Spring Break and Easter 2024

 It has been a busy week, with Spring Break this past week and Easter today.  We stayed in town for Spring Break this year and we definitely made the most of our time.  In light of that, I apologize for the picture dump that is about to happen.

After almost 13 years in Oregon, we finally made it the 5 minutes across the river to the End of the Oregon Trail Museum.  Merrick and Elsie's excitement to be there ebbed and flowed, but C.C. was in it to win it.  We made candles, cloth dolls, and journals.  We loaded a wagon, played dress up, solved puzzles, played games, felt furs, and filed a land claim.  Really, the only boring part was a movie that we watched, but all in all, it was lots of fun.

Tuesday, we took a break from the fun and did some yard work and shopping.  We were also going to hang out with our Brown cousins, but the day took a turn when Nana fell down the Brown's stair and had to be take to the hospital in an ambulance after losing lots of blood.  She ended up needing 5 staples in her head, but is ok.  I have pictures from the ordeal, but they are a little gruesome and I promised her I wouldn't post them.

Wednesday, we were back to the fun and Jeremy took the day off and joined us.  We started the day by spending WAY to much money at the Nike Employee store.  We then went to Next Level pinball museum and arcade.  We have been there one other time and it is always a blast, although a bit of sensory overload.

Thursday, we did take two on hanging out with cousins day.  Merrick spent the day at the Brown's and we had Isabel over here.  Thankfully, this attempt at hanging out was all fun and didn't involve a trip to the hospital.

Friday, we wrapped up our week of fun with bang.  The kids and I visited Fort Stevens at the northern most beach in Oregon.  The draw to this beach is the famous ship wreck on the beach.  That was really cool to see, but my kids had way more fun with the sand dune there.  We camped for the day at a plateau at the top of the sand dune and spent the day building, playing frisbee, and running a jumping off the edge of the plateau and sliding down the dune.  While there, we also traveled up the beach to where the Pacific Ocean meets and the Columbia River.  We also went to the ruins of the old battery of Fort Stevens.  It was this really cool bunker built into the side of a hill.  You could climb up and explore all three levels, just to end up at ground level at the top.  We ended the day at a diner and got milkshakes for the drive home.

Today is Easter.  We have been so blessed this week that, in addition to all the fun, C.C. has had a video to share with us each day with an Easter message.  We missed a few days, but have made it a priority to make them up.  Even though we are working hard to keep the true meaning of Easter in our minds, we did enjoy a visit from the Easter Bunny this morning.  We will go to church in just a little bit and we will wrap up the day with a family dinner here this evening.  It is shaping up to be a wonderful Easter.

Let the Good Times Roll

This weekend marks the start of Spring Break.  The week leading up to now felt like a bit of a sprint to the finish, trying to wrap things up at work before the break, lots of activities, and parent/teacher conferences.  We made it though and now we have a week of Spring Break possibilities ahead of us.

Before I move on to Spring Break, I need to take just a second for a parent brag.  Both of the girls had fabulous parent/teacher conferences.  Their growth this year has been amazing.  They are both on Target or beyond academically and they are both strong leaders in their classes.  Merrick begged me not to participate in parent/teacher conferences this time, and I agreed as middle school conferences have proved to be a waste of everyone's time.  They did, however, have an assembly this week at his school where they passed out character awards.  Merrick was given an award for his perseverance and I can't think of anyone more deserving.

Now back to Spring Break.  While we have yet to do too much to officially celebrate, the girls have wasted no time in getting the party started.  Friday, they set up a fort in their room, and while they have made some adaptation, they have slept under it since.

Yesterday, still not in the Spring Break grove, Jeremy and I worked on taxes.  The girls took advantage of the time to keep their party going.  They made homemade ice cream in a bag and had a blast tossing it back and forth and shaking it to get it formed.

We do have lots of fun planned for this coming week.  Unfortunately, Jeremy only gets to join us for one day of it, but we will make the most of it.  Here's to a weeks ahead of family fun!

Long Roads

This has been a busy but not exciting week.  The first part of the week was consumed by wrapping up the Snickerdoodle Preschool era and filing our last business taxes.  Also early in the week, we had Merrick's MRI on his ankle and we were working with our home warranty company on getting someone to come look at a leak we have in our upstairs bathtub that's leaking into the garage.

By Wednesday, we finally started to make some progress on those fronts.  Business taxes got mailed off, we got a repair man scheduled to come out on Thursday, and we got the results of Merrick's MRI.  The MRI indicated that Merrick didn't break his fibula as the doctor had originally thought, but he did tear both of his ankle stabilizing ligaments and has significant bone busing.  The good news is the doc felt that surgery was not indicated, just lots of physical therapy.

