Florida Vacation

We decided to make this year full of nothing but fun and vacations and relaxation and memories, thus all the vacations this year! We haven't gotten to take many vacations over the last few years since all of our time off was spent in Cincinnati, but since we didn't have to make that trip this year or spend any of our vacation time in the hospital we decided to travel!! We started the year off with a trip to Kansas City, then came Sea World and San Antonio, then Colorado, and now it was time for Florida!

Nelson and I have always "disagreed" on vacation spots. I am a mountains, hiking, relaxation vacation lover and Nelson is a beach, sun, and sand vacation lover. We made both of us happy this year and went to each! I have to admit, the beach was fun!! The boys really really enjoyed it and we had a good time too!! It was a little difficult with an 11 month old at the beach, but we managed and all still had a GREAT time!! Plus, we got to through 4 states that we have never been in: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida!! We are trying to take the boys to all 50 states, we are getting there!!

The drive was a long one!! But the boys are WONDERFUL little travelers!! Thank goodness for DVD players!! They are such troopers!! We spent two days getting there, stayed for two days, then took two days getting back, so a long trip, but well worth the fun!! I think we could have stayed a few more days though!!

We started off the trip with a walk on the beach the night we got there! Will was soooo excited!! We told him he couldn't go in yet since he didn't have his bathing suit on, so he snuck over to his Grandpy and talked him into taking him waist deep in the water!! Little sneaker!!

We got up early the next day and were down at the beach by 8:00am, and we spent the entire day down there playing in the sand, making sand castles, and playing in the ocean.

The next day Will had had enough of the ocean and wanted to play in the pools, so we spent that day playing in all of the resorts 5 pools! It was a great time and Will played soooo hard, he had a blast! Ajay loves the water so he was just a happy little camper too!! They almost turned into fish that day!!

Here is the view from our condo, it was gorgeous!! We just enjoyed sitting out there on the balcony and taking it all in!! There was a great breeze and view, perfect!

Of course, one of our favorite things to do on vacation is eat, so we had to go out to eat for our one real meal each day! We could only talk the boys into getting cleaned up once a day, so we had a late lunch/early dinner each night at a restaurant and then had the other meals on the beach or poolside! Here is Nelson and his Dad at Old Bay Steamer, it was delicious!!
Here is the huge pile of steamed sea food we gobbled up! There was lobster, shrimp, oysters, clams, mussels, crabs, mmmm good!!

Here is Mommy and her two boys at Old Bay Steamer!

I think we might have worn this little boy out!! He just fell asleep right on the beach!! It is hard work playing in the sand all day!!

Here is Daddy and Ajay hanging out at the beach!

Will decided to cover Daddy all up with sand and try to bury him, he was quite a busy boy!!

Here is Mommy and Ajay our first day at the beach! Ajay could not wait to get his toes in the sand!! He is such a water baby and wants to do EVERYTHING his big brother does!!

This is the first time everyone saw the Emerald Coast and got to stick their toes in the ocean and sand! Will got a little more than his toes wet, he went with Grandpy and was soaked!! He just couldn't wait!!

After the first day at the beach, Will decided that he really didn't like it because, "That beach and ocean just has too much salt and pepper in it, can we just play at the pool today?" He got hit in the face with a wave and got salt water in his eyes, so I guess the salt and pepper were just too much for him, so we spent the next day at the pools. They have a kiddy pool with a pirate slide, he LOVED it!! I think he probably went down that slide 50 times!!

Ajay got to get down and be "free" at the kiddy pool too and he LOVED it!! He was all over the place trying to get everywhere his big brother was! He wasn't afraid of anything!!

Ajay and I spent the first day watching the older boys swim, it was really kind of cold, there was a storm moving in so we opted to stay out and watch the older boys swim! Ajay had a blast just watching though, he is such a people watcher!!

Here is Will shivering, it was cold!! It couldn't stop him though, he was a little fish, we all were!!

We had a wonderful time!! We will definitely go back! We just spent the entire day relaxing and taking it easy and just doing whatever the boys wanted!! It was a GREAT vacation!! I just wish it was closer!!

