Grandparents and the Best Birthday Ever!

On Sunday, August 23, I sat in a bath trying to recover from Primary, a headache and shoulder aches. Erika came knocking on the bathroom door begging to know when I would be out of the tub. It was such a random request that I joked back, "are you four?"  She convinced me that they (the kids) wanted to all watch a family movie together and since I hadn't seen it yet (Inside Out) I agreed to be out in ten minutes.

When I went into the living room ten minutes later I heard a ruckus under the living room window, looked outside and found Erika in the raspberry patch. She told me that she was hoping to find a few last raspberries, which I thought was odd considering the raspberries were done two weeks prior. But, I shrugged it off and we all moved our way downstairs. I did think it was strange that all of the older kids were pushing to start an animated movie immediately and insisting that LeRoy and I stay and watch the whole thing.  Later, Erika confessed to having turned LeRoy's phone off and Levi admitted to holding his breath the whole time worried that I would leave the room to get something like I usually do during the previews.

We all sat down for "the movie" which Justin was playing through his computer. We watched the preview for the new Minion movie and then a really odd preview started with bits from Rexburg tragedies (flood of '76, recent shooting near Walgreens) and then it turned to Batman saving Rexburg. That's when I suspected it was an announcement. I could sense Erika watching us and started to grin and laugh. LeRoy was still clueless and couldn't figure out why I was laughing at this silly home movie that had Bret playing Batman and his soon to be side-kick Erika.

When LeRoy did finally get it he started sobbing. We all laughed through the end of the video - because it was funny AND because LeRoy was crying so hard. Nathan and Hyrum just looked confused but soon understood as Erika explained and pulled out some shirts that she and Daymia had made for them.

The news of becoming an uncle was big and took a few minutes for Hyrum to grasp. "I've been waiting my whole life to be an uncle! But, I don't have gray hair" was his first puzzled thought. I told him about my little brother Jared who became an uncle at age two when Levi was born. He accepted that but continued to silently let it sink in. "He's going to have two uncles!" he then expressed and that's when we explained further who would be the uncles.

Justin brought cupcakes from his room and that's when Erika explained that when I caught her in the raspberries she had actually just put the cupcakes in Justin's room through the window.

While eating his cupcake Hyrum quizzed Daymia,
"I keep thinking you're the one that's going to have the baby" 

"Why's that?" 
"Aren't you older than Erika?" 
"Yeah, I am." 
"Then how in the world don't you have a baby yet!?"

LeRoy and I also got shirts announcing our new status.

Once LeRoy got his tears under control he called his dad to tell him. As soon as his dad answered he burst into tears again and couldn't talk. That's when he handed the phone to Erika. Erika told Papa that she was going to have a baby and had to repeat it a couple of time because he kept asking, "what?"  Erika said it again to which Papa stated in bold exclamation, "I heard what you said but I don't understand how that's possible. I thought LeRoy had the surgery". Erika burst into laughter and yelled into the phone (because Papa is practically deaf), "Papa, it's Erika Jo. I'm going to have a baby".  He and Cynthia Darlene were both very excited for her . . . and very glad that I wasn't the one who was pregnant.

LeRoy did the most adorable, crazy shuffle dance and in a high pitch voice squeaked, "I'm going to be a grandpa!!!"  Oh, if there was one thing in life I wish we had on camera it is LeRoy's grandpa dance. He hasn't been able to imitate it since but it is safely stored in our long term memories.

His little girl is having a baby!

Bret and Erika make life so much fun!


Erika surprised me for my birthday with an invitation to go to her 20 week ultrasound.

Life seemed to pause as that tiny rhythmic heartbeat announced from the coming of motherhood for my Erika Jo. Though the baby was folded in half the whole time with legs directly over the head, we could see that she was indeed a she.

Baby Girl Hellbusch due March 22, 2016.

I had hidden in my bag a pair of newborn pajamas that Erika wore home from the hospital the day after she was born, just in case she was having a girl. It was worth storing it for 20+ years in my cedar chest to share this moment with her!

Posted on Facebook:  In 9 days it will have been 22 years since I dressed my new baby girl in these teeny tiny pajamas. My heart is bursting with joy as I watch her in full blown motherly anticipation as she prepares for the arrival of her own baby girl! You will be a wonderful mother, Erika Jo!

We (Bret, Erika and I) kept our new secret for 6 whole days! It was very difficult to avoid pronouns and I actually avoided talking to anyone who might ask.  The boys kept trying to trick me and a couple of times they nearly succeeded. Erika also had a hard time keeping it quiet since people at work knew she had found out the gender.

