My Mother's Day

I have to say I think this was one of my favorite Mother's Days! The activities started on Thursday, May 8th, with attending Alice's second grade musical performance for the mothers, followed by a picnic outside. Of course they sang several songs about mothers. One of them was "You Are My Sunshine", which is what the theme of the concert was, and they had headbands for the occasion. Alice and I packed our own lunches, which I brought with me to the school, and we sat on one of our picnic blankets. It was a nice time, and Alice was so excited about it for the last two months. She kept asking me if I had put it in my calendar.

The weather was perfect for an outdoor picnic! There was just a slight breeze, but the sun was shining. I had to put my jacket on after a while, but it was still nice.

Maybe this next thing wasn't Mother's Day specific, but I had the opportunity to take some more senior pictures of Garrett Friday night (the 9th) right in our own backyard. The weather was perfect! No wind at all. I'm glad I had to wait longer to get his pictures done because we had so much more green plants growing in our backyard than we did at Easter, which is when I was going to try to do it originally. We really wanted to get more pictures done without his braces on and since we got his cap and gown for graduation. The very next morning, we put in an order to Walmart to get some graduation announcements printed. Because we had them print our return address on the envelopes for us, it needed to be shipped and couldn't be done via 1 hour photo. Next time we will just do our own labels so we can get it done quicker. That order was expected today but now is delayed until tomorrow. I want to get those mailed out as soon as we get them. On the other hand, it did give us time to collect any addresses we needed. Garrett is so excited to graduate and be done with school that he's been doing so much better at school and getting his homework done without me bugging him. He just has 2 1/2 weeks left! Here are a couple of my favorite shots. We didn't use the first one on the announcement because he did a similar pose that was more fun (a "ship's ahoy" pose) and he really wanted to use that one. 

 

After months of practicing every Thursday night and Saturday morning (most), it was finally the weekend of Jack's performance with his Choral Fusion singing group! We opened the pool that morning, but then went to the evening show as a family to go support Jack. I didn't give Garrett the chance to choose. I just told him this is what we're doing. We all LOVED the show! It was so fun (even Garrett said so). The theme this year was "Homeward Bound". They sang lots of fun, familiar songs and some I didn't know, but it was great. If he wasn't doing marching band in the fall, he would be doing Fusion again in the Fall for the Christmas concert. He'll just have to wait until next January. The girls and I had seen the show last year when it was just other kids from our ward that we knew doing the performance, but it was even better to have one of our own in it this year. I'm so glad he did it and so is Jack. He LOVED doing it! He said he might not do marching band his senior year because he loves doing Fusion that much. The great thing is that either most or all of the kids doing this show are members of our church and they are a wonderful group of kids. Both of the girls said they want to do it next year also. They tend to change their minds, so we'll see, but it would be fun to have them in it too. They have 3 different age groups. Garrett said he wished he was brave enough to do that. He likes to sing fun songs sometimes. On the way home, he and I sang to a couple of Aladdin songs and another from a TV show called "Phineas and Ferb". It was a great night! Only thing that could have made it better is if some of our extended family could have been there to watch with us. Maybe next year!

We were fortunate enough to get a front row seat even though we didn't get there until right before the show started. I think some people thought it was reserved, but no one was sitting there so we did. The Wingerts and Hornes were right behind us, so Jared Wingert took our picture.

The "Car Wash" song.

They had pictures of the kids in the hallway.

Jack had a short trumpet solo during "Yellow Submarine". He did awesome and everyone loved it!

And another singing solo (duet) in "Lean On Me". All of the boys did in this song.

On Sunday, which was officially Mother's Day, I woke up to the kids and Curtis cooking breakfast and setting up the table with homemade cards (by the girls), beautiful flowers and chocolates (finally the type I love, chocolate with almonds). They made waffles, eggs, bacon, grapes and orange juice for breakfast. I don't like doing the breakfast in bed thing, so they had to wait for me to shower and get dressed. My hair was still drying and not picture worthy yet, though. Ha ha I loved that the boys were actually up and helping (happily) and that they all did it together. Then another fun surprise was Jack singing in a small group (3 girls, 3 boys) during Sacrament meeting at church. He also sang another song with all of the youth. The small group sang "Love is Spoken Here" and the large group sang "More Than Enough". I really enjoyed both songs!

