Colton's Surgery

We got home from Seattle late Friday night, and Sarah picked me up Saturday morning and we went to Manassas to see my favorite people for my birthday.  We came home Sunday afternoon, and I had one day to get my feet under me, and then we'd scheduled surgery for Colton on Tuesday.  It was all a bit of a whirlwind!

Before we left for Seattle, Colton had decorated our count-down board:

I would like it made known that there were NO CHAINSAWS used for his surgery!  I like the robot eating ice cream.  Obviously, we'd talked up all the awesome (junk) foods he'd get to eat while he recovered.  Colton seems to have a little bit of anxiety at times, so I was trying my best to not just freak him out about the whole thing.  But we were all a little nervous.

The night before, Craig's parents took us out to dinner for our birthdays (yay!) and then they spent the night at our house so we could both go with Colton to the hospital.  So that was a big help!

Getting him in his gown and non-slip socks

My ONLY other experiences with surgery are getting my wisdom teeth out (like 20 years ago) and Bentley's c-section, so I just don't know anything about any of this.  The doctor had told us that one parent could go into the OR with him, and Colton picked me. 

So I got to put on what they called "the marshmallow outfit"-- I looked smokin'!

Oh, yeah.

It was weird sitting there while they got him under.  Dr. Powers had warned me about this-- I really appreciated it, actually, because she just said, "You're going to feel really weird and out of place.  That's normal.  Don't worry about it."  She'd also warned me that sometimes the kids flail and get crazy and they try to get them under as quickly as they can, so I was prepared for that as well. 

As I sat there, the way the anesthesiologist held the mask just blocked me from being able to see his face, which I didn't like.  The anesthesiologist was great, though, telling some whole story about how they were going to fly a plane together and were waiting for clearance from air control.  All the time, he was adjusting knobs and dials.  For a brief moment Colton's arm flicked and the nurses jumped all over him and the anesthesiologist kept twisting dials and talking to him and then he announced, "He's out."  It was all so quick!  The ENT jumped up and walked me to the door as fast as she could and I was dismissed!  It all felt very abrupt, but I understand that you really don't want to be under any longer than necessary, so I was fine with that.

Craig and I sat out in the waiting area, and just as promised it took almost exactly half an hour before the doctor appeared.  Even as she was walking towards us, she reassured us that everything had gone well, so that was nice.  He'd had his tonsils and adenoids removed, and they'd also put tubes in his ears.  After a few minutes they asked us to join him in recovery.  He was barely awake and kept flopping sideways until we finally eased him down and let him go back to sleep.  He proceeded to snore VERY loudly for the next hour and a half, and woke up just as it was getting to be time for us to leave.  (The funny thing is that removing his tonsils should help with the snoring, eventually.  So Craig and I were cracking up, making dumb jokes about what a miracle this surgery had been in correcting his snoring.  We're dorky like that.)

He pretty much spent the next two days eating NOTHING and only sipping Gatorade when we reminded him to.  For all that excitement about getting to eat ice cream and pudding, he wanted nothing to do with any of it.  He was fine during the day with the tv on, but at night he'd wake up screaming.  Apparently his throat would get dried out and hurt even more then.  It would take twenty minutes or more to convince him to take his medicine and sip some more water and then he'd usually just drop back off again.  (Codeine can do that, I guess.)  And I learned that there is no way to let one kid watch tv without all the other kids watching it, too.  So that was bad parenting, but what can you do?

I think it was eight days after his surgery when he asked to eat Honey Bunches of Oats (dry!) and they didn't bother his throat at all and we decided he was all better. 

So that drama is (hopefully?) all over!  I'm really hoping this will cut back on the ear infections and help him sleep better at night.  But now we need to break all these new bad habits of letting him sleep on the floor of our room with us!

Seattle Trip: Bainbridge Chapter

Driving back to my parent's house from Suncadia, we decided to stop by Snoqualmie Falls, which Craig and the kids had never seen.  It was impressive, as always:

I can never get enough of GREEN

I love how Camille is blissfully hugging her big sister here!

The falls were awesome, but the wait for the ferry to Bainbridge was NOT so awesome.  Note to self: don't try to drive onto the ferry on a Friday holiday weekend.  Just go around.  We waited for a very long time for that boat and were all exhausted by the time we were on our way.  

Heading to the Island!

