The Dennis Family: Life's Like A Jump Rope.

When I was at BYU-Idaho, I volunteered for Get Connected just about every semester. (Get Connected is the program to introduce Freshmen to the school.) During the volunteer training before the new students showed up, we frequently listened to a song by Blue October called "Jump Rope". It basically talks about how life is like a jump rope - there will be ups, and there will be downs. These past few weeks have been a big jumble of ups, with a few downs in the middle. Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.

My older sister Rachel was expecting her first baby. (I say 'was', because by this point he has made his appearance in the world. More on that later :)) I was going to go out and visit her the week before her due date to help her make freezer meals, decorate the baby's room, etc. Well, two days before I was set to fly out (she lives in Wisconsin), I started feeling kind of sick. By the morning I was supposed to head to the airport, it was awful. I couldn't eat anything, I felt so dizzy, and I was shaking so bad I couldn't think straight. Although it was painful to do, I didn't end up going. That was definitely a down! Rachel was disappointed, I was in tears, and I spent the rest of the weekend mostly in bed to drown out my sorrows. Except for the few hours where I went to the doctors office so they could take my blood to run some tests. (Which, for anyone that knows me, I HATE needles. I have a completely irrational fear of them.) With that, and the fact that I hadn't eaten much in the past 24 hours, I was on the verge of passing out. I had to lay down in the doctor's office for a while before they would let me go home. Braden was a wonderful support though, and I'm grateful he stayed with me the whole time. The doctor suspected I had anemia or celiacs or something of the sort. The dizziness and tiredness had been going on for a while, but that weekend it was just bad enough that I finally went to the doctor. (And for anyone even thinking it - I'm not pregnant! We ruled that one out with the blood test too.) Well, turns out I had mono. By the time we found out though, I was in the final stages of it anyways, and there was really nothing we could do but wait it out. It must have been a fairly mild case of it though, because I only had half the symptoms that usually occur with mono. I'm very grateful I'm not working this summer though, because it allowed me ample time to sleep, and make sure I was feeling better. And another tender mercy - because it was a medical reason (and we had a doctor to back it up), we were able to get a flight credit from the airlines - which I used this past week to go and visit my sister and her new little man. But that will be another blog post for later!

Now for the ups... pictures of the fun things we have done since the last post!

Visited family in Meridian.

These two videos are of my niece Sage talking/laughing. I just LOVE baby laughter :) It's so infectious.

Since it's been a while from our last post, a lot of these pictures and videos are over a month old. But I wanted them on here for memories sake :)

Amelia got the twins these darling swim
caps to keep their heads from getting
sunburned.

Sage could not keep her hands
away from her face for a
picture, but she still looks stinkin cute!

Look at River's chubby legs! And her little
swimsuit. So cute!

Check out the propped up elbows and crossed legs.
She just looks like an old soul in such a little body :)

With some extra time on my hands this summer, I made this double sided sign for our dishwasher.

And these for friend's wedding gifts.

One day Braden left for work. He was wearing his Color 5k shirt, and tan shorts. I decided to wear the same thing just to make him laugh. He came home from work at the end of the day, and I wish I had captured his reaction. I tried to get a picture later, but Braden was on the phone, and I wasn't very skilled with my phone camera. ha! This is the best I got.

For the 4th of July, we hung out with Cassie and Kenny and little Carter. Braden and I went to the Stadium of Fire later that night. I wasn't feeling too hot, so we didn't even stay for the whole thing. On a happy note though, the 4th of July last year was when Braden proposed to me :)

Some of our best friends in our ward , the Steeles moved away. We were sad to see them go - they have been such a blessing in our lives, and we have had countless FHE's and game nights with them!

My dear friend Rachel got married. I roommed with her for over half my time in Rexburg, and I love this girl dearly!

Hokulia :)

We went to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon, and fed the fish. Braden kept trying to touch them and pick them up. Silly boy.

We have been finding different places to hike to as of late. Here are a few pictures at Timpanogos Falls.

A yummy crepe from the farmer's market.

Braden won this painting from Deseret Book, which is awesome! Even before we got married, he always told me how he wanted to have this painting in our home someday.

And last but not least, we went camping with our neighbors, the Hills (same ones from the Spider Story a blog post back.) We went to Mona, Utah, and tried out the rope swing out there. You had to climb up in this tree, grab the rope, and jump off. Braden captured some great shots for us!