Visit and New Doctor...

September 24th Steve and Kris went to Rexburg to visit Ben over the weekend and they stayed with Cole and Kacie.  Kacie said it was so fun to get to spend so much time with them.  I love this picture of them getting donuts.

September 30th Kacie was able to see her new kidney doctor.  His name is Michael Haderlie.  He works out of the Idaho Kidney Institute and goes to Rexburg one day a week.  I was so relieved when Kacie told me how much she liked him.  It's also nice that he works for the University of Utah transplant team so Kacie can work directly with him now and not have to worry about seeing someone from OHSU.  She really disliked her adult kidney doctor in Meridian...Dr. Hall so I'm so glad she likes this new doctor.

Friday Night Lights...

September 10th Scott and I drove to Melba to watch Ryan play football.  Scott had fun driving his BMW on all the windy back roads.   Since Harper didn't have enough kids to have a team they co-oped with Nyssa.  Ryan was doing really well until he got hurt then Melba completely took over the game and ended up killing them.  We had a nasty cloud go over and I guess we got a down pour at home but luckily we never got rained on.  It made for a pretty sky though.

September 17th Nyssa played Ontario and Won!!  It was so fun!

Such cute boys!!!

Mckinley's Misson...

I was really sad we weren't able to be in person when Mckinley gave her mission farewell talk back in August, but we were able to watch her online and she did amazing.  She was set apart as a missionary on September 5th.  She then spent a week doing missionary training at home.  She was able to meet and study with her new companion Katlyn Maree Neibaur from Henderson, NV.  

Rosie and Ej were able to go to the Jordan River Temple with her on September 14th then she went into the Provo MTC on September 15th.

We are so proud of her and excited to hear about all her amazing experiences serving the people in the Washington DC North mission.

 

Temple Trip...

I was excited to be in the temple again. There is always a special feeling in the temple.   I was able to go over with Alissa Boyer, Lucy Beck and Veralyn Jensen.  We went to the 6:00pm session and then went through the Del Taco drive-in after before heading home.  It was a beautiful night.  I love to see the temple!

 

Weekend with Cole & Kacie...

Friday Sept 3rd we went to Cole and Kacie's for the weekend.  We were so excited to stay in their beautiful new home.  After we got Kacie took us on a tour and then we visited for a little while before we went to IF to go out to eat at the Texas Roadhouse.  It was yummy as always.  We then did a little shopping at Big Al's.  Scott got a zip-up sweatshirt and a tripod for his airgun.  Before we headed back we had a to make a quick stop at Dutch Bros.  Saturday morning Cole and Scott went to shoot their airguns then we went to lunch at Millhollow.  It was our first time there and it was so good! They have unique sandwiches and frozen yogurt.  We then went to Idaho Falls again to do some more shopping.  Kacie got this cute jacket.  I got some more wallflowers from Bath and Bodyworks.  We got more Dutch and went back to their home.  We had a nice relaxing evening and yummy dinner at their home.   

Sunday Scott's cold got worse so we didn't go to church.  We had a late breakfast then drove up to Mesa Falls.  This was Cole's first time there.  The drive was beautiful and the weather was perfect.  On our way back we stopped at the Frostop and got some yummy huckleberry milkshakes.  That evening we made tacos and enjoyed spending time together.  

We had a lazy Monday morning then Scott decided he had to have another sandwich at Millhollow before we headed back home.  Their home is so relaxing and peaceful we didn't want to leave but finally left around 4:30.  We really enjoyed our visit.  Sure love my family!!  

Taylor's Paralympic Journey...

Back in June we were all sooooo excited when we heard that Taylor made the Paralympic Team, but then so broken hearted for her when a day later they called to say there was a mistake and she wasn't on the team.  There was quite an uproar of angry people that something like that could happen at this level.  But Taylor kept training in hopes that she would still make it since she was a first alternate.  About a week later she got another call saying she had a direct invitation from the international Paralympic committee.  We are all so proud of how Taylor was able to deal with all this adversary and are so excited to watch her compete.

Taylor had multiple interviews from different papers and even BYU-Idaho interviewed her on their radio station.  I think Taylor was afraid to get her hopes up until she finally got her USA gear!

Taylor left August 10th to Tokyo, Japan with her track and field team.  They all had to stay a couple of weeks to train and quarantine on a USA military base before finally making it to the Paralympic village.

Taylor and Coach Cruz

Kym Crosby & Taylor

It was pretty exciting to see he walk into the National Stadium with the USA team.

Taylor and her friend Joel Gomez...He is also a T13 but runs the long distance races.

I made both of these graphics to help share he competition times and where to watch on social media!

Her first heat of T13 100 meter dash was on Monday August 30th.  It was pretty exciting to finally get to watch her.  We had to make a last minute change to watch it at Gerald and Wanda's because they had faster internet and we could only see it on online.  The TV wasn't broadcasting the preliminary heats.

I was able to get screenshots from the video on my phone and I made this collage to share! She looked so cute and good in her race even though she didn't make the finals!  

Part of the fun of this whole experience was getting to meet my new friend from Japan, Reiko Isa.  She knew Jeff Walker when he served his mission in Japan.  Her husband was Jeff's first bishop and they both helped Jeff a lot when he was so homesick after just arriving there.   Jeff told her about Taylor and she messaged me when she saw my posts about Taylor.  She was so kind to send me videos or anything she could find there about Taylor.

She had me send a message to Taylor so she could add it to this site in Japanese.  She even showed me Taylor's name in Japanese plus other words.  She would stay up late in the night chatting with me about our lives and especially Taylor.  One night she was up till two in the morning.  I told her about Uncle John being there and she said she had already met him which was cool.  Japan is 15 hours ahead of us.

Sept 2nd Taylor ran the 400m preliminary heat at 6:20 in the morning our time.  Scott and I got up so we could watch her.  I was surprised how rainy it was.  She looked good but didn't make the finals.  Every day it was still crazy for me to think that Taylor was so far away in Japan, I can't imagine how her parents must have felt.

Reiko Isa sharing me views from Japan...

It was fun to watch her on the map and to get an idea of where she was.  I even text Debbie McCune and they tried to take Taylor out to dinner but she wasn't allowed to leave the village because of Covid.  She said they lived only minutes away for the national stadium.  My new friend also invited me several times to visit them in Japan with Taylor so she can site-see since she never was able to during the Paralympics.

It was pretty cool she got to go the opening and closing ceremonies...what an amazing experience.  

We are so proud of you Taylor!!  She got back home September 6th.