One month old

Sabino Canyon

Last weekend we went to Sabino Canyon and did a six mile hike. We wanted to make it to the top, but I was only four weeks postpartum, and my hips couldn't take it. It was still a lot of fun. We've had a fair bit of rain this year, so the river that runs through the canyon was actually a river. It was high enough that it covered a lot of the bridges that you hike through. It was chilly water, but the weather was nice so our shoes dried quickly. At one point we stopped so I could feed baby Devin and the boys and Michelle (and Michelle's significant other Ivan) had fun throwing rocks in the river. I was kind of paranoid about Brayden because if he fell it could really hurt his broken jaw, but Ivan was really good about staying with Brayden and holding his hand. The actual hiking was on a paved trail, so we put the older boys in the double jogger and Michelle carried Devin in the bjorn. It was a great set up. I even took a jacket to put in between Brayden's face and the side of the jogger so that if we hit a bump Brayden's jaw wouldn't hit the medal bars on the side of the jogger. I really sound paranoid, but based on the comments the ENT made when we had Brayden's follow up appointment, I need to be this way. So this hike was really pretty and we actually saw green trees by the river. It reminded me a lot of Provo Canyon. One of the highlights was when we were near the end, all the bunny rabbits came out and we saw probably 10 or so in the last half mile of the hike. Thus far, it's probably my favorite thing we've done in Tucson. Thanks for being the camera man Mike!

Two ER visits and a near miss

The hospital gave Brayden several Thomas the Train toys that fortunately work with our train set.

This weekend has been a little traumatic for Braydo. Friday morning Brayden took a thermarest camping mattress and built a bridge between his bed and Caleb's bed and was racing matchbox cars on it. Than he decided he could run across it. I heard one of those crashes where you run, not walk, to find out what is going on and found out Brayden had smashed his face into the side of his bed and it hurt really bad. A couple minutes later his speech became really slurred and he couldn't shut his jaw and the right side of his face where he hit started swelling. At that point I got worried that he might have broken something and I knew I wasn't going to be great at handling it with the amount of sleep I had gotten the night before, so I called Mike and made him come home. We took Brayden to the pediatrician who sent Mike and Brayden to the ER. After an x-ray and a cat scan, they decided he had a broken mandible and a dislocated TMJ joint. They re-set the dislocated joint and said the broke bone would heal on its own. They discharged him the next morning, he came home and by the afternoon he was back in the ER because his bone had popped out again. We thought for sure they would have to wire his jaw shut, which freaked Brayden out, but they reset the bone again, and said they would try again to go without wiring it. We brought him home and this morning he started throwing up and couldn't keep anything down. We called the on-call nurse and she said if things didn't improve by the afternoon we had to take him back in. Fortunately after a little nap (and a priesthood blessing) he was able to keep down sprite and by evening he was back on his soft-food diet. Thus far his jaw is staying in place and feeling much better. We are grateful for priesthood blessings, prayers, family, good friends, and a really tough little boy who took this like a man.

One of the more tender moments this weekend for me was that the ENT we saw Friday night seemed annoyed to be there on a Friday night and not really wanting to spend much time or energy making sure Brayden was getting the best care. When we took Brayden back to the hospital on Saturday we prayed that the doctor that saw Brayden would feel a lot of compassion for him and would care more about giving him the best care than his personal time. We had the same doctor we did the night before, but the difference in attitude was amazing. At one point he flat out said that he was going to take a different route than most doctors because he wanted this to be the best for Brayden. He said it could take a lot more of his time, but he wasn't worried about that. I love that the spirit can touch people when they are not even aware of it.

Now I just have to try and keep a house full of boys calm enough that Brayden's jaw can actually mend properly. I think we might be investing in some new board games or something.

Cute boys

I took a couple pictures of Brayden and Caleb hoping to get something that would work for taking advantage of Shutterfly's 50% off canvas prints. I didn't end up getting pictures that would work for canvas, but I think they turned out really cute (especially after Jessica doctored them a bit). I think I might have to print and frame them even if I can't turn them into canvases.