Seattle Trip Pics

Here's a brief rundown of our trip:
Montana: Grandma Pearl, MT family, Flathead Lake - sprained ankle
Spokane: Poppy & Mimie, downtown Spokane, Cat Tales Park, Riverfront Park, Manito Gardens
Seattle: Tyler's parents, my parents, my grandparents, Papa Dave's ash-spreading & memorial service, Everett Children's Museum

Tyler, his mom, and Tara at Papa Dave's ash-spreading on Saturday. Papa Dave passed away several weeks before our trip. He will be greatly missed!
The last picture we have of Maggie with Papa Dave, summer of 2008:

Sunday we headed up to the Bellingham-area to see my grandparents and family. Mount Baker from the car window on the way to grandpa & Grandma's.
My Grandpa and Grandma DeHoog. Maggie loved that Grandpa handed out candy from the duck dish, and that Grandma gave her cookies!
Reading the comics with Grandpa.
Here I am!
We visited with my other grandma, Grandma Margaret the same afternoon. Grandma let Maggie give her a ride on her electric chair, again.
Maggie with Grandpa Jones and Gramma Sue.
Sharing some kind of treat with Uncle Brian!
Gramma Sue's lovely garden.
Feeding Gramma Sue's koi.
We took the girls to the kids museum. They had fun the entire time!
Dancing on the stage in the theatre exhibit. It kept them entertained for a good 1/2 hour.The second trip through the different areas, there were other girls on the stage. You can tell Maggie and Alexis were not pleased.
Milking a cow in the farm area. Water came out of the udders, the girls thought that was a lot of fun.
Playing in the train exhibit.
The playground is on the roof, and the playground was 3 stories high! Maggie and Alexis scaled all three flights of stairs to go down the big swirly slide. It was so cute!
Reading a story with Auntie Tara and Alexis. Maggie loved the time we spent at the Spaid's, getting to see Alexis was definitely the highlight of her trip, and she complains often about how much she misses her! I didn't get a good picture of their farewell hug at the airport - Maggie was too sour-faced. And let me tell you about the fit she pitched in the security line about her cousin. It was not pretty.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown!

I realize I've not posted our pics from the Seattle portion of our trip, or updated about my leg. Sorry! Maggie and I got home on Saturday, 7/18, and it's been a whirlwind ever since. Tyler decided we should try to sell our house to make the jump to Williamson County (for our non-Nashville friends, that means better schools for Maggie). Our house has gone up enough - and Nashville has not been hit by the real estate boom or bust - and houses in Williamson County have depressed a little bit making them within our reach. So I am in the middle of cleaning out every last nook and cranny, clearing out clutter, staging, etc. There are also some small home-repair items I am working on, which although are small are taking me forever!

I think just moving would be easier than paring down and staging, but we'll sell our house quicker if it isn't packed to the brim. On a related note, I am continually embarrassed by the quantity of THINGS we have in our possession. We've stuffed a garbage can and brought a huge load to Goodwill and it's barely made a dent. It really makes me think about what all we buy and bring into the house.

Spokane Pics

We had a relaxing 3 days in Spokane with my Dad and Sylvia (Poppy and Mimie to Maggie).

My beautiful girl outside Duncan Garden at Manito Park in Spokane.
Balancing on the lawn's edge. You can't tell, but the grass is a steep hill. It was a little dangerous.
Riverfront park.
Maggie was so excited to see the giant Red Ryder wagon slide. She climbed up it and slid down a dozen times!Tyler took a turn on the slide. Whee!Poppy thought the slide looked fun, too. Oh boy!Me at the carousel. I rode on the tiger, it didn't move up and down.
Maggie has a great time on the carousel this year!!! I was so glad that it was fun for her, last year she was terrified!
I think visiting Cat Tales rescue park will be a tradition at Poppy's house. On the stone lions at the rescue entrance.
I love this sign at Cat Tales. I was using a wheelchair there, too far to walk on crutches, and had to move away from two different tiger pens - they were getting excited by the spinning wheels on my chair. One of the keepers said it looked like a toy, but I think they knew I couldn't move very fast.
We also went to Greenbluff, outside Spokane to some orchards. We stopped at High Country orchards and picked FRESH Bing and Rainier cherries. I've never picked cherries before, but they were so darn good I don't knwo if I will ever be able to eat cherries from the store again! Maggie thought it was great fun to be able to pick them right off the tree and eat them (everyone else thought it was pretty awesome, too).Look at those gorgeous Rainier cherries!Enjoying lots and lots of cherries!
Thank you, Poppy and Mimie, a lovely time was had by all!!!

Montana Pics

Our trip to Montana was the first time Tyler and I had been there since 2005, and Maggie's first. she got to meet Uncle Ken & Aunt Regina, Jason & Lori and Josh & Katie. It was so fun to all be together, I'm sad I had to ruin it with my sprained ankle!

