The Ice Road

A cake pan + water + freezer = equals hours of fun for Christopher Robin.

He just currently finished watching season 1 of Ice Road Truckers and he will tell you that those trucks have got to get all the supplies to the diamond mines in Yellowknife before the time runs out and the ice road melts.  But sometimes those trucks do "just crack through the ice." 

"Oh, a BIG mack truck. Be careful. Don't crack through."

Christopher Robin telling those trucks to go slow so they don't break through the ice.

And as the Dr. says when he plays Ice Road Truckers,  "Yeah, yeah, I'm going slow, don't want my bleep, bleep tires to crash through the ice bleep, bleep!"  "Oh bleep, my truck is so heavy, I can hear the ice crack beneath it, bleep,bleep."

He knows that Christopher Robin has no clue what  "bleep, bleep" means, he just puts it in his dialogue solely for my benefit, because he knows how thrilled I am about my 4 year old learning to talk "truck."

It is such a shame though that my jelly roll pan will not fit in my freezer.  It would make the BEST ice road yet.  But this winter when it gets cold out, you can bet that I will be pulling it out of my cupboard and filling it with water and setting it outside my back door to freeze over night because we only have the BEST ice roads 'round here. There will be NO bleep, bleep cracks in OUR bleep, bleep ice road!

It's unofficially official

Hey Christopher Robin, "How do you feel about your dad having to work on the 4th of July?"

Yeah, I thought so.

Ryan heard the best news today.  Because of the new federal regulations regarding how many hours a medical resident can work each week, his department is conforming, and he will no longer be required to sleep at the hospital when he is on call-which can be about 10 days per month.

Do you know what this means?  It means that by law he can no longer work more than 80 eighty hours per week.  For example, this week he is working 7 days in a row.  He worked this Sunday, and is scheduled all week long in the clinic and OR until this coming Sunday morning 8:00am, July 3rd.  Its Brutal on both of us.  I will be honest.  But come this Saturday when he has to take call again,  he will have already worked 80 hours, so he can come home and take call here. 

He got the short end of the stick again and is on call Monday, July 4th, but now there is a slight chance that we will get to see him on the 4th of July!  So pleeeease,  no one be stupid and break your jaw in a bar fight, and please drive carefully so you don't smash your face in a car crash, or falling off your bike, and for crying out loud stay off the ATV's, I would really love for my kids to have some face time with their father on the 4th of July.  He's already worked Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, Mother's Day, and New Years Day this year.  Enough is enough already!!

*Photos courtesy of Christopher Robin

It was bitter sweet

Putting in coolant.

Friday, June 24, marked the end of an era for us.

I drove Ryan's 1994 Nissan Altima to Liberty Motors and traded it in for another set of wheels for my man.  We had planned on keeping this car running until Ryan's last year of residency, but it turned out that that was not a realistic expectaion.

I felt more sentimental than I thought I would, leaving it behind in the parking lot.

That car has been Ryan's car since I first met him more than 10 years ago. It is the car that left him stranded in a small Arizona town with a broken axle 2 days before our wedding in Salt Lake City, Utah.

It is the car that would not start the day I was in labor with Jace, leaving Ryan stranded at the dental school trying to hitch a ride home from fellow classmates to take me to the hospital.

His car has not been reliable this whole first year of residency.  Every month Ryan has had to change the sparks plugs to keep it chugging, and also the oil because all the coolant was leaking into the oil pan.  And of course there was the smoke that came up through the steering column, and the deafening roaring that it made.  Just to name a few of its problems. There is also the fact that the starter was going out and it took several tries pushing the key in horizontally and then forcing it down to get the engine to turn over. 

But most of all, Jace loved fixing this car with his Dad, and it was gifted to Ryan from his beloved grandmother-Magoom. 

But the  Dr. FINALLY admitted defeat after having the experts determine that it would be very costly to keep it running.  He told me it was time to spend our rainy day fund and get a reliable car.

It is true that all things wear out and have to be replaced.  This little car served us well for many years, and finally had to go its way.

