The Road To The Sun

In planning our trip to Washington for Sage's Run we decided that we would take a different route home.  We tossed around some ideas including Yellowstone National Park and decided we would do that next year when we had an extra day.  We ended up visiting Glacier National Park.  They claim to have some of the most "beautiful and dramatic natural scenery in the continent" and they are not exaggerating.  It was incredibly beautiful! 
We entered the park about 4pm and really had no idea what to expect.  They hand you maps and pamphlets on protecting yourself against bear attacks.  I immediately read all about bear---just in case.    We hadn't driven very far when we pulled over and started hiking on a trail. When we reached the bottom there was a wooden bridge that crossed over a river with beautiful white water rapids.  The sound was incredible!

I thought our little "hike" was going to do me in...climbing back out ...well let me just say, "Can You Feel The Burn!" 

For those of you that don't know it I am petrified, terrified, scared to death of heights!  We got back into our cars and continued on.  We made some more stops to admire the beauty and walk around and we got back in and continued to climb. 

We saw all kinds of animals just calmly grazing.

I was so scared taking pictures of the kids.  At this point the roads were barely wide enough for two cars.  We followed John and Amanda's SUV and I swear their running boards barely cleared the TINY rock made guard rail.  Crystal and I both were "White Knuckling" the entire trip.  I'm serious when I tell you that I prayed we would not fly off the edge.  Nobody would be able to rescue you.  I think you would just become bear or mountain lion meat!

So with that said we wanted photos because it was incredibly beautiful.  Crystal got to scared and went back into the van yelling, "MOM I can't believe you are out there!"  I made the kids sit down on the ground and we held their legs----YES IT WAS THAT SCARY!  Notice the waterfall coming out of the mountain just above Jayden's head?  Well I remember thinking gosh that is way up there!  Little did I know we would go "UP THERE" and even higher....thus the name, "The Road To The Sun!"

These trees were knocked down by an avalanche.  It was so very green there.

Waterfalls will come out of the mountain and fall right on top of your car!

The trees and grass were the most amazing shade of green then right in the middle of it would be random patches of snow/glacier.

The temperature when we started at the bottom of the mountain was in the low 80's.  The temperature dropped rapidly every 5 minutes until we were in the 40's!  I loved it!

Water would flow out of these triple arches under the road.

We are now above that waterfall...it was so high up...my heart starts pounding just thinking about it

The vegetation was amazing.  These huge white flowers were everywhere.

Just after I took this picture Crystal noticed a tiny trail just behind her on the other side of the street.  We hiked down below and it was so pretty!

There was a little tunnel under the road with the prettiest little streams and waterfalls.  It was dusk and all Grandma could think about was BEARS.  We were warned that dusk and dawn were very dangerous times to hike and there we were being a total tourist.  I kept telling the kids to scream and yell so we would scare off the bears.

The park encompasses over 1 million acres, with 300 lakes, more than 1,100 different species of vascular plants, 400 species of moss and hundreds of species of animals.

Those are the clouds!  We were so high up that the clouds would swirl all around us.

There were fields of wildflowers! Pinks, reds, yellows, orange, purple, blue and white flowers just covered the ground as far as the eye could see. 

Bear sighting.  The boys didn't want to get out of the truck because it was too cold.

The bear-a speck in the field. 

I thought of hubby often and I hope one day we can go back and bring him along.  He would have loved it.  I know I would go back but seriously I was so scared that they might have to drug grandma before we do.  I was reminded the entire time that Heavenly Father exists.  He created this beautiful earth for us to live on and enjoy.  Standing at the cliffs edge and taking in the rugged beauty all around is very humbling.  I can't imagine how beautiful everything will be when the earth is renewed and receives it's paradisaical glory because this place already seems like paradise.

Kaitlen Update

Thanks for all of the prayers on Kaitlens behalf!  We took her to Phoenix St. Luke's Hospital yesterday to be casted and the appointment went very well. 

Here is a photo of her X-Ray for those who have asked to see it.  You can see the Tibia break (top bone) starts about mid shin and twists it way down to a few inches above the ankle.  The Fibula break (back bone) starts beneath the other break and angles down toward the ankle.  They are aligned nicely but you can see how easily it could have slipped and caused further damage by protruding through flesh.

