Take me out the the ballgame!

I love little league baseball and am so happy that the weather is finally nice enough to play some games. Matthew is on two teams this year and is in his first season of kid-pitch. He is one of the pitchers on both of his teams and really likes it so far. Jake is on Matt's machine-pitch team and is doing well also. Last week we had nine baseball games scheduled (two got rained out) -- good thing I love watching baseball! The girls are even starting to enjoy watching their brothers' games. Here are some pics of Matthew pitching. I haven't downloaded any of Jake yet but they will come.

Annie Jr.

Over the past five months Matthew, Kate, and Claire have been lucky to participate in our school's musical Annie Jr. Our school is so happy to have a few teachers who are willing to dedicate their time to direct the show giving hundreds of kids a chance to perform. This year all three of my kids were "New York pedestrians" which were small parts. They "walked" and sang and danced a little and were fabulous. I volunteered to take pictures as a fundraiser for the school and here are some of the pictures I took of MK&C.

Vegas

We went down to Vegas for a long weekend with our friends John-david and Jen Brewer and Brian and Angie Randle. The weather didn't fully cooperate, but we had fun. Bananagrams was the game of the trip. We spiced it up by giving points for the longest and most interesting words.

Amanda and I lost to Bri and JD at tennis. The highlight was when I served the ball over the fence and into a neighboring tree, which sent birds flying.

We saw two great shows -- Cirque de Soleil "Ka" and Jersey Boys. We had some great food too. I was thinking that it would be fun to live in Vegas, until I started thinking about what it would be like to raise teenagers there with all those temptations on the front door.

Brian, Angie, Matt, and Amanda at the Venetian.

A living statuary fountain at the Venetian. These women were painted and dressed like statues and were moving to music while water squirted from their fingertips. Only in Vegas.

Decorations at the Venetian.

Amanda and Matt waiting for Ka to start.

Amanda and Angie.

Mexico One More Time

Thanks to our friends John and Paige Storheim, we got a second chance to visit Mexico about 6 weeks after our first trip. It was truly fantastic!

I know that this sounds shocking, but we actually drove there. To some people, this sounds terrible, but I honestly love road trips. (As an aside, we figured out that we have already driven across the country 9 times since our kids were born. That's 9 times in 9 years.) It gives the entire family a great chance to talk and learn to get along. We are all cooped up in a small space, so we have no other choice.

On the way down, we went through Vegas. I love driving through Vegas with kids. It is such an awesome spectacle. Then we went over the Hoover Dam and down to Phoenix. It was nighttime when we went over Hoover Dam so we didn't get to see much. The drive to Phoenix was scary. I don't know why they can't get a friggin freeway from Vegas to Phoenix, but it was a two-lane highway, with lots of trucks, most of the way. We arrived and stayed a Holiday Inn, cramming everyone into one room. We arrived at about midnight.

By about 8 a.m. we were up and going again. We washed our disgusting car, grabbed some breakfast and then headed for Mexico. To get where we were going -- Puerto Panasco or Rocky Point -- you head west and then south. You drive through some small towns and then the last 45 minutes is through a National Park filled with huge cacti. It was beautiful. (There were almost as many cacti as there were ICE agents parked in cars along the road.)

The border was pretty uneventful. We had heard about all of the fighting relating to drug trafficking, so we were a little nervous. But the town we went through was small and sleepy and our crossing was uneventful. We didn't even have to stop the car.

From there we drove about an hour and a half to the town of Puerto Panasco. Jake was excited because he has been doing the Spanish program at school. He was pretty good at saying Ola and Gracias, but that was about it. We stopped at the store and bought a bunch of food and then drove to the hotel -- called the Grand Mayan Resort. The GMR is located about 15 miles outside of town. There is nothing around this place. See google earth link here. The roads we took to get there were all dirt. We thought we were lost.

But the hotel is very nice. We had a two bedroom suite located just across the hall from the Florences and the Storheims. (I felt sorry for anyone else with a room in that hall because our kids were pretty noisy.) The hotel was great. It was very nice and clean, the food was terrific, it had nice pools, a nice spa, a good gym, a large sandy beach, and a great golf course. It wasn't very full, so we kind of dominated the place.

