We're home!!!

We got home from the hospital around 2:30 this afternoon. Garrett is great and was happy to be home. By the way he is playing and tackling his daddy, you wouldn't even know that he was just in the hospital.

Waiting in the ER to see the doctor.

Watching cartoons while he gets IV fluids.

Some much needed rest after a traumatic night in the ER

Feeling better last night and playing with toys


Eating a good breakfast this morning.

Garrett's hospital stay

Today may be Garrett's last day in the hospital. He has been doing so well since he woke up this morning. He drank all of his milk and has also drank a few ounces of water. He ate a small bowl of corn flakes and has been playing and acting like his old self again. The doctor hasn't come in to see him yet today, but I'm pretty confident that he will discharge him today, which would be a wonderful birthday present for me:)

Since I'm on the hospital's computer, I'm unable to upload pictures to share, but I'll do so when we get home (hopefully this evening).

Estes Park Trip: June 14; Day 9

We are heading home todayL We had decided last night to just wake up whenever the kids woke up. I ended up waking up around six to take a shower and start getting ready to go. Dave’s dad had come to the cabin to see us off as well. He and Dave loaded the truck while I got the boys fed and ready to go. We checked out of our cabin, took some final pictures in front of the YMCA statue and then headed out for the long drive home. We were debating breaking the trip up into two days, especially since we didn’t leave until around 7:15 Arizona time, but we decided it was more work to stay in a hotel with the kids than it was to drive the 17 hours home.

Since Dave and I have been together, we have gone on several trips. I always help drive for a portion of these trips and there have been several occasions while I was driving that we have run across extreme weather conditions. Dave, on the other hand, always has great weather when he drives. On this trip, Dave drove from Estes Park to Raton, NM before he handed the keys over to me. My leg of the trip was pretty windy, which is not uncommon for that stretch. The part that got a little hairy was when we were approaching Albuquerque. I had seen the storm clouds and had been sprinkled on a bit, but I was never expecting the storm we got. It rained so hard that I couldn’t hardly see 5 feet in front of me. We had to slow down from 80 mph to about 30 mph. Cars were even pulling off of the freeway to wait the storm out. From a safety standpoint, I probably should have done the same, but we were under a time crunch to get home. The kids tend to get a little antsy when they’ve been in the car for longer than 16 hours at a time. The craziest part is that I think Dave was actually jealous of the fact that I got to drive in the “fun stuff,” as he put it. Had I not feared that I would drown if I got out of the car, I would have traded places with him right then, but I sucked it up and kept going.

I drove until Holbrook, AZ where we ate dinner. The most drastic altitude change is on the drive into Flagstaff and back down towards Phoenix, so I gave the boys some Motrin and Benadryl to help them sleep and not have any pain in their ears from the altitude. Thankfully it worked great and they were both asleep by the time we got into Flagstaff and slept the rest of the way home. We got home around 10:30 that night. We actually made better time driving home, which was surprising given that we hit a lot of slow traffic as well as a crazy downpour along the way.

All in all, it was a great trip and we can’t wait until next year. Hopefully we won’t have as many “incidents” next year.

Estes Park Trip: June 13, 2009; Day 8

Today was the first really nice day of the trip. Up to this point, the weather had been really cold and cloudy. This morning Dave’s dad came to the cabin early to visit. He made Tyler and Garrett’s days by bringing them doughnut holes, which they ate way too many of. We headed up the mountain by our cabin so that Dave and his dad could take some pictures. We also took a few family pictures in this beautiful outdoor chapel at the top of the mountain.

A little while after we got back to the cabin, we had a rather large visitor. Dave noticed some people parking by our truck and taking pictures, and tried to figure out what was going on. He soon realized that we had a brown bear walking past our cabin. Tyler came to tell me the news and I went outside to see for myself. I’d been wanting to see a bear out there for so long, so I was incredibly excited. I made sure the boys stayed in the cabin and then went out with Dave and got a closer look. Not the smartest thing to do, but the bear was pretty busy tearing apart a bird feeder at the cabin across from us, so we felt fairly safe. Dave got some great pictures, which once I figure out how to load such large pictures into the blog, I’ll be able to share.

