Poor Elliot

Elliot's eardrum ruptured yesterday morning. He was complaining of an earache throughout the night, but we weren't sure what was causing it - he hadn't been sick and he hadn't gone swimming recently. At around 7 am, Elliot suddenly screamed out in agony and a few minutes later, blood started to ooze from his ear. Poor guy - he wasn't kidding! Of course, after that he felt a little better and was able to fall asleep. When he woke up, I took him to the doctor. Ruptured eardrums heal on their own, but I wanted to find out how severe it was. The doctor let me have a look at Elliot's ear as well. It was pretty yucky - multiple perforations. We did find out that it was caused by an ear infection, which was weird, because he didn't have a head cold and because he only had the earache for about 9 hours before it ruptured. I filled Elliot's prescriptions and took him home. I had Elliot lay in the armchair so I could put drops in his ear. Immediately he closed his eyes and zonked out for a couple of hours. Poor little man - he had a long night!

Helping Out

Nathan decided to replace the sprinkler heads in the front yard last Saturday - the old ones just weren't gettin' the job done. Henry was excited to give Dad a hand, especially when Dad promised he could run through the sprinklers to test them out when he was finished. Henry's job was to run to the car and get the right sprinkler head when Nathan needed it. I love cute little father/son moments like this!

Girls Camp

Samantha left for girls camp today. I can't even tell you how old that makes me feel. She's been so excited to go. Nathan volunteed to be one of the priesthood leaders, so he'll also be at camp tonight with the girls. Sam will be back in a few days - hopefully she'll have some stories to tell.

Michael Jackson

Nathan and I stayed up past midnight to watch Michael Jackson's memorial service. I've always loved Michael Jackson as an entertainer - his music and especially his dancing. I haven't really thought about him much the last few years, but since his death, he's been a topic of conversation in our house. We spent the day after he died watching all of his music videos on YouTube. I dusted off my Michael Jackson CD's and we've all been walking around humming his songs. Elliot has become an avid fan - he can't get enough! Elliot says that he likes Michael better when he was "black". Michael Jackson had many different looks over the years. Elliot likes the Beat It and Thriller era when Michael looked liked this.

My favorite pics of Michael were later - around the time that the Bad and Dangerous albums came out. I think his choreography got a little more exciting then.

Elliot and I both agree on our absolute favorite music video - Smooth Criminal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmN0dwDR1wo
I attached the long version because it was the best quality. If you don't have 10 minutes, enjoy the Live version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWgN0UrVVSo

It's a shame that he died before his comeback tour. I would have loved to see him sing and dance again. The world will miss you Michael! Long live skinny highwater pants and white socks!

P.E.

Nathan recently found out that he passed the big Professional Engineer exam. He is now officially a Professional Engineer! It's a really big deal for his career and we're very proud of him. As a P.E., Nathan can be a project manager, give projects the final seal of approval, and of course advance faster and make more money. Good job Nate!

Nathan A. Beutler, PE

4th of July

Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit over the 4th of July weekend. The weather was perfect - 75 to 80 degrees and no rain - and we kept ourselves busy with fun activities and good food. The day before the Fourth, we spent most of the day at Cowabunga Bay, a new waterpark that opened up a few weeks ago down the street from our house. It's a giant water play structure with a lazy river next to it.

When you're on the structure itself, it's impossible to stay dry - it's covered with buckets, sprayers, hoses, showers, etc. Everywhere you turn, you get drenched, usually not even knowing where the water is coming from - especially when a kid finds the perfect perch next to a water bucket and keeps dumping it's contents on unsuspecting people below. Dumb kid.

Here's "Crampa" and Grandma!

Cowabunga Bay has multiple open and closed slides (all of them produce perfect wedgies when you hit the bottom), but the main attraction is the two GIANT buckets that dump hundreds of gallons of water every five minutes. People line up and wait to get pummeled by the enormous amount of water. We decided to try it once - it took the kids quite a bit of convincing to put themselves in the line of fire (water).

We left Cowabunga Bay in the afternoon waterlogged and sunburned and went home to get cleaned up. We made our way out to the west valley to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. The temple was beautiful, of course. We noted that the theme throughout the temple, as far as interior design goes, is gold and crystal. Very pretty.

Here, you can see where the angel Moroni was struck by lightning a few weeks ago.


This is the view of the Draper Temple from the Oquirrh Temple.



For the 4th of July, we had a picnic in American Fork Canyon. We ate steak and roasted marshmallows as we enjoyed the cool mountain air. We played some cards and the kids played "monkey in the middle".







If it looks like Gillian's saying, "What's that over there?" so that she could distract Henry and throw the ball over his head without him noticing, you're right. That's exactly what she's doing.


We made it back into town right in time for the the City of Sandy fireworks show. Luckily, our friends, the Sohms, arrived first and saved us some blanket room. I like watching them from Jordan High School because it looks like the fireworks are exploding over the Jordan River Temple. This year, we could see the Oquirrh Mountain Temple as well. Pretty cool.





On Sunday, we spent the day in Layton with my uncle Anthony and his family. Kathy and K.C. joined us from South Jordan and brought Grandma Jackson (since she was staying with them for the weekend). Pam and Kelvin also drove down from Idaho Falls to join the crowd. It was fun to spend time with some of my "Utah" cousins and get to know them better. We had a good time.










When we got back to our house, it was just dark enough to enjoy the box of fireworks that Grandma and Grandpa bought at Costco. What a great weekend!




Thanks for coming Mom and Dad!