Days 5 & 6

I'm 2 days behind on Finn's stay and it's all starting to become a blur.  So, I better catch up.

Monday night into Tuesday morning Finn woke up screaming twice.  He set off the heart rate monitors and the nurses came running.  I quickly asked them to leave because I knew that their presence wasn't going to help.  It took a few sips of apple juice for him to calm down and go back to sleep.  In the morning the nurses asked if he was having night terrors and after talking it out that seemed to be the most likely explanation.  In the morning he was good to go again, and we went down to find the playroom open.  We had a good time in there and played for nearly 2 hours it seemed, before having to go back for RT.

That morning we also had a good chat with Sarah, Finn's resident doctor.  She said that Finn's culture had started to grow H. Flu, which was the same thing that had shown up on his throat culture 2 weeks earlier.  The H. flu could explain the inflammation, I guess, except that in general H. Flu is one of those bugs that they don't really worry about with CFers.  The fact that Finn had been on 4 weeks of antibiotics, though, and was still growing H. flu was interesting.  I asked Sarah if that meant that because of his hyper-reactive airways we would end up on IV antibiotics every single time he started to grow anything.  She told me that there were many more stronger prescription antibiotics that we could use and that IV's shouldn't be the only answer.  That was good to hear.

After RT he took a nap, got his IVs, and then we were off to the play again.  (I can't remember what we did, but I know we were out of the room.)  We had Rt again at 4pm and then our Relief Society president showed up to give me a break.  She played with Finn in the room while I actually left the hospital to pick-up something I needed from the grocery store and grab a burrito at Chipotle.

When I got back a little before 6, the Harley Davidson Owners' Group was serving pizza on all of the floors.  So, the 3 of us grabbed pizza and headed back to the room to eat.  We visited with Liz for a while and also took her to the playroom before she headed home, Finn got ready for bed and did his RT for the final time.  For the first time during our visit, Finn was awake after RT and so we went through our normal good night routine (with prayers and everything) and then Finn laid down in the crib by himself to go to sleep.  Since I had been feeling oddly, I decided I would go to bed early.  I laid down in my bed while Finn worked on going to sleep and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep, too.  I had planned on doing another load of laundry and blogging, but I felt so crummy that I decided I needed the rest.

Staring out the window

 In the middle of the night on Tuesday, once again Finn had another night terror.  It took longer to calm him down this time and then I laid awake for a couple of hours afterward.  I started thinking about what Sarah had said about letting her know if the stay was becoming unbearable, because then they could re-evaluate letting us go.  I realized that for me there was very little that could be unbearable as long as I knew I could go home.  I'm not one to just quit what we have started.  However, I also realized that Finn didn't understand what was going on.  He had spent the last two days sprinting for the parking lot whenever we went outside, calling for Kai whenever we went into the lobby of the hospital, and asking me to look at family pictures and videos of his brother whenever he could.  And now he was having night terrors.  I came to the realization that while I understood we would eventually go home, he didn't.  And I couldn't explain it to him.  I thought about how we talked about other antibiotics being available and how he really was only growing H. flu.  I thought about how I could do all of the RT he needed at home (as it was no different than what we were doing anyway) and that the only thing I couldn't replicate was his IV antibiotics that he got every 8 hours.  I decided to talk to Sarah again in the morning about the possibility of going home.

Finn woke up happy and ready to go again on Wednesday morning.  We got dressed and headed into the halls to cruise around the riding toy he had checked out from the playroom.  Not too much later, Sarah came to check-in on us and ask about the night.  I talked to her about his night terrors, and she, too, agreed that's what they were.  Then I asked about what she meant by "unbearable".  I told her that if she really felt 2 more days of IVs were really important, we could push through and I would push Finn through it, but I also told her that I thought Finn had hit his point and really wanted to go home.  She did not think it was "unreasonable" to go home and agreed to talk to Dr. Sagle about it.

