The Fourth at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

On July 5th, we all went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a delicious BBQ and fireworks. Unfortunately, this is the first year (since we were all younger) that we were all able to be there for fireworks. Trav and I usually do our own thing, and my cousin Alexis is usually doing her own thing, and Kassi (sister) as well. I'm so glad Grandpa kept pushing for and asking when we were all going to come over and do fireworks. I love getting together with the family and reminiscing. We have always been so close as a family and really have a great time when we all get together. Tonight was no exception!!

We started the night off with a BBQ! Everything was home-made and so, so yummy!! I tried BBQ'd french bread for the first time ever (Auntie Tammy, you're a genius!) and loved it!

After we cleaned everything up, we were going to start playing games but it started to get pretty dark, so we went out for some firework fun instead!

We used sparklers in a way we'd *never* thought of as kids, and actually fought over boxes, lol.

After a few practices...we perfected letters! :)

Then Auntie Tammy gave us an amazing, Utah bought firework show! (They mostly look the same, and don't get all crazy, but the quality family time was totally worth it.)

We picked out some parachute fireworks where the little parachute shoots into the sky and slowly falls down. I think that was definitely the majority favorite!

Towards the end of our firework fun, Kassi got home from work!! We were all so excited to see her! Ever since she started working her second job, this is pretty much what we see out of her:

We showed her our new found love for sparklers, and she joined in for a few minutes..

(I wonder if she'd still be as excited if she knew her hair was on fire.)

I'm *so* glad we had this Fourth of July together. Grandma and Grandpa sat outside on chairs and just enjoyed everyone being there so much. It's so ironic that this is the year that everyone decided to be at Grandma and Grandpa's. We found out about Grandma the very next day.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth.

Fourth of July -- 2010

This year for the fourth, we stuck with tradition. Luckily Sugarhouse Park was able to raise enough money to keep the show going. Who knows what next year will bring, but I'm hoping they're still able to keep the show going. I love going and watching the fireworks!

We got there around 8, so we had a little time to kill before the show started. We met our friends Devan and Kelly at the park, and Trav's mom, and sister came with us this year. The weather seemed SO much cooler than last year, so that was awesome! As soon as we got there, Trav was determined to get a "Snowie". That's the first thing we did last year because it was so hot! So, we were off to find a sticky Snowie, and it was a success. Stickyness and all. After that, Janet, Laci, and I decided we were hungry so we walked up to A&W. The sunset was too much to turn down, so I documented it.

Lots of times.

The firework show was okay. We generally like the Liberty Park (24th of July) show better, because the grand finale is like 30 minutes long, and there's booths and stuff to look at while you're waiting for the show to begin, but as always, it was nice to get out, relax, and watch the pretty show!

Camping...two weekends in a row.

Camping two weeks in a row is the perfect start to any summer, imo.

Last year I had to ask someone what imo meant. (Rookie, I know.)

Oh well, the past is the past, and this year I'm rockin' it.

Sort of like how I "rocked" going camping one weekend, going out of town during the next week for work, and then going camping again the next weekend, which happened to be the day I got home from out of town.

Packing was pretty easy that month. :)

Anyways, here are some pictures from our camping trip like 3 or 4 weeks ago.

Turns out I like to post *lots* of pictures on the blog. Also, I'm pretty indecisive, so I have a hard time deciding which pictures should stay and go.

But I don't like to wait for them to individually load.

So, I throw them all together into a collage (Well, not really throw...sometimes I try to make the pictures look pretty, and put them in a collage with other pictures that "flow".

That way I only have to wait for a few pictures (of pictures) to upload.

I know it's taking the easy way out.

Don't judge.

