Farwell to Summer

Hey, It's me, Devin. Summer is official over and my nose is back in the books all day, again. I decided I wanted to do one last hurrah for summer. So, My Cousin Shane and I climbed Mt. Nebo. It's the tallest mountian on the wasatch front, standing at 11,928 ft. The hike was short (5 miles one-way), but steep. The picture above is the second to last ascent and the one below is the final ascent. During the final ascent, the trail disappeared and we had to scramble up boulders.
We did it! Check out the beautiful view. There was a cool hiker's log at the top that everybody wrote in. The best entry went something like this: "I rode a cattle bare back all the way to the top. Then I chucked it off the ridge and ate beef jerky."

Joslyn went the huge '912 Project' rally in South Jordan. It was part of large rallies around the nation. In D.C., they had almost 80,000 gathered. The rally largely focused on unifying together to remove the corruption from the government. If you want a real report on it, you'll have to talk to Joslyn. She's become quite politically active lately.

Motley Summer

We've been really bad at blogging the past few months and here is a motley of pictures giving a brief summary of the past couple of months. We're working hard and playing hard.
We moved to South Provo to try to escape the mainstream BYU Provo. We love our new neighborhood and our new place is growing on us. We've spent a lot of time fixing up the interior and we've had a lot of yard work to do. Devin has turned our yard from an "F" to at least a C+. Here he is killing the hornets. He was only stung once.

Here we are playing around in little Bryce Canyon

Here is our dreamy 1 year anniversary (above) We had family reunions all week and were so happy to be home after being sandy, sunburned and around huge crowds.

Bear Lake exploration on the ATV's

Devin got 2nd place in the Long jump contest at the Rappleye Family Reunion. These guys were jumping at least 25 feet (wink wink). It was really impressive to be honest.

4th of July balloon festival in Provo. I was such a little kid here because I've never been to one and it was so awesome to see them take off like that.

Lake Powell is still the dream trip of each summer... Ever since I was little it's been the hot spot in the Airhart Fam
Battle of the Sexes and i guess the Beck's team wins cause she always had the biggest hair.

Rappleye Family bike ride up the Provo Canyon

We've been camping several times this summer at several different places. However, we only participated in the Olympic games one time... as demonstrated on the movies.

Guess who's back?

It's been a long time since I participated in the blogging world, So here's a little catch up:

I went from looking like something out of a horror movie to....something in a pumpkin patch- something interesting to show kids, and everyone's ok to eat lunch afterwards. I wore the boot cast for 9 weeks. I compare it to getting an extremely drastic hair cut- every time you look in the mirror or run your fingers through your hair, it surprised you and you freak out a little. But after a while you get used to it. That's how the boot and crutches were to me and going up and down stairs with one hover craft foot and two extra extremities on either side of me were pretty normal (except the sleeping part! Who has ever slept with ONE snow boot on??? I would recomend sleeping in glue over that).

At the end of April I was slowly taken off crutches and I got a taste of what I'd been missing out on. Last week I went to the physical therapist walking in without my boot on (my appt was at 7 am and I knew I'd be strapping myself into the boot for 3 minutes so I could take it off for 1 1/2 hours). My physical therapist's jaw dropped and he was pretty impressed that I was healing so quickly. He talked to my Doc and they let me out of the boot 3 1/2 weeks early!! I still have a slight limp, but I'm hoping to be water skiing at Powell on June 22!

At the end of the day I have Elephantitis ankle and I have to coax the blood out of my foot. How the heck do you teach your body to circulate blood better???

I was so blessed to have so many people step up and take care of me. Thank you to all of you that have prayed for me, called me when I was bored out of my mind, and/or served me in any way. I couldn't have done it on my own!! Here are just a couple of acts of service caught on camera:

Every night Devin stocked my night stand with my pills, a snack to take my pills with, a drink, a flash light, and a charged phone

Shortly after surgery, I was staying at my mom's house and I made a valiant effort to take a bath. I was so exhausted afterwards, I curled up on the couch and tried to get warm under blankets. I was so tired and so cold and so miserable. The Beck saw me, left for a second, and next thing I knew she was blow drying my hair.

During the March cold spells my toes were always little popsicles and there was no sock fat enough to fit over my cast... let's be honest- my cast was so big because of my super fat foot. I woke up one time and had this sweet beanie duct taped to my foot keeping my foot warm like chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

My toe nails were pretty ragged and chipped. Devin volunteered to do his first attempt at painting toe nails. When he was painting them, his tonge was out to the side like a true 5 year old artist. When he finished he was so frustrated saying, "I'm no good at being a girl! I painted your whole foot! I even painted your bandage! Let me get something to clean this up." I had him leave it because it was so fantastic and reminded me to be grateful for what people are doing to sacrifice for me.

While I was down and out, my siblings Jessica and Jordan and I took a road trip to visit our Grandparents in Boise, Idaho. When you have to be resting anyway, why not wake up in a different state? We were spoiled rotten while we stayed in G and G Airhart's home. I guess that's what grandparents do best! We did a little family history and interviewed Grandpa Ben all about childhood, adult life, and later years. Apparently we learned things our dad didn't even know.

