Our Trip to Minnesota

We just got back from a trip to Minneapolis to visit the Sandholms! We went for a week and had a pretty good time. Our trip wasn't without incident, which hardly any trips are, but we had MORE THAN our share of them. Let's start from the beginning. Last Saturday the 12th we had a flight with a stop in Boise. Our layover was a few hours, enough time for Alistair to stretch his legs and for us to eat lunch. Well our layover turned into an entire day at the airport and eventually a flight delay until the next morning at 6am due to a cracked lens cover on the right wing tip navigation system - we are talking less than an inch or so. We got put-up at the Hilton Garden Inn and had room service, which was the only option for our food vouchers. It covered everything, so we didn't have to pay a dime. Since we were in Boise, we called the Highs, some friends of Seth's parents. They came to our room and visited for a while. The next morning came way too early at 3:45 to get to the airport, check-in and do the whole security thing again. We got out on time and got to Minneapolis, finally. Gabe, bless his heart, met us at baggage claim with lattes and when we got home Ranae was making cinnamon rolls. Ah it was good to be at their house and not in an airport any longer.

Alistair, in PJs, eating his first meal at Sea-Tac prior to flying to what would be our mini-vacation in Boise.
Our room service meal on the floor. There was no table and chairs and we weren't going to eat on the bed! Oh and Alistair did wear clothes that day, not just his PJs - despite the 2 photos!
After a few hours rest at the Sandholm ranch, we headed for Woodbury to visit Seth's Aunt BJ/Elizabeth/Liz/Betty Jane (she has many aliases) and Uncle Joe and family. We had awesome BBQ food made by Pat. Nikki and Pat have a little girl, Alexis, who is 2 days older than Sully. They all got their PJs on and were playing with beads, so it seemed an appropriate time to snap photos!
Monday the 6 of us headed north to Nisswa to a place called Grandview Lodge. I was watching the boys while everything was being brought out of the house. It was easier to put them in the car so I knew where they were while I packed the trunks! They seemed to enjoy it too!
Across the road from our cabin was a pool. It was "s" shaped and had a shallow wading area at one end and a deeper end on the other for the water slide to dump into. There was something for everyone!

Alistair had a grand time playing in the pool. He was very daring and not afraid of getting his face in the water. He especially liked to walk from the shallow area until he couldn't touch anymore!

After swimming and lunch, the boys went down for a nap. Not even an hour into his nap, Alistair woke up and was very unhappy and not wanting to calm down. I held him for a bit and finally decided to lay down with him. He settled down and slept for about 40 minutes. Then he rolled over onto his back, moaned and proceeded to barf all over the bed. I yelled for Seth as the second wave came. He got sick on and off the rest of the day and into the night and early morning. The photo above depicts how Alistair spent the remainder of his trip in Minnesota. Once we got home from the cabin, we didn't leave the house again until Friday (except Gabe, who had to work). Before we went out to Minnesota, we had arranged with BJ and Joe to watch the kids for us one night so we could go out and be adults for an evening. Alistair seemed like he was feeling a little better and he could lay on their couch just as well as he could lay anywhere else. So we packed up the kids and headed over. We went out to dinner to the Glockenspiel, a german restaurant in St. Paul. It was great food and atmosphere and we ate ourselves silly, and maybe a little sick!We picked the kids up later. Alistair had gotten sick again, sigh. We got them home and in bed. The next morning we went back to BJ & Joe's for a delicious breakfast of Belgian Waffles and sausage, yum! Seth, Alistair and I broke off from the herd and went to visit Brad and Andrea Dana and their girls Olivia and Caroline in St. Paul. Seth lived with Brad once upon a time when a bunch of them lived in Magnolia. It was nice to see them and catch up. Alistair was feeling a little more like himself on Saturday, at least he was playing with some toys and sitting on the couch instead of laying. The face he is making is an attempt at doing his signature smile. Jinxie, the cat, enjoyed hanging out with Alistair and I think he enjoyed it too!

Sunday morning we got up and instead of Alistair getting sick, Seth got sick! So now we had a still receovering Alistair and now a sick Seth to get home! Once we left Minneapolis, we flew into Bozeman for a layover. We decided to get some lunch. Seth was feeling better and it seemed that Alistair was also feeling better. We went to the restaurant and ordered lunch. They brought it and just as I was getting ready to hand Alistair his lunch, he proceeded to, as Ranae coined the term earlier in the week, exorcist vomit all over the table and floor. There was absolutely NO warning and we were totally caught off guard. Once we got Alistair cleaned up and as much of the table and floor cleaned up, we moved to another table and ate our lunch. The rest of the traveling was uneventful. Once we got on the ground and got our luggage, we called Jen to come get us at baggage claim. Jen and Ethan kept our car for the week. Ethan then called back to ask where the jumper cables were as our battery was dead. Of course it was. They got it going without too much delay, picked us up and we were on our way home.

