Eyes, presents, and swings

A lot has happened in the last couple of days. Staci and I went to the eye doctor to get our eyes checked, she needed new glasses because her's were stolen in Mexico and I went along just for the heck of it. It turned out to be a very good idea because the doctor found an abnormality with my optic nerve that suggested that I have glaucoma. For those of you who don't know what that is (I didn't really know either) it is an eye disease that increases the pressure in the eye ball and if untreated will lead to partial or complete blindness. It is the second leading cause in vision loss in the world. The difficult thing with glaucoma is there are no symptoms except for very gradual vision loss. So gradual in fact that many people suffer from it but don't realize it. According to the Glaucoma Research Foundation approximately 4 million Americans have glaucoma but only half are aware of it.Because I had a couple signs I went in yesterday for a vision field test to see if I have any vision loss and gratefully I do not. So all I will do now is go in for an eye exam every year to make sure everything is OK. It is very likely I don't have anything wrong with me and the signs the doctor saw are just my peculiar anatomy (which isn't unheard of) but it is much better to be safe than blind. So I urge everyone to have their eyes checked to see if you have glaucoma, because vision lost is never regained.

While at the eye doctor they put some eye drops in my eyes (as opposed to in my ears) that made my eyes dilate. It was the most eye opening experience not being able to see anything in focus for a couple hours. I feel so much more grateful for my 20/20 vision.

On Monday, Staci gave me the best birthday present ever, my birthday is in a couple weeks but she wanted to give me this present early and I agreed. She got me a new mountain bike, I am super, super excited about it. We went riding that evening and had a blast, I have been wanting to get a new bike for a couple years but I could never actually pull the trigger and buy one. But now my dear wife bought me one and I avoid the hardest part for me, actually picking out a bike. She actually had one of my cousins build it for me, he buys bike parts and assembles them as a hobby so he was able to get a great bike for a good price. So now Staci and I have another thing we can do this summer.

Last week my mom and dad got home from their mission in Santiago, Chile and over the weekend Staci and I were able to travel to good old Sparks, NV to spend some time with them. It was a great couple days with most of my brothers there (we missed you Weston and Carrie). On Saturday, we went out to a cliff and set up a sweet rope swing by using rock climbing ropes and gear. It was a lot of fun, even Staci went and had a blast, but I actually think she had more fun taking pictures of everyone.
It was great to be able to relax at home and for Staci to be able to get to know my parents some more.

I was going to post a couple more pics with this but I have put this off too long, so I'll post some fun pics later.