Shoveling

Last week when it snowed Cache decided he wanted to go out and help Daddy shovel.

This is my favorite picture of them shoveling. Like father Like son! If only the eyes were the same!

Putting up the Tree

Cache really enjoyed putting up the tree this year. His favorite ornament is the green M&M. He wanted me to take a picture of him pointing to it.

Cache decided that the ornaments looked best all clustered together. He was only interested in these three.

Here is the finished product of Cache's decorating.

The tree has slowly gained more ornaments as the days have gone by.

BLUE CAKE!

For Rich's birthday this month I asked Cache what we should get him and Cache responded, "A BLUE CAKE!" So Cache made Dad a BLUE CAKE! Here he is putting it all together. He really enjoyed putting the blue in! As you can see he is very patiently waiting.
He really enjoyed the frosting, at least eating it. Then came lots of candles according to Cache. I think there was a total of 8?! Although, we could only light half of them because some were in upside down!

Here he is making a Birthday Card for Daddy! He also decided that the candles needed some finishing touches.

Rich came home while Cache was sleeping to his awesome blue cake on the table. The second Cache woke up he told him they needed to put fire to the candles! No time was wasted digging into the BLUE CAKE! He actually ate all the frosting and then gave the rest of his cake to daddy!

I don't know if Cache would make it in any cake competition, but he sure was proud of his BLUE CAKE!

Boo at the ZOO!

The week before Halloween we went to Boo at the Zoo and trick or treated with my family. Cache enjoyed going around and getting all the candy. This time at the zoo he didn't want to climb in and pet all the animals. He really loved the elephants. We stayed there the longest out of all the animals at the Zoo. Personally I thought the baby elephant was adorable.

Here is our little giraffe hangin with the others.

Cache enjoyed running all over the zoo. He didn't stay in one place for very long.

We were able to meet up with baby Ewan and hang out for awhile. He was the cutest little bat.
We played on the playground for most of the time we were at the zoo. Cache really enjoyed the slide the most.

As you can see Cache had a very eventful day! If only all of us could enjoy the ride home so much!

Grandma's Best Medicine

Grandma gave us quite a scare last week. She started loosing her ability to talk much. She also lost her ability to do pretty much anything, including remembering who anyone was! We were able to get her into the ER and get a CT scan on her head. Everything looked really good, so the Dr. thought that maybe it was a delay from surgery, or her steroids. Grandma was doing really good so they reduced her steroids after surgery. So, at the hospital they gave Grandma a big shot of steroids and within a few hours Grandma was doing much better. By the next day grandma could communicate again and she also knew who people were! We are happy to report Grandma is back to being restless.Now if we can get her to get the rest that she needs! Here are a few pics of some of Grandmas best medicine!

Little Draeven came over to say Hi (TJ and Jenn drove him). I'm not sure who had more fun, Grandpa taking pics or Cache and Draeven jumping up and down on the couch!

Julie and Kaeden flew up from Vegas for the weekend to see Grandma!

Here are the three musketeers...Cache, Ewan, and Kaeden. They had a lot of fun chasing each other around and stealing toys from one another!

Here is Xander sitting with Grandma. All those weeks of helping take care of her has finally helped Xander be more comfy. I'm amazed he sat long enough for a picture!

Thanks to everyone, especially all the two foot little guys for coming and giving Grandma the best medicine!

The Grotto

We decided to enjoy the changing colors up Payson canyon and hike the Grotto. Here are a few of the beautiful sights we were able to see.

Here is our little master hiker! Rich got out the backpack to carry Cache and our determined little one kindly let him know he would do it all by himself! Which he did! He hiked all the way up and all the way down. He even said he would be careful because it was very steep and dangerous. He would also remind me by saying, "Be careful mommy, be careful! It very steep and dangerous!"

Since the trail criss crosses over the river many times there are these longs/planks to walk across. Cache decided to use daddy's help on these! After each one crossed, Cache would look up at Rich and say, "Not too shabby daddy, not too shabby!"

Here they are at destination Grotto! Cache entertained himself by throwing rocks into the pool!

It was such a beautiful day to hike and enjoy Gods beautiful country! We were very proud of our little Hiker!

Mohawk/Fauxhawk?

Grandma is sporting a new do! For the second surgery they only shaved half of her head! The DR. was very positive about the outcome of this surgery. He was able to get all of the remaining tumor along with the durma (where the tumor originated) and another small tumor that was growing by her brain stem. He was very excited that he didn't have to make as big of an incision as he thought he might. However, Grandma now has more staples in her head! She is walking and talking and doing much better this go around! We are hoping she will be out of the hospital by Thursday!Thanks to everyone for their love and their prayers! Here is an updated pic of Grandmas newest scar.....

