Good friends, beautiful children, and crazy dogs.

(Myself, Jennifer & Kristen in front of East Bonny Lake)

It doesn't get any better then 2 good friends, 5 kids and 2 dogs out for a chilly yet refreshing hike in the woods. I really believe the more kids there are the better. Less whining, more laughter and exploring. Alexyss, Katie and Sarah all packed out pockets of "crystals", Nick a rather large rock, and Nojah his mud caked shoes with each step he took. Our little adventure happened to be the day after our first snowfall here in the county on the night of August 28th.

11 years and counting......

Here's to an amazing man who continues to love me unconditionally and make me a better person each day. Today marks 11 glorious years together. There hasn't been a day that's gone by since I met him that I wish things were any different. Life is good, life is easy, and I can't imagine it any other way. I love him for his patience, intelligence, love and understanding, work ethic, family values and of course his good looks :-)
Happy Anniversary to my best friend and the man of my dreams. I love you!!

A weekend with Gma and Gpa

I had to work this weekend and Tob also has been gone to Southern Oregon as a tree feller supervisor or something of that nature, which meant I needed someone to play with our kiddos, and who is more perfect for that job then Grandma and Grandpa :-) I lucked out and my mom just happened to have a mandatory furlough day on Friday, covering all my needs for the weekend. My niece MaKenna also stayed for the weekend for some bonding time with her cousins and grandparents.

From what I was told they hula hooped, picked huckleberries, went for a picnic, played wii, and learned to play croquet which is a new favorite for all three.


After I picked up the kids from Gma and Gpa's house we did a little school shopping, hit up McDonald's for lunch (the 2nd time this week, which I am not proud of). Then I took a detour in Minam canyon on the way home, heading up to Bear Wallow trail head much to one little boy's dismay. Nojah was not in the mood for a drive. I told him we would drive 15 minutes and then turn back. He was quite disgusted with me when we arrived at the charred trail head 45 minutes later.

This particular trail head was of interest to me because it happened to be a large local fire that Tob was in charge of toward the end of the season last year. A very memorable one for other reasons. I remember him talking about how it burned over the trail head and I figured out he wasn't joking. We spent 25-30 minutes walking around up there before hitting the road to come home. Nojah survived the drive and was actually somewhat distracted by all the fire talk and dirt to play in as usual. As we were walking back I heard a loud thump and I looked back as the kid is lying in the soot with his blackened hands up in the air stating "It's OK I'm alright, I just tripped on a log." I just commented on the nice tuck and roll and moved on. He's about 10 days out from Surgery and has a follow up appointment on Wednesday. He is healing well and hard to keep tame. School starts in 4 days but who's counting? Well kids are calling for me with complaints of being bored now that all the neighbor kids have moved away. We are 7 kids short on the block as of this weekend, which means more frequent questions like............. "Can I have a play date with ??", "Mom" "what can I do?" Mom "Can I cook eggs.?" Mom can I paint, mom? mom? mom? mom?.......
then
Mom "Why do you always say no?"

Post-op update

Day of Surgery: 8-12-10

Nojah went back to the pacu at 0830 to be prepped for surgery by the excellent nurses at the hospital. There were some tears shed during this time mostly because needles were involved, but even though there were tears he sat there bravely while the IV was put in. Even after the IV was in and secured you could tell he was still nervous as they kept saying "when we take you back" I don't think he wanted to be "taken back" anywhere, especially where Tob and I weren't and people who were going to cut him open were. Our CRNA came in and talked with us attempting to ease his fears, then promptly gave him some versed, a most wonderful drug, when she realized that may not happen. Within 5 mins he was giggling and seeing 2 of me. He left with the crew at 9:09 with a promise that he was going to have fun back there and get to see some really cool tools.

Dr.Rose came out and talked with us after the procedure saying he had a good sized hernia but that all went really well. The nurse came and got us about 10:45, saying he was having a difficult time waking Nojah up. Well, no surprise there, he's always difficult to wake up. Tob and I went back to help assist in the whole rise and shine process, afterall, I feel like we do pretty well at home. After about 15-20 minutes of talking with him the slurred speech and double vision seemed to ease up some. At this time we took him for a ride on the gurney down to the med-surge floor where more excellent nurses and CNA's helped take care of him and family and friends came to visit. He kept a close eye on the IV and asked often "when does the water get to come out?" After he ate a grilled cheese sandwhich and tolerated that without problems, I assisted him to the bathroom to pee and then asked the nurse if I could take him home. I wanted to get him home and lying down comfortable before all the good drugs wore off and he didn't want to leave. I am at the hospital often enough and didn't care to stay the night. So I removed his IV, which made him very pleased, got a set of vital signs on him, went and signed the paper work and then he was wheeled out to the car and slept most of the way home.

