My Great Ideas (Insert Sarcasm)

So this has been a summer of little trips.  We have just had so much going on with Bryan changing jobs and different camps that we have tried to do some fun things close to us. 

 

I have read several articles about beautiful things to see in TX and we decided to check one off the list.  We packed our family and grandparents and cousins into two cars and headed out.

 

We basically headed north, west of Austin and found ourselves in the middle of BFE.  No cell service.  That's BFE these days.  This was our destination.

 

 

I had read that this was a beautiful place to swim and picnic and have a wonderful time.  This was the plan until we saw this sign. 

 

Can you read the little sign?  Is says "No Swimming Today"  "High Amounts of Bacteria in Water"

What?

There goes our fun day!!

 

But we had come this far so we thought we would go check it out anyways.......

 

 

We saw another sign.  I really didn't pay as much attention to this sign as I needed to.  It clearly says "STEEP."  Let me remind you who is on this trip - a 13, 7, 6, 4, and two 2 year olds.  Ha ha!!  Again, me and my good ideas.....

 

Let me also remind you that Hadleigh has trouble on flat ground much less a STEEP trail.  So me and Bryan and Bill took turns carrying her down and then up this trail.  (even KK had some serious troubles with the huge steps, rocks, etc so we had to carry him too) Again, me and my good ideas......

 

An easy part of the trail.....

 

Hadleigh is enjoying this "adventure" a lot!!  Ha!!

 

After our long climb down, we were greatly rewarded with one of God's interesting creations.  Hamilton Pool is a really a outdoor grotto.  A long time ago the ceiling of a cave collapsed and resulted in this natural pool.

 

It was beautiful and peaceful.

 

You could walk the entire way around the pool and my bigger adventurers took off to go all the way around.

 

The gorgeous waterfall.

 

It was not one of my most thought out, bestest, awesomeist trips as we had to climb UP after we saw the pool but there is definitely a funny story to tell.  Our picnic afterwards did not go well as we were swarmed by ants, our stop at DQ was not the best as the air conditioning was broke.  But we all have something to laugh about.....

Confession

I can make a lot of excuses about why the situation got so out of control.  For example, Bryan started working nights, I was too tired to fight the kids, the kids are scared, but my confession of the day is that

 

the older two kids have been sleeping in our beds for months.....I repeat, for months.

I know, I know.  I can see everybody gasp in horror.  I can see everybody shake their heads. 

Sometimes it has gotten so bad that I put the kids to bed in my room and then I went and slept in their room just to give myself a little breathing room.  There it is - my truth. 

 

Well, Bryan is not working nights anymore, we need to get into a new routine with everyone sleeping in the proper room and so something had to give.

I have been talking to the kids about what it would take to have them sleep in their own room.

In talking with them, it was clear that both have some fear of the dark and they want to be near each other.  So we put our heads together and decided to try a bunk bed. 

 

With some research at Wal-Mart, we quickly found a cheap set and as a family, we got to work.  Bryan and Rocco put it together in a little over 3 hours.  They were very proud.  

 

 

Little Miss really wanted to be part of this set up but I am still keeping her in the crib as long as she is sleeping well.

 
OK, ready for bed!!

 

I waited about 30 minutes and went in to check on them.  This is what I found. 

Rocco really likes sleeping next to someone. 

 

This one likes to sleep with Minnie right in her face.

 

I am very proud of both kids.  They stayed in their beds the entire night and the next night.  So far, so good!  We are going to work really hard to keep up this new routine!!!

Answers

Sooooo yesterday was the long-awaited doctor's appointment with the neurologist.  We had to wait for about an hour and a half but Hadleigh was so good.  We finally got into to see Dr. T and my Mom and I explained Hadleigh's behaviors and delays. 

I really liked Dr. T.  He was clear and to the point.  He said what we were describing was the symptoms of three disorders that go hand in hand:  apraxia (speech), dyspraxia (physical body) and hypotonia (weak control of your muscles).  He explained that her brain is functioning perfectly so no need for MRI or EKG.  She is missing the connector that links the brain to her muscles.  We all take this for granted.  He gave several examples like when a diver points his toes.  He can't see toes.  He is not looking at his toes but his brain and muscles work together to do it.  Hadleigh can't do that.  Another example he gave is to raise one hand above your head so you can't see it.  Make the peace sign.  If someone asked you to pose the other hand to resemble the first hand without looking with your eyes, we can do it because we feel with our muscles and tell our brain to move our other hand and we do it rather easily.  Hadleigh cannot do these things because she is missing the connector.  Dr. T said sports/activities will likely be harder for her as well as speech and writing.  She will have to work harder (with lots of repetition) to learn what her  muscles need to do.  He suggested using a mirror during speech so she could see how her lips move and she can mimic her therapist.

