Zack's 5th surgery

Little Zack had his first palate surger on Monday (Sept. 16).  The doctor decided to fix only the soft palate, because sometimes when she fixes the hard palate in a baby this young, it will become misshapen before they can do the bone graft to give it more support.  If his gap had been closed a little bit more, the surgeon may have been able to go ahead with the hard palate.  We had thought it would mean one less surgery if they closed it up now, but since he has to have the bone graft regardless, it is the same amount of surgeries.  Zack has had 5 surgeries so far in his 9 months of life.  Luckily, he's a little trooper and seems to deal well with the discomfort.  

Roy and I went to Logan to watch over the kids while Crista and Matt attended to Zack at Primary Children's.  Jana Vance was up there Sunday to Monday evening.  We headed up Monday, late afternoon, to take over for her.  Surprisingly, Crista and Matt were able to leave the hospital late Monday night.  They had a male nurse that knew they wanted to go home and he put in a word for them.  It's much nicer not to have to sleep at the hospital.  It was late enough that they decided to stay the night at our home.  

We had a good time with the kids and some good laughs.  I asked Todd why he was so cute and handsome.  He said, "I'm handsome only on Sundays."  

We stayed another night so Crista could handle Zack while we took care of the other 4 children.  The 2nd night, Ruby's watch alarm went off around 3:00 am and went off every 5 minutes thereafter.  It had been left in the hallway.  Since I'm a very light sleeper, I couldn't ignore it.  While I was searching for my airpods, Roy realized I wasn't sleeping and went to find the problem.  After hiding the watch in a closet inside a shoe, we tried again to go to sleep.  I think I was finally drifting off (around 6) when Todd walked in our room and turned the light on.  Roy reacted, "Todd! Turn the light off! (a little bit firmly).  Todd got a long face and said, "Why?"

Crista could have probably used more help, but since Matt was there we decided to go home and get a good night's sleep.  He's leaving town for a conference this afternoon, so we'll go back up and help for a couple more days.  

Tomato Soup and bread from the Old Mill House bakery, and watermelon.  Bridget with grandma.

Zack, following his surgery.  He was fussy off and on, but did amazingly well overall.

Following the surgery, we were able to spend a little time with Matt and Crista since

 we stayed until Wednesday to help them.

Roy, Bridget, Greta

Crista, Todd, Ruby

Bridget, Matt

Crista, Todd, Ruby

While we were babysitting we got a call from Elise on her way to the ER.  Mav had gone with Andy and Max to Max's ball game (Andy is coach).  He was climbing the chain link fence with a friend and decided to jump.  He found out that bones can only handle so much pressure.  Elise had a bad cold and had to leave home to pick up Mav so Andy could finish with his responsibilites.  He met Elise at the hospital a little later.  They took Mav right in to be seen--either because Andy is known and respected there, or because the arm merited quick attention. The break was serious enough that Mav had to be sedated to get it casted.  It did reach his growth plate, but not to where he needs surgery (we hope).

When you have 24 grandchildren, you're going to have more than your share of accidents, surgeries and other issues.  We're grateful for all of them anyway 😍.

Roy attended the wedding reception of a ward member; one of his priests.  Since we'd been gone so much, he told me I could stay home.  He ran into Jennie, Jordan and Foster at the reception; they knew the bride.  It was a happy coincidence.

Roy also let me stay home for the weekend and catch up with things at home while he went to the cabin to winterize the boat and trailer.  Fortunately for him, Caitlyn and Dallin wanted to help, as well as take a little getaway.   The three of them took the boat out one last time.  The water was so smooth and glassy that both Dallin and Caitlyn wakeboarded.  Dallin did it for a very long time. 

As you can see, it was a calm, beautiful day.  There was no one loading boats when they put our boat in although there were a few fishing boats out.  Once school starts, people stop playing.

Winterizing the boat

Roy said that it would have taken him many hours to do what they helped him to do in just over a couple. And they did things a lot more thoroughly than he could have on his own.  Dallin is very talented mechanically.

Since I stayed home I was able to finish putting this quilt top together.

These pictures are from last Sunday when Adrienne and AJ brought their family for a visit.  

Cub

Adrienne and Ollie

After our sacrament meeting today, we left so we could enjoy the Vance's primary program.  

The camera their ward was using wasn't super clear, but we took a couple of shots of our screen anyway.  

Above: Ruby and Greta (Bridget gave her part before we thought to take pictures).  All three girls gave their parts without prompting.  Ruby shared a sweet spiritual experience she had had.  As you can see in the bottom picture, they have a very small primary.  We counted 17 children. Bridget is the third from the left in the back row.  Greta and Ruby are first and 2nd rows in the main section.

After dinner tonight we will head back up to Logan to give Crista a couple of extra hands since Matt will be gone.  After spending a couple of days with her, we realize how much work it is to get the kids to bed at night and get them off to school in the mornings.  We know she's used to it, but while the baby is healing we thought it would be good to give her a small lift.  It's nice we're at the stage in our lives that we can do this.  Jana and Regan Vance are 10 years younger and they both work, so it's harder for them to spend time there (and they live in Mapleton, which is over 2 hours away).