Garrett had an assignment for his food and fitness class to plan a healthy meal and then prepare it. The deadline to do it is June 2nd, but Garrett wanted to get it done sooner rather than later. I suggested to do it on Mother's Day, and that's exactly what he did. His meal was one of his favorites of spaghetti & meatballs, French bread and salad, with lemonade to drink. We went shopping together before going to Jack's show to get anything we needed and picked up a new tablecloth and some fancy wine glasses for our drinks. Part of his grade was on presentation. He learned how to make homemade spaghetti sauce, meatballs, French bread, and even salad. This was one assignment that he actually really enjoyed doing. He likes to cook but he just doesn't do it often. He later told me that after school is done he will do more cooking and chores. Hey, I like that! Garrett spent several hours working on this meal and it turned out so good! And I'm happy to report that he received a 100/100 grade for this assignment! Way to go!

Chopping onions for the meatballs.

Rolling out the dough for French bread.

All done!

Cooking the sauce and noodles.

It was a GREAT Mother's Day weekend! What more can I say? So many good things happened!

Garrett's Heart Appointment

After we returned home from our trip with Nikki, we played some Rummikub with Curtis's parents and a round of Bananagrams, and then watched another Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn part 1. Since we had let his parents use our room and because we were leaving again the next day, we ended up sleeping in Garrett's bed and he got the couch. We also used the hall bath. I can't wait to change out the shower valve in that bathroom. Trying to adjust the water temperature on that shower is annoying, and with two extra people showering that morning, my shower was a little on the cool side. Oh well. Mom started cooking some homemade chicken noodle soup before church so that it would be ready to eat when we got home from church. I wasn't in a hurry to leave for Nampa, but I also did not expect us to leave as late as we did. We didn't get on the road until around 3:30pm. Garrett and I drove in the van and Curtis drove his truck. He took his truck instead of work car because my dad gave us their two kayaks and he needed to haul them home on Wednesday. 

We arrived at Grandma's house around 8:30pm and just visited for a while. Dad and Laverne were there and had some leftovers for us for dinner. They went home at 10:00 and Curtis drove to Boise to his work hotel. Garrett, Grandma and I went to bed soon after. The next morning Garrett and I drove over to Meridian St. Luke's for his appointment. It was scheduled for 9am but we had to be there by 8:45. They first did an ultrasound on his heart and then took an EKG. Afterwards, Dr. Mack came in to talk about things. He said those tests looked good, but he would like to get some other testing done such as a stress test (exercising), liver ultrasound, and a cardiac catheterization. The catheterization could not be done in Idaho, so they said our options were Seattle, Salt Lake or Spokane. We chose Spokane because it is only 2 hours away. Our doctor also said it was time for Garrett to graduate to an adult cardiologist that specializes in congenital heart conditions. They had two right there in St. Luke's, but he said they also have some in Spokane. I told him we would stay in Meridian for now but wanted to think about it. Dr. Mack also wanted Garrett to wear a heart monitor for 3 days to check his heart rhythms, so they set that up on him. It was just a little round device that sticks on to his skin. He was able to shower with it but they didn't want it getting too wet. They gave us a prepaid box to mail it in to after the time was done. The doctor also wanted him to do a round of blood tests. We told him we would do that right away there at St. Luke's after the appointment so we could get it done.

After we left his office, we went right down to get his blood drawn. It turns out my sister, Tamara, works there in the registration. She wasn't the one to sign us in, but we did get to see her, and she came around to give us hugs and talk a little bit before we headed back to the lab. They tried Garrett's left arm first but were unsuccessful in hitting the vein and switched to the right arm. They got it this time, and they took a lot of blood from him. I didn't count but I think it was around 7 or 8 vials of blood for all of the tests the doc wanted. He got lightheaded and dizzy afterwards, so they let him sit there behind a curtain to rest and sip on ice water until he was ready to get up. 