Later in the afternoon, we decided to go back into the park and take an easy walk around Sprague Lake. It was a beautiful lake and the boys had a great time seeing people fishing and seeing the ducks. Garrett especially loved the ducks and kept quacking at them. It was so cute! Dave was green with envy at the people he saw that had better cameras and accessories than his. One woman even stopped to talk about her lens with him, which made matters even worse. Especially since we can’t afford the $2,000 price tag for that particular lens. There was also a small wedding going on along the shore of the lake. It was cool, but it was really hard to keep the boys quiet while we were walking by.

We finished the day by having dinner at Dave’s dad’s cabin and then hung out and spent some time visiting with them, since it was our last night in Estes. It was a really great trip, and the boys had such a great time.

Estes Park Trip: Day 7; June 12, 2009

This trip just keeps getting better and better for me. I woke up this morning with a horrible sore throat. Dave said that it was probably strep. I didn’t remember ever having strep, so I didn’t quite know what to expect for symptoms. Upon examining my throat with a flashlight though, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that it was indeed strep. I went to the urgent care center as soon as they opened and the doctor confirmed my suspicions and gave me some antibiotics. I was actually feeling a lot better today than I had yesterday, so my hopes were up that I was getting a little better.

When I got back to the cabin, Dave informed me that the boys had the ride of a lifetime while I was gone. There is quite a bit of construction at the Y right now and when he had taken the boys for a walk, he passed one of the construction worker’s driving by. The boys waved at him and he stopped to talk to them. The guy was apparently really nice and offered to take the boys to see the back hoe he was going to be operating. He not only took them to see it, but he started it up and took them for a drive in it. Tyler was elated. It pretty much has been the highlight of his trip. Garrett liked it too, but he’s not as good at expressing his feelings just yet. The only bad thing was that Dave didn’t have his camera with him.

We took a drive up Trail Ridge Road today. It’s the highest continuous paved road in the country and goes all the way up to the alpine tundra. It’s got incredible views of the Rockies. On past trips we’ve seen various types of wildlife up on the tundra, but this trip the only wild animals we encountered were the boys. Dave’s family went with us that day too and we met them up at the top. The boys were thrilled to play in the snow, although it was a bit short lived. Mommy and Daddy were cold, so we didn’t want to stay outside in the frigid wind for too long.

Now that Tyler is potty trained, it means that we have to take him on regular potty breaks. I made the mistake at some point during the trip of telling him that the outhouses that they have throughout the national park are yucky. I was only trying to get him to keep his hands off of everything. Apparently it has scarred him for life, which meant that he absolutely refused to use the toilets at the top of Trail Ridge Road. Dave’s dad is a psychologist who also does hypnotherapy. Dave tried to convince his dad to hypnotize Tyler, but he instead told Tyler that rather than go potty in the toilet, it is much more fun to make yellow snow. That got his attention and he was bound and determined to do so. We then had to find an inconspicuous spot along somewhere on our way down the road where he could make his yellow snow.

After we got back down to the town, we went for some ice cream and then went back to the cabin. With going up into such high altitude, I started to feel pretty sick again so I took a long nap while everyone ate dinner.

Estes Park Trip: June 11, 2009; Day 6

Today was started out as a pretty rainy day. My mom offered to watch the boys so Dave and I could do some things without the kids. We visited the Stanley Hotel, which was somewhat cool, but definitely not worth the $5.00 they charged us for parking. Especially when we realized that if we had only turned left instead of right when we entered the property, we could have gotten out of paying altogether. The hotel’s historical significance is that Stephen King got his inspiration for The Shining from staying at this hotel. The actual movie was not filmed there, but King did film The Shining miniseries there.

After visiting the hotel, we walked around town for a bit and then went to lunch, then headed back to the cabin. We didn’t do much else throughout the day. We put the boys down for a nap, which Tyler refused to do. We finally gave up on that and Dave took Tyler down to play putt putt golf in the main part of the campus. Once Garrett woke up, my mom, Joe and I met them down there. It was really cute seeing Tyler play golf, although he cheats a lot. Garrett didn’t so much like to play, but he did love dropping the golf balls in the holes. We took the boys to the newly finished playground afterward to get some more energy out of them.

