Women of Faith

While Greg and Kyler were camping with family, I spent the weekend with my sisters at the Women of Faith conference in Spokane. My parents were kind enough to watch Caden for me while my sisters and I enjoyed a “Sister's Weekend!”

Every year my sisters and I try to get together for at least one weekend with just the three of us. It is a great time for sisterly love and bonding! :) This year we decided to attend Women of Faith together. Of the three of us, I am the only one who has attended the conference before and I went with my church in Sacramento.

We decided since we were making this a sister's weekend, that all of our children, except Kyler who was camping, should spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. Lucky for us, they agreed to take a 15-year-old, 14-year-old, 13-year-old, and 3-year-old for the weekend. That left Cheryl, Shelly and I to our own devices for the weekend. Cheryl's husband, Kent, was around, but he stayed out of the way and let us have our own time together. Of course much of the time, we were at the Spokane Arena for the conference.

I love WOF! It is so inspiring and I always leave there feeling like my cup is filled to overflowing. It was even more special to share that experience with my sisters. We went with Cheryl's church and our seats were amazing! We were 6 rows from the stage right in the middle. I have never been so close and it definitely made for an enjoyable experience. If you have never been, I highly recommend it. Here is a link to their website where you can learn more about it: http://www.womenoffaith.com/

After our conference was done on Saturday afternoon, we thought it would be fun to have some pictures taken of the three of us and have some prints made for our parents. Cheryl's husband is an excellent photographer and he agreed to help us do this. We went out to a field close to their house and took a bunch of pictures. I know my parents will enjoy getting them! 

 Cheryl, Shelly, Carey (in birth order!)  :)

 It was a fun weekend and I look forward to whatever we plan for next year. :)

Here's one more picture from the weekend, as we were getting ready to go our separate ways. Here are Grandma and Grandpa with all their grandkids except Kyler. 

L-R: Melissa (15), Grandma, Caden (3), Grandpa, Rylan (13), Charli Jo (14)

Camping with the Family

For the long weekend of August 17-20, Greg and Kyler flew to Medford, OR to go camping with Greg's family. Greg's parents, and Greg's sister, Natalie, and her family were all going. They stayed in the mountains at Willow Lake. Natalie's family stayed in a yurt and Greg's parents were in their trailer. Greg and Kyler slept in the trailer with them as well.

From what I hear, they had a great time. Kyler had a wonderful time playing with his cousins. They enjoyed playing in the lake, eating s'mores, learning how to fish with Grandpa, and just enjoying being out in the fresh air. Here are some pictures to document their trip. 

L-R: Kyler, Amelia, Bret, Brandon, Brody, Natalie

 Getting ready to go fishing with Grandpa!

Greg and Kyler inside the yurt :)

Here's the yurt from a distance
(in case you didn't know what one was)

The trailer

Beautiful view!  Looks like a fun time!

Echo Follow-Up

For whatever reason, when the boy's echos were scheduled, they didn't get scheduled to see the cardiologist immediately afterward. I guess that is typically the way they do things in this office. So they were going to try to schedule them to be seen at their satellite clinic in Walla Walla where they are supposed to come once/month. However, for some reason, they were not going to be coming to Walla Walla in August or September. So, we ended up having to schedule to see the cardiologist in the Tri-Cities for Wednesday, August 8. This is about an hour away from where we live vs. the three hours it takes to get to Spokane.

I figured this would be a standard office visit with the cardiologist and they would tell me that both the kids were doing well and they would see us back in a year for another echo. But that's not quite how the visit went...

The doctor began with Kyler and said everything looked really good in his echo. He said congenital heart defects are never cured, but he said Kyler's is as close to being cured as is possible. That was great news! I was so happy to hear that! He said he could see the small amount of pressure in his pulmonary valve which was left intentionally when it was ballooned open. But he really liked what he saw and said he would see him again in another year. Good news!

Then we got to Caden. The story there was not quite the same. He told me the aorta looked good where it had been repaired so that was good news. But he said there was a small ASD (atrial septal defect) he wanted to watch. This was news to me! I had never been told Caden had an ASD. He said it looked like it was small and that it probably wouldn't be a big deal. If it was an older person, they probably wouldn't do anything about it except keep an eye on it. But since Caden was so young and had other complications, he said we should monitor it and it might eventually require surgery.

I know that many things can be done trans-catheter so I quizzed him on the possibility of doing a repair that way. He said it appeared that based on its location that it probably wouldn't be an option because it was too high on the atrial septum. He said he really didn't feel like anything was critical at this point and that he didn't need to see us again for another year and we would do another echo at that time. The conversation was a lot longer than this, and I really drilled into him to find out more about this new information. But he really didn't seem to be concerned so I finally let it go and accepted that we would look at it again next year and go from there.

It is so discouraging to receive news like this when you are so unprepared! I had no idea there was anything else wrong with Caden's heart so this came as quite a shock. At this point, we know there is the potential for another surgery but hopefully that won't be necessary. Time will tell. Please keep us in your prayers!

More Fun Times

After almost a week in Spokane, it was finally time for me to head home with the boys. But before we hit the road home to Walla Walla, we spent a couple hours with some friends. They live on the south end of town which is on my way home, so after I packed the car, we drove to their house.

Brooke made delicious smoothies and sandwiches for the kids and us to enjoy. Then when we were done eating, the kids had a ball playing together. Their house is very fun because they have a great playroom with lots of toys, and a nice sized yard with a sandbox, and swing set. They were having so much fun, they didn't want to leave to go home. But since they had the opportunity to get their wiggles out, it made the car ride much less stressful. 

L-R: Caden, Elise, Kyler, Zion, Wyatt

Thanks for having us over, Brooke! Let's do it again soon. :)

Silverwood Theme Park

Kyler and I went to Silverwood Theme Park with my sister and her family on Sunday, August 5. We had a great time going on the rides and then doing the waterslides. My parents stayed home and kept Caden with them since he's a lot more challenging to handle in the water since he doesn't swim yet, and he wouldn't have been able to do most of the rides due to his height.

It was pretty easy just having Kyler with me. In fact, most of the time, Kyler was with my brother-in-law so I spent the majority of the day with my sister. We all had a really fun time and were completely exhausted and starving when we left in the evening. I had never been to the park before and really enjoyed it. I would love to go there again and take Greg and Caden. Maybe next year when Caden is taller and able to do more rides.