Kaitlyn Conner Bridge -- 1995 - 2014

Yesterday my kid sister, Kaitlyn, passed away due to complications from her cancer treatment. Although there is plenty to be said about the horrors of cancer and chemo respectively, I don't really feel any bitterness toward either one, and I'm not keen on spending any time thinking about them. 

Aunt Kaitlyn with our daughter Madie in 2011.

The past few days--and yesterday in particular--haven't been a roller coaster of emotions so much as the converging floodwaters of several large rivers. I felt intense sorrow watching my little sister slowing turn darker and darker as the life passed from her. I also simultaneously felt intense happiness while two of my brothers and my mum and I stood around her and laughed at her outrageous outfits as a toddler; or the time Levi blow-dried her hair so it would stand straight up--she looked like a really round-faced Einstein; or the time Dad painted the floor of our dining room a hideous shade of pink per Mum's request and right as he was finishing little Kitty ran onto the wet paint. He turned and and yelled, "No! Oh, Kaitlyn! It's wet!" So she ran down the dark-wood hallway, giggling and leaving little pink footprints. Dad refused to get rid of them until we moved from the house.

Kaitlyn with two close friends, Ashley (L.) and Lakell (R.)

Kaitlyn with Madie at Yosemite National Park.

After she beat her first diagnosis of AML. She returned to Saipan for a visit with all the friends she left behind when she left to the States for treatment. She left very abruptly, so this was a chance for closure. This was taken at the skate park where she and her friends used to hang out.

Wallynda Wally and Kaitlyn at their graduation from MHS on Saipan. She technically didn't graduate from MHS because she needed to finish via an online program from the hospital. MHS invited her to walk at their graduation when they heard she was coming back in time for it.

Kaitlyn, Eden, our cousin Moses, and Christina Carulla at Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon the summer of 2013.

That fall Kaitlyn started going to LDS Business College. At an opening activity in their ward she met Connor Bridge who quickly became a good "friend." 

Obviously he was in the Friend Zone for a very short amount of time.

They were scheduled to get married on April 25th, but on March 25th, she was diagnosed with a relapsed. They got married in the Salt Lake Temple on March 27th, and Kaitlyn was admitted to the hospital on March 28th. 

I came on April 8th, wedding gift in hand. She loved opening the few gifts they got--so many generous people donated money to her treatment fund. 

This is the last picture I ever took of my sister.

I will miss my sister every day. I'm grateful that, although the price turned out to be extravagant, I have a new brother that I hope to spend many years getting to know. 

I love you.

"a moment universal and idiosyncratic, momentous and inconsequential." (Monuments Men)

Sneaky Easter Egg Snatcher

Mike and I spent Easter apart this year because of my visit to Utah. I'm a little bummed about it, but Mike spent it with my extended family in Brooks and I'm sure he ate plenty and had fun; I spent it with Mum and my immediate family (most of us) and got to see my cousin Gabby and her dad, so that was awesome. So I guess over all we both had decent holidays. 

Salt Lake was beautiful today--sunny and warm but not stifling like it was yesterday. Although I haven't been able to visit Kaitlyn recently, it sounds like she's stable from yesterday, and that's good news. In fact, they may have even discovered a bacteria that could be prolonging her recovery, which would be better than if she doesn't have anything because then they can treat it and get her over it so she can start really recovering, so that's great news! if it's accurate.

Yesterday we had a little egg hunt for Madie and Finn in the courtyard of the apartment complex Mum lives in. Finn was so fun to watch! Madie's first egg hunt was hilarious: she was confused about why everyone was snatching up the eggs until we broke one open for her and showed her the candy inside. Then she would pick one up, open it, eat it, and put the empty egg in her basket. Try as we might, we could not convince her that she would end up with more eggs if she waited to eat them. Finn, on the other hand, got it right away. There were 60 eggs, and he landed with at least 25 of them. The eggs were filled with candy, stickers, bouncy balls, small change, and bubbles. 

Tonight, about 45 minutes after I put Finn and Madie to bed, I was sitting in the dining room talking with Levi, Jorge, and Gabby, and I turned my head to see none other than Finnegan Arthur standing in the dining room, blue drool down his shirt, and an egg in each hand. 

"Finn! What are you doing?!" He sucked the bottom of his lower lip in and widened his eyes--his I knew I was doing something wrong and I'm semi-repentant face. I changed his messy diaper (which is probably what was keeping him up in the first place), stripped his candy-coated pajamas off him, confiscated the eggs, and took him back to bed. After getting him settled down again, I came into the hallway where I found his egg bag, with four or five empty egg shells and a bottle of bubbles on the floor around it. It was the blatant kind of evidence you'd find in a Dora The Explorer episode. 

Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine

Mal and the kids flew out west a couple of weeks ago, and I got to drop them off to the airport in Portland (3 hour drive). Due to the flight time, we decided to make a day of it and go to the Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine. The idea was to get these kids good and tired for the flight to help ease Mal's travel stress while having one last family hurrah.

We walked in the door, and in the room to the right we saw a bunch of balls on the floor with at least 30 basketball hoops on the wall. For a man with a basketball obsession, Finn was in absolute heaven! The past few months he has even been saying "basa-ball", distinguishing the basketball from other types of balls.

There were a few ramps in the room as well.

Additionally, there was a face painter on hand.

There were all kinds of fun things to play on. I would say a good portion of the museum was Maine-themed with lots of outdoorsy things (bouldering wall, saw mill, camp site, lobster boat), but there were many that didn't feature anything remotely close to Maine.

Finn working the mill.

Don't mess with mama moose!

This was the split-second I could get Finn to wear the hard hat.

Madie loved the cockpit of the space shuttle. When we were there, I overheard one of the dads say to his kid "Yup, we don't have these anymore thanks to Obama." Disgruntled, are we?

Lots of things to climb on.

Madie was tuning up the car for me.

...meanwhile in the land of balls....Finn would be playing somewhere in the museum then instinctively run back to this room. Hands-down, the favorite.

Gassing up. She was making sure it was running good for me.

They even had a cool fire truck to play in!

And the garb.

They loved using the siren (modified slightly, of course) and strobes.

What a fun day.

Madie's Preschool Work, Spring 2014

They have done some fun and clever activities to learn about science.

The Way Life Should Be

I'm so excited for warmer weather. Summer and early fall are definitely the best times to be here, and we have a lot of fun camping/hiking/fishing trips that lay ahead of us. The kids are excited!

Front Row Seats

 A few weeks ago, I was washing the car and the kids were getting out of the tub. I was mostly washing off the salt, but they got a kick out of it. 

 

 

SPRING HAS SPROUTED!

Sorry things are coming up so late--I've been wicked busy getting ready to leave to Utah. Now that I'm here I have (somewhat unfortunately) more free time than expected, so I have some time to put these up!

The end of March we decided the greenhouse was clear of snow enough to start planting some cool-weather plants. 

Madie decked herself out in this outfit, but it was about 65 or so in the greenhouse. I could not convince her to take anything off until she started sweating.

Finn was waiting his turn for the spade.

She's breaking the soil up while I was filling the pot.

We were all excited to start on the garden, but Finn and Elvis are so absolutely enamored with being outside that it took them both a while to calm down enough for me to get anything done.

Here she's finally stripped down. We planted peas, poppies, delphiniums, spinach, and arugula. By the time we left, the spinach and arugula had sprouted. The day before we left, we planted a couple of different corns. I'm really excited to try these--they are heirloom breeds from New England. I've heard they are brightly colored and creamy--and that they make excellent polenta.