We ate breakfast, did RT, visited with our nurse, and played in the playroom for an hour or so before they rounded the floor.  Once again, Sarah presented our case and then talked about Finn being ready to go.  This time they all agreed that if we were comfortable with the progress he had made, that we were ok to go home.  I agreed that I was comfortable with where he was at, and so they gave us the instructions for going home.  Finn is now on oral antibiotics 2 times a day for the next few days and then he'll go down to 1 time a day for the indefinite future.  We also were to come home and continue using the hyper-tonic saline that we had started at the hospital with his RT.  We did one last IV infusion around noon, an RT session, and then the nursed pulled out his PICC line and we were free to go home.

Cruising the halls on his little car

We got home yesterday around 2:30pm.  Finn was so happy to see his daddy, and not too much longer later Kai came home.  Finn was smiling and happy the whole afternoon.  He slept like a rock last night for nearly 12 hours and when he got up he said, "I'm happy."  Later in the morning I heard him say, "I'm happy again."

I'm so glad that our little guy is home and doing well.  We're both happy to be back at our house with family.  I wouldn't be completely honest if I didn't say that it worries me a little that we did not finish the week of IVs, but I'm trusting that the decision we made was the best for Finn in that moment.  Before checking-out, Dr. Sagel came to talk with me one-on-one and he ended with patting me on the back and telling me I was doing a good job.  I sure hope so!  And I sure hope that we don't have to go back for a good long while to come.  One of the reasons they had pursued the IVs was with the goal to keep him healthy all summer.  So, now I'm just praying that we do that.  That we enjoy the summer without any incidents, that I don't have to call clinic to tell them he's sick again, and that we can somehow get us out of the awful pattern we have been in for the last 6 months.  That was the purpose of all of this and I sure do pray it worked!

Day 4

This morning I was looking forward to going home.  We got up and started going through our stuff, organizing, and getting ready to throw it all into the suitcase when they said the word.  Actually, I did throw some of our stuff into the suitcase.  I guess I thought that I could just say we were done and no matter, that would be it.  Well, I was wrong.

The residents and attending doctor (Dr. Sagel, who is the CF Center director here) made their rounds around 9am.  I listened to them talk about Finn, his history, his test results, and his current treatment plan and response.  It was all dead on and I was pretty impressed because the resident who presented the case hadn't asked us all of those questions.  It was clear she had done her reading.  In her report I heard her mention that Finn's bronchoscopy cultures were coming back clean (in other words, no bacteria was growing) but that it did indicate "significant inflammation".  After the report was given, Dr. Sagel asked her a few questions and then asked me something.  I can't for the life of me remember what it was.  I know I responded and then he asked if I had any concerns and I said only that we would like to go home!  Let's be honest, who here doesn't want to go home.  From his reaction, I knew nearly instantly that that wasn't going to happen.  He said he would come back and talk to us later.

Later in the morning I asked the nurse if she knew when they normally came back to actually talk to us.  She put a call in to the pulmonology team and asked.  They didn't know when, but they did say he would be back at some point that afternoon.  So, we spent our morning walking around the hospital again and going outside.  The only play center open in the whole place was the one for siblings and they wouldn't let Finn play.  I was discouraged and emotional.

During Finn's nap I decided to lay down, too.  Not too much later there was a knock on our door and there stood Dr. Zemanick.  She's Finn's primary CF doc and I really like her.  I was happy to see her and here what she had to say.  She told me that the bronch did not grow anything, so the good news was that he doesn't have Pseudonomas.  However, there is some sort of cell count that they use to indicate inflammation (and for the life of me I can't remember what she called it) and Finn's came back at 90%.  The resident wasn't kidding when she said there was "significant inflammation".  So, my big question was how can all of these test results, CT scans, and x-rays show that there is lung damage going on when Finn is pretty much symptomless.  He's an energetic little boy who runs around like there's not a care in the world.  Her thought was that the majority of his airways are still clear.  These inflamed airways seem to be localized right now to his upper lobes (on both sides) and they are deep in (or more towards the ends of the branches), so I guess it's not affecting him as badly as it would if it were in a different location.  My other question was how could we have this inflammation if there were no bacteria.  The doctor that rounded this weekend said inflammation equaled bacteria and there seemed to be no other alternative in his opinion.  Dr. Zemanick said that while he may not be growing enough bacteria to culture maybe he encountered a tiny, tiny amount and his body is just hyper-reactive.  I think I'm going to have to question this again because that seems a bit odd to me.  Anyway, after all of the talk she said that the doctors all agree that we should complete a one-week round of IV antibiotics before going home.  At that point we'll probably be taking home a couple more medications, too.  (Just what we needed!)  She said, therefore, we need to stay to Friday.  I had my heart so set on going home today that I had a hard time holding my emotions in check.  In fact, they nearly got the better of me, but I told her that even though this is a hard time on us, if it is what's best for Finn we would make it work.  She did understand that this is not easy, though.  We talked about that for quite a bit actually.  (Our social worked had come down at the same time, too, so that was nice.)

