Take Two

Last weekend, we got another run at Ernie's baptism.  This time, we made it healthy and in one piece.  We are so grateful that Ernie's parents made the drive to be here.  It meant so much to Ernie and I know it is not an easy quick trip.  And I am also grateful that my sisters and parents drove ALL the way across town :)

Afterwords we took everyone that came out to Mimi's for brunch.  It was a lot of fun! Thanks again.  We really had a nice day!
And I am so proud of my son Ernie.  He is a remarkable young man.

A Weekend Getaway

Ernie's cousin Nick got married last weekend in Oregon.  He married a darling woman and we are so excited for them.  We were so grateful that my parents watched the kids for the weekend and we flew up.

It was a beautiful wedding. It was cloudy and raining, which is OR pretty much most of the year :), and I thought it made the setting even more picturesque! She looked gorgeous, and they both looked beyond happy. And luckily, with it being an outside wedding, they had enough tent coverage that they didn't get soaked.

Luckily we were under the tent, so we didn't get soaked.  I wish we would have gotten more pictures.  The scenery was breathtaking.

The wedding was Saturday, and on Sunday our flight didn't leave until the evening. We were so glad.  Sunday we were able to slip to church in the morning, and then we headed over to the coast.  We had SOOOO much fun!

Both of us absolutely love the Oregon Coast, and it had been a few years since we had been there together. 

I have always wanted to go whale watching, and have never gone.  So figured, why not?

It was not the best weather to see whales because of the clouds and rain, but we had so much fun! And we still

saw a ton of stuff.

 We were definitely not prepared weather wise because we really didn't think we were going to have time to go over to the coast.  So we both ended up with OR jackets.  We are definitely official tourists now. 

So, Ernie snagged a picture of the best mullet either of us have ever seen.  This picture does not do it justice.

After we were done with the boat, we grabbed something to eat at Mo's. (We enjoyed Mo's, but I wish we had had time to go to Depot Bay and go to The Sea Hag. MMmmmmmm.)

So the last time we were in OR, my sister Nat came with us.  She and Ernie shared fish n chips a lot.  Every. Single. Meal.

So, this is a picture mostly for her. 

What a great weekend! And don't worry, I'm pretty sure the kids didn't miss us at all.

Basketball

This summer Big E coached little Ernie's basketball team. (Well, it started in the summer, but they just had their last game a week ago.) They had so much fun! The kids had a blast learning, and Ernie did such a great job with them.  He was so patient as these little youngsters learned the game. I am so grateful that I have such an involved parent.  He is really an awesome dad.

Remember the Sicko?

So, remember the little guy in the picture from my last post that wasn't looking like he was feeling so great? Well, by  Monday things really headed south and we ended up here:

Well, let me back up a little and give you a better idea of what lead to that.

Wow, what a weekend.  It definitely did not go as planned.  As you can imagine, I was VERY stressed the whole weekend, but tried to appear as calm as possible.  I hope I was at least kind of successful at appearing to be somewhat put together.

First of all, I figured out a valuable lesson. I hate quick care places! At least here in Vegas. The stupid doc, or MA, or whatever she was told me that she was worried that Ernie had appendicitis. That or the flu.

He hadn't actually thrown up anything in a few days at that point.  So we decided to hope it was the latter and he was still just fatigued from it.  If his symptoms did not improve, then I needed to take him right in to the E.R.

SO, we gave it another day.

We even tried to do something fun with Ernie's parents. We went to the Sigfried and Roy Magic Forest.  (Which is actually really fun, and I can't wait to go back and actually enjoy it!)

Here are the adorable dolphins.  SO fun to watch! I really would love to swim with some someday. 

Another stop to attempt getting Ernie hydrated. And it was pretty hot, so we didn't mind the refreshment.

More dolphin watching

And some more.

There was much more to see, but I was so worried about Ernie when he wouldn't even walk, and was lifeless and in a ton of pain. 

SO......

We ended up in the ER. The poor kid got an IV. (Well, he got an IV after THREE tries! Poor kiddo.  He was such a trooper though!)

