John's surgery

So for the third time in my experience as a mother I took one of my kids in for surgery yesterday. It never gets to be an easier experience. There are different challenges with each experience and with experience comes ease in knowing what to expect. BUT it is never easy to send your child off with stranger (I don't know that nurse!) and go sit in another room while he/she is put to sleep and surgically messed with. Even a "simple and routine" surgery such as removing the tonsils, adenoids and getting some nose work, isn't "simple and routine" when it is your child that is involved..it is down right traumatic. All that to say, I'm glad it is over. I feel so blessed that it was just "simple and routine" and that all my kids that have had surgery have had no problems. Yesterday it all went as planned and he was such a great patient for everyone.

The "before" picture. John was so fascinated by everything going on in the hospital that he forgot to be nervous. He was also stunned that Ashley forgot to tell him that he got to wear special PJs for the event. He loved the slippers so much that he requested to bring them home.

His first picture sans tonsils and adenoids. He immediately chomped down a popsicle that he declared "delicious". The first thing he requested from mom and dad when he saw us was "I want to go home.". We concurred so he quickly met all the requirements to be discharged and was out the door about 2 hours after his surgery. Then we all went home to "sleep it off". We are now in the middle of a Star Wars marathon. What a great way to recover.

a quick update

So I have obviously taken a break from sharing our vacation story. Not to worry, I will finish it...at some point. We've been taking a another mini-vacation the last couple of weeks. This one was (and is) filled with medical issues, having friends visit and visiting family. We've been swimming, fishing, and hanging out in hospital waiting rooms. The kids spent last week with their Grandpa and Grandma Snow. On the fourth we transitioned and went to the other Grandparents and enjoyed a house filled with aunts, uncles and cousins. As far as the hospital visits go...Joe had his "routine" colonoscopy last week. He hadn't had one in four years so it was time and everything came out normal. Well, normal for him. He still has crohn's disease so obviously his small intestine doesn't look like yours or mine. Anyway, today we head down to the hospital with my John-John. He is getting his tonsils, adenoids, and some nose work done. It may be a rough few days, but I have high hopes for how he will feel once school starts. If you've ever heard John talk you know that this has been coming for awhile. After his surgery it will be interesting to see if he still enjoys onions, olives and tuna salad as much as he does now.

Anyway, just a little update from the heartland that seems to think it is Florida this summer...steamy days with afternoon storms have become the normal here. Hopefully we still have some limbs left in our trees by the end of summer!

Vacation 2010 Day 9

We said good-bye and headed for Utah on Day 9. John decided his stuffed animal would enjoy listening to my iPod as well.

Our first stop of the day was Hoover Dam. From this angle, Joe couldn't really figure out why it was such a big deal.

So we crossed over the dam and saw the other side. This is not a great picture. It was pretty difficult to get a good picture from a "free" position. (It even cost to just go into the visitor's center). This is probably the last time I'll get to drive (I should say "ride") across the dam. They are in the process of completing a spectacular bridge that will go above the dam. It is for security concerns. They had some pretty serious security checkpoints on the way into the dam.

The kids next to their first palm trees.

We left our quick stop at the dam and drove through the corner of Nevada which included Las Vegas. We drove a little of the strip and the "got out of dodge". We are not real big fans of Nevada. Kind of ugly and you feel like you need to take a shower after you cross over into Utah. Oh, and FYI, southern Nevada Subways don't take Subway gift cards. Seriously.

Just outside Cedar City (our next campsite) we stopped at the north end of Zion National Park and saw Kolob Canyon. Ahhh, beautiful.

My two "mishaps" in the last two days

Mishap #1: I've been a little skittish about sickness in my house lately. I'm not usually a "oh no, a low grade fever. I must run my kid to the doctor" kind of a person. But with the amount of strep we've had and a kid that we think is carrying it, I've kind of gotten that way. So yesterday when Nathan started acting a little off and running low grade fever and a reddish throat, I jumped at the chance to make a 1:15 appt to get him checked out. I had called at noonish so I was feeling really blessed that our popular doctor had something available. (The receptionist was even shocked.) As I rushed out the door I seemed to recall that all I'd really eaten for lunch was some watermelon. So I grabbed a banana and went on my way. Once we arrived at the doctor my eyes were having difficulty adjusting to the light in the office. After we got back to the examining room it became very apparent to me that I needed to either find some sugar or a nurse. I did find some candy, but still needed the nurse. Nothing like having to have your child sit in the office chair to be examined because his mom was laying on the examining table sucking down a protein shake. I'm still not completely convinced it was a blood sugar issue (they tested it and it was 105, but that was after the stick of candy), but you can be assured the next time I go to the doctor it will be on a full stomach. It definitely goes up on my most embarrassing moment list...