Thursday night (7/2) we celebrated Grandma Pearl's 80th birthday. All the grandchildren and great-grandchildren except Olivia got to be there. In attendance: Tyler, Josh, Jason, Lori. Grandma Pearl in the armchair. Me, Alexis, Maggie, Gabby, Tara and Katie.
All three girls slept for a while in the car on the way up to the lake house from Missoula (7/3am).
Gramma reading Llama Llama Red Pajama to Maggie and Alexis. She read it to them almost every night, and they loved it!
Amron and Aunt Regina at the hospital with me (7/3pm).
4th of July parade. Josh wheeled me the 3-4 blocks from their house to out spot at the parade. RIGHT next to a person who was actually disabled. I felt like such a poser with my sprained ankle when 5 feet away was someone mising limbs. The girls waved their flags faithfully, until they got too hot, about 5 minutes later. Luckily, they were giving out lots of popsicles!See - popsicles. I think the girls had 2 or 3. Such a good idea - it was in the 90's that day, and we were standing in full sun.This was my favorite float at the parade - some random UFO.

Here is Lori playing with the girls. They thought she did an awesome "monster" impersonation!
I just love love love this shot of Maggie and Alexis. Having so much fun, and more than once Maggie told her "I love you, Cousin Alexis."
Tyler picked these wildflowers while he and his dad were at the family cabin on his birthday, 7/3. There is no cell phone service up there (can you IMAGINE?!?!) and picked them because he thought I would enjoy them, not because he knew about my ankle. He didn't find out until midday on the 4th.
Gabby, Alexis and Maggie waiting on the dock for the fireworks to start.
Daddy and Maggie watching fireworks on the lake.Maggie got tired, and needed to cuddle with her mama. Note the wheelchair.

One evening Maggie and Alexis found a giant nightcrawler in the dirt. They squealed and giggled for about an hour tossing it into the air, and carrying it on a stick. Here's Maggie proudly displaying her worm.
Alexis with the worm./>
Enjoying 'smores. Maggie only ate about 1/2 of hers, but Aunt Regina got a great shot of the stringy marshmallow on it.
Our little family at Lake Mary Ronan.

How do you spell vacation? S-P-R-A-I-N

So we are on vacation right now. Tyler went home today, he had to get back to work. It would be more of a vacation if I had not severely sprained my ankle the day after we arrived in Montana.

Thursday, July 2 - fly into Spokane, Washington, Tyler's dad picked us up at the airport and off we drove another 3-4 hours to Missoula, Montana. {so thankful for the portable DVD player we purchased for Maggie, even though she napped a good portion of the drive}
Got to Missoula in time for dinner with Tyler's Montana family and to celebrate Grandma Pearl's 80th birthday.
Friday, July 3 - drove up to Big Fork, MT on Flathead Lake. It really is God's Country, it is so amazingly gorgeous!!! Friday afternoon, jumped into the FRIGID Flathead Lake. Big Fork is at the mouth of the Swan River where it pours melted glacier water into Flathead. I can't remember the last time I got in water that cold. Friday night: rolled my ankle coming off the steps of Uncle Jen & Aunt Regina's house and heard three good, loud pops. Trip to "Local" ER at 11 pm at night. 45 minutes away in Kalispell. Yay!

The rest of our trip has looked something like this:
-doing everything (and at the same time mostly nothing) on crutches. I never knew how PAINFUL they are - my armpits will never forgive me!
-everyone wheeling me around in a wheelchair when we go on big outings, I just can't do crutches for distances more than about 50 yards.
-me being scared in the wheelchair as people wheel me around dangerously close to hills, water, stairs, etc. They sure think it's funny to let me go flying down hills...
-LOTS of explaining to strangers what the deal is with my leg. I wish it had been doing something exciting, but I was just walking.
-too too too much sitting. The first two days I had to have it elevated and iced, the next several days up and heated. and I'm supposed to stay off it as much as possible.
-Amazing feelings of helplessness. I don't think I felt this helpless after my c-section with Maggie. I can't use my arms because I have to use my crutches. I can't carry anything. I can barely go up and down stairs. I can't play with Maggie or her cousins whom I hardly ever get to see, which is one of the most disheartening things about the whole ordeal. I can't drive, help much with dishes, cooking, cleaning, etc.

Here is a photo essay about my ankle. Pictures of Maggie will have to wait for the next post.

Here's a good picture of the swelling on the knob. The knob area was swollen by the time I looked down within seconds of rolling it. It was a little scary. The funny thing was I didn't fall all the way down to the ground. I just rolled it and hopped onto the other foot. Yowser!!!
In the ER checking in. It really hurt!
On the way home from the hospital at 1 a.m. The swelling in the rest of my foot had not started yet.
One of many times I got to just sit on the deck and ice my ankle. So exciting!!!We all went to the 4th of July parade in big Fork. Talk about small-town Americana. It was so cute! Uncle Kenny got me a wheelchair to use while we were in Big Fork from the local nursing home. You can see the swelling starting.
The bruising started to set up shop around Monday. We went to Lake Mary Ronan, where Tyler's family used to vacation when he was little.

My ankle at Lake Mary Ronan. It was really chilly that day, and a little stormy, but it cleared up when we pulled up to the resort.
To be continued...