You know you're in an incredible place when you happen to come across a sign like this!

While we were there we played a card game called Bonanza for 4 intense hours!! I've never known anyone outside of the Airharts that has even heard of this game. For all I know, my grandpa made it up!

We took a little detour to sight see and almost got blown away at the temple grounds!

Here are some things I've done while I've been disabled (speaking of which, I definitely got a parking pass to allow me to park in all those empty handicapped stalls at the front of every parking lot- Being broken has a perk here and there).

On a picnic with just my husband, my boot, and my scooter. People rubbernecked pretty good when I'd roll by on that- I tried to think I was like a celebrity and not a freak show.

My little Bro Jamey came home from his mission. This picture makes it look like a regular home coming right? The fam is down at the bottom of the stairs cheering as their elder comes down the escalator. In actuality this was round 2 of him coming down the escalator and us actually being there. What were we doing instead?

We were in a cramped car, being smothered by balloons, breathing in second hand smoke from the car next to us, waiting in the parking lot looking at the words "DELAYED" on Jamey's flight plans. We called Delta and they said his plane would land 30 minutes later than when it really did. So Jamey gets to the bottom of the escalator and Grandma Ber is there all by herself. The whole time Jamey is looking around corners and saying, "I know they're here somewhere- they're playing tricks on me. They're going to jump out any time now." Oh boy... Jamey's a good sport and gave us a second chance.

And here we are the Elder Airhart gifts!

Here's the Frampton Family Egg roll! I have never heard of more trash talking and hype over hard boiled eggs! I played my cousin Austin the first round. He gave me the stink eye across the table and dirty looks I thought could only come from the high school drama queen. Austin ended up taking the trophy home... needless to say he got me out in the first round.

My sister graduated from the U of U in social work. Congrats Jess! My dad took about 6 of these photos- always someone taking a nap. Apparently Airharts have a really hard time keeping their eyes open in pictures, and right before we're about to blink, we fight the blink as long as possible by breaching maximum stretch (as demonstrated by Jessica).

Hardware store

I went into surgery at Timpanogos Hospital on Thursday afternoon. I've been waiting till I stopped feeling super loopy, nautious and stoned to write this, but it hasn't happened yet, so bear with me as I suck it up and publish this business.

Grandma Ber and Grandpa Fudd dropped off this pot of magic potion for me pre-surgery. It consisted of apricots, banana, strawberry and... uh and something else but can't remember right now.


The first nurse I had had such enormous hair and such crappy jokes I couldn't help but ask the Beck to sneak a photo of her. She pulled up with a wheel chair and said, "I know, one size fits two."

This was right after I got wheeled out of surgery. I still hadn't fully come out of it and I couldn't open my eyes or comprehend much of anything.I'm wrapped up like this for a few days. It started stinking so bad. The surgeon said I should come see him in two weeks to have my stitches removed, but it was smelling so gross that my mom unwrapped it to see it it was infected or dead. Based on the smell, we almost expected gangrene. When she had undone the first layer, out dropped three saturated absorbent pads that looked like those meat pads the grocery stores put on the styrofoam trays under the roasts and chops. They smelled like rotten meat, which of course it was! We unwrapped it the rest of the way and washed the ace bandages in some strong anti-stink detergent, then re-wrapped the whole thing with a much sweeter smelling result. Sick and Gross!!


Cheers for a diet of nothing except drugs and water! I hope some time i have an apetite again.
I couldn't keep my eyes opener than one second, so my friends Steph and Lynny kept my eyes open for me. True friends.

My poor husband slept on this little rent a cot bed that had the crinkley "just in case you wet the bed" finish on it. I had several machines hooked up to me all night that beeped spontaneously. At first the heart monitor was set at 50 beats per minute, but I kept setting it off cause until a couple weeks ago I loved to run and apparently that makes your heart beat really low. They had to reset the machine because it was so annoying to everyone.
Here is my new hardware store. I'm not going to go through all the different x-rays, but I was told I have 1 rod, 2 plates, and 13 screws. I think my running days may be over but we'll have to wait and see.
So my recovery: I need to be completely off of it- elevated and iced. 8 weeks till I can put any pressure on it and apporximately 12 weeks till I can walk. My cousin Dani and my neighbor Julie Jensen both said take one day at a time or you'll go crazy thinking about all that you can't do. It really does take some practice thinking that way.

The nurse in the ER was trying to gently take my sock off of my foot. Each small movement felt like a jack hammer on my bones. She had such a sweet voice and kept saying, "I'm sorry! This will just take a second." After what felt like a year long "second" I just said, "Oh for the love! Spare me a nappy sock and cut it off!!"

Sorry about the blury x-rays but you get the picture

Along with my sock being cut off, my pants were also sliced off of me. As you can see they are very classy old navy pants that will be greatly missed by both me and Devin. These were my delicious dirtball pants and Devin's redneck costume pants.

