Thanksgiving- A Monumental Day

Thanksgiving truly was a great day of just that, giving thanks. We have been so blessed as a family. It was great to get out of the hospital today, the first time in 4 months!(a special exception for Thanksgiving) We went to dinner at McCormick & Schmicks, it was delightful. Some of us had steak, seafood, and some a traditional turkey dinner. We were joined by Nana and the Barfusses. We feel incredibly grateful this day to have such wonderful family & friends. We have given much thanks each day in our prayers for all of you and the faith and love you continually show to our family. We are stronger and better people because of all of our wonderful family & friends.






Calamari anyone?? It was fun for the girls to find out they had just eaten squid!

Sweet Sixteen & Never Been Kissed????

Jaycee, thanks for coming!








All we want for Christmas Santa is boys!












Lunch at Olive Garden, Thanks Dad

A visit from family & friends

They'll let anyone in Denver!!! haha Brett Harrop what a great friend, thanks for the surprise visit it was great to see you.





What a fun surprise visit by the Barlow family. It was great to see them. Thanks so much for the BBQ dinner you shared with us. We will let you know how the desserts go in the crock pot! Thanks for coming-We love you!




What a delightful time with the Holmes family! We loved every second that we shared with you these past days. Thanks for sharing your love with us!

A thought for the week-

Hope.... Hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to you. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance. It is believing and expecting that something will occur. When you have hope, you work through trials and difficulties with the confidence and assurance that all things will work together for your good. Hope helps you conquer discouragement. The scriptures often describe hope in Jesus Christ as the assurance that you will inherit eternal life in the celestial kingdom.
President James E. Faust taught: "Hope is the anchor of our souls...Hope is trust in God's promises, faith that if we act now, the desired blessings will be fulfilled in the future....The unfailing source of our hope is that we are sons and daughters of God and that His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, saved us from death"

Our family is trying to memorize this paragraph on Hope from Preach My Gospel, it has brought us joy and comfort in its teachings. We would love to have any of you join with us in this challenge. The Lord truly does fulfill all His promises to us as we live our lives according to His commandments. He watches over us, protects us, and brings us comfort and peace each day. The key that we have found in this particular teaching is, that we have to align our desires with the Lord's will. We truly need to be submissive to what the Lord wants. In this mortal probabtion we all have trials and difficulties.

We receive much hope through all of your faith and prayers. Love all of you, Pack Family

Martineau Mania

A great weekend with Chris, Sherrie and some of their fabulous kids. Marne', Justin, Colton & the Martineau's got to go watch the Cougars beat the Falcons which was delightful. (Poor Dave Freeman, we are going to have an official burning of all of the colorado paraphenalia that he brought to display in Josh's room.) We loved having you all here, Josh mentioned that it finally seemed like a Sunday night at home. We are so blessed with such wonderful family, couldn't do it without each one of you!

Flannel fridays and Friends forever here at Craig

Pretzels anyone?

As parents we could never thank these boys enough for their goodness! They bring so many laughs and good times to Josh and our family, we will be forever grateful for you. We love you boys as our own! Thanks for taking time away from school and work to come, and thanks Gregg for the safe flight!

Mohawks & Mullets by Mindy!

We are really happy to have Mindy come and cut our hair and we are going for a different look here in the hospital! She is so talented, call her for an appointment!

A LITTLE TASTE OF HOME-Thanks!

Thanks for making the trek out; Poulsens, Markers and Crookstons. We are so grateful to all of our friends who have come during the time that we have been in Denver. There have been many of you. You have touched our hearts and filled are souls with your love. We feel so blessed by your friendship.

November 14 2008

Today we started sitting our 2 hours in the morning and then 1 hour in the evening-YEAH! It feels so good to get up a little more. Joshua's skin is still looking good and they will continue to increase his up time as long as the skin holds. Sean went home which was sad, Dustin came which made us happy, Martineau's came that is also fun. We woke up to snow but now it is sunny, it is kind of like a magical wonderland of weather here. The family and Sean learned how to take Josh up and down stairs in the wheelchair. What entertainment that was!!! Yes, we all passed and we were issued an off campus pass; which means anywhere that we can push Josh in a 2 hour span of time we can go. We will let you know where we take our next adventure. Our next class will be car transfers, that should be a blast!! Watch out Denver the Packs are almost ready to explore your town!

November 11, 2008

Getting up is going well. Justin pushed Josh a little too crazy in the wheel chair so we had some throw up in the kitchen at the apartment. We got a great letter from Elder Logan Putnam in the mail, loved it! Sean Holley returned to visit-wonderful. Played some Family Fued, team A won which included; Marne', Sean, Josh, and Chris (a patient here at Craig) team B came in second haha which included; Cord, Lisa, Justin, and Colton. Looking forward to getting up again tomorrow.

