The beginning....

Well this is the beginning of many more posts to come... but I just had to start!

We started on Tuesday, 9/15 early....Well as anyone from the peninsula knows, when you fly out of SeaTac, you might as well be planning on getting up and out of your house at least 4 hours before your flight.  Lucky us, our flight left at 12:45 p.m., but between that day being the first day of preschool for Blake which started at 9:30 (at a new school.... yes, yes, I know- wrong day to leave, but he's usually a pretty laid back kid with transitions- so easy smeezy), Chloe's school day (which starts at 9:15), and the fact that we needed to be on the 9:25 ferry.  So thank goodness for my parents.  Dad decided to go in late to work, he and mom showed up in the morning around 8:30, so we could say our goodbyes and transition the kids better.  We left with dad in our van, mom had the kids, and then dad dropped us off at the ferry.  The funniest part is that he looks at his watch, he's ahead of time, so he decided to book it back to their house on the north end of the island, ditch our van there, throw on his gear, and then drive his scooter onto the ferry (the same one we're on).  Crazy enough- he made it with about 2 minutes to spare! 

Anyhow, we hopped a ride with a town car (Abas- great guy... I'll try to find his e-mail, because he was so professional AND affordable).  We had plenty of time.... we checked our bags (we each got to check 1 for free because we booked our flights before they made the change to charging everyone)... they weighed in at something like 22 pounds for one and 23 for the other.  They are LARGE flexible sided, rolling bags, so since you can have 50 pounds, you can imagine how much I was planning on bringing home from this trip!!!  You do the math.... I was figuring on at least another 50 pounds of stuff!  Anyway, I digress....  we had  a leisurely wait for our flight after going through all the security checks and what not.... we even slept on our flight from SeaTac to Atlanta... we had a 2 hour layover, but we grabbed some food, stretched our legs, and then we had a 10 p.m. flight from Atlanta to Paris, Charles de Gaulle airport.  Delta was great- they had so-so food, but the flight attendants were nice, attentive, and to top it off we both SLEPT!  Kent popped some Ambien and he was out for at least 5 out of the 9 hours of that flight.  We passed through customs totally smoothly.... then off to get the rental car (which we pre-paid for).  For some reason they couldn't find the car that we rented, so we ended up with a slightly bigger car (4 doors instead of  2 I think), but really it sure didn't seem bigger....  we had a Toyota Yaris (wondering what that looks like?  www.toyota.com/yaris  ours was silver with a totally broken passenger side mirror).  Now mind you we knew it would be small, but we were traveling and we were told that you needed to keep EVERYTHING in the trunk of the car, NOTHING in site, if you both planned on exiting the car together.  We managed to finagle it after a few jigsaw puzzle maneuvers making things "fit" together (mind you our bags are practically empty), but then we were finally out of the aiport (we landed 1:30 p.m. Paris time on Wednesday, 9/16) by 3:30 p.m.  Now let me tell you that Paris is never a good city to drive ANYWHERE near...  let alone at 3:30 in the afternoon.  Thank GOD I had typed up some directions from www.mapquest.fr to help us figure out how to get from the airport to the Loire Valley (near Amboise, Blois, Chenonceau- that was our destination, but we didn't have reservations anywhere).  To travel about 30 km it took us over an hour and a half of total craziness.  We were both glad to be out of there.

Finally we were off onto a massive highway, and about halfway through our journey on this particular highway (because you see France is loaded with all sorts of highways) I realized we were not exactly going in the correct direction.  We somehow got onto the incorrect highway up in Paris (after making atleast 10 different exit changes before ever getting off of the Parisienne highway systems).  OOPS!  Well we're on vacation.... but our first destination needs to be more west.... so this is when I (as the navigator) started to figure out how to read the Michelin map we came with and we eventually got over to our general destination area.  Only problem was that we didn't have much of any food with us, we were exhausted after 23 + hours of travel and about 5 hours of driving time, we saw a grocery store and thought we were saved (just at the outer edges of Amboise).  Nope- you can't use American visas in European gas pumps- why I don't know, but you can't (I panicked and thought it was because our cards had been denied even though I had called to have each of them cleared for international travel.... but Rick Steve's was helpful later that night when I frantically discovered the little morsel of info- we were destined for cash only gas stations from then on I guess).  Then we decided to go into the store- at least get some bread, some cheese and some wine so we could go down the road to somewhere (not sure where yet) to stay.  Nope- the grocery was closing its doors (at 8 pm) for the night.... ok, that's fine.... we'll survive....  onto more emergent needs- the potty.... thankfully they had one and it was still open.  Then back to the hunt for a place to stay. I happened to spot a sign on the side of the road by a round-about  that was right at the grocery store and it was for a chambre d'hote.  Chambre d'hote is a B&B.  OH MY GOODNESS!!!!  IT was the absolute best deal we had our entire trip (only 50 Euros a night with a full breakfast, full kitchen if we had any food to cook in it which we didn't but still a full kitchen, a full bathroom, a desk corner, a fire place, a twin bed, a queen bed, off street parking and this amazing landscape and decor)- amazingly clean, beautifully decorated, fabulous breakfast.... wow- wish it hadn't been raining so we could have enjoyed the outside more, and wish we'd been able to stay longer.  Oh well it was a great place, but we were pooped, we were hungry (scrounging for random food left in our travel bags) and so we just went to bed about 10 p.m.