As the week progressed, we saw progress on the other issues as well.  The repair man came out and diagnosed, but did not fix the problem because nothing is quick and easy when dealing with a home warranty company and of course we have to get approval before the repairs can be made.  Merrick also started physical therapy.  I was ablet to call around to find somewhere with immediate openings so at least we didn't have to wait to get moving on that.  He will go twice a week for the next several weeks and the PT is setting expectations that it could be a long road.  He gave him a 20% chance of playing in his first baseball tournament in 3 weeks.  Merrick is determined to be that 20%, but we will see.

Saturday, we had clean up days for both baseball and softball.  It was a divide and conquer kind of situation.  Merrick and Jeremy went to the baseball cleanup and Elsie and I went to softball cleanup.  CC had a primary activity and got out of all clean up.  I will just speak to the softball clean up, which was HARD manual labor, raking rock hard ground to uncover a former field that had been completely overtaken by weeds and grass.

By the afternoon, Jeremy and I were worn out.  Merrick got off easy for clean up in his current condition and Elsie spent cleanup day playing on the playground with her friends.  Thankfully, the girls both had plans in the afternoon that meant that the rest of us could have some relaxing time.  Carrigan went with her friends to see a play of the Hobbit and then went for ice cream.  Elsie had an Auntie day extravaganza that started with lunch, ended with dinner and ice cream, and in the middle included a Target shopping spree, a movie, and a park trip.

Today we are hoping for a relaxing day that doesn't include any hard, manual labor, any complex tax forms, or any trips to the hospital or doctor.  That shouldn't be too much to ask, right?

Go Away Hospital

 I'm going to be keeping it short and sweet this week.  It's late and I am exhausted.  I just got back from 5.5 hours at urgent care and the ER with Carrigan.  More on that in a minute.

This weekend we were supposed to be in Bend for the second, and final state tournament.  That plan got derailed in just about every possible way.  First Merrick's ankle, he had a follow up on it this week.  The doc confirmed the break, but he still has too much swelling for that to be the only issue.  He is still non-weight bearing and he will have an MRI tomorrow to determine what else might be going on.

The ankle wasn't going to be the deal breaker on our trip to Bend though because our Airbnb was non-refundable.  We made plans and preparations to still go and the girls were excited to have a trip that was going to revolve less around basketball than it would have otherwise.  Then, 20 hours before we were supposed to check-in, our host canceled our reservation.  We spent an hour on the phone with customer support trying to get something worked out, but ended up bagging it.

Merrick ended up going to Bend with his coach and we had a weekend at home with the girls.  We did lots of fun things, ate out, went to the mall, went to Starbucks, went to Dave and Busters, and watched movies, but most of the time C.C. complained about stomach pain.

Today Carrigan's stomach pain came to a head.  When we left church with her in tears, we decided it might be a good idea to take her to urgent care.  There they said they couldn't rule out appendicitis and they wanted us to go to the ER.  MANY hours later at the ER they decided that she didn't have appendicitis, or anything that was an immediate emergency and they sent us home with no answers.  We are supposed to keep a diary around the pain and follow up with our PCP.  In the meantime, she was in tears again going to bed tonight.

Merrick got home just before Carrigan and I.  He had a great time in Bend and his team won the Bend State tournament.

I, once again, feel like I need a do over of for the weekend.  More than anything, after our visit for the MRI tomorrow, I need my kids to stay out of the hospital for a bit. 

Recovery and Winning

 This week was all about recovery from the trauma of the week before.  It was a quiet week, with school, work, and not a lot else.  Merrick's road to recovery has been bumpy.  Monday into Tuesday he was awake for 2.5 hours in the night in pain.  Tuesday was a rough day and just about the lowest I have seen Merrick through all of this.  The sun rose again on Wednesday and he was back to himself.  On Wednesday we had to take pictures of his ankle for the orthopedist.  A week and a half post incident (two weeks now) and we still have a lot of swelling and new bruising showing up.  He is still non-weight bearing, at least until our next follow up next Wednesday.

This weekend has been a different kind of tough for him.  Friday marked the beginning of the Salem State Tournament.  Merrick attended every game, cheering from the sidelines.  He struggled with not being able to play but supported his team the best he could.  In the end, they came up victorious, winning the Salem State Tournament.  I am grateful that Merrick still felt like part of the team, despite not getting to play.