A typical Saturday scene at our house.

Jace helping his dad fix the car.

When we told Jace that we would have to get Daddy a new car, he emptied his piggy bank and gave his Dad all his money.  So sweet.

He also helped him clean out all the "junk" and

wash the tires too.

Ryan's car all spiffed up and ready to be traded in. 

Me at Liberty Motors at 2:00pm on Friday picking up Ryan's new car with Jace still in his pajamas and barefoot-awesome!

Dr. Hot with his new set of wheels.

Ryan was on call yesterday and didn't get home until 2:00am this morning. It was so nice for me to go to bed last night and not worry if his car was going to get him home in the middle of the night, and he was so glad that he didn't have to walk home at 2:00am.  Wow, what luxury a reliable car provides. Who would have known.  We might have done it earlier!

Grammy, come get her!

Dear Grammy,

Will you please come get Baby Gracie and take her home with you and make her bigger?? She keeps messing up all my cars after I spend hours putting them all in a line just right, and now she even takes my Transformers and puts them in her mouth and bites and eats them and breaks them all apart after Daddy transforms them for me.

My mom said that Baby Gracie doesn't mean to break them, she is just wanting to play transformers with me, and when she gets a little bigger she will be more careful, and not eat my transformers and throw them on the ground when she is done with them.  But I still need you to come get her "tomorrow."  Not today, just "tomorrow."

I love you,

Your Christopher Robin
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOOXOXOX!!

 I hate to admit that





I think she is awfully fun, especially to tease a little bit, and

I relish the fact that she thinks everything I do is

absolutely wonderful!

You can't comment

and I can't post.  I am not sure what is going on with Blogger, but I am about to scream. Anyone else want to join me?  I have a post written for today, but all my pictures won't post, so I am going to have to save it for another day.

But thank you everyone for the sweet messages you have sent me on facebook.  Blogging these past 3 months has been really fun, and it is because you stop by to read my blog.  So thanks everyone for your support.

I have learned that I really like taking a few minutes everyday to write and reflect on what I have seen or felt during the day, and then share it with you.   I consider this blog my journal, even though I have another one in my nightstand drawer that I write in.  My plan is to print this blog into a book at the end of the year, and then give a copy to each of my children for Christmas or New Years, and then start another one for next year.

Well, Robin and Rue are awake and at it, so I guess I am on duty. I really don't have any plans today except buy a car.  Yeah, just that. 

Have a great day everyone! 

And please come visit us soon!!

Dear Rye-Pie,

Meet sock puppets Bob, Freddy and Ellie as they fill up the dump trucks.

Do you remember when you were 22 years old and just a week home from your 2 year mission in Siberia, that you came into Peter Prier and Sons Violin Shop in Salt Lake City to get your cello bow re- haired? 

I was  employed there, and I remember sitting in Peter's office listening to you play Saint Saen's  "The Swan" on your cello while you were trying out some new bows, thinking to myself, "he is by far the best cellist we have had in this shop since I started working here."

Well, 10 years have gone by since that day, and what I didn't know then was that not only were you a very fine cellist,  but that you would become my best friend and soul-mate, and also the father of my children. 

You see, only someone like you, who was up  ALL night on Saturday in the OR fixing 2 mandible fractures, would come home hours later--like Sunday morning later- and greet us with smiles and kisses and whisk us off to church for 3 hours.  Then come home and play  "Freddy and Bob" with your son,--with sock puppets on your hands- before taking a nap.

It is because you are so loving and selfless, and you want your son to know that he, his sister, and his mother will always take priority in your life, despite what other rigorous demands are placed upon you.

I love you so much and appreciate the example you are setting for our children, and the huge sacrifice you are making now in your education, so that someday your job will be flexible and rewarding, and also allow you much family time. I am so grateful that your Father was such a great role model for you, and has always been your friend and advisor, and the person you aspire to be like.

Thank you for being a wonderful father to our children.  I wish you a very happy Father's Day.

