Chase's Hives

Disclaimer!!! Naked bum pictures and pictures with underwear! Disclaimer!!!

It's been about 3 weeks ago, but Chase randomly broke out in hives one day. I hadn't changes anything recently in our diet or surroundings, or anything. But they were quite large and covered a large area of his body. The poor kid took it like a trooper though. The weird part was that there would be a random day where he wouldn't get any.....i know, confusing! After a week I took him to the doctor but he said there's not much to do except that if he keep getting them in 3-4 more weeks then to bring him in and we would start testing for allergies and such. But thankfully, since Sunday, he's been hive free! I don't even want to tally up the list that Chase could have going for accidents to illness to who-knows-what! All I can say, his guardian angel has to work over-time for this kid! :)

These pictures really don't do justice to how severe these really looked. But as he got them each day, the hives seemed to get worse and more of them. I think this was the second day he had them.

Oak Grove Camping

Now that summer is coming to a close we finally decided to to camping. Ray's sister, Kristi and her family, came with us and we went to Oak Grove (I think of my favorite spots). It was marvelous weather and kids had fun traipsing around through the trees and dirt. The only down fall was that we could only stay out for one night. Oh ya, and the rattlesnake!! Yes, a rattlesnake! We were going for a walk down the road before we left and Rylee and I almost stepped on a rattlesnake! I was quite spooked by it and so we decided to just go back to camp and leave. On our way out it was still on the road and so we stopped and took a picture and then wanted to see if it was dead or alive since it hadn't moved since we saw it before. Thankfully, it was dead, otherwise there would have been a good chance that Rylee or I could have been bitten. Other than that it was a fun trip and we hope to get in a couple more trips before it gets too cold!

Stupid scary snake!

Chase was running around and fell down on a stick and scraped his face up pretty good. Thankful it wasn't any worse!

Bryce Canyon Half Marathon

Six weeks after the Marathon in Oregon I ran the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon. This was a fun one though because my best friend Katie and her husband were running it too. So we decided to have an adult weekend and sent all of the kids to other people's houses (thank you Kathryn and Kristi!) and Ray, me, Katie and Dan left. We stayed at a relative's cabin in Panguitch and went fishing the night before. I haven't been fishing in years (well, without kids anyways) and so this was a treat! The only problem was that didn't catch a single fish! Everyone else caught a fish except for me and it was really bumming me out and I refused to quit until I did! Well, Dan had found a hot spot and was pulling fish out like crazy! So I went and stood right next to him, but no!, I couldn't hook a stinkin' fish still! Needless to say, I walked away empty handed, but still had a great time!

The next morning we had wake up at 4:30 in the MORNING! to get to the race by 6 AM. On the way to the race my stomach didn't feel too great and I thought it was just pre race jitters. Well, as the race started it turned into something worse and I was just about doubled over in severe pain and clenching my bum cheeks for all I was worth! (Sorry TMI) I was able run the first 5 miles but finally gave in to the porta potty. Needless to say, that was not my last time visiting those things. After it was all said and done I had to stop at 6 porta potties. Not my best race, which was too bad because it was a fast downhill course with beautiful scenery. Despite being sick, i finished with a half decent time of 2:07. Unfortunately, Katie came down with the same bug and we were both hating life after the race. But it was so fun to have Dan and Katie along! And eventhough Ray didn't run the race, he was fun have along as well! :) (You know I love you honey!) He got some great pictures though of the race and some of the spectacular sites around us.

Brother and Sister Time

Chase and Rylee don't particularly play together much, but on this day they did!

It was one of those moments when it got really quiet and you know there's someone in trouble! Yep, this is how I found the trouble-makers! They found my make up and put it on each other....I might add it's quite difficult to discipline them when they look so darn cute!

Summer Fun: part 3 Idaho

In conclusion to our summer vacation we stopped in Idaho to visit my family. Our first day there we went to the zoo with my mom and sister and her two adorable kids. In addition to the crew, we had our dear sweet friend Paizley (my mom used to babysit her when she was just a little baby) came and stayed and helped with all of the kids.

Chase was quite fascinated with the map of the zoo.

Yep, he's still obsessed with the map.....

And yes, Chase is still looking at the map. It took quite a while to convince him to put it down and look at the animals. :)

And this next story is quite fitting for Chase's life.

The boys were outside at my parent's house playing while we were getting dinner fixed and I heard Chase scream/cry, which is nothing unusual (if you know Chase, you know what I mean). Well, at first the cry didn't sound immediate so I just yelled out the window that he was ok and to settle down. Well, it quickly escalated and then Logan ran to the door yelling that Chase was really hurt. So I then ran out the door and found Chase around the corner of the house bent over a bucket of liquid that smelled horrible and he was drenched in it and his face was all wet and he was just screaming. It didn't take much to figure out that he gotten into some chemical and poured it into a bucket and then played in it and rubbed his face with his hands and got it in his eyes. Now to explain what the chemical was. We just call it "worming chemical". What it is that you mix it up in a giant barrel with water and dump it on your lawn and it makes earth worms come to the surface and you can pick them up and then turn them in to a store for money.

So realizing this was kind of an emergency and I didn't know what it was going to do to his poor eyes I just obeyed my first instinct to run his eyes under water. Well, he didn't so much like this idea and so I had to yell for help and it took my mom, dad and me to hold him under and my sister trying to get hold of poison control to find out what to do. Seeing Chase wigging out like this kind of upset all of the other kids which only intensified the stress! But luckily Paizley took them all in the other room to settle them down. One of the hardest parts for me during this was that Ray wasn't there. He had been in a conference in Salt Lake for the past couple of days and was on a Shuttle Bus at that moment to my parents house. But Ray is my rock, my rationality in life. It was difficult to not have him there to tell it was all ok. Anyways, Audree finally got through to Poison Control (they kept putting her on hold!! this was an emergency! Come on!) they said to put in the shower and just let the water run over his face and it'll make him blink out the poison. Well, to put it nicely, Chase HATES showers!! So anyways, I jumped in the shower with Chase, fully clothed and all. It wasn't exactly a relaxing shower by any means, but we were in there for about 30 minutes and then we were supposed to put a cool, damp cloth over his eyes for another 3o minutes. Ya right! Tell a 2 year old to hold still with something covering his eyes!! Ha!! Well, thankfully, he was so exhausted from all the crying and fighting with us that he fell asleep in my mom's arms. But before he fell asleep I was able to ask Chase if he could see certain things and he could. So it was good to know that he had some sight. So while he was sleeping we had my dad and br0-in-law give him a blessing, and that was very comforting. So then I left go pick up Ray (which had been waiting for like 20 minutes!). I think I cried most of the way to get him. But it was so nice to have Ray back with me and to tell me that everything was going to be alright. Needless to say, his eye sight is just fine and then next day Chase was back to his usual self. He was not slowed down at all.

This is the Worming Chemical.

Chase after he woke up and was eating. You can't tell from the pic, but his poor eyes were all swollen and red.

The next day we went fishing my dad. We drove to a nice little pond, but unfortunately there were not fish.....at least not any hungry ones! We then drove to another pond, but due to the major flooding that was going in that area, the pond was all washed out and not exactly good terrain to take little kids fishing. But it was a fun experience for the kids and they thoroughly enjoyed spending some fun time with Grandpa!

We stayed for about a week in Idaho and then decided that we had been gone from home long enough and we wanted to go home, after all, we had only been gone for 3 1/2 weeks!! :) It was a good, fun visit but it was sure nice to get home to our own place again!