Surgery, a New Arrival and Halloween

On October 21st we drove the motor home to Idaho Falls and parked it across the street from Leslie and Matt's apartment on a pad beside the driveway of their neighbor, Bruce Noller, who graciously offered it for the next few weeks through Dad's surgery and the new baby's arrival. Early the next morning, on Friday, Dad checked in at the Mountain View Hospital for outpatient laser prostate surgery. The surgery apparently went well but the first two days of recovery were a little difficult for him. He is now supposed to take it easy for at least two weeks for healing. On Monday morning we drove the Elantra back home to winterize the sprinkling system and got to tend Taylor for one day before we returned to Idaho Falls Tuesday evening to be there for the new baby's arrival the next morning. Jaxon Paul McKnight was born on Wednesday, October 27th as scheduled and Leslie and Jaxon came home on Friday. Jaxon was 7 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long and is a very cute little addition to the family. His brothers have been excited about his arrival but Dillan seems to be the most. Travis came home sick early from school last Wednesday and was sick for the next day and a half. Since then our days have been busy mostly with school, preschool and Halloween-related activities. On Tuesday evening we watched and helped as the boys carved at least a half dozen jack-o-lanterns. There was a costume parade and party at Cloverdale Elementary School on Thursday and no school on Friday. Brandyn had a soccer game Saturday where his team won 5-3 and Brandyn scored one of the goals. Saturday there were Halloween parties at friend's homes for the boys and then a big Halloween party with a talent show, dinner and activities at their LDS ward in the afternoon followed by trick-or-treating that evening. Brandyn and Travis went with friends, Matt and Dad went with Dillan and his friends around the block and then I went for a second bag of loot with Travis later in the evening. Dad knocked out the few repairs on Leslie's list in the first couple of days and then volunteered to run electrical wire with Matt's help to provide a light and two electrical outlets for Bruce's workbench in his garage to help pay for the free space rent. In so doing Dad and Bruce have become friends and Bruce showed Dad the results of his gold prospecting and metal detecting for coins over the past 50 years. His coin collection was nothing short of incredible with literally hundreds of U.S. coins of every denomination dating back well over 100 years in age. Today, Sunday, we slowed down a bit. Dad, Matt and the boys went to church and I stayed with Leslie to help with the baby and fix dinner. We are looking forward to the next while to help until Leslie can manage on her own.