Utah: Gaga and Papa

if there's anything my parents are good at it's being grandparents.

my children talk about them daily and miss them every moment.

and its no wander. gaga and papa seem to need nothing in the world but to love, bring joy to and spend time with my children. In addition to this, they have provided them with some of the most fun experiences of their beautiful little lives. i want to devote this post to gaga, papa, isaac and g...so that my parents might know how necessary they are and that my children might be able to look back and more intensely remember the love that they had in gaga and papa. how lucky they are!

gaga planned a scavenger hunt including...

hugs,

and surprises!

it was a HIT!

my dad, in love with chordy

and gigi

and will and the rest of the gang.

gaga, jumping and playing with reese

and chordy

gaga and isaac have always had a special bond. you don't need more proof than to be with them for 15 minutes. these next few shots will be pretty convincing though!

can you feel the love?

Utah: Family

the greatest part of vacationing, for me, is the spending time with family part. i love just talking and being with people that share my history. i love being with people that, when you're with them, a huge part of you is home. those words describe exactly the way i felt on this night that the following images are from. i'm used to feeling this way when i'm with my immediate family because i see them somewhat regularly. but i almost never see the mccann cousins anymore. i didn't know how much i missed them until we were all together again. seeing my children playing with their children brought a familiarity, a smile to my face that i hadn't anticipated. i expected being happy to see everyone but i hadn't anticipated how deeply i would feel it. it made me wish that we all lived in texas again...all of us together. so that our children could be close and play as we had. its sad that we all have to grow up and go our own way.

generation 3...double third cousins;)

boys being boys

gorgeous abby and greg

my gorgeous jinny, barbie and precious moments coloring companion extraordinaire!, a happy me, and richard who always made me feel beautiful.

sarah the beautiful and wise and richard

smiling faces

don't they look carefree! soak it up kiddos, soak it up!

i love you guys!

Utah: Lagoon

LagOOn

our first ride of the day!

the kids were so excited! i think gigi thought this was her pageant convertible...she just kept smiling and waving. it was too cute!

her hand down, just released from its waving duties!

the kids rode this stomach churner about 5 times.

i'm smiling so big only because it amused me how scared i was of a kiddy ride.

i detest the dropping rides.

georgie held my hand so tight and yet it was the 4th time she'd ridden it. she was scared but kept asking for more!*? go figure!

best buddies!

hi.

comin' up on that hairpin turn

this picture would support the argument that an age range should be listed at the entrance of each ride. do you think this one should say "perfect for 4-5 yr olds"? isaac and reesies face say it all and Maxs faux frown speaks volumes.

a second set of best buddies!

and...a third set!

SPLASH!!

their walk of fame...after being drenched on the log ride

woo-hoo!

a big ride for our isaac boy. arvie was nice enough to take him.

here are some images to prove what we learned about our children's amusement park personalities:

georgie is a trooper and, possibly, even enjoys a little scare. her favorite position is to lean forward on the bar {perhaps to allow room for a puke} and glare at the space directly in front of her...as if her eyes might pop out of her head.

after feeling the scare and yet the thrill she expresses nothing but enjoyment and begs to do it all again, or at least move on to the very next adventure!

isaac loves it all!

his gigantic grin and willingness to ride whatever he's allowed to tell us that

a). he's brave b). he might be a thrill seeker and c). his equilibrium isn't off;)!!

Utah: BYU

no trip to utah is complete without a visit to byu/provo. we aren't always fortunate enough to make it down there but it just doesn't feel complete to me without it. some favorite things about provo? allred orchard apples and peaches {i dream about them}, running up the canyon, byu grass, the avenues, chocolate covered cinnamon bears from the bookstore, the wave of memories at every turn, center street houses.....

okay, back to earth:

campus always had this effect on me too

not the showing your underwear part...

but the napping part. when i'm on campus, i just want to hunker down and nap or people watch. i didn't get much studying done. byu was a social event for me!

my sister-in-law, kirsten and I

we think we're still co-eds

i think i'm STILL a coed...she thinks she's a tiger

Utah: Animal Spottings

we did some animal spotting while in utah, some alive, some stuffed.

