kade's wreck

So we had quite a Saturday last weekend.  With a very normal day of me mowing the lawn and running and Kade working half day then going dirt bike riding.  At around 4:30 I got a call from Kade's brother, Ryan, from Kade's phone.  I thought it was Kade calling and thought he was letting me know he was on his way home.  Instead I got Ryan telling me that Kade had wrecked his dirt bike and was being put in an ambulance.  At first I wasn't sure if he was serious.  He said he was dead serious.  So I asked if he was OK.  All the information I got was that Kade was breathing and moving his arms and legs.

 I tried to calm myself down before going to the emergency room.  I found Kade's insurance information and drove to the ER.  Because it's just down the road I got there before Kade or anyone else.  I had to sit a little while by myself.  Kade's sister Jennie showed up, then his mom and dad.  Eventually Kade showed up in the ambulance.  I could see the paramedics rolling him in.  It was really hard to see him strapped down with a neck brace.  They let me go in after a little while.  It was even harder to see him up close and in pain.  He kept saying sorry to me and when the nurses asked how he was doing he would just say he was tired and his back hurt.  They had him on some drugs for the pain that was making him really tired and out of it.  They scanned his chest then sent him to get a CT scan to see what was wrong with his back.  I went out to tell his family how he was doing.

While we were waiting Ryan told us what happened.  They had went riding and saw that the track was open.  The track was completely different so they took a slow lap around to get used to it.  When Ryan was riding his third lap he looked back and didn't see or hear Kade.  He rode around and found Kade sprawled out far away from his bike.  He didn't see what had happened.  He said he was unconscious but moaning and he couldn't wake him so he rode around to the car to get his phone to call 911.  When he went back to Kade he was kind of waking up but still moaning.  When he got back from the CT his dad and Ryan went in to give him a blessing.

When the results for the CT scan came back the doctor told us that he had cracked 2 of his vertebrae but it wasn't that serious and he could go home.  The doctor said Kade was really lucky and that his neck brace really did its job.  It was pretty hard for Kade to make it to the car and then to his bed, but once he got there he fell right to sleep and slept all night.  Before we left the ER they gave us a bottle of pain drugs and some for nausea.  He took some pain killers before falling asleep and in the morning, but it was making him feel crappy so he started taking ibuprofen instead.  He was pretty loopy the first few days from the concussion and his back was pretty sore.  But he's getting better everyday.  He started going to the farm in less than a week and was working in a week.  Now its been 3 weeks and he is doing really good.  He still can't remember what happened.  It's still a mystery.  His back gets sore after a day of work.  I'm so grateful that he is doing so good.  It's a miracle how well he is doing after such a hard crash.  He was definitely being watched over.

these are old pictures of Kade riding.. 

las vegas!

Kade and I were able to go down to Las Vegas for the weekend.  We visited some friends in Pahrump and went with them to Vegas to go to the Supercross dirt bike race at Sam Boyd Stadium.  We had bought the tickets a few months before and we were both looking forward to it.  Kade loves to ride dirt bikes and he always records the supercross and motocross races on our dvr.  Well, I have been watching them with him and now we both are into it.

waiting for the race to start...

We went to the pit party before the race.  We showed up at the absolute perfect time, all the top riders were out signing autographs.  You had to have a ticket to get an autograph and to talk to them, but we could get really close and take pictures!  I was totally star struck! It was pretty funny.  I kept telling Kade "ooo its so and so... take a picture!"

At first we couldn't find Ryan Villopoto (the winner) but he came out right when we were walking by his tent. He did an interview, signed a few autographs, then walked straight out into the crowd to get to another tent.  The crowd of people that was around watching the interview completely followed him all the way to the other tent (including us!).  It was nuts.

James Stewart - he was the first one we saw - it was nuts to see him up close!

Ryan Dungey - he was last year's champion

Trey Canard

Kevin Windham - my second favorite!

Ryan Villopoto - this year's champion - my favorite!

