What a week!

This has been such a great week at our house! To start the week off, we found out Monday morning that Kyson no longer had to be on his crazy diet!!! A lot of people have said that I am probably more excited about that than Kyson...maybe it's true! You try feeding a three year old only 10 grams of fat a day! Not easy to do and Kyson is a great eater! I will say he got really excited to have Mac N Cheese again:)

Another great thing happened Monday...KYSON KEPT HIS UNDERWEAR DRY ALL DAY FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! I think I may be just as excited about that as his diet. He hasn't had one accident since Monday so I think it's safe to say he's officially potty trained! It has been tough getting Kyson potty trained and I'm grateful it's overwith. I had tried so many different things with him and you know what finally worked? Giving him a cold shower when he had an accident. Now I know most people with think that's harsh, but Kyson would just sit on the couch and pee and not even bat an eye. He would just sit in it and didn't care that he'd made a mess. Once I gave him a few cold showers to clean him up he didn't like having accidents anymore! That's always the way it is with Kyson though...the things that work for Caleb rarely work for him. His brain is definitely wired differently!

Anyway...back to our fun week:) It has been a great week to be done with Kysons diet because this week both Jared and I celebrate our birthdays! Today is Jared's birthday...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JARED!!!

and tomorrow just happens to be my birthday:) You know what that means? A lot of free birthday meals!

Monday: Red Robin (it used to be that you got a coupon in your email and you would have a week before your birthday and a week after your birthday to use it. Now it's just the month of your birthday. Bummer since Jared is June and I am July!)

Tuesday: Rubios ($7 off your meal)

Wednesday: No free meals this day. Not because there weren't any options, just decided not to eat out again! Instead we made homemade pizza and put a lot of cheese on it for Kyson:) We also made homemade icecream.

Thursday lunch(today): Firehouse Subs (free sub for both Jared and I...supposed to be the day of your birthday but they graciously let me have mine today since we are leaving town tomorrow) Have you ever been to Firehouse Subs? It was yummy! Highly recommend it!

Thursday dinner: Not sure but maybe Joe's Farm Grill.

Friday: I'm thinking about running to Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the morning to get my free donuts before we leave. We'll see if we have time!

I still have a few freebies I might get next week. I got an email for a free burger from RubyTuesday and something from Jason's Deli.

I am really looking forward to leaving this crazy hot place tomorrow. We are going up and spending time with my family. We usually go camping but the forest is closed where we usually go so we will just hang out. It'll be nice anyway and I'm sure my boys will love the freedom to play outside. I know I will enjoy it!

Canyon Lake Trip

The first two weeks of May Jared had a break from school. We kept ourselves so busy doing a lot of fun things the entire two weeks! We went to my brother's graduation, to Havasupai, to a few HopeKids events (Kung Fu Panda 2 movie, Jumpstreet, and the youth broadway musical Annie), had friends over for swimming and dinner, and went to Canyon lake with my family. Oh, and we even snuck in a date (dinner and games with friends) together and a trip to the temple one morning! Whew! We were busy.

Here's a few pictures of Jason's graduation. Way to go Mr. Salutatorian!!!


Our trip to the lake was super fun. We all split the cost of renting 2 jet skies for the day. Jared also spent most the day fishing. We were getting a good laugh about how much fun he was having. He mostly just caught little fish but he was ecstatic for every single one of them! Every few minutes I'd hear, "Andrea, grab your camera! which meant he wanted a picture of another fish:)

Here's the big catfish he caught...

Our boys were really excited when Jared would catch a fish. Caleb only wanted to be excited from a distance. We finally got him to touch a fish when we put it in a frisbee and it stopped squirming.

Ha, and then we asked Kyson if he wanted to see the fish. He comes running out and just reaches down and grabs it.




For lunch we had a very yummy watermelon. As you can see Caleb enjoyed it very much!


Of course we all had a great time riding the jet skies!