1-- I've always wanted Trey to love the water. Kinda weird, I know. There's just something about a puppy swimming, playing in water, that I absolutely adore. This time when we went camping, I decided to trick him by throwing a rock into the river behind our tent and tell him to "Go get it!" (I knew he wouldn't want anything to do with the water if I just told him to "Go in") Being the disciplined doggie that he is, he ran right into the water. I know if he could speak English, he would have thanked me over and over. From that point on, we couldn't really get him *out* of the water. He really loved it! It also helped while we were packing things up, I'd throw a rock in and tell him to go get it and he'd spend a good 20 minutes in the river looking for the same exact rock that I threw :). I am almost as excited as I was the first time he lifted his leg to pee on a tree

2-- I'm trying to talk Trav into us getting a truck. In the meantime, Trey and I share the front seat. Um, not necessarily a favorite of either of ours. I suppose it's good "quality" time though. I took the first picture on the way up, and the second one on the way back. He was a tired little boy on the way home. I don't blame him though. Peeing and marking territory on every single tree within a mile radius has got to be rough. He lives a rough life I tell ya

3-- I adore these flowers, and love how they look against the black car that was passing them. I bet the people in the black car thought that I thought they (or their car) was awesome, but that's not the case. They can still think that though, I suppose.

We saw this blazer catch on fire on the way up the mountain. I didn't know that the name of the vehicle was a literal name. That's a super quick way to put a damper on things. (Note to self: Don't buy a blazer

4-- Camping was wonderful, as always! Someone was in *our spot* so we had to camp right next to it, which wasn't so bad...but we're thinking about putting a permanant sign by our spot that says "The Johnsons" or something. I hope that's not illegal. We did all of the usual things: Fished, Rafted, Canoed, Cooked, Hung out, Made someone fall out of a boat, Laughed, and had a great time! --Even the falling out of the boat (canoe) part. One thing that we tried that we'd never done before was cook "Hobo Dinners". These are probably the most amazing thing in the world! I highly suggest them..we are definitely going to add this little dinner to each of our camping trips from now on!!

Super big catch up...

...Coming soon. I have been so busy (emotionally and physically) lately that I have been slacking on the blog. I plan (as soon as I sort through 300 plus pictures) to start posting what we've been up to lately.

"Lucky"

***This post has been saved under "Draft" since March. Unfinished. There's been so much going on since then, and I didn't finish it. I think in the back of my mind, I was waiting to post it when I could end it with a happy ending. Isn't that how stuff is supposed to end anyway?

I think now however, it is necessary to post this. (I will want to know the details years down the road.)***

Monday 3.22.10 was filled with waiting, hoping, wishing, texting, praying, thinking, and researching. Oh, and working.

Knowing at that very time, my Grandma was with someone extraordinary. Someone we will never forget. Someone she probably won't remember much as far as that day goes, but in theory, will never forget. Not the kind of special-extraordinary person you would hope for anyone to have to be with, but the kind that you are glad when they are with them. Well, after the hoping, wishing, praying parts anyway.

Can you guess who it was?

His name is Dr. Ott, and he is one of the best surgeons in the West.

We couldn't have been more blessed to have him dedicate his Monday (or at least the first 7 hours of it) to be with my Grandma.

A few weeks ago, we found out my Grandma had pancreatic cancer. (If anyone prayed, that's what you were praying for ;).) I just didn't have the words at the time, or really the desire, to put it out on my blog. It was/still is such a shock. Life can be taken so quickly. I can't imagine how my Grandma and Aunt felt walking out of the room after receiving the diagnosis, and hearing that is generally only permits 6-12 months of life.

Can't even begin to imagine.

We were lucky though. Truly lucky.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the fastest growing cancers, with minimal to no symptoms, out there. Usually when someone starts to have symptoms and gets checked it's too late, and the cancer has spread.

...

I'm not going to finish that. I'll just finish up with the catch up. If I can get through this all today. Who knows. Maybe this will sit in Drafts for a few more months.