Despite all the above, and some other details of Alistair's stomach flu, we did have a good time and really enjoyed seeing Gabe, Ranae and Sully! We miss having them around and are looking forward to the next time we see them! Thanks again for us having Sandholms!!

Miracle Child

Alistair had his 6 month cardiology check-up today at Children's Hospital. This visit they only did a chest x-ray. Dr. Lewin had decided last visit that we would just do an x-ray and if anything looked worse he would then do an Echo. Well not only did it not look worse, it looked better!! Alistair's heart has shrunk down some, noticeably so even to the untrained eye. Generally when there is some change, it is usually not detectable to Seth or I as we don't know what to look for. But looking at the x-ray from a year ago and the one from today, there was a definite change in the diameter of the top of the aortic valve as well as the overall size of his heart. I asked Dr. Lewin why he thought that might be (not that we were complaining!) and he speculated that it could be because the tricuspid valve has grown some and the flaps are big enough that they are closing a little better so that not so much blood is backing up into the atrium and therefore the overall size of his heart is shrinking some. He was careful to point out that it was speculation and that we won't know for sure until we did an echo. But any reason coupled with the fact that Alistair is doing so well growing and being active is not a reason to do an echo right now. So we will have to wait until October to get a true reason for the shrinkage. I then asked if that could mean he wouldn't have to have surgery some day because his heart seems to be fixing itself. He said that he would probably still have to have the valve replaced sometime in his lifetime and if it could be when he is a young adult or an adult, that would be ideal. So good news for sure. Dr. Lewin also let it slip a little that there was some discussion and disagreement among the different teams in the NICU over whether Alistair was to have surgery when he was inpatient and Dr. Lewin basically put his foot down and made it clear they were to take the wait and see approach (the worst weekend of our lives when he was inpatient). Today he said, based on what he saw on the xrays, he was really glad nothing was done when Alistair was younger!

Remodel Underway...what a mess!!

Alistair eating his breakfast in a new seat...a VERY special occasion!

For those of you who don't know, we have decided to gut our kitchen and remodel it into something we like. Our existing kitchen is small, poorly lit, has very little counter space for working on and has bad storage options. To get right to the point it sucks and we have hated it since the first time we ever tried to do anything on a large scale, like a party or open house. We thought about selling the house now and getting into something larger. Eventually we are going to out grow this house and will need more space, so it made sense. However the market sucks right now and trying to unload a house would be very difficult and a financial strain. So we thought we would fix what we didn't like, namely the kitchen, and get a few more years out of the place while waiting for the market to get better. In addition to gutting the kitchen and getting new appliances, countertops and cabinets, we are doing new and MORE lighting as well as putting in hardwood floors throughtout the entire main floor. We are very excited that this project we have been talking about for so long is underway. The walls between the dining room and kitchen are gone, the cabinets are all down and the wiring has been completed for all the new lights. Right now Bill, our contractor, is patching and texturing all the holes so that we can get the kitchen painted over the weekend. We are leaving a week from tomorrow to go see the Sandholms (yippee!!) in Minnesota for a week and our goal is to have everything torn out and have the space ready to go so when we return we are ready to install and put everything back together again! Here are a few before and during shots to give you an idea of what is going on:

Happy Easter

We spent Easter in the islands, mon. Mom and Dad hosted a fun Easter day at their house on Fox Island. Seth, Alistair and I went to church in the morning. We missed last year's Easter service due to Alistair having the stomach flu (and nearly missed going this year due to everyone being in some stage of a rough cold). But we made it and it was very enjoyable. Not only did they have the choristers and an organist, but they also had a brass quartet playing along. I really, really enjoy the music the music director arranges for each service. He does such a great job and I look forward to seeing what neat surprises he plans for special occasions. The first time we ever attended a service at St. Thomas they had a Scottish Pipes and Drums band to lead in the procession and then stick around to play after church.

In addition to us and my parents, Seth's parents and my brother, Michelle and Natalie joined us for Easter. The Easter Bunny left some eggs for the kids to find and also each had an Easter basket to paw through. We had a very delicious meal and just a nice, relaxing day. We watched the various storms come in off the water and either sock us in with fog and mist or pour down rain or hail with little bits of sun in between each system.

Papa helping Alistair find his Easter basket!

Alistair and Natalie in thier Easter duds courtesy of Nana and Papa

Uncle Jeff doing Alistair's goofy smile with him!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Busy Weekend!