Now that I've gotten used to the idea of staying all week, I'm not as emotional about it.  Don't get wrong, I want to go home, but if this is where Finn needs to be then I'll do it.  I'm tired and really need a break, but Finn needs me.  So, tonight I'm running laundry in the family lounge and chinning up.

In other news, this afternoon we found some new things to do.  The playroom was finally open again and we spent a good 40 minutes in there.  We found some train tracks and trains and checked them out to bring back to our room.  Those have kept Finn busy and happy most of the evening.  Also, we had a pet visit from a dog named Remi.  The dog was so good to lay there and let Finn use his stethoscope to "listen" to her.  It's funny how at first Finn didn't want to touch her and get too close, but once we pulled out his toy stethoscope that his nurse had given him, he was very happy to interact a bit with the dog.  Finally, after that Finn took a bath.  I had a hard time getting him in there at first as he insisted he just wanted to go home, but once he got in he didn't want to get out.  We played peek-a-boo with the shower curtain and I let him splash as much as he wanted (since I didn't have to clean it up).

So, that's the update for today.  I'm grateful for a friend that I can call and just ask to help me figure out childcare and know that she'll take care of it for me.  Within two hours, we had someone to take Kai every day this week and I didn't have to do any of it.  It was nice not to worry about that.  It's nice to know that my boys are being taken care of while we're away, despite the fact that I'd prefer to do it myself.  With that kind of help, we'll make it through this and hope that we don't have to do this again for a good loooooooong time!

Day 3

Another day down, and hopefully tonight will be the last night.  Last night was another rough night at the hospital (no surprise, huh).  I think I made the nurse feel super bad.  We have the same nurse again tonight and she made sure to go over the schedule with me and ask if it was ok and when would be the best times.  I really did shoot her a dirty look at 4 o'clock this morning, though.  I sort of feel bad for it, but not entirely.  She was just doing her job, but she's the "nurse nazi" in my book.  She does her job right down to the letter which can get obnoxious.  Finn actually was doing ok until she had to come in to check his vitals and start an IV line at 4.  She decided not to do the checks that she knew would wake him up (blood pressure, temperature, and maybe another) but he ended up waking up anyway when she hooked up his IV.  So while he's screaming she says, "Well, I might as well take his temperature."  You're kidding, right?  So, not cool.

Anyway, we got off to a bad foot, but for the most part Finn has had a good day.  Our mornings are a bit more busy with RT appointments, IV lines, and seeing the rounding docs, and then our afternoons tend to be more slow.  We just had a couple of blood draws, one IV, and an RT appointment.  So, we ended up taking a good 5 trips outside today and on one of them we even had visitors.  Our RS president and her daughter (the boys' babysitter) brought Kai up to visit.  When they arrived Finn was walking in a direction away from where they were coming from.  I told him to stop and turn around, which he did not want to do.  Then I told him that Kai was behind him.  He stopped pulling his wagon, dropped the handle and turned around.  He watched as Megan and Sister Horton approached with Kai in a wagon and his jaw hit the ground.  It was so cute!  Once Kai got close enough that Finn was sure it was him, Finn broke into a run to meet his brother.  Serious kodak moment.....except I didn't even get my camera out today.

