Home Again...........

Well, the vacation has come to an official end. We have been home a full week now.We rolled in last Saturday night about 9pm after two 11.5 hour days bookin it home. Once the horse heads home...there is no stopping him! It was two long days but, we made it safe and sound. Thank God for that!!! The vacation was amazing and Utah was beautiful. Our days were full and the company was good. Drew, Alex and Robert were my heroes and kept our kids busy and happy the whole trip. The first day we went to the Alpine slide and they rode that and the roller coaster, played putt putt and enjoyed a beautiful day outside. The kids loved it! We visited the Salt Lake City Olympic Park and watched the Olympians practice jumping off ramps into this huge pool. The twists and turns were amazing. We discovered that the kids could set up a private lesson from 10am to 1pm and could experience some training and jumping themselves. Robert, Drew and Hunter were the ones who wanted to do it...so we set it up for later in the week. When the day arrived they set off and began their training. They practiced jumping on trampolines into the pool and then they got suited up in their wet suits, helmets, real ski boots and ski's. They started out on a low ramp and worked their way up to this big ramp. I was so proud of Hunter....he hung with the big boys and after warming up marched right up to the top of the ramp and came flying down. Here is a picture of Hunter on the beginner jump. The boys all enjoyed it and it was quite an experience. The next day the crew all went white water rafting. In an attempt to avoid inducing labor we thought it best that Faith and I stay at home! They had a great time and from the description a beautiful float. The boys loved it and told me how they pulled each other from the rafts and floated down the river. Wednesday night we went on our "animal hunt" just like we did every night about 9pm. We were told when we got there that there were Moose and Deer all over the neighborhood...and that they even visited our own backyard for dinner. Well, we figured after three nights of looking that perhaps our children were a little loud and the wildlife was staying clear of the Feagin house. But, as we piled up in the car to scour the neighborhood we saw both Deer and we saw a Mother Moose and her baby walking right down one of the streets just a few streets away from our house. Bo wouldn't let me exit the car in an attempt to get a good picture but, Drew and Robert tried. It was getting dark and the photos are not that great but, it was SO cool to see in person. We had a wonderful time on this trip and loved being with our family. Utah was beautiful and the kids loved the temperature change and their freedom to run around and ride bikes without me having them check in every five seconds. Here are some photos from our trip! Hope you all are well, Love to all, J

On the Road Again........

As most of you know...we left for a vacation in Utah last Thursday. We piled the kids in the RV and headed out. Our plan was to spread the trip out over several days because of my current very pregnant condition and to be able to enjoy the scenery along the way.
To begin our vacation we noticed that Faith had a bunch of small tiny blisters on her feet and hands...and you guessed it...in her mouth. We confirmed with her pediatrician that it was in fact Hand,Foot and Mouth Disease. This virus is very contagious and the advice was to keep her isolated from not only the other children but, her pregnant Mother........sure!! We loaded in the RV the next day and hoped for the best. Before we got out of Plano...Hunter started complaining of a huge blister in his mouth. Sure enough...he had gotten it. The next couple days were painful for Hunter but....he muddled through. Faith began to heal and we have seen no signs of the other children getting it.

Fist stop: Amarillo! We rolled into Amarillo about midnight, Hunter and I and Faith stayed in a hotel while Bo and the boys headed to there "hook-ups" in the nearest RV Park. Sound awful? Not in the book of these little boys....being able to sleep in the RV or as Bo and the boys call it...."the big pig" is a dream come true. It is a little frightening how quickly Chandler can familiarize himself with any new RV park. He likes to make sure he knows all the in's and out's and loves when Bo gives him a job to do. The next few days would bring many exciting new jobs for Chandler.

The next day we drove to Colorado Springs. We went to a place called Seven Falls where between the combination of the altitude and the climbing I was pretty sure what was falling was my baby...right out! The kids liked it...the parents thought it was exhausting and it ended with a most satisfying shopping spree in the gift shop! Chandler is quite the souvenir shopper...if there is a gift shop within a 20 mile radius...he is there and begging us for all the things he has always wanted. This particular gift shop had a huge diamond that looked like a paper weight but, they had labeled it "precious crystal diamond" .....needless to say...Chandler was sold! We tried to explain to the children to pace themselves in the souvenir spending department because we had not even begun our 9 day vacation. It took alot of working on Chandler to convince him that the $17.99 glass diamond was not in fact a precious crystal but, we eventually did and he settled for a $5.99 blue rock that was actually pretty cool. Weston got a piece of gold, Faith got a turtle made out of rock and Hunter decided to tally his spending or savings rather and settled for a postcard! Smart kid!


