Jammed Packed

We just got back from an absolutely fabulous (and absolutely exhausting)

  Spring Break vacation.

We started out driving to Vegas to stay one last time in my

parent's home. They are selling it and it closes later this week.

(They've been splitting their time with their home here in Idaho).

 Then it was off to sunny California-- perfect weather

for the beach and for everything else.

Except driving that is.

Don't even get me started.

 Sunday evening Byron flew home

and we (along with my one of my closest girlfriends, Anita

who met up with us from Arizona) drove down the coast

to have dinner with a buddy of mine from my single days-

Scott McGregor and his wife, Annique.

 Let's see, the next day, we just  had to have In and Out--

I believe that's required if you are in So. Cal.

At least that's what my kids say.

 Monday night we hooked up with one of my favorite

photographers I worked with at KPNX in Phoenix

and at KCBS in L.A.-- Rob Macey and his family.

 We went to a place called Boomer's in Irvine-

rode rides, (as you can see, Kean likes the ride part)

 played games... (that's Rob in the red)

and hit the Go Carts several times.

 Kean was a little obsessed and quite serious about

driving the Go Carts.

Tuesday morning, bright and early, we headed to Legoland.

 We met up with this crew-- Les Rose and his family.

Les and I worked together at KCBS.  He now shoots

many of those wonderful Steve Hartman (On the Road)

 stories for the CBS Evening News.

Les's boys, Robert and Christopher have spent five summer

camps (and are now counselors) at Legoland.

We couldn't have asked for better tour guides.

They knew everything and even some of the top designers

at the park.

Once again, we were quite spoiled.

Kean was in heaven-- at least while he was on the rides.

 And the girls had a grand time hamming it up.

 I loved how the park had "down time" built in - time for 

the kids to build.

 The park is definitely geared toward the younger set--

I think this was Kean's best day of vacation.

 And who wouldn't have a blast with these two as your escorts.

Check out Kean on probably his favorite ride-- while Les and I watched.

I'm happy to say we all loved Legoland.

And this is only part of our Spring Break.

I'll post the rest later.  

I apologize for the length but really,

this is for me to try and remember all

the sweet moments.
I'd say these kids have earned this break!

So Good

Three days down and all is still good.

In fact, I swear he already looks and acts healthier.

His eyes seem brighter.

He no longer frequently grimaces in pain and he is talking up a storm.  

He even without prompting calls his

aid by her name.  Well sort of.

Her name is Mrs. Baker and he just calls her "Baker".

I don't know why I find that so hysterical.  But to think of

him throughout his morning referring over and over again to her as "Baker"

makes me laugh.

Greer made this poster for Kean-- of all his favorite things:

Maximus from Tangled, a motorcycle, bacon-- you get the idea.

He's coming home each day-- happy but completely exhausted.

 And Holland and Kean didn't set out today to be twins.

 But they somehow dressed alike- only Kean

wanted nothing to do with taking pictures.

 And everything to do with giving his "Hottie" kisses.

 Life is so good.
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot.
We were on TV again.
This time not about Baldapalooza--
but about vaccinations.
An interview we did a while back hit the airwaves today.
http://www.scrippsmedia.com/kivitv/news/Mom-of-chemo-patient-We-dont-get-that-choice-for-vaccinations-327848201.html

Listen Up!

Okay, we are in crunch time.

Baldapalooza is this Saturday

(get your tickets now they go up at the gate:

 www.baldapalooza.org).

This week has been a whirlwind

trying to keep up with life and do our media blitz.

Last night our local NBC station did

a beautiful story on our Hall of Heroes

(what our first Baldapalooza raised money for).

Trust me, it is worth watching-- you'll totally understand

why we kill ourselves off for this event.

http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/local/outreach/sevens-hero/2015/08/26/wall--heroes-gives-hope--families-fighting-cancer/32365161/

And then this morning, I should say, well before 

the sun came up, I went on our local ABC station

to talk about Balda.

 This time, I got to be on with the Runaway Hamsters.

Triplets and an older sister who had a hit with a song 

they wrote for a classmate fighting cancer.

These cuties will be our very first act after the gates open.

Thankfully, my mom came over to get the girls off to school

and love on Kean.

Somehow, she even got him to eat a little bit.

Good thing, since I failed to get him to eat much the rest of today.

I wish he could understand that this is the last week (we hope)

he will feel this ultra lousy.

18 days left, 18 days.

Hello Hollywood!

I tell ya.

This boy.

Kean will be starring on the news again.

We got interviewed

this morning by the local ABC station (Spencer Blake)

about Kean going back to school while very behind on his

immunizations due to his cancer.

We don't have an air date but will let you know when we know.

 Then this afternoon, Kean's "birthday week" continued.

Elly and Ron Moomey brought over a present.

 And boy, oh boy, did Kean have a grand time

unwrapping this one.

 Elly bought him some back to school clothes.

 And of course, we had to have him try the clothes on

and model.

I totally think he's ready for GAP.

 I don't know about you, but I think he's ready.

We just have to get this last month of Chemo behind him

so he can go. to. school!

Back In the Saddle

Back to the old anchor desk today.

Our local NBC affiliate had me on air this afternoon

to talk about Baldapalooza.

 The anchors, Carolyn and Dee, couldn't have been more gracious.

 And it was great to get the word out

on Baldapalooza and...

our headliner, Andy Grammer.