After two weeks of fun filled times together as a family Jared is now back in school. I am grateful to finally be settling into more a routine. Our lives have been so hectic since the beginning of April and I'm grateful for relaxing days at home with my two boys, spending time together. We go swimming a lot, but they both love it so I don't mind! We have a few fun family events coming up on the 4th of July weekend and the next weekend that we are all looking forward to.

Havasupai

Back in about February Jared called me one day and said some of his friends from school were planning a trip to Havasupai and wondered if I wanted to go. Uh...yeah!!! He called that day and made reservations for us. At that time it was going to be about three months after Kyson's surgery and we thought that would work out great. Well, Kyson's surgery got postponed twice and instead of our original date of March 7th it ended up being April 7th. Then instead of the planned 7-10 day stay at the hospital it turned into 5 1/2 weeks. Kyson got out of the hospital May 11th with a chest tube so I just didn't think it was safe for me to go. Gratefully the chest tube didn't last long and he was doing great. I still wouldn't have gone but my sister Natalie and her husband Dallas were willing to watch our boys for us. Natalie is a PA (what Jared is in school for:) and I knew I could trust her with all of Kyson's high maintenance needs! Between needing meds four times a day, a crazy low fat diet, and ending up with an ear infection he was A LOT of work to watch. Thank you so very much Natalie and Dallas! I must say that I don't think anyone has a better support system than Jared and I have. We have had SO MANY people praying for us, serving us, bringing us dinners, watching our boys...it's humbling. We are truly blessed.

Anyway, back to Havasupai. It was incredible! We left around midnight Sunday to be at the trail head by 4:30 AM. Here we are ready to begin!

Our group


It's a good 12 mile hike especially carrying close to 40 pounds on your back! By the time you get to the campground all you want to do is find the closest campsite and shed that backpack! That's exactly what we did and went and put our sore feet in the water! After soaking our feet for a bit we found a good place to camp and moved all of our stuff...or in my case let my amazing husband haul both of our backpacks to the new spot:)

Once we rested for a bit we went and set up camp. Jared and I decided it wasn't worth the weight to bring a tent so we slept under the stars. I was a little worried about all of the lizards that were EVERYWHERE but gratefully we didn't have any crawl in bed with us!


Here's some pictures of the falls.
This is the first one you come to. I'm not sure if they call it Navajo Falls or not. The old Navajo falls completely washed out in a recent flood and further upstream this waterfall was created.

A little farther down is Havasu Falls. This picture just doesn't do justice to how truly beautiful it is.

About another mile down is Mooney Falls. It's HUGE!


The second day we were there we decided to hike down to Beaver Falls. We didn't quite make it there but along the way I took so many pictures because it is the most beautiful place I have ever been.









Our group minus me...we had to carry our shoes because we kept getting in and out of the water.






The next day we woke up at 4am to pack up and hike out. We wanted to get to the switchbacks before it was too hot. I didn't take very many pictures on the hike down but I took a lot on the way out since I sent my backpack on a horse:)

This is the beginning of the hike out. Just beautiful!

Once you get to this sign you have hiked about four miles and have another eight to go:)


There are two things that are just amazing about the scenery at Havasupai...the color of the water, it's so blue it's hard to believe, and the color of the rock. It is a very neat redish color.


We hiked out super fast. I think we may have hiked out faster than we hiked in. We were on a mission and took very few breaks. When we did stop we didn't rest for more than a couple minutes. The longest break we took was right before the switchbacks.


We didn't even stay there long because we wanted to get the last and hardest part of the hike over with! As we were making our way up the switchbacks along came this hero of mine:)

See that backpack with the blue sleeping bag on it? Yep that's mine stuffed with all of mine and Jared's heavy stuff! Thank you horse!

Gotta love the switchbacks...


And here we are at the top (yes I say we because I was there, just taking the picture and not in the picture:) Havasupai complete!

