An update in pictures

Our ward cub car rally happened right before we left for Tennessee. We didn't win, but we had a lot of fun watching!

TENNESSEE

Dixie Land Stampede

(Evan with some of the trick riders)

OUR CABIN





These are the front and side view from our porch. I wish the pictures actually showed how stunning it is here.

Boys will be boys

Quelf


I loved seeing our friends kids. Wow have they grown up!!!!

I have really awesome pictures from this first hike, but they didn't download and I am really anxious to get this post out. I stole this one off of Joe's facebook. The men and their boys, does it get any cuter? (check out Evan's smile ;-)

Is it me or am I lucky that I get along so well with my husbands best friends wives???

I love this picture of Millie and Lacy

Here are the guys that brought us together

They don't call them the Smokey Mountains for nothin! It is so cool to see it in person.

THE HIKE TO ABRAM WATER FALL


our angel



so Evan really is turning out to be as crazy as his daddy. This water was freezing and he loved playing in it! Especially when daddy was holding him upside down and dipping his head. Check out the smile on his face!


Our last day we cleaned up, checked out and did a Cracker Barrel run (mmmm ... heaven). We ended with a last hurrah at a go cart place. Thanks guys for such a wonderful vacation!




Evan would never actually look at us while he was flying. He was too busy watching the go carts zip past on the other side of the plane ride.

MY GARDEN

I hope I don't kill it!!!!

He is just too cute, I had to include this picture.

Justin took me to an Il Divo concert!!! They were AMAZING ... I LOVED IT!!!!!
Thank you Babe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love these videos!!!!! The first is one of Lacy's tasks during our game of Quelf. The second is just our baby being his usual adorable self! Enjoy

I'm Back!!!!

(I have lots of pictures that I will load tonight, but with the move to the basement I can't find them right now.  Hopefully Justin knows where they are.)

Sorry for my hiatus from the blogging world. I like to think that I have been sorely missed by all of my faithful readers, even if that only includes my parents :-) We have been very busy in the Palmer household.  What can be blamed for my absence???  

1)We spent 5 wonderful days in Tennessee

2)We got home and had a lot of doctors appointments (for me and Evan)

3)I planted a garden

4)We moved the office downstairs and changed Evan's room.

To say the least ... we have been busy! I will try to keep this post as short as possible, and I promise to include many pictures :-)

1)Tennessee

We went to Tennessee for 5 days. Before we left for the trip I needed to pack all three of us, and I decided that I wanted to finish all of the laundry before we left (a monumental task)! We jumped on a red eye flight with stops in San Fransisco, Chicago, and then Knoxville. Needless to say we were VERY tired when we got to Tennessee. I always have the worst time trying to sleep on airplanes so I was the worst off. When I got in our rental car I fell asleep immediately. In fact, I don't remember the Knoxville airport at all! I don't remember the rental lot, and I don't even remember the drive. I literally passed out as soon as I sat down. 

After a quick nap we loaded up our car and took a drive to Dollywood. It was really fun, and the best part for us was taking Evan on all of the kiddie rides. He LOVED it!!! I think one of the reasons they were so fun for him is because it is so rare that he is able to be completely independent. If he wants to move around we have to carry him. If he falls over, we have to pick him up. Most of the rides he is flying in the air by himself. The smile on his face was priceless and made my day!  He loves being independent, and I love seeing it. 

From Dollywood we had dinner at the Dixie Land Stampede, which is a rodeo version of Medieval Times. What a show, it was so fun. The food was actually really good, and Evan loved looking at all of the horses and cows. We were in the front row and got a real sense of just how fast they were riding. It was pretty impressive.

The point of this trip was to meet up with Justin's roommates from his undergraduate years. They have stayed close and get together every couple of years. They all arrived that night. Tennessee is GORGEOUS and it was just wonderful to experience this beautiful country with people we love. We stayed in a cabin in the middle of the mountains. All we could see from our huge porch was trees and mountains.  We saw some of the most beautiful waterfalls, some amazing nature, some wonderful hikes, and we even saw a bear.  Driving by the old settlements in the National Park really made me think about how life would have been back then, and about how lucky I am to live when I do.  

2) Doctor's appointments

We got back and starting the next day we had appointments for Evan up at the hospital.  Between Evan and I we have been up to the hospital 3 times in the last week and a half.  They have been really great though.  This last one we had yesterday was to fit Evan for his wheel chairs.  I am so excited for him to finally start to really have some more independence.  I have seen him operate a power chair, but the two specialists wanted to see him in action as well.  They didn't have a child's chair at the hospital for him to try so they put him in an adult chair that went way too fast and had too much power.  Evan LOVED it!!!!  Just like in Utah, his face completely lit up and he had the best time zooming up and down the hallways.  In fact there was one time that he stopped and started dancing with his arms in the air and singing ... "yes, yes, yes, yes".  I wish I had a camera so I could show you, but it really was the cutest thing I have ever seen him do.  It will be a while before we get the power chair, but at least we have a time frame now. 