I am so glad we have a name to what Hadleigh is going through.  The good news is that the Dr. said with her continued therapy Hadleigh will get better and better.  She will have to learn coping mechanisms for her weaknesses but she should be able to do that over time.  I am also happy we have this information when she one day will be getting ready for kindergarten and beyond. 

 

Love this girl!!!

We have been counting down the days until we could see Shanna, Payton and Grandpat and they delivered!!!  We had so much fun swimming at the hotel with Payton!!

 

 

Hadleigh was obsessed with "Anna."  Poor Shanna had to adjust to holding a 30 lb solid toddler.  Ha!!

 

There was lots of girl stuff - twirling, posing and fashion shows.

 

After all that swimming, the hotel had an awesome outdoor theatre to watch Disney movies at night!!  Shanna and I have to get better and take pictures before we have been swimming for hours!!  We looked waaay better before the lazy river!!  Ha!!

 

Can't wait for next year!!!!

A Quick Stay-cation

We are not going on a big trip this summer as we are saving up for our return to DW in Florida soooooo we decided to visit a resort in our own backyard.  Seriously, this resort is about 15 minutes from our house and we had never been....WHAT???

 

 

Bryan, Dad, Summer and Bill went out early to the resort to get in a round of golf.  They had a good time!!

 

 

 

Hadleigh has NOT been feeling well as she has pneumonia and an wicked ear infection but we have been watching her and decided to go on with our plans to go to the resort.  (maybe not the best parenting decision but....).  As soon as we checked into our rooms, a HUGE downpour.  Grrrrrr!!!!

 

But it actually was short-lived and it worked to our advantage as the water park cleared out because of the rain and we put our suits on and went to the park anyways.  There were no lines for any of the slides so YAY!!!!!  All the adults took turns taking the "big kids" down the slides.  Very fun!!

 

Even though she did not feel good, Hadleigh LOVED the baby slides and did it again and again and again.

 

KK loved the slides too and he and Hadleigh had so much fun together.

 

We closed the park down that first night!!!

 

We woke up the next morning and Hadleigh was burning up with fever.  Her ear was covered with drainage and she was clearly in pain.  Well, the good thing about a stay-cation is that we called our doc and within two hours, we had seen the doc, we picked up new meds and we were back at the resort.  Everyone was chillin' out so Hadleigh curled up with Bill-Bill.

 

This was one of my favorite rides....it was a very wild tube shoot into the lazy river!  So fun!!

Watch out for the water falls!!!!

 

We cleaned up each night for dinner.  There was lots of picturesque waterfalls!!!

 

On the last day, Jillian and I were racing and racing doing the slides over and over again.  She would get on one tube shoot and I would get on the other and the lifeguard would say "GO!!" and we would race to the bottom.  On the last time, the lifeguard told her if she won, she would let her go get a prize at the office.  Well, of course, she won and earned this "diamond" tiara!!!  She was thrilled!!

 

Even with the rain and the sickness (and we might have had a silly fight about dinner on the first night) but we still had a really good time and would definitely go back again!!!

Happy 4th!!

Happy 4th of July!!  We were decked out in our red, white and blue this morning and decided to take a bike ride.

 

 

Rocco is such a trip!  He wanted to listen to his Bible music on "his" iPod while riding his bike so he took his Leapad headphones and figured it out.  Ha!!

 

I pulled little Miss behind me and it got hot quickly!!  We went around our neighborhood a couple of times and worked up a good sweat!!!

 

Time to cool off in the pool!  I love this picture.  These three cousins have played so well together the past couple of days.  Sweet kiddos!!

 

They swam ALL day!! 

 

Bill-Bill started a game of throwing them waaaaaaay in the air. 

 

He must have thrown them 100 times today.

 

Bill-Bill has a fun app on his phone and the kids made videos of themselves over and over and over again.  It is pretty funny!  I think the funny thing is my yelling in reverse!!  Ha!!

 

 

 

Me and My Great Ideas

My kids have never roller-skated before.  Really, in SA there are not a lot of places to roller skate.  There is one place that has been around since my Dad was young and I think I had my 9th birthday party at the Rollercade.  Since Tuesdays are there "bargain" days, we were off to try it.  We invited our cousins and I begged convinced my Mom to join and handle the chaos fun.

 

The kids were pumped and quickly put on their skates.

 

 

Even Little Bit (who is recovering from an ear infection and the early stages of pneumonia) got skates on!!!  Ha!!!

 

Gavin was our "experienced" skater.  Rocco had to photobomb of course!

 

But there was a lot of this.....

 

 

and a lot of this.......

 

So we spent more $$ on these stand-thingies and the skating got a little better.  There went the "bargain"!!!!

Lesson learned:  For kids just learning how to skate, you need one adult per child.  One mommy in skates and one Grammie not in skates IS NOT GOING TO CUT it!!!!!  Got that!!!