Calgary Zoo April 2010

For Easter/conference weekend we took a trip up to Canada to see Nathan's family. It was fun to see them again and have them see Xander again. The last time we traveled up was in September and the last time they came down was in January, so it'd been a while.

Michael, Andrew, Becca, Cathy, Nathan, Me, and Xander in the high chair. Chris is taking the picture. These pictures are from Becca's blog. Our camera was dead, otherwise we'd have more pictures from our trip posted.

While we were there, we went to the zoo! At the Calgary zoo they have a life size dinosaur exhibit with moving dinosaurs that roared. They were pretty cool, and apparently too lifelike....

This is SUCH a sad picture! Michael was totally and completely terrified! We tried explaining to him that the dinos weren't real, but then he'd say, "but they can move!" Finally Nathan told him that the ropes/gates will keep the dinos away from him and Michael relaxed a little. But he didn't get out of the stroller!

Amy: Michael, tell me about the zoo.

Michael: It was fun, with Mama and Papa Sunderland and Becca.

Amy: What'd you see?

Michael: Dinosaurs and other things. And the dinosaurs were scary. I was scared of the dinosaurs. I wanted them to die again. When are they going to die again, Mom?

We did see other animals (of course) but they obviously didn't make much an impression on him.

As is our luck, Xander got sick while we were visiting. For the week leading up to the trip, Nathan and Michael both had a really bad cough. I was hoping that Xander wouldn't get it, but Midnight, on the night we were leaving, Xander started coughing. I was hoping that it wouldn't escalate into anything worse, but by Tuesday morning we knew that he needed to see a doctor. The problem? We were in Canada, and Xander wasn't a resident of Canada. So even though he was a Canadian citizen, he didn't qualify for the health insurance. If we wanted to take him to the hospital it would cost over 500 dollars! Luckily it was MUCH cheaper to take him to a doctor office, so that's what we did.

At the office, they took his oxygen reading, and it registered at a low 83%. The nurse said they like to see in the mid 90's. When the doctor came in he said he would prefer to send us to the emergency room, but he didn't want us to have to pay an arm and a leg, so he prescribed an inhaler for Xander and gave us strict orders to go to the hospital if he didn't improve. Luckily, Xander did improve. Mind you he was still bad, but he was better. So we were able to leave the next day and then on Thursday we took him to our family doctor.

After taking some x-rays and blood and a nasty RSV test, the doctor said that Xander had an asthma attack! So we have a nebulizer and are doing breathing treatments, as well as giving him a few doses of steroids to see if we can get his breathing under control again. Now, this doesn't mean that he has asthma. Hopefully it was just an isolated incident, but if has repeated issues like this one than the diagnosis of asthma will come. I really hope it doesn't!

All in all, it was a nice trip to Canada. It was fun to see some family that we hadn't seen in a loooong time (Nathan's grandpa and aunt) and to talk and chat. It was definitely a MUCH needed vacation!

Another Crazy Adventure On Our Way To Canada

It really shouldn't be much of a surprise to us, but we have had another adventure while on our way to Canada. Like I said, it shouldn't really surprise me. We have had more damage to our car while in Canada than anywhere else! We have lost our power steering belt on the way home, had a rock hit our window which resulted in a huge crack all across our windshield, got in a car accident that resulted in hundreds of dollars in repairs being needed (luckily the accident wasn't our fualt and we were not required to pay), we got a dent in the side from an overzealous hip bump to completely close the door, and got a flat tire from running over an object in the road. All of this happened either on the way to Canada, while visiting, or returning. So it shouldn't have come as surprise to us when, 2 hours from home, our car stopped on the interstate! I'll try to make this story really short, but it isn't likely to happen.

I suppose it didn't just stop, it did give us some warning by slowing down quickly and allowing us some time to pull over to the shoulder. But it never started up again. We were lucky enough to have a Sherrif come by about 10 minutes after stopping and he called a tow truck in to get us. Finally about 12:00 p.m. we got the car onto the truck and took off to the nearest town: Dillon Montana, which was about 15 miles away. We got towed to a dealership/mechanic shop and we proceeded to wait. We were pretty confident the battery just needed to be changed and the battery did show up not having a charge to it. But that didn't help us! They tried everything and NOTHING would work!! Our little car was not going to start up again...EVER!!!!!! By this time it was about 6:00 and we were beyond tired and frustrated and ready to just give up! So we got a room with a hotel that included a pool and tried to relax. Afterwords we went over to the dealership and found a car we liked. We were allowed to take it over night and get attatched to it.

The next morning we went back nd told them their trick worked. We wanted to buy the car. We had grown attatched to it. So now the truly emotional part: Trying to get a loan!!!! This was an ordeal! I'll spare the details and just say that it took 4 hours, many loan companies denying us any loan, a few phone calls to families, more loan denials, and then finally a loan approval!!! Oh man was this a tough morning!!!! Finally, at about 3:00 in the afternoon, we were able to continue our drive to Canada! Here is a picture of our cars:

Our old stupid Kia Rio

and our new, absolutely wonderful 2007 Ford Taurus

This isn't the right color of our new car. The color is very similar to the Kia pictured above. We really enjoy this car, though!!! I just wish that we could have boughten it under different circumstances. It was just so frustrating to be FORCED to buy a car!! The dealership knew that we no other options and so we were stuck. We were in no position to bargain or try to include any other special offers that are usually able to be discussed when purchasing a new car. But we do feel very blessed. We don't know if it was just a coincedence that we broke down only 15 minutes away from a dealership that was having an awesome sale on every car in the lot. We were able to get the car for 3,000 less than the ticketed price, and about 4,000 less than prices I have been seeing on the internet. Our salesman was also LDS, so we kind of felt a bit better about that aswell. This car also makes us feel safer and it has everything that I wished I could have had in our Kia. It has power windows and doors, cruise control, all the doors lock from one button on the door, it has a remote that you can unlock and lock all the doors with and open the trunck as well. It's just really nice and will fit a growing family that will hopefully come someday.

