Birthdays and Camping

This month Whitney and I celebrated our birthdays together!  She loves telling people that she has the same birthday as her daddy.  We were fortunate to have two of my siblings (Ken and Becky) drive to Fort Collins for the weekend to help us celebrate.  The cousins had a great time destroying the house together.  Liz felt badly that last year things were so crazy that I basically bought and wrapped my own presents, so she worked hard this year and did a great job making it a fun, low key weekend.

Whitney had another birthday party with her friends the following weekend.  It was a Pirate Fairy themed party in honor of one of her favorite movies.

The older kids have wanted to try out camping this summer.  We set up a tent for them in the backyard a few months ago, but they came inside during the night when they got scared.

A few weeks ago they were determined to try again, so we set up the tent once more in the backyard.  We made sure it was a clear, warm night without any rain in the forecast, and that it wasn't a night when the sprinklers were supposed to run.  At 3am they came running into our bedroom, soaking wet and screaming that the sprinklers were on! It turns out the previous home owners had set up another sprinkler program that I wasn't aware of and which had only been partially deleted when I set up ours.  Whoops!

The next night they were doubly determined to try one last time.  There was a slight chance of rain that night, but we didn't think it would be a problem.  As the kids started settling into the tent, the rain started pouring down in buckets!  We quickly threw the rain tarp over the tent and waited out the storm inside the house.  When it finally stopped raining, we dried off the tent floor, secured the rain tarp, and let the kids settle into the tent knowing that they should stay dry.  Sure enough, when we woke up the next morning we realized the kids hadn't come into our room.  We were thrilled they had finally had a successful night sleeping in our backyard.  That is, until we noticed them fast asleep in their bedroom.  It turns out they had woken up to some thunder around 2am and crept back into their beds!

The following week Liz took the kids mommy camping to celebrate the last week of summer vacation. Actually, some friends of ours organized it and invited Liz to join them. It would be way too hard to spend the night in a tent with Brooklyn and Michael, and since Brooklyn is still nursing and I have to work, it's not like she can just leave them at home.  Fortunately the campground is only about 40 minutes away, so she went up during the day and brought the younger kids home at night.  Dads weren't invited, so we went to a movie together the first night and arranged with our wives to surprise the kids the second night and join them for dinner.  We brought fudgesicles and ice cream bars with us, which were an instant hit with the kids.

Farewell Sweet Hazel

We were stunned and sad to hear the news that Michael's little friend Hazel had passed away on August 4th.  Although we had anticipated this day for many months after her cancer had been diagnosed as terminal, it didn't make the news any easier to bear.

We first met Hazel and her parents at Children's Hospital when Michael was six months old and Hazel was nine months old.  Michael was recovering from his first surgery to remove his brain tumor, Hazel was recovering from her second.  As they underwent treatment they shared many things in common such as the same rare form of brain cancer cancer (Ependymoma) and many of the same doctors (such as neurosurgeon Dr. O'Neill, neuro-oncologist Dr. Foreman, and radiation oncologist Dr. Liu).  During part of their recovery they were even in adjacent recovery rooms on the sixth floor of Children's Hospital, which confused their nurses on a few occasions.

Even with so much in common, Michael and Hazel have had many different challenges in dealing with their cancer.  We were so grateful that Hazel never lost her sparkling smile like Michael did.  But she had other complications, including the tumor incurably spreading to her spine before her second birthday.  Miraculously, she survived a year and a half beyond that, for which we are very grateful.

We've kept in touch with Hazel and her family over the last few years and joined together in birthday celebrations and other happy occasions.  For his first birthday, Michael's Aunt Carrie wrote "Mikey's Ride", a picture book about Michael and Hazel and their days together at Children's Hospital.

A scene from "Mikey's Ride" where Michael races Hazel in a red wagon at Children's Hospital.  In the book, the top half represents what is happening in Michael's imagination, the bottom half shows what is really happening.

