Week of July 2, 2012

Wow!  We're in the middle of an amazing fireworks display, the kind that only God can provide!  It started south of us with tremendous fingers of lightening.  It quickly blew our way and currently sheets of rain are pouring down, originally almost horizontally.  The thunder is now booming very near us making the house shake.  The dogs are going nuts!

An explanatory quote from a facebook friend here in Yakima:  Super crazy bizarre lightning storm going on right now!!  Wind, rain in every direction, lightning that won't quit/absolutely amazing!

Lindsey texted a few minutes ago that they arrived home safely.  It's back to a quiet house for us darn it!  I unplugged my computer to protect it from the power surges as we've already had one.  So I think I'll turn off the computer to save my battery.

SATURDAY - JULY 7, 2012
Another travel day.  This morning we're heading out to the Smith's farm to pick bing and rainier cherries

Aidan enjoying his outdoor adventures in Yakima

Mommy Donna giving Aidan a helping hand to pick the cherries on top!

Thomas the 'super cherry picker'!

There's goofy Nana!

and then we'll head over to Franklin park for the Folklife Festival.  The band Darvin plays in "Four on the Floor" will be playing there.

There's my handsome bass player!

Four on the Floor at the annual Yakima Folk Life Festival

 We plan on leaving from the festival to head to Seattle where I'll drop off Lance, Donna and Aidan.  It was wonderful having them come visit.  We'll miss the Aidanisms!  He's such a cute little stinker!

FRIDAY - JULY 6, 2012
Today has been hot!  It's reaching the 90's now and temperatures are expected to climb at least for the next 4 days or so.  Maybe it's God's way of preparing me for the heat of Hades in Texas next week!  Anyway, knowing that it would be hot and that we had plans for lunch and on I decided to take my run in the morning.  I've been following Lindsey's 1/2 marathon training schedule this week which meant a 4 mile run.  I didn't head out quite early enough and it was starting to warm up.  I had my 5 minute walking warm up, made it 2 miles running then walked 1/10th of a mile, ran another mile, walked 1/10th of a mile, ran about a 1/2 mile, walked .05 mile and ran the last 1/2 mile.  I felt like that was fine.  I would love to be able to run 4 in a row, but I won't be too hard on myself, as long as I persevere and make steady progress I won't let myself get down.  Next week on the long run I'll make it my goal to run past the 3 mile mark and then do the walk/run.

When I got home Donna was ready to go on her 50 minute walk, so I hydrated and ate a little snack and then headed back out with her and the two dogs.  There was a bit of adjustment walking them both.  The Gum's had loaned us a harness to harness 2 dogs together to walk.  Unfortunately Bear liked to run around a little too much which caused some entanglement.  We finally got the hang of it and were able to stay untangled from each other most of the time.  We walked the track and for the last 2 laps I tied them under the stadium seats because Bear was so tired and hot he didn't want to keep walking.  By the time we got home we had two hot dogs!  I wish I had taken a picture of Bear after the walk.  He threw himself down sprawling on the kitchen floor and stuck his nose over the side of his water dish to lap up water as he lay there.  It was hilarious, poor guy!  Both dogs have been pretty well pooped all day just laying around the house.
Lindsey had gone running in the meantime so after we all got showered and fed Aidan lunch we headed to the Indian food restaurant called the Taj.  This is the restaurant where Thomas and Lindsey had their first date on a Valentine's day.  They've been back many times and the owner recognizes and chats with them every time they come.  We had taken them to eat there last time they were in town and Lindsey was still pregnant, so Jessie was excited to see the baby and we even took a picture of them all together.

 Darvin was at work so we made a 'to go' box for him. Lance was kind enough to pay for all of us.

Lindsey and Thomas and I took Brooklyn over to Pops's work with the food so he could show off his Baby Beekee (as Aidan calls her).

Proud Pops always likes showing off the grandbabies when they come visit him at work!

Proud Pops!

 I gave him the choice of lunch from the Taj or Brooklyn and their was no question his first choice was Brooklyn!  He's such a sweet, proud Grandpa.  He always loves showing off the grandkids to his coworkers.  Stopped at Costco and then headed to Allan Neal's chiropractic office (Cascade Chiropractic) where Brooklyn has been getting adjusted all week.  She's doing so much better with sleep, pooping, and gas pain not hurting.  Allan wouldn't charge the kids anything for the 4 visits this week.  What an angel for our family!!

Lance, Donna, Aidan and I plan on heading out to the Smith's farm once Aidan gets up from his nap to pick U-pick cherries.  They're only charging .50/pound for Rainiers or Bings.  In the grocery store the cheapest you can find them on sale is about $2.50/pound.