We met a Canadian woman the next morning- it was nice to speak some English with someone because the lady of the house spoke almost NO English and this was only day 1 of my rusty French!  I wish there was a name for her location, but there was not.  All I can say is that if you ever travel to Amboise, in the Loire Valley, in the direction of leaving the old part of Amboise and heading to the road to go to Chenonceau, she's just past the E.Leclar grocery store round about (heading west), her driveway is right off the main road, but she feels miles from civilization when you're there.  

This pic is from the  corner of the house (our room was right there at the corner)... the pathway was lined with potted plants, the path was beautiful stone... one way led back to the car, and behind us is the pond.

This is the veiw from the other side of pond- I tried to dry my hair with a really old blow dryer and Kent got bored and went off to take pictures.  He slopped around to the far side of the pond- squint your eyes and you can see the house tucked in the willow trees and evergreens.  It was a very green area!

Ok, so our room is in disarray, but red and white toile was the theme- I think it was a converted barn (as you can see the plaster filled trough in the back of the room), behind our room is the full kitchen and bath.  Still- amazing for 50 Euros for sure!

Well goodbye fabulous little B&B- off we go to Chenonceau and to for another "unplanned" and "unbooked" destination.

The trip really happened, we've just been busy getting home...

I had all wonderful intentions of going to an internet location when we were on our trip, downloading a few pics from time to time, posting to our blog every few days (for our kids, for our memories, for friends).... but I have to tell you its FREAKING expensive to use internet cafes and even internet access at tourist offices.  Almost impossible to find when you're off in the countryside of France.  So to stay in touch we thought we'd use a French calling card (the only way you can use a public phone)- I have to say.... those are almost as equally hard to come by in countryside towns.  When you're traveling in somewhat bedroom communities, nobody needs a public phone because they've already got a phone at home.  My advice- go with an international phone- I think the ease of access is worth the very slight extra cost from a calling card. 

Well, needless to say I had to find some way to share and journal, so I did the age old pen and paper journal... I would write every morning about the day before and we tried to find a phone at least every 2 days (because we had to call between 8-9 a.m. to get the kids before school, but after they woke up, otherwise we would miss them when they were at school and then it was too late our time to be standing on an abandoned street corner at a phone with no lights). Good old pen and paper.... but since I wrote in the car, or at a cafe table, or maybe we'd stop and write something down on a walk.... I'm having a hard time deciphering my wine-infused, messy, tiny handwriting!  Hmmmm.....  I'll get there.

I have finally finished downloading our photos from our trip- that took HOURS of time, and I haven't even edited any of them, just merely downloaded them to Costco's website.  Boy, we came back with something like 700+ photos.  Of course some are of things we thought were so wonderful at the moment, and then when I look at the photos now I wonder what exactly we were trying to capture.  Some are goofy pictures of each other (see we never got pics together because our lens wouldn't stay attached to the camera- somehow our every so expensive and new Nikon broke on our trip)....  and some are just full of more memories than I could write.

If you ever have the chance to go with your spouse for a trip for 1 week, 2 weeks, or to be lucky enough to go for 17 days like we did- just enjoy EVERY single minute of it.  We had our tiffs, we had our bickering, our lost escapades in twising countryside, our late night run to find a hotel, our picnic lunches, dinners, and lunches again.... but we had some AMAZING moments- we had great conversation, we talked about things we haven't talked about for years, we enjoyed amazing meals, we were quiet together and read together (or rather Kent sped through books and I would knit most times), but overall we just were excited to have this amazing opportunity and we savored it!

THANK YOU to everyone that helped make this trip possible- Nana & Pa for kid care and weekend fun for them; Nonny and Poppy for more kid care, dog care, house care, and more and more kid care; She-She for coming down to help out on the weekend; Aunty Lissa for filling in with the kids too; our friends- Jen and Kristin for carpooling Blake, Julie Anne for carpooling, Stacy for keeping Chloe overnight to get her to the soccer game, really- without EVERYONE this trip wouldn't have come together.