After the playground we took an exploratory drive farther up the mountain on the YMCA property. We found a beautiful outdoor chapel and some great scenic views of the mountains. My mom and Joe took the boys back to the cabin so Dave and I could walk around and take pictures. We finished the evening back at the cabin having leftovers for dinner as well as some vegetables that mom and Joe picked up at the farmer’s market that morning. I woke up this morning with a slight sore throat and by the end of the day I had a fever and was feeling really achy and had the chills, so I ended up going to bed around 6:30.

Estes Park Trip: June 10, 2009; Day 5

This morning got off to a pretty rocky start. Tyler ended up coming to bed with us again last night. This time he slept on my side, which meant that I was kicked all night. He then woke up this morning slightly confused and said “mommy, what are you doing in my bed.” I had to explain to him that he was actually in mommy’s bed.

He and I woke up early with the plan of going to the bakery again for more cinnamon bread and doughnuts. Unfortunately, while I tried to sneak in their room to get his clothes, I woke Garrett up. Incidentally, I ended up taking both boys with me. It turned out to be a nice trip though and Garrett got to eat his first doughnut hole, which he absolutely devoured.

Tonight is stew night and once we got back to the cabin and I had the boys sat down to finish their breakfast, I started preparing the stew to put in the crock pot. Everything pretty much went south when I was chopping the celery to put in the stew. I got about ¼ of the way through chopping it when I also chopped through the tip of my thumb. There was a very loud four-letter word beginning with F that came out of my mouth with that one. Thankfully, I didn’t slice it completely off, as it was hanging on by just a tiny piece of skin. It’s hard to estimate how much I sliced off, but it was more than 1/8th of an inch and less than ¼ inch. My mom freaked out and woke Dave up, who from what he said later, almost debated rolling over and going back to sleep. He bandaged me up and we took a little drive to the Estes Park hospital.

Given that it was only seven thirty in the morning, the waiting room was empty. We walked in the door and never even said a word to the woman at the front desk. She saw my bloody, bandaged thumb and immediately walked us to an exam room. The stay in the ER was fairly quick by our standards, about 2 ½ hours or maybe even less. The doctor removed the remaining tip of my fingernail and stitched my thumbtip back on. I wasn’t watching, but looking at the end result, I think I ended up with about 5 or 6 stitches. Thankfully it’s been numb all day, but the anesthetic is beginning to wear off and I’m starting to feel it a little bit.

This evening, my in-laws came over for their “Thumb” stew. We had a great time and made S’mores and played Scattergories after dinner. Once everyone left, Dave and I stayed up late and played Scrabble with my mom and her boyfriend.

Estes Park Trip Day 4: June 9, 2009; Day 4

We got a somewhat early start on the hiking trail this morning. Dave’s family met us at our cabin a little after nine and we drove to the Beaver Meadows trailhead inside the national park. The trail itself goes 6.5 miles up to Trail Ridge Road, but we only went about a mile and a half, maybe a little more. It was a great hike and we saw a lot of beautiful flowers and I even spotted a wild strawberry patch. I was glad to see that they could grow somewhere, since they don’t seem to like growing in my garden.

We passed an older couple who chatted with us a bit. They were very friendly and even stopped to show describe some of the flowers to us. Garrett was pretty cranky on the hike given that it was nap time, but he eventually gave in and fell asleep in the carrier. He looked so cute in there sleeping. Tyler started to get tired about a mile and a half into the trail, so Dave’s dad hiked back to us and we climbed up to the ridge along the trail to have a snack. It was a beautiful view overlooking Moraine Park and a great view of Long’s Peak. Thankfully our carrier for Garrett can stand on his own, so we found a flat spot and I set him down so he could finish his nap.

We were once again successful at getting both boys to take a nap, so Dave and I also snuck in some much needed naps. The altitude really messes with you up here and makes you really tired.

After naptime, Tyler and I went back down to the Sweet Memorial Building to participate in the parachute games. He loved it, although I wasn’t incredibly thrilled with the fact that some of the games we played required us to crawl around in the grass which had a decent amount of elk and deer scat.

