A Wedding and Brain Surgery

A couple of weeks ago my brother Randy got married. I wasn't able to make it for the actual wedding, but I was able to go to Idaho for the open house at my parent's house the following weekend. It turned out that that weekend was the important time to be there anyway because my Grampa Chambers found out as I was landing in Idaho Falls that he would be going in for brain surgery the next week.

It was such a sudden decision that all of my aunts and uncles flew or drove in from Washington, Utah, South Carolina and Georgia. It was an impromptu family reunion and I got to see everyone except Tricia, Richard and Corbin who got there at 1 in the morning the day I left. So while it was kind of a scary time knowing that Grampa was having surgery, it was tempered by the celebratory feeling of the open house.

The weather could not have been better. (You never can tell what you'll get on any given day in Idaho, no matter what time of year it is). It was warm and sunny and the wind was miraculously still during the open house. I got to see a lot of friends and family I hadn't seen for a while and also support my Grampa before his surgery. The surgery went well, and he is back home and feeling much better.

My family has certainly embraced the redneck mentality. The 65 that was so lovingly and painstainklingly restored was used to hold all the presents. Gramma Chambers and Brian are guarding them for a while.

Randy and Courtney waiting for people to come

A few of my cousins were at the open house the for the whole thing. They were good kids, and the cat Baby was a good babysitter.

My aunt Suzanne was able to fly in from South Carolina in time for the open house. We had fun posing for all the pictures everyone was taking.

My Great-Grampa Chambers was also make it from Smithfield, Utah. He said he knew who I was even before I told him my name and who I belonged to. But I think he was just trying to make me feel good :) It had been a loooooong time since I'd seen him.

Suz and Grampa hanging out in the shade.

Brian and Celia showing their love for the kid.

While I was there, I took some cute maternity pictures of my cousin Beckie with her husband Chet. They were tons of fun and we got some great shots of them. It's a good thing we did the pictures when we did, because the baby came 4 days later.

My mom wanted a picture of the 4 of us Purcell kids while we were all together. We had to give her a hard time and be silly for a few before we could settle down and do a normal one.

Growing up, I would always sit on the boys' legs while they were stretched out taking up the whole couch. This time I got all of them at once.

Jared is already a giant, but next to my midget-ness he looks really huge.

It's convenient that we can still line up by age and by size.

Syd's Birthday

We had Syd's birthday party at our house last weekend. She wanted an outside, dog-themed party. Because of the timing of my brothers' visit, and everything we needed to get done, we had everything ready at least a week before the day of the party. The only thing we couldn't plan for and control was the weather, which of course had to throw a wrench in the party. Everything we had planned was outdoor related -- trampoline, a huge bouncy house, bubbles, and water balloons. We had nothing for 10+ kids to do inside. Right about the time everyone started showing up, so did the rain. So, right off the bat we had a ton of kids running around in the house waiting for the rain to stop. Eventually it did peter out, and they all put on swim suits and ran outside to try out the bouncy house and sprinkler under the tramp. They were all troopers and stayed out as long as they could, but it was cold! The clouds hung around and around, and the incessant wind made being wet miserable.

Ken found this cute doggy bouncer at a rental place in town. The girls liked it, but only got to jump for a few hours because it was freezing outside.

The one positive thing about it being cloudy while they were playing was that Ken didn't have to worry about keeping 10 kids covered in sunscreen.

No way would I be jumping on the tramp with a sprinkler when it was 70*, cloudy and windy. These girls were crazy.

Ken was the designated water balloon filler upper. It was a hard job to keep up with the kids throwing them at each other.

Ken found this cool water balloon game that made the balloon explode when the timer on the ball ran out. A new spin on hot potato.

When everyone was pretty frozen, we took a break to come inside and get warmed up -- with ice cream cake! The cake almost didn't make it because when we got it out of the freezer to thaw out and make it easier to cut, we forgot about it. By the time we remembered, it was a very soft, melting mass of ice cream. Not that any of the kids noticed.

Ken rigged this holder for the doggy pinata after being reminded of the countless videos we've seen on America's Funniest Home Videos of guys getting whacked in various sensitive places by the bat. This worked great and no one became an unintentional target. It was a strong pinata. All the kids got a turn to hit it with the bat, and it was still intact. Ken finally had to stomp on it and rip it open.

Ken though it would be fun to have an egg toss game, and even had prizes for the winners - hula hoops and boomerangs.

We had to move it to the driveway because the grass was so soft the eggs wouldn't break. Cement made it much more challenging.

No birthday is complete without presents. Between everything she got from her friends, Ken and I, and everyone who sent something, she came out with a pretty good haul. Thanks to all the family who lives far away for their thoughtful gifts. She's already used one of her gift cards to buy some black, white, and pink tennis shoes.