Onto the Royal Gorge........we splurged for the breath taking train ride through the Royal Gorge to minimize my walking and spent two hours on a train riding through the Gorge. It was beautiful and definitely something to see...I just think the kids would have been alot happier experiencing it outdoors rather than from a train car. Most of the train ride was spent talking about why we would skip the Canon City Prison Museum and ...that's right...Chandler saw there was a Prison Gift Shop that was calling his name. This truly confirmed the child could find something...ANYWHERE! However, after Bo and I looked through the Prison Museum brochure and saw that it showed a real gas chamber that was advertised as "you can even enter and sit in the chair" ewww....is that appealing to anyone? We didn't think so....and so we stood firm in skipping the museum. The boys were most disappointed!





After the Royal Gorge we decided that we should shave some hours off the rest of our trip so we drove to Breckenridge and decided against spending the night because Bo thought I was having difficulty breathing. So off we went. We had a beautiful drive through Colorado and ended up in Grand Junction. Hunter, Weston, Faith and I checked into a hotel and once again....Bo and Chandler were headed to the RV park. The next morning as the RV rounded the Doubletree parking lot...I could already see the enormous smile across little Chandler's face as he sat right up front beside Bo. Chandler was thrilled to share with us that he and Bo had stayed up late and watched a horse jockey documentary movie and before they came to pick us up he got to "dump" all by himself. Days just don't get much better than that for Chandler. Oh, the simple pleasures. You see why things like this scare me???

Our journey today would end us at our final destination...Park City, Utah. We will be spending the next week Bo's brother James, Sarah, Alex, Drew and Alex's fiance...Robert! We are very excited to begin our vacation with them.

We did arrive and the house and city are absolutely amazing. Here are some photos!
I will post soon and update you on our vacation!


Love to all,
J

Fourth of July

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Wow! This summer is moving right along and my blogs are still behind. Maybe one day....

Here we are (or were) Fourth of July. An uneventful weekend for the most part...which by the way...are always welcome in the Feagin household. Watched fireworks in Addison with the Feagin's (Aunt Sarah, Uncle Jame-o & the group. Padna and Papa were there....Alex, Drew, Robert and friends.)

Then on the fourth..we attended the DAC fireworks with my parents and the Feagin's for the club's usual amazing firework show.


As I photographed all the faces of my children and their cousins there was
something huge missing in the group.....it was Becca, there was the ever so obvious gap where her big contagious smile usually sits. I missed Boo that night.
She is in Haiti on a mission trip fostering to dozens of orphan children. A trip I remember her calling me and asking to support and I argued that she didn't need to go so far away, that she could help children in the US, and most importantly if she were to go she would miss a trip to Utah that we were taking with the other Feagin's later in July. She was content without my monetary support and just asked for prayers.....which she undeniably knew she get anyway........

Becca has been gone for 4 weeks now and she keeps a blog as well! I cannot tell
you the joy that is bursting from her face in every photograph she posts. There
is no doubt that she is full of the Lord's grace when you read her posts about
her feelings and experiences with these orphan children. There is no doubt that
when she left I thought that THEY were so blessed to get her and I can see from
her blog that she is being equally blessed by being with them. How foolish was I
to try to thwart the Lord's plan for her.She went there as a servant of the Lord and His plan is being fulfilled. He has prepared her and those children are receiving the blessing of her to the fullest extent. She is truly a light in each one of those sweet children's lives. Please keep Becca and her mission in your prayers over the rest of her 6 week journey and her safe return home. His grace is all over Becca, these children and her mission. Her daily entries speak mainly of the love and inspiration she receives from these children and the beauty she is witnessing on her hikes during her time off.

I thought about Becca a lot that night. Not just because I always enjoy her incredible infectious laugh and her happy spirit...but, also because she was in a place that is so poor and the children are orphans and their lives contain few of the freedoms ours do. I watched our children run and play without a care in the world and hoped that they always enjoyed the freedoms our country has sacrificed so many and so much to possess. I have to admit that until 911 I think I took for granted many of those freedoms and liberties but, like so many people...that day will have a place in my mind forever. It changed the way I looked at a flag, listened to an anthem and really changed the way I felt about our country.

Bo and I try to teach our children how lucky they are and what a blessing it is to live in this country and I often wonder how much they really comprehend....and this year Becca is learning it first hand. I cannot imagine how this mission will have changed her and how much she will truly change the lives of those she has touched in Haiti. She is amazing to me....her courage to travel there, live there and teach and care for those children. I cry every time I read her blog because she is so much more amazing that I originally thought and because there are actually children sleeping 5 and 6 to a crib. Just shows ya prospective is good for the grown ups too sometimes.

I hope that you all had a wonderful 4th with your families...we did with ours...even though we missed our Becca Boo. I am grateful and thankful for our blessings and that of our country. I hope you all experienced those same blessings this holiday.

(Here is Becca and a photo of with one of her kids!)

God Bless America,
Love to All,
J