We had a fun, but busy weekend. Seth had a lacrosse game, we had dinner guests, we were dinner guests and we had a kiddie concert to attend! So much to do, so little time! Alistair and I went to the park on Tuesday afternoon after he got up from his nap. We had a fun time. His favorite thing is to sit in the little club house and watch the big boys play basketball!
Friday night we went to family night at the YMCA for our first kiddie concert. They had a group called the Recess Monkeys. They are a group fo 3 teachers from Seattle who formed a band and perform music for kids. They aren't bad and actually it was kind of fun!
Alistair is in this photo...you may have to click on the photo to see him better. He would wander away from us, sometimes almost across the gym and then come right back. He was pretty funny. He also liked to chase the kids around who were running in the back of the gym.
This afternoon we went to Jen and Ethan's for a delicious St. Patty's Day meal. It was a good time and was a chance to see Elizabeth and Joe one more time before they headed home! Alistair was quite entertaining after dinner. Apparently he likes celtic music (well he IS Irish!) because he was dancing like crazy, or maybe he was attempting a jig or something! Either way it was more than Seth and I have ever seen him do. He was hilarious to watch. Here is a link to a video of him doing some of his dancing. Of course I waited too long to grab the camera and so I didn't capture the full extent of his jig! (:
Alistair Dancing

Judy's Retirement Party Weekend

Judy has officially retired from Deloitte and Touche. Well, she actually retired at the end of last year, but it took until now to get something organized to celebrate the occasion. So this weekend we headed out to Cape Disappointment State Park outside of Longbeach for camping. There were 3 trailers and the rest of us stayed in yurts. We had pretty great weather all in all. It rained on us pretty good Friday night but all day Saturday was dry and sunny. We got about 30 minutes of rain Sunday, but again it was mostly dry.

Part of the festivities for the weekend was heading to Astoria to The Seafood Center for a cooking class and dinner. We cooked salmon with a balsamic red onion glaze, butternut risotto, marinated roasted vegetables and garlic bread. Everyone did a little part of the meal whether it was chopping, cleaning, stirring or spreading. It was a lot of fun and the meal was delicious! Alistair did a good job hanging in there. He wore his chef outfit from New Year's (minus the hat) but wasn't really interested in the cooking aspects. They had a big hanging screen and system for playing movies or music. We brought Finding Nemo (not realizing until we got there how appropriate it was!) and they put it up on the big screen for him. That made it more enjoyable for everyone! (: He had his booster seat on the floor to sit in and got to have dinner while watching the movie (what a treat!). He also got his Dino Nuggets grilled on the flat top grill, how fancy! (:

There was razor clam digging again this weekend. Everyone, minus one person, got up early (the morning after daylight savings time mind you) and headed out to the beach for the morning tide. There were 8 of us that had licenses and a limit is 15 clams. We were out for 2 hours or so and got 11 clams TOTAL. It was a group effort with people spotting clam holes and someone else digging. Despite the small take, it was fun and I think those who stuck it out had a good time!

We had 15 people and a toddler camping together. We all wanted to be able to eat together, so we made accommodations accordingly. Judy added the finishing touches with her 2 candle abras - very classy!

Alistair is a true outdoorsman. He LOVES camping. He spent all day wandering around, exploring areas and playing in the dirt, puddles and anything else that looked like fun. There was plenty of people to keep an eye on him, so we just let him go. He was so crabby when we got home yesterday and we firmly believe he wasn't happy to be home! (:

Our camping group!

Alistair!

Alistair started Kids Gym at the YMCA 2 weeks ago in addition to his swimming. It is really fun. It's 45 minutes long and we sing songs and play games and there is a ton of soft-sided equipment for them to crawl and climb on, over and through. There are lots of different balls and such for them to play with as well. He seems to really enjoy it and so far the one day a week where we have swimming just before, he doesn't seem too tired for gym. I pulled his tunnel back out now that he is more into it from gym and we played in it quite a bit one day.
Alistair was taking my picture in the tunnel too.
Spaghetti night...need I say more?
Alistair likes wearing our glasses. I pulled out an older pair of my glasses for him to have, but he still insists on wearing our glasses. He has gotten quite adept at taking them off our faces with one foul swoop. He was wondering around our bedroom last Friday in the above state while we were trying to get packed to leave for the ocean.
We bought Alistair a couple of hooded toddler-sized towels a while back and he really likes them. For a while he would cuddle the lion one. He wanted to continue wearing his towel after his bath one evening. He looked so regal walking up and down the hallway with his robe dragging behind him on the floor! (:

First Camping Trip of the Year!

Well ok, it was yurting. But we were outside a majority of the day and sat around the campfire in fairly cold weather! Saturday didn't get too nice until the afternoon, but Sunday and Monday were gorgeous! The photo above is the sunset on Sunday night. We went out with both sets of parents. We had a great time. This was the first time since Alistair started walking that we have been out. There is a lot less sitting around with him wandering ALL OVER the place!

Alistair has the hang of the morning ritual: Breakfast cookie and some milk while sitting around the campfire! Mmmm, mmmm!

The rowdy crew before we left. Yes, Sadie is wearing a T-shirt. She had a cancerous tumor removed from her front right flank/shoulder and has a HUGE shaved spot and a 5 inch incision. We had to keep it covered so she didn't get her wound dirty. I think she felt foolish as did we for dressing our dog, even though people thought it was cute! ;)

Our little family portrait