  

3) Garden

I have wanted to do this since I moved here.  It was a lot of work to set up.  I hope I don't kill it ... but I am so excited! 

4)Rearrange the house
The only place that Evan can really get around in our house on his stander is in the basement, because it doesn't have carpet.  Our basement is unfinished and we decided that since we were going to be spending a lot more time down here we would try and make in more livable.  I can't tell you how many times I went up and down three flights of stairs, but the office is now completely downstairs and hopefully it will be organized soon.  

Evan got his big boy bed ... and he loves it! 

Adam on Idol

I am sooooo unbelievably jealous of my mom right now ... actually all day!  On American Idol the top 3 contestants go home this week.  Well, Adam went home to San Diego and there was a parade and a short concert in MY community at MY high school!  It is no secret that I have been cheering Adam on since before the show even started (and I have said from the beginning that he would win) but aside from my personal connection he is the best there has been on the show!  (Carrie Underwood could be a candidate for that position as well).  Whether you like his style (or him personally) or you hate it, musically speaking he is the best.  I feel fortunate to have had 6 years of higher level musical training and I am able to recognize true musicianship. This year all of the contestants are better singers than the past seasons, but Adam is the best musician.  I am so excited for Adam and for the success that he will see in the future, whether he wins or not.  And again ... I am SOOOO JEALOUS that my mom got to go, but I CANNOT believe that she didn't let my siblings ditch school to go!  Poor Sarah and Alex! (watch next week if you want to see exactly where I grew up!  In fact my former band escorts him into the high school ... "GO MARCHING SUNDEVILS!")

Someone on facebook told me that I was on a picture on one of Adam's fan sites.  I took a look and sure enough there I am, puffy hair and all!  They couldn't even scan in a senior picture, although I have puffy hair in that one too.  Oh well!

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UTAH:  Day 8

This day is the reason that Evan and I came to Utah.  This day is the reason that my parents extended their trip.  This is the day that we met with Dr. Swoboda, a specialist in SMA.  She has done studies using the drugs that can potentially help Evan.  We figured that the best way for us to understand the good, the bad, and the ugly about the medication we should find out from the source,  so that we can make an informed decision as to whether or not to put our baby on the medication.  

We were with her for a long time and talked about soooo much!  Thankfully I had my parents there as well so they could ask questions that I didn't remember, or hold Evan (who was STARVING because of the procedure he had done) while I filled out papers.  As long as the appointment was (several hours) it was exactly what we needed to be able to make the decision about putting Evan on the medicine.  We give a big thanks to Dr. Swoboda and her team for taking the time to give us all of the information that we asked for.  Thank you mom and dad for coming with me to all of the early morning appointments.  Thank you dad for staying with me and helping me keep all of the "scientific" lingo straight.  I feel like I could anyone a lecture on SMA now.  :-)  

After the really long appointment we had an appointment at the archive library on the UofU campus.  We are direct relatives to Frederick Kesler (and prominant member in the early church)  and he was an incredible record keeper.  He built himself a chest and put all of his treasures in it.  He willed it to his family and requested that it stay in the direct family, so they can learn of their heritage.  The Kesler family grew so large that someone donated it to the University with the stipulation that any direct relative can go through the treasures anytime they want.  I remember seeing the chest when I was younger, but this was a different experience because I have a greater understanding of the objects.  Among hundreds of written documents the highlights for me were: 

1) His hand written Patriarchal blessing by Hyrum Smith (brother to Joseph Smith)

2) An original copy of the Doctrine and Covenants

3) rocks that he picked up from his trip to the Hill Cumorah

4) His Nauvoo legion sword

I actually have pictures of all of these, but can't figure out why my computer won't download them right now.  Hopefully I will post these pictures soon.  

Other than that we just hung out as a family.  Ben told us disgusting stories about his job (he picks up dead bodies and takes them to the mortuary) and we just laughed all night!  Don't ask me why mom isn't in any of the pictures ... I didn't have control of the camera most of the time.  

do you like the evidence of my giraffe neck??  This is the only picture that I think Ben and I totally look the same.  It is kind of weird actually.  Everyone says I look like Brandon (and I do), but in this pic I totally look like Ben.

All the siblings ... yeah we're hot!