1st road trip since surgery and we all needed it!

This past weekend we had a fun family road trip to the lake. It was our first vacation since Colin went on lockdown before surgery which was July 1. It has been a long 2.5 months with lots of stress so what better way to relieve all those emotions than taking a relaxing and fun trip to Lake Travis in Austin TX. We went with my parents and my brother and his family to celebrate both my dad's and my brother's birthday. We all had lots of fun and great family memories that will last a lifetime. 

Colin had a blast on the lake riding the tube, fishing, exploring the island, and driving the boat. His face in the picture above is worth all the tears, the hurt, the stress, the nights at the hospital, the pain of the last 3 months. He had so much fun, so much energy, look at that smile! Kids are resilient, Colin is super resilient, and he is teaching me to let go of some of the hurt from the past couple of months. To go back to smiling and laughing, hopefully this is all behind us now.

I am so proud of Katherine for getting past her fear on getting on the tube and getting out there to try it. Once she got on, she found out how much she liked it. She had so much fun playing in the water, hunting for clam shells on the island, driving the boat, and hiking on Sunday. She has been through so much this summer, I am so glad she had the chance to go play and let that stress just melt away.

I will let the rest of the picture show how much fun we had on our trip. 

Colin and grandma searching the island for pirate treasures

My little fish splashing around

Colin loved just standing on the shore throwing rocks

The lake levels are so low because of the drought in the hill country. But we had fun

Katherine, Kannon, and Colin exploring the island. This was all covered by water until the drought. 

My dad chilling on the boat, it was his birthday present from my mom..an afternoon on a boat with the family

Colin trying to catch the big one, he LOVES to fish

My dad and me were the first to give the tube a try

Then Matt got on it and was a stud :) 

Then my brother took it to a whole other level 

Katherine getting a driving lesson from daddy

Colin driving the boat pulling Matt and Katherine behind him.. who are the CRAZY people who let the 4 year old drive???

Kannon and Colin admiring the view from our hike on Sunday

Beautiful 

It was a gorgeous day 

There were lots of sailboats on the lake that day

Our hike on Sunday

A view about halfway up the hike

A nice glass of wine in the country is what this mamma needed after this hectic summer

Time to play catch up.. LOTS to catch up on!

Life is busy.... time to play catch up. AND WE have a lot to catch us on, so here it goes>>>>

We were released from the hospital on Sept. 2, Labor Day. Colin was very excited to come home!!! Matt and Katherine did an excellent job of decorating the house to welcome home Colin, he LOVED it. That evening we took him swimming for the first time in 2 months, he was so so excited, he really is an outdoors kid and has been pretty limited on what he could do.

Colin had been home ONE day before he had an accident where he dropped a statue on his head making a large gash. Matt took him to the doctor and he said that he could get a stitch or two but since it was in his hair, it would cover it up. So no stitches needed BUT a great scare for everyone. This kid is going to give me so many white hairs.

Colin went back to the doctor on Friday Sept. 6th, x-ray looked great and his sats were at 95! So we were able to lift his drink restrictions.. YEAH!!! No more of him begging for water and having to tell him no! ALSO we got to lift his NO FAT diet to LOW fat diet.... AWESOME! This opens up so many doors when it comes to food. You can find LOTS of LOW fat food! After 5 weeks of struggling with the no fat diet, Colin can finally have chicken, turkey bacon, turkey tacos & burgers!! This has REALLY REALLY helped his appetite INCREASE!! He is wanting to eat, asking to eat, and is eating!! We normally eat pretty healthy, so low fat is pretty close to what we already eat anyways and it's not strange tasting like NO fat food.

Saturday Sept. 7th, we went to my nephew's birthday party. They had a large bouncy with a waterside. The kids had a blast! They really needed that, time to just be kids and have some good old fashioned FUN!! It was so amazing to see Colin playing for 6 hours.. bouncing, running, getting wet and NOT turning blue, not out of breathe, not shivering, not trying to keep up with the other kids. All the stress, tears, hospital time, sleepless nights, tears (oh I mentioned that twice).. is ALL WORTH IT to watch him play like everyone ELSE. For his heart NOT to have to work SO hard at normal kid activities. THANK you God for watching over my son! Even though the fluid is a complication and is annoying, Colin's heart is working perfectly!

This past week has been tough. We have all been sick in some way. I made the difficult decision NOT to go on my planned work trip to Edinburgh, Scotland (I was set to leave this weekend). I know I made the right decision, it is just not the right time to travel and my family comes before my work. I am very lucky to have such a supportive company. But it was hard as I was looking forward to this trip and take my job very seriously.

Friday Colin went in for a chest x-ray (right now he is going weekly to keep on top of this fluid problem), the chest x-ray showed a small amount of fluid building up, so we increased his lasix (diuretic) but for now are keeping everything else the same. He has another x-ray this coming up Wednesday to see if that helped. Pray that was what was needed and that we get this under control.

This weekend Katherine officially became a GIRL SCOUT. And I must be crazy as I am her troop leader. No one else volunteered and I can not stand for the awkwardness of everyone just starting at each other, so I raised my hand. I am excited about the quality girl time with my daughter and her friends, I think this will be a great experience for the both of us.

So in the last two weeks, we have just been trying to get to our normal life... spending time together, baking brownies (licking the bowl which is the best part), cheering on the Aggies and Texans, and having some fun quality time together. The last couple of months have been really hard, hopefully the hard times are behind us!