1st Day of Preschool for Leyna

Gavin is 5!

A few months after Gavin turned 4, his primary teacher at church gave him a belated birthday present, and ever since then he's thought he was 5. Finally, the day has come where we can say, "Yes, Gavin. You are 5!" We love him for all his desire to serve, for his hugs, warmth and independence, but most of all his infectious giggle that makes the world around him smile! Gavin, we are so lucky to have you in our lives! Love you, G-Man!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Flashback to the 80's

In lieu of our wonderful friend Marci's 40th birthday, she threw an 80's party. I wish I had pictures of the night so you could see the rest of the partygoers. There were some totally radical fads! I especially liked Eric's $3 velcro shoes he got from the Goodwill store.

Surprise!

I was hoping to let this birthday slide without recognition from many, but it was not to be. The young women and other youth leaders threw me a fabulous surprise party, where they crowned me and made me queen for the night. It was a lot of fun with games, stories, & junk food. A tremendously big thank you to all who helped in making my 30th birthday a special one! I love you!!

Final Chemo Session!

I went in for my final round of chemo today! Well...it's not official until Sept. 22nd when I have my scans, but I have no plans of going back. The medicine weakens my system anyhow, so that coupled with being overjoyed at the prospect of being done, I couln't help crying as I left my oncologist's office today. I'm still connected to my chemo-to-go bag until Thursday, but we're almost there!

I'm sure I've mentioned before that they want my white blood cell count to fall between 4 & 11. To this point, I believe that the lowest they've treated me at is 2.4or 2.6. Today my white count was at 1.6. My nurse said, "I'm sorry. We can't do chemo today." I was crestfallen. "No, Patti. Today's my last day. I don't want to prolong it anymore. I don't care if I get sick. Please call Dr. Menco." She took pity on me, called the doc, who came in to see me. "Okay, he said, "I really don't think you should have chemo today." "But Dr. Menco, I did a 10-mile hike yesterday. I feel great. Please...as a birthday present?" When he consented, I had to constrain myself to not hug him to pieces.

I may be sick, but as a family we're just to relieved to be moving on!!

What is this?!!!

We're driving home from the movie theater last night. (Took the kids to see G-Force...pretty cute.) I look in my visor mirror to apply some lip gloss and what to my utter dismay do I find? A white hair! Like that wasn't bad enough, this hair had the gall to stand on it's own, flying free from my ponytail. I'm still in shock about it. I couldn't throw it out. It's zipped up in my purse as a reminder that my 30th birthday is approaching. Did my hair turn white from age or stress? Certainly I can't think of any reason to have been sressed in the past year. ;) I'm not old. I'm attributing it to that. I can be as stubborn as my hair!

A new Nephew!

Congratulations to April and Wes! Their sixth child, Benjamin Rock Young, was born this morning, weighing in at 7 lbs 9 oz, measuring 19" in length. And that's a 3 week early baby!


April, think we could actually see this baby in person before he turns 10? :)

Chemo Session #13

I was more nauseas today than usual, but can you believe it? I only have one more session to go on September 8th! We're almost there!!!

Tears, tears more tears

It's shouldn't come as any surprise to those that know me that I cried multiple times on Saturday. Just the mention of the word 'family' or expressions of us being together forever set me off. (Heather said, "I cry a lot, too." Then after seeing me cry for the 10th time, she said, "Wow, you really do cry a lot." Yep, it's pitifully true. I just can't help it these days.) Saturday afternoon, I was caught off guard when Dad asked if he could offer me a priesthood blessing in front of the family at Roy Roy's house. It was special to have Uncles Rock, Kevin and Steve join Dad in placing their hands on my head for the blessing, and it meant a lot to have Grandma and those extended family members present because I feel I owe a lot of my healing to them.

It was Bud's idea months back to hold a family fast on my behalf, each family member each taking a day to fast for me. Uncle Rock fasted on Thanksgiving! I'm emotional just thinking of the sacrifice, prayers and love that went into that time when I was most sick and needed strength beyond what I was able to conjure up myself. I just wanted you all to know how full my heart is for each one of you! I regret not having officially vocalized my appreciation while we visited this weekend, but please know that I love you immensely and am so proud to be a part of the faith and love that makes up the Boulter Family!