When we left there, we headed to Grandma's to grab our things and then go to lunch with dad, mom and grandma to Chick-Fil-A. It was a good lunch and visit, but then it was time to go back home because Garrett had school the next day. 

Heading into Chick-Fil-A to get some grub.

Garrett, Dad, me and grandma

Garrett, mom, me and Grandma

We arrived back home around 4:30pm. Garrett got right to work on his homework that he missed that day. I was so impressed because I didn't have to say anything. He's getting more serious about making sure he graduates by getting his homework done. Yay! I slept in Garrett's bed again that night so that my in-laws wouldn't have to move their stuff out of our bedroom. They left the next morning around 8am and it was back to business as usual.

After talking to Curtis, I went ahead and told Dr. Mack that we would like to go ahead and do all of the tests that Garrett needs in Spokane and just get an adult doctor there as well since it is half the distance. He sent the referral and to help us out, the new doctor decided to have a virtual visit with Garrett to get to know him and go over the tests. He didn't want us to have to drive all the way to Spokane just for this visit which needs to happen before getting the tests done. We also just had a visit with Dr. Mack in Idaho. We weren't able to schedule the virtual visit until June 10th, after Garrett's graduation. He could have done it on the 13th of May, but Garrett didn't want to miss any more school. So now it is the waiting game again and focusing on school and graduating.

While I was shopping yesterday, I did get a phone call from the person who reads the heart monitor tests and he was concerned because he did see some irregular rhythms and wanted to talk to a specialist. After talking to him for a bit I asked what time the irregular rhythms happened and it turns out it happened right after his appointment, which is when he gave blood. That made more sense to him and relieved him a bit. Garrett hasn't had any other problems or anything since then. The specialist, which I think are the adult congenital heart doctors there at St. Luke's, are going to look at it with the information I gave him and will contact us next week when they have a plan for how to proceed from here. He was still worried though because the monitor showed that his heart actually stopped beating for about 10 seconds. He suggested next time he has to get blood drawn to lay down while doing it. That's a scary thought that his heart stopped beating for a bit! Thankfully he's been doing fine since then and I guess we'll wait to see what the experts say.

Short Vacation With Nikki

We haven't hardly seen Nikki since she moved to Tacoma almost 3 years ago because our schedules just never lined up. Curtis and I decided it was finally time to make something happen so that we could spend some time with her. He took two days off of work and rented a house through VRBO over in western Washington about an hour north of Tacoma in Hoodsport. When we were down in Nampa for Spring break I had asked my mother-in-law if they would be willing to come that weekend to help out with the other kids at our house and she said they could. Not only did we want to spend a couple of days with Nikki, but both Curtis and I had to turn around and drive to Idaho for different reasons right after we got back. I needed to take Garrett to his cardiologist appointment and Curtis has work stuff going on in Boise.

We left Thursday morning on May 1st to drive to Tacoma and pick Nikki up. We stopped for lunch at a Sushi place called Sumo Sushi & Grill AYCE that Curtis really wanted to go to. Nikki and Curtis like sushi but I don't. The only reason I agreed was because they had a few other options on their menu that I would like such as teriyaki chicken.  However, I did try one sushi that had mango on top. Yeah, still not a fan. It was fun because they have these robots that bring your food out to you, but I didn't get a picture. They also had a buffet of items that you could walk up and get. After stuffing ourselves we drove up to Hoodsport. It was a beautiful drive. Our VRBO was close to the Hood Canal (not like an irrigation canal). 

The view from the dining room.

The living room where we watched two of the Twilight movies.

Small triangular kitchen.

The Master bedroom.

The other bedroom where Nikki slept.

Our view from the back porch. That's Hood Canal.

Enjoying the back porch.

