Dominic enjoying the bra models

You can’t see what he’s looking at, except it’s a Kohl’s ad. But Vickey called me on Wednesday to tell me Dominic was goo-goo over the Kohl’s circular because of the pictures of women in their bras on the back.

Here he is in his child’s swing enjoying the view. Once he’s potty trained I’m sure this scene will be repeated on the toilet.

Easter duds

Eliana and Dominic posed for a few minutes before church on Easter Sunday.

Here are the results.

Feeling content

Vickey and I have had a debate lately on what it means to live your life with a feeling of contentment.

My perspective is if I say I’m content, what’s left? No more goal-setting or striving to make things better or different.

I believe her perspective could be expressed like this: “Just be grateful for what you have.”

I’d argue for both perspectives.

Since today’s my birthday, I’ve taken occasion to look back on my life experiences. I am content in that I have all I could have wished for at this moment in my life. I’m very grateful for loving and supportive parents and in-laws, and for relationships with extended family and friends that prove equally endearing.

Still, I look forward to the future—to more birthdays, experiencing parenting through all of life’s stages, family vacations and growing old with my sweetheart.

I look forward to all that we’ll build in relationships, memories and experiences as a family.

I look forward knowing there’s no such thing as Easy Street and that our family’s well-being will always be well worth any price. (Sorry for the Wellworth pun, our current street of residence, I couldn’t resist.)

I’m grateful for lessons learned: some more difficult than others and all of them worthwhile and beneficial in making me who I am today.

I’m reminded of the lyrics to a Carrie Underwood song I like called Lessons Learned. I’ll close with them:

There's some things that I regret
Some words I wish had gone unsaid
Some starts that had some bitter endings
Been some bad times I've been through
Damage I could not undo, some things
I wish I could do all, all over again
But it don't really matter
Life gets that much harder
It makes you that much stronger
Oh, some pages turned, some bridges burned
But there were, lessons learned

And every tear that had to fall from my eyes
Everyday I wondered how I’d get through the night
Every change life has thrown me
I'm thankful for every break in my heart
I'm grateful for every scar
Some pages turned, some bridges burned
But there were lessons learned

There's mistakes that I have made
Some chances I just threw away
Some roads I never should've taken
Been some signs I didn't see
Hearts that I hurt needlessly
Some wounds that I wish I could have one more chance to mend
But it don't make no difference
The past can't be rewritten
You get the life you're given
Oh, some pages turned, some bridges burned
But there were, lessons learned

And every tear that had to fall from my eyes
Everyday I wondered how I’d get through the night
For every change life has thrown me
I'm thankful for every break in my heart
I'm grateful for every scar
Some pages turned, some bridges burned
But there were lessons learned

And all the things that break you
All the things that make you strong
You can't change the past cause it's gone
And you just gotta move on because it's all lessons learned

Every tear that had to fall from my eyes
Everyday I wondered how I’d get through the night
For every change life has thrown me
I'm thankful for every break in my heart
I'm grateful for every scar
Some pages turned, some bridges burned
But there were lessons learned

Uncle Lynn the bionic man

Tuesday, March 27 we had my Uncle Lynn (my mom’s brother) and Aunt Sarah, my cousin Lisa and her husband Don, their daughter Amanda and her daughter Sarahlynn, over for dessert and a visit. Lynn commented that he wasn’t feeling quite right and wanted to go see a specialist in Salt Lake City after they returned home to Richfield that weekend.

Then, Thursday evening we got a call from my cousin, Steve, that earlier that morning Sarah had discovered Lynn unconscious on the floor in the bedroom. Amanda ran next door to their neighbor, a highway patrolman, who helped Amanda’s husband, Ariel, attend to Lynn while the paramedics were in route. Luckily Lynn began breathing on his own once they moved his body, positioning him for emergency breathing.