We tried to make the most of each day, got up and down to play by 8:00am, then stayed down there until about 3:00pm, then came up to the room for a quick nap and to get cleaned up, then grabbed a bite to eat by 5:00pm to beat the rush, then back to the condo to swim again until 9:00pm, then showers and bed, then started the day all over again the next day!! It was GREAT!! I think we all made memories we will keep forever!!

Fourth of July

Every year we spend the Fourth of July with Nelson's family. We have just always done that!! We always have a huge all day long celebration! We swim, cookout, then light fire crackers!! This year was no exception!! Will and his cousin Logan had a BLAST this year!! They are right at the age (4 and 5) were everything amazes them! They are so much fun!!

When we got over to Nelson's parents house, Logan was already in the pool just waiting for Will to get there!! The boys swam and swam and just had a good time! Ajay didn't get to swim that day because he had an ear infection (again!!) but we all stayed outside to watch the older boys play! They really had a good time and even got up the nerve (together) to jump off the side of the pool!

Every year at Christmas, Tori and I always try to get the boys matching clothes, just because it's cute for pictures, plus they won't let us do it forever, so we have to get it all in while their young! Anyway, it was hilarious this 4th, both sets of boys wore the same July 4th shirts!! And we didn't even plan it!! It was great!! Too funny!! I can't believe out of all the 4th of July shirts in the world, we somehow managed to put both of our boys in the same shirts as the other!! Too cute and fun!!

Here is Will and Logan showing off their July 4th shirts.

And here is Ajay and Easton showing off theirs with Grandi and Daddy.
Here is Will swimming like a little fish!

Not, a smart thing to do Nelson, showing little boys how to shoot water guns!! I bet you can guess what happened next. . . .Everyone got soaked!!

Here is Mom and Ajay after the soaking!! Ajay really didn't mind, in fact, I am pretty sure he really really liked it and thought it was fun!!

Here is Daddy and Ajay, he is such a ham!!

Daddy and Ajay resting after the big water shoot out!

This year Will got to do Sparklers and persistently tried to catch everything he could on fire! He has been watching his Daddy and Uncle Nate too long!!

"See boys, this is what happens when you light 200 black cats and place them in a gutter tube!"
Will and Logan were like two peas in a pod, everywhere together!

The first fountain of the night!

We had a wonderful Independence Day filled with Family, Fun, Food, and Fireworks!! It was a GREAT day and we made GREAT memories that we will remember forever!! This is Nelson's favorite holiday, always has been, and he really wants to make it bigger and better each year, so that the boys can really look forward to it and love it as much as he does! I think he did a great job in ensuring that! We had a blast!

Will's First Friend

This weekend we got a wonderful treat!! We got to spend Saturday with some very special friends!! We met these wonderful people when Will was in the NICU, their son Travis was in there at the same time Will was. They both started out at a whopping 1lb6oz and 1lb7oz and went through soooo much!! Will got to compare scares and wounds with his little buddy, they are pretty close to each other with emergency surgeries and scars and scary moments! But they are both strong little boys and pulled through and overcame so much!! It was such a blessing to get to see them together, playing, being "normal" little boys!!

We spent the day at my Mom's house outside swimming in the pool then came back to our house for a cookout! It was an awesome fun filled day!! We are so glad that Harold, JoDee, and Travis got to come down and visit us and spend such a great day with us!!

Here is Will and Travis being "cool dudes"!
Ajay got to join in on the festivities! He LOVES to swim!! He is such a water baby!!

Here are the boys swimming together.

They took turns playing on turtle and swam with their little floaties! They had such a good time together!! I am so glad Will and Travis got to spend such a wonderful day together! They will be good friends forever and will always have a very special bond!!

Will's First Day of School!

Well, my little baby is getting to be such a big boy! We enrolled him in the Sunshine School this summer to try to get him ready for big Pre-K this August (well, we are thinking we are going to be doing that anyway!) Wednesday was his first day of school. He was pretty excited about it and was ready to go. Although I think he thought Nelson and I were going to stay with him all day. It was soooo hard to leave him, Mommy almost cried!