Call me prejudiced, but I think this is the cutest nurse I have ever seen! The actual nurse told us that since we made it all the way upstairs with him we might as well sneak him the rest of the way in! Cache is really good at helping Grandma rub medicine on her head!

Staples/No Staples?

Grandma got her staples out today. 27 of them to be exact! Poor Steph last week took Grandma to get her MRI! While they were there the lady asked her if she had any staples and Grandma told the lady she didn't have a staple in her body?!Lucky for Steph she got to witness the whole exchange. We took a picture so we could have evidence that yes, in fact you did have staples in your head Grandma! Good luck to Steph tomorrow at Grandmas next DR. appointment, I can only imagine the fun!

October 5th

As of right now it looks like the second surgery for Grandmas head is scheduled for Monday October 5th! She goes to the DR. on thursday next week and we will know more from there! Thanks to everyone for their prayers, love, and concern! Grandma is healing nicely! Maybe instead of a pirate she could be frankenstein for Halloween? What do you think?

It's a little early for Halloween?!

Each day brings something new with Grandma. She was seeing some double vision so they patched up one of her eyes and she looked just like a pirate. Although, Cache decided that Grandma got soap in her eye just like he did that morning! Grandma is looking better everyday. In fact she broke out of jail today! I guess they let you out for good behavior! Maybe they were just tired of all those cute rug rats running amok the hospital! We will know more next week if they are going to do another surgery. For now the doctor wants her to get plenty of rest(we'll see) and heal up!

Cache decided he was going to read some books to Grandma.
Just testing the patch to make sure everything looks good!

Grandma really is a pirate now! Lucky for her, she won't have to find a costume for Halloween! She greeted us in the hall with her new do, pirate patch, and striped pants! Unfortunately for her head she could hear Cache screaming all the way down the hall. Turns out he can't fly after all.

Matt, Steph, and Xander.....they do exist! We caught them on camera! There is a cute little whale hiding in some of the pics that they gave Grandma. She loves it and calls it Xander so she can snuggle on it when he isn't there.

Baby Ewan....Cache's wing man for disaster! Isn't he adorable!!

These two shady characters were lurking around the hospital! You know Grandma, she will let anyone in!

Grandma is doing well and we thank everyone for all the prayers in her behalf! We'll keep you posted on any new developments!

Its all in her head!

Some Mothers will do anything to get their family to come and see them. Grandma has not been feeling well for a long time and it has just gotten worse over the last few months. On Monday she went in to get an MRI and was told directly afterwards that she had a brain tumor the size of a golf ball! Come to find out with the full MRI results it was actually the size of a tennis ball between her skull and her brain. Brandon told her that if she thought a brain tumor would get him to come home she better think again! Although it didn't get Brandon home yet, she has seen a lot of her family this week. So Grandma went in for surgery yesterday to remove her tumor and the DR. was able to get all but the size of a marble out. I told her I was glad he left her one marble in her head, she has felt like she lost them all! So needless to say Grandma is on the road to recovery and will be waiting to find out if she needs another surgery.We went to see her today and here is a few pics from that.Cache told me he was too busy to smile because he was drawing a picture for Grandma to make her head alllll better!

Cache was not able to go into the ICU so the nurse wheeled Grandma out to see us.

Cache gave Grandma his picture so she had something to look at while we were away.

NOW that is a band aid! Here is Grandma sporting her new do!

We took Grandpa out for lunch and went shopping for a new hat for Grandma. Rich offered to make her a paper hat, or even a tinfoil hat to communicate with the aliens. She decided she needed comfort...aren't all women alike! So here are a few of her choices!

Grandma is doing really well all things considered. Now she just needs to get some rest and let her body heal. Of course she is back to worrying about everyone else already! We take that as a great step in recovery (at least for her)!

Yellowstone

For Labor Day we love to go to Yellowstone. We haven't been since the Cacheman was born and decided we would make the trip this year!It was nice to spend sometime with the husband I was sure I had?! We had a lot of fun, took a lot of pictures(with the help of Cache), and made some great memories! Here are just a few of the pics!Grant Village was the first campground we stayed in. Cache loved playing and having fun in Grandma's hammock. He is also turning out to be quite the little photographer. He decided he would take a picture of Dad and Grandpa working! He also likes to suck on the trailer hitch every time we go camping! I'm not sure what the appeal is?!

The Buffalope(according to Cache) were all over the place. All Grandpa had to say was that he wanted to see one cross the road and poof they were all over the road everywhere we went. This particular buffalope crossed right in front of the car and turned right by my window. That is why we have such a close up shot, it was a little close for comfort. Another time when Grandpa got out to take some pics Cache wanted in on that too, but we made him stay in the car so we let him take pics out the sunroof. He actually took that picture of Grandpa taking a picture of him!

