Day 4

It was nice to have a short day. Left Wellington, CO about 9:00am this morning and arrived at Hart Ranch (just outside Rapid City, SD) about 3:30pm. Met up with my folks without a problem (though the lack of cell phone coverage made things interesting for a bit there).

As for the trip itself, we got to experience more of the flat, uneventful, beautiful land that is Wyoming. And then South Dakota. What a glorious state. Beautiful prairies that stretch as far as the eye can see. Slight hills that rise while the trees on them rise just the same. Wonderful people that don't require you to prepay inside to pump your gas. Really good waiters. Glorious.

Steph and I had some good conversations in the car today, so that was helpful in the grand scheme of things and, as a bonus, made the time go by rather quickly. Lizzie is beginning to settle into the traveling routine, though still is quick to throw a fit should something not be quite right. And, since she is two is just a couple weeks, she is testing every boundary that comes her way.

We could really use prayer for Ellie though. 85% of the day she is the cute, smiley content baby that we adore. The other 15% she is the not-quite-as-cute, screaming her head off (in pain?) baby we adore. We think she is teething again. Today while feeding her rice cereal, I (Allen) touched the top of her mouth with the spoon and she instantly flipped out. We've been giving her infant Motrin, which helps for a little bit, but is not quite the results we've been hoping for. The teething tablets that worked so well in the past are packed away somewhere. We may have to dig those out. The biggest issue is falling asleep. Both last night and tonight was a big challenge. She gets so tired she can't think straight, but because she's uncomfortable, she won't give in to her body's need to rest. Took lots of holding and comforting and praying to get her down tonight. So yes, your prayers for her ability to sleep at night would be most appreciated.

Sorry, no pics today. We took a couple, but it's late and quite honestly, I'm not sure where the camera is. Fun day planned tomorrow though with lots of site seeing. Should be able to post a few pics then. Good night!

Day 3

Today we spent the day with the Goodrichs (Benji was Allen's best man in our wedding). We met up for some educational animal fun at the Denver Zoo (if you get a chance click this link and try the poop quiz called "Whose poo?"..Steph got an 86, Allen got a 50). For the NW crowd, the Denver Zoo dwarfs the Portland Zoo. Very impressive and a blast. Saw lots of animals I had never seen before (did you know ant eaters have really long fur?) and animals I never knew existed (there is an animal called a bongo. Go figure).



All in all, it was a ton of fun to see Benji and Missy again, to finally meet their little guy, Isaiah, and for them to meet our wee munchkins. Thanks for a great day Goodrichs!



The kiddos finally got comfortable with one another after a little bit. Benji and I have often discussed the possibility of their arranged marriage. Cute couple, no?


There's a lot of humor here. Insert your own caption. (Thanks Brewsters for the wonderful gift of the mai thai (the kid carrier strapped on Allen). It held Ellie comfortably all day. And it was super easy to get on and was way less painful than using the sling (which we started to use until it began to hurt Steph's shoulder).

Day 2

Got some great rest and started the day a little later than planned, but no worries.

Northern Utah and Wyoming are both incredibly beautiful and incredibly boring.


Lizzie is back to her normal self, which is both good and challenging (...she is 2 after all).

Never go to the Cheyenne Outback on a Friday evening during the weekend of both a convention and many graduations.

Day 1

Took off at 5:20am. Drove I-84 for a loooooong time. Got into Brigham City, Utah about 8:00pm. It's been wonderful to have time alone with just the family and enjoy seeing a ton of God's amazing creation. Believe it or not, eastern Oregon is a lot prettier than most would have you believe. Kids did well. Lizzie wasn't quite herself on Day 1, but sleeping a lot was a good thing for her.

Departing shot of Mt. Hood. We'll miss you.

Sleeping in the backseat. O, to be a two year old.

Army

Ellie army crawled this morning.

Funny sleeper

Solid Food!

Well, sorta... :-)

Delayed Follow Up

Sorry for the delayed follow up. As it turns out Lizzie slept a lot the morning of the appointment which made things a little easier on Steph. The echo went surprisingly well. Lizzie was definitely loopy from the sedative they gave her (to keep her calm and still so they can get accuracte pictures), but this was by far the easier appointment for me in terms of keeping her arms down. Both the dr. and the tech for the echo were very nice and kid-friendly. They're very good at their jobs.

Then we went downstairs to see Dr. Shaughnessy. Everything looks... the same! Not perfect, but everything is stable. The valve is still a little weak (it leaks a smidge), but it's just about the same as it has been, so that's good news. If we were staying in town, we wouldn't have to go back for another year!

Clarification: We found out at this appointment that Lizzie does NOT have an artificial valve... in the medical sense. Seems artificial in the medical sense means a foreign (read: man-made) substance. Since hers is not Goretex or titanium (or something similar), it's not technically artificial. What was added to her valve was a fixed biological tissue (I want to say pericardium, but I'm not 100% sure on that). It doesn't grow or expand or anything, it's just stable tissue (the Dr. didn't know if it came from Lizzie or from someone else, but her guess was that it was from someone else...) that was added to strengthen things.

More good news: When Lizzie's heart was first fixed up, the guesses were that she would need another surgery sometime before she's age 5 and then again before age 13. Dr. Shaughnessy said on Tuesday that Lizzie probably wouldn't need anything done on her heart until "sometime before she's 20". Woo hoo!

Exhausted and There is More to Come

Well, we just returned today from our extended-weekend-road-trip down to Cali for Grandma Sewell's 80th birthday party. It was a ton of fun to see everyone, and we even got the chance to drop by and see the whole Rexford Clan and catch up a bit before heading back. On the way back we also saw the Serface's and their beautiful new home near Eugene, OR.
It was such a tiring trip, and I am sure that if I wasn't ready to collapse I would expand on that, but for now I just wanted to ask for prayer. Tomorrow is Lizzie's last Cardiology appointment up at OHSU-Doernebecher before we move. It is going to be very sad to leave the people that saved our little girl's life and on top of it all I get to spend the morning keeping Lizzie from eating or drinking anything, but apple juice and water, until noon when she can't even have those things. She is tired just like the rest of us, so pray for her to be patient and for whatever reason not to be hungry or thirsty tomorrow. We will let you kow how it goes.
Thanks ahead of time for your prayers!

Clothes

Finding clothes of Ellie's that still fit her is getting harder and harder. So out of desperation tonight, we tried putting her in one of Lizzie's shirts.

It fit.

(And we're not talking, it's bigger so of course it'll fit. It actually fit.)