Remainder of the UT Trip

We stayed the night Saturday evening at Josh's place, and he and Heather made us a fabulous breakfast Sunday morning before we hit the road again. You treated us so well, Josh. We may just impose on you again in the future. You wishin' you were a worse host now, aren't ya? Forgot to mention how Leyna got her scraped & bruised chin. She was walking down the stairs to enter Nana's basement with a hose nozzle in hand when she tripped and fell right on the nozzle. I heard her cry, then Grandma got to her before I did. She did one of those 'hold her breath because the pain is so intense' cries and passed out in Mom's arms. Two seconds later she came to in convulsions. I thought she was seizing, but thank goodness it passed as quickly as it started and she just needed a little TLC for a bit. Scary, though.


We visited Hector's burial site in Bountiful, UT Sunday morning to pay our respects to him. Because he doesn’t have a headstone yet, we went on a family hunt looking for the location of his burial. (It’s just to the right of the Goringe headstone. I think I’ll always remember that tidbit.)


After the cemetery, we took the kids to Temple Square and walked through the visitor’s center and other buildings. I really wanted the kids to tour Brigham Young’s homes, The Beehive and Lion Houses, but sites were closing down due to the Ochre Mountain temple dedication that was taking place that day, so it was a short visit.



We piled back in and made the 12 hour drive home. Thank goodness my kids are so good in the car. They actually made the drive entertaining and fun.

1000 Warrior bike race

Because I wasn't there, I'm disappointed that I don't have pictures of Eric's race. There was a big crash that he fortunately was ahead of. I get so nervous about him getting hit by vehicles and had a sigh of relief to know that he wasn’t a part of it. The Brumby cyclists from Mesa couldn’t breathe as easily since a few of their teammates were badly injured. You can check out the news at KSL news website,
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=7636047.
All in all, Eric finished 11th place. It’s great to me, but he was disappointed in himself because he knew he was in prepared shape for the race, but didn’t hydrate correctly and cramped due to dehydration. Bum deal, but he’ll redeem himself – always does.

Boulter Family Reunion

Aunt Roy Roy did a great job of putting together our inaugural Boulter Family Reunion. It'll be great to have Rexene and Jim there next year, and hopefully the rest of our family. April had some excuse of being pregnant, Nate was busy with work, Tiff was in school, and Serena missed too much work for her wedding. Excuses, excuses! :)Next August will be even better when not so many are absent, even though Trevor and Tyler will be on their missions in Peru. Alright, so mark your calendars, family. Next August 6,7 & 8th! Grandma and me. Heather and Kami trying to pop a balloon. Not so successful, but was hilarious to watch. Kade and Dallin trying to pop a balloon together. Hopefully these two will become good buds. Not too many cousins our kids' ages. Between baby Brielle and Roy Roy's dogs, Leyna always had her hands full. I just love Aunt Kim's expression in this photo! Kaden wearing the remains of the Llama pinata. Our aunts and uncle are so much fun! Grandma & grandkids Jenny's hubby teaching the men a masculine, Samoan dance. So fun to watch. Ballon stomp! Kaden won by hiding behind a tree during the stomp, then appearing at the end. Tiff, were you teaching my son some of your cheating ways while he was visiting? j/k

Lagoon

This past weekend was worth the 24 hours of driving it took to get us to and from Utah with the kids. Here's a glimpse of our exhausting, but fun trip.

Thursday we met Shayne and her kids at the Excalibur in Vegas for lunch before heading on to Cedar City where we met up with Mom and Dad. Friday morning we parted ways with Dad and Eric so that Eric could meet up with Kristi and Gary to prepare for his 1000 Warriors bike race in Park City. Mom, the kids and I drove 4 hours to Lagoon, just north of Salt Lake City. I wish I could have captured on film, all the fun we had. The kids said it was way better than Legoland or Disneyland, and I was stoked to learn at the end of the day that it was a 2-for-1 day, so I was able to get $100 back from our entry fee! Awesome!

Mom & Kami in line...it was soooo hot! A little tip: don't pay the $2.50 for bottled waters. Go to Pioneer Village and get large styrofoam cups of ice water for $0.25 each.

The Dino Drop was Gavin's favorite ride, along with the Haunted House, which he said he had to duck through because it scared him so badly.

Even in the heat of the day, Leyna finds joy in applying lipstick.

In line waiting for the Spider ride.

Kaden was so scared to do this Screamer ride, but afterwards wanted to redeem himself to prove that he could ride it by himself. To his credit, it does look scary to be flipped upside down with no seatbelts.

Kevin and Serena are finally married!

After a walk down the sandy "aisle" in Jamaica, the two lovebirds exchanged vows and are finally a married couple! We're so happy for them, but still disappointed to have not been able to be there in person to witness their special day. I'll get over it. Seriously, though, I'm so happy for my little sis!