On Monday Liz and I attended Hazel's funeral in Denver while the daughter of some friends from church watched our children.  It was a beautiful and touching funeral that celebrated Hazel's life through words, music, and pictures.  You could feel the outpouring of love and support for her family.  We were pleased to see several doctors and nurses from Children's Hospital there who have treated both Hazel and Michael over the last few years.

Our thoughts, prayers, and love are with Hazel's family at this time.  As hard and painful as the road may be, we're grateful that we (and they) don't have to walk it alone.  God be with you till we meet again, dear Hazel.

At Michael's first birthday party in 2012

At Hazel's second birthday party in 2013

At Hazel's third birthday party in 2014

Lemonade Beats Cancer

All summer long Sarah has dreamed of putting together a lemonade stand to raise money to donate to Children's Hospital on behalf of Michael for cancer research.  She finally got her chance this last Saturday.  Liz bought a whole bunch of lemons and limes, and Sarah spent hours squeezing them into lemonade and making posters for the lemonade stand. 

Saturday morning Liz took Sarah, Whitney, and Spencer to a busier street in our neighborhood hoping to get more traffic than our relatively quiet street.  Within an hour the lemonade was gone and they had made close to $20.  One customer had given her a $5 bill and told her to keep the change. 

Liz and I matched what Sarah earned with our own donation and helped her donate it online to the Tanner Seebaum Foundation www.tannersfoundation.org, which is a local organization that gathers donations for Ependymoma research at Children's Hospital.  Although the amount we donated wasn't a great deal of money, it made Sarah (and her parents) really proud that even a young girl with desire and motivation can do something to help her little brother in his battle against cancer.

We also spent the last few Saturday mornings staining our side of a new fence our next-door neighbors put in a few months ago.  We started out with paint brushes, but the progress was agonizingly slow, particularly because of a wire mesh on our side of the fence.  The kids sure enjoyed putting on their paint clothes and helping out, though.  The next Saturday we bought a cheap paint sprayer, which allowed us to finish the job in a few hours.

Last week I went to Santa Clara, CA for a business trip.  I grew up nearby in San Jose, so a great side benefit was spending time in the evenings with my parents, as well as two of my brothers and their families who came to visit one evening after work.  I don't get to see my California family nearly often enough, so it was a great mini reunion. 

Naturally when dad goes away on business, mom wonders what kind of "excitement" is in store for her as she manages the kids and household on her own.  I hadn't even left yet before the excitement started.  The night before my trip, Michael had a hard fall and hit his chin on the end table in our family room.  There was a lot of blood on his face and on his pajamas, and we discovered that his tooth had bitten all the way through his bottom lip.  We realized he would probably need stitches, but the last thing we wanted to do was spend the night at the ER.

We remembered that one of our neighbors is a pediatrician at the practice we go to.  And although we hate to be a bother or take unfair advantage of someone, we decided to see if she was home and would be willing just to take a quick look at the injury to see if she thought we should go to the ER to get stitches.  Fortunately she was home (she had just arrived back in town that morning) and was more than happy to help.  Better yet, because both puncture wounds were on the meat of the lip, she didn't think stitches were necessary and the lip would heal well on its own.  We didn't have to spend hours at the ER after all!  Sure enough, a week later his lip is looking really good.  What a blessing.  And fortunately that was the extent of any major trauma while dad was away for a few days.

Michael's lip looks really good just a few days after he bit through it

Last month I was asked to speak at church on the topic "Love One Another".  The result was a bit of a personal message, and I've been encouraged to put a copy of it on our blog for the benefit of family, friends or anyone else who would like to read it: http://fortwheeler.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

MRI results and more vacation pictures

Mikey had a clean MRI this week!!! We are so thrilled (and relieved)!  We took the kids to Spooner's for frozen yogurt that night to celebrate.