We got him into the house and on to the couch where he stayed for 4 or 5 hours before he had to go to the bathroom. I had given him some tylenol with codeine about 30-40 minutes before this and things still did not go well. He literally screamed bloody murder. I felt horrible for him to have to be in so much pain so I gave him some motrin and then per his request wheeled him via computer chair to the toilet. This whole process took roughly 30 minutes and as many of you know it's not that far to the bathroom in our house. He spent about 10 minutes lounged stiff in the computer chair trying to convince us he didn't need to stand up but that if we got the chair close enough he could pee without getting it on the chair. At that point we just required that he would indeed have to stand up and go to the bathroom. After he finally agreed and got the job done he walked back to the couch and Tob and i helped him with getting his legs back on the couch, secretly hoping he wouldn't have to get up again for a very long time.

He was pretty whiney and painful throughout the evening. I placed frozen pea's over the incision explaing to him that it would help numb things and make it feel better. After about a half hour he held them up for me and said "mom, I can not sleep with pea's on me."

Anyway, we drugged him up and sent him to bed after Grandma Teri and Makenna came to visit. I woke him up at 3:30 in the morning and gave him more pain medication so that he didn't wake up in horrible pain. This morning he woke up and was a little slow moving but has progressed amazingly throughout the day. He watched movies, played video games with his friend Jack and is now wandering around the house, getting up and down on his own with no complaints of any kind and I have only given him Ibuprofen 2 times today. So needless to say he is doing exceptionally well and I have a feeling we are going to have a hard time slowing him down in the up coming weeks. Hopefully tomorrow goes as well as today and things just continue to get better quickly as it's not easy to watch your child hurt.

Broken

The night we returned home from backpacking, Nojah called us into the bathroom and reported abnormal "swelling" in his groin. We took a peak at it and Tob said "It looks like a hernia." Sure enough, he has a right sided inguinal hernia that now has to be repaired. He visited the clinic then next day (1st doctors appointment since his 5 year old shots), and met with our fabulous surgeon Dr. Rose this morning for his pre-operative appointment and to set up a time for surgery. So little man is now officially scheduled for surgery on this Thursday morning. He will now officially have a "past medical history".

Camping at it's best

In February I informed my dad that I was going to take them backpacking this summer for his birthday. I am not sure if he considered this more of a punishment than a present but he played along and planned the trip. It's not that my parents aren't outdoorsy or don't LOVE camping, I mean my childhood is where I discovered my love for the great outdoors. I give them full credit for instilling this in me. They just prefer their camper to a tent these days, which includes all the amenities of their house.

Break numero uno at mile one :-)

My mom and Dad haven't hiked a whole lot on this side of the Eagle Cap Wilderness so I found a place about 5 miles in that I thought would be a good homestead for a couple of days and off we went. The hike in with a good long lunch break and multiple breaks took us about 4 hours and everyone was ready for the break when we arrived to the empty campsite. My parents did awesome considering they haven't done this in oh 15 years.

My dad promptly set up his tent, helped organize camp and then crawled in his newly purchased backpacking treasure and drifted off to sleep for a well deserved afternoon nap.

The photo's are a little out of order, but here are the kids at slickrock falls which is 3 miles in. We ate lunch and spent some time soaking our feet in the refreshing cold water.

This picture is a little creepy to say the least but my dad thought it was a great pose. Our kids earn a pocket knife the first backpack trip they do carrying their own gear, clothing, sleeping bag, pad, and any extra's they wish to bring along. For example Lex brought her slippers and a stuffed animal along for the ride and 2 years ago Nojah secretly threw in 3 star wars lightsabers. Nojah earned his knife 2 years ago and Lex earned her's this trip. She was thrilled to have earned her "pretty blue knife" and I was thrilled to have a competent, happy little backpacker.

The next day my dad, Nojah, and I hiked to Echo lake. It's not an easy hike either. About 2500ft elevation gain in 2.7 miles. This is about mid way up looking out at Matterhorn (the next peak I plan to climb)

Nojah and I in front of the lake. This man is a little mountain goat proving this by practically running up and down the trail giggling the whole way.

After we got back, my dad crawled in the tent for another siesta and my mom and I ditched the dog and kids at camp and went for another hike out the other direction that included beautiful views and wonderful converstation.

The next morning we left about noon and it took about 3 hours to get out with a quick stop at the falls again. It was so much fun to take the kids and my parents. I think they had a good time even though they were more than excited to get home to their camper and head out for the rest of the week. They will be gone all week but I will check in with them of course when they get back and see if they will join us again next year. As for my kids, we had little if any real whining, or complaining along the way. They did fabulous and made their mama (and grandparents) proud.