His current hit, "Honey I'm Good" is #17 on the Top 100 Songs in the country

(Billboard).

He's on fire and we sure are excited.

Here's his song if you want to hear it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go7gn6dugu0

Get your tickets now:

www.baldapalooza.org.  

Back In Time

Want to hear something absolutely crazy?

I got a call today from the state telling me they need to test

Kean again now that he is five.

Basically, they have to make sure he is still developmentally delayed

so he still qualifies for all the therapy he gets.

What, do they think he just outgrew his Down syndrome?

And how do they expect to test him?

They want to do an IQ test.

Please tell me how they are going to do that.

What a waste of money.

How sad they have to do these things to combat all the fraud out there.

But still.....

Kean had a full house this morning.

He had Physical Therapy with Andrea and didn't really want to do anything for her

until we started getting him to play ball and run the "bases".

Then it was all fun and games. 

He also got measured for new braces for his feet/ankles

while his Occupational Therapist, Maureen tried to keep 

him busy.

He gets new braces in two weeks-- that's good-- that means

his feet have finally grown.

Now if we could get those skinny ankles to put on some weight.

And finally, while Boy Wonder napped, I got to go

down to the girls' school and speak to their publications class

about journalism.

It was great fun, telling stories, talking about writing, visuals

and even showing an old investigation from my days in L.A.

How appropriate for Throwback Thursday.

I miss this gang.

Candid Camera

I'm thinking I'm lucky to be able to write a 

somewhat coherent sentence this evening.

Up at 3:45 a.m. for media coverage for

Baldapalooza.

 We were live at the park with the morning weatherman from 

the local NBC affiliate, KTVB.

He did 24 hits from our little set up (5 a.m. until 9:30).

We had two of our artists there-- Mossi

and Waking Jordan (below).

And as an added bonus, after all these years 

off air-- I didn't make a fool of myself!

And we get to do it all again on Friday

with the boy band Beyond 5 at the local ABC affiliate. 

Party Animals

You know 2014 is off to a good start when a hot air balloon

lands on the other side of our pasture.

We had a rockin' night welcoming in the new year.

Let's see, we watched the Barbie's Best Christmas Ever DVD.

Then had a bit of sparkling apple juice and homemade cinnamon rolls.

 My girls thought they were so sophisticated drinking from 

champagne glasses...

can't say I've seen very many ladies drinking with straws.

I lasted until 11:30.  

Those crazy girls made it to midnight.

Don't we all wish we had their energy?

 You know how they do those throw back Thursdays?

This will have to be a way back Wednesday.

My friend Debby posted this on Facebook earlier today.

It's me (with bad eighties hair) from my first reporting job

at KVBC in Las Vegas.

I was sent to report live from on top of the Union Plaza hotel

overlooking downtown Vegas for New Year's.

I'm guessing this was around 1989 (hence, the hair).

If you are a sports fan, the guy on the right is Colin Cowherd

from ESPN.

Ah, we were sooo young.

The Reluctant Star

Guess where we were this afternoon?

The hospital.

But not for anything scary.

Well, too scary anyway.

Last February, Kean was one of six children who served as inspiration

for the participants in the Boise State Dance Marathon.

The students were raising money for the Children's Miracle Network and St. Luke's.

Today they were shooting a promo video for their next event and asked

if they could get some video of the Keanut man.



 Let's just say he wasn't the most cooperative of subjects.

In fact, he was kind of grouchy.

Blame it on those dang steroids and the fact that they shot the video in the very room

where we spent over a month of our lives when Kean was first diagnosed.

The most traumatic month of our lives.

Talk about freaky--- thankfully, there wasn't a crib in there.  That might

have put Kean over the edge.

 This is how he was most of the shoot--- he didn't want to sit and look cute.

He threw or pushed away just about any toy or item given to him.

It was loads of fun (she said sarcastically).

I'm certain both of us will sleep well tonight.

 Here are the two cute "kids" who were overseeing things today.

Nick and Sidney are both BSU students and not only were they great

to work with... but thankfully, they were patient!

Flapping Lips and Talking Heads

Hard to believe it has been 14 years since I've been on a TV set.

Wanna know what's even scarier? 

The cool guy next to me, Kelly (lead singer from Waking Jordan)

is exactly, yep, exactly 20 years my junior.



The interview went great.

I didn't feel nervous.  It was just fun.

Carolyn Holly was delightful and genuine.

We talked about Keanut and how the band Waking Jordan is named after

Kelly's brother with special needs.

We talked about Baldapalooza and what the money will go for--

but get this, we never, ever mentioned who are headliners will be--

the three stand out artists from the TV show The Voice that airs on this channel!

We got plenty of time... but ran out of time before we got to it.

Oh well.

It was a nice warm up for -- forget Shark Week-- Media Week.

Tomorrow Waking Jordan is on The River 94.9 at 8:30.

Wednesday morning, I'll join the band on the local ABC affil's morning news at around 6:40.

And that's just the start of the week.
Oh, I have to mention, the best part of the interview was after it was over, this lady who was waiting
to be interviewed later in the show, came up and put a fifty dollar bill in my hand and said
it was for Baldapalooza.
(I later found out she was there to talk about a fundraiser of her own in Idaho City)
Amazing.  Just amazing.

p.s.  I've got tickets at my house if anyone wants to buy some.