Kansas City

We had a wedding shower for good friends in Kansas City. We really wanted to go, but were a little nervous about both of us leaving the kids. We aren't quite ready for that. So, we decided to make a mini family vacation out of it. We scoped out local hospitals, which our oncologists thought were great and headed out. Mimi came with to enjoy and then watch the kids for a couple hours during the shower. 

We stayed at Great Wold Lodge, which has an indoor water park as part of the hotel. They had a little kid area, a "jungle gym" that had two water slides off that, a swimming pool with basketball hoops, etc, and then three big water slides that were two people on a tube. Then, there was a lazy river. Lots of options for everyone. 

Everyone tried the big slides with mom and dad. However, the first time dad and Gavin went down the slide, they flipped out of the tube. After that, Gavin decided he would stick with the little slides and not race that adventure again, and Brian got to fill out an incident report. 

Conner, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of the big slides. He liked both the ones with mom and dad and the ones he could do on his own (probably preferring the latter since he got to be a big boy and do it on his own). He had a blast. He even ventured over to the big pool to try his luck jumping the Lilly pads. No luck for him, as he fell in, and no luck for dad who had to fill out a second incident report after the lifeguards and got scared and jumped in. 

Surprisingly our only child who did not have an incident filed was Alexis. She managed to stay free of drama, which was awesome. She enjoyed the little slides, but mostly sitting in the kid hot tub. 

We left the hotel for a fun dinner at T-Rex cafe, which was a blast. Otherwise, we soaked up the water park for a day and a half.

Saturday, we headed downtown and are at fritz's, where trains being your food. The kids loved it. We briefly toured a fairly tale display and then headed for our wedding shower/hotel. It was such a great weekend. Any nerves of going were quickly forgotten and replaced with laughter and fun!

Gymnastics

We won a month free of gymnastics at a recent trivia night. So, since Alexis can't do gymnastics with her port and Gavin is too young, Conner was the obvious choice. He started today and is going with a good friend of his. He loves it, and the instructors said he did great! He asked already when he could go back, so that's a good sign.

Month treatment

We went in today for Alexis's monthly treatment. We are excited to be on monthly instead of weekly! She had to get a dose of vincristine and start on her next dose steroids. Since it had been a little longer, she was a little more scared about being accessed. She cried a little, but considering I think I would cry every time, I think she did great! 

They were concerned about her cough. End of last week, she started with a runny nose and then a little but if a cough. We thought it was just allergies, since the boys are struggling with that. However, they thought they heard stuff in her lungs. So, off to chest X-ray we went and off to phones I went to scramble to find someone to pick up the boys, since our stay got a little longer. Of course, my good friend who always seems to come through (and has the pick up routine down pat), jumped on it. One problem solved.

We got back the chest X-ray, and it was clear (thank goodness!). Second problem avoided. So, we headed home to catch up with the boys. It wasn't very long after being home that I realized that we had forgotten to pick up the medication. So, back to the hospital we drove in rush hour to get her pills. Third problem rectified with wasting two hours. 

In the end, she did great with the chemo, is doing fine with what they think is a cold, and took the pills we finally for under the roof like a champ. So, an exhausting, but successful day! 

Ninjas

This weekend Laura is going on a girls trip. Her friend Carmela flew into St. Louis to see the kids first and brought ninja gear. They had a blast playing! Such a great friend!