We were all pretty tired and it was evening by the time we got there so we just rested for awhile. Then Curtis and I went to the grocery store in town to get some food while Nikki kept sleeping. Her meds that she started taking recently make her tired. We bought some goodies to eat for while watched the first Twilight movie. We're only a few hours away from Forks, where the movie/books are based on. They happened to have the extended versions of the first 3 movies, so we watched the 1st one on that first night. We bought microwave popcorn, Twix candy bars, and pecan cookies. The popcorn did not pop well in their tiny microwave since it couldn't turn properly. I burned half of the first bag. The secone one I took out earlier but it had a lot of seeds that didn't pop. We ate what we could.

The next morning we slept in a bit, but Nikki slept in a long time. We finally had to wake her up around 10 or so if we wanted to have time to go do something. Curtis did some searching on his phone and found a viewpoint called Hurricane Ridge and a waterfall that had a short hike called Sol Duc Falls. We decided to go to Hurricane Ridge first and ended up paying $30 for a pass because it was a national forest. Luckily, that also got us into the falls as well since it was part of the same national forest. It took about 3 hours to drive from Hoodsport to Hurricane Ridge, but it was a scenic drive. We didn't have to hike at all to get to this look out. I originally thought we would, but you just drive right up and park.

It was a very beautiful view!

We walked over some snow and up a short path in the opposite direction to see a different side. It was also very windy up there as you can see my hair blowing back. It was a little chilly but not too bad. I wore two jackets.

We saw lots of deer. There were 8 in this group, and they didn't seem very scared.

On the drive back down we saw people pulled over looking at something, so we stopped in the middle of the road (since no one was behind us) and saw what they were looking at, black bears! It was a mamma and two cubs climbing up the hill. This is our first time seeing black bears in person in the wild. That was probably the highlight of that excursion.

We did stop at another viewpoint on the way down as well. There were a couple of deer walking in that area also. 

This helped us know what we were looking at, parts of Washington and parts of Canada.

We drove back down to Port Angeles to get some lunch to eat at Subway. I wanted to prove that we had been in Port Angeles so after we ate and were driving toward the waterfalls, I saw a sign while at a stop light and took a picture. It's not much, but it's proof. Ha ha

By the time we headed up the other side of the mountain to find the waterfalls, the clouds started to roll in and it began to rain. It came down hard sometimes, but we just kept driving. At one point, Nikki and I stuck our hands out the windows to feel the rain. I got a snap shot of that.

It was still raining when we pulled up to the head of the trail but what do you expect when you're in a rainforest? So, we went on the hike anyway. I did have a small umbrella with us and Nikki wanted to use it, so she carried it. 

For some reason, this sign had the name spelled differently. Soleduck instead of Sol Duc.

This big stump had a tree growing out of it.

Covered in moss and looked cool.

There was a shelter where you could stop to get out of the rain. It was built a long time ago.

By the time we got here it wasn't raining much.

Looking down from the bridge where the water rushes through after the falls. It is so narrow down there!

View of the falls from the bridge.

Moved around to the side to get a head on view.

Right at the end of the hike back to the van, Nikki found the perfect hiking stick. A little late for that, lol!

We wanted to go all the way to Forks, but we just didn't have the time. It is about an hour from Port Angeles, and we had a 3-hour drive back to our VRBO as it was. It was about 8:30pm when we made it back and watched the 3rd Twilight movie. (We skipped the 2nd one.) The next morning we woke up a little earlier since we had to get out by 10am. We drove back to Tacoma and Nikki showed us this mini mall called Freighthouse Square. It was originally built in 1909 for the train station but now has lots of little shops inside and a food court. Curtis got a spicy curry from an Indian place while Nikki and I shared some cod fish and chips and shrimp. It was pretty tasty.

We drove Nikki back to her apartment and said our goodbyes. I think we were all adventured out by then and just ready to go home. We got home around 4:30, which was definitely earlier than we thought we would be. I think Nikki really enjoyed our little trip even though she slept a lot. School started for her that next Monday, the 5th, and I'm sure it helped give her a little boost to finish her last semester before graduating. It sounds like she will come live with us for a little while after she graduates, at least until she can find a good job somewhere. She's hoping for animation or maybe graphic design.