THE GRIP!

On September 9th Brian's gym, The Grip, had it's Grand Opening!

Here are some picture's.  Starting with me driving over there.  This sign is the first thing I saw.  I was on the corner of the Dam Road.

 There were cars up and down the road, lined up forever.  I had to pass the place, turn around and park on the other side of the street.  It was great!  The opening time was supposed to be 11am and we got there a little after noon.

 There were people everywhere.  Inside, Outside, Upstairs and in the office signing up for lessons, birthday parties and memberships!

 This was one of the bathrooms and the party room upstairs.

 The boys, Ben, Luke and David, checking everyone out from the balcony seating.

 These were friends of Brian's that had also been on the show American Ninja Warrior. (anyone wearing a red GRIP shirt)  They came either down from Salt Lake or up from Vegas to help out with the Grand opening.  Super nice of them.  Great people.

 The radio station was there all day too, interviewing Brian and the other guys getting people to come down and check it out.  Brian said that it was only supposed to last from 11-4 but they had 200 people there at 10am and they weren't done until 6pm.  1,000's of people showed up to check it out and play around.  It was awesome!  I'm so glad that it's working out for them!

Shayne's Thyroid Surgery! Finally!

Wednesday, September 6th, 2017 Shayne went into DRMC at 10:30am to gown up and get that dreaded thyroid tumor taken out.  It was one of the best moments of our lives.  Weird to say, I know, but we all had a great sense of relief knowing that it would soon be out of her body and would no longer be of any harm or future danger to her.  I met She and Konnor at the hospital and we were taken back and no longer had they given Shayne a gown and told her to change than her nurse came by to talk to us and I found out that it was Jaimie, a friend of mine that use to work at Red Rock Canyon School with me and Joel.  It was another testament that everything was going to be just fine.  Shayne had a darling phlebotomist and about an hour after they got her all hooked up with an IV the OR assistant came and got Shayne to take her to the Operating Room.  He wasn't very good at navigating her bed.  He ran into every corner.  It was pretty funny.  Then Konnor and I went to the cafeteria to eat and then came back and waited for a little while.  The surgery took an hour and a half but was scheduled for 3 just in case they needed to go in and take the other side out after they had biopsied the one side to see if there was any cancer.  Luckily there wasn't any so right at the 1 1/2 hour mark Dr. Kent Gardner, the world's best ENT, came out to tell us that everything went perfectly and that they were just finishing up with her and as soon as she came out of the anesthesia we would be able to see her. 

Here is her name right above the bottom blue line.  The SY is her.  While we were waiting, our good friend Wendy Utley came out to see us.  She was the nurse in the room while Shayne was being operated on.  She said that it hit a little to close to home since Shayne was like a daughter to her.  Later Shayne said that she talked to Wendy before she went under and she said that it was another Tender Mercy from the Lord, knowing that he was watching over her.   Knowing that Wendy was right there in the room with her when her real mom couldn't be gave her peace.

In Post-Op she was fine.  All smiles.  We found out the next day that she is allergic to iodine.  See all that orange?  Yeah, she broke out in a rash everywhere that it was.

 On Thursday the 17th, I went with Shayne to her follow up appointment at Dr. Gardner's.  He said that it looked great and that she could take the rest of the glue off by Wednesday.  She will need to go in to get some lab work done in a couple weeks to see where all of her levels are to know what medication is needed.  But for now she is feeling great and didn't have a lot of problems.  She had to sleep at incline for a week and had a sore throat from the tube they put down there.  It was bigger that the usual one that they put in people because it has to give off signals when they get to close to her vocal chords.  But she is doing great.  We are extremely blessed.  I know that in a couple weeks from now she will be able to start working out again and we able to get back to her old self and finally regain some energy that has be long lost.  We are so grateful to Dr. Gardner, for today's technology and for the love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Labor Day Week

We started off the week with FHE at the Cabana Shack getting Snow Cones.  And ended it by going up to Pine Valley and relaxing in the cool air since it's still over 100 degrees every day here even though it's SEPTEMBER!  It's ridiculous.

Sunday was Elaine's 70th birthday. So we ate dinner together over at Brian's.  Jared was in town.  He's been in California, drawing for Disney's latest animated feature.  It's the part in the new Mary Poppins.  John, Kristal and their family all came up from Vegas.  They are enjoying living there now.  Ashley was even down from BYU so it was a good turn out.  

Then we went up to Pine Valley to have a sleep over, enjoy the cooler weather, play some cards and of course, play corn hole.  Kyle and Evan went undefeated against everyone.  Ben said that he got all 4 bags in, in a row, but no one saw him.  So, did it really happen?

 A couple weeks ago the men helped Kyle take off the end of the porch and make stairs down to the patio.  It is really convenient.  It also frees up a lot of space on the porch for bodies to sleep apparently.  Emily slept on the swing.   Originally they were all going to sleep on the patio under the stars but it started to rain before they got ready to sleep out.  So they slept on the porch instead. 

 
That's me behind them making mountain man breakfast in the dutch oven.  It was yummy!

The kids also had a blast jumping off of the porch onto the mattress's.  Ben thought he could fly!

Before we left Emily's creative juices were flowing and her inner Jan came out.  She decided she wanted to put together a play so she got the kids together and created a murder mystery.  It was awesome to watch it unfold.  It was just like Jan at her age gathering the neighborhood kids together to put on a play.  Joel even said, "Jan's out there telling Brad and Andy (Evan and David) what to do."  It was so funny.  George and Ben didn't get to involved so Emily just gave them small parts.  Ben was the curtain.  He did a great job.  I was so proud of him.  He didn't forget any of his lines.   Here it is.  Sit back.  Relax.  And, Enjoy the show.

We had a great weekend.  Thanks everyone for making some awesome memories!