We wanted to give the three older kids a chance to get away for a few days, though, so on Friday I drove them down to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It was tough not to have all of us go together, but we knew that bringing Michael and Brooklyn would make it a miserable trip for everybody. And since Brooklyn is still nursing, it seemed to make the most sense to have me take the three older kids on the trip and have Liz stay home with Michael and Brooklyn. Besides, Liz has had a few ski dates with the older kids this winter so I wanted a turn having fun with them. :-)
The kids had a great time hiking and climbing the beautiful rock formations.
After we had been hiking around a while, I got a phone call from Liz asking where we were. I replied, "Garden of the Gods". She said, "Yes, but where exactly in Garden of the Gods? I'm here with Michael and Brooklyn and we want to meet up with you!" Apparently we had been gone for all of about five seconds before she decided to pack the babies in the car and come join us! At least just for the day. We kept it a surprise from the older kids and found a place to meet up. Boy were they surprised and excited to see mom, Michael and Brooklyn!
Michael particularly loved jumping off the rocks with mom and hiking with dad. He would sign "1,2,3,jump!" and Liz would help him jump off the rock.
My sister Becky happened to be in the area that day and joined us for a picnic lunch. It was so great seeing her as well.
We checked in to the Academy Hotel Friday afternoon, which is the same hotel we stayed at last year. It has a great pool, so of course the kids wanted to go back this year! Liz, Michael, and Brooklyn only hung out at the hotel with us briefly before we grabbed an early dinner so they could drive back to Fort Collins.
That evening I took the kids swimming at the pool, had ice cream sundaes at the hotel restaurant, and finished the night off in our room with a pillow fight and games. Needless to say, the kids slept very soundly that night.
The next morning the kids wanted to go swimming again after breakfast, and I was so impressed with the progress they made in just a few hours. Spencer especially went from being absolutely terrified of the water and unwilling to let go of me even with his life vest on, to "swimming" laps back and forth across the pool (in his life vest) without anyone holding on to him. Whitney jumped off the side of the pool over and over again into my arms. And Sarah did somersaults and handstands in the water like a pro.
After checking out of the hotel we drove down to Pueblo so our kids could play with their cousins. Unfortunately their spring break is beginning just as ours is ending, but they loved spending all day Saturday together. Sunday morning we drove back to Fort Collins in time to get ready for church.
This week is an important week for us, as we will be figuring out where Michael will go to preschool next year. It's hard to believe he's made it this far. When he was first going through his cancer treatments and therapies, we were told the state-funded therapies would end when he turned three years old, and he would start attending preschool. That seemed so far away at the time, and to be honest we wondered if he'd even be with us that long. Today he's only a few months shy of three years old and is doing amazingly well. So we're looking into some of the special ed preschools in the area that can work with him. We're particularly interested in ones with teachers that know sign language, since that's how he communicates. Liz went to an open house at one preschool a few weeks ago, and is going to another classroom tomorrow to observe. Then on Wednesday we meet with the school district to put in our preferences and decide what school he'll go to. We've been so fortunate to work with excellent therapists so far, and we really hope he'll have a preschool teacher who he'll connect with and work well with.
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