Mishap #2: So I was outside this morning, barefoot, cutting fresh flowers to beautify my home. I had a couple of lilies in my hand when I stepped on something slimy. My first thought SNAKE!, of course...because we all know that snakes abound in my yard (we haven't seen one since we moved in so it made complete sense to me that this would be a snake). I screamed and then proceeded to throw my flowers in the air. I looked down and no, it wasn't a snake (shocker!). It was dog poop. And to make it worse it wasn't my dog's poop (she only goes in the backyard). It was a neighbor's dog. Somehow it is worse when it isn't your own animal. It is kind of like changing someone else's baby's diaper is much worse then changing your own kid's diaper. Sigh....fortunately I have been having an excellent morning so I'm determined that this will not damper it in anyway. Still...it was pretty gross. Oh, and in case you are wondering, it is worse to step on it barefoot. Joe was trying to convince me just last night that it would be better and easier to clean up if you were barefoot. The grossness factor totally makes up for the fact that it is "easier" to clean up.

Vacation 2010 Day 8

Day 8 of vacation (which happened to be a Sunday) started somewhat chilly. Nathan decided he needed to make his socks into leg warmers.

Our plan for the day was to see the Canyon early in the morning and then come back for some laundry, swimming and general relaxation before we started packing to leave the next day. Joe was hoping to see some elk so he commented "Kids, look out the window. This would be a good time of day for them to be out." Sara decided to tease her dad a bit with the comeback "Yeah, it is also a good time of day for cows and horses." We'd seen several cows & horses masquerading as elk. Sadly, we didn't see any elk.

All was going as planned until we got about 5 miles from the Canyon and John threw up. So we all prayed that he just got car sick, turned the car around and changed our plans for the day. We did about 4 loads of laundry, Joe cleaned out the car, we took naps, we swam, and then we headed back to the Canyon for the evening. The quote of the day came from John while were at the pool. Joe said "We will be leaving the pool around 2". John replied "So we'll be leaving at either 1:59 or 2:01?"

This little guy is the desert spiny lizard. The shuttle buses that we were riding had pictures of different animals you could see at the Grand Canyon. This lizard was one of the animals pictured so the boys were super excited to spot him. While at the Canyon we also saw many ravens. They also were pictured in the bus so everytime we saw one John would say "There is a common raven". We also saw a gopher snake at one of the overlooks.

Vacation 2010 Day 7

Our campground and "home base" for two days sat next to the Kaibab forest. In fact. our cabin looked out on the forest. As a side note, you may have heard about Kaibab recently in the news. Part of it has been on fire and it's not too far from our campground. So the timing of our trip was just about perfect. I'm wondering if the campground is even open right now. Most of the trip (when we weren't staying with friends or family) we stayed in KOA kamping kabins. They have two room ones that were perfect for us and most have air conditioning! As you will hear in future days, this Horn family doesn't do well when we get hot. We are rather spoiled I guess. The kabin also makes it easy to relax and not worry about rain or thunderstorms while camping. You will also see why this is important in future days.There was a small trail in the forest and the boys decided to go in search of jack rabbits. They were successful and we also watched one while we ate breakfast. We took it slow on this morning of vacation. We'd been packing up and heading out pretty quickly everyday until now, so we were ready for a relaxing morning to enjoy sausage and eggs in the midst of the pine smell. Mmmm, nothing like that smell combination.

The rest of the day was spent with "oooo's" and "ahhhhh's" as we saw the grand canyon. It was also filled with "hold my hand!" and "no, Ashley, no one is going to fall over the edge". Here are some pictures from that day.

Our first glimpse of the Colorado River.

We stopped at a couple of overlooks and rode the canyon shuttle up to Hermit's Rest. Then it was back to the campground for some swimming in the heated pool, some fun, and some good rest.

Vacation 2010 Day 6

On Friday we packed up and went in search of a Walmart. Even with my parent's GPS (thanks!) I think we somehow went to the Walmart that was the furthest from us rather than the closest. Finally, with a full tank of gas, we were off to Arizona. Our first stop was the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park. In a moment of brilliance we thought we'd have lunch overlooking the Painted Desert. However, it was perhaps the longest lunch preparations I've ever participated in. We had some glitches with one of our cook stoves. Anyway, let's just say that we saw the painted desert until we were very tired of seeing it.