The ambulance took him to the hospital where he spent several days enduring all kinds of tests. They identified clogged heart arteries and determined open heart surgery was in order. That’s when I placed a call to our church friend, Rick Martin, a skilled heart surgeon. He reviewed my Uncle Lynn’s tests and together they determined a quadruple bypass was necessary. Amazingly, Dr. Martin was able to scheduled the surgery for the next day.

The doctors were concerned that the best outcome may be they fix his heart and he suffer kidney failure, ending up on dialysis the rest of his life.

Lynn was transferred to a newer hospital for the surgery, the same hospital Dominic was born in. Lynn received a priesthood blessing from his son, Steve, and me before being prepped for surgery on Tuesday.

The blessings promised have come true and Lynn’s life has been preserved. His kidney function, down to just 25% of normal, has remained steady since the surgery. That’s a huge blessing.

There are so many working parts to this story. There are so many ways things could have gone awry, leaving the family to plan a funeral instead of open heart surgery.

Lynn could have suffered the heart attack in Richfield. It could have taken hours to discover him unconscious, then more hours transferring him to a metropolitan area like Provo or Salt Lake City. He was fortunate to be among family with plenty of people to assist when the emergency struck, and in a large city with competent physicians to tend to his needs. His surgery was fast-tracked by Dr. Martin and occurred less than 24 hours after Dr. Martin first met with him.

Can you see providence in all of this? I’m convinced my uncle’s life has been prolonged because of these seemingly quirky circumstances. I’m also convinced it’s not circumstance at all, rather the hand of the Lord at work in Lynn’s life and the lives of family members.

Lynn has had many body parts replaced since breaking his leg in a riding lawn mower accident a couple years ago. That’s why we affectionately now call Lynn, my mom’s oldest living brother, the bionic man.

Over the past week we have visited him in the intensive care unit at the hospital as often as possible. Vickey was there yesterday checking in on him. He’s still working through the effects of surgery as his recovery progresses.

Our thoughts and prayers remain with him and his family.

Easter egg hunt

Tonight the Easter Bunny paid a visit here with goodies for Eliana, Dominic and the Coglianese five (Lauren, Madison, Sarah, Jared and Mijken).

It was the end of a busy day-and-a-half for us all. In fact, very soon I’m headed to bed to catch some shuteye since I’ll bet I got an accumulative two hours of sleep last night.

Photos from the Easter egg hunt tonight . . .



Ah, the joy of chocolate (and you can tell this isn’t his first).

Mt. Charleston campout

Our friend, Mark Coglianese, arranged for our families to get back in touch with nature this weekend by camping out at McWilliams Campground at Mt. Charleston.

Mark was off for Good Friday and I took the afternoon off. Vickey and the kids spent yesterday morning getting ready for the outing while I wrapped up a week of work.

Mark and his family left a couple hours before us and secured our camp site at McWilliams. It’s a fine campground for those of you in the neighborhood. My only recommendation is to wear thermal underwear if you go there before May 1 (we were all very cold last night).


I’ll bet we experienced a 40 degree temperature spread today.
Mark’s family, his parents, his work colleague Scott and his three kids, and our clan (the four of us plus Tank) had a very enjoyable overnight campout followed by a hike up Robber’s Roost trail.

Here are all the youngins. And yes, the snow is real.

To put it in perspective, we could see our breath this morning as the sun rose over the mountains and once we were home and unpacked, we enjoyed swimming at the Coglianese’s pool. I think the temperature went from about 35 or 40 to the high 80s. It’s amazing what a little altitude will do.

After swimming the Easter Bunny paid an early visit here for both families. There was a raucous Easter egg hunt followed by pizza and a few games (toys from Easter baskets).

Right now Eliana’s in her favorite chair in the family room watching her new DVD, Charlotte’s Web, also an Easter basket gift.

Here are some photos from today's hike.




And here are Eliana and Dominic on our drive down the canyon. (That's how I felt too, but I was driving so I couldn't sleep.)