Bear Lake with the Gardner's

We love getting all these kids together. It’s always a lot of fun!When I married Greg, I had to learn how to play cards real fast. That’s just what you do. I love that it is being passed down to the little ones too. We loved relaxing, playing on the beach and riding the jet ski.By the end of the day we were all feeling like Lindsey!

Heber Valley Camp

My in-laws are serving a mission at Heber Valley Girls Camp, therefore, we got to have our Gardner reunion up there.  It was so pretty and such a fun place.  And cool.  Jeans and jackets during the day.  It was a great break from the heat!  We slept in cabins with bunk beds, which the kids totally loved.  We spent most of our time on the challenge courses.  Lindsey loves swings to so she was having the time of her life!



Taylor takes after me.  We both like to keep our feet firmly planted on the ground.  So he helped pull family members up so they could let go and swing from the trees. Other times he would just chill and take it all in.


Lauren loves swings too so they let her just swing for a bit instead of going all the way up to the zip line.

All the kids loved the rope walk.  Lindsey had to do it a few times.  She kept saying, “Enzie’s turn!” (Lindsey’s turn)

And the rope swing.  I love how Lauren’s almost same age cousin is ready to catch her with open arms.

Greg loves this kind of stuff!  He went down the zip line- backwards!
It is beautiful country up there.  These girls are so blessed to go to such a wonderful place. It is run by all senior missionary couples and they are all so nice and a ton of fun too!  Lindsey was so excited when she would see all the deer.  Taylor and I saw a beaver when we were on the paddle boats on the lake. But most of all, my kids love spending time with their cousins, Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents.

Such a fun family we have!

Zions National Park

We went camping at Zions with all of the Gardner's and had a great time.  As you can see from the pictures- it could have been a little warmer, but we still had so much fun!  Some of the highlights were

                                                         seeing Gma and Gpa

                                                                           Hiking

                                             being with all the boy cousins

                                                  bum scootching in the trailer

                                                            Seeing Aunts and Uncles

being with girl cousins- Lauren especially was loving having a teenage cousin around!  She just adores Lexi!

Family

Greg's sister, Jen and her family were here over the holidays. It was so fun to have them here. We had fun things to do everyday over break and my kids never got bored. We loved it! Jumpin' Jacks
Pioneer Park
Lauren loving on Hayden- she just couldn't get enough of him! I think she's going to take to the new baby just fine!

Hopper Balls, Playing, Reading and WrestlingMaking Cookies for Santa

Not to mention all the great food and a "kids sleepover" at Gma & Gpa's house.

Fish Lake

We had a great time at Fish Lake with Uncle Clark and Aunt Charlene! They are so generous to let us invade their cabin for a weekend. Lauren and Taylor LOVED throwing rocks in the lake. Taylor went fishing for the first time too. Taylor and his cousin Garrett were talking on the phone the other day
Taylor- I went fishing at Fish Lake.
Garrett- Did you catch any fish?
Taylor- No, just seeweed! (He thought it was great!)

We Did It!

We went to the STAR Center and now we are back! We loved it! We couldn't have done it without Gma & Gpa Gardner, Tif, Mark, Lexi, Meagan, Tyler and Andrew. We are so blessed to have such a great family who supports us. Thank you so much for making our trip so fun and SO enjoyable.
Taylor's OT, Melaine, was awesome- she worked hard with Taylor everyday and still came to work each day with a huge smile. We loved her! Taylor loved her! And she's from Iowa- what's not to love?? Now we are trying to figure out life without her. She taught us a lot about Sensory Processing Disorder, but more importantly, she taught us a lot about Taylor! We have a plan to continue here at home. Our lives have changed in that now we have the knowledge to help Taylor. Helping him consists of

• buying a swing set with certain swings to swing and climb
• sitting on a therapy ball flat footed
• walking on uneven surfaces (huge pillow with foam)
• lots of obstacle courses for bending and climbing
• home ball pit
• walking backwards flatfooted pulling something
• walking on balance beams
• daily visual schedule and visual clock to help with transitions, etc.

Lots of heavy work- pushing, pulling, climbing and transitions!
We saw a lot of improvement at the STAR Center with physical things such as gravity issues and walking flatfooted. We are anxious to see more as we are home and back to our normal lives.
Here are some pictures of our whole experience in Colorado. It was a great one!

EDIT: Taylor wore headphones for his listening therapy along with his occupational therapy. Listening therapy (LT) is a therapeutic program to improve the neurophysiological foundation for integrating sensory input by using specific sound frequencies and patterns to stimulate the brain. Like occupational therapy, LT is based on the theory of neuroplasticity, which refers to brain changes that occur as a result of experience.
The pic of us eating a snack on the freeway was on our way home. We sat on I-70 for 2.5 hours while they cleaned up a really bad accident.