Spring Break

The kids started their spring break two weeks ago so we went to Colorado Springs for a few days.  This has been our annual tradition the last few years and the kids really enjoy it.  We stayed at the Academy Hotel again, which the kids love because of the large indoor swimming pool and great breakfast. 

Our family is getting large enough we decided to try out a 2-room suite this time and are glad we did.  The front room had a small closet area covered by a curtain that was the perfect size for Brooke’s pack-n-play.  Sarah and Michael slept on a very comfortable pull out bed in that room the first night, and Whitney and Spencer slept on it the second night.  On the alternating nights they slept on the extra queen bed in the bedroom.

The first day of our trip we visited Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and had a blast!  We think it’s much better than the Denver Zoo.  They have a sky lift that takes you up the mountain where we discovered a playground and breath-taking views of Colorado Springs below.  Many of the animal exhibits were well done, and the mountain terrain added a nice touch.

Some of the life sized animals were difficult to distinguish from the real animals

Riding the sky lift

Dad and the other kids aren't far behind

We made it to the top!

Which animal exhibit is this?  Must be the monkey bars!

Next spring break, let's fly instead of drive to the zoo

The best exhibit by far was the giraffes.  The hilly terrain and platform surrounding the exhibit put us face to face with the giraffes.  The kids enjoyed petting the giraffes and feeding them lettuce leaves. We were amazed by their long tongues and gentle demeanor.

Brooklyn, as always, kept us on our toes!  We ate lunch at a picnic area near the carousel.  Brooklyn had gotten out of the stroller, and when we looked for her a few moments later, she had somehow squeezed through the iron fence and was standing only a foot or two away from the carousel while it was in full motion!  We knew she would likely run away and towards the carousel if we called out to her, so I quickly ran over, reached over the fence, and snatched her to safety.

On the second day of our trip we visited Garden of the Gods, where we enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the kids enjoyed climbing on the red rocks.  It’s amazing that we don't really need a fancy, expensive vacation for the kids to have a great time.  All they need is some fun rocks to climb.

Last Friday Liz took the 3 older kids to Snowy Range, Wyoming for a day of skiing.   They went with our friends the Baileys and had a wonderful time together.  The weather was beautiful and our kids are starting to get a lot more comfortable on skis. Spencer was the most fearful after crashing into some netting the last time he went skiing.  But with a lot of patient coaxing and encouragement from Liz and the other kids, by the end of the day he was happily skiing down some of the slopes like a pro.  Our home teacher and his wife were very kind to watch Michael and Brooklyn during the day while I was at work.

Yesterday we drove down to Pueblo for our nephew, Aaron's baptism.  We're so proud of him and loved spending the day with my sister Becky, my parents, sister-in-law Gina, and other family members and friends.  The day went by so quickly and it was so hard to say goodbye and drive home at the end of the day.

President's Day

On President's Day last week we told stories to the kids about George Washington.  Mikey started doing the sign for "wash hands".  We thought for a moment what he was trying to tell us, then realized he was signing George Washinghands!

It's been an unusually warm winter so far.  While my coworkers on the East coast have had several feet of snow dumped on them, our children have enjoyed sunny picnic lunches on the front porch:

We got a few inches of snow this weekend.  But while the weather was warm and to get into the seasonal spirit while she was visiting us, Liz's sister Carrie helped us decorate the inside of our house for winter.  She's home now, but her decorations still remain:

Icicles hanging down

Snowflakes falling from the ceiling

Each of us had our own snowman the kids helped make

Liz recently had a chance to visit Mikey's preschool and watch him in action.  He really enjoys it and is making progress both in his signing and in his speech.

Michael loves this large round mat with the alphabet and numbers written and drawn out in sign language

Painting time!

Painting a boat

Matching words with pictures

This is Michael's favorite toy right now.  We used to have one just like it years ago and gave it away since nobody played with it.  Dang.  Maybe we should see if the thrift store we gave it to still has it. :-)

Sarah's 3rd grade class recently put on a show called "Pen Pals" which depicted children from around the world. Sarah sang a solo and had some speaking parts as well. Our kids are still singing and humming the songs in different languages.

