Me, You & Sutton Blue: {our summer} in a nutshell...

well, technically it is still summer but we've been so busy that i'm kind of ready for fall. shhh, don't tell anyone. i really feel like summer just started and all of a sudden october is staring me in the face. i guess life goes faster when you're having fun, right? or something like that...

sutton and i took a trip to new york back in july to visit all of my family. i had planned this back in april before i knew what was in store for us. more on that later... my mom and brother, ethan, arrived in ny about a week before we headed out. the second day they were there they got a call from the assisted living home that my grandparents live in saying that my grandpa was stuck in his chair, unable to get up at all. and my sweet grandma, who has alzheimers, probably didn't even realize that he had been sitting for hours on end. no pun intended. my mom and her siblings went to check things out and to try to get him out of his chair. fail. my grandpa is not a little guy and the four of them could not even get him up. they had no choice but to call the ambulance, which then took him to the hospital in canandaigua. turns out he had an infected pressure ulcer, pneumonia and his diabetes was out of control. things were not looking good. he was put on three different antibiotics and the doctors told him that he could have to stay on them upwards of three months. three months?! that's a long time to have IV needles in you. they also told him that he wouldn't be able to go home. ever. he would have to live in a nursing home. and the kicker...he wouldn't ever walk again. so basically, he would still be alive but what quality of life would he be living? all of the kids were there and they had a good conversation with grandpa and he decided he didn't want to have to use all of this medicine just to keep him alive. i think he said something to the effect of, "well, i guess the tribe has voted." and then, just like that, they unhooked all of his machines and took him off of his insulin. he now had free range of all the coke, chocolate and salt-n-vinegar chips his heart desired. the only bummer is that he didn't feel too well so he didn't have much of an appetite. you think that stopped him from eating all the things he had been told for so long he couldn't have? no way. true simpson form. he was kept comfortable in the hospital until they had a room for him down at the VA. i was so thankful that he decided to stick around until sutton and i could arrive. this is what we were greeted with the first day we went to see him and the rest are some pictures of the shenanigans that went on during his short stay in the VA.

you can't tell from this angle but we were greeted by grandpa with chocolate smeared all over his lips. i'm pretty sure he was making out with it. this must be where i get my love of chocolate

aiden, grandpa and heidi ann

incontinence runs in my blood

and they let this guy be a bishop??

we ordered special bananas just for fritz

it seems like it should have been a really, really sad time but surprisingly for me, it wasn't. don't get me wrong, of course I was sad and it was hard to see grandpa not feel good but i can't help but believe he stuck around long enough to bring many of us together. i got to see family i haven't seen in years. i will always cherish those moments i got to spend with my grandpa fart. a few days before he passed i leaned down and whispered how thankful i was that he saved that LDS missionaries card he got when he was 12 and was brave enough to look him up when he was well into his 30's. i thanked him for joining the church and for always being a faithful member. and i got a smile! he had been basically unresponsive except for the few mumblings and hand squeezes here and there but he definitely smiled when i said this to him. my aunt leigh saw it so i knew i wasn't dilusional. he was a wonderful, grumpy, stern, inapropriate, family oriented, faithful, outgoing and social man who loved food more than anyone i know. grandpa bob, you have left behind a wonderful legacy with your seven children, many grandchildren and too many great grandchildren to count. we love you always. till we meet again, grandpa.

i also had the best time with my twin, heidi. her little guy, aiden, is six months younger than sutton and they had quite the love/hate relationship going on. she still talks about him and we have been home for over two months.

so my cousin "twin" has a problem with the thinning shears. she is addicted. so we had a little thintervention.

out on canandaigua lake. most beautiful lake ever.

heidi and ethan, remember that one time you went tubing in moldy life jackets?

floyd, "fritz! it/s a size 52 chest life jacket!!!"
fritz, "i have a weird chest!"
ummm....something like that.

she was laughing so hard she fell down and i'm pretty sure she peed her pants. it happens to me, too, sutton.

blue walking into the sacred grove. i could have stayed there all day. so peaceful and the spirit is so strong.

grandma and blue in the sacred grove.

we were so happy that ethan got to fly to chicago with us on our ride home. and yes, blue had her binky on the plane. judge not.

we had the best time in new york and i am so happy that we had the opportunity to go! i just wish my family lived closer. i love them so so so much.

after we got back from new york we moved into our new house! pictures to come. it was a crazy week and i'm pretty sure i could have ended up in the mental hospital if it weren't for all of our amazing friends who helped in more ways than i could have ever imagined.

so, as if i didn't have enough going on i decided that we needed to make our annual summer trip to visit my family in nevada. we hadn't been home since christmas and i was very homesick. plus, we won't be able to travel over thanksgiving OR christmas this year because of this....

yes, that's right. two. two nuggets in my belly. debuting near christmas. we are so excited. and so scared!

i had an ultrasound on morning of the day that sutton and i flew to nevada. but...i didn't look or find out that morning. i had their genders written down in a card so i could take it home and give to my mom for our reveal, which was going to be two days later when john drove down. not peeking was the hardest thing ever!!! no one believed that i could do it. but, i did. the morning after john arrived we had a bunch of family over for breakfast and so that we could finally find out what these babies were! i had always thought it was a boy/girl and john thought boy/boy. my mom is so cute and she made two baskets, one for baby A and the other for baby B. then she took pink/blue balloons and poked holes in the balloons that the baby was NOT. so if the baby was a boy, the pink balloons would deflate. i grabbed a pink balloon first, although i don't actually remember doing so. i tend to get all weird and panicky when all the attention is on me. i hate it actually. i think i get that from my parents. ha. so...we all had a balloon in our hands and mom counted to three and guess what? mine stayed up! all of the blue ones deflated. of course i got teary eyed because i was really hoping to have another girl. onto baby b. i grabbed a blue balloon, john grabbed pink. the entire time i was silently hoping for a boy. i'd love love love to have a little boy and i know it's every mans dream to have a son to do manly things with. mom counted and we blew up our balloons. and mine stayed up!!! a boy and a girl!! we are so excited, i don't even have words to explain the feelings i have! now we are working hard on picking names. i think we have them but i always find myself thinking of others. being super indecisive is probably one of the hardest things when it comes to baby names.

the rest of our week in lovelock went by way too fast. we played games, spent time outside, went to my grandma's 80th birthday party and mostly just spent time with family. sutton had a blast and i loved watching how she interacted with her cousin, emmery. i've never seen her like that with any other little person. they seriously acted like 14 year old best friends. they had us cracking up the entire week.