Multiply and Replenish the Earth

The title of this blog post aptly describes a phrase that kept going through my head this past week while we were on spring break.  We went to Moab for spring break with 6 other families.  It was a ton of fun, and we all got quite the chuckle out of seeing so many kids run around.  In total there were 22 kids between the 7 families that went.  That's a ton of kids in one place.  It was pure heaven for the kids getting dirty, climbing on rocks, rolling in dirt, catching lizards, eating dirt, exploring, wearing dirt, riding bikes, digging in dirt, eating marshmallows, oh, and did I mention how much they loved playing in the dirt?  I will have more photos of that in a bit.

Lisa decided earlier that she wanted to take the trailer down to Moab on Tuesday and let the kids play since they were out of school.  The plan was for her to caravan down on Tuesday with the other Calderwood's in our neighborhood, and then I would meet up with them Wednesday night after work.  We spent the previous Saturday driving around town so she could get a feel for towing the trailer.  We even went to the school parking lot for her to practice backing up the trailer.  She performed like a champ.  Tuesday morning arrived and this is the photo I took of her pulling away.  It was raining in Midway and snowing in Park City, but she was headed to warmer weather.

Lisa arrived in Moab with no problems, and I was jealously stuck at home.  She and Corey Calderwood were able to secure enough campsites in the Sand Flats area for all the friends that were coming down the next day.  It ended up being the ideal location for all the families and the bundles of kids.  We were off the main road, so the kids could run around without fear of the cars.  There were hills, caves, trees, lizards, sand and more to keep the kids entertained for hours.  Here is a view of our campsite that she staked out for us.

And Corey's campsite just below ours.

We had awesome views of the La Sal mountains to the east of us.

The boys didn't waste any time jumping in the sand and playing with their sand toys.

The trailer worked great (except for the first night when the heat went out on Lisa).

Lisa went into Arches with the other Calderwoods on Wednesday.  The kids always enjoy a quick run through Arches National Park.

Tucker and Cody.

Poor Cole went to bed that night with what appears to be pink eye.  His eyes got all goopy and sealed shut.  He improved as the week went along was a happy camper.

I was able to hitch a ride down with the Ashursts on Wednesday night after work.  It was great to finally arrive.  Thursday morning I tried to fix the heater situation.  After a few hours of tinkering around and trying to discover the problem, I found that it was as simple as a bad battery.  I went into Moab and bought a new one and the heater worked great every night after that.  We only needed the heater at night because it would get up to the upper 70's during the day, but would drop down into the 40's at night. 
Lisa putting our stove to use making some delicious bacon.

Tucker only cared about one thing while we were down there: lizards.  He wanted to catch lizards so badly.  He and Sterling were constantly looking and hunting for more.

He even packed away his little fish aquarium on his own in preparation for their lizards.

We didn't do as many hard core activities this time around because the kids were so happy just hanging around the campsite playing with all the other kids.

 

That afternoon I took Lisa and our friend Jessica for a bike ride on the Slick Rock trail practice loop. It is under 3 miles, but still really fun.  It was Lisa's first time on a mountain bike since her tumor surgery last year.  She was excited to hit the trails again.

When you are the one taking the photos you don't get a lot of pictures of yourself.  So while I was waiting for Lisa, I took this self portrait of myself.  Yup.  I'm handsome.

That night I cooked up some dutch oven chicken and potatoes for a bunch of us.  I must say, they turned out delicious.  It was a lot of work running the four dutch ovens at once, but it was worth it.  Everyone who ate it seemed to enjoy it.

After dinner, we did s'mores.  The kids devoured them.  They were in heaven.

We would put the kids on the bunk beds and double them up some nights out of convenience.  They are still small enough that we can stick two to a bed.  It's always satisfying to see your kids be kind to each other and express their affection.  Especially Cole, who has a tendency to be kind of grumpy.

On Friday We headed down to the Needles overlook with Jaron, Angie and Winston.  The views at Island in the Sky are probably better, but it was still cool to be perched on those cliffs looking down on everything.

We took Sterling along with us. We had an extra seat available since Aubrey wanted to ride with Winston in Jaron's truck.  Sterling and Tucker were funny together.  When they weren't looking for lizards, they were playing games, like balance on the rocks that bordered the trail.