Uncle Toms Trail is Rich's very favorite hike in Yellowstone. I think it has something to do with the warning label of " Not recommended for those suffering with heart and breathing problems." It is 328 stairs straight down in addition to the hike to get to the stairs, but it is well worth it! Sadly enough I am in better shape now than before I had Cache, I didn't have to rest nearly as often! It was a walk in the park for Grandpa since he does that all day long at work! I don't think Cache thought anything of it either. He was so excited that he was "hiking". Grandma decided to stay in her hammock and blend in with the rest of the wildlife!Although we did wake her up when we were ready to move on!

Lower Falls was the next adventure. Rich started singing to Cache the ants go marching.....and soon I think he regretted opening his mouth! He sang it all the way down and all the way up! Cache was having the time of his life with his own horse and stereo!

Old Faithful according to Rich is still there and if you would like to see it buy a postcard! Cache wasn't all that impressed with it. He was having more fun hanging around before Grandma and Grandpa left for home. Grandma wasn't feeling well and Rich and Grandpa gave her a blessing. After which Cache declared that Grandma's head was alllll better! Wouldn't it be nice if we all had such simple faith!

Fairy Falls that sounds interesting we thought! Since our calf muscles weren't sore enough we thought we would put them through a 5.2 mile hike the next day! Why not! This Buffalope scared the crap out of me since I didn't notice it till I was right next to it! Cache wanted to pet it of course! He didn't last very long before he was seriously bobbing his head. Luckily he finally found a comfy position to catch some ZZZZZs.

Cache woke up right as we were getting to the falls. There were only a few people there and a nice lady offered to take our picture in return for taking hers. We then had the place all to ourselves for awhile! Cache enjoyed throwing rocks in the pool and showing both Rich and I how to do it! Some people showed up while we were leaving and this is what Cach had to say....."Cache Hiking. Cache in backpack. Daddy in backpack too, just like Cache." The ladies sure got a kick out of that. Needless to say the whole way back Rich was lucky enough to sing the ants go marching.......

Sticker Fun, at least for some of us! Grandma had a little package of wristbands that Cache decorated with stickers! He was so excited when he was done he gave one to me, Grandpa and himself. While driving in the car he decided it would be more fun to take his stickers off and put them all over Grandpa's arm. Then while we were hiking he wanted my wristband and decided to put those all over Rich's neck! Such simple entertainment!

These are just some random fun pictures. Cache had to split wood just like Grandpa. He also decided that after all that hiking he deserved two chocolate donoughts!(He gave two to Rich also)I guess it is easier to eat ice cream with your eyes closed?! It's more enjoyable that way! Cache and Grandma like to swing at her house, and couldn't resist this one at Canyon.

Car Seat Trooper! Cache was really good for the whole trip! In fact for about 90% of the time he was watching "dinours"!(That would be The Land Before Time 13, and some of the tv series) I guess you know your old when you remember the first one coming out! It was a good thing we had that to entertain him, because we ended up taking the extra long 8+ hour scenic drive home! I was just following the signs that said Salt Lake City! Who knew it would take us down to the river and through the woods?! He picked out his very own blue snake in West Yellowstone to bring home and cuddled with it the rest of the vacation! Although by the time we got home it seemed to have lost its tongue!

We had such a wonderful vacation! I love Yellowstone!It is so nice to go camping and just relax and enjoy life. It was great to be outside hiking and seeing so many of natures awesome wonders (I think my calves have finally stopped aching)!Then we got home and Rich went to Atlanta to enjoy some much needed time with Brandon! Although that did leave me all alone to detox the two year old from vacation!

Lagoon

Turns out Cache is a little adrenaline junkie! We went to Lagoon and he couldn't get enough of all the fun rides! I was a little concerned about Cache going all by himself on the rides that go up pretty high for a two year old, but he did just fine! Here he is driving his little orange boat and ringing the bell! It was fun but not as fun as the ones that go in the air!Cache will tell you all about the different rides.He road in a couple of helicopters,sea plane,plane,elephant,etc.., but with everyone he gives the same story. It went up... and down..., up..... and down...., up...and down....just like that. All while doing hand gestures and showing you just how it went!

He also loved driving the cars, and shooting guns! Not to mention the drinking fountain that was just his size!

I went on the roller coaster with him and on the second time around he wanted to go all by himself! Us moms are always embarrassing the big boys! What can I say he is only 2?! He will tell you that this roller coaster went up....and over....
Here is my little ham showing me how much fun he was having!The only way he would look at me is if he stuck out his tongue!

We had a great time and will definitely have to go again soon! Frightmares here we come!