i've got a few months to catch up on here. we've been so busy with house guests, mini vacations and special occasions. i've been loving every minute of it. lets start with april. we took the kids pigeon forge/gatlinburg TN to go to dollywood for liv's 8th birthday. the kids didn't know that aunt nat nat and uncle dom were surprising them with a visit there. the kids were completely shocked. we were all cying. then about ten minutes later i was completely shocked when my mom walked up. nat and dom surprised me with my mom. we were all crying again. i didn't realize till then how much i really missed my mom.
this is noah walking with his ya-ya....so cute! we had such a fun time at dollywood. the whole area is like branson but with mountians instead of lakes and a pancake house on every corner. we had booked this cabin for us all to stay in that was really in the mountians. it was a up and down windy road to get to it only to discover we couldn't get our suv up the steep gravel driveway. it was insanely steep and we were sliding down it like it was snow and ice. so to get back to where we had cell service again to call the rental company we had to drive back over the mountian and thru woods. liv turns white as a ghost and all hot-n-sweaty. we have to pull over for her to get sick on the side of the road (or should i say mountian). we discovered in this trip that she can get car sick :-( she was so upset. we ending up getting a different cabin right off the main strip that was less mountian-y. we would totally go back to it, it was so nice. after dollywood took liv for a b-day dinner at hard rock cafe and the table they sat us at was right in front of a huge picture of roy orbison. he was one of my dads favorite artist so it was a much needed sign that my dad was with us that night. nick fell in love with gatlinburg and can't wait to go back in the winter for skiing.
all this happened before livs actually b-day so she was surprised again when we had a little family party for her on her actual b-day. it's so hard to believe that she is 8 years old. she is really coming into her own out here. she did so good at school this year and transitioned so smoothly with the move. we couldn't be more proud of her. nick's parents came to visit us the end of april. they were our first offical guests at "hotel hughez". it was a much needed visit for everyone. we had a great time catching up and taking them to the uqinue greenville spots we have fell in love with. in may we took the kids on a quick weekend trip back to folley beach in charleston.
the beginning of june nat, dom, my mom and my niece adaira finally came to greenville. we started the visit with a quick trip to me and nicks new favorite spot...the beaches at charleston!!! we had no idea we were such beach bums :-D as soon as we leave we are planning our next trip back. my thoughts are if we are going to have our kids this far away from friends and family we need to take full advantage of what we can offer them here that we couldn't if we were still in kc. as soon as natalie got here she said she had to see "that charleston place" that me and nick couldn't get enough of. and guess what??? they all loved it too!!! i seriously think everyone needs to visit charleston at least once.
we started celebrating owen's 7th b-day in charleston. nat, dom and adaira went back to kc after 5 nights :-( my mom is still here. the next weekend nick's mom and niece lola came to celebrate owens b-day some more. he got to pick a resturant to go eat at, he picked cracker barrel. he's is such a nut!!! he loved every second of it.
on his actual b-day we had some more fun planned. liv made him this crown that he wore all day long, it was so sweet. we took him to frankie's fun park (kinda like cool crest , chucky cheese and dave-n-busters all in one). he is obsested with super mario right now. his fav being luigi and yoshi because they are green...of coures right :-). so my mom and i got him everything mario bros we could find. he was in heaven. he is doing so excellent health wise since we've been here. we are only doing labs and dr viists once a month which i huge difference from the once a week we doing for the year and 4 months after the transplant. i worry everyday that i'm doing everything i can keep it this way. and knock on wood when i say this but i really feel like for once that i've got a handle on it and can breath easy...finally. now really....wow....how can he be 7 year old?!?!?!
after owen's b-day party when we were getting the kids ready for bed noah slipped in the shower busting a spot by his eye open. we had to take him to the er to get stitches. poor little baby was so brave. he must of learned it from watching his big brother at his appointments. nick on the other hand was his typical self getting all light headed when he sees needles :-/. it was a good thing my mom was here so we didn't have to bring owen and liv there with us. the only positive i can make out this happening is that we got to see what the childrens er was like here greenville so we could feel comfortable if we ever have to take owen there (knock on wood again). i hope that never happens and i hope a never have to say "the only thing positive about going to the er" ever again too.
today was my moms birthday. i've loved getting to spend the whole day her. i've really loved getting to spend the whole month with her. today i took her to lunch in this little 1800's cottage. i made her a tye-dyed cake (check facebook for pictures). then we went to play bingo. it was the strangest game of bingo. we still dont know what was going on. they gave you free numbers or free rows. almost every game was called triples, where you had to get 3 bingos on one card but they gave you half the numbers to start with. one lady won the bingo before any real numbers called. it was so weird!! we were so cunfused. one of the ladies that worked there asked us if we had ever played bingo before?!?! we were like yes!! but this isn't bingo!!! we laughed the whole way home and i'm sure they were laughing at us when we left too.