I couldn't stop thinking about climbing up and over this roof that was right by the lookout.  Maybe back in the day when I was in climbing shape.

More happy kids.

Unfortunately I set a bad example to the kids when I went out on this ledge to get some awesome photos.  Jaron jumped out there too.  We enjoyed the heights and took some killer photos of each other.

Back at the trailer playing some games.  That's my Dew, not the kids', in case you were wondering.

Jaron turned 32 on Thursday, so Angie made him some delicious brownies to celebrate his birthday and Aubrey's on Saturday.  We counted out 32 candles for him.

We sang happy birthday to the two of them and then let them blow out the candles.

As I mentioned, Aubrey turned 6 on Saturday.  She received the rest of her gifts as she woke up that morning.  I can't believe she is 6 years old now.  She was so excited to spend her birthday in Moab.

After breakfast we took the kids rock climbing at Wall Street.

Aubrey and Tucker did awesome this year.  They are fearless now and can really scale up the rocks quickly.  It's cool to see their progress.

Jaron backed his truck up to mine and we created somewhat of a play pen for the kids.

Joe and his family came down a little later and set up a second rope.  We had kids climbing all over the rocks.

That afternoon we decided to take the kids on a short bike ride, 3.5 miles.  Part of Aubrey's birthday present was a new bike.  It was a cool site to see all those kids in single file line.

I didn't take my camera with me, but Jaron took this cool photo at the end of our ride.  From left to right: Jessica, Winter, Winston, Joe, Aubrey, Sterling, Ginger, Cody, Tucker.

That night we roasted more marshmallows.  We were treated to an awesome sunset.

Jessica likes big fires, so we had the kids pile the wood high.  I think she was happy.

 

Sunday morning we packed up and headed home.  On the way home we headed into Canyonlands National Park, the northern portion of Island in the Sky.  We took a little hike with the kids out to Mesa arch.  Great scenery, and an easy hike for even Blake.

 The views through the arch are pretty awesome.  We really like the photo from some photographers where they capture the sun rising over the La Sal's through the arch.

I climbed up on top with Tucker and Aubrey.  They thought that was so cool.

 

On the way out Lisa took this photo of Aubrey's footprint.  Her shoes left little star designs in the sand that Lisa really liked.

After Mesa arch, we went to the Grand View lookout.  You can see the Colorado river in the distance in this photo.

 Then we went to the Green River overlook.  That is the Green River in this photo.  In the middle of the park the two rivers join.  Then it's a wild ride through cataract canyon until you arrive at Lake Powell.  We are so lucky to live so near this amazing terrain and scenery.

  Unfortunately on the way home the awning tore right off the trailer as we were going up Price Canyon.  That sucks badly, but what can we do?  I had to pull over and remove the remaining posts that were flapping around.  Boooo! 

Other than that it was a great spring break that I'm sure the kids will remember for years to come.

Easter Sunday

I planted my first bulbs last fall, daffodils. The deer eat almost everything, but they don't like daffodils. My plants have been popping up a lot over the past few weeks with the warm weather. Sunday  morning my first bud bloomed a little. 

 We invited my parents, Grandpa Foster and Cody's sister and her husband up for dinner. Aubrey's birthday is this week so she was able to open some presents early.

 My Mom made her a darling ballet skirt and a bunch of clothes for her American Girl doll.

 My sister moved to Washington over the weekend and we were able to Skype with her for a little while.

 Chris, Kristin and Cody enjoying the outdoors.

 An Easter miracle. My daffodil bloomed for me by afternoons end. I love it and can't wait until they are all in bloom. Maybe someday I'll plant tulips, but deer love them and they don't last long around here. Hair and soap haven't worked for us yet.

Ballet and Benedryl

Aubrey started a ballet class in December and last week were pictures. We had to figure out the ballet bun and makeup. She looked so pretty all dolled up. Her costume is called the Ice Queen, and she has a wand that she dances with. Her first little performance is in a couple months. 