Our next stop at the park was to see some Native American ruins that included some petraglyphs which definitely prompted some interesting conversations. The estimate is that they are around 800 years old.And then we moved to the highlight of the park...the petrified wood.

This is one of my favorites. You can see one of the logs that is still in the sandstone "hill". Pretty cool. We left the park and headed to our final destination with a stop in between. We stopped briefly in beautiful Flagstaff and then on to Williams, AZ where we stayed for 3 nights.

Vacation 2010 Day 5

We left Amarillo and headed into mountains and desert. We were treated to getting to see cowboys herding cattle and the yucca plant was in bloom. The boys' conversation across western Texas and eastern New Mexico consisted of a lively debate as to whether a TRex or Superman would win in a battle against each other. As we approached Albuquerque and Santa Fe the kids got to see their first mountains with snow on them. They were pretty excited. Before we went to our campground we stopped at El Rancho De Las Golondrinas. It is a "living history museum" that sits between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. It was a settlement (not a mission as there was no priest there) on the trail from Mexico to Santa Fe. It was about a mile trail around the village and we all really enjoyed it. The pictures in the Josefina American Girl books are taken in this village. Josefina is the doll that Ashley has so she, in particular, enjoyed this stop.
You should have seen the kids eyes when the lady explained what a "switch" was in the classroom and then held up the paddle.Some of you may recognize this house. It is on the grounds of the museum. It was used in the filming of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The pond sits just to the right of the picture.
The desert was in full bloom and beautiful.

After we explored the museum we headed to the campground and cooled down with some swimming. And then we decided to treat ourselves to some New Mexican cuisine. We drove into Santa Fe and found this place. It was delicious! and everything came with a side of green or red chili's. They are grown in New Mexico and tasted fresh and yummy.

After supper we did a quick car tour around Santa Fe during which Joe & I both promised to come back and explore sometime without the kids (or with them when they are older)...so beautiful...lots of museums and shopping.

Randomness & conversations

We went to the pool today for two hours and it was really great. Even though I'm a red head, I love soaking up some good 'ole vitamin D at the pool. And the kids are old enough now that I can relax at the pool and not worry about a drowning. It was a medal day...John went down the big slide and off the diving board for the first time. I won't be winning the mom of the year award though. I forgot my camera. So we'll just have to go again next week so I can capture the moments in picture and pretend it was the first time when I take the picture.

Yesterday we had an "early morning" orthodontist appointment. It truly was an effort to get everyone out of the house at 8am. (What has happened to this early bird family?!) On the way the topic was boy mosquitoes (who drink nectar from plants) and girl mosquitoes (who suck human blood). The conversation meandered until we arrived at the following:

Ashley: I don't need a boy to take care of me. I can take care of myself and do everything myself.
Nathan: Yeah, but what about Indians? They have spears and arrows and you could die. But Daddy can take care of them for you.

Aww, I loved that response. Wish you could have heard the emphasis he put on death in his answer. And Ashley didn't even have the comeback that I thought she would (there aren't any Indians, Nathan!).

After the orthodontist we went to the zoo. Leave it to me (who holds a family membership) to pick a free day to go to the zoo. I was trying to figure out why all the daycare buses were there when I pulled up. We still had fun, but I'll definitely check the calendar the next time.

I'm still not in the swing of things. I'm having problems getting everything done so today I came up with a solution. My summer chore charts, but I haven't even finished them yet. It is hard to tell them to do their chores when they don't even know what they are. I could finish them tonight, but there is always tomorrow morning, right? I love summer!

Vacation 2010 Day 4

After a yummy breakfast at my sister's we headed for the great state of Texas.

On the way (in Oklahoma City) there happened to be a Bass Pro Shop that was a must see. So we stopped for lunch and a little browsing.

After we practiced our shooting skills we headed for Sara's native land. She was the only one of our children not born in Iowa. She hails from Texas and, trust me, in Texas it is a big deal that you are born in Texas. From what I understand it is one of the only ways that you are considered a "true native Texan". She's proud of that status. The rest of us are all a little jealous. Our first KOA camping experience was great. I highly recommend the Amarillo KOA. Weather was perfect and the pool, according to the kids, was as perfect as the weather.