He ate a big breakfast before we left. He said, "I need to eat my sausage so I will have lots of energy to play with all my friends at school." So here is my school boy eating his breakfast!
And here he is about to get in the car to go to school! He even has his little back pack on!!

Here is Will and his little buddy Danica heading into the doors. He was so happy to see her and couldn't wait for her to show him the bathroom! They have their priorities I guess!

The teacher had Play-Dough out and he jumped right in there to play with it. Mommy doesn't allow Play-Dough in the house for obvious reasons! I know I am just no fun!!

We had to stay a little while to prevent the tears from falling, but a little boy came in the room and he wanted to show Will his tractor. Will looked up at him with a HUGE smile and said, "Wow Dude that is soooo Cool!" It was too cute!! We took that opportunity to sneak out. I kept thinking we would get a phone call saying he won't quit crying come and get him, but he did GREAT!!!

He said, "Mommy, I had a wonderful day at school." I said, "What did you do?" He said, "I played with EVERYTHING!!" "There was a huge plastic doll house with all this little plastic furniture, Mom, it was too cool!" So I think he had a good day!

The teacher said he was the first one asleep at nap time! I can't even get him to take a nap! I guess playing with all his new little friends is just hard work!! They also said that he and Danica needed to move up a level! Smart little kiddos! So they will have a new classroom on Monday with the 4 year olds!

But, all in all it was a good day!! And he enjoyed it, and that is all that matters!!

Estes Park Colorado!

This is going to be kind of a long post, sorry, but we just had way to much fun and took too many pictures not to share!

Every year for vacation our family visits the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado. We really enjoy it there, it is just gorgeous, and it is soooo relaxing! Plus, we love to hike and there are thousands of miles of trails up there. We didn't get to do any really long hikes this year with Will and Ajay being so young, we had to carry them so. . .4 miles round trip was the most we were able to make it. We have been known to do 8-10 mile hikes, maybe when the kids are older! There is just tons of stuff to do around there, it is all so kid and family oriented, it is great!! Plus, we have our favorite places to eat and boy is it yummy!!

We always stay at the YMCA and we rent a 3 or 4 bedroom cabin which is great so we can all stay together! It is just a great place, so if you are ever in that direction, I would highly recommend it! There is tons of wild life to see. In the past we have seen: deer, big horn sheep, elk, moose, bear, marmots, chipmunks, prairie dogs, beavers, eagles, and I am sure more than that! They have a cute little down town to shop around in all with the background of the Big Thompson River running right through it! It really is a great place!

Anyway, here goes the pictures and boy are there a lot of them!

Here is our family picture that has the Rocky Mountains in the background, you can barely see them since we are standing right in front of them, and the bridge is over the river from the Big Thompson. It was a beautiful day that day, 70's and sunny!

This is our little excursion up to the top of Prospect Mountain. No we didn't hike this one, you actually ride a tram up there! It is really fun, a little scary, Will was a little worried that the wires might break and that it would be a long fall, but thankfully we made it up there and back all in one piece! Up at the top, there is an observation deck, a little gift shop, and peanuts! What are the peanuts for you ask? You will see. . . .

It was kind of windy up there that day, a front was moving in so we were kind of wind blown. The view was still breath taking! Here is Ajay and Mommy taking it all in. And above is Will and PeePaw checking things out!

Ok, here is what you do with the peanuts! The little chipmunks will come right up to you and even jump in your laps to get to them! Will thought this was just plain neat! He loved it!! He almost caught him a chipmunk to take back with him too!



Here is a picture of Mommy and her two boys up at the top. We had run out of peanuts and Will was ready to go get some more!!