I'm hoping that we get some good sleep tonight and that the culture results come back ASAP tomorrow.  I know Finn's doctor wanted him to leave without a cough, but it seems that the bronchoscopy stirred some stuff up because he has been having good coughs all weekend.  They aren't super frequent, but he is coughing up stuff.  We've also been doing Hyper-tonic saline treatments while we've been here and that is making him cough more, too.  I'm hoping she's ok letting him go with a cough because the poor kid talked about seeing his brother again all the way until he feel asleep.  I told him we would be home tomorrow and I hope no one makes me break that promise!

Day 2

Well, Finn slept pretty well for the his first night in the hospital.  I'm sure the anesthesia and hard day helped with that.  But at about 3:15 am the nurse needed to set him up for his IVs and get a blood pressure.  She was almost done when he woke up.  Drat!  And to top it off, he needs to sleep with the Pulsox (pulse and oxygen monitor) on.  To make sure it stays, we put on his toe and under a sock.  But he insists that "hurts" and so he made me stand next to the bed and hold his foot until he fell back asleep.  That didn't happen until 4:30.  And then at 6am an ENT resident came into our room to talk to me.  I was angry.  And then I got more angry as he walked out and slammed the door.  That ended our night--wayyyyyyy too early.

On the positive side, Finn woke up in good spirits.  He was bouncing and ready to play by 7 am.  It was nice to have my smiley happy boy back.  When he started talking to me I realized how little of that he had done last night and I figured that his throat must be feeling better today.

We started our day out with playing on his new floor mat.  We also pulled out a bunch of other cars.  Around 8am the nurses came in and then sent the RT in to start our long day of therapy.  After we were done with all of that, Finn wanted to go on a wagon ride.  At first the nurses told him he couldn't leave his room and man did he cry.  I set him in the window sill so he could look out and that appeased him for a while, but eventually he was back to begging for a wagon ride.  We talked to the doctors when they did their rounds and they said he was allowed out.  We were excited.  We took a good walk around the hospital grounds and for the first time I realized what a nice area this hospital is in.  Finn loved riding in the wagon and pulling it, too.  It was nice to get fresh air.

Happy boy!

The view from our room

Playing

Getting ready for our wagon ride.  I have to stop every two steps to fix his mask, though.

After that we had to come back in by 10am for more IVs and then we went right into lunch and our second RT appointment of the day.  Finn was so tuckered out by that point that he fell asleep within a few minutes of starting his vest.  It was just after 12pm.  I didn't blame him one bit!

We finished his treatments and then put him down in his crib.  At that point I went down to the cafeteria for lunch and brought it up to eat and watch a show online while he slept.  His nap did not last as long as I had hoped for, but it was decent.  It was after his nap, though, that day seemed to drag on a bit.  He had a blood draw at 2 and then nothing he needed to do until 4pm.  So we played around in the room a bit and finally ventured out in the wagon a little before 4pm.  At that time, we realized the playroom was open and that he could go in.  We only had 10 minutes before we had to be back in our room, but Finn was excited about all of the toys.  We checked a few out and then ventured back to the room.

A toy from the toy room

The afternoon consisted of more RT, dinner, and another blood draw and then it was 6pm and we were free until 8.  We loaded back up in the wagon and went outside again.  After a good 30 minute walk outside we came back in and walked the halls on our floor.  Our floor is the only floor where the CFers stay and there are several here this weekend.  In the room right next to us is an early-teenaged boy with red hair.  He seems very friendly and has waved and said hello to Finn every time we passed by.  Tonight there was a group of CFers (all girls except for this boy) congregated in a lounge-area playing cards.  (some had masks, some did not and I thought they might have been siblings of the patients....I wasn't sure)  We we passed they all stopped their game to say hello to Finn and ask him how he was doing.  He proudly showed off his new bandaid that he got when they removed his IV this evening.  (That's another cute story, too.  After the nurse took out his IV and then left the room, he spontaneously burst into song.  Not just any song.  It was a song from the new Disney show "Doc McStuffins" and the chorus says, "I feel better, so much better, nooooooowwww!"  Finn loves the "Nooooooowwwww" part and it was so funny that he knew that that particular song applied to his situation.)