Man Down!

Last Saturday I had an exciting experience. Devin was away with his other wife (school) and I had to drop off the Karate Kid movie in to my work (House of Hope substance abuse treatment facility) because I promised the clients I would take it to them. It was a beautiful day, so I set out via long board. There were plenty of hills I've been eyeing for a while by work and I had the opportunity to take them on. They were as fantastic as I hoped. When I was done I turned up the hill about 100 yards away from my destination. I was going fairly fast, but I wanted to keep my speed so I crouched down to be more aerodynamic. My front foot was facing forward and my back one was sideways on my board (if you long board you know what I'm talking about). From here the details are a little hazy, but I hit a small rock and my back foot slipped off. I didn't even fall, but as I popped up from that crouching position I looked at my right foot and it was turned too far . I knew immediately that the clients in my work were not getting Karate Kid... and that I was in trouble.
Somehow I made it to a patch of grass on the side of the road and immediately my phone rang. It was Devin telling me he was done with homework. I told him the situation and he hustled right on over there. Suddenly there was a man and his son standing around me, some lady named Sunny holding my leg, and this nasty dog sniffing my face. I was shivering and moaning uncontrollably and swatting the dog. These kind people are asking me all sorts of questions to keep me from going crazy for what seemed like several hours, until my knight in shining armor pulled up and whisked me away to the ER.
All my experiences at the ER have been- waiting, Waiting, WAITING, and then you go into another room and start the process over (repeat at least 4 times) and the nurses keep asking at each station "on a scale of 1-10 one being no pain at all and ten being the worst pain, where would you say you are?"
I was pleasantly surprised, (pleasantly used very loosely when your foot is only connected by skin and tendons) that Devin pulled up and said I'll be right back, got a wheel chair and 2 guys (one guy I was delighted to see had a mullet) that hoisted me from the backseat of the car into the wheelchair. I didn't even have to sit in the waiting room! I got bumped right ahead where I was asked ONE TIME where my pain level was (I said 7- because I think the higher numbers are reserved for broken femurs, gall stones and labor).
I was then wheeled in a bed back to Trauma B, by a nurse that kept talking to another nurse about how she sometimes hits the foot of patients on door frames. I looked up at her in horror and said, "Oh please don't." And that's when I first began to realize... To nurses and technitions in the ER, patients are like a circus act where they can't hear what the nurses are saying to each other. Along the way to Trauma B and even once I got in my room the nurses came from different corners and holes to diagnose my condition before the x-rays were done and before the Dr. looked at it. If I wasn't in so much pain I would've laughed pretty hard at this sick form of entertainment.

As you can see, this is before it was set back right. If you can't read the pic, my bone is split, and that whole bone is supposed to fit neatly on top of my ankle bone, but it was way over to the left. Luckily the bone didn't break the skin, it was just pressed up against it. (writing on the pic didn't work out as well as I would've liked, so I'll decipher).
The Dr knocked me out and set my bones right (Devin said I screamed even though I was out cold) and when I woke up I was wrapped like a brown paper package all tied up with bandages. Since then, drugs and ice are a few of my favorite things! I go back to see the Dr. tomorrow (tues) and should go into surgery on Wednesday. keep me in your prayers!

Shortly after I woke up, my mom and sister showed up to save the day. They brought snacks, moral support, and jokes. They also helped Devin get me home, they did our dishes and laundry, picked up my perscription and some groceries.

I've been thinking about how blessed I am. This would've been so much harder if I was still in school or if I had a couple of kids that needed me to take care of them. Also if I didn't have Devin, I probably would still be laying in my front room lonely, hungry, dirty, and in so much pain. He has been my Angel dozens of times a day. I have such a good support system around me with my family and friends near by, and a fantastic ward.
I also have good insurance through my work and surprisingly even after a few months with Mono last fall, I still have a lot of paid sick days. I'm not really sure how that worked out, but I'm grateful it did. This past year I've become more grateful for my health than ever before! God has been so merciful to me for allowing me to be so healthy for most of my life.
It's a great time of year to break my leg! I have less of a chance of slipping on ice with my crutches, and I'll be healed by the time it's summer!
I'm almost positive no one prays to have their leg broken, but already breaking my leg has been a huge blessing in my life.

Devin's ski resort

Devin had to do a business proposal for one of his Engineering classes last semester and he did a lot of research and decided that some day he really wants to create a ski resort right here in Provo, including Provo peak (just south of the Y on the mountain). He made plans of where chair lifts will go, what source of energy the resort will use, where the cabins will be built, the estimated amount of money it would take to start things up who the target population is (Students! cheap tickets for broke kids), etc. The location is actually pretty impressive and apparently it receives a lot of good snow, but couldn't believe the reports, we had to check it out ourselves. President's day weekend we took the snow shoes up through Rock Canyon to visit the project Devin is determined to do. He has my complete support. Sign up now for discount passes!

That is Provo Peak. There are a few bowls back behind it that has great North facing slopes (great to keep snow skiable for a long time).

This is overlooking Rock Canyon