This is Will's favorite thing to do while we are up there! THE RAINBOW SLIDE!!! He just loves it! I have to admit it is pretty fun, but man, all those stairs to get up there is a killer!! And of course, Will wants you to carry him up them. We went here 4 days straight and each day Will had to ride the Rainbow Slide FIVE times! He wanted to ride every color! But he didn't like the red, "It shocked me really good, Mommy." so we did the other colors, but the teal one was his favorite, it went the fastest! Poor Ajay just had to sit at the bottom and watch. He wanted to go so bad, but the little guy is just still too small, next year though, he will race his brother to the top! It really is fun, even PeePaw joined in on the sliding action!

At the Fun City Park, they also have Go Karts, so of course, we just had to ride those too! Will really thought he was the one driving which was great! He was turning that steering wheel all over the place! Too much fun! He raced Grams and PeePaw and won!! Again me and Ajay sat on the side lines cheering everyone on!

This year they added the bumper boats! It was just too much fun! We had bumping wars and then Will figured out how to use the water sprayer and Mommy and PeePaw got soaked!! Thank goodness that was one of the warmer days!

One of our favorite things to do up there in Estes is hike! This year it was a little more challenging with two little ones on our backs (and fronts). But we still managed to conquer a few little 3 and 4 mile hikes! This hike was to one of the old mines in Estes, it is half way up the trail to Estes Cone, we have done that one a few times, and there is no way we could make it with two kids, so we did it half way and made it to the mines. This was Will's favorite part, crossing the river on a little make shift bridge made out of a tree! I think he crossed it 10 times!

Here is M0mmy, Will and Ajay crossing the bridge. . . again! Will found some snow in the trees and decided to throw snow balls at us, thank you PeePaw for showing him how! Then he bent down to wash his hands in the river, and said, "Brrr Mommy, this water is as cold as snow!" I then told him that is what the water is, melted snow from the mountains. From then on, every time we saw the River, it was "Mommy, that River is made from melted snow from the mountains, it is very very cold, do not stick your hands in it!" At least he learns?

Here is a picture of Grams, PeePaw, Daddy, and Will on the way back down the mountain. It was a good hike, wore us out anyway!

Here is a picture of the boys on the swing at our cabin. It was made by hand by one of the founders of the YMCA there in Estes back in 1910. That swing is almost 100 years old and still works great, they just don't make them like they used to! Our cabin had a lot of history to it, it was one of the first cabins built there, but had obviously been remodeled and updated since then.

Ok, I know this is kind of weird, but then again so is my little Will. We went to do laundry while we were up there at the Y's laundromat and he saw this HUGE VENT! He was really impressed with The Vent! We had to walk up there and see it every day at least once so he could check on it. "Mommy I think we really need to go up there and check on that huge vent." And away we would go to check on that Vent! He was a little afraid it was going to suck him up, but as long as he didn't have to go too close to it, he was ok!

Another one of our favorite things to do up in Estes is. . . EAT! We have our favorite spots and the owners even know us by name (I told you we have been going there a LONG time!). We love the Dunraven, a little Italian place where every wall in the restaurant is covered in $1 bills that people from all over the world have written on and hung up there. At last count he said he had $16,000 plus in $1 bills hanging up. So it is a really neat atmosphere and great food! We also like to go to the historic Stanley Hotel to eat lunch. It was the hotel in the movies Dumb and Dumber and the Shining. They have lots of history and great food too! Here is Mommy and Ajay eating at The Stanley. Nelson said this picture is just crazy because we look so much alike! It's those blue eyes!

Will got to ride his first horse up there this year! He went on a little pony ride on a horse named Strawberry. He was a little upset and cried at first, he was a little scared I think, but after 10 seconds on the horse and he was having a blast! He thought it was just sooo cool! He really liked it and told Strawberry that she was his favorite horse ever and said he was really really soft and nice! I think it went really well! When we were kids we would always do the 3 or 4 hour horseback rides into the mountains, they were always so much fun, even if you couldn't walk when you got off them! I can't wait to take Will and Ajay on those rides, in a few years of course! We had so much fun up there growing up and I can't wait to share that with my little boys!

This last is just Will and Daddy being goofy! Trying to mimic the statue! Goofy guys!