After walking around and seeing the other CFers, we headed back to our room to get ready for bed.  We had an IV and RT time scheduled for 8 pm and I knew the vest would put Finn to sleep again.  The RT didn't show up until nearly 8:45, so by the time Finn had his vest on for about 10 minutes he fell over in his bed and went to sleep.  It took the RT, his nurse, and me to unhook all of his lines when they were done and leave him sleeping, but we did it.  And now I'm hoping for a good night.

It's been a long day, slightly easier, but long.  We're both ready to go home.  In fact, right before bed Finn was saying "One more thing, mama.  Go home!"  This morning Finn and Kai talked on the phone.  I prompted Finn to tell Kai he loved him, which he did, but the next statement was spontaneous.  Finn said, "I miss you Kai Kai."  It was sweet!  And of course, Kai responded with, "I know you miss me."  Ahhh.......I think we need to work on that a bit.  But it made me laugh.

I'm hoping tomorrow goes more quickly and that we don't bounce off of the walls in here.  Thankfully the weather's good enough to go walking.  I have a feeling we'll be doing that again.  I also hope there will be volunteers to open the playroom.  When we left at 4 today they said someone would be back at 6, but unfortunately that didn't happen.  Finn was a bit disappointed not to be able to go back in, so I'm hoping we can return tomorrow and pick out some new toys to play with.  Now that we know our way around, it'll hopefully be a tad better.

Finn's First Hospital Stay--Day 1

I guess I should start by talking about how we got here.  It's murky to me, even, so I'm sure there are others confused.  Who am I kidding--even the nurses here are confused as to why we are here?!

On Monday April 9th (the day after Easter) Finn had his quarterly clinic appointment.  Because of repeated upper respiratory congestion (a whole heck of a lot of colds this winter), we had decided to go ahead and do his 3 year-old chest CT scan early and add in a sinus CT.  So, those were done first on the 9th.  For those scans Finn had to be sedated and put under general anesthesia.  It all went well, until he woke up.  Those who know Finn know that he is quite feisty, independent, and opinionated.  He was NOT happy about being woken up from the anesthesia.  It took a while for me to calm him down, and that included a trip to the gift shop to buy an Elmo balloon.  Eventually, I got him to watch a show on my cell phone and that helped him to calm down.

After his CT scans, we went to his regular clinic visit.  I will admit that at this point he was in the end stages of his most recent "cold".  If you had asked me if he was sick, I would have said "no" but he wasn't 100% either.  (about 90% in my opinion)  By the time we got to his doctor, they were already looking at his CT scans.  The RT came in first and while his oxygen saturations were good she thought his breathing sounded coarse and that he was having some mild chest retractions.  At that point she told us that she wanted to talk to the doctor about changing his neb schedule to daily nebs instead of "only when sick".  She also changed his vest routine a little bit and told to use albuterol before every vest session.

Next came the doctor and nurse.  The doctor took a good look at Finn and spent quite a bit of time listening to his breathing.  She found his breathing to be coarse, but did not think he was having retractions.  Then while the nurse took Finn on a walk, we went over the chest CT scan together.  This is the report that we saw:


Impression: Diffuse bronchial wall thickening with nodular
consolidation/scarring involving the medial left upper lobe, left greater than
right superior lower lobe segments and medial basal left lower lobe segment.
Findings are consistent with diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.

In other words, his lungs are being affected by his disease despite our best efforts to this point.  We also looked at his sinus CT scan together, but the radiologist report had not yet been completed.  In looking at his scan together, though, the doctor felt that his sinuses were pretty packed-in.

So, it became obvious that it was time to change our game plan.  Finn had been sick enough this winter to go through 9 rounds of antibiotics in 8 months.  He often had a cough that would linger beyond the first 14-day round and then we would have to go for another 14-day round.  (that happened at least 3 times)  And clearly, his lungs were becoming more involved.  So, the doctor felt that to up our game a bit it was time for daily nebs.  Also, to help with his constant sinus congestion she prescribed Flonase.  Finally, she suggested that we wait for his quarterly throat culture results to come back and then based on those results we would discuss a short hospital stay.

