Back In The Saddle

I've been going through the old blog today, mainly looking for pictures of Java, but I was amazed at how much I had forgotten.  I really should keep this up. It was so much fun to look back and see how much the kids have grown and how far they've come.  It's like a family diary and I remembered so many good times with these two boys.  They'll have a blast looking at some of these as they get older.
Today is Java's last day.  It's been so hard to know that after today, I'll never see him again. He's been with us through a lot of good times.  I've had him since February 2001.  He is now 15 years old and is in a lot of pain with his hips and a stubborn ear infection that he can't seem to shake.  He was with us when we got married, got Manny, made a big move and he welcomed both boys and was kind and patient with both of them.  We'll be missing a big part of our family after today and my heart is breaking at the thought of saying good-bye.

Wow, it's been a long time

Can't believe it's been this long since I last blogged.  Wow, I've gotten so lazy. I'd say it's just that I've been too busy...blah, blah, but the truth is it was pure laziness.  I forgot how much I used to love to blog. It's like keeping a diary.  Deacon turns 5 tomorrow so I was going through all the blog entries looking for some good pictures and tearing up at some of the stories.  It's so hard to believe that he's going to be 5!  He has been such a blessing to us and we are so glad to have him in our lives. As you can tell by the pictures, he's quite the character and he definitely keeps us laughing. I'll attempt to not be so lazy in the future. 

Fall is here

 

On Saturday, we took the boys for a hike in Big Woods State Park.  It started off as a pretty cloudy day, but got sunnier as we hiked.  It was a great fall day for it.  I did not plan as well as I should have and thought it would be warmer than it was.  I did dress Deke in layers and I had Ty in short sleeves and thought he would wear his light jacket and it would be good.  I was wrong. It was way too chilly for that and I should have had Ty in long sleeves as well.  We had to buy him a sweatshirt at the park's gift shop. It's way too big for him, but at least he was warm. 

 

I decided to do the Insanity DVD series. For those that don't know what that is, it is an extreme workout video.  I did the fit test the other day and actually kept up pretty well.  My numbers were all in line with the other people that were doing it and that have been doing it for 60 days.  Jillian Michaels has done a great job of kicking my butt into shape, apparently.  Of course, now my calves are aching and I can barely move...but I kept up when it counted. :)

Hiking Pictures

Hiking at Whitewater.

My boys!  :)

I love trees with really cool barks or weird limbs.  I take a ton of these kinds of pictures, but figure nobody else really wants to see them, plus I'm not the greatest at capturing what I want to capture with it.  Maybe one day I'll take a photo class.

Me and the boys...the nice picture

Me and the boys...the not so nice picture :) I love Ty's face and it looks like Deacon is yanking my hair out.  He wasn't, he was trying to give me a hug.

Oh, the Dekemeister.  I love this little boy so much. He is such a character!

No pictures, please!

 

We took the boys hiking at Whitewater earlier in August.  I think these were taken the weekend before we made our rush trip to Texas.  We are hoping for a camping trip to Big Woods State Park next weekend.  We have had some beautiful weekends, but the nights have been chilly so we'll see how it goes.  The leaves are starting to change here and it is just so gorgeous.  I really do wish I was better at capturing photos because there is some specatacular scenery around here.

Hiking

The boys at Garvin Heights

 The view from Garvin Heights

 On the trail

It has been forever since I posted.  It used to be super easy to upload photos from Picasa, but they made a change that made it harder to post, so I just didn't take the time.  Last Saturday, we had my Grandma and my brother come up.  We took them to Garvin Heights, which is just one of the coolest places in Winona.  You can see for miles up there.  There is also a trail that you can hike to the bottom or to the top.  It's only a .5 mile, but very steep.  Nobody wanted to do it with us so once everyone left, we took the boys and hiked it.  I'll try to do better about posting.  :)

Blue Bell Creameries

We took the boys to Blue Bell Creameries while in Texas.  You can experience Blue Bell at any Outback, but you can't buy it in stores up here.  It's the ice cream Joel and I grew up with and it is delicous.  It takes 60,000 cows a day to make their ice cream.  Pretty fascinating and of course, the best part was getting free ice cream at the end of the tour.  Poor Joel couldn't have any and got stuck eating an icee pop that the kids wanted as well.  Deacon got his favorite chocolate and Ty got cookies n cream. I think Ty picked the best one.  I tried the b-day cake one and surprisingly it wasn't as good as the ones I've had up here so I was disappointed. I should have went with my stand-by Vanilla. Boring, I know, but it's my favorite. 

Ty is getting around much better now.  He doesn't limp at all and we are having a much harder time keeping him from still.  I am so grateful as it seems to point more and more to the viral infection.  We had church service last night which was really good.  Both boys were surprisingly quiet and good.  Ty actually paid attention and had quite a few questions for us on the way home.  I love being able to share what Christ has done for him and know that he's understanding it.

NASA Trip

Ty as an astronaut

The Kid's Play Space. Really cool and the kids did not want to leave this area.

Super cool screen.  Everytime you touched it sparks would fly.  You could touch one of the spaceships and you'd get information on a space flight.

It was super cool to be able to take the kids to NASA.  They had so much fun. They really enjoyed the play space.  It looked so cool, I really wanted to go play too.  I probably would have met the height requirements. 

We've had some health issues in our house.  Ty woke up Sunday not able to walk on one leg.  He sent Deacon in to get us so he could get out of bed.  I took him to Urgent Care where they did x-rays, took blood and told us that it's not broken, but they don't know what's going on with it.  We made an appt to see a Pedatric Orthopedic Suregon at Gunderson on Tuesday.  Went through the same thing, x-rays, blood (a lot more this time and a lot more traumatic for my little guy).  His doctor thinks it is a viral infection  of his left hip called transit synovis (sp) which is somewhat common for boys his age and the symptoms seem to follow what we experienced.  He is now limping around on it and at least today we've seen a lot more dramatic improvement.  It's been harder to keep him in quiet play and I am so grateful for that.  We go back next Tuesday for a follow up appt.  We are praying that this is all it is.  If it is a viral infection then it will go away in a week or two.