We bought a meal plan and planned to eat a few meals in the room. However, thanks to Paige we negotiated all of these deals whereby kids under 12 ate free and we got 2-for-1 breakfasts if we showed up before 9 a.m. As a result, we paid about $10/day for all the great food we could eat. I mean, omelets, bacon, fresh fruit, cereal, pancakes, yogurt, fresh juices, soups, steak, grilled shrimp, beans and rice, cheeseburgers, fajitas, sushi, and a gazillion desserts. They did not realize that the Mormons were coming when they made the offers they did. We definitely got the better end of the bargain.

The trip was fun-filled but quite relaxing. Because we were pretty isolated, we never worried about the kids. They went around in a pack, building sand castles, wading in the water, swimming, having their hair braided, making pottery, and playing soccer on the beach. They usually spent the afternoons inside playing Wii or watching movies. After they ate at night, we usually sent them back to the room so that the adults could hang out and talk. It worked out great.

As part of our hotel, we received a free spa treatment and a free round of golf. So, the boys turned metro and had a massage together. (My massuese was tiny -- less than 5 feet tall, more than 60 years old, and had the smallest hands I have ever seen. But she did a very nice job.) We also played a round of golf on a very tough golf course. The views along the ocean were beautiful -- like a poor man's Pebble Beach. (They played a girls NCAA tournament there the weekend after we left.) We also took the kids over there to hit balls.

We drove back to Utah on Saturday. We made it in one day. We left at about 6 a.m., stopped at the Hoover Dam (cool unless you are afraid of heights), grabbed an In-N-Out burger in St. George, and made it home at about 11:15 p.m.

The trip was awesome (and cheap). Here are some pictures (thanks to Paige and Andrew for these, our camera died yet again!).

Looking out at the beach from the pool deck.

Our fantastic Mexican spread poolside!

Matt and the kids in the indoor pool.

Matthew at dinner. Oh the food! Yes he has five deviled eggs.

All 13 kids.

Matthew, Jake and Henry in the restaurant.

The whole group. Good Friends!

Jake, Katie, Laurel, and Abby at the beach. They built quite elaborate sandcastles.

Claire, Kate, Laurel, and Abby showing off their braids and enjoying their "Miami Vice" drinks.At Hoover Dam.

Getting Old and Falling Apart

On February 26th, it became painfully clear once again that I am getting older and falling apart. While playing ward basketball -- what else? -- I tore my achilles tendon. I wasn't doing anything fancy -- no tomahawk dunk or anything like that -- just backpedaling to stop a fast break, and then I turned and pop! It felt like someone stepped on the back of my leg. There was also a feeling like an electric shock that went up my leg. It was weird. Of course, I went straight to the ground and was pretty scared because it wasn't like the hundreds of prior ankle sprains I have had.

Luckily Andrew Florence was there to diagnose me. When it became clear that I couldn't point or retract my foot, he said he thought it was the achilles. We confirmed it with several diagnoses over the following days. On March 4th, I had it fixed. The doctor said it was one of the worst he had seen. Apparently the two severed ends looked like mop heads. So, he sewed them together, pulled them back toward each other and then sewed in a new piece of pericardium (which cost $14,000 according to my bill). I have a nice 4-inch scar running up the back of my leg.


Since then I have not been able to put any weight on it. I ride a little scooter almost everywhere I go (or use crutches). I get tons of looks from people because they can't tell at first that I am injured. They just think -- "What is that grown man doing in a restaurant on a scooter?" Once they see my leg in an orthopedic boot, they seem to understand. Except young college-age kids. They are always laughing and talking about it.

Although I have tried to continue to lead as normal a life as possible, this injury has impacted my life quite a bit. I have to be much more conscious about where I go and when because I can't really access any place that has more than about 10 stairs. It has made me more empathic toward someone confined to a wheelchair because so many places are not wheelchair accessible. It also makes me a bit more humble because I rely on others a lot more. I can't do it all myself and actually have to ask for help. I still coach baseball and that has been difficult. Moms end up carrying my bags for me and I can't really move over the grass (I need to add some knobby tires to my scooter), so I yell from long distance a lot more.

I think in about 2 weeks I will be able to start walking on it. Can't wait! Although everyone I have spoken with about this injury says that the rehabilitation is brutal. We'll see. My leg is totally atrophied and I can't raise my heel at all, so I think I'll have a lot of work to do. But I want to get going. Ward basketball season is only 9 months away!