"UP"coming events this week

We are looking forward to this week. It will be exciting as Josh gets to have more "up" time. He is able to sit in a chair for 1 hour each day right now, tomorrow they will let him sit for 1 and 1/2 hours. Each day they will add 1/2 hour to his sit time as long as his skin allows. They will not let him increase past 2 hours until a very small opening in his 12" incision is healed. We really have our fingers crossed that this will heal before Wednesday rolls around! (which is the day we should pass 2 hours)
During the time that he is up he will participate in physical therapy and occupational therapy. We are super excited because this is what we came to do in Denver, GET BETTER!!!! Josh is getting better and feeling great. It is so fun to see his strength increase in his arms, as well as his over all health increase. He is hardly on any meds, which is amazing around here, he does not get sick when he gets up, and his spirit is strong. Our family is so excited to be here together, although we miss Elder Jake dearly, it feels good to gather our strength and work together each day.

A Beautiful Weekend in Denver, Colorado!

It is great to be outside
Open Wide!

Oh to be outside and with Bri

What handsome guys

Bloody knuckles anyone?

Cord & Brit

A couple of best buddies

Working hard at physical therapy- feeling good!

Visitors Are Great

Getting up is quite a process

Are you ready?

Are you sick?

We are up!

We did it Bro!

A little Family Entertainment

An afternoon snooze

Emily, Josh is the patient not Justin!

Great Friends, Great Weekend, and even Priesthood from our home ward

A great weekend with the Burrows and the Wellers. (how did we not get photos of Jen and Tami?) They even brought Priesthood meeting from the Eden II ward. Fabulous, enjoyed by our boys so much, THANKS!!

YEAH- We got to bend our legs today!

Today is monumental for our family.
We are super excited because Joshua's physical therapist was given the go ahead to "flex" Josh's legs. They had the goal of flexion to be around 80-90 degrees. Well not for Josh he is always going to the max, he flexed at 115 degrees, and his skin on the incision held great! This means that he has enough flex to be able to sit in a chair. We are elated and so grateful to be able to start down our long recovery road. This means that Josh will sit in a chair for 15 minutes tomorrow morning and then 30 minutes tomorrow afternoon. According to how his skin reacts will determine how much they increase his sit time. They will only increase at 30 minutes intervals. At this point we are just grateful for 15 minutes sit time.
We will keep you informed each day as to how we increase. This is getting exciting!!!

Calling all Crock Pots

Okay this is a funny request. All of our kids are here with us now and we don't have an oven so I am cooking in a crockpot. So I am asking all of you wonderful cooks for EASY, remember we are in a studio apartment and little space, crockpot recipes. We would be so grateful and my kids tummies will thank you!
Email all of your wonderful recipes to us. Thanks and we love you all!
The Packs

Medical Update

We are almost through a long haul of a 6 week bed rest-YEAH! The incision from the flap surgery is healing very nicely. Possibly this Tuesday, November 4th, the therapists will begin to flex his legs and pending on how the skin on the incision reacts will determine when he will be able to sit in a chair. We are thinking if all goes well he will be sitting in a chair the end of this week or the first of next week. You will know when he gets to sit up because we will shout from the roof top and we are pretty sure that you will here it from Denver to Utah.
The movement on his right hand, middle finger, is continuing to get stronger. He is also getting some toes moving on his left foot. He has also gained many muscles in his back and shoulders. We are blessed every day by Josh's body continually getting stronger and healthier.
As a family we want to thank everyone for your continued kind thoughts, prayers,ou and emails for our family. We continually receive an incredible amount of strength from family, friends, and our community. Their have been some real tough days and sometimes it is hard to gain the courage to continue forward with faith and perserverance. We as a family could not have ever done this without your love nor continue forth without your love-thank you for sharing so much strength with us. We love you all!

A GOOD DAY!

Although Josh is not a fan of the Denver Nuggets,

he is a fan of their cheerleaders!

Fun with Cousins-Liz & Spencer!

Oh Marne' & Liz did you steal that sign?

Setting up an obstacle course and racing! Notice

Spencer in the back wondering about his sister and

this form of entertainment that she came up with.

We love you guys and are so glad you took time away

from BYU to come and be with us, you're GREAT!

NANA-YOU ARE THE BEST!

So glad to have you!

Good times with Great Friends!

Todd & Julie thanks for driving
all night!

Lee & Marilyn

you are great!