Lily's first mountain hike

Lily climbed Green Mountain! She was so, so excited to climb a mountain. She talked about it for days leading up to our trip, and it was definitely the highlight of her vacation. It was a shining moment for her, as it should be. She hiked 2 hours up and 2 hours back down - pretty impressive for a 4-year-old. I had to stay back with William who was not quite up to the challenge yet. When she came back from her outing, the first thing she said to me was, "I want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa now". This girl is all about new adventures!

They had a place where you could drop a note when you reached the top. Luckily, Grandpa tipped us off to this fact so Lily had two notes prepared, one with William's name and one with her own name.

Snuggles with daddy who was really just trying to keep her near to him

The view from the top (looks pretty good!)

Tea house

After our Celestial Seasonings tour, we continued the tea theme with a very special lunch at Boulder's Tea house. The entire building was sent to Boulder as a gift from their sister city, Dushanbe. The carvings and paintings in the tea house are made with such intricate details; it is truly amazing, and the food was as wonderful as the surroundings!

Inside the Tea house

Ready for lunch!

William with Grandpa

Lily lounging amongst the pillows. A girl could get used to this.

Lily and Grandpa checking out the beautiful fish pond.

Hanging with Sophia and Leo

A couple of these photos are courtesy of Tori since her pictures were way cute. Here the girls are creating a feast for their brothers.

We invaded Panera with our "motley crue".


Da boyz

Girls, girls, girls

Mini family update

William is really starting to "get" things. Some of my favorite things recently are:

• He tries to put his foot into shoes that are laying around when we are walking with him around the house. (In other words, he gets that shoes are for feet, even though he currently does not wear shoes.)
• He loves pens and tries to "write" on paper whenever possible.
• He continuously tried to put the phone to his ear yesterday.
• We had to lower his crib to the lowest level because he likes to stand in his crib, and he is SO tall!
• His first tooth is FINALLY popping through!!!

Lily getting ready to start Pre-K at her zoned school. I'm really excited about it. Lily just takes it all in stride. I think we have been doing so many different camps, classes, and activities this summer that she just sees it as the next thing. Her teacher came over for a home visit last week that was really nice. The teacher read a book to her about starting school, talked about all the activities they have in school, and made a project with Lily - a picture frame that will hold a picture of our family for the classroom. I was also able to ask her some questions about the program. Overall, I thought it was a very thoughtful way to introduce little ones to their new school and to their teacher. There is also an Open House at the school on Friday, and then she starts on Tuesday! She will only go three days per week in the afternoon, but I feel like this is a big step because it is at her zoned school. Therefore, this is the same school that she will (theoretically) attend for the next 6 years (Pre-K through 5th).

That brings us to the last family update. Carl is currently applying for fellowships for the 2012-13 school year. There are only 2 medical centers in St. Louis that have the fellowship Carl wants (Hematopathology). Therefore, we will apply to medical centers in other cities as well. We are currently looking at 10 different programs in 9 different cities: Bethesda, MD, Memphis, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Seattle, Portland, Ann Arbor, MI, and St. Louis. There are a number of factors that will play into our final decision, but we will hopefully know by Feb, 2011 where we will be. If we end up going to a different city, we will likely rent out our house for the year and then return after the fellowship to look for a permanent job. Carl and I are both up for the adventure. Our only concern was how Lily would handle this, as she would be going into first grade at that time. When I explained the situation to her, in true Lily style, she said that she would prefer to move for the year. It must be in the genes!

Mee maw's visit

Carl's mom came to the Lou for a visit this weekend. We are very fortunate that the kids get to see their grandparents so often. Thanks for visit, mee maw!

Lily listening to a tall tale from mee maw

This is the life.

William's flying high with new jammies from mee maw.

On Saturday, Carl and I enjoyed a lunch date. Yay! Then we all enjoyed pizza for dinner and Maggie Moo's ice cream for dessert. Double yum!

A family snapshot - Carl with his mom, sister, and William

Ready for homeostasis at home

So we've been through a little bit of a rough patch here lately. Carl's emergency gall bladder surgery was followed by an insect or spider bite on my left arm which turned into Cellulitis. Then, we went swimming on Father's Day which may have contributed to the ear infection that I developed on Monday. The Cellulitis was annoying, but the ear infection has been nothing short of horrible. I've been on some heavy-duty pain killers and feeling totally out of it. Thanks to my mom and dad who have stepped in several times to save the day during this time. There are not a lot of things that have caused me as much pain as the ear infection, but having to "pump and dump" due to the pain killers runs a close second to the infection.

Liquid gold down the drain

And thus concludes a 12-year mystery

Way back when, when Carl and I had just begun dating at Lake Forest College, Carl had an "episode" one summer day. It involved severe abdominal cramping/chest pains accompanied by vomiting that eventually led us to the hospital. Many tests later, no answers were found regarding the source of the pain. A second visit, years later, to the ER for the same symptoms resulted in the removal of a perfectly fine appendix. The symptoms have popped up probably close to 10 times in 12 years and resulted in about 5 trips to the ER.

Our latest episode occurred at about 2 am this morning. I've just returned from the hospital where Carl was admitted and finally we have the answer: a completely obstructed, non-functioning, stoned-filled gall bladder which has now been removed and to which we can forever say good riddens. It is such a relief to finally have an answer to this problem that plagued us for so long. In hindsight, it may seem like a simple answer, but the symptoms mimicked cardiac problems and with a family history of cardiac issues, this was often a front-runner in diagnoses. Carl is now recovering from the surgery, and besides some uncomfortable after-effects, he seems to be doing just fine. All I can hope is that this begins a new chapter for Carl, one in which no more parts of his body have to be removed!

Week wrap-up

Since last Tuesday was Lily's last day of class, we've been hitting some events around town to keep busy. The picture below is actually from the Friday before (a little over a week ago), but I'm a little behind here. We went to the Transportation Museum for a Mother Goose performance they were having. The kids were invited to join the cast to sing a song at the end. Lily was so adorable about the whole thing. They practiced earlier in the performance, and then she had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the show. She was very worried while in the bathroom and said, "I'm not going to miss it, am I mommy? I really want to sing the song at the end." As you can see, we made it back, no problem. Lily was very focused while singing, and she was so excited to perform.



Now back to last week. On Wednesday, we went to the children's area at the Botanical Gardens. We are so excited that it has reopened for the season - yay! We didn't get any pictures that day, but not to worry - we will definitely be back there again this summer. On Thursday, we went to a science class for preschoolers. It was really cute. They learned all about the human body...well, bones, muscles and joints anyway. Below, the kids are exploring a model of how the heart pumps blood.

"When did I volunteer to be the patient? Maybe someone with more than an hour's worth of training, please?"

On Friday, we met friends at a park with some fun water features and then visited daddy at work. Below, William is catching up with Patrick.

Jack and Lily stop for a photo op.

Proud daddy showing off the latest addition to his coworkers.