Regret

I'd have a hard time even recalling the past few weeks for our family. I know we went camping over the June 12th weekend up in Freedom NH at Danforth Bay Campground. It was a wet weekend but we still had fun with our family and Amy's (my brother Stevie's wife) family. It's always a good time when we all get together. I also know the next weekend we had my sister's baby shower which we pulled off pretty well despite our last minute planning. I will blog again about these events, but the thing we've been consumed with over the past few weeks was the downslide in health of my Grandpa that started that very wet camping weekend. That was when we first heard that he was starting to refuse to eat or drink. He quickly went downhill from there and passed away this past Thursday (June 25th) in the early evening. It's been a very sad few weeks, and honestly one laden with a good amount of regret for me personally. My track record for visiting my Grandpa hadn't been that great. It had, in fact, been about 6 months since I had last seen him when we went to visit those few times last week. That visit 6 months prior was for his 89th birthday, and he seemed so happy to have so much company! It sadly was only the second time he had seen Ana since we brought her home and he was so taken with her! When Ian was little, and Grandpa was living in a senior community close by we would visit him once a week at his little apartment. Somehow when he went to the nursing home, I let those visits seriously lapse, and it got to the point that I really only saw him on Christmas when he would spend the holiday with my parents. He would even ask me, "Cammie, you are home right? Why don't you come visit me?", and I would pledge to myself that I would get better. But I never did. I've been wracking my brain for reasons why this happened and the only thing I can think of is that after he went to the nursing home, he wasn't happy. Whenever we would visit, he would basically ask us to "Get me out of here". And the medications he was on made him very sleepy, and he would sometimes just kind of stare off and almost seem like he wasn't there. I guess I just didn't know what to say. No excuse, I know. At the visits we made at the beginning of last week, he would open his eyes when we talked to him. I'll never forget the way he opened his eyes wide and turned his head when Ian came up to his bedside. He loved his grandkids so much. I just wish I had been a better one. I guess the lesson I've taken from this is that no matter how uncomfortable a situation makes me, that if I care about someone I need to do whatever it takes to show them. Life really is too short to live my life any other way. For now, I'll ponder my memories of my Grandpa; the vanilla sandwich cookies that must always be split and spread with peanut butter before eating, and the lesson in the proper way to store a piece of chewed gum on the tip of your nose until you can resume chewing, the peanut blossom candies, and the smell of tobacco. These things I will take with me. I only hope he knows how much I really loved him.

Typhoon Lagoon

Ian was DYING to hit the water parks so we decided to spend a day at Typhoon Lagoon. Each of Disney's water parks has a story behind it and Typhoon Lagoon's story is it is the result of the "storm of storms" and in it's wake was left a "topsy turvy tropical paradise". It was pretty cool and like I said Ian was so excited to get started on the water slides. We started at the Crush 'n' Gusher and it was instant disappointment when Ian was informed that he wasn't tall enough to ride (by like a couple hairs on his head!). The height requirement is 48 inches. Now, when Ian was at the doctors in September, I am absolutely sure that he measured 49 inches, because he was 49 pounds as well and I remember thinking how funny it was that he was a pound per inch of boy. There was also the fact that we had spent the last two days at other parks and hadn't had any problems with the other big rides. To say Ian was bummed was an understatement. He was SO looking forward to this park and he was now realizing that he wasn't going to be able to do half of the things he wanted to do. I was really disappointed for him too. We went on to the next slide and they decided to try it, maybe the height bar was a little off at the last one. So they tried the Humunga Kowabunga and to our amazement, Ian was able to go! Well, the first time anyways. The second time they went up there was another person manning the slides and he said that he could go this one last time, but he was really not tall enough to keep riding. So he got two goes at a big slide, and that was better than nothing I guess! There were other slides that kept them occupied, just not as thrilling as the ones he was denied access to. He really had a good time going in the wave pool and the entire family enjoyed the Castaway Creek attraction which was a leisurely inner tube ride around the entire park. Ian to my surprise wanted to go around two or three times and really had fun! Ana was okay with it, she wasn't thrilled as several times around the track there's water spraying, misting or falling on you; this girl does not like getting wet! She was much happier when she and I plopped ourselves on the sandy beach area. She had a ball playing in the sand; rubbing it on her face, eating it, and rolling around in it. She's a wanderer though, so it was not so stress free for me! All in all, it was a good day. We left Typhoon Lagoon around 3pm and headed back to the hotel to shower change and get ready to spend some time in Downtown Disney for dinner and some shopping! On to the pictures!

Here is the Crush 'n' Gusher moments before it broke my sons heart!



Greg and Ian are off to buy a pair of water shoes in hopes that the extra half inch they would afford would be enough to let him ride. Unfortunately we then found out that most of the slides wouldn't allow them to be worn....foiled again!



The Humunga Cowabunga...and Ian coming off of it for the first of the two times he was allowed to ride...





Our pretty princess waiting patiently while brother rides the Humunga Cowabunga:



Ana having a ball in the sand. I think this was her favorite part of the entire day! She literally rolled all around the beach area burying her face in the sand. She was a mess, but she sure had a good time!





The kids enjoyed lunches out of sand pail lunch boxes. That cup Ana is clutching is the third type of cup we purchased for her there. The sippy cup I brought was mistakenly left on the plane on our trip down. Did you know it is absolutely impossible to find a satisfactory non spill sippy cup in Disney World?!




I love this picture of Ian and Daddy:



In Downtown Disney, we ate at T-Rex restaurant. The food was so good and the ambiance was like nothing I've ever seen before! There were tons of animated dinosaurs, a glacier, and a meteor shower every 20 minutes. It was very cool for Ian; not so much for Ana though. She HATED it! She cowered into Greg immediately and we were afraid we were going to have to leave but she quickly fell asleep and remained so for the duration of the meal. I am glad we went, but I did feel guilty that she was terrified into sleep!

Ian's Bone Chillin' Slushee drink which he obviously loved:



Poor Ana...daddy didn't mind the snuggling though!



Ian posing with the Lego dogs near the Lego store.

Breakfast Table Conversations

Okay, I'm sitting here blogging about Typhoon Lagoon at the breakfast table but I have to share the funniest conversation that just occurred. To set it up, Sabina (our cat) pooped on the kitchen floor sometime during the night as the basement door to her litter box was closed. Greg jokingly told Ian he had to clean it up which got an angry Ian response:

Greg - "You know Ian, when I was a kid, you know what I had to clean up?"
Ian - "What."
Greg - "Poopies"
Ana - "Poopies?"

giggling ensues....

Greg - "Yes, poopies. Big poopies."
Ana - "Poopies?"

more giggling

Greg - "Right. Poopies like three times the size of Milo's (they had a St. Bernard)."
Ana - "Whoooaaa!"

hysterical laughter....

Surely she had no idea what we were talking about but man was it good timing! What do you talk about at your breakfast table?

63% of You.....

Were wrong, sorry! That's right, we found out this morning to Ian's delight that we are having a boy. The doctor called just a little while ago to let us know that everything looked good, which is such a relief! I didn't realize until just then that I was still holding my breath worrying that there would be some lasting effects from the fever in week 9. But everything appears to be okay! Anyways, sorry Mimi, another Fraize boy is on the way!

Sorry to keep you all waiting....I wrote this yesterday and apparently forgot to push publish!