My parents had ordered pizza for us and it was delivered within minutes of our arrival, so that was PERFECT.   We gobbled down food and then got to work getting kids showered and put to bed.  Meanwhile my sister Leah was getting together with some of her old high school friends, so this gave us the perfect opportunity for our Ryder Smith to meet Leah's friend, Ryder Smith!  I love the gleeful expression on both their faces here:

Ryder 2.0 and Ryder 1.0 (and my Dad in the background)

The next morning was beautiful...

Again, I love all the green!!!

...So we quickly headed over to Tracy and Adam's new home! They were hosting a Saturday luncheon, which somehow turned into an all-day affair and it was SO FUN!!!!

Colton and Theo finally figured out they were close enough in age to play and just like that, they were best friends.  Cousins are the BEST!

Between extended family and Leah's high school friends, we rounded up a couple girls Kendra's age for her to play (and ride around in Adam's tractor) with!

Ryder and Eliot are BFFs

Cora loves Bentley!

Tracy and Adam have an absolutely beautiful yard!

Colton looks fierce here, and Camille looks dreamy...

Partway through the day, the men went out and bought a badminton set, and all the kids LOVED it!

In peak summer in Seattle, it stays light out until 10pm, so it's hard to remember just how late it's getting.  I figured when Camille fell asleep against my arm, it was just because it was 9pm.  But nope, she was getting sick again.  That night she was up all night crying because her ear hurt.  Colton had gotten an ear infection in Suncadia, but those aren't contagious-- we were just having bad luck.  (Or maybe keeping the kids up so late all the time was taking its toll...)

The next day was Sunday, so I took the four oldest to church and Craig stayed home with Camille.  Leah and Brian were planning on taking their kids to the Mariner's game, and we'd been hemming and hawing about tagging along.  Camille being sick seemed like a good reason to back out, but then my Mom offered to stay home with her, and Craig was able to get her a doctor's visit (by phone!) while I was at church, so maybe...?  In the meantime, Brian decided to stay home with Theo, but offered to watch Colton so they could play together...  Eventually it all fell into place: we managed to have me get on the ferry with the kids.  My Mom dropped us off, picked up Craig and took him to get antibiotics for Camille, then dropped him off, too, and he just barely caught the same boat we'd been waiting for, and Mom watched Camille while the rest of us went to the game.  Whew!  It's tough keeping track of so many moving pieces!

I was still wondering if we weren't insane for doing this, but I'm happy to say that everything ended up going BEAUTIFULLY.  We had the BEST time at the game (despite the Mariner's losing. by a lot) and Camille got to rest and watch tv with Grandma, and Colton had a great time playing with Theo.  So it was an all-around win-- Yay!!!

Ryder wearing my sunglasses on the ferry

So I wore his hat!

Eliot, Ryder, and Leah

Craig took all the kids to meet the Mariner Moose (which gave me time to talk Leah's ear off!)

And to see the tribute to Dave Niehaus-- My, Oh, My!!!

And then, the best part-- after the game, they let all the kids run around the bases!!!  How cool is that???

The Mariners and I have something in common!

We're there!  On the field!  We can see the grass!!!

You can see Bentley and Kendra running in the middle of this shot

And there's Ryder in his red hat with Eliot right behind him!

Bentley looks triumphant as he rounds to home plate!

YES, I was really excited by all this!

So that was fabulous.  I was SO glad we decided to actually GO.


The next morning (Monday) we were just going to take it easy, but then Natalie was driving to come see us, and we realized it would work out really well to meet her at the Poulsbo Bakery, Sluy's, so we got dressed as fast as we could and raced out the door.  That was ALSO a great decision.  That bakery is the BEST (way better than the Cle Elum Bakery!)!!!

All my kids spent an inordinate amount of time trying to decide what to get, and then most of them got the same thing-- dough boys!

Bentley branched out and got a cinnamon roll

Bentley branched out and got a cinnamon roll... all over his nose!

One of our favorite Ryder quotes from when he was little, "I wike dis big doughnut!"

Colton thinks he's on Pride Rock?

We had this great idea that Craig would take the big kids to the aquarium, but it turned out to be closed on Mondays...  But you gotta love any pictures you can take with an enormous octopus statue!