Getting ready to pick cherries at the Smith family farm

This is kinda cool!

Ray Smith with the 'adopt a grandbaby for a day' program! lol

Aidan riding the broom-broom with 'Grandpa' Smith

Maybe this is too scary after all!

 We'll pick some for Lindsey and Thomas to take home with them too.  Then we're planning on making a stop at the Hot Rods and Harley's event they have every Friday night during the summer at the McDonald's on 40th Avenue.  We're all thinking that will be a big hit with Aidan.  Darvin indicated he should be able to get off early tonight at the patient count is really low again (it was yesterday too), so hopefully he'll be able to come with us, at least to Hot Rods and Harley's.

THURSDAY - JULY 5, 2012
What a wonderful fireworks display at Legend's Casino in Toppenish last night.  Unfortunately the new SD card that I used had an error message after taking many pictures.  Turns out it wanted to be formatted before taking pics and formatting erases everything that's on it.

Hiking adventures:  Lance, Donna, Aidan and I were going to take a short trip to White Pass meeting Mike Park and Molly dog there.

White Pass Ski Resort

Lance and Aidan chillaxin' on the ski lift

Aunt Denise, Aidan and Donna

 We were supposed to meet him at the Ski Resort area around 10:30 a.m.  We actually arrived on time and waited and waited for Mike.  Took a walk around the ski lift.  Lance and Donna took turns walking down the street to the gas station to use the restroom.  We changed Aidan's diaper.  In the meantime I'd left phone and text messages for Mike with no response.  He did call me back at one time but the coverage was spotty and the call was dropped.  We were getting a bit anxious after we'd waited about an hour for him since we'd only planned on spending about an hour on the mountain eating lunch and taking a short hike.  Aidan's nap time is usually 1 p.m. and most of the time he will not take a nap in the car.  So we knew we had a small window of opportunity for our trip so we could make it home in time.  We finally decided to head further west down the road to the site that we thought we'd be hiking at and try to keep our eye out for Mike on the way and when we got there.  We stopped at a lookout point.  I was scanning oncoming traffic looking for Mike.  When I thought I saw his car pass by I told Lance and Donna that I'd head back up to the ski resort to see if it was him.  I found that it wasn't him and returned to the Larkin's.  At this point I was in a quandry not knowing what to do!  We decided to head down the road a little more in the hopes that it would cut down on the time it took to meet up with Mike.  We found a nice lunch spot, I kept trying to text and call him.  We ate lunch and by that time it was getting quite late and so we decided to start heading back the way we came.

Larkin family with Mt Rainier in the background

Aidan enjoying the grasses at our lunch spot

Sharing our lunch with the neighborhood chipmunks

Aidan loves his Mommy!

When I got ahold of Mike he indicated that he'd come over Highway 410, Chinook Pass and what should have been a 2 hour trip took over 4 hours because of poor road conditions and road detours.  Then he missed the turn to Highway 12 to White Pass so instead he ended up in Yakima.  I felt bad, but didn't want to cut our trip too short since the idea was to lunch and hike.  I told Mike to head over to our house to chat with Lindsey and Thomas and we'd try to catch up with him in Yakima.  Lindsey and Thomas had intended to spend the afternoon at his parent's house as some of his siblings are still here from out of town, but they graciously hosted Mike instead.  Of course I was stressed about ALL of the changed plans, feeling like I'd messed up everyone's plans.

On our way home we stopped at the gas station across the street from the ski resort and inquired about hiking trails.  The lady told Lance that there was one around Leach Lake which she said was about 200 yards down the road.  So we stopped there and took a hike around the lake.

The Larkin family at Leach Lake

Aidan ended up falling asleep in his backpack on Lance's back!  So we extended our hike a little longer as it was supposed that he would wake up as soon as we tried to take him out of the backpack.  He got about a 30 minute nap.

Nothing like a nice hike to help a guy sleep!

We made a stop at the Clear Creek Falls overlook and enjoyed the beautiful waterfalls and view.

On the way home we got delayed with road construction in Tieton.  We waited and waited and waited all the while listing to Aidan grunt and watching him turn red in the face!  After this had gone on for quite a few minutes Donna happened to check and Aidan was have a front blow out of his diaper!  So we quickly pulled into the adjacent grocery store parking lot and had a huge 3 adult production cleaning up the boy, getting him out of his poopy clothes, etc.  Of course by the time we were finished our side of the traffic had proceeded through the construction zone and we were left to wait, again!  I'm guessing we waited for at least a total of 30 minutes to get through Tieton!  We finally made it home and Aidan got his bath.