Grandma had the surgery, and everything went very well. Dr. Ott said over and over her recovery was going great. Towards the end of her hospital stay, she had a minor setback: During the surgery, one of her lymph nodes was accidentally nicked, causing lots of bleeding/leaking. Ott informed us the easiest way to fix this is to keep a drain in Grandma and have her go 2-3 weeks without eating. She would have an IV running 24/7 with enough nutrients to keep her well. It's not something she necessarily needed to stay at the hospital for, so she checked into a Nursing Home (only because a RN had to do the IV stuff). She was doing great, walking a little more each day. She looked fantastic! After 3-4 weeks (I believe) she was able to come back home. At that point, she started to walk less, and never really felt better from the surgery.

A few weeks back, she went in for her CT scans to make sure the cancer was gone, and figure out when chemo could be set up to prevent it from coming back.

On July 6th, we got the results of the CT Scan.

There is no pretty way to say this so I'll just be blunt.

The cancer has come back. In fact, they think it was there the whole time (just not big enough to be visible to the eye). It is now Stage 4 Pancreatic cancer and there is nothing that can be done. They've given our Grandma, Mom, Aunt, Wife, Sister, Cousin, and Best friend "Months, not years" to live.

I've never had news as hard to grasp as this. It's really taken a toll on me, and my whole family. As for now, we are planning visits for everyone to come from out of state to see Grandma, and taking every day as it comes. I've not wished for the weekend to come quicker since. I hope these next few months are the longest of my life. I cherish every single second with my Grandma and truly hope they last forever.

After we thought we were so lucky. We thought we caught it in time and were so fortunate. As it turns out, I guess we are lucky...just not in the way we'd ever, ever imagined. We're so lucky to have had Grandma as long as we have. She has changed, and blessed our lives and will continue to do so forever and ever.

We love you so much Grandma. We're "Lucky" to have you.

Tomato Progress plus To-do's for next year

The tomatoes...

...are growing like crazy. I'm a little worried about the number of actual tomatos on the plants (See: zero), but I hear they should be coming any time.

Things I should remember for next year:

-Start earlier (March/April-ish) and plant your own seeds for everyting.
-The best soil is toward the fence. (In fact...it wouldn't be a bad idea to work some miracle grow into all soil.
-Buy at least 6 Lemon Cucumber plants.
-Say a little prayer as you plant each of them. They need it.
-Buy something to control the little mini weeds.
-Plant in straight-er rows so a cultivator can go through the rows.
-Follow directions on spacing of seeds.

That's all for now!

The story of a shared radish.

Once upon a time(5.19.2010), a girl decided she was going to plant a garden. She figured there's a first time for everything and that it could actually be sort of fun.

After doing lots of research, she found that it wasn't as simple as throwing some seeds into the ground, and eating delicious veggies a short time thereafter.

She also found that because of how late in the year it was, there was not enough time to plant seeds and still have big, healthy vegetables. So, she went to the store and purchased some baby vegetable plants.

When asking for the radish plants, this girl found out that it wasn't too late to plant radish's from seeds, because they "grow like weeds".

Very excited, this little girl purchased a package of radish seeds along with her established baby vegetable plants and raced home.

With the help of an expert (her grandpa), it was time to get started.

The plants went in without a problem, and the seeds were sprinkled very carefully.

Next was the waiting game.

This little girl went out into her garden every single day, making note of the progress, and giving her thirsty plants the water they needed to grow big and strong. She was so very anxious and kept asking experts "Exactly how long does it take for things to start growing?"

Time passed, yet only weeds were growing. Lots and lots of them.

The little girl worked diligently in the garden to get every single weed, almost the second they popped up (her boyfriend might tell you otherwise, but she did.)

One day, as she pulled a weed, she noticed it was a different type of weed. As it turns out, she'd accidentally pulled her very first start of a radish.

Devistated by what she'd just done, she called it a night.

About a week or so later, the little girl was out in the garden and she noticed 5 or 6 of these "different" types of weeds (radish plants). She was ecstatic! Even if everyone said they "grow like weeds" she was still very excited to see something grow from just a tiny little seed that she'd planted.

Just yesterday, the seed was done doing it's thing and the little girl and her boyfriend were able to share the most wonderful radish they'd ever tasted.

A home-grown (self-planted) radish.

O happy day!