True Friends

I have a few true friends in my life. Those friends that I have known since I was in Middle School and are still my friends today. Amy is one of those friends. I'm so glad that she moved to Utah a few years back and we have grown even closer. I don't know what I would do without her and her sister Fallyn, as well as my other friends Lisa and Tara. I know these ladies will always have my back and I theirs. I truly consider them my sisters.

Ghost Helper

Bryce was mad at me one day, so he begrudgingly went to do his chore of putting the silverware away. He refused to come out from under his blanket to help. I asked if there was a ghost helping me with the dishes-he thought that was funny and even though he stayed under his blanket his mood changed and he happily finished his job. 

Family Reunion

My Mom and Jeff planned a fun family reunion. Since it took place in St. George in the middle of the summer you can bet that it involved water. 

The first day we went to Quail Lake. They rented a couple of jet skis, and paddle boards, and a water trampoline. A few people also brought canoes and Tiffanie and Brandon brought their boat. Everyone had fun playing on the water for most of the day, and nobody go too sunburned.

Because of Bryce's Sensory issues he is not a huge fan of lake water or sand so he spent the first part of the day like this. 

He warmed up a bit and went out on the paddle board and to the trampoline as long as someone carried him and he didn't have to touch the water.

 All the kids had fun. There were so many options of things for them to do that it kept them busy all day.

 The older kids enjoyed the jet skis probably most of all.

 The kids even caught a couple of crawdads

 It says these jet skis can hold 3, but I'm not sure. This wasn't the best idea or maybe it was just the driver got a little bit too wild, but at least they all survived when they hit a wave and all went flying off in different directions.(nobody was seriously injured ;)

 Bryce was tuckered out and fell asleep before we made it home.

The 2nd day we met up for breakfast and then headed to Arcadia Resort. My mom made everyone these fun shirts and we managed to get a couple of fairly decent pictures before the kids were ready to jump in the water. The kids had a blast especially making a train on the water slide -they did it time after time! Afterwards we all met up for lunch.

Bryce's swim suit might be getting a little bit short-HA

besties

 The lazy river is so much fun for everyone. 

 Train of Cousins coming through. Look at all of their faces they really were having so much fun!

 I don't get many pictures with my sisters. Unfortunately my sister Sandi left before we snapped this shot. 

It was a fun filled couple of days and it was sad when it had to end. It was nice that pretty much everyone was able to be there  (except for one of Jeff's sons and his family). 

We aren't perfect, and we are a little bit crazy, but I really do love my family and I love the bond these cousins have. 

Gummy Vs Real Food Challenge

Bryce has a sensory processing disorder. It affects his eating and his sense of touch. He also has what is referred to as food aversion. He has been in eating therapy on and off for about 2 years now. We try really hard to find ways that he will want to try and eat new things or eat more of things that he sometimes will eat but usually won't. He loves to watch a channel on YouTube called Kid City and sometimes they do fun things. One of the things they did was a gummy vs real food challenge. Bryce loved it and wanted to do it. PERFECT! 

We have done it several times now. Here is how we do it. We find and buy different gummy foods and then also buy the real food version. I cut the real food into bite size pieces and the gummys if needed. Then we use a dice and take turns rolling. We play several rounds. If you roll an odd number you eat a gummy, if you roll an even number you eat the real thing. We can get him to eat a lot of food that way-we have done peaches, apples, pickles, pizza, hot dogs, soft pretzels, and lots of other fruit. Usually he will eat the fruit pretty well. When we did the pizza he took a small bite but that was better than nothing. 

I was super excited when I found some gummy hamburgers and fries. Bryce has never eaten hamburger in his life. Not on tacos or anything not even a small piece. He has never even had a hamburger from somewhere like McDonald's and he is almost 6 years old. 

We took our dice and our gummys and headed to IN and OUT Burger. I was hopeful because he had really been more willing in trying things using the gummy vs real food challenge. He ate the fries no problem, but unfortunately not the hamburger. He would take a very small bite of the bun. But he got super upset and just couldn't do the actual hamburger. He did lick it and take a microscopic nibble but that was it. We didn't push it. I guess at least he held it in his hands and hopefully in the future he will actually eat it. 

 Oh yeah they was even a cola gummy but there was no way he was trying the Coke, but that's okay I'm fine if he never likes soda-LOL. 

#BryceEE #SPD #foodaversion