The un-sung heroes of the party were Toad and Later. Without the babies to play with, I think everyone (especially me!) would have been crazy with all the kids being stuck in the house for so long. All those girls were instantly in love with the babies. They took turns carrying them around, and loving on them. The babies were so good and paitent with everyone. No scratches or bites or even running away. They just went wherever the girls wanted them to go. It was hard to get a picture of it in action since no one stood still very long. So you'll just have to see this picture of Later digging in all the wrapping paper.

A Visit From the Boys

Two of my brothers, Randy and Jared, came for a visit. This was kind of the last hurrah for both of them because Jared will be going on his mission sometime this winter and Randy is getting married in the middle of August. These were also some of their last unstructured days before they both start school and go back to work.

We spent an afternoon at the beach. Jared showed his true hill-billy side by finding a stump that had washed up and making it into a raft.

It was fairly close to our spot on the beach, but he still had to roll and drag it a little way

Finally got it in water deep enough to float.

Randy couldn't let Jared have all the redneck fun. He had to get in on it too and see who could stand on it the longest.

What considerate boys to drag their stump out of the water so it didn't crash into the other people swimming by us.

Ken and Syd trying to hold still for a picture against the waves.

When they needed a break from pushing the stump around, they threw the football to each other.

While I laid on a towel and made sure all the shirts stayed dry and sand free.

Jared's choice of activity was to take a secret route through the woods and dunes in Grand Mere State Park to the beach. It was a hard climb, and Randy and I almost died on some of the hills. Ken, Jared and Storm had no problems and ran up and down the huge dunes.

At the top of one of the dunes with the nice blue Lake Michigan in the background.

The view from the top of the biggest sand hill is beautiful. The climb down is much easier than the trek up, except for the 10 pounds of sand in your shoes when you get to the water. Ken, Jared and Storm raced to the bottom while Randy and I took a more leisurely pace.

Sitting by the water emptying shoes and socks and getting a breather before starting back.

Storm loves walking in the dunes and on the beach. She doesn't even mind a snout full of sand.

The beach was almost empty. She just had to stand by Ken for a minute while another person walked past. Other than that, she had free rein.

When we originally posed for the picture, we all just stood in a spot. Ken told us we were family and should be closer together. The boys took that opportunity to squeeze me and Syd as hard as they could.

A Purcell visit to Michigan is not complete without a trip to Deer Forest. This was Jared's 3rd trip out here, but Randy's first. He'd been hearing about feeding the deer and animals for so long. This was his most anticipated activity.

They'd been hearing about my favorite little cow for months. We talked to him for a long while because he's so happy and friendly.

Randy was the Pied Piper of deer. He had almost the entire herd trailing behind him, following him all over the pen. He giggled and had a huge smile on his face the whole time.

It's very rare when at least some of the deer aren't hungry and stay away from us. This time I think every single deer came to get some apples. Even the mamas of the newborn fawns came running when we walked in.

These are a different kind of deer in an enclosure by themselves. They're too big to be able to be in the pen with, but they like to eat our apples through the fence.

WARNING: UNPLEASANT PICTURE ALERT

I'm breaking one of my own rules by putting this picture on, but as it's not that bad, I think it will be ok. Keep in mind that I am the queen of passing out, so if I can look at it and be ok, most everyone else should be able to too. Just consider yourself warned.

One of the deer was so needy and hungry she would stand up on her back feet to get her head up high enough to nose her way into our bag of apples. It made me nervous when she did that so I put my foot out to keep her away from me. Either me moving, or touching her spooked her and she started pawing at the air with her front feet. She caught my leg on the way down with her hooves and I got a pretty deep bruise on my inner thigh. It didn't break the skin, but still hurt pretty good. Don't those deer know I'm their friend and should be nice to me?!?



One of my favorite things is petting the sting rays at the Grand Rapids zoo. Randy had never seen or touched sting rays, so we had to let him experience that. While we were in Grand Rapids, we also took the boys to our favorite Spanish restaurant. A few weeks before they got here, I told both Randy and Jared we were going to take them to the Spanish restaurant. Their reaction was almost identical "Let's go. I'm not scared." They were good sports about it, and ate some of everything. Some things were a big hit, and others not so much. But you never know unless you try, right?

I was worried that they were bored a lot of the time because we did just hang out at home a lot. When they left, Randy said it was a good vacation, and exactly what he needed. I guess with working 2 jobs, getting ready for school, planning a wedding, and having a semi-long distance relationship doesn't leave much time for relaxing or sleeping for that matter.

They loved Storm, and she loved having them around to love on her.

Jared was the lucky one who got to share the backseat with Storm when we took her to the river to swim. Both of them barely fit back there. Storm also got to go in the car when I took the boys to the airport. She just laid her head on Jared's lap, but she was very confused as to why she had to stay in the car when they started piling out.

The babies also got a lot of loving from the boys. The boys got their own kind of loving from the babies in the middle of the night when both of them settled by their heads purring away.

It was fun to have them here for a few days. I'm glad I got a chance to hang out with them before real life sets in and everyone is too busy to get together anymore.