Erika wanted to do a fun reveal party on Sunday with everyone so we put together some games. First, each person chose either a Batman or Cat Woman symbol to represent if they thought Erika would be having a boy or girl.

Pee in the Cup Game

We stuffed balloons in our shirts so that we all had big bellies and put a ping pong ball between our legs (to force us to do the knee clenching "I need to pee" walk) and tried to drop the ball into a cup.

The older boys started us off with athletic skill and competition.

The younger boys couldn't quite get the hang of it. After three unsuccessful tries Justin pulled a plank and Hyrum followed suit. Nathan wouldn't give up and after his fifth try he made it.

The girls hopped their way to the finished line and did their best with split squats. Those prego bellies were adorable!

Erika raced with LeRoy and I and she totally made it first try. Her doctor visit training paid off to win the Pee in the Cup game.

To finally get to the reveal Erika pulled out silly string cans that she had covered in blue and pink. Those who thought she was having a boy took a blue covered can and those who thought she was having a girl took a pink covered can.

The result was a room full of pink silly string.
It's a girl!!!

Erika is rocking this pregnancy business! My admiration for her grows daily as I watch her cheerfully handling the waddling, hip pain, rib aches, and sleepless nights. She is spectacular! I am in awe of her strength and positive attitude.

Halloween Dance

Kayla popped the question on Friday:

Justin cleverly responded on Sunday: (which was quite to his advantage, thanks to Uncle Vernon)

While she was at church he left the sorting hat pumpkin on her doorstep.  Inside were bobbles with clues that she had to sort to know where to go next to find the question, "Do you know what's so great about Sunday, Kayla?" That led her to the howler in the mailbox.


The superhero couple met up with Batman (Kendall in Bret's suit) before heading off to the dance.

Each couple in their group represented a superhero; Justin and Kayla were The Flash.

The elementary school playground was the perfect location for hero pictures!

There was a little concern about breaking the monkey bars though.

It bowed quite deeply with all of them hanging on it.


The jungle gym fit these monkeys perfectly.

Such a fun group of energetic heroes!

Justin, Kayla, Cole, Claire, Rilee, Hannah, Isaac, Brita, Cameron, Reagan

October

Nathan, Hyrum and I put together some Booing kits to surprise our neighbors with. We specifically chose one family with children with extreme food allergies and another family that has a child on a specific diet due to epilepsy. It was a challenge coming up with items that could be fun and tasty.  

Apple juice mummies, mandarin pumpkins, and homemade salt dough monsters.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Charlie jumped up on the seat and whimpered his request to go with me as I was loading my bags for a personal trip to Utah.  Sorry Bud, it's a sisters weekend.

(Witch nose editing compliments of Mike.)

Kara, Kate, Kathy and I spent a fun night at Witchapalooza music dinner theater dressed up as witches; eating a delicious dinner and laughing through the hilariously entertaining musical production of the The Lyin', The Witch and The Warlock.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The fruits of last year's explosive Thanksgiving labors were in full bloom by July. While killing weeds along the ditch bank we found 7 pumpkins plants, one of which had enough blossoms to provide us with Halloween jack-o-lanterns for this year, which we will most likely blow up to perpetuate the pumpkin cycle. Redneck farming at its best.

With a few tips from Levi and a drill added to our carving tools we came up with some pretty sweet designs.

My personal favorite was Erika's pregnant pumpkin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Erika made a a very mummy dinner for us!

She went all out with her makeup skills trying to win the costume contest at work. The picture looks gross but in real life it looks like real wounds! I don't think I would have recognized my zombie daughter if I had seen her on the street.

Her other costume for work was our favorite. Again, with amazing makeup talent.

The pregnant zebra!


Hyrum was so excited to be Batman just like Bret.

Nathan combined several costumes into one and was very satisfied with the result.

Daymia and Levi dressed up as . . . themselves?

The beautiful angel and the handsome devil.

The best part about Levi's costume is that he found those pants at DI. They look like they were made just for that costume.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nathan: "Do you notice anything different? I cut my mole hair."

Hyrum: "When I have a good idea, my brain actually says 'blink'."

Hyrum: "Sometimes when I'm supposed to be sleeping I'm just thinking of things to build."

Kimber: "The weekend is always my weak end."

Erika: "This baby girl likes to do gymnastics when I'm supposed to be sleeping."

Charlie will go out 8-10 times a day to sit on the back porch, facing the neighbors house, looking for his girlfriend, Roxie.  One day I heard him whining and went looking for him to see what trouble he was in.  He was actually on the neighbors back porch whining for Roxie to come out. Another day, Roxie was sitting near our back door barking for Charlie to come out and play. Hyrum informed me that he has married them. He even held a ceremony, "but they wouldn't hold still and they didn't kiss at the end".

