The circus wasn't in town, so I did not join them. Somehow I managed to get control of my house, for a time. Alice had a broken arm, but actually it was a bad nurse-maid elbow. We got to visit with my grandparents. And we went off for a quick trip to Utah. Maybe now I have a little more control of myself. Maybe not. But in the meantime I will share a few pictures from what has been happening.
We went bowling a few weeks ago. Alice likes us to drag her around on the floor, so Joe was dragging her, but only had ahold of her right arm. He felt it pop, but thought she was fine. I found her on the floor crying. I tried to fix it, but she was still crying all the way home. So I took her to the ER thinking maybe it was just more dislocated than last time. The doctor looked at her, took x-rays, didn't like the fact that she wouldn't use her arm even 3 hours later. The x-ray didn't show any breaks but there was joint effusion, which is a small amount of blood in the joint. They said that happens when there has been damage to the bone, so they had to call it a fracture. They put a splint on her (the picture above) and sent us home. She was happy to have her arm immobilized, but Joe and I were scratching our heads at how her arm could be broken. A couple of days later, we took her to the orthopedist to get a cast. He took off the splint, was pretty sure it was just nurse-maid elbow, tried to reset it, and told me to watch for a little bit to see if she would use her arm. She still didn't really want to use it, so the doctor took more x-rays just to make sure. Still not broken. He said joint effusion could be caused by break, sprain, or dislocation. So he said it was just the nurse-maid elbow, it would take longer to heal completely since it was out for a couple of days and sent us on our way. The rest of that day and most of the next, Alice acted as if she had no arm. She would do everything with her left arm. It was fascinating to watch her run around and do things and just refuse to use her right arm. But by the following afternoon she started to use her arm again, and she is fine. Thank goodness the orthopedist knew what he was talking about!
We took a quick trip to Utah. Joe and I wanted to do something to celebrate our 10 year anniversary, so we decided to go to Utah to have a night out, plus we could see some friends. So my wonderful aunt, Jeanne the Great, watched the kids while Joe and I were able to do an endowment session and some sealings at the Salt Lake Temple. Then we went to dinner at Rodizio Grill, and we stayed at the Castle Creek Inn bed and breakfast. The b&b had rooms all with castle themes. We stayed in Edinburg. Here is suit of armor that was in our room. 
And the outside of the b&b. 
It was fun. We saw one of Joe's mission companions, Tom, and his wife and kids. And we were able to see my good friend Claudia and her husband and new baby!
We took the kids to see Temple Square, here they are at the door of the temple 
and we took them to the aquarium they have, which they really enjoyed. Alice was quite fascinated by all the different creatures. She had no fear of petting the rays.
The kids had fun watching the Gentoo penguins.
We came home and spent a few days with my little brother and his wife who were visiting. And now we are home and getting ready for school to start. I don't know if the kids are looking forward to the beginning of school, but I am ready to get back to more structured days!
