March 2024!
Baptisms at the South Jordan Temple on March 1st!
The virgin voyage of my new snowshoes--a trek up to Willow Lake with Kimberly and Shannon.
Snowshoeing on Mountain Monday up Big Cottonwood Canyon.
Willow Lake!
For family home evening one night we made surprise snow lanterns for some neighbors, a nordic tradition.
The kids made a free treat stand out of our house for the neighborhood kids!
For Christmas, Casey gifted me a new dining room table which was finally finished and delivered. Art at Reclaimed Grain was the man that made it possible.
Casey, Sophie, Karen and Maya at Sun Valley.
Sophie Gene.
Casey and Sophie riding the lifts at Sun Valley.
Sophie, taking a black diamond.
Sophie and Maya, soaking up the winter sun in Idaho.
Sophie and Casey on a traverse.
While Casey and Sophie were in Idaho, I took the rest of the kids to Salt Lake 's Chinatown for dinner and a cultural experience. They all got to pick out some items at the Chinese grocery store.
Mountain Monday--sledding up Porter Fork with the adventure friends and Sheleen's kids (who were out of school that day).
We made 14 pies--a couple to eat and most to give away to neighbors and friends on Pi Day, March 14th.
The obligatory Pi run! We didn't have too much time so we all ran up and down the street 3.14 times together as a family in the evening.
It was homemade sushi (because of its circular nature) for our Pi Day dinner.
Sophie and her spectacular sushi!
Zeke and his besties--Lucas, Hank and Dom--over at Hank's house for his birthday party.
The 15th marked the infamous Ides of March and the Early Bird Invitational at Lone Peak High School--the first track meet of the season (and Hallee's first ever season of track). This is a big meet with the speedy kids from all divisions in Utah. Hallee ran the 800 meter race for the first time, came in 8th and scored points for her team with a time of 2:22.79. Sophie came in 29th with a swift time of 2:30.70. In the 1600 meter race, Sophie placed 36th with a time of 5:35.98 and Hallee took 11th with a time of 5:21.33. These girls just keep getting faster. They are so committed and it's cool to watch them progress.
Lindy and Sean, the super fans!
Hallee, chasing down some Lone Peak girls.
Sophie and Sarah, powering through the pack.
Sophie K., Sarah, Sophie and Hallee at the meet.
Sarah, Sophie, Coach Porter and Hallee at the meet.
It's always fun to find a motorcycle with one of these guys on the back.
On the 16th, Grandma Sullivan hosted the annual Sullivan family St. Patrick's Day party. It included a seriously competitive round of musical chairs.
Lindy, pinning Lucas down.
Lindy's sisters braided her hair and produced this!
On March 22nd, Sophie and Hallee travelled to Saint George with the track team for the Pineview Invitational and the rest of us escaped to the west desert for a short camping trip to Aragonite.
Sean and Lindy in the west desert
Cute Lindy.
Jared Weber lent us his giant White Duck tent, complete with an integrated wood burning stove to heat it up. It was cozy.
We started following some trails above our camp and found the old Aragonite mine site. Actually, it was Sean that spotted the open shaft and we called Casey and the other kids to come join us since they were hiking on the other side of the mountain.
Sean, posing with some old mining equipment.
Sean and I explored the mine first with Bear and then went further into it when Casey and the older kids got there.
Zeke was especially excited and said: "Mom, I've always wanted to go inside of a mine. When I was in kindergarten I'd draw detailed pictures of underground passageways and dream about it."
Sean inside the Aragonite mine shaft.
Bear, cruising down the old mining trail.
On our return hike back to camp we blazed our own trail, Casey-style, ascending a steep section covered with loose rocks. Lindy knocked a large rock loose and I didn't see it until it was literally flying through the air right in front of me. I instinctively lifted my leg as it barreled past beneath me, striking me just under the left knee as it flew by, cutting open my leg and giving me a blunt force wound that took forever to heal and left a big scar.
We marveled at the gorgeous colors of aragonite.
Lindy with her aragonite "knife." A true weapon.
Mom, posing with a big piece of aragonite in the west desert.
It's the 25th of March--"Mountain Monday"--and even though I didn't go on an adventure this day with my friends, I wore my shirt. It turned out to be quite the Mountain Monday after all.
I took the younger kids (and our neighbor, Lina) on an adventure to Seaquest, the aquarium in Ogden.
The kids loved playing on this playground in the mall, just outside the aquarium, jumping from place to place, trying not to touch the floor.
Zeke getting a fish manicure.
The kids loved feeding the fish, especially the koi that would whip up into wild feeding frenzies when they dropped the food in.
Lina, Lindy and Sean at Seaquest.
Later that day, Casey took Zeke to his soccer practice over at the "pagoda church" on 4500 South and then headed out for a run in that neighborhood. Turning a corner he started to feel tingly, like a breeze pushed past his face. As he ran up the street he started stumbling, thinking that he needed to slow down and get more oxygen, he kept standing up only to fall again. Luckily someone saw him, ran down to where he was at, told him to stay on the ground and called an ambulance. It turned out he had a spontaneous tear in his right carotid artery, it was starting to clot and block the flow to the left side of his brain. He was essentially having a stroke.
I have a full record of the events in my journal, but we spent the next 3 days in the ICU at St. Mark's Hospital. That first night--Mountain Monday--I watched him lose the ability to move or feel anything on his left side. Casey received 2 priesthood blessings from his dad, Doug, and a series of certain miracles unfolded. Countless people were praying for his recovery. The interventional radiologist--Dr. Danielle Sorte--told me that she's never seen anything like it on all of her years of practice. When she went in to survey the artery and possibly perform a repair and place a stint there was no sign of damage or blockage in a place where the clot in the imaging had started in his chest and snaked up into his brain. Casey literally walked out of the ICU after 3 days and is fine. The small strokes visible on his MRI are in "quiet areas" of his brain and you wouldn't know anything had happened to look at him.
You don't normally see stroke patients on their feet this quickly.
Hallee turned 16 on March 27th. Casey and I were still at the hospital so I had Sophie wrap up some presents and coordinate the creation of some birthday banners and our friend, Charity Buist, sourced orange chicken and yakisoba from Costco (Hallee's requested birthday meal) and brought that over. Sophie and Hallee also ran in the Granite Invitational earlier that afternoon.
Hallee's 16th birthday!
Hallee's birthday banners.
Hallee, running on her 16th birthday. She won the 800 meter race (2:27.09). Sophie raced to an impressive 4th place finish (2:34.33). It was a cold day and a rough one with a dad in the ICU. They both felt like they weren't running well that day.
Casey, just out of the ICU and glad to be in his very own quiet room.
On March 29th (4 days after Casey collapsed on his run) we went to see Kai perform in Ballet West's production of Beauty and the Beast at the Capital Theater.
Kai was "the Beast" and did a masterful job.
The Sullivan kids at our annual backyard Easter egg hunt.
March 31st marked Easter Sunday. It was a poignant celebration as we'd all just witnessed some burst a 3 days prison of his own in the ICU. God is good.
The cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Sullivan's house join Easter Sunday.
We got to go see some new baby lambs in South Jordan that day too.
Our Easter miracle!
Casey got a chance to catch up with some old roommates from his days at Rick's College.
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