We finished the day with a nice, warm chili dinner followed by apple pie and a rousing game of scrabble.

Estes Park Trip: June 8, 2009; Day 3

This morning was another early morning (6:00). My plan was to wake up early to head into town to this great little bakery for their delicious cinnamon bread. You have to get there really early, otherwise they sell out fast. Tyler woke up at the same time, so he and I went together and got a couple of doughnuts as well as the last loaf of cinnamon bread.

Once we got back and at breakfast, my mom, Tyler and I walked to the little general store on campus and then went to the Sweet Memorial Building. It’s where all of the children’s activities are done. I signed Tyler up for an Animal Detectives activity that started a few minutes after we got there. It wasn’t as exciting as I had hoped and it didn’t hold his attention for long, but it was something to do.

Around lunchtime today we a few visitors. About 6 elk decided to hang out around our cabin. Dave and Tyler even got within about 10 feet of one. I wasn’t thrilled about that, but I didn’t know about it until after the fact. We got some good pictures of them and then they just went and hung out under the trees about 20 or 30 feet from the cabin.

After the kids took their naps, we went on a short hike to Alberta falls. It was pretty cold outside, the temperature was around 50 and it was also pretty cloudy. We weren’t sure how far we would make it on the hike given the sketchy weather, but we managed to get up and down with only a few drizzles. It was our first test to see how far Tyler could make it on a hike. The hike is 1.8 miles round trip with a 165 foot elevation gain. He did great the entire time, although a little slow given the fact that he’s still small. He loved seeing the big waterfall and climbing on all of the rocks. Garrett, on the other hand, was not happy to be in the carrier. Once we got to the waterfall I let him out, but being mister independent wanted absolutely no help trying to walk around on the trail and over the rocks. Given that we were on the side of a cliff next to a waterfall, he didn’t exactly get his way and walk by himself. He threw some pretty good tantrums, but once he had a snack in front of him he was fine. At least until we got up to leave. He screamed and kicked me in the back in his carrier for a few minutes on the way down and then finally calmed down. As long as we just keep moving, he’s pretty much okay.

Estes Park Trip: June 7, 2009; Day 2 (written on day 3)

Today started out really nice. I got up early (5:30 central), partly because I hadn’t slept well the night before and partly because I was excited to get the day going. The best part was that they boys slept in late! We had planned to go to breakfast at one of the restaurants on the YMCA campus and I actually had to go in and wake the boys up in order for us to make it to breakfast on time. Dave, being a horrible morning person, stayed in bed. Once we got back we all went into town to do some grocery shopping and to get my mom a windbreaker. It’s supposed to be somewhat cold and stormy while we’re here and her fleece jacket just wasn’t cutting it.

While mom and I took Garrett grocery shopping, Dave and Tyler went to the hardware store to get a hummingbird feeder and a few other little things. There are so many hummingbirds out here and so we always have a feeder hung up to see them.

The storms rolled in around 1:00 today and the wind picked up and it started snowing! We bundled Tyler up and let him play outside in it. He absolutely loved it!

After lunch, and a failed attempt to get the boys to take a nap, we decided to head into the Rocky Mountain National Park to show my mom around. We also reached our goal of getting the boys to take a nap in the car. My mom napped with them. Once we drove around a bit we decided to take a little hike around Bear Lake. I call it a hike, but it’s really more of just a nature walk. It’s only a half mile around the lake and it’s completely flat, with the exception of a few snow banks that we had to walk over.

Dave’s dad, his stepmother, and brother and sister came to visit us for a little while in the evening and we gave his dad his early Father’s Day Gift.

That night we built a fire, or at least attempted to. It never got going very well. We let Tyler make S’mores for the very first time. He loved them, although we think he liked making them more than eating them. Apparently at some point during the making of the S’mores, I squished one of his marshmallows. I don’t remember doing it, but he woke up three times in the middle of the night crying out loud. I asked him if he was having a bad dream and he said yes. When he finally stopped crying enough to tell me what was wrong, he said that he was crying because I squished his marshmallow. I ended up letting him sleep with Dave and me that night in order to stop his “nightmares.” I have now made a mental note to never squish his marshmallows ever again.

