No More Braces

Today Hunter got his braces taken off. Don't his teeth look so good? Tomorrow he gets his retainer. He is very excited to be free of them. The braces weren't supposed to be off until January. His teeth were doing so well and Dr. Haslam thought it would be nice to have one less thing to worry about. Thoughtful isn't he.

Hunter and I headed to Doernbecher once again today. It was a longer visit because of the chemo he got. My sweet sister-in-law once again toke care of the other kids and Ender and Maya. She rocks. Doesn't she? The kids and I are ready for a day at home tomorrow.

The Count Down Begins

Hunter and I headed to Doernbecher this morning. Dawn kept the other kids for the day. Today luckily Hunter's numbers were all good so he was able to start the next phase, interim maintenance. This means we won't have to be at Doernbecher so many times and it lasts for 60 days.

Hunter after his sedation. He wanted goldfish crackers and a Hershey bar, which we had packed with us.

Hunter really didn't think I would take his picture when he did this. He guessed wrong.

The counted down part is that we can now count down the days until Hunter's treatment is done. 3 years from today is official day, Aug. 30, 2013. It's nice to have an actually date and not some random 3 years. It will be right before is sophomore year in high school. If that doesn't put it into perspective. It is a long time but we are willing to do what we need to to get this taken care of.

Hot Air Balloons

Saturday morning on our way to Becca's baptism in WA we spotted these wonderful flying things in the sky in Albany. The kids and even Aaron and I were so excited to see them. This is nothing that I would ever want to do. But it is so fun to see them in the air.

I think we counted 18 in the air at once with more getting filled up as we passed the launch site.

Bekka's Baptism

Yesterday we got up bright and early to head to Camas, WA for Bekka Jones baptism. The Jones are on their way to Hawaii to live for a couple of year. They were just in Connecticut for 5 months. We are so lucky they lived in Corvallis for a year or so. I'm so glad we got to be there for Bekka's baptism. Gretchen and Bekka.
Ella and Gretchen. Ella was born 2 years ago on our anniversary.

Graham

Harrison, Nikki and Marianna. Marrianna was one of their teacher at preschool last year. Nikki loves her so much.

Gretch and Bekka chattin' up.

Aaron and Gavin. They were in the same class together last year for school. It was a K-1 split.

Ella and Harrison.

You can't see there legs and feet but the kids were in the trees playing and having a great time.

Graham

This little guy is so hilarious. Today the older boys were talking about Lego Star Wars sets. Graham was looking at them and listening to the boys say that they wanted to buy this one or save up for that one. Graham looked at Aaron and said, "Dad, can I buy some money?"

A Mellow Week

We had quite a mellow week. There were play dates, swimming, hangin' out at home and lots of the Three Stooges.Darin and Rees Stenson came to play on Monday. As you can see they had a great time.

We also went swimming with the Stenson boys and Cherie Martin and her kids met us there. It was a great day to go swimming. It got close to 100 degrees.

Rees, Gavin and Gretchen were seeing who could lay on the hot cement the longest. I didn't want to get in on the game. My feet were burning just when I started walking on the cement.

Graham, Allie, and Darin enjoying the little pool.
Alice came over the next day for a couple of hours. The kids always love it when she come to play.

Wednesday Hunter registered for 7th grade. Really I have a 7th grader. Hunter is excited for school to start. I think it will be a welcome distraction for him. Hunter has always loves school.

The last couple of days have not been warm enough for swimming. We have been finding alternate things to do. Hunter and Gavin playing UNO. Harrison and Graham were playing too but lost interest.

Then it was off to play Star Wars.

Hunter's hair is really coming out now. It kind of tapered off for awhile. He's is ready to not have the fuzz he has now. What a patient kid.

We ended up not having to go to Dorenbecher this week. The schedule got a little mixed up because Hunter was supposed to go up 2 days in a row. So we'll head up on Monday and Tuesday after he gets his braces off. Yeah!!

I'm so grateful for this mellow week and not having to go anywhere. After last week and it not being a great week for Hunter. We definitely welcome the week we have had.

Happy 15th Anniversary

to my adorable husband.