He took a hearing test right after his MRI due to concerns that over time he may lose his hearing from the radiation.  He failed the hearing test miserably.  They found a double ear infection which may be the reason why he failed the test, so they'll retest him in 6-8 weeks after his ears clear up.  Interestingly enough, his oncologist spotted the ear infection on the MRI as well.  We had no idea about the infection until the hearing test, he hadn't shown any noticeable symptoms.  The next day he had major symptoms of an ear infection, but he's starting to do better now that the antibiotics are starting to kick in.

Here are a few more pictures of our vacation adventures in Utah.

All seven of us crowded around a booth at Wendy's for dinner on our way to Utah.  We had so much fast food during our vacation. I never thought we'd say it, but we're DONE with fast food for a while!

We spent a day boating at Pineview Reservoir.  Rather, Brooke spent the day eating sand at the beach.

We brought a pack n play in case the kids needed to nap.  Michael hates getting dirty, so sometimes he preferred chilling in the pack n play over crawling around in the sand.

The kids played in the water and on the beach when they weren't in the boat.

Relaxing on the boat with our brother-in-law and niece

This was Sarah's first time knee-boarding. She was such a natural at it!  She got up on her first try and did great!

This was Tim's first time knee-boarding as well.  I'm not quite the natural at it as Sarah, but I did manage to get up briefly.

Liz blows us all out of the water with her wake-boarding talent!

Tim held Michael while getting pulled on the big raft.  Most of the kids got a chance to ride it.

Liz's older siblings both ran the Centerville 5K early in the morning on July 4th.  Liz snuck over to take pictures of them running and after crossing the finish line.

Watching the Centerville 4th of July parade!  The highlight for the kids is sitting on the curb where can catch the candy thrown to them by the people in the parade.  There's nothing like a good ol' hometown parade.

Liz and I went on an over-nighter in beautiful Park City to help celebrate our 10-year anniversary!  Our anniversary was actually in March, but Brooklyn is still nursing and still doesn't do very well with bottles or sippy cups yet.  An over-nighter is about as long as we dared escape!  The Bellamy's were wonderful to take good care of our kids.

In Park City we went on the alpine slide, alpine coaster, and their zip lines.  They have a lot of great restaurants as well, including a fantastic Brazilian restaurant that brought back memories to Tim of his 2-year mission in Brazil many years ago.

Cherry Hill is a great family friendly water park with a pirate ship, slides, and a lazy river.  We had a great time there with 2 of Liz's brothers' families.

On our last day in Utah we went with Liz's sister's family to Lagoon.  That's always a highlight any time we visit Utah in the summer!  The first ride we took the kids on was Bombora, a fun "for-everyone" roller coaster.  Even Michael was barely tall enough to ride so we took him along.  But turns out the roller coaster isn't for everyone - it scared Michael so much he wouldn't ride on any thing else for several hours!  Eventually in the late afternoon we were finally able to coax him onto a kid's ride with the ride attendant's help.  After that, he had a blast on the more gentle rides the rest of the day.

Michael and Spencer after Michael finally forgave us for putting him on Bambora.

Michael and Brooklyn's Birthday Bashes

We just celebrated two birthdays less than a week apart.  Brooklyn celebrated her first birthday by eating wrapping paper and cake.  The kids had a ball decorating the house and her high chair for her birthday.  Liz and I enjoyed getting some sleep now that Brooke is finally sleeping through the night!

A few days after Brooklyn's birthday we drove out to Utah to celebrate the 4th of July and Michael's birthday.  All of Liz's six siblings and their kids and two of my brothers (Ken and Steve) with their families joined us in the festivities.  We had a blow-up swimming pool, giant water balloons and guns, and an awesome dance party in G & G Bellamy's beautiful backyard.  Sharon Perry with Cakes Against Cancer for Kids graciously donated a sweet cake for Michael.

We feel so much gratitude that Michael has made it to 3 and we've survived Brooke's first year!  Michael is doing so well right now.  His 6-month MRI this week!  One word: Scanxiety.