For some reason I can't upload pictures right now. Probably because they're all in RAW and the files are huge. Once I get that figured out, I'll upload the pictures from our trip.

Estes Park Trip: June 6, 2009; Day 1 (written on day 3)

First of all, Dave wanted to make sure that everyone knows that this was written on Day 3 of our trip. The first day of our trip started very, very early. We left the house at 2 a.m. and started the long drive. We met up with my mom along the way and headed north. I went to bed early the night before so that I could drive the first leg of the trip while Dave slept. We hoped that by leaving in the middle of the night that the kids would immediately go to sleep once they got in the car, but they both stayed awake for almost an hour. Tyler stayed up even longer because he was so excited to go to Colorado.

With bathroom breaks and meal breaks, the drive from our house to Estes Park took 17 hours. It was a very long day, but the kids did great. Tyler, who we only started potty training on the 1st did exceptionally well and never had an accident along the way.

Tyler was so excited to go to Colorado, but we learned that he doesn’t realize that there is a state of Colorado and that we were only in Colorado if we were up in the snow. We decided to quit fighting that battle and just go with it.

We arrived at the YMCA campus in Estes Park around 8:00 central time and checked into our cabin. We had requested a couple of cabins that we had scoped out the previous year, but ended up with a cabin on the other side of the campus. We were a little disappointed at first, but it turned out to be just fine. The kids were so excited to finally be out of the car that they ran around the cabin like crazy. They also slept really well that nightJ

This year, since my mom came with us, we got a three bedroom cabin. It was a huge difference from last year when we stayed in the 2 bedroom basic cabin. Dave and I did the math and our cabin last year would fit in the living area of this cabin.

Tyler's 3rd birthday party.

This year we decided to go all out on Tyler's birthday party and rented an inflatable water slide. He absolutely loved it! He and his cousins and friends spent hours sliding down the slide. The adults loved it too! His memory is getting pretty good, but hopefully he won't remember this birthday next year. It would be pretty hard to compete with this party.

Tyler was beyond excited to start sliding down the water slide.

Tyler trying to help Garrett up the back of the slide.

My mom made the mistake of trying to tell my uncle Don that he wouldn't fit inside the bouncer at the back of the slide. She was wrong and he retaliated by throwing her over the slide.

My three boys going having fun together:)

The cake!

Our neighbors (yes, you read that right) got Tyler his first bicycle, complete with gloves and elbow and knee pads. He loves it! We're trying to talk them into buying his first car when he's 16 too;) They are the nicest people and love the kids.
Garrett took some time out from playing in the mud to pose for this adorable picture.

My Cake Gallery...

I finally created a blog account for my cakes, in case you ever want to see what I have made so far. It's www.katiescakesetc.blogspot.com. I've just uploaded a few of the cakes that I have made onto it. I still have more to add, but those were the only pictures I had on my laptop. I'll have more to add after Tyler's birthday party this weekend as well as the Girl Scout cake that I am making.

Happy Birthday Tyler!!

Yesterday was Tyler's 3rd birthday. He's getting to be such a big boy. His big birthday party will be this coming Saturday, but we wanted to still give him a little celebration on his actual birthday. I dug out the inflatable pool and we bbq'd hamburgers and hotdogs. I also made him some cupcakes so we could sing happy birthday. He sang along, of course.

April 16th-21st: Going Green

We started talking about putting in a garden over a year ago and finally got around to doing it. It started out with me planting a container garden of tomatoes and peppers in early April. A few weeks later we finally got around to building our garden. Here are some pictures of our progress. We planted tomatoes, various types of peppers, squash, zucchini, straberries, carrots, okra, and an herb container garden. I'm extremely excited to have okra again. I remember my grandpa always growing okra and it has been forever since I have had it. It took a few days before we were completely done. It was hard to figure out where to get compost in bulk and we had to work around Dave's schedule for him to pick it up.

Phase 1: Digging up the dead sod

Putting the boys to work. Tyler, with his whistle, has obviously taken on the position of foreman.

The finished boxes.

We had to get three yards of compost to fill them.

The end result!