But Canada was really nice. It was the nice relaxing trip that I really needed. And Michael just LOVES his grandparents, all of them. He's so lucky to have such wonderful family who loves him and ablsolutely adores everything he does! We went swimming, hung out with family, had a bar-b-que, played some games, and went to the zoo. It was a lot of fun and we're glad that we went the full way to Canada and didn't turn around and come back home.

Fun Times in Canada!!!

We have been having soo much fun while we've been in Canada! It has been soo nice to just relax and let Michael run wild!! He really loves his Grandma Sunderland and will only allow her to do anything with him while she in his site. It has been really fun to watch. It's also been a great time for Nathan and I to relax from this last stressful semester!!

This was the BEST sleeping arrangment EVER!!!! Well, for Nathan and I, anyway. Nathan's parents have a chase lounge (or really nice couch) in their bedroom, so we had Michael sleep on that with them in their room! The first night, Michael fell off it a few times in the night, so for the rest of the time, they just pushed it up against their bed, and he was just fine!! It was nice. As you can tell, he was quite comfy!

Thanks Chris and Cathy!!

Here is Michael giving one of his famous hugs!!! I'm telling you, he LOVES his Grandma!!!!!!

Michael also mastered going up and down the stairs...that was scary. He did really well, and didn't fall down the whole time. He fully enjoyed having freedom to roam the whole house!

One of my favorite things to do when we visit anywhere is to go "park hopping". I just think it's so fun to see the different parks that are out there and Michael loves to play and run around outside.

Michael really loved the slides at this park!!! He didn't have much interest in anything else. Just the slide.
Becca and Michael going down the slide together

I know this is a silly picture, but it's a good one to help me remember Michael's need to have his tongue stuck out if he's doing something that required a lot of concentration!! Here he had just finished climbing up the ladder to a pretty tall slide.

We also had some fun moments on the swings. But we had to really force Michael away from the slides first.
I LOVE these pictures of him in the swing! He just thought it was soo funny becuase I was so close taking pictures of him.

I just LOVE his smile!!!!


Michael wasn't too sure of the See-Saw's. He would sit on it and look at us like he was ready, but when we would lift him up, he would quickly slide off.




This was a fun night! Michael discovered there was a sun roof in his car.
He's saying Cheese in this picture

Kisses!!!!

These were some cute boots Cathy found for Michael. He loved having these on!!

Michael loved this piano! He was on it quite a few times each day.

Fun Pictures From This Trip

This is my favorite of Michael. He's doing his cheesy smile and wearing his Uncle Andrew's glasses.

Grandpa Sunderland and Michael

Grandma Sunderland on Saturday. It was her 50th b-day. It was a fun night.

A Crazy Few Weeks!!!

It has been a really crazy week, and we are looking forward to it finally being over. This past week Nathan and I and Michael have been in Canada visiting Nathan's family. We were originally planning on going home yesterday, which was Tuesday the 4th. Then we realized we had a flat tire and needed to get it fixed. Nathan and his father took the car to the shop and while they were pullling into the station, another car decided to back out and didn't even look around him. They backed right into our little car!!!!!!!!!!! We don't have a picture of it right now, but I will post one later. They ended up doing about $3,100 worth of damage!!!! It's a really sad story. The other car was a pick up truck and they went right into the passenger door and the back door. The back door window is broken and the only thing that has kept it from falling apart has been the tinting. I'm just really grateful that Michael wasn't in the car at the time of the accident. His car seat is right by that window.

So now the plan is to go home tomorrow and we have to put duct tape on the window to keep it from falling in and then get the whole window and doors replaced in Idaho. We might just buy a new car.

It has just been such a big hassle, but a really good learning experience. This has been our first accident and we're really grateful that it has happened when we're near family who knows what to do and knows what we can demand from the other insurance (lost wages, rental car, etc.) Hopefully we can get it all settled and organized before school starts for Nathan.

10 Months! Double Digits

Michael's First Christmas!!!

This was taken after they opened their P.J.'s. It's a christmas tradition to open p.j.'s on x-mas eve. Michael couldn't stay awake, though.

This was taken on Christmas Eve. Finally we have a picture with all three of us!

Michael's First Visit With Santa

These are the pictures that I took of Michael with Santa. Sometime soon we'll copy the pictures that the mall took and put them on here. We couldn't get him to smile, but that's alright. He still looks really cute. Enjoy!

Michael Loves His Aunt Rebecca

This is Rebecca and Michael just relaxing on the floor. I thought it was a cute picture

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Cathy and Rebecca found this santa suit for Michael. These are just some of the pictures that we took of him. Later today we're going to go see Santa and take some pictures with him and santa. We're also going to have Michael wearing his santa suit. It'll be way cute!!