WEDNESDAY - JULY 4, 2012
Happy Independence Day!  Today we went non-traditional.  No bbq with burgers and dogs, instead we had a yummy lunch of Rohn's Pistolette, Dirty Rice and Ratatouille and then Raspberry crepes for dessert.  Lindsey picked up Grandpa Clement on her way home from shopping for a 4th of July outfit for Brooklyn.  He really enjoyed getting out, eating and socializing.  I took some time to show him pictures of baby Vona and some of Brooklyn as well.

Tomorrow Lee's sister Pearl will be coming into town with her daughter.  They're taking Grandpa out for dinner, will spend the night and then head out again I guess.  I suggested that Grandpa call when they get in town to try to arrange a time when Lindsey, Thomas and Brooklyn could go over to visit with them.

TUESDAY - July 3, 2012
We took a picnic lunch and some stale bread to Randall Park today.

Ate our lunch and then took the bread over to the pond to feed the ducks and geese.  

Aidan thoroughly enjoyed watching the "dack-oo's" chase down the bread.  We gave him some bread to throw and he wanted to eat it instead! lol

Lindsey, Thomas and Baby Brooky hiding in the Moby wrap

I hear Aidan waking up from his nap downstairs and he's not a happy camper...we are hoping to take him across the street to the fire station for a visit with the "broom-broom's".  I guess we'll see if his mood improves.

Later today Lindsey and I will be climbing the hill on 96th Avenue for our exercise.  I'm NOT looking forward to it.  But I guess the truth be told I can't say that I ever REALLY look forward to my 45 minutes of exercise!

MONDAY- July 2, 2012
Today we headed to West Valley U-Pick farm and picked raspberries. Lance, Donna, Aidan, Lindsey, Thomas, Brooklyn and Thomas's family all went.

The Giles totally out-picked the Larkin/Clement's. I think Thomas's mom Sandee ended up buying about 22 pints of raspberries. I'm glad it was her and not me! We'll just eat ours by the handfuls! lol
Which is EXACTLY what Aidan did while we were picking.

He is the cutest little stinker. He figured out that if he stayed near Aunt Denise he didn't need to pick raspberries off the bushes, he could just pick them out of Aunt Denise's bucket! lol

This evening after Darvin got home from work, Lindsey and I got our run in and we got the little people to bed then the adults played the game Citadels.  It was great fun.  We'll try to have another game tomorrow night.

WEEK OF JUNE 25th - WE'RE GETTING A NEW GRANDDAUGHTER

Today is a wonderful family day. Brooklyn Brielle Giles will receive a baby's blessing this afternoon in Sacrament meeting from her daddy Thomas.

Lindsey and Thomas arrived yesterday evening around 8 or 9 p.m. They'd stopped in Grandview on the way from Boise to visit with Thomas's grandma and some of his siblings who are staying at his grandma's. Our Sacrament meeting starts at 1 p.m., so we'll try to be there by 12:30 p.m. to take some family pictures before hand and save some seats.

All of Thomas's siblings are coming including his sister and her son from Texas and of course his mom and dad and Darvin, and I, Darvin's dad, Lance, Donna and Aidan. After Sacrament meeting we'll come home and start bar-b-quing for a family luncheon. We're going to have hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, fruits, vegetables, soda pop, cake and ice cream. We'll also cook a couple of salmon burgers for Donna. It'll be nice to spend some time chatting with both sides of the family.

SATURDAY - JUNE 30, 2012
Wow, it's hard to believe June will be over after today. Time flies! Today is the 5k race at West Valley park. My goal is to run the whole thing. I can do it, I'm sure of it. I ran 3 miles earlier in the week without stopping I can run 3.1 miles too! This morning on my arm I wrote in permanent marker "Run the whole race - YOU CAN DO IT!"