Easter 2009

This year, my grandmother decided that it was time to pass the torch on to me and I hosted my first Easter. We had a very nice brunch at our house, followed by the ever-so-exciting Easter egg hunt. This year was also Garrett's first Easter.

You'll probably notice the abundance of plaid. My cousin Sallie had the idea to have a plaid/madras theme this year, and everyone decided to go with it. Hopefully we won't carry the same tradition into Christmas with korny holiday sweaters.

The table setting.

Uncle Don takes Garrett for his first Easter egg hunt.

He seemed to like eating the eggs more than hunting for them. Thank goodness they were plastic.

Tyler getting some pointers from daddy.


We decided to test out the weight limit on Tyler's airplane. It passed:)

This would be the point where the adult egg hunt got out of hand and eggs were being stolen.

It's not as serious as it looks...

Garrett gave me quite a scare yesterday when he woke up covered head to toe in a horrible rash. It seriously looked like the measles. I, like any rational mother would, freaked out and called Dave, and then the doctor. It turns out that it is was an allergic reaction. The doctor said he most likely has an allergy to penicillin, which he had just finished his amoxicillin the day before. Needless to say, he's not going to die and my heart rate eventually returned to normal.

I do have to say that it absolutely never fails that whenever either of the boys has either an injury or a health problem, Dave is always at work. When Tyler broke out his tooth, Dave was working. When Garrett got the biggest goose egg I've ever seen, Dave was working. When Tyler fell of the jungle gym at the park, Dave was working. And, of course, when Garrett came down with this horrible rash, Dave was working. I really wish the kids would learn to wait until Dave is home to injure themselves or have health problems. It would make my life a lot easier:)

S.O.S. Easter Party

Today we had our Easter party with my mom's group. The boys had a great time "hunting" for their Easter eggs. We really just threw them out in the grass at the park. Garrett didn't really quite get the concept of putting the eggs in his basket, but he had a great time all the same. Tyler couldn't wait to run out and grab his eggs. Especially since they were filled with candy. I even got daddy to come with us today to enjoy the fun.

Happy Birthday Garrett!

This past year has flown by. It's so hard to believe that our little baby is now a toddler! He has grown so much and is definitely all boy. He has the scrapes and bruises to prove it. We wanted to keep his first birthday party somewhat low-key, so we only invited family and a couple of friends. He had a lot of fun at his birthday party, although it was pretty windy. It was during the Luke Days airshow, so we got to see the Thunderbirds fly over the house a few times.

I decided to get a little more technical with his birthday cake and made jungle animals and palm trees out of gumpaste. It was definitely a lot of work, but it was a labor of love and everyone loved it. Garrett even dug into his little cake, which was really a surprise. We had his birthday pictures taken a few weeks prior and he didn't want to have anything to do with the cake that I bought for the pictures. I was really worried that we wouldn't get any cute cake pictures, but thankfully he was a very willing participant.

Given that we were really busy hosting the party and trying to make sure our house didn't blow away, we didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. However, here are a few of the pictures that we did get from his party. Enjoy!

Getting back in the saddle:)

Now that it's February, I should probably try to get caught up on my many New Year's resolutions. One of them being this blog. I had resolved to write in it at least once a week. Obviously, that hasn't happened yet, but today is a good start. Keep an eye out for more blogs as well as family pictures and such.

Not a whole lot of new stuff has happened here lately. The boys are growing more and more every day and even fighting now (lovely). Garrett pretty much doesn't even crawl anymore and Tyler never stops talking. Dave has been fighting a cold since Christmas but finally went back to the doctor today and is on his way to get a chest x-ray. Hopefully we'll be able to get him better very soon. It's not fun having three kids to take care of:) As for me, I'm about four weeks into my Devoted Bodies class at church. After tomorrow's class, I'll be starting my 40 day challenge where I'll be on a very strict diet of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and other sprouted foods. No sugar, caffeine, fat, etc. It should be interesting. My goal in all of this is to feel better, lose weight, and have the energy to keep up with the kids. I'll try to update my progress througout the challenge and beyond.

I've been really bad about taking a lot of pictures lately, but I'll be sure to post some of the boys really soon.