First few days at home

The first few days at home were a bit of an adjustment for us. Caleb had to get used to just being at home since he had spent the day playing at other people's homes for six weeks straight! Kyson of course had to adjust to being home and having a chest tube attached to him and I had to figure out all of his new meds and how to take care of his chest tube and bandages. Jared was still in the thick of things at school so he was still gone and studying a lot. No matter how much of an adjustment it was we were very excited to be home. I loved being able to watch my boys play together again. It was quite surreal to take Kyson outside to play...he hadn't been outside once his entire stay at the hospital! He loved the fresh air:)

It probably wasn't the best idea to let Kyson ride a scooter with a chest tube attached to him but he was so excited I just had let him do it slowly:) He was very cautious anyway and didn't try to go very fast.

Crazy brothers:)


Kyson started making funny faces at me. He was just being silly...I loved it!







And of course I had to add this super cute one of Caleb. Such a good boy! I know it was a long six weeks for him as well not having his Mom or Dad around much and not having any stability for a long time. I'm grateful he handled it all so well. He's such a trooper!

Final days at the hospital

Wow! So I have been meaning to do this post from the first day we got home from the hospital! We have been so busy and I just haven't had time to do it. Also, Kyson has taught me a lot and one of the greatest things he has taught me is what a gift it is to be a mother. I know that as mothers it is so important to spend time with our children. I have been trying to spend less time on the computer and more time with my children when I can. Anyway, here's some pictures of our last week or so in the hospital.
For about two weeks in the hospital Kyson wasn't able to eat or drink anything. He would beg for his medicine because he would get a sip of water after he took it to wash it down. Finally his drainage began to slow down. Dr. Pearl wanted to challenge him to see if eating something would cause his drainage to pick back up. It was so cute to watch Kyson get SO excited to eat. Poor thing just couldn't eat very much...two bites and that was it for the first couple of days.


While in the hospital Kyson really missed Caleb. He would get excited when he would come visit especially when he started feeling better. Caleb could always get him to laugh and giggle in ways no one else could.




Kyson really enjoyed playing with the dogs that came by almost every day. This one was huge!


While in the hospital Kyson was well known as the screamer and the bubble man. Yes, he screamed A LOT and yes he blew A TON of bubbles over the course of our time there. Jennifer, the child life specialist, knew of Kyson's love for bubbles and brought him some that don't pop. They were covering everything in his room! This was actually the day we left to go home and Kyson had a hard day so we were trying to cheer him up.


The day we came home was actually a difficult day for Kyson and me. We were told we were going to be able to leave after they put in a new smaller chest tube. They had to sedate Kyson to put in the chest tube and the sedation made him feel crummy. Also, when they put the new chest tube in it drained a lot (300 mls right away) and they were threatening to keep us there longer. I was having a hard time with that but only wanted to do what was best for Kyson. Gratefully they decided to give us the go ahead to leave later that day about 6pm. Kyson was still not feeling good so he was not happy about leaving! I don't think he really understood what was happening because I would tell him we were going home and he would cry and say he didnt want to go home! I really think he began to think of that hospital room as his home. He was confused and upset. This is a picture of us leaving. Kyson was crying in most of the pictures I took but he had a moment of being happy to see the trains.

Once we got outside and Kyson saw the car he got excited and I think he finally understood what I meant by going home. He kept saying he wanted to play the Wii game so one of the first things we did when we got home was let him and Caleb play a game together:)


It has been so wonderful to have him home. It's almost been a month already and I can't believe how fast the time has flown. He came home with a chest tube on Wednesday May 11th but he didn't have to have it long. They took it out Monday the 16th and he has done well ever since. Friday, the 20th he had a chest x-ray done and I was told it looked great! That was such wonderful news. We were told to keep him on a 10 grams of fat diet for four weeks after that x-ray. It's almost been 3 weeks. I'm very hopeful that in one more week we will be able to be done with this crazy diet. He is so skinny and needs a little more fat in his diet! As soon as they give us the go ahead I think we are going to throw a huge party. Hmm...maybe a huge pizza party!?!?!