Another trip to B-town

We took another trip to Boise a couple weeks ago. And it was too short of a visit, yet again!! The day we were supposed to leave, Troy was "diagnosed" with croup. Lovely! But luckily we got him in to see the doctor, she gave him some steroids (Erik was a little worried this would affect his college football eligibility, but the doctor reassured him the steroids would be out of his system by then), and he was good to go! She actually said the colder weather would be better for him. So we were on our way. Erik sat with the kids on the plane and I read my book, it was wonderful! :) So, we got to Boise, and it was my turn to get sick. The first couple days we (the kids and myself) just stayed around my parents house to try and kick the dang colds. But Saturday I felt a tad better and Erik and I left our kiddos in good hands (my AWESOME sister Melanie!) and headed to the game in the Ball's "new" Boise State motor-home. Sweet ride!!! We had a fun little tail-gate, then headed into the stadium to freeze our little tushes off. Finally at the start of the 3rd quarter we went and grabbed some hot chocolate and donuts (Yummy!). We warmed up a tad, just in time to leave the game. We won, of course. In fact it was a blow-out, so kind of a boring game. Luckily Katie and I just gabbed the whole time (much to our husband's demise). We finally made it back to Mel's to grab the kids (only about 8 1/2 hours later!!). Troy gave Melanie 4 fun surprises in his diaper, which is I'm pretty sure a record for him. Thanks again Mel, we owe you BIG TIME!! It was a fun date day.

The rest of the time in Boise was pretty uneventful (minus the usual family gatherings, etc.). At least until Monday. My dad took our kids out in the wagon to go feed the cows. While out there, he decided to get a few more hay-bales down off the truck since it was supposed to storm the next day or so. So there he is, standing on a truck of hay-bales, about 10 feet up. His glove got stuck under one of the bales, he lost his balance and fell back, right on the lip of the manger. Flat on his back. He couldn't move, all he could do was groan and moan in pain. He tried to tell Brooklyn to "Go get your Daddy!", but he said she probably couldn't understand him. Plus she can't get through the fence without his help. So there he was, unable to move, but trying to knowing his 2 little grand kids are there watching him, helpless. Meanwhile, Erik and I were in the house thinking, "They must be having a lot of fun out there. They've been out there a while." Nice. Finally I hear the door open, and Brooklyn runs in saying, "Grandpa fell! Grandpa's hurt!" In stumbles Grandpa, barely able to walk, let alone lift my kids. So...long story short, he broke 2 ribs. He's lucky he didn't break his back. The doctor said his spine is the strongest spine he has ever seen on a cat-scan. He said he could tell he was a very hard-worker because of all the calcium build-up around his vertebrae. Of course my dad was very proud of that! :) So anyway, now both my parents have to breath into these machines 10 times per day in order to expand their lungs. (My mom had lung surgery a few weeks ago, so she's still recovering from that). But it was pretty comical, so they had me take pictures of them both using their little machines. It's so fun getting old!

So the trip was eventful, and fun. Although I didn't get to see most of my friends, which was a bummer. So hopefully I'll catch you all next time! It's good to be home now, and I'm just trying to get ready for the busy holiday season like the rest of you. We even already went and saw Santa's reindeer this past Saturday! Brooklyn can't WAIT to see Santa, and has been asking me none-stop to go see him. I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

The SWEET motorhome.Erik is a tad jealous.Katie and I in the motor-home. It is seriously awesome! She made the curtains in the back-ground. So talented! (not sure why I have my hand up like that lol) Erik's job was to get the cheese ready, hence the cheese in his hands.

Troy making the patties. DELICIOUS hamburgers!!

At the game, trying to stay warm. Troy had a blast playing with the toy hair-dryer at Aunt Carrie's.

B painting cousin Paige's' toenails

Our old Seattle friends...Codi and I.

Sweet snuggie!!!

Aren't they so cute?! Too funny. And don't you LOVE my mom's cute red sweat-suit and hat? We managed to squeeze in a little shopping.

Trick or treat, smell my feet!

Aww, the Halloween festivities are over. Time to move on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!! Yipee!! Halloween was jam-packed and very fun this year. We went to a fun playgroup at the Wi's (thanks again Kristina!), went to our ward party, gave some blood to the "vampires," (just Erik and myself), had a fun pre-trick-or-treating dinner with friends, then headed out for some goodies! Brooklyn and Troy were EXHAUSTED from all the activities. Short naps + late nights + early mornings= grumpy, tired children!! Needless to say, Brooklyn had fun trick-or-treating, but certainly didn't last as long as she did last year. Troy rode in the stroller up to each house, then would get out, and proceed to try and enter their houses. The dogs in people's doorways were of course huge hits with both kids. All in all it was a great Halloween. Brooklyn has asked me every day since if we are going to a party to get candy again today. Who knows B...maybe Grandma and Grandpa Hill and Paternoster will let you trick-or-treat at their homes next week.

Some of my pictures won't upload, so you're missing our sweet playgroup party costumes. The kids wore their BSU football uniforms and I wore my jersey.

"Umm Brother Mortenson, WHAT are you doing?!" He's the 2nd counselor in the Bishopbric. And he's awesome. The cute nurse is his wife. Erik went as the Yankee's bat boy. We kind of put our costumes together at the last minute...like always. Don't want to break tradition!!

The kids before trick-or-treating

Aww, the fam. Don't the kids look thrilled?

Let your light shine

We installed a new front window...no more single pane's for us! Yea!! Thanks to our friend Hyrum, we saved a TON of money buying the window from an outlet and installing it ourselves. Plus, we all learned a lot! We still need to put up some molding on the inside to make it look pretty, but the window already looks so much better. And super plus, we aren't terrified of the glass breaking on our kids anymore. AND, there isn't a huge cold draft from the window.

Goodbye old window...

Hello new window!