Luckily, the second the doctor saw him, he informed me he did not have appendicitis.  Not even close. Phew!! And that was before any tests.  Sure enough, he was severely dehydrated, and luckily that is very curable.

After he was feeling better, he requested french toast from Mimi's Cafe.  We were happy to oblige and thrilled that he felt like eating something!

Here is his first bite of food in a few days.  What a relief!

There is NOTHING worse as a mom than feeling completely helpless when your child is ill.

It was quite the weekend.  But like one one of my friends said, there is nothing like a good story at the end of all of this, right?

What Should Have Been

Ernie was supposed to get baptized over the Labor Day Weekend.  Ernie's parents, his sister Amanda and her family, my sister Co and her husband from Boston, and my sister Nat and her husband Mark all came into town to show their love and support.  Oh, and our awesome friends, the Vetters from Lake Havasu.  The Thursday before, Ernie got sick. I mean all night, couldn't even keep down liquids sick.  He seemed WAY better on Friday morning, and so we didn't call if off.  He was doing well all day actually.  And then Friday night it all began again.

We weren't quite sure what to do, since it was in the middle of the night.  Saturday morning, we were hoping that he could just push through it and since everyone was here we could just make it work.  Saturday morning, he looked horrible, and there was no way we could make it work. 
Everyone was there, and we had a ton of food.  SO we figured, why not still have everyone over to celebrate what would have been?

Here is a bunch of the group eating lunch.

Some more of the group enjoying the BBQ.

Layne bonding with MayLee.

My brother in law Justin loves card games and this was a perfect gathering to have people play with him.

The sick little guy.  He was quarantined to our room most of the time, but I finally felt guilty and let him come hang out for a while.  I'm so glad I did, he looks like he is having such a great time, doesn't he?

Since Ernie couldn't pose with his cake, his Aunt Amanda graciously offered to take his place.

Well, congrats on your now future event.

Logan racing a Lego ship down the stairs.  He won.

That night we were supposed to get a sitter and hang out with the adults, but circumstances didn't allow it.  I am actually glad.  I had a lot of fun hanging out with my nephews.

Here is Caleb with his cousin Jackson. Caleb is still into the whole posing thing in order for me to be allowed to get a picture of him.  Jackson was very willing to adhere to his stipulations.

Andrew wanted a posing picture as well. 

Well, it wasn't quite the weekend we had planned on. But we had a good time nonetheless and I am SO glad everyone came.   Thanks you everyone! We appreciate all of you.

And the Vetter's are a blast, and we had so much fun that they are officially invited to all of our family gatherings!

One Year Older and Wiser Too

So, my son turned 8. I know, I know.  I am nearly a month behind.  His birthday was August 30th. He such a funny kid.  We love how determined and motivated he is.  Teachers always adore him, and kids always want to be around him.  He loves to read.  (Especially the Harry Potter series right now.)  He loves all sports. This year he has played tennis, baseball, and basketball.  His favorite thing to do when he has free time is to write stories.  He has notebooks full of elaborate stories, sometimes with artwork to go with it.  He is thoughtful, and has an emotional depth that I can't even believe possible for a young boy. I love the conversations that come when he asks questions and wants to understand more. I know without a doubt that he is going to be amazingly successful and I pray every day for the ability to be the right kind of mother for someone that is surely destined to do many great things. We love this kid!

We had a birthday party for him at the bowling alley with about 10 kids, and everyone had a blast!

The big 8 year old.

Some of the kids.

Pictures were difficult because they were having so much fun bowling.  But, every once in a while I got a semi- decent one.

I thought I got pictures of the cake, etc.  Apparently I didn't.

His actual birthday was the first day of school, and this was the Saturday before that.  Great birthday present, right? Actually for him, it was! He LOVES school and was thrilled that he could spend his special day at school! And he got to bring donuts in, so he made friends right away :)

And for dinner, we planned to do something elaborate and exciting.  He wanted to order pizza and get ice cream from McDonald's.  Hey, and who am I to argue that?