Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts

Thursday, May 18, 2017

The Most Thrilling Gift

You won't believe what came in the mail today...
 one thing that absolutely made this boy smile.
 No, make that giggle...
and try and kiss the gift.
 An autographed photo from none other than THE CURIOUS GEORGE!
Actually, it is signed by Frank Welker himself,
the guy who has voiced countless movie and cartoon characters--
but most importantly (to Kean anyway) Curious George.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Leslie Lamers!
You have made one little boy incredibly happy
(and one mom incredibly touched)!

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Land of the Shining Mountains

Nothing like blogging about our family vacation nearly two months after the fact!
It may not be timely but we sure had a phenomenal trip.
We went with our close friends, the Borup's to Montana.
We visited the old farm where Byron grew up...
 We spent time with his mom, Grandma Kay
and some dear friends, the Morgan's.
 We strolled the quaint streets of Byron's hometown, Big Fork.
 And then headed up into Glacier Park for a couple of days.
 We all had fun taking family pics with the stunning scenery
behind us in every picture.
The Borup's were so much fun to be with 
and get this, they still are our friends after spending that 
many days with us in our camp trailer!!!
 We hiked up about half way to where Byron was chased
by a grizzly bear years ago.  If you haven't
heard his crazy story, you should.  That bear had him
and for some reason, let him go.
 We also oohed and awed over
some of the sites.  It was so pretty, it
almost looked fake.
 We walked the shores of the lake in the rain.
But that didn't stop us from spending a good half hour
seeing who could skip rocks the farthest.
 This boy.
He loved, loved being outside
and got a good work out nearly every day.
 We love visiting Glacier in the fall...
 Even though several of the hotels and lodges are closed,
it is as if we have the whole park nearly to ourselves.
 And there is a picture perfect picture to take
nearly everywhere you turn.
 Outside the park, we visited White Fish Lake...
gorgeous.
 Swan Lake...
gorgeous.
 And Holland Lake.
Yep, that's right.
Holland has her own personal lake.
Or at least she thinks so.
 And yes...
gorgeous.
We love Montana.
In fact, I think, Byron would move back in a minute.
Uh, not gonna happen.
I'd be the first white cross on the side of the road...
Too cold.
Gorgeous but too cold.

Monday, September 19, 2016

The Huge Highs and the Little Lows

It is funny, I used to be so good about making near daily
posts on this blog.  Now that Kean is finished with treatment
(and hopefully cancer forever) I'm lucky if I check in once a week.
So here goes:  our week in review-- and what a week it has been.
We had a church/neighborhood Rodeo-- the real thing.
From 3 legged races...
 to jump houses that Kean didn't ever want to leave...
 to massive egg toss competitions (come now, doesn't every
rodeo have an egg toss)?
 The highlight had to be the pig chase--
yep, picture 100 kids madly chasing after a good sized
hefty, squealing pig with fifty bucks taped to its hind leg.  And they
did it twice with two different pigs!
Byron and I even ran into an old friend from our single days in Arizona-
Maurice Matsumori. 
 Kean had a ball.... riding horses...
and deciding after all that Cotton Candy is a good thing.
 I cursed him by telling everyone how well he's been doing.
The next night, we spent most of the night in the E.R.
 Poor boy got a double whammy-
Croup and Stridor-- both respiratory issues.
He's fine now, thankfully.
 Greer and I spent much of Saturday at the Music Theater of Idaho's offices
building a bathtub as part of the set for The Little Mermaid.
Then we raced home, scraped the paint off of our hands and arms
and did our best to clean up.
Our family was invited to the big Make A Wish gala event.
 It was in the Stueckle Sky Building-overlooking
BSU's football stadium.
The views were stunning of our fair city (and
Greer looked just as stunning-- so grown up)!
 My mom kept Kean and brought him up later
for the program.  I was the keynote.
But we had a blast leading up to the dinner.
The attendees all buy "wish bucks"-- think monopoly money
they pass out to BSU athletes who pull off the craziest antics
to earn money.
 They have players from all the big sports teams at BSU and
they compete to see which team can earn the most.
This guy was from the wrestling team.  He showed off
a talent only a mother could be proud of-- he drank down a
water bottle through his nose.
Ick.
 The football team sang and danced...
 Reese's favorite was the gymnastics team--
they did back flips, cartwheels and all kinds of
bendy things down the hallway.
 Holland was adopted by the Track and Field team
(she runs track for Eagle High)...
 And this tennis player serenaded the family in French.
 In fact, I think we had every team do something for our family
What a fun and crazy night.
All of a sudden, the BSU marching band came streaming out
of the elevators- playing their fight songs full blast.
They literally pushed everyone into the room for dinner to be served.
 Once inside, some of the coaches spoke, we had more
players do some pretty crazy things
and we had a lovely dinner.
 Well, the little bit I ate tasted fine.
I can't eat a ton and then get up and speak.
Suffice it to say, the speech went well, there were tears
in the audience and most importantly, people gave generously
to Make A Wish when all the talking was done.
 We treasured our trip to Disney World, Universal and Sea World.
Looking forward to it kept us going for those three plus dark
years of Chemo, surgical procedures, vomit and hair loss.
And now, we have those memories-- and what amazing memories they are--
to always fall back on.
Thank you Make A Wish for an incredible evening and
a trip of a life time.


Sunday, August 28, 2016

Goldilocks and the Three Beds


This boy.
Never a dull moment.
We went to visit a friend from church and up the stairs he
went (we thought to play with her kids).
Nope, we found him first trying out this bed.

 Clearly, it was too hard...
so off it was to this bed.
I think that one was a little too soft...
or perhaps, too BSU-ey?
 He finally settled on this bed;  the teenage daughter's
queen sized bed.
Good choice son.
He was a "bear" though, to get out of there and get
him out to the car.
Speaking of the car.
Look who commandeered my camera
while I was driving.
That girl.
(And that boy)!

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Playtime

Byron and I escaped this afternoon to meet up with some friends for lunch.
Kyle and Amy Benson live a few hours away and have a little girl
who is about six months younger than Kean.
And like Kean, she was blessed with that extra chromosome
and cursed with cancer.
 We met at Tucanos Brazilian Steakhouse for the yummiest lunch we've had in a long time.
That meat is incredible!
Last night, we also went out-- for the most relaxing
and loveliest evening on the lake.
 Oh, and side splitting, heavy duty belly laughs--
'cause look who we were with-- our dear friends, Calene and Mark
Borup and Marc and Monique Warner.  
 I was a wuss and didn't even try... but Byron got 
up skiing...
 and criss crossed the lake-- which we almost had to ourselves.
Boy, did we both need those breaks!