Sarah moved into Michael's room recently and has been the best big sister.  Sometimes at night when he's scared she lets him crawl into bed next to her.

The Fort Collins temple is coming along nicely.  The outside work is absolutely beautiful.

Can you tell what holiday we just had?  Our family wrote love notes to each other one night for Family Home Evening and we stuck them all over the kitchen.

Brooke sure is growing big and strong.  Could it be from all the milk she's drinking?  She still has a dairy allergy, but it's getting a little better.

Home at last

After spending an enjoyable New Years at the Bellamys we opted to make the trip back home the following Monday.  Liz's sister Carrie is going to stay with us for a month in Colorado, so we caravaned back together.  According to the weather forecast and road reports the roads were open and there wasn't anything to be overly concerned about.  After driving for 5 hours we got to Rawlins, Wyoming and discovered they had shut down I-80 and all bypass roads for the next 150 miles!  As best as we could tell it wasn't due to a snowstorm, but rather the wind was blowing so hard it was causing whiteout conditions from snow on the ground.  All the hotels in the area were full. 

After considering our options, we drove all the way back to Utah and spent the night back with the Bellamys!  We had driven for 10 hours just to get back to where we started!  The Bellamys were patient and accommodating and even turned their Christmas lights back on for us before we arrived.  The four older children spent the night sleeping under the Christmas tree so that Brooklyn would have her own room.  She had stayed in the room with us for the duration of our trip, but after almost a week of her waking us up crying throughout the night, we'd had enough!

On Tuesday the wind died down, so once again we ventured to make the drive back to Colorado.  Michael was super upset to have to get back in the car and made it clear we had used up his entire allotment of good traveler behavior the previous day.  After I'd had enough screaming, I pulled over and moved his carseat to a different location so he could spend the day staring at the back of someone else's seat instead of mine.  That seemed to appease him, and we resumed our journey without further incident.

We tried to make the most of the long drive and took a more leisurely pace on Tuesday.  For instance, it was the third time stopping at Little America in two days, and at each stop we let the kids have an ice cream cone or play at the playground there.  They all wanted to climb the buffalo statue.

Little America, Big Buffalo

Fortunately the roads didn't close on Tuesday and we finally made it back home and were able to sleep in our own beds again. 

It's been great having Carrie with us, she's been fun to have around and has been a huge help.  This week Liz and I and a few of the kids have been battling with colds, so having an extra adult set of hands has been a particular blessing.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The day after Michael's clean MRI, he underwent eye surgery to try to help correct his inability to keep his eyes straight.  This is his third such surgery in the last two years.  Last time he had the surgery he was pretty miserable for about a week and a half afterwards.  This time around he was miserable the day of the surgery, but by the next day he was happy and doing just fine.  Another great blessing this Christmas season!

Michael has been anesthetized so many times we've long since lost count.  Nowadays they usually give him nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to put him to sleep before they tap into a vein and give him propofol to keep him asleep.  This week, one of the times he was given laughing gas he actually did start laughing.  It was the funniest thing and it made the doctors laugh, too!  Then, like Vizzini in "The Princess Bride", Michael conked out mid-laughter and was fast asleep.

We've had an unusually warm December, which I certainly don't mind.  Christmas Day however, it started to snow, so we got our white Christmas this year after all.

 We love our Christmas lights this year

Riding on a sled after a white Christmas

One of the Christmas gifts Liz and I gave to our 3 oldest children is some 2-on-1 time.  On the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before Christmas we hired a babysitter and both Liz and I took one of our children out on a lunch date to the restaurant of their choice.  We enjoyed getting some more personalized time with our children, and those at home enjoyed getting their face painted by the babysitter.

Baking Christmas cookies

We can't wait for Christmas!

We spent Christmas Day at home relaxing with the family.  Santa left a new book for each child under the small Christmas trees in the children's bedrooms so they had a present to open and something fun to read while waiting to open presents.  One noteworthy present this year was an indoor slide for Michael.  He absolutely loves climbing slides and sliding back down again, and it's so good for helping him build up his strength and coordination.  So he was thrilled to get an indoor slide he can use when it's cold outside.

