Easter Pictures!

Easter Egg Hunt 2015

 We went to Princess Park to do our own family Easter Egg Hunt today-a little out of the norm since we usually do a hunt with the cousins, but we are not doing that until the 18th of the month, so we opted to do our own after conference today.  The park was empty when we got there, so that gave me ample space to "hide" the eggs.  Each kid had to also find one large egg that they would get to trade in for a prize in lieu of getting actual easter baskets this year.  We had a great time finding all the eggs and then trading-Jackson was so cute in his deep egg-finding concentration!  I was super impressed with Karianna and JD for donating eggs when the little kids didn't get as many.

 Emptying all the eggs out and getting read to trad in the big one for a prize!

 Jordan finally got a pokemon folder and new cards-made his day!

 James and Jackson got this awesome red ball to share, which they went nuts over!  Sadly, the ball got trapped between my legs and this wall, and for oddly enough, it popped!  I was so surprised, and sad, as the boys really loved it!  I'll have to replace it next week.

We will have another Easter Egg Hunt tomorrow with the Lautenschlagers, as well as celebrate Easter in general with dinner and hopefully some great conference talks.  Happy Easter!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

 Sara got to participate in her kindergarten play today-Goldilocks and the Three Bears! This is the third time we have seen this play, and I actually enjoy it-the kids are cute, and the story is cute in that they start confusing it with other fairy tales, only to sing, "Uh uh!  No No!" and then tell the real story.  Sara looked adorable in his grown up dress that she just inherited from Karianna.

 She's pulling out all the stops with her posing!

 The one thing this play had that the others we have seen didn't have was puke. Yes, you read that correctly.  Right before the last song, we noticed a disturbance behind Sara.  Upon closer look, we realized that the tall boy in the back left corner of the picture below was throwing up everywhere.  He threw up all over that cute little boy in the blue jacket and bow tie.  You'll notice Sara is standing pretty close to that boy-you could tell she was utterly disgusted, and told me afterwards she thought she was going to throw up just from the smell.

You would think a parent would rush up on stage upon seeing his or her child throwing up during a performance, but no such parent arose.  So Mrs. Davis ran up, picked up this little boy, and carried him off stage and towards the rest room.  She must have found the mom because she came back as the other kids started singing the final song while plugging their noses and backing away from the puke.  Mrs. Davis came back on stage to make sure no one was standing in the puddle.  She took that blue jacket of the blond boy and have that little blond girl in the black and white dress come off the risers at the request of her moth.  Thankfully the play ended after that final song, and the kids were able to get off stage.  I went up to get Sara, and wow, did it smell bad!  Certainly an exciting element of the traditional kindergarten play!

Regardless, Sara did great singing all the songs and keeping her cool.  She looked a little tired during the beginning of the play, but perked up after a few songs and just looked beautiful.  We are so proud of all the progress has made-except for Tyler, and maybe 1 or 2 other kids, Sara is the youngest in the grade, but she sure does hold her own quite well!  Great job Saree!

Cardiology Check Up

James went in for another cardiology check up today, bright and early at 7am.  It was the easiest appointment we have ever had in terms of James's attitude and behavior-Echos used to take over an hour because we had to keep James entertained and still.  I had to sit with him in the bed, hold his head at certain angles, and when he was a baby, even nurse him to keep him still while they were doing the actual echo.  As I told the tech today, the days of having to do a song and a dance, so to speak, are gone, and thankfully so!  We put on Toy Story, gave James a sucker, and the echo was done within 25 minutes.  James cried for a few minutes when asked to lay down on the bed, but after that, he was perfectly content.  He loves the blood pressure and EKG machines, so those were no big deal-he enjoys taking the blood pressure cuff and EKG stickers off.  Jackson was with us, but he just wandered around the room, or sat in my lap the whole time.  All the nurses in the office always exclaim about James' hair, and how big he is getting-these nurses have been with the office since we started coming here when James was a baby, so they really have seen him progress and grow.  they all said they felt like they were in a time warp because Jackson apparently looks just like James did at that age!  Upon looking at some of James' pictures, I have to agree-the similarity is uncanny.

So the appointment went well, and I was so proud of James for handling it like a pro.  Everything on his tests looked great, thank heavens!  the gradient across his aortic valve is 20; it was 18 post-op, and the lower the better.  They consider the current 20 close enough to the 18 to say there is no change from surgery, which is great-it means the surgical fix is holding up well, and that is something Jared and I were really worried about.  James' aortic arch has only slight narrowing in the same spot, which was expected-nothing of great significance, and the blood flow through it is great, as are his pulses in his feet, which also suggests good blood flow.  His mitral valve is showing a small gradient of 5, which is so small, it is not considered an area of concern at all-Dr. Garn is just keeping an eye on it since it has shown a small gradient like that before.  Nothing to worry about, just something to monitor.  

That's it!  We don't go back for another 6 months!  Upon Dr. Garn's advice, I am going to take James back to his ENT to start looking at his focal cords. James still doesn't have much of a cry or a laugh-both sound like raspy, heavy breathing, and that's it.  I haven't been too concerned as it takes up to a year for those vocal cords to heal. However, we decided it would be good to establish a "baseline" of where he is at, and then as we get closer to that year mark, we can start to decide if there are therapies/surgeries we want to engage in to resolve this issue.  

Enjoying the echo sucker and the EKG stickers!

Flashback

I was going through some files today and chanced upon these pictures from my college graduation in December of 2003.

There are many memorable moments from that weekend, and these two pictures actually commemorated my smaller teacher's college ceremony, and the larger university ceremony.  However, when I saw these pictures, my mind instantly went to the fact that my Dad was not supposed to be there.  He was supposed to be at Falcon Hill, as he couldn't miss two days of work to attend both ceremonies.  I was not expecting him to be there when I hurried out of the stadium to find my family and Jared.  To my surprise, my Dad was, in fact, there with my Mom!  I remember beaming from ear to ear, and teared up a bit when he told me he could never miss any part of my graduation.  My Dad and I had so many talks throughout my schooling, internships, and first year teaching-we connected on a deep level through education.  The fact that he was there meant the world to me.

I look back at that experience and just feel a deep sense of gratitude for my Dad, who always made it a point to support me in everything I did, great or small.  He was so dedicated to being there, as a means for showing his love.  These types of memories warm my heart so very much.  I miss my Dad all the time, yet I am so grateful for the things he taught me, some of which were most clearly conveyed through his example.

I hope I can be that type of parent to my kids, and in that sense, honor my Dad.

The End of an Era

My Zoo Pass officially expires tomorrow, and I have zero plans to renew it anytime soon.  As such, we really maxed out our final visits in February and March, going at least once a week, sometimes twice.  I really do love the zoo, and I love taking the kids.  This is not the best zoo for seeing every animal.  But it is a great zoo to walk, see a few animals, big and small, and just enjoy each other's company-I will miss that, and I'll have to find a substitute outing for me and the boys during the day!  

Here are a few shots from our last three visits-some of them, I am sure are repeats from my Saturday spring break post, but oh well!  We managed to go as a family the final Saturday of spring break, which was great! Rebecca and I made it a point to walk each trail rather than just our traditional lion/tiger trail. As such, we went through the farm trail this week, and did the bear trail the week before.  The boys and I did the Arizona trail a few weeks ago, and we even walked the aviary trail last week.  The boys played in the splash pad multiple times, climbed up through the tree house and the ship-slide, fed the sting rays, and posed with the animal statues.  We got some great looks at the orangutan baby-that's the animal I will miss seeing the most!  All in all, certainly "the end of an era"!