It's Bear Season!

Amie and Daddy got out Bubba Bear again.....that must mean it's Bear Season again!

Our Little Bear Girl!

6 month cardiology appointment

Amie has certainly gotten accustom to her ekg's and echoes! She holds still so much better then she used to!
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She had her 6 month appointment on 7-31. I didn't get a CD from this appointment (could - just forgot to ask & have not called them to have it sent). But according to the cardiologist - for the first time EVER her pressure gradients are not going up in her aortic valve!!

That's really incredible news! As of her prior appointment, we might have been looking at a procedure yet this year! Now, she won't go back for another echo until January & we'll see if it is staying stable!

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The longer we can keep her from needing a procedure - the better it is for her!

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Eventually, she will need a ballooning, which then gives us probably less then two years before she has to have the valve replaced.

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If the valve is replaced before she finishes growing - she will need a valve at least every 10 years until she finishes growing.....

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So as you can see -- we need to keep that ballooning as far in the future as possible...and it all depends on the pressure gradient!

"Get that Max Down"

In just a few short weeks - you can already see that Max is definitely getting big!
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Amie and I baby sat for Max a few weeks ago. We had a group we needed to meet at Lincoln Park - so it made perfect sense to take Max with!
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I put Max in the back of the car & at first he sat right next to Amie - very nicely!

Then he wanted to see what else he could find - since there wasn't much underneath him....

He decided to see what was happenin' on Amie's lap & look out the window.

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All of a sudden - I heard...."Get _ That _ Max _ Down"!! It was pretty funny!

Things at the park only went so - so --- mostly because a certain little girl hadn't had a nap that day!! Those evenings are MISERABLE at night!!

Give Kids the World Carnival

August 15th - the local Perkins Restaurant had their annual Give Kids the World Fundraising Carnival.
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We attended - not only to support & have fun; but because Give Kids the World is where we will be staying in January when Amie goes on her Make a Wish trip to Disney.
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We've learned so much about this fantastic organization. Our local Perkins is extremely involved in it. We knew they raised money for it - but really never realized exactly what it was. They also have all these pictures hanging on their wall of kids playing. These are all Give Kids the World Kids!
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We even met two such kids that day. One was a young man that has been a Give Kids the World for 15 years! He now supports it every year as well. The other was a young girl that had just gotten back two weeks prior.
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I don't know what the history is for either of these young people - but they both were extremely appreciative of Give Kids the World Organization!
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We promised Pete (the manager of Perkins) that we would take plenty of pictures & we would definitely share them when we get back!

Bounce house was the biggest hit!

Swim Lessons

Well the swimming sessions are over. They are one month at a session on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. We first signed her up in June & she broke her wrist, so only made it to two of them.
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July she just got out of her cast & we went on vacation - so we signed her back up for August.
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It was a bit of a frustrating experience (more for me then her!).
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She loved to play - and listened somewhat. But when it came time to go down the slide or off the diving board - she was not very good at following directions!
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Here are some pictures of the diving board! What you don't see that she first goes running down the diving board & stands there and bounces up and down & then runs back to the back part. Back and forth she goes! I am terrified she is going to slip and fall & cut her head open or worse!
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Finally - one of the instructors comes out on to the board & keeps her from running back and forth.
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Eventually - they lower her into the water!

Then of course - while sitting on the edge of the water - she keeps sliding down into the pool & pulling herself back up. This is the deep end of the pool - she scares the crap out of me!!!

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We have signed her up for September - but in a class by herself. Maybe she will get more out of it with one on one instructions. Also - I felt bad for the other kids - because she definitely took up valuable time & attention from the other kids!

Max and his Siblings

As promised - just not when promised! ;)

The day that Amie got to meet Kylee's Max (before Max came home!) - three little puppies joined the girls in the back yard! First here's Max with his soon to be new Mommy!!


One of the puppies was quite spirited - this little brown puppie (with blue eyes) was gorgeous - but full of spunk!!



These pictures speak for them self....just scroll through -- as you can see, Amie was a little taken aback with little Brownie Girl!!

Help Me Kylee!!

I was laughing so hard at her trying to escape from the "killer puppy"!!

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Then Kylee got her to try to see if the puppies would run between their legs!

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A very cute time!

AWWW!! Kylee had Amie kiss Max!

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Now I'll have to get some updated pictures on here - cause Max is getting HUGE!

Meet Max!

Kylee's got a new puppy! His name is Max! He is a total sweetheart!

I'll make another post tomorrow with more pictures the day Kylee introduced Max to Amie! The girls had a great time with Max and his siblings!

Saturday July 18th, Fallen Heroes Memorial Ride

Janet riding her own bike on the Jerry Tharp Fallen Heroes Memorial Ride.
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The ride visited 6 area soldiers that lost their lives.


The bike on the left is Darwin (grey sweatshirt) & Kylee (pink sweatshirt)

This is the road going into Keithsburg (see end of blog for a reference to this road).

At each of the grave sites, they had doves that were released by family members

Galesburg cemetary for Kyle's stop.

This was the first ride that Janet drove a bike in. At almost the end she had a little fender bender between herself and the pavement. She got a good bruise - but was mostly not hurt - but sore!

Darwin called me and asked me to the truck and trailer to Keithsburg, so the bike could be trailered back home & Janet could either ride in the truck, or with someone else. No problem - the truck and trailer were already ready. Just got Amie up from her nap & headed that way.......after all I had Garmin - right?!

Well that road at the top of this blog that leads into Keithsburg...I missed the turn onto it! So, Garmin did it's "re-calculating thing!" - it had me turn right at the next road....So I did!

The road went for a half a mile or so, then I came over a hill & the road turned to gravel....ok that's alright.....then I made a 90 degree turn left on this gravel road to find that the road was COMPLETELY covered with flood water!

So.......after trying unsuccessfully to back up (and not jack-knife the trailer) - I disconnected the trailer, turned the truck around, reconnected the trailer & got back on the main road....

The only other problem was that the cellular signals were almost non-existent! Darwin could only hear a little bit of what I was saying - he caught, "incident" and that was about it! And couldn't get ahold of me after that! Needless to say he was a little worried by the time Amie and I made it to Keithsburg!

The last legs of the journey home!

Leaving Salt Lake City - we continued to drive east - stopping in Kearney Nebraska on Wednesday night.

Then up and heading to Galesburg on Thursday!

Our trip ended with an adventure we were not excited about! Around noon - we stopped for lunch & Betty started having trouble with throwing up. (She had this problem off and on through out our trip) - but this time it was pretty much constant!

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We arrived in Galesburg around 8pm & took her straight to the ER. Long story short - she wound up in the OR that night having and emergency EGD - where they fished out a large amount of food that was stuck in her esophagus.

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She's since then had an esophogram and we've found that she has a narrowing of the esophagus at the area that it connects to the stomach & the middle part of her esophagus is not squeezing properly. She goes back in for another scope later this week!