Michael's new slide

Brooklyn loves to eat, er, color with her new markers

We were supposed to head to Utah to visit Liz's family the day after Christmas, but we'd been having intermittent problems with our minivan.  We had taken it into the shop a few weeks earlier, but the mechanic couldn't reproduce the problem.   So we continued driving it until the 23rd, when the strange noise returned, the engine stalled, and the check engine light went on.  We took the van back into the shop on the 24th (Christmas Eve), but the mechanic was closed during the holidays and couldn't fix it until the 29th.  They were able to find and fix the problem this time around, so we drove out to Utah on the 31st instead (New Years Eve).  With the snowstorms we've received since Christmas Day it's unclear we would have been able to make the drive anyway, even if the minivan hadn't broken down. As it was, we had cold temperatures during the drive (it was -15 degrees in Fort Collins as we packed up the car to go) but the roads were clear and we arrived in time to bring in the New Year with the Bellamy family.

Clean scan today!!!

Mikey's MRI was clean today!!! What an amazing and wonderful Christmas present for our family. I feel like we can start breathing again! He failed his hearing test, though, so after he recovers from tomorrow's eye surgery the next step is to take him to an ear, nose, and throat specialist to see what's up.

He couldn't help showing off his Santa beard and hat today, and even went around saying "Ho ho ho!" Except he says it "Oh oh oh!" He's such a fun kid.

Lots to be thankful for

Christmas is coming so quickly we haven't even had a chance to write about Thanksgiving!  It was wonderful.  Liz's parents and two of her sisters came to visit us for a few days for Thanksgiving.  Her sister Carrie had a birthday on Thanksgiving so we had twice the reasons to celebrate!

Liz ran her first 5K ever on Thanksgiving morning.  She's been training for it for several months now.  It was a local 5K held in our neighborhood, and we gathered together and cheered her on as she ran down our street near our house.  We were so proud of her for working so hard and accomplishing her goal.

 

Brooklyn enjoyed our breakfast feast on Thanksgiving morning.  She likes to close her eyes tight and open her mouth wide when we feed her.  It's the cutest thing ever, she looks like a little baby bird saying "Cheep! cheep! cheep!"

To help Carrie celebrate her birthday we took the family to the Swetsville Zoo near our house.  It has all kinds of amazing sculptures made out of old metal parts from cars, machinery, appliances, you name it.

 

After Thanksgiving we enlisted help from Liz's family to set up Christmas decorations both inside and outside the house.  The kids particularly love the new Christmas train we purchased this year.  And they always love spending a night sleeping under the Christmas tree.

Spencer absolutely loves his new Santa hat and beard.  It's a good fit for his jolly personality.

This coming week is a busy week for our family.  Our kids have the usual Christmas parties at school and wrapping things up for the holiday (both literally and figuratively).  Last week we discovered Spencer has a bad astigmatism in one eye and will be getting glasses to help correct it.  We've been having intermittent car problems that we need to get resolved before we do any holiday traveling. Etc, etc.

But all of that pales in comparison to the end of the week.  Michael has an MRI on Thursday to check for any cancer recurrence.  It's been a miracle that his scans have been clean for the last two years, and we hope and pray that continues to be the case on Thursday.  He has failed his last two hearing tests and will get another one after the MRI on Thursday to see he is experiencing genuine hearing loss as a result of his cancer treatments. Then on Friday, if Michael's MRI is clear, he goes in for eye surgery.  One of his eyes is still having trouble staying straight, so the surgery will shorten and reattach his eye muscle to help keep his eyes more inline and hopefully dramatically improve his vision.

Through it all we have so much to be grateful for.  It has been almost three years since Michael was diagnosed with a life threatening brain tumor, and it's really miraculous that he's still with us.  His challenges are staggering at times, but he brings our family so much joy.  We're so grateful for wonderful family and friends who are with us during good times and bad.  And we're particularly grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ, whose birthday we celebrate at this Christmas season.  He understands our burdens perfectly, for he has carried them himself.