Elijah's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Elijah's 2nd birthday on June 9. As with Carson, it's amazing how fast the time goes by and how quickly he grows and changes. Elijah never really turned into an Eli as we suspected he might. Rather, we dropped the E and turned him into Lijah. Like his older brother, he's also full or energy and very independent. We're pretty sure he's even more feisty and independent than Carson. He wants to figure things out and do things on his own. In the grocery store, he refuses to ride in the cart or be carried, so it always takes a little more time since he wants to walk around and check things out. He also has a loving, caring personality. He often give hugs to Carson when Carson gets hurt or is mad about something. The two are good friends and love playing together, but there are also plenty of fights, with head butting, hitting, etc.

For Elijah's birthday, we got up and ate breakfast then opened some of his presents and played with them. After a morning nap, Elijah (with Carson's assistance) decided that we would go to lunch at McDonald's. We ate lunch then we went to East Canyon reservoir up in the Wasatch mountains. We found a nice little quiet spot on the beach and then for the next couple of hours hung out while the boys threw rocks into the water. Of course it was only a matter of time before they began to wander into the water, so they weren't wearing much on the drive home. That night, we had a nice party for Elijah with family and friends. He had a fun time opening more gifts and playing in the backyard with his cousins. Being the big Cars fan that he is, the party was almost a repeat of Carson's Cars birthday party in April. Here are some photos from the day.

Elijah showing off the Lightning McQueen pillows that Christina made...


Digging into presents...


The boys at East Canyon...


Elijah catches a gnarly gust of wind...


Walking along a little trail. The boys had fun gathering sticks...


Grandma Diana showing Elijah how to work his new glow worm...


Christina and Elijah prepare to blow out the candles from Christina's fancy homemade ice cream cake. Time for a haircut...

An Eventful Month

Life is beginning to get back to normal this week in the Jones’ home. The boys continue to grow and develop at such a fast pace. If you shut your eyes for too long you might miss something pretty substantial. (like Carson relieving himself in the gutter yesterday – he’s only four and it won’t happen again – we just hope the neighbors were all inside).

May ended up being an eventful month. And not the good kind of eventful.

It started with an incident on Mother’s Day, May 13, when my brother DJ and his family were involved in an awful auto-pedestrian(s) accident. DJ and Teresa and their two boys were in town from Portland. DJ was standing outside their rental mini-van at my parent’s house when he was hit directly by a truck that was driving by at full speed. DJ was thrown forward about 15 feet and ended up in the gutter. Their son Thomas, still inside the van, was thrown into the door frame of the van. After being lifted in two life-flight helicopters to Primary Children’s Hospital and University Hospital, it was evident how severe their injuries were. DJ’s included a severely broken right arm, broken pelvis in about every possible place, a broken tailbone, broken ribs, collapsed lung, and numerous cuts and abrasions, some so bad on his head and leg that they required staples. Thomas also had a broken arm and a severely fractured skull and eye socket, as well as bumps and scrapes. DJ went through five or six hours of surgery on his arm and pelvis. Thomas had several hours of surgery on his head. Now, more than three weeks later, both look much better and are improving, but still have recovering to do. DJ was in a rehab clinic for two weeks after leaving the hospital and Thomas spent nearly two weeks in the hospital. Teresa had an ankle injury from the accident, so that complicated matters as she tried to visit her husband in one hospital, a son in another, and still care for their other son Noah, who was uninjured in the accident. Their family has held up remarkably well through all the challenges that come along with something like this.

The next Sunday, May 20, Christina decided to create her own incident. While sitting in church, she bent over to pick up Elijah and strained her lower back so badly that she could barely even stand. (it didn’t help that Carson and I had temporarily left the building to retrieve some Pez from the car) As a family, we slowly wobbled back into the kitchen area of the church where she thought she could stretch it out a bit and relieve some of the intense pain. She was able to get down on the floor and do some stretching, but that didn’t provide much relief. Upon getting back on her feet, she wasn’t looking or feeling very good. In addition to crying from the pain, she told me that she was getting really sweaty and thought that she might faint. Within a five seconds of saying that, she started to sway a little and began to crumple. Fortunately I was right there and was able to slowly lower her down to the floor. She did faint. It really scared me to see her eyes go blank as she went out of consciousness. I determined I’d better call 911, but in the time I was frantically looked around the room for a phone, she came to. She was in very bad shape, so we gave her a blessing with the help of a couple of brethren, then went to Instacare and got her checked out. With a very bad muscle strain, she spent a good part of the next seven days in bed. She is doing much better now, more than two weeks later, though still has occasional moments of pain that creep up in her lower back. She’s rebounded fairly quickly, but will need to be careful for a while so that she doesn’t re-aggravate anything.

At the end of May, I came down with my second annoying sinus infection of the year. Although it pales in comparison to these other events, I feel like I rounded out the month nicely.

So here we are in June, hoping to have a less eventful month and get life back to normal. Though trials like this are painful and difficult, positives can also be drawn from them. You come to appreciate more the love and support of family and friends around you, and you strengthen those bonds.