I should receive the worst mother of the year award. Last Thursday I was eating some peanut M&M's and picked up the kids from school. All my kids are allergic to peanuts except Cole (although we treat him like he is allergic). Aubrey and Tucker understand their allergy and are pretty good at asking if there are peanuts in things. We have Epi pens all over our house and in our vehicles. Well, dumb me, my kids wanted some of my treats in the car. I gave Aubrey one M&M, thinking I'd just keep my eye on her and see what happens. I know Tucker's allergy is severe, but wasn't sure about hers. Blake wanted one too, so I shared with him as well. I've never fed him peanuts ever, but he did test positive for a peanut allergy. Well, 2 hours later, Blake starts coughing and wheezing and wouldn't eat his lunch. I could tell that something was wrong with him. I figured it was from the peanut, but was surprised that it took so long for symptoms to appear. Tucker's always appeared within 30 minutes. I quickly gave him Benadryl and prayed a lot that he would be all right. After a round of the nebulizer he was calm enough to take a nap. Before that, this is what he looked like. Poor kid was red all over and itching like crazy. I am horrible. I knowingly gave my child something that very well could have killed him. Thank goodness for medicine and prayers. I would have given him an Epi pen if his symptoms didn't get better, but I was so worried and felt so dumb about my mistake. Who wants to take their child to the hospital and explain that they know they have an allergy, but I gave them something with it anyway. Talk about a way to get DCFS involved.

Unfortunately for Blake, he had another reaction on Saturday. My kids went to an Easter Egg hunt and some of the eggs contained Snickers Bars. I thought I had gotten rid of all of them, but later that night Blake was reacting again. I gave him Benadryl, gave him a bath, nebulizer and was rocking him when he threw up all over me a few times. Not a pretty sight. Thankfully he was much better after that. I didn't see him ingest peanuts, but that had to have been it. I obviously need to keep a better eye and watch my children. After much prayer and thanksgiving to my Heavenly Father I am committed to not buying peanut things anymore. That doesn't mean I won't eat peanut M&M's if they are available to me, but I won't be purchasing them and eating them in front of my kids.

 Feeling miserable, but still manages a grin for the camera.

Grrr. Sideways videos

Tucker and Aubrey skiing at Deer Valley yesterday. Sorry the videos are sideways. I thought I was filming correctly, but obviously I wasn't.

Ski Day at Deer Valley

Tucker and Aubrey had school off today, so I previously scheduled to close my office in order to take them skiing.  I had 4 tickets left for Deer Valley this season that we needed to use, so we made a great day out of it.  We started the morning off with the amazing french toast at Kneaders for our breakfast.  So delicious.

It's quite the chore getting little kids dressed and geared up for skiing.  After what seemed like 15 minutes in the parking lot, we were finally ready to go ride up on the gondola.

Tucker and Lisa sitting in the gondola.

Aubrey and me.

We decided that Aubrey still needed to get her ski legs back under her so we headed over to the magic carpet ride for a few runs until she got warmed up.

They had these gates and hoops for the kids to ski through.  Aubrey started getting back in a groove in no time.

Lisa and I had fun ducking under each one as we followed the kids.

Once we were convinced that Aubrey was ready to go we headed up on the mountain.  Tucker is still a great skier and does blues and double blues with no problem so he had fun playing around with the magic carpet runs.  

Aubrey still struggled with turning and making the wide s-turns on the mountain.  It took us a couple of runs until we figured out some terms that she could understand.  When I finally started to tell her to go sideways, it's like the light went on in her head.  After that she was great.

Lisa in her new puffy coat she bought this winter.  We have finally outfitted her sufficiently so that she doesn't feel cold when we go skiing.  That, in my opinion, is quite the accomplishment.  Ever since her brain tumor surgery, she is always cold.  Well, I shouldn't say always, because she was quite warm and comfy today with her snazzy coat.

Tucker doesn't like any wind in his face so he pulls his neck gator up to cover every last square inch of his face. He's kind of a funny sight.

Here are a couple of family photos with half of our children.  Next year we will start Cole.  And then a year or two after that we will be ready for Blake.  I'm excited for the day when we can go skiing with all of our children.  And I'm even more excited for the day when all of our kids can keep up with us.  It's been something I've been looking forward to for a long time.  Some of my favorite memories growing up were of ski days with my whole family.

As you can tell from the photos, the weather and temperatures were great.  I was afraid it was going to be spring skiing conditions, but with the storms over the weekend and the low temps, it felt like prime winter skiing to us.  A gorgeous blue bird day on the mountain.  Not much more you can ask for.