Villopoto's bike

the track

The stadium was completely packed. The event had sold out.  We had a great seat and an awesome view, until all the people showed up.  We had smokers all around us and drunk girls spilling beer on us.  It wouldn't have been so bad if Kade hadn't gotten sick.  We had been out in the sun all day long and I think he got heat exhaustion. He was pretty miserable the whole time.  It was sad because of how much he had been looking forward to he race and he could barely watch it.  Kade and I left right before the end to escape the crowd.  We watched the fireworks from the parking lot.  They were so loud and close that it set off all the car alarms. It was pretty cool though.
After leaving the 95 degree weather in Las Vegas, we came home to snow.. ridiculous...

happy mother's day!

I know Mother's Day was yesterday but I was on the road.  That's why I'm a day late.  I just wanted to wish all the mothers out there a Happy Mother's Day! Including my wonderful mom!
I'm so grateful for all that you do for me.  I'm so glad I have grown up to realize just how great you are.  You're my best friend and I miss you! Love you Mom :)

ps  I'm planning on calling soon, promise! :)

my lovely new camera

For Christmas I got a new camera from Kade (when I say Kade I mean I picked it out, ordered it, then wrapped it and wrote his name on it..:) I started by experimenting on the couch, then bought The Digital Photographer Book, by Scott Kelby (I definitely recommend!) It was just what I needed.  I took these pictures from outside our back door.  Look how beautiful Winnemucca can be!

One evening Kade needed to go and water our cows out at Adams Peak Ranch.  I wanted to go with him because evening is a perfect time for photography!  The sunset was perfect, and the cows provided a great subject.  

On the way to the farm we saw a rainbow! I set a long exposure to get the surrounding area blurred.  

Before the sun really started to set.  The sky was still blue.

The cows came running when they saw us!

I love the white headed cow that is staring at us in the center of this picture

I think this is my favorite from the group, I love how the water is reflecting the sky.

I'm loving on this picture of Kade and Roxy standing side by side. If only he was wearing a cowboy hat.. it would have been perfect!

I thought the red bucket would add interest to the picture

 I thought I got some pretty good shots for an amateur! I'm going to keep working at it.  I know of some great places to photograph around here that I have to try out.  

baby!

In March I went to visit my two friends in Rexburg, Natalie and Krista.  Natalie is about ready to pop out her very first baby, a little boy.  And Krista has a one year old that I haven't even met before!  She was absolutely adorable, she's like a little Krista! :) I drove up to all by myself - now remember Rexburg is like 7 hours away from Winnemucca so it was quite a drive all by myself.  It wasn't too bad, no weather or traffic.  I got to Krista's apartment in time for a St. Patrick's Day party.  Krista always makes cute decorations and she even dyed the water green! She's so great :)

I stayed at Natalie's apartment in her adorable little baby room.  She had it decorated so cute! 

Saturday was Natalie's baby shower.  Again, Krista put on a great party! All her cute decorations and food was great.  A lot of girls showed up and Natalie got lots of great presents.  The party was perfect!  

After the party I was able to hang out with Natalie and Krista.  It was so great to see them again, it had been way too long.  We always have so much fun when we are together.  Too bad they don't live closer.  Maybe their husbands can find jobs close to Winnemucca!  :)

feliz navidad!

Don't you just love the holiday season? Everything is snowy and bright and everyone is happy.  Especially me!  Kade and I took trip to West Virginia for the Christmas and we got to stay more than a week.  I love seeing my family every year even when 22 people are staying in one house.  I think that is what makes it so fun.  Minus the cold showers.. :)
We were able to spend Dec 20-29 at the Blood house, playing lots of games, shopping, seeing Stephen and Claudia's house, and lots more. We also played a lot of Wii, went go carting, made lots of food, and saw an old friend. It was very difficult to make dinner for 22 people, especially clam chowder. We needed a huge tub for all the soup they ate!