Jessica and John did such a grate job keeping her off of her leg.  Carrying her to the tubs edge, toilet, bed, and couch.  She is not a little girl any more so it is hard work.  But it, along with prayers and the Priesthood, payed off and she won't need surgery!  The bones have stayed in alignment and there is no bleeding which is good news.

Her leg went from this...

to this!

Aunt Crystal and I (Grandma) made her a bag full of arts and crafts to help keep her busy.  She is so very sad that her Baptism is postponed yet again and she will miss a week of school and possibly more.  They live up two flights of stairs and the Ortho wants her on a ground floor.  We are hoping the complex will work with them and allow them to move into the empty apartment beneath them.  We are worried about getting her to and from school as they only have one car and she is forbidden to do stairs or a school bus. 

Cast Day!

Blue!

We were told that Kaitlen has a long road ahead of her.  She will be re-casted again next week.  They told us to expect 4-6 casts to mid thigh followed by 4 or more casts to the knee and then a half cast with a boot.  She could be casted into early next year! 

This has been so very painful for her.  To put it in her words, "This has been the worst 2 days of my life!"  The cast has helped reduce the pain---thank goodness. Grandma hates seeing her babies in so much pain and everytime I got around her I just cried.  She has really suffered the last few days and as a mom you just want to take it away from them.

Thank you again for your prayers.

Caldwell's Family Photo's and Prayers for Kaitlen

Teele went to what Crystal refer's to as the "Holy Grail" of all rodeo's this past week.  Spending four, highly anticipated, days in Williams, Arizona.  I felt bad for him when he came home still cold, wet and shivering from all of the rain they had. Many of the cowboys, who paid good money in entry fees, opted to not take their run and just turn their cattle out for a big fat "No Time"!  This beat risking injury to the horse or themself in the very muddy arena.  He did place first in the go around in the calcutta roping.  That made things much better knowing he won the cost of the last four days back.

We received some much needed rain too!  We had a good wind storm in adition to the rain losing a section of roof off of the announcer stand at the arena.  Charlee and Royal came home to find the tree in their front yard had blown over.  With the rain comes the mosquitoes!  Jessica asked if I could take picture of the four kids Saturday evening.  The place we wanted to go was flooded so we chose another less muddy place and first thing Kaitlen fall's into a huge water puddle soaking her pants from the knee down.  That's okay we just won't photograph below the knee on her left leg! Between the heat, humidity, mud, water and swarming mosquitoes we very nearly gave up.  Despite everything I think they turned out pretty cute!

Little Miss Payten McKenzie

This one makes me laugh.  It shows her funny personality.

Haven Grace

Kaitlen Elizabeth

Caden James

LOVE LOVE LOVE his chunky cheeks!

And those beautiful blue eyes!

We almost postponed taking pictures and I am glad we didn't.  Sunday afternoon Jessica called to see if they could come over to look at the pictures.  Just as they were leaving they heard screams from the girls bedroom.  Kaitlen had knocked over some papers she had been drawing on then slipped and fell on one of them. In case your wondering they have shiny wooden floors and a piece of paper can be very slippery.  Jessica called and said, "Mom it's bad!  Can you watch the kids?  I think Kaitlen broke her leg!" 

I took this picture of her leg when they dropped the kids off.

One look and I knew it was broken!

X-rays revealed that Kaitlen had twisted the bones and broken both the tibia and fibula clean through.  They were afraid she would need emergency surgery but after determining that she was not bleeding internaly  they decided against surgery until she see's the Orthopedic Pediatric Surgeon on Tuesday.  Poor girl she is one sad young lady. She will miss the second week of school, no more swimming and they said no baptism.  She was so excited to be baptized and now it is cancelled.  My heart broke for her.

So if  your counting, yes she has broken a lot of bones!  Her arms three times, her clavicle/collar bone and now her leg.  They are going to run a bone density test in addition to other tests to see if she has brittle bone disease or something else.  So here I am again asking for more prayers!  In fact just don't stop praying for us apparently we need all we can get.