All my love,

Your Bayba

Sock puppet Bob says goodbye to Freddy and Ellie as they take the rocks away to the construction site.

Bob is getting tired and

starting to mumble when he talks.

Bob is asleep and getting his face sunburned.

Freddy and Ellie dump the rocks RIGHT in the middle of the lawn.

All in all it was a fabulous Father's Day!

Oh what do you do in the Morningtime?

Around 11:00 am almost every morning, I take a bowl and put in 2-3 eggs, flax seed, wheatgerm, buttermilk, milk, Bisquick, canola oil, and sometimes a smidge of cinnamon and nutmeg.  I then whip up the MOST delicious waffles you have ever tasted, served with homemade syrup and sometimes strawberries or blueberries.

We then mosey out to our deck and eat this MOST delicious breakfast.  Robin then  lines-up all his trucks while we wait and hope for the phone to ring.

Who would be calling us?

Why Daddy of course.

"Hey honey, I am done for the morning, do you want to come pick me up and we can have lunch?"

"Sure, we can be there in about 10 minutes.  We just had breakfast, but we can watch you eat."

So that's what we do. We patiently wait for Daddy to eat, then we play "Transformers" or "Ice Road Truckers" with him for a minute or two before we have to give him back to the people at the hospital.

But I tell you what, you come to Iowa to see us and you can bet I will make you the MOST delicious waffles to boot, and they are well worth the trip.

Just ask Christopher Robin. Every morning he says, "DEEELIcious, that's my favorite food." 

He's just like someone else I know.

Run down the hill

then have Dad carry me back up.   That's what they did for at least half an hour.

Though Christopher Robin got chased up the hill.

And it was such a glorious way to spend a summer evening!

Christopher Robin

got his first bike.  It is blue of course.  He took it on a maiden voyage this weekend. 

Once he learned how to get on, he was up and running.

 He learned how to use his brakes going down the scary hill.

Then

 past the duck pond he peddled

to see the waterfall.

He absolutely had to drive through every muddy puddle

and "crash down in some too."

"Such wonderful slushy water to track all through my house!"

Luckily  for Robin, his Dad was there to get him remounted and off rolling again!

Before we had to say goodbye

At the "Bat Cave" Thursday evening.



Before we had to say goodbye and go our separate ways, we spent the last day of our reunion, Thursday, May 19, in Logan, Utah together.

We arose early and had breakfast together in the Sherwood Hills dining room.

Miquel, Jeff, Makenzi, Will and Jill all looking awake and chipper!

Good morning Day family,

 and Jason Swigert family!


 None of them look like they stayed up past 1:00am watching movies and playing games.

.

Nothing like watching Bott flies lay their eggs in human skin to digest breakfast on.

Ya gotta love smart phones.

Here we are in the Logan cemetery at the grave site of Jill's parents, Clair and Barbara Rasmussen.

Jace spends a little time collecting sticks and pine cones to decorate the graves.

Jill says her parents would love it, every stick, and I agree.



Aunt Makenzi, or should we call her cousin Makenzi, giving Grace the ROYAL treatment as she pushes  her across the cemetery.

Ellie and Jace decorating the graves.

They are still at it.

Jill sharing stories of her/our ancestors at each graveside. 

 I was really struck by their heroism. So many of them gave up everything they had when they joined our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  They immigrated to America,  then crossed the plains to join the Saints in Utah.

More stories.

Two cousins.  Grace and Norah.

Sweet Norah.

BreeAnn finds a pinwheel!



Jeff and Aubrey

After the cemetery visit, we all went to Aggie's for the most delicious ice cream and

squeaky cheese.

We then drove past the BEAUTIFUL homes that Jill's Great-Grandfather Olof Pederson built in the 1800's for his family. (Unfortunately, I don't have pictures.)

The time came for us to leave Logan and head south to Salt Lake City, about 90 minutes away.

We then had dinner and hung out at the Bat Cave.

It was such

A look behind the scenes.






  a PERFECT day.