Vacation out West Park VIII: Idaho

After our fun day at Lagoon, it was time to head to Idaho to visit with G-ma.  On the way Pocatello, we stopped at the Samaria cemetery to see my grandfather's headstone.  It looked really nice.  I'm glad because my grandpa deserves the best. 

This turned out to be a good opportunity to discuss with our children more about the plan of salvation.  We tried to accurately yet gently explain the concept of death.  However, I think they still believe that grandpa went on a long vacation and will come back to put his toys next to the stone with his name on it.  You've got to love the innocence of a child. 

It was so great to visit with G-ma.  I really don't get enough time with this woman who is such a great example to me.  I really am blessed to come from such wonderful women.  We stayed up much too late playing games, talking, and doing a little bit of family history. 

The kids particularly enjoyed playing with grandpa's chair.
                                                   
The trampoline was another hit. 

On July 23rd, we headed up to Rigby to meet up with my former roommate Tannie (and Richard) and her family.  We planned an outing to Rigby beach and met up with Bruce's cousin Aubrey and her kids Ava and Andrew.  We were all set to have a wonderful time at the reservoir.  Before we left my grandmother's house, Bruce carried both Eliza and Zabien up the stairs simultaneously.  Not thinking too much of it, he then bent over to tie Eliza's shoe.  It was then that he experienced his first back spasm.  I offered to drive, but he insisted that he was fine.  When he turned to back out of the driveway, the spasms came back, but worse this time.  We thought that if he rested while I drove to Rigby that he would be okay once we got to our destination.  That turned out to be false hope.  His back continued to seize up leaving him in a tremendous amount of pain and the inability to walk upright to our picnic area.  This made the entire day harder on me as I had to load and unload the kids and other stuff for the day. 

The kids mostly enjoyed the sand, and didn't venture very far out into the water.  Daddy is usually the one that plays with them in the water, and since he was confined to a chair, they weren't brave enough to go on their own. 

I tried my best to keep Hazel shaded from the sun. She was a pretty happy camper. 

After a good portion of the afternoon was over, we decided it was time to leave the beach.  The original plan was to head back to Tannie's house, then go with her to the 24h of July pioneer day celebration her stake was doing.  Bruce mentioned that he needed to use the restroom, so I told him I would let the kids play on the playground while he was busy doing that.  I was quite surprised that both Zabien and Eliza were able to climb this ladder without assistance. 

30 minutes later, I glanced back over to our picnic spot and saw Bruce lying on the ground.  Thinking he had made it to the bathroom and back, I rounded up the kids and started loading up the van.  Unfortunately, in that 30 minutes, Bruce had merely made it out of the chair and couldn't move at all.  He requested I take him to the hospital.  He started crawling towards the van.  An older gentlemen asked him if he lost something.  When Bruce mentioned the only thing he lost was his back, this man graciously helped Bruce get in the van.  Aubrey took the older 2 kids back to her house, while Bruce Hazel, and I headed to a local doctors office with a specialty in chiropractic's.  Poor Bruce!  He was in so much pain, he couldn't even make it into the practice himself. 

I couldn't resist taking this picture.  I have blackmail against him for the rest of his life. 

After a few X-rays, a large  Cortisone shot, and some powerful pain and muscle relaxing meds, we were on our way.  We stopped by Aubrey's house to pick up our kids and ate dinner there.  Then we headed back to g-mas house.  By the time we got back to her house, the Cortisone shot had kicked in, and Bruce started feeling better.  I was worried that Bruce wouldn't be better in enough time to drive back to Pennsylvania.  We were scheduled to leave 4 days after his back injury and I was not looking forward to driving the full 36 hours home.  Luckily prayers were answered and he was able to contribute driving time. 

Even though our day trip and time in Idaho didn't turn out that well as expected, it was still great to see everyone and spend some time with Gma.  The kids sure enjoyed her house and the attention they garnered from everyone.