I am still unpacking... I have one small pile of papers, old tickets, receipts, random crap that came out of the 2 checked bags (each weighing exactly 51 pounds) and 4 oversized carry on bags (which we went with 2 very light weight checked bags and only 3 very light weight and small carry on bags on the way)...  but otherwise I'm almost done with the unpacking.  I've unpacked the kid's bags of stuff from their overnights in our absence, we've caught up on laundry- oh that was quite a pile of laundry we had on our bed last night!  I've even vacuumed, had play group over, started carpooling, and managed ot make some home made meals.  Phew- this back in the swing of things doesn't come slowly- when you're a parent and you leave and then you come back, you get thrown back in it!

Besides all of the physical unpacking, our kids have been emotionally unpacking since about day 2 or 3 that we've been home.  All the "everything is great" news turned into throwing up all the bummer stuff that they both had experienced in the first few weeks of school.  I am sure that it has all been blown out of proportion because they knew they had our undivided attention, and knew we'd be over protective and over attentive to their needs, but its still heavy stuff.  Parenting may take a break while you're gone, but you sure don't get to jump in slowly when you get back.  Just be forewarned if you yourself think of taking a break from your kids for more than a weekend!  Be prepared to jump in with both feet, both hands, and maybe a tail (if I could grow one, I'd be using it now too).

Anyhow, I'm tired and all I want to do is get the France posts posted.... but maybe tomorrow night? Just know that this trip made both Kent and I realize how very lucky we are, how very blessed we are, how very loved we are, and how very much we need, desire, and love each other.   It also made us love our children more, made us prioritize more, and made us really think about living our lives a little bit more intentionally and with purpose than to just breathe, plug along, over do, and just plainly live!  We are excited to be home with a new and invigorated plan to connect with our family, our faith, and friends, and to make our family a stronger  unit.  We know that we- our marriage- is the foundation to our family and we are really strong right now.  We're excited for our family's future and our marriage too!

He's not just a pretty voice...

Or is he? Well he does have a sweet little voice and Blake loves to serenade everyone and everything.... always singing catchy little tunes. The cutest though we had to capture. Turn your volume up!

All this singing started because the kids were fixated on Kent's birthday tonight. Yep- he's 35 today! We celebrated with Kent's family yesterday and then Chloe and I made his favorite cake today and home made pizza for dinner (another favorite).... lots of cooking and baking and then we had to sing and the kids were warming up for their big number.

Writer's Conference for Our Little Writer

Chloe loves to write... write silly stories, write truthful stories with silly details... just write in a journal, write, write, write.... anyhow, Chloe got invited to our area's Young Writer's Conference which took place at the Port Angeles Community College (beautiful campus above the city with an amazing veiw of the Strait) last week!! It was fun and only 3 kids from her class were invited to go! Very special!

We started off with a group session with the author Ron Hirschi (come to find out, he's a local and went to one of our district's elementary schools). You should check out his site- http://www.ronhirschi.com/index.html. Anyhow, he writes creative/non-fiction combo books and the kids all got to do the same. They were to write about a pet (preferably a dog) in their lives, their stories folded out (like his), had tabs (like his) and then they were going to add their stories (if they chose, and Chloe did choose to send hers away) to a gigantic fold out storyboard titled "Bark Orama" which was a weiner dog head and tail and the middle was this scene, and this would be sent to President Barack Obama! The scene on the story is a colorful depiction of the Olympic Mts., Sequim Bay, the Strait of Jaun de Fuca, etc... so very "local" story with "local" kid stories about their pets. Very cute! Anyway, Chloe's story was about Kacey of course (although you'll notice Kacey is brown, its hard to color white on white paper I was told)!


Then after that session we went to our sharing session with our small group (we had 1/2 kids from other schools, and the other half were kids we knew from our school). Her Story is titled "Backing with Daddy" and its all about her first backpacking trip she took this last fall with Kent, her, her best little friend across the street- Molly and Molly's dad Mike Hickam. Its a cute story! Sorry the video is turned sideways... but its still cute to listen to at least part of it.

After that we had lunch, playtime and then onto our final group sessino with author George Shannon http://www.georgeshannon.org/ and he was hilarious for these kids to listen to. He talked all about the formation of a story, but he definitely used "kid" language... they were intrigued on how its ok to change your story halfway through, or to toss it and start over, or to come back to it months later and pick it up again. Once again, he is totally local for us, he lives on Bainbridge! Once again, the video is sideways, but you can at least hear part of his presentation...