That brings us to this week.  On Monday morning I got the call that his culture results were in.  For only the third time in twelve throat cultures, Finn grew something.  The bacteria he grew is often called H. Flu and it is the second time that he has grown that (the first being in October 2010).  H. flu is often associated with sinus infections, so that makes sense that we're seeing that.  However, H. flu does not explain the damage seen in his lungs.  While it is still unclear what role H. flu plays in the progression of disease for CFers, it is not normally associated with the lung scarring that we were seeing in the CT scans.  For this reason, the doctor wanted to go ahead with a bronchoscopy to make sure that there were no other bacteria growing in the lungs, and that if there was we would be aware of it and able to treat it.  She also showed his sinus CT to an ENT who felt that by removing his adenoids we might be able to clear up some of his chronic sinus issues.  So, we scheduled both procedures to be done at the same time.  The doctor wanted us to wait in the hospital while the culture from the bronchoscopy grew out and run some IV antibiotics at the same time.  The hope with the IV antibiotics, as well as the increased treatments that he will get while here at the hospital is that we can clean up what is going on in his lungs and help him out a bit.  The culture results take at least three days, so that means we will be here until Monday.

This morning we arrived at the hospital at 9:30am for an 11:30am procedure.  While we waited Finn enjoyed playing in the super-fun playroom that is located in the surgery center.  He seriously charmed all of the nurses and doctors while zooming down the halls on a ride-on caterpillar.  Seriously, he was being Finn, which generally melts just about everyone.

He loves this crib!  To him it's just one big bounce house!  And he loves to be totally closed in so he can just go to town in there!

Our doctor laughed at this toy and said it must have come straight from the '60s.  She's probably right.

Our procedure got delayed until 12:15pm and by the time we had finally visited with all of the doctors (his pulmonologist, the ENT, and the PICC team) it was nearly 1pm.  Poor Finn was past nap time and had nothing to eat all day, and no liquids since 9:30am.  He was getting cranky.  To combat that, the nurse brought back the ride-on caterpillar and Finn rode his way down the halls, through the big heavy doors, and right on in to the operating room.  Every head turned and smiled as he rode past.  I know I'm biased but our kid is cute!

We got him settled into the OR pretty quickly and I held him and talked to him while they gave him his gas and then once he was out he got a kiss and I was on my way.  I went down to the cafeteria to grab some lunch and just relax.  Then I headed back to the surgery center to wait.  Finn was done relatively quickly and I was called back within an hour and a half (or so) of when I had dropped him off.  Dr. Zemanick came to tell me that everything had gone well.  His adenoids had been large and so they removed them, his sinuses were actually pretty clear (which is good) and his bronch showed that his airways looked better than she had expected.  She did find some areas in the upper lobes of both of his lungs with a decent amount of mucus built up in them, so she took a sample from there so that they could see what bacteria (if any) he's growing.  And we also find out that Finn has an "anterior airway" and is therefore more tricky to intubate.  The anesthesiologist told to make sure and mention that from now on because it will take a more skillful hand and more complicated procedure to get Finn intubated.  He made good record of it in his notes, but it's helpful for us to make sure the docs know.  And then I finally went back to see Finn.  I could hear him crying before I even got there!  He had woken up without me and he was angry.

Once again we saw that Finn does not wake-up well from anesthesia.  He also does not like being restrained and they had placed restraints on both of his arms so that he wouldn't pull out his IV line or his PICC.  He would need both lines for the IV antibiotics that we are doing this weekend and they were rightfully concerned that he would pull them out.

I won't bore you with the rest of the afternoon details.  Suffice it to say that Finn has had a rough day.  He was tired, hungry, and just plain not himself.  He did finally start to eat for dinner and he took his Pediasure before bed, so I'm hoping that tomorrow will just be a better day.

All tuckered out for his afternoon nap.  See the arm restraints.  We took them off not too much later when he wanted to hold his cup to drink.  So far we haven't had to put them back on.

Our friend and Relief Society president came to visit and it was nice to have someone to chat with while Finn just started at the TV.  They have lots of Disney movies On-Demand here so we "watched" Toy Story 3 this afternoon as well as Cars 2 (1.5 times!).