I had promised my Dad that I would go through boxes of my college and mission stuff while I was home, so I finally got started on that project while Craig and Natalie, and eventually Tracy, entertained all the kids.  I got a TON done and the kids got to have fun playing with their cousins, so overall it worked out really well!

Hats from my parent's cruise...

Checking out the dead crabs at Fay Bainbridge

Pretty city!

The next day, Tuesday, it was back to being tourists!  We met Tracy (and Cora!) on the ferry

Colton decided he's going to the best babysitter ever and wanted to practice holding Cora every chance he got!

and headed to Pioneer Square to go on the Underground Tour of Seattle.  I had done this when I was in 4th grade (I think?) and thought it was really cool, so I figured the kids would enjoy it now.  And they did!  It's a lot of fun, and all the information about Seattle's redlight district Seamstress Union is kept clean enough that I didn't have to cover my kids' ears, so we all learned a lot!

Next we spent a few minutes resting our feet at the waterfall park:

It's a waterfall!  Right in the middle of the city!

and then we marched all the way across town to the Amazon Quarters. That's not really what that area is called, but I think that's as good a nickname as anything!  We picked up lunch from the Shake Shack and once we were done eating, Adam met us and took us to the Amazon Go store!  He let the kids each choose a treat, on him, so that was super generous of him, and the kids all thought it was the coolest thing ever!

I said No to the Monster Energy drinks!

And then he took us all around the Amazon Spheres!  We'd been hoping to go last time we were in Seattle, but we ran out of time, so I was glad we could make it this time around!  Adam was an excellent tour guide and the place is REALLY cool!

I don't know which I find funnier-- what Bentley wrote, or the fact that he spelled Bezos wrong!

Inside the crow's nest!

This is in the basement, which is open to the public

And finally, as we headed to the ferry, we made a quick stop at Pike Place Market so the kids could watch the fish being thrown, and so Ryder could see the pig statue!

We were very tired for that ferry ride home.  But Bentley was tired AND weird.

Craig and I fed the kids, put them to bed, and then left for a date night to Thatsa Some Italian Ristorante in Poulsbo.  And just to be complete gluttons, we topped that off with another trip to Mora (this time the Poulsbo store).

Craig is a genius: he paired the molten lava cake with peppermint ice cream!

We had plans for Wednesday, but they were all outdoors and it drizzled the entire day, so instead we pretty much sat around reading and resting up.  Everyone was pretty exhausted from the previous day.  My Mom and I got breakfast at Streamliner Diner, but I was still so full from the night before I actually exercised some measure of self-restraint and took home leftovers (first time for everything)!  My Mom and I also managed to get pedicures (yay for pretty toes!) and then she took the kids to see Toy Story 4 while Craig and I ran errands and mailed some of my stuff home.  And we ended the night with take-out from my favorite Thai restaurant, so that was amazing. 



Thursday, we dropped all the kids off with Tracy and headed to the temple with my parents!  Tracy took the kids to our friends the Boundy's farm!  I'd been hoping to do that the day before, but it had been too rainy.  I was sad to miss out, but glad that the kids still got to go!

I think Colton is being a zombie here...  What a weirdo!

Looking at the sheep

Helping Cora with her tummy time!

They had a great time, and I was very grateful to Tracy for being willing to babysit for so long after we'd already stormed her house a couple other days that week!  (And, to top it all off, she had friends coming to visit that evening who have five kids of their own!)

Our temple experience was...  not so smooth.  Let's just say that my plan to make things easier by letting my parents drive in Seattle backfired.  Next time I'll just rely on Craig and GPS for navigating the city!  But we did manage to do a session, eventually, so I suppose all's well that ends well.


I was sad to see our trip coming to a close, but we were all exhausted and I'd managed to hit most of the items on my bucket list for this trip, so I felt about as ready to leave as I ever am.  We left Friday morning, and managed to ride the same ferry as my parents as they headed to their various and sundry doctor's appointments.  For this trip, Craig sat with the kids, and I was a couple rows ahead.  I watched Good Omens on my phone and politely ignored the kid next to me whose father was doing everything in his power to keep him calm on a very long flight.  Philadelphia proved to actually be the City of Brotherly Love as all the people flying there very courteously let those of us who were trying to make our connection (after losing an hour to delays) get off the plane first.  We ran across two terminals and made it to the last Charlottesville flight with 6 minutes to spare!  Huzzah!

It was good to be home and back in my own bed again!