I got up this morning about 2 hours before the race was scheduled to start. Made myself a protein shake and ate 4 strawberries. I've since had 32 ounces of water to drink with an hour to go before race time. We'll see if this agrees with me.
Back from the race! I DID IT! I completed my goal. I RAN the whole way, I didn't WALK one step! I sure appreciated the people that encouraged me. I had one woman I think in her 20's who had been walk/jogging. She and I finished the 2nd lap around the same time and she told me she wanted to try to run the last lap with me. She did a walk/run and she actually beat me, but I didn't care, my goal was NOT to walk, so I didn't care about my time. I was encouraging her to run as she walked up the last two hills on the last lap. It was nice to be accountable to her as I'd shown her my goal on my arm to run the whole race. As Haley Moon passed me on her last lap she told me I could do it! Bless Ethan Kimzey's heart. I had 3 or 4 of my seminary kids that ran the race and Ethan did a cool down lap and caught up with me when I had about 1/3rd of my last lap left and jogged to the finish line with me! I love that kid! He was so sweet, he kept encouraging me and telling me I was almost there. When we had about 100 yards left he asked me if I wanted to sprint it. I told him I WAS sprinting it! lol I'd sped up ever so slowly! I actually did better on my time than I expected. Here's the 'after' shot of my arm:

My cousin Jeanie Searcy posted a facebook message to me this morning after I finished the race. She indicated that she wants to start becoming a runner, that she's always wanted to and asked for some advice on how to get started. She was so sweet indicating that my facebook comments about my progress have been very inspirational to her. I told her that the hardest thing for me has been getting rid of my negative self talk, and all the doubts and reasons why I can't succeed. I still struggle every single time I go out on a run! BUT, I'm starting to feel like I WANT to run. When I go out just for a walk it's really hard not to start running! I told her how much I love the couch to 5k program. Another thing that has been really important for me is convincing myself that it didn't matter if I had a setback I just need to keep trying. It has been so emotionally thrilling for me to be able to accomplish these things that I never thought I was capable of. I plan on getting in the best shape of my life in my 50's! If I don't take care of myself, no one else will! I never set out to be an inspiration to anyone, I decided that by posting on facebook it would help hold me accountable. It has been very fulfilling to hear that other people have been motivated by my posts.
According to my Garmin I ran 3.26 miles with a 12:28 pace. Certainly not my best pace by any stretch of the imagination, but I was running in the grass and I DIDN'T QUIT! I'm a winner!
I am currently enjoying listening to Darvin and Aidan in the man-cave. Darvin is playing his guitar and 'teaching' Aidan how to play. It's the sweetest thing ever! I keep hearing Aidan saying, "Yeah", "Yeah"! So fun to have this sweet little person around.
Aidan enjoys bubble bath time at Aunt Denise and Pop's house!

FRIDAY - JUNE 29, 2012
It's another traveling day. I'm exhausted. The babies have had a rough time traveling. Between not being able to sleep in the car and having problems sleeping at night I think we're all worn out. Hopefully Lance, Donna, Aidan and I will do well on the last segment of our travel this week. We're heading from Boise back to Yakima today. I'm wishing for a quick and uneventful trip home today!

THURSDAY - JUNE 28, 2012
We returned from Salt Lake City to Boise today. We're were hoping to leave Salt Lake by 3 p.m. so we'd arrive in Boise about 9 p.m. We didn't depart until 3:30 and didn't arrive in Boise until about 10 p.m. We barely had enough gas to get to Boise. The warning light came on just as we were arriving in the city limits. Brooklyn had a bit of a rough time. She cried for about an hour straight at one point. We made 3 stops instead of the 2 we'd made on the way down to Salt Lake.
Lance drove the first half of the trip. As we were preparing to depart Salt Lake he was checking to see that the side mirrors were set correctly and noticed that the passenger side mirror had been broken. It was a very strange break as it was the plastic cover underneath the mirror. Apparently another car had knocked against the mirror at their hotel room. What a bummer!

I don't know why we seem to attract problems when we have rental cars. Fortunately what my primary insurance doesn't cover American Express will pay. In my experience it's just such a hassle to get the claim processed and deal with the rental car agencies! We'll see how customer service friendly Alamo is! When I returned the car this evening Javier the employee that was on duty said he was relatively new, so he suggested I call the manager back during normal business hours to get more details on the claim process. He said they wouldn't file the claim that they'd mail me a bill and I'd have to file my own claim. That just doesn't seem right. We shall see!

I'm really glad we were able to go visit Mom. Even if it was a very short visit! It was nice to be able to chat with her and do some catching up. She really seemed to enjoy seeing the grandbaby (Aidan) and great grandbaby (Brooklyn).

Lindsey and I were glad that we were able to stay at her apartment with her as we were able to spend more time visiting. Lindsey and I would both like to return in October to attend General Conference with Mom.

WEDNESDAY - JUNE 27, 2012
We made it to Salt Lake City yesterday with all 4 adults and 2 little people all in one piece!

Poor Aidan is not sleeping in the car, so he hasn't been getting his naps which makes for a very tired little boy. No big plans today. Mom would like us to visit the Family History Library where she works this afternoon when both shifts are working so we can meet the folks she works with. She would also like us to visit the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Other than that we'll probably just have a relaxing day visiting.

