Spring Break

For spring break this year, I decided it would be fun to go and visit Dave and Liz in California before they move to Chicago this fall.  I always loved going to San Francisco when we were little, and I thought it would be fun to show the boys around too.  Shane couldn’t go with us because he has to save his time off for his Dominican Republic visit with his brother Kelly in May, but I found a few other who wanted to join in the fun.  Camille came along with Avery and Dallin, and she got to our home on Saturday, Asher’s birthday.  We left Sunday, and we stopped in Ashland along the way and my parents went with us too.  We left Ashland Monday morning, and from Ashland on, Landon, Davis, and James all rode with my parents in their van with Avery, and Camille, baby Dallin, Asher and I all rode in our van. 

When we got there, we checked in to our hotel.  We had two connected rooms, one with a queen, and one with two queens.  It was a bit crowded, but we all did fine, and didn’t spend too much time there anyway.  Landon and all the boys had fun making baby Dallin smile.  The boys all went to sleep really good each night, even with us all in the room together.  Asher had some trouble toward the end with waking up in the night, but we learned after we got home that he had an ear infection so it made sense. 

   

Tuesday, we spent the day in San Francisco.  Dave had to work, but Liz and Olivia went with us.  We started at Fisherman’s Wharf, where we got some McDonald’s for the kids and some delicious clam chowder and fish and chips for lunch.  Davis brought his camera, and he was so funny.  We kept almost losing him while he took pictures of everything he saw along the way. 

       

After Fisherman’s Wharf, we drove down Lombard Street, then over to the Golden Gate Bridge.  The boys thought that the bridge was especially fun.  We drove over it, and then we walked part of the way over also.  Asher was asleep when we got there, so he slept in the car while we walked around.

             

We picked up some Costco pizza on our way back to Dave and Liz’s place, and we ate out by their pool.  Asher kept wanting to get in the water, but luckily we had to sudden dives into the water.

 

On Wednesday, Dave took the day off, and we went to Santa Cruz.  The weather was a perfect mid-70’s, and the beach wasn’t too crowded in the middle of the week.  The boys, including Asher, spent most of their time in the water.  If I ever tried to bring Asher up to play in the sand for a minute, he would say “Water! “Water!”"” and start running back down. 

 

Avery and Olivia played together in the sand almost all day.  They were so cute together!  Asher fell in the water and got soaked one time.  His lips were blue, and he was shivering, but didn’t want to get out of the water!  I finally made him come back up and get warm in the towel.  It only lasted a minute before he was begging to get back in.

 

The boys wanted to feed the sea gulls.  I let them take some of the leftover crusts from our sandwiches, as long as they went over far away from us.  They had fun feeding them and running back for more.

               

Thursday, it was time for us to head home.  We had such a fun time.  We just missed having Shane and Bryce with us.  Before we left to drive home Thursday, we went swimming at Dave and Liz’s pool.  The water in one of the pools was pretty cold, but the big pool wasn’t too bad.  There was the hot tub which was nice and warm too.  It was a nice break for getting back in the car to drive back to Ashland.

   

We were sad to leave beautiful California and our fun times with Dave, Liz, and Olivia.  The cousins had tons of fun together.  We’re glad we made it down to see them before they move to Chicago!

Asher Turns 2!

I can’t believe Asher turned two!  It seems like just yesterday he was born, with his wild, dark hair.  He is growing up so much and we love having him in our family.

For Asher’s birthday, my parents gave him a motorcycle. Shane and I decided to assemble it before giving it to him, so we went in the office to put it together.  It took a little longer than we were anticipating (as most assembly projects go), and before long Asher somehow snuck in the room.  He kept saying “motorcycle” over and over.  He watched for awhile as we worked on putting it together, but before long he wanted to sit on it as we finished it.  He was just a bit excited for it!

 

He “opened” that gift first, and then he wanted to sit on his motorcycle to open all the others, until we brought in his mini power wheels.

       

We were going to have a few family friends over to eat cake and ice cream that evening, but Asher was feeling a little sick, so we postponed until after spring break.  We still enjoyed some cake and ice cream with just us that evening. 

   

Despite his sickness, it was a fun birthday.  He was proud to tell us that he is now two!

Baby Girl!

In March, I had some blood tests to test for birth defects with this new baby.  With me being at an “advanced maternal age,” and with Asher’s heart, the recommended a little additional testing.  With the blood test, they look at the partial chromosomes of the baby’s that are in the mother’s blood.  They can check for Down Syndrome as well as Trisomy 13 and 18.  They can also tell you the gender.  We were planning on finding out at 20 weeks, but I figured if we could find out earlier, and then I would just know it was a boy and not hope for a girl, that would be better. 

The test took about a week to get the results.  They called me on the phone and said that the baby looked like it had very low risk for the chromosomal defects they tested for.  She then told me the gender was a girl.  I paused for a minute, then asked, “How accurate is that?”  She told me it was at least 97% accurate, similar to the accuracy of an ultrasound, and then said, “Why do you ask?”  I explained to her that I had four boys, and she replied that she thought my hesitation was because I was disappointed!  I could hardly believe it.  After four boys, a baby girl would be joining our family as the last addition.  Shane and I were both excited, and the boys were too, although Davis is still saying he’ll believe it when he sees it’s actually a girl. 

We announced the arrival of a girl to our household with this picture on Instagram and Facebook.  I didn’t even try to get Asher to make the “surprised” face, but he just went along with what his brothers were doing.