It was a long day- we had to leave the house at 7 a.m., I got a speeding ticket on the way up, then we were there all day, and headed straight to Bainbridge for Chloe's knitting... we didn't get home until nearly 6:30! LONG DAY- but good day- and Chloe felt SO special!

Chloe is 8!

Well this post is a little late.. but our baby girl is officially 8 years old. On her 8th birthday, she went back to school for the first day in over 2 weeks, she opened more presents, she got to go out to one of our local favorite restaurants (Baratta).... it was a GREAT day for her

Check out little brother- "Kung-fused Panda"... very funny!

Livin' in the NW

Well living in the NW has its ups and downs... many think its the rain- but we don't mind the rain (its what keeps everything so green)... I think its more likely the unpredictable weather we've had this winter that irritates ME!!!! We had nearly 2 1/2 inches of snow- coming down in gigantic snowflakes- I mean GINORMOUS! It snowed for hours this morning- from before we woke up around 7:30 a.m. until about 1:00 today... now here we are a little after 2:30 and can you beleive the sun is out, theree is blue sky and 99% of the snow is gone? Here are the pics to prove it!

SNOW.... in the morning


NO Snow in the afternoon...

What's up???

Lovin Siblings

Don't you just love the moments when your kids just love each other and you don't force it! I meant to post this last week... Chloe was set up in the living room on the couch and she was reading... Blake came and snuggled up (though it looked uncomfortable, he was happy to be close to his sis).

Just a few more pics of our week home after surgery- snuggling with daddy, wheelchair ride to school, and then the last picture is of Chloe with her new hobby- KNITTING! We signed her up for a kids knitting class with Ms. B at Churchmouse on BI. She's making a headband in bright orange. (http://www.churchmouseyarns.com/)

We had Chloe's post-op appt. on Friday the 13th- thankfull Chloe and I had a great day! We went to U.Village- did a lot of shopping and of course we fit in her appt. where they did a new X-ray and all looks good! They told her to only use the wheelchair for long distances and otherwise to start weight bearing on her leg and she should be walking without the walker at all within the next 1-2 weeks! After our 2+ hour appt. we went back to U.Village to have dinner (I've decided Chloe will eat ANYTHING as long as she's being taken out to dinner) and she decided to start walking by pushing her walker out too far, and walking to it... miraculously the more we shopped, the more she walked! It was so great to see her so excited to be able to start that!!

Some people have been asking if this will come back... the answer is that we hope not, but because of her age it could "maybe". We will follow up with an x-ray in 3 months and then again every year after until she stops growing. The incision site looked really good to them, and the butterfly stitches should start to fall off in about a week. We have a lot of Physical Therapy ahead of us, but thankfully Chloe loves Angie (a long time friend- http://www.davincipt.com/) and even though she doesn't like to do the exercises, we've been forcing it! We want this girl moving (and she does too... its just hard to understand the "no pain, no gain" theory when you're 8).

We're home and settled in!

After Chloe took a quick trip to the Inpatient Playroom (cool place if you ever have to be there- make the trip to the playroom- Chloe beaded 2 bracelets, made a decorated goody bag and all in about 30 minutes) she got a bit dizzy and sick to her tummy, so we ended up back in her room for a few more hours... then we had PT (they showed her how to use the walker and helped her figure out how to get up and down stairs by herself). The Physical Therapy (PT) was very empowering for Chloe. I think a lot of her fear in going home a day sooner than expected was in not thinking she'd be able to do anything by herself (for our very independent little girl that would be devastating). Anyhow, after PT, we started on the discharge process and we ended up leaving about 3:00. THANK GOD for vans with collapsible and movable seats, I don't know how else we would have fit everything- we should have taken a picture of the trunk with the wheelchair, the walker, the bags, the balloons (gigantic mylars), wow there was a ton of stuff! Then we had to figure out how to get her situated in the seat- it was a feat of pillows- love body pillows they come in so handy sometimes!

Anyhow, we made it home on the 4:40 ferry (after just missing the 3:45 by about 3 minutes). With our "medical pass" from the hospital we were able to get parked by the handicap bathroom on the car deck of the ferry because sure enough as soon as we got on the ferry our little missy had to go to the potty! We had a pretty uneventful trip home, and then on our arrival Lizzy, Maddy, Blake, and Liam had made us a banner and had the house all clean and ready for us to arrive! What a delight it was to come home to a clean home and to know that Blake and Maddy were in great hands while we were gone. Lizzy is the best (she's been a good friend since preschool)- and she's always been one of those golden friends!!