Smoke Jumpers

Nathan's fourth grade class went on a field trip to Yellowstone Park to see the Smoke Jumpers (parachuting fire fighters) last training jump of the season. After a surprisingly calm hour long bus ride, we arrived at the Yellowstone Nature Connection to meet our guides and pledge to protect nature.

We were split into two groups and taken to mini-classes. One class taught about fire safety and how fires spread depending on fuel and wind. The other class taught about the parachute, the plane and the jumpers.

The students also had to pass a fitness test similar to the one the rookie jumpers have to pass. They breezed through jumping jacks and push ups but the pull up bar is where they met their limits.

Our next stop was about ten miles away at the practice drop zone. After a short hike from the bus we found ourselves in a beautiful field looking over the mountains with the plane flying overhead. The plane did a few passes to drop ribbons to test the wind and by the third pass, we had jumpers.

We watched eight jumpers glide through the sky as they directed their parachutes in perfect form to land within feet of the target drop.  Once all jumpers were down, the kids ran into the field to gather the test ribbons and to chat with the rookie jumper.

We met the jumpers back at the Yellowstone Airport to learn more about the planes and to see where they make the parachutes, packs and stock all the equipment that they use to fight the fires.

It was impressive to see the pattern, fabric and industrial sewing machines that are used to make everything and even more impressive that the fire fighters do all the cutting and sewing themselves.

To complete our trip, the rangers back at the station swore in our newest little rangers.

My favorite part of the trip came as we were pulling into Hibbard. All twenty-one kids on the bus were singing at the top of their lungs with arms pumping in a cheer as they belted out "this is my fight song, take back my life song, prove I'm alright song". It was a perfect way to end our day long field trip. I was honored to spend the day with such respectful and kind young people. Nathan is part of a great class and has a wonderful teacher.

Labor Day Hike to Darby Wind Caves

Derek and LeRoy missed out on our first hike to the Darby Wind Caves and both have wanted to go for the last two years. We realized that it wasn't going to work out with everyone's schedules so had to pick a day that most of us could be there. That meant Levi would miss out, and we missed him.

We started with our usual stop at the Spud Drive-In.

It's unusual to find something that makes Derek look so tiny but the screen structure of the theatre accomplished that. Justin was really wanting to do a flip off the lowest beam but once he got up there he realized that is was a much further drop than he expected.

After miles of hiking, multiple needed rests, and a few stops at the edge of the cliffs we made it to the base of the cave. We stopped for a brief snack at the monument honoring the five women and girls who were killed by lighting in 1951 during their hike down from the caves. While there we read a little about the camp and the girls and looked for the trees struck by lightning.

The hike into the cave is slippery and steep but well worth the effort.

Once inside, Justin decided to scale the rock walls. The height and grandeur of the cave is spectacular!

After carefully maneuvering over wet, loose rock we got to the small entrance of the cave and wriggled our way through. The suffocating darkness can get pretty creepy and the breeze sweeping through the cave is extremely cold. We learned the last time we visited the cave to come with plenty of light, layers of clothing and gloves.

Justin asked LeRoy to take a picture of the two of us. When he saw the picture he said in a flirty voice, "just me and my best girl hanging out in a cave".

Coming out of the cave is like crossing winter and summer seasons in a matter of minutes and our bodies took a bit to adjust as we carefully crossed the terrain with numb fingers and shaky legs.

As the last one out of the cave I had the opportunity to watch my children work together and protect each other from harm.

The water that runs out of the cave provides a waterfall that runs wide and fast during the spring but during the late fall months it runs in a trickle. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls where Bret, Aaron, Kristin and Nathan were crazy brave enough to stand under the bitter cold water.

The hike out is always the hardest because we have already experienced the best of the trip - the cave. That's when silliness comes in. The silly songs, funny jokes and goofy faces keep us going through the final tiring miles and solidify our memories.

At one of our stops Erika informed us, "growing a human while hiking is exhausting".

When Hyrum gets tired he gets very quiet and then he gets his second wind and it's all poses and theatrics from there on out.

Derek and Justin kept busy noticing the finer details of nature and capturing them with phone cameras.

Spiders and flowers were aplenty.

Daymia kept us at a quick pace coming down the trail declaring, "the faster we get down this mountain the fast we get burgers!" And once we were finally on the road again Justin begged, "drive faster! I'm so hungry my socks look good".  Our traditional stop at Basin Burger filled all our bellies and our final hike of the summer was complete.