We had a GREAT time, it was a wonderful family vacation! Full of activity, family, and good food! What more could you ask for. . . besides to live there! Will is already ready to go back there next year so he can check on that Vent and ride the Rainbow Slide five more times!! I can't wait for the kids to be old enough to go to the Y's day camp! We had a BLAST there growing up! We got to go hang out with kids from all over the country all week (from 8-3) and do tons of fun stuff like: river rafting, ropes courses, rock climbing, hikes, games, cookouts, horseback riding, etc! It was great fun and we made great friends! I just can't wait to share that with them!! Plus, then Mommy and Daddy can go do other things (big hikes. . . Long's Peak is on our list and play golf, and read!) Can't Wait!!! Yeah!

North Pole Colorado

Well, we just got back from our wonderful 11 day vacation to Colorado!! So much to tell! My family has gone up to Estes Park now every year for 25 years. I started going when I was 5 (yes the math is correct, I am so close to 30 I can hardly stand it!), and have gone every year (except for 2), so I think you can say we really really enjoy going up there! It is so relaxing and just gorgeous!

Anyway, on our way there, we stopped in Colorado Springs for a trip to the North Pole! It is a little amusement park there with little rides and of course, Santa! Will talked from the moment we got out of the car about needing to talk to Santa. "Where is that Santa?" "Is Santa over here?" "I can't seem to find my Santa!" "Mom, is he not here?" Finally we got to the center of the park (after riding a few rides along the way) and we found Santa!! We took Will in to see him, and he of course, started to cry and ran out saying, "That Santa is just too scary!" So much for that I guess!

We had a good time though and rode lots of rides! Mommy got sick on the tilt-a-whirl, so I won't be doing that again any time soon, but all in all a good fun day!

Here is Nelson and Will on the World's Tallest Farris Wheel. It is not really "tall" it is because of the altitude, but still fun!

And this was Will's favorite ride! The Christmas tree ride.

We had a great time!! Too much fun! Poor Ajay wasn't big enough for the rides, but he loved to watch Will go up and down and around and around on them! Maybe next year!! Good times!! Love it!

Looking Back At The Past 4 Years

Every birthday we have for Will is one that is very emotional for us. We look back at how many obstacles he had to over come before getting to his fourth birthday, let along his first, second, and third. I can still remember every single blood stick, blood transfusion, test, surgery, intubation, like it was yesterday. Will's NICU stay was filled so many new words, abbreviations, emotions, and firsts that it makes our heads spin sometimes when we think about it.

Lots of people say, oh that was so long ago, you "have to get over it". And it just saddens me to hear people say that, because mothers never "get over" something like that. It will be ingrained in my mind forever. And I know it is that they just don't understand, they have never had to watch their child fighting for every breath, every day, and just having to stand there helpless. Or watching them do all these horribly, painful test to your little (tiny) baby, knowing it hurt them, and all you could do is just stand there with tears in your eyes, holding his little finger telling him it will be ok.

It was such a trying time for us in so many ways. And I know that we would have not made it without the love, support, and prayers from so many of you! You gave us hope when there wasn't any, and held our hands when they were full,and dried our eyes when they were full of tears. Thank you! For with God's miracles and the wonderful doctors and nurses there at Mercy, we got to take home our little one pound miracle and have the most amazing four years with our sweet angel!

Sure, we have had our trying times over the past four years, I would never ever change a thing for my little trached, Gtubed, miracle baby! Will has taught us so much, more than he will ever know. We always take it one day at a time (as we did in the NICU), we always celebrate the great things (all the firsts. . . and seconds), and never take one single day for granted (each day is something new), we always look forward tomorrow, and never let him go to sleep without a kiss, hug, and I love you!

Here is Will on his birth day

Here is Will on his first birthday
Will on his second birthday

Will on his third birthday

And Will on his fourth birthday

And many more to come. . . . We love you Will!

Oh goodness, and to think we get to have the same kind of story with our little miracle Ajay! We could not be any more blessed to have TWO little miracles! Thanks for making me have such wonderful Mother's Days just by having you two in my life!