Chloe got settled into bed shortly after we had our pizza dinner from Mad Moose Pizza- thank you Shannon- loved it! She ended up sleeping ALL NIGHT LONG soundly. We even found a use for our old baby monitor- I never thought I'd need it after Blake, but I'm sure glad I held onto it. I had to wake up every 4 hours to give Chloe her pain meds (to stay on top of the pain), but everyone else seemed to sleep perfectly soundly. Even Chloe who immediately after I'd give her the medication would tell me to go away and would fall instantly asleep!

We've had a great day today- she's got lots of color in her face, she's been alert all day, she's been doing crafts (her favorite is this mosaic foam craft thing that is sort of like a color by number craft). She's listened to a bunch of music- and hasn't been interested in t.v. until this evening when she requested to watch Mama Mia! She's doing STELLAR with the walker too- as long as she has someone to help her get up and down from the couch, she is able to get to and from the potty all by herself! Its been amazing to witness how fast she's gotten her mind around being capable and then sort of enjoying the fact that she is!

We are headed off to bed now- thank you to everyone who has dropped by today to say hello. Chloe is still missing her friends, so feel free to holler and drop by this weekend or Monday if you like. We're hoping to get her to school on Tuesay- once she is completely confident on moving around by herself and in time for her Wednesday 8th birthday!!

Have a great weekend and please continue to pray and send supportive thoughts for Melissa, Maddy, and Chris- Chris is due to come home on Tuesday, but they do have a long road of hard work ahead of everyone! Thank you to everyone that has sent support and love their way- it has really meant A LOT!

We're coming home EARLY!

Chloe has done so well- she is going potty, she is eating up a storm (which I guess anyone would want to do after practically being starved for 16 hours yesterday), she is drinking, she has not once experienced nausea, she is tolerating most of the medications just fine (only having an allergic skin reaction to the oxicodone- but that is normal and the benadryl is tackling it), she has yet to experience pain over a 4 (on a scale of 1-10)... and the really good news is that they think she did so well here yesterday and last night that she'll do even better at home in her own surroundings with familiar things around her. The only problem is that Chloe is scared to go home! She doesn't think she'll be able to do anything on her own, and because we were told from the beginning that we'd be here longer, she's afraid she's being kicked out instead of being helped out! We're working on her!

We did find out this morning during the early rounds that when they did the surgery,they originally thought they'd have to take a part of her femur with the exostosis. That would have created the need for the non-weight bearing and it would also have been a reason for a TON more added pain (coming from her bone, not the incision). So, although she'll have pain from the incision site, she'll be able to put full weight on it when she feels ready, and we're looking at a lot less recovery time at home and way less time in a wheelchair, crutches, etc! This is exciting news for all of us (however, once again, Chloe is scared it is all going to hurt, so we will still be coming home with the walker, crutches, and the wheelchair for her security).

Wish us luck battling her case of the scared whinies! She's been a really brave, adorable, sweet little girl- she's been a star! But we know that the transition to home, no nurses, and just mommy and daddy will be a struggle. Pray for peace and patience for us all.

I know we had some friends and family that were hoping to visit Chloe in the hospital today, however since that has changed, we'd like to not have visitors at home until tomorrow (Friday). I know today is going to be tiring, getting packed up, out of here, over to the house, settled, meds filled, all of that, so a day of just us at home will be needed I'm sure. If you want to drop anything off for her though, feel free to drop by anything today to the house, my friend Lizzy will be there before we get home.

Have a great weekend!

We're settled in

Chloe has settled into her room. She is starting to feel pain, but we're managing it with meds of course. We've got a poster up, a big horse balloon up, some cards, and she is surrounded with all her "special" things. Anyhow, we've had some visitors tonight as well- she was tired, but didn't want them to leave (in fact tears came shortly after everyone left because she was sad to have visitors go). A big thank you is going out to everyone who came by- Chloe was super thrilled to see you ALL! (sorry for the goofy pics, but we wanted all our younger visitors to know they were appreciated!)

We've gotten our wheelchair,now we're waiting on the walker and crutches. Chloe's been eating really well (which is totally encouraging), and she's drinking lots of fluids too. Now we have the night to get through (continually interrupted by nurses, docs, and what not) but nice to know we're in the best of hands here!!! Our room is great- we got the big giant window side, we currently do not have a roommate (which is SO nice), and we are literally one door from the family room (where there are drinks, the computer, a frig, and outdoor area, etc)- so very handy.

Anyway, off into the night we go!