Jon's Family Visits

Monday I took Sterling to the animal shelter to see what kittens they had available for adoption. We saw one grey kitten, 3 months old. None of the cats there were as young as I was looking for. But this grey cat, Scout Louie, was playful. He wanted to play with us. And his face begged for us to free him from his cage. Sterling , surprisingly, thought he was cute (looks and personality). He said that wouldn’t be a bad kitten to get. And since we had previously looked at available kittens online and Ster didn’t like the plain black or plain white ones…I knew this was a sign.

I had planned on possibly getting a kitten Saturday after Jon comes to visit. But Scout Louie wanted so much to be free. I weighed the options in my mind. Get a kitten older than I planned and not as cute looking as I planned so Sterling might bond with it better and love it easier. Or wait and keep looking for what exactly I want and leave the possibility that it will drive Ster crazy and he won’t let me keep it longer than 6 months.

When I did decide later that day to adopt Scout I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving him in the cage all week when he could be atleast in our bathroom while we travel and sight see.

So Sterling let me adopt him on Tuesday. We brought him home and I could see how this was the cat for Sterling. Very playful and kind. And Sterling started bonding with him from day one.

Unfortunately we discovered that day from his records that Scout was sick. That he had been sick continually. An upper respiratory infection. We had known that Scout was adopted before and returned to the shelter. But nobody had informed us at the shelter that we were adopting a sick kitten.

Tuesday night Jon, Emily, Sarah, Ben, Spencer and Lucy arrived at our house. Wednesday morning we went to Spearfish Hatchery. We fed the fish from the bridge, walked by the fish canals to see the different sizes of fish. We walked the beautiful grounds. Then we went to the playground.

We then drove to Devil’s Tower where we stopped for a lunch picnic.  We hiked around the tower base. As usual there were rock climbers on the face.

As we drove to Mt Rushmore we decided to stop at Jewel Cave. Unfortunately we missed the last cave tour by 20 minutes. It was a cloudy, dreary and a little rainy afternoon.

As we arrived at Mt Rushmore around 5pm the weather was getting colder. We did not spend a lot of time there since the visitor center had closed. So we decided to come back Friday.

Before going home we went to dinner at Sickie’s. We had delicious and some unique burgers. Ben was excited to try the mac n cheese burger… and he loved it.

The boy cousins had formed a “boy’s club.” And they played the Wii that night together. Later they would take a club photo, print it and post it on the boys’ bedroom door. I guess it was prompted because we placed the boys in one bedroom for the week and the girls in another.

Thursday Tiffany stayed home to teach preschool. Naturally Athena stayed for class too. And thankfully Lucy decided to join preschool for the day as well! She allowed her family to go off with Sterling and my boys to visit the Badlands, Minuteman Missile, the base tower and the Air & Space Museum.

Lucy had a great time with us at preschool.

The shelter provided a free vet appointment within three days of adoption. So Thursday afternoon Athena, Lucy and I took Scout to the vet. Only, his name was no longer Scout. We had spent all of Wednesday evening figuring out what his name should be. Ster didn’t like Felix the cat. Then I remembered Binx from Hocus Pocus. Everyone liked it. I love it.

So anyway, at the vet I learned that Scout needed his medicine and the anima shelter had it. They should have given it to us when we adopted him.

We retrieved his medicine from the shelter and he took it just fine. The poor cat sneezes a lot and breathes raspy sometimes.  He even had snot bubbling out of his nose the time I took him to the vet.

Sadly, we don’t know if we can keep this cat. We don’t want a cat who wont be healthy. We don’t want to spend money continually on a cat.

Thursday the family came home for dinner. Pretzel dogs. After that we went to the base for rock wall climbing! Everyone enjoyed the new experience (except the two little girls who don’t yet reach the weight requirement).

Each day we grew fonder of Binx. And Binx is truly happy at our house. He gets lots of love and attention then quiet times alone in the bathroom. Athena does tend to chase him around and try to carry him despite our rule that she can’t carry him. Poor Binx. But I don’t think he minds too much because of all the amazing things going on in his life now.

Friday morning we went to Mt Rushmore. The weather was much better. Luke, Ty, Athena and I played Ty’s Thumbs Up word game while our visitors watched the Mt Rushmore video we’ve seen many times. Then we walked the Presidential trail. Unfortunately the museum was closed. But the walk was beautiful and the kids loved being together.

We stopped in the hills for some shooting. The boys and Sarah shot guns for a bit before we headed home for lunch.

We took the kids swimming at the rec center! Then home for pizza and a movie. Escape From Planet Earth.

Saturday morning we ate a delicious breakfast and our visitors left Rapid City. Back to Provo to Dad and Mom’s house.

And of course, the day the cousins left the sun came out and warmed the city to 76 degrees. It had to be cold while they were here but once they left we had warm, pleasant weather. I cannot actually complain because I know that for someone that was a blessing. Someone in Rapid City needed Saturday to be warm and beautiful. We just had to have cold the days prior so that someone who needed Saturday to be the good day could have their prayers answered. I get it. I have been on the receiving end of answered prayers many times.