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09/11/2005: "August Memories"

Not so long ago, I was blogginiscing about my vacation time up north and I've decided to finish out the trip and pre-Ephraim August in the following post.

8/1 Duncan & Cheanna took in their first IF Chukars baseball game. I stayed back at the homestead with Emma and Elena.

8/2 Tuesday morning I drove to Utah to attend to ordinance work in the Logan and Salt Lake Temples. It was a fabulous day--I gained much strength and some plans/dreams for the future. I remain incredibly grateful that Grandpa and Grandma Rydalch made that possible for me.

8/3 We went to the Museum of Idaho with Grandma Renée & Grandpa Karl Robinson. The featured exhibit dealt with space travel--very exciting. They treated us to lunch Arctic Circle afterwards, which went well despite a mama bear moment of mine dealing with bullying boy and his enabling mother. We went to a neighborhood picnic at Reinhart park that evening.

8/4 Catharine, Ken, Kurt, and Kayla returned from their trip to Glacier Park. My Dad came up later that evening as well. Cheanna went to bed complaining of an upset stomach.

8/5 Cheanna woke up vomiting early in the morning. Catharine came over for the day, we had snow cones and played tetherball. She left for Pocatello when it was time for another Chukars game that evening, and flew back to NY the next morning.

8/6 Richard's tenth reunion was celebrated with a picnic at Tautphaus park, which was sparsely attended and I saw no one that I knew (which was surprising). The children had fun and I continued my run of buying way too much food for an outdoor event.

8/7 Emma woke up vomiting around 5am. We were supposed to be going to Pocatello for Macie's name & blessing, but I decided that I didn't want to risk infecting anyone else. My Dad arrived sometime that afternoon and we played games and visited. Not the day I had planned, that's for sure.

8/8 My Mom's birthday! We went to lunch with a former coworker of hers, and then we went to take pictures by the fountain traffic circle. We bought slushes at Sonic and then we played at the park for a while. Renée called to see when we would be stopping by and so we went over there to pick up the baby afghan and the larger one she had repaired for us, and to say goodbye. I finished as much packing as I could that night, and loading into the van as well. I had lots of help =)

8/9 Emma, Elena and I set out for home this morning, stopping by Karen's in Blackfoot and the Utah Children's Museum in North SLC. It was very different leaving Duncan and Cheanna in Idaho Falls. It was hard to say goodbye...

8/10 We arrived in Phoenix at 4:30am, local time. Richard greeted us warmly and eventually went to work. Since we didn't stop at a fast food place on the way back, we ate at Burger King that night.

8/11 Richard worked on a warrant and had an invitation to a post-op dinner. We went to McDonald's and I had lots of contractions. We were glad that the baby waited until I was back in Phoenix to start things going that way...

8/12-13 We did some shopping, garage rearranging...

8/14 My first time back to church after being gone for nearly a month. It felt so weird, we have so many new families moving in my ratio of faces I know to those I don't has taken a turn for the worse.

8/15 OB appointment, shows that my contractions have been active, baby is healthy.

8/16 Evening contractions. I keep my feet up and my knees closed =)

8/17 Appointment with Dr. K in the morning, followed by shopping and a late lunch. It's our stake temple day, and we have a babysitter to let us attend the temple that evening. Richard and I enjoy attending together very much.

8/18 Home Family and Personal Enrichment meeting about preserving memories. Very nice evening, with root beer floats.

8/19 Grade 13 party out in Scottsdale, Autumn watches Emma & Elena for us. It was a full moon, we were close to the hospital, but decided not to go into labor that night =)

8/20 Crossing more things off of our to-do list. Relaxing day.

8/21 Home teachers visit this evening. We talked about President Hinckley's invitation to read the Book of Mormon and our thoughts/feelings. Both offer whatever help they can for our baby's arrival.

8/22 Spent some time at Ginger's house today. Family Home Evening about money. More sale shopping at Albertson's.

8/23 OB appointment, showing even more progression. Visiting teacher comes over. Pictures are ready at Sam's, picked up those and our cannery order from Sister Nix.

8/24 Elena vomits in her sleep. I cancel my Visiting Teaching appointments. Richard is spending the day at the range, and advises me not to go into labor today. Thankfully, baby complies with that request.

8/25 Book club at Kristy's house. They are moving, truly our loss. While at book club, I feel/hear a pop ... this leads us to get checked the next day, which leads to us to our labor story... a post for another time.