Multiple Extractions

Poor Tucker is taking after his mom with his his dental woes.  He has severe crowding of his teeth (much like Lisa did when she was young).  There is no room for his adult teeth to come in.  I recently met with my orthodontist to consult what our options were.  Here is the x-ray of his face that shows how crowded everything is.

His orthodontist and I agreed that we needed to extract 3 teeth immediately to allow some of his permanent teeth to come in.  In about 6-12 months once his permanent molars are in, we will then do a platal expander and some brackets.  So I brought him in to my office, numbed him up and extracted #M, N, and R.   Dude was a champ.  Didn't whine or cry at all.  He does now have a gapped smile, but we think he's still cute.

He was so proud of his 3 teeth and was extremely excited for the tooth fairy to come.  He even left the tooth fairy a note asking if he could leave the teeth behind so he could show them to his friends.  This tooth fairy was more than happy to comply.

You can see that the three roots were no where near resorbed, so there was no way they were going to come out on their own.

No Mo CheMo!

I had an MRI a couple days after we returned from Mexico and also started my last round of chemotherapy. My MRI looked great. No sign of tumor growth. It was a week of celebrating with chemo ending. The trip was just what I needed/again and now I'm hoping I'm returning to my new normal state - sans chemo drugs in my body.

Dressed for my MRI.

About to enter the MRI machine.

 My last 3 pills.

 Award I was given along with a bag of rice to warm up or freeze for aches and pains.

 I also saw my ENT last week for a tube check. Remember I had tubes placed in my ears last spring. The tubes fixed my original ear problem and my trips to the ocean have been good. The tubes will probably fall out in 6 months to a year. Then I'm hoping my ears will be fine still and I won't have to get new ones. I am not a fan of my ear plugs and didn't wear them at all in Mexico and only parttime in Hawaii. I like to be able to hear.

I made a slideshow video showing my life over the past year.It's on youtube but I couldn't get it to upload on the blog, so go to the link. It's almost 10 minutes and has music to the pictures. If you are on facebook, you've probably seen it, if not, enjoy.

http://youtu.be/e7qXu59PG0s

Yesterday I went to see a gastroenterologist to see if I have an ulcer or other problem. I've had horrible bouts of heartburn over the past 6 months that my oncologist can't explain. My doctor is really nice and prescribed a new drug and told me to stop taking another. I'll go back in a month to make sure I'm improving.

I thought I'd add part of a blog post I started last fall. It shows that this has not been easy for me and I have not always bore it with a smile on my face.

"I have so many thoughts and feelings that roll through my head daily. I decided it’s time to just get them out there, besides in my daily journal. Keep in mind that I’m writing this on a “not so good” day, so I may be more negative than I typically am. But don’t interpret that as me giving up, I’m not, I just need to vent. I started to write this a month ago, during/after my last chemo cycle, began to feel better and then decided to not post. Now I feel crappy again and it’s much easier to complain when you feel sick.

This is one of the main things I wanted to write about. So many people compliment me on my positive attitude throughout this cancer challenge. Well, let me tell you that I am not always positive. I try to think/stay positive, but bottom line – CANCER SUCKS!! Bigtime. The diagnosis, the surgery, treatments, prognosis’, side effects, and the just not knowing. I hate my bad days. I feel lousy, like a horrible wife and mother and I just want to sit around and sleep and make the pain/uncomfortableness go away. I have medicine, and I take it, but it doesn’t always work when I need it to. Give me a couple days, and I will probably feel like my “new” old self but today, I’m too sick to exercise, and I want to curl up on my bed, forget about my kids/duties/responsibilities and sleep or watch netflix.

I’m super bugged that after 5 months of maintenance chemo, my body is not on a regular side effect schedule. I try to plan what life I have around when I’ll be feeling good, but that has been different every month. And, on top of that, I legally wasn’t supposed to drive for most of this year. I’d be lying if I told you I was strict and didn’t. But, I do have a life, kids, a husband and errands I need to run. I try not to go too far (stay in my valley), but I have driven down the canyon a couple times. I have wonderful family and friends that have helped me so much during the year, but I get sick of having to ask for so much. Good news is, I am seizure free for now, hopefully forever. One small miracle at a time."

Just a small glimpse into my life. I'll update as the months go on as to how I'm doing. Thanks again all you readers for your support for myself and my family.