Lindsey, Brooklyn and I are staying at Mom's apartment. Mom spent the night with us at her apartment which was nice because then we were able to get up and spend time to chat. It's been nice to catch up.

Aidan's favorite part of exploring Salt Lake was the 'broom brooms' at the Joseph Smith Memorial building!

Yesterday evening Donna and I took a walk at the high school track that's a block from Mom's apartment. It had cooled off by the end of the day (it's been SUPER hot here) so it was a really nice 2.5 mile walk. Today is a running day. I plan on running this evening around 9 p.m. again after it's cooled off (hopefully).

Just returned from my run. I'm kind of proud of myself. I know, I shouldn't be prideful, but I don't know what else to call it. I have been tired since arriving in Salt Lake City and the elevation is about double Yakima's but it didn't stop me from my run late this evening. I didn't get out until about 10:30 p.m. I was determined to beat my last longest run which was 32:20 minutes. I have a head light that I use at night and at home I always take Abby with me when I run at night, but she wasn't here and everyone else was ready for bed, so I headed out by myself. I started running at the track, but after a few times around the track alone there was a guy that was walking between the track and the field. It was relatively dark on the track, so I decided it would be safer to run around the block on the sidewalks. I finished my lap and headed for the sidewalks. I was thinking I'd need to go around the block about 5 times to complete my time. I decided I wouldn't look at my watch until I'd gone around at least 5 times. My Garmin watch was set for 34:00 minutes. I decided I'd try to keep running even after the timer went off if I felt like I still had some stamina. I was excited when the Garmin went off at 34 minutes and kept running. I ended up running 37:08 minutes! A new personal record AND 3 miles which was a much slower pace than usual, but almost to the 5k mark so I'm not complaining! I should be in good shape to finish the 5k race on Saturday. Hooray!


TUESDAY - JUNE 26, 2012

Exciting news yesterday! Ashley delivered Vona LeeAnn Rush on Monday, June 25 at 9:20 p.m. CST. She was 21 1/4" long, 7 lbs 3 oz with a head circumference of 14ish". I think Ashley was in labor for about 18 hours (maybe Ashley can correct me if I'm wrong). They had a home birth. The plan was to have her in a pool provided by the midwives, but as 'luck' would have it Ashley had needed to get up out of the pool to walk around when she started feeling like if they didn't check her and tell her she was about to have the baby, then she wanted to go to the hospital. So she laid down on the bed. When they checked her the baby was crowning so she stayed in bed to have her.

Ashley had Justin, her two midwives, her mother-in-law Dolly and her Aunt Vicki there for the birth (and of course Bernice the proud big sister dog!). I knew that she was going to have quite a 'crowd' so felt like it would be more helpful if I came after the baby was born and Dolly had gone home, so we could extend the support. Ashley said that at one point in the labor all she wanted was for me to be there. I felt really horrible about that, but hope that we made the right decision in me coming later. I'll arrive on July 11th and will stay until July 31st. Justin and Vicki will both be gone from the 18th through the 31st on tour with their band, so I think it'll be good for me to be there to help.

On another happy note, Darvin received a letter from the Board of Pharmacy yesterday indicating that he was within the scope of practice in the investigation that they'd been conducting on a patient that had died at the hospital 3 years ago. So, case closed. Hooray! He knew that he'd followed hospital protocol, but you never know how crazy government agencies will act!

Now if we can convince Great Grandpa Clement that living near the grandkids is the thing to do, we can start working on getting our houses on the market so we can move to Texas!

MONDAY - JUNE 25, 2012

It looks like today will be the day the baby Vona makes her arrival!! I had a message on my answering machine that Ashley is in labor. Hooray! She decided not to wait for her Daddy's birthday on Wednesday. Ashley's contractions started sometime in the night. I think she'd been in labor a couple of hours by the time she called me around 7 a.m. Yakima time (5 a.m. Dallas time). It's now about 8 a.m. and the midwife should be coming over in about an hour to check Ashley. Her contractions are about 2 minutes apart and lasting about 40 seconds right now. Vicki's 'on call' waiting to get an update after the midwife checks Ashley, and Justin's mom is on her way up. EXCITING!!

Lance, Donna, Aidan and I will be traveling to Boise to Lindsey's later this morning. We'll spend the night there and then will head on to Salt Lake with Lindsey and Brooklyn tomorrow. It should be a fun week.

Darvin came home from work last night super frustrated. It will be so nice when we can move and he can get a retail job. He's really tired of working with the stress at the hospital.