They are currently running 3 IV antibiotics.  One is given every 8 hours, one once every 24 hours, and the other one I haven't seen yet, so I'm not sure how often that one will happen.  The doctors will meet on Monday afternoon to discuss all of the inpatients, so I'm not anticipating that we will be released until after that point.  I'm hoping to be home by Monday night, but that will all depend on his culture results.

I'll admit that I have struggled with this and questioned if we were doing the right thing.  At this point, I feel so new to the CF world, that I just need to trust the doctors, so I'm trying to let go and realize that just because Finn doesn't look sick doesn't mean he isn't sick.  If I back up and take each procedure one-at-a-time, I understand the value and the reasoning behind each one, so I'm trying to hold on to that.  Finn has been so upset and stressed by this though, that it's been a bit hard to see the bigger picture.  I just keep thinking, "Why am I doing this to him?"

I just hope tomorrow is a better day and that when we wake up in the morning my charming, energetic boy will be back!

Spring Break

Since this is Kai's first year of "school", this was his first ever Spring Break.  Kai had loved having his cousins visit last summer and we had been wanting to see them ever since then, so we decided that we would make a drive to Kansas for our Spring Break.  Reid, unfortunately, had to work that whole week (and I mean, the WHOLE week....he was working 12-hour days) so it was just me and the boys on our journey.  I expected it to be a bit of a rocky trip, but it actualy wasn't that bad.  The boys were pretty good on the road and we made good time.  The drive out took about 10 1/2 hours (with all of the stops added in) and the drive back was a little less than that.  Like I said, not too bad.

Day 1--The Drive

We stopped at a rest stop about 20 miles outside of Limon and let the boys run.  I love these pictures!  They were having a great time.  From there we went on to Colby, Kansas where we stopped at an Arby's for lunch.  It turns out we arrived at the exact same time as a tour bus full of people and were practically standing in the parking lot waiting for the one cashier to take everyone's orders.  Kai had his heart set on Arby's, though, and Finn was about to pass out.  We ended up making friends with the family in front of us in line and then they bought us our lunch!  I can't even explain to you how sweet it was.  We surely didn't need it, but it was a kind jesture that made me realize that there are still some great people in this world.

After Colby, we got serious about the drive.  Finn napped while Kai and I played "I spy".  We only made one more stop in Salina, Kansas for gas and the bathroom and then it was on to the Perrins' house.  We were very happy to pull up (and also grateful that we did so without a deer as a hood ornament!) and see everyone.  And we were grateful that Kristi had some hotdogs ready for dinner.  And then we were bushed.  I was surprised how well the boys went to bed.

Day 2--Play Time!

I woke up to the sound of Kai saying "Mom, I want to see my cousins!"  It was impossible to keep him from running up the stairs ahead of me to go find them.  We spent the morning watching the boys play together both inside and outside, while the adults made plans for the afternoon.  It was fun to see Owen and Kai playing so well together, and we LOVED the Kansas weather.  It was so strange to be wearing shorts and flip-flops.  It was beautiful spring weather!

For dinner we decided to drive into Kansas city to eat at the T-Rex Cafe.  I was sure that Kai was going to LOVE the place.  Unfortunately, he feel asleep on our way there and didn't wake up well.  The lights and sounds of the cafe overwhelmed him at first and he pretty much flipped out.  Once we calmed him down, Finn flipped out.  Oh well....better luck next time.  It was such a neat place that I'm sure we'll have to go again!

Our table

The kids played in the fountain while Kristi and I shopped at Gymboree.
After finishing our shopping we had to go back to buy Kai a new shirt as he was soaked!

This picture makes me laugh!  Owen is saying "cheeeeeeeese"!

Day 3--The Sabbath

Kai was very excited to go with Owen to church.  That is, he was excited until it was time to actually go.  It was fun to sit with family at church and to see the Perrins' ward.  It's a much smaller ward than what we have here and it was nice to have a cozy feeling to sacrament meeting.  Finn, however, was not wanting to behave and so we spent most of our time in the hallway.  He was way out of control!  We ended up leaving right after sacrament.