Christmas morning was pretty crazy with all the kids and presents.  But it was so much fun watching them open presents.  Jonny and Megan had us for Christmas exchange.  They gave us some much needed games.  We didn't have any!  Kade and I had James and he asked us for some throwing knives and a tomahawk.  I think he asked that of everyone because all his gifts had to do with knives :)  It was pretty funny. 
I gave Kade motorcycle boots and new scriptures and he picked out some pajama pants in WV.  Kade got me a new camera and let me do some after Christmas sale shopping which was great! 
It was so great to see everyone.  I don't realize how much I miss them all until I spend time with them.  I wish I could live closer but I have to admit it felt like coming home driving into Winnemucca- probably because of our flight home disaster! 
We were unfortunate enough to end up flying on a bad day for flying to Reno.  On our flight from Salt Lake to Reno our plane had to fly around Reno for 30 minutes waiting for the visibility to go up.  When the plane was running low on fuel we flew to Sacramento instead.  As the airline was trying to figure out what to do with us we sat in the airplane for 3 hours eating peanuts.  They finally decided we were flying back to Salt Lake.  When we got to Salt Lake we quickly realized through all the angry people on our flight who were trying to get flights that we weren't getting to Reno for a few days.  When Kade got on the phone to get us a flight we were blessed to get one the very next morning!  We are pretty sure we got a flight when few others were because Dad Blood had booked the flights and he is a special Gold member.  We were pretty beat after that flight, but I would do it all over again to spend time with my family! :)



This is what the guys did pretty much the whole time



Jocelyn and Megan opening presents

Seth- I love this face- he was very excited about opening presents

Kade and I got Mom and Dad new temple bags - Their old flowered ones were very sad



The amazing cake Megan made for little Rebekah (the Christmas baby)- she loves buses



Megan made the cake so realistic that Rebekah thought it was a toy and grabbed it! She wasnt very happy when it crumbled in her hands :)

The cake after being grabbed

We were back in Winnemucca for New Years Eve.  We ended up reorganizing our house and watching a movie at Kade's parents.  When the movie was over we looked at the clock and realized it was 12:01!  Oh well.. I think this year will be better than last without student teaching :) I'm looking forward to what it will bring !!

one crazy month

November has been such a busy month!  We have seriously been traveling every week.  The first week we went to St. George for Kade's grandma's funeral.  It was sad to see her go, she was so great.  She was always so kind, funny, and happy.  But it was also good to see some of Kade's relatives I never have met before. Here's a picture with all the grandkids.

The next weekend Kade competed in his first desert dirt bike race.  It was in Lynndyl, UT by Delta.  They call it the Cow Dung Race.  Very nice name.  Kade raced with his friend Dave, and brother in law James.  Dave has raced several of these before so he did the Expert class.  Kade and James were in the Intermediate class.  Because the race was 75 miles, we couldn't really watch the race.  They rode 3 laps of 25 miles and stopped in the pits for a fuel up each lap.  That was the only time we saw them when they were racing.  Except for the start up.  Well, we were supposed to be able to see them.  I got a video of what we could see.

 

 Kade got first in the 450 intermediate class!  He did incredible for his first race.  He did go down and smash his finger - you can kind of see it holding his trophy. 

We found some great photos online of the race.

Kade's the one in front

Again the one in front

 

still in front

Now this week it got a little crazy.  We got back from Utah Sunday night.  On Monday we packed our bags again for our trip to Omaha, Nebraska.  We got invited by the Lindsay pivot company to tour their plant and see how everything was made (and so we would buy pivots from them).  It was an all expense paid trip from Tuesday to Thursday.  We stayed in the Embassy Suites right next to Old Market in downtown Omaha.  The Old Market was a really cool place.  It had all the original buildings from the late 1800s and the original brick streets.  I wish I would have gotten some pictures but I forgot to get the camera out.  Touring the plant was actually really interesting.  It was cool to see how they made these huge pivots from sheets of metal.
And we are still not done traveling for the month, we are heading out this week to Utah for Thanksgiving!