Another Couple of weeks of Good and Not so Good

 

Update on Zackary

Zackary went in for his first casting a week ago Thursday.  As you can see in the picture, both of his entire legs are in casts up to his diaper.  When the took the cast off a week later, his crooked feet looked a lot better.  They put him in casts again for one more week.  He was so happy for the hour or so that his casts were off.  They gave him a bath and Crista got to hold him for a while.  His first surgery is scheduled for March 25.

The whole family went with Zack to Shriner's Hospital for his first casting.  Greta mentioned that her birthday was coming up, so the nurses went in search of a gift for her.  They gave all of the children a stuffed animal. 

Ruby, Zack, Bridget, Todd and Greta;  They all signed Zack's casts before they removed them.

Birthday Weekend

 A couple of nights before my actual birthday we went to see Fiddler on the Roof at Hale Center Theater. We took some friends from the ward;  Judy and Burt Winegar.  It was a fabulous production and left us with tears in our eyes.

For my birthday weekend, Roy and I went up to Flaming Gorge for a weekend get-away. Even though there's not as much to do up there when it's cold, we still enjoy our time together.  On the night of my birthday we drove up to Rock Springs, had dinner (it's Wyoming, so it was edible, but not fantastic) and went to an animal show.  The lady who presented, owns a zoo in Colorado, so she brought a few animals with her.

To the left is an African Pygmy hedgehog.  I wanted to pet it since we had hedgehogs at one time.  This one was bigger and lighter colored than the ones we had, but Nick says they are the same variety.  On the right is an Armadillo, all rolled into a ball.  Sorry, Nick--I didn't hold the snake, and I can't remember what type of snake this is.

Even though it was cold we went on a ride in the side X side and were also able to take a good walk.  We didn't stay at this viewpoint long as we could see that a storm was coming.

I haven't had a birthday cake in a long time (don't worry, I haven't really wanted one), but this year I made my own.  I found a recipe for a 6 " chocolate cake with ganache, which I love.  I thought it was the perfect size.  It said it served four, but it would have been best to share it with 6.
I chose this picture so you could all see the antelope head.  This is Roy's trophy antelope.  I agreed for a trial run of having him hang in our Flaming Gorge home.  I'm not sure if it's going to stay there.

When we arrived at the Gorge, it was very foggy.  I've never seen this effect before; the fog was frozen into crystals onto the trees and fences.  It was really beautiful.

And our new trees are still alive!

While we were at the Gorge we invited our neighbors up the mountain (Carrie and Dana Dixon) to come down for dinner and games.  We had a fun evening.  The next day at church, Dana told us we could use his dumpster when we left so we didn't have to drag our garbage home, so we did.  Then Dana called us to tell us he hadn't cleared it with his neigbor that he shares the dumpster with and that there was a camera; oh well...

Zack with his 2nd (and hopefully final) casts.

We've had lots of things happening in our family.  Nick had his gallbladder taken out.  He had large polyps and stones.  Thankfully, the polyps were not cancerous, but the recovery has been a little more difficult than Nick was led to believe.  

Poor Yuli had a mishap with the mixer.  The mixer won.  

The comb-over

I don't think either Dan or Jieun got much sleep after this accident.  The next morning they had to put on a large party for Yuna's birthday.  Back in December, when Dojin had his party; 18 children had been invited and 7 were available to come.  This time, with that in mind, 18 children were invited; 15 came.  And Jieun said all of Yuna's friends were as crazy as she is.  Greta celebrated a birthday, too.  She opted for dinner out with her family instead of a birthday bash with her friends.  Crista was surprised, but it's been their tradition and I guess Greta wanted her turn (Happy Birthday Yuna and Greta).

When I went down to get sugar to replenish my upstairs cupboard, I noticed a sack on the very top shelf.  I wondered what was in it.  I opened it and found about $50 of Cavenaugh's chocolate.  It had obviously been there for at least 3 or 4 years.  Neither Roy nor I had any recollection of putting it there, but I'm sure I probably told Roy to hide it from me after Christmas one year.  He did a very good job.  We were a little afraid to try it (it was discolored from going through temperature changes), so we threw it all away.