That afternoon was spent playing in the backyard and just enjoying our time together.  One of our favorite moments that afternoon was an incident that occurred between Owen and Kai.  They had several games that they would play together (Super Cousins and Pirates, to name two) and while playing they both wanted to steer the ship (with the steering wheel on the swingset).  There was some argument and eventually both Kristi and I had jumped in to try to resolve the issue.  While Krisit would try to talk to the boys, Kai would just start talking right over her.  So, I was jumpin in telling Kai he needed to listen to his aunt.  In the midst of all of this yelling, suddenly the boys just stopped.  And with very little discussion they had come to their own solution.  Kristi and I heard, "You steer left and I steer right."  And that was it!  They were up there with one on each side of the steering wheel, one kid pulling one direction and the other kid pulling the other direction and they were happy.  We just laughed in amazement at the way it had resolved itself, and the strange manner in which it was resolved.

Playing with balls in the backyard

What Kai did with the balls!

The little boys kept crashing their cars into the fence

Owen and Finn had a great game.  Owen would hand Finn a ball and Finn would throw it over the bench and squeal!
They both loved it and it was such a simple game.  But it gave Finn the biggest belly laughs!

After dinner we went for a bike ride.  We were quite the crew!  Erik was pulling a trailer with Owen and Isaac, Ethan had his bike, Kristi had Bryn on a half-wheeler on the back of her bike, and I had a trailer with Kai and Finn.  We had a great time!  Poor Finn was too wound up to take a nap that day, and by the end of the bike ride he was a bit worn out.  It was straight to bed for him!

Day 4 -- Play at the Park

Monday morning we ventured to a park.  It was one of the neatest parks that I've ever seen, as it was totally enclosed.  And there was even a fence between the equipment for the big and little kids.  The boys seemed to have a good time.  My boys had never seen anything like the spinning platform and they really enjoyed that.  Everyone was a bit tired and grumpy that day so our play time ended a bit earlier than we had expected, but that was just fine.

In the afternoon we decided to walk to the elementary school to pick-up Bryn.  Unfortunately, we only made it to the corner before Kai took a fall and scraped his knee.  It was back to the house for us and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing inside while the older kids worked on homework.  We had Subway and Yellow Sub for dinner, which was super yummy!

Day 5 -- Open Gym

By the time we had been there 4 days Finn was waking up asking for his cousins.  It was super cute to hear the excitement each morning as the boys took off looking for their cousins.  For that morning, we had planned to go to the nearby gymnastics center for an open gym.  We played Hullabaloo at the house while we waited for open gym, which started at 11:30.

On a personal note, it was so neat to get back in a gym.  It's been nearly 10 years since I've been in a gymnastics facility and it was truly like taking a step back in time.  The boys had a great time bouncing on the trampoline and jumping in the pit.  I hopped up on the beam and walked across, jumped on a springboard and just inhaled the smell of a gym.  Strange, I know.  Towards the end of the open gym period the owner came out to put some new foam into the pit and we got to talking.  It was my first time in a gym in 10 years and I got offered a job!  Too fun!

We were there with our 4 boys and then there were only 2 other little girls practically the whole time!

Isaac on the rope

climbing out

He would bounce and then stop and strike his pose.  I think someone has watched too much gymnastics with me!

Finn has started crossing his arms and stomping off while saying "No Way".  This must have something to do with having an older brother, because Kai certainly didn't know that phrase at age 2!

That evening after dinner we ended our visit to Lawrence with a trip to Orange Leaf.  I think Kai's favorite part was the gummy worms on his ice cream!

We had such a good time in Lawrence and can't wait to go back.  Our drive home on day 6 was relatively uneventful.  We made good time as the kids were used to the driving by then.  We stopped at Freddy's for lunch (a much better choice than the Arby's had been on the way out) and then other than a quick run at the rest stop, we were pretty much gas-n-go.  It was nice to get home and see Reid.  And within an hour of walking through the door Reid asked if we were ready to go back--this time with him!

Brothers

I'm so glad my boys have each other.  Kai sure is loving, and Finn sure does love him.  Most of the time, it works out well.  I found them like this one morning while watching a show after Finn had finished his treatments.

What Happened?

Me:  Finn, what happened?
Finn:  Me!

It's his new answer for everything....and most of the time, it's exactly right!