here's a tadbit about our animal adventures.

hogle zoo

a nearly unanimous vote was taken: favorite animal is the giraffe!

see the grey in the background? those are elephants! i guess the "camera woman" was somehow not aware of the HUGE tree right in front of her focus object. she's fired.

look at these two cute animals. will and papa. here they are enjoying the stuffed animals at cabelas. i know, i know, it sounds strange that cabelas was a main attraction for us while on vacation. papa and gaga planned it and we were all a little skeptical at first. but it was really fun! we did some target shooting, saw tens of stuffed rocky mountain and polar animals, ate a yummy lunch, bought pop guns {oh my were these a big hit!}

a baracuda...at cabelas

davy crockets girlfriend

enough said...

pretty maids all in a row...

gigi, reesie, max, isaac, chordy

the pictures i didn't get would include the trail of birdseed left on the deck railing each night {by papa} to attract squirles and birds. boy did it serve its purpose. we had blue jays, cardinals, tiny chipmunks and squirrels greeting us at all hours of the day. by the end of the trip the kids hardly flinched at the sight of them.

my one animal regret is not going horse back riding...most of the kids aren't old enough. next year though! thanks, mom and dad, for providing all the fun!

Its About Time: Utah

it's been over 2 months now since our visit to utah. summer is at a close and its about time i wrapped up the journaling of it all. as i sift through these images i find myself wishing i was back there, running the mountains and breathing the pine trees. utah is home to me. 130 innsbruck strasse is my "happy place". i hope it will be the same for isaac and georgie when they are my age...and even for my grandkids. i hope that they can go there and find me when i am gone, just like i find gran. can you tell i'm feeling sentimental?! i just got off the phone with my mom and am listening to some melancholy contemporary folk music by william fitzsimmons. thanks for the recommendation jason. music always sets the mood for me. should i now go into a sunday school lesson about how bad music sets the mood for bad things as well? i think that would be fitting!

anyway, instead of categorizing this trip into days, i thought i would try genres. i'm starting with hikes and outside play days. being outside in the yard and on the trails behind my parents house is my favorite part of being there. to say the least, park city is aesthetically satisfying.

enjoy the satisfaction:

tromping the hiking trail behind the house

the down hill has this effect on everyone!

piggy back ride necessary on the return trip...jackets too. it was cooold!

who wouldn't want to have this as there back yard

looks like they could be the parents. i know g and isaac would prefer it!

this is his kinda territory.

i didn't get a shot of isaac climbing the huge steep mountain behind the house. and i could shoot myself for it. he was so proud and did it over and over again. it might even have been the highlight of his trip. and that's sayin' a lot when we got lagoon coming up!

MerBACKs in Action!!

"Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual,

cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.”

Dear MerBACK in Action

Dear MerBACK in Action,

I'm sure you're thinking, "enough about your accident already", but for therapeutic and journaling reasons I'm including yet another post. I couldn't fall asleep tonight so I shuffled out to the computer to make tomorrows grocery list. When I finished I knew that trying again at sleep would be pointless. I was frustrated. I am not feeling like myself but I can't put the finger on the difference. In a last ditch effort to prove that I'm normal, to give me hope that these changes might be temporary and to justify how I've been feeling lately I typed in a search for "brain injury side effects" on google. Here's what I found...just the highlights:

Some common disabilities include problems with cognition (thinking, memory, and reasoning), communication (expression and understanding), and behavior or mental health (depression, anxiety, personality changes)

Can I just say ALL OF THE ABOVE!! Most of the time I'm just cruising along and feeling fine, grateful that I can take care of myself, be able to walk on a non-moving ground and feel like talking but every now and again I get antsy!! I just want to be ME again! I know, I know, I should be grateful (and I am) but every so often I just want to go into my room and sleep because I don't know how to deal with these negative feelings going on in my head that just aren't me. So tell my peeps out there to forgive me and let this be their *note to self*...I can't help it! And I hope to he** that this goes away! Thanks for listening, MerBACK in Action! I needed you! You always come through for me with a good venting session!

xoxo,

Ashley with concussion