July 2014

As promised, I would post on the other things we did in July. It had been quite a busy month overall.

We'll start with the 4th of July. The tradition has been that our bishopric makes breakfast for the ward while we observe a ceremony of retiring old flags. This is done by respectfully burning them. We then raise a new flag in its place.

David helped with the breakfast since he's the executive secretary.

Later that day we went swimming at Grandpa Hixson's pool. It had been a while since the last time Lucy swam so we didn't know how she would react. In the beginning she was fine, but after tipping herself over while she stood on the steps, she stopped liking the water. We tried again by putting her in her little boat and eventually she was having fun instead of crying. Then David tried putting her on one of the surf boards and she fell in again. After that, it was no use trying to convince her that swimming was fun anymore.

However, Lucy ended up spending more time in her swimsuit during the month.

One family in our ward invited us to go rafting with them. The river was gentle enough that Lucy and I could both tag along without a problem. It took about three hours to float to our destination where we stopped for lunch. 

That's when we realized we got a little too much sun. Even though we had been diligent in applying sunscreen before taking off down the river and once again halfway down, Lucy and I still felt some sting and our skin was looking a little red. Poor David made sure to get some on the parts of his legs that were exposed, but in the raft his shorts were a little higher and his knees and thighs got cooked real good. It was difficult for him to stand up and walk without doing so slowly and carefully. Obviously the sunscreen had done something because our burns stopped hurting by the third day whereas David's took nearly two weeks to recover. Still he was kind enough to allow Lucy to sit on his lap despite the pain so that she could follow along as he read for family home evening.

The weekend after that, we took a break from water activities and went to Micke Grove. This park is basically a small zoo. 

Before going, I was concerned as to whether I would be able to handle it. At this point in the pregnancy I had been experiencing painful flare ups in my right leg that made walking difficult. It was ten times worse than sciatic nerve pain. Every time they showed up, it would take my breath away and I would need to sit down immediately. So walking around the park all day didn't seem like a good idea. Luckily my in-laws remembered they had a wheelchair in their garage and offered to have me use it for the day. It was interesting being temporarily handicapped. I felt like I was seeing things from their perspective and I'm more appreciative of walking now.

The whole time, two people pushed both Lucy in her stroller and me in the wheelchair and I didn't have any issues with my leg.

The next day, I discovered that Lucy had a fever and she became really cranky. I gave her Tylenol, but it came back the next day and the day after that. She had no other symptoms with it, but when the fever stopped returning, it was replaced with red marks on her face and tummy. 

You can't really see the red marks, but they're there. And don't be fooled by the happy expression, because this kid was just plain cranky.

After looking it up, we determined she had roseola. Besides the rash, her irritability continued and she slept more. There wasn't really any treatment for it except to watch and make sure no other symptoms appeared or reappeared, like her fever. Meanwhile, her waking hours were spent in making her parents miserable until she would crash and sleep for long periods of time. It is rare for Lucy to sleep outside her bedroom except for the few times in her car seat on the road. But this week she passed out all over the place.

It had been a while since the last time I had been trapped underneath her. It simply does not happen while I hold her anymore.

Eventually, Lucy's rash went away and she returned to normal, to her parents' relief. Soon we found ourselves spending another day in the sun and water. One of the families that David home teaches spent a Saturday with us by going to the beach. Their kids had never seen the ocean before, so it was quite the treat for them. When we arrived, they had David pick the spot to park our things. David saw the nearest spot that wasn't crowded by any other beach dwellers and said to go there. Unfortunately, we soon discovered why the spot was bare.

What you're looking at is the carcass of a sea lion located a few feet in front of us by the shore. Sometimes the breeze would blow from that direction and I could cross off smelling a dead sea lion from my bucket list, not that it was on there to begin with. I honestly was never curious about that smell. When the breeze blew, we would cover up our faces so we wouldn't have to smell it. The other option was to jump in the ocean where the scent couldn't get to us.

 

Besides swimming in the ocean, we also tried flying a kite, but the wind was pretty weak, so we weren't able to keep it up for more than a few seconds at a time.

When we left, we once again discovered the effects of the sun. This time I was the careless one by not putting on any sunscreen, but I at least made sure Lucy was wearing some and David took care of reapplying more later. My arms received most of the burn and I now have  a lovely farmers tan. Luckily, I did not get burned like David did a few weeks before, and I recovered in less time, but I still regretted not putting on sunscreen.

In the end, we enjoyed spending time with this family and overall July had been a full month.