babies, Blake and Ethan.

The following day we drove to the cabin, had dinner, and went to the Oakley rodeo. I must have failed to take a single picture, because none can be found. Maybe next year we won't have such wiggly worm children. 

And their you have it, short and sweet.

Blake's birthday and Nacho

I can't believe how far behind I still am on our blog. I just realized I never blogged about the 4th of July, so that should be coming up next. 

Our cute Blake turned two back on 7/11. I took him and the other kids to McDonald's for lunch and we went to 7-11 for our free Slurpee's. I was super lame and bought cupcakes at Walmart. He didn't care though and ate his right up. He got some outside water toys and that's about it. Blake is so sweet and such a good baby. He is a thumb sucker much to Cody's dismay. We purchased the stuff you are supposed to paint on their finger to get him to stop, but it does not work for him. He must like the bitter taste because he wakes up sucking his thumb no matter how much I put on his finger. His sucking is affecting his mouth, and pushing his teeth forward, so we'll have to find another way to get him to stop.

 Our family and a few others in our neighborhood were invited to a Nacho party back in July. I haven't seen Nacho Libre in years so I borrowed it from a neighbor so that I would "get" all the inside jokes and songs. Cody wanted to go in costume, so I made him a monks costume and he made his necklace. Unfortunately I didn't have a curly wig to add, or else he really would have completed the look.

 We had a fun night of eating taco salads, corn on the cob (with mayo and chili powder), watching Nacho Libre and hanging out with friends.

Grant Family Reunion

July was the month of family. My Mom's side of the family had their annual Grant Family reunion at the Reid Ranch. Not everyone was present, but here are the majority of us. There are 89 of us so far in the family. I'm on the right side of the picture, yellow shirt, Cole in arms, with the red fro hair.

 We did all the usual activities at the ranch. Archery, pony rides, swimming, paddle boats, rockets, hot tubing, mini golf, learning about ancestors, etc. My Mom and aunts came up with a bunch of activities to keep the kids entertained. Heidi and Kurt were good sports and agreed to get dressed up in toilet paper.

 Making rockets to launch with Grandma Sue.

 My brother is an engineer for ATK and has always loved building and launching rockets. He brought one that was pretty sweet to watch.

 The ranch is very into safety. It's required to wear helmets and life jackets while riding the horses. Too many sue happy people out there. The kids don't seem to mind.

Aubrey and cousin Halle.

Golfing is not a hobby of ours. : )

Happy on the swings.

Calderwood Family Reunion

The annual Calderwood Family reunion was held in Downey, ID this year at Downata Hot Springs July 26-27th. Each of the siblings takes turns each year to plan out the reunion. This was the first year we've been to this location. The food was excellent and we had a wonderful time visiting and catching up with family we see maybe once a year. Cody's cousin was diagnosed with lupus about a month before my tumor diagnosis, so a lot of time was spent talking about the past years medical experiences. Thank goodness we are both in remission now.

Borrowed from Laurel's blog

We packed up the truck and headed north for the weekend. We sold our camping trailer back in April and are back to tent camping until we can afford a newer trailer. We have 2 tents and put the kids in one and Cody and I in another.

The air temps were perfect for camping. We actually had to wake our early risers up in the morning.

A lot of sports talk with these men.

This is Aubrey's second cousin Kate, whom she refers to as her new cousin Kate. We camped next to Cody's cousin Russell and family and our kids are similar age and they played in the trees, playground, sand, swam together and enjoyed the outdoors.

A highlight from the trip, especially for Tucker, were these cute baby birds holed up in a tree next to our campsite. The Mom bird would fly back and forth all day to feed them.

Borrowed from Laurel's blog.

On our drive home we were able to stop off and see some of our dental school friends in town from Georgia - Bryce and Amy Carter. Bryce and Cody were lab partners in school. We've each had 2 kids since we last saw each other 4 years ago. Amy and I were told that one of us would have the most kids out of our dental school friends. She's got me beat. 5 to 4. It's not a contest though - no more Calderwood babies. : )

Tracy Aviary and Friends

Awhile ago I purchased a groupon to Tracy Aviary, a local bird place. It's basically a zoo full of birds. I haven't been since I was a kid and since Tucker is still in his animal phase, we figured it would be fun. Plus it is very inexpensive when compare to the zoo. It's only $4-6 a person and I had 2 for 1's. Tucker has inherited a nice SLR camera from Cody's work and he took pictures until the battery died.

 This was Cody's favorite bird. The color was amazingly bright! It's called the Scarlet Ibis.

 My kids have trouble staying on the paths. It's much funner to chase the birds when you're in the water with them.

 I have been extremely blessed this year/summer to meet up with old friends and loved ones. None of us are happy about the excuse to get together, but it's always fun to catch up and see each other. This picture is of my clogging family. These Mom's and daughters taught me clogging for 20 years. I danced with them since I was 8 until I moved to Maryland. 2 of these girls were on America's Got Talent and 3 still clog and teach. I've traveled the world with them from Utah, Idaho, California, Mexican Baja Cruise, eastern Europe, Tennessee. I have so many special memories with these ladies.

Leann, Lindsey, me, LaChere, Cambria, my Mom, Valerie

 My first haircut - the mullet is gone! I now have an actual style that I can maintain and play around with. My hair grew in a lot on the sides since my previous hair post.

 I buy these little pills every month for a whopping $3200. Thank goodness for fundraisers, insurance and cancer foundations that help me cover the costs. So far they seem to be working, so for every $200 pill I pop, hopefully 200 cancer cells are being killed off.

 This is my friend Melissa and her newest baby. We met in Maryland when our husbands were going to school. It's fun to be able to see friends that pass through.