Enjoy!

Matthew tearing up the carpet! (clicky for the video...)

Pumpkin Patch!

The winners! Our pumpkins:

Thank you....

• The Heart Hospital at Baylor Plano--really beautiful facility with the greatest medical staff!!
• Dr. William Ryan--there's a reason we traveled so far to get such an excellent surgeon.
• All my local DFW friends.
• Most specifically Susan for being wonderwoman and only the absolute BEST person to watch my child, offer such awesome friendship, overnight stays, football Sundays, food, laundry services...EVERYTHING...Also, Susan's dad for letting us borrow his car while we were there (at least until my crazy husband bought a car in Texas!)
• Kellye for all the great toys she let Matthew borrow while we were there (or should I be thanking Brenna-Marie??)
• Kelley- for sitting with me during Mike's surgery
• Carrie and Mike and the twins--for housing, food, friendship and wine
• TJ and Chrissie- for traveling all that way to visit with us. Twice. And for awesome friendship. Oh yeah, and that toy that worked wonders in the car on the way home!
• Chrissie's mom- for dinner, dessert and hosting us at your house
• Doug and Dana- for housing us for several days. And hosting a kick as* party for our send off!
• Mike's parents- for "being there". And for the hotel room you gave to us that last night.
• Mike's sisters family- for loading up 3 kids to make that drive down to DFW to visit Mike.
• Lou for the ride to the airport and storing our car at his place the whole month we were gone.
• Our neighbors- for taking such great care of our dog that she doesn't seem to like us anymore.
• Hotels.com- if you're not aware of the program, the gist is each night you book through them you get a point. For every 10 points, you get a free night at anyplace that is less than $400 a night. (i.e. the Bellagio Penthouse suite on a weekday in the "off" season is $399). We had 4 free nights and stayed at some beautiful places for free (well, not free- we paid the taxes).
• Sesame Street (most specifically Elmo) and Yo Gabba Gabba. For whatever reason, my son adores them and in a pinch will calm down immediately in a car when bribed with either one of these.
• Anyone else who offered us thoughts, prayers, phone calls, and love from a distance.

We are so blessed!! We are so relieved and happy that this chapter in our lives is OVER.

Pictures...finally.

First off, if you're my facebook friend, you can pretty much skip this post. It's mostly the same pictures I already put up on there. Or you can look again. Whatever works for you.

Sorry if the pictures are a jumbled mess. I tried to put them in some kind of order, but who knows how that worked out for me.

Fort Worth Stockyards:

Fort Worth Zoo:

Grand Canyon:

Our Bellagio Penthouse Suite (hotels.com steal #1)

"her" bathroom

"his" bathroom

More Vegas:

Somewhere between Vegas and Park City Utah (I think in Utah?):

Our cottage suite in Park City, Utah (hotels.com steal #2)

Road tripping

Ski devil

Around Utah

Final mileage from Texas to Oregon (including day trips):

Home!

We are home!! After ONE month away! It feels so great to finally be here, I can't even describe it. Boss was not as excited as we thought she would be (guess the neighbors took REALLY good care of her), but I'm sure she's at least a little glad we're back. Right?

I thought I was going to update the whole road trip, but obviously that didn't happen. We didn't have much internet access while we were traveling. I have a lot of pictures to post soon, just have to go through them all first.

To recap the road trip---
day 1- left Texas, arrived New Mexico
day 2- drove to Flagstaff, Arizona
day 3- visited the Grand Canyon and then on to Vegas.
day 4- in Vegas (at a spectacular penthouse suite in the Bellagio--thanks to hotels.com we got this for a steal. Like, only paid the taxes so it was about $40 a night. I have pictures of this gorgeous room).
day 5- drove to Salt Lake City, Utah. Stayed at a very gorgeous place up in Park City. We loved it so much we decided to stay another day.
day 6- in Park City. We toured the 2002 Olympic site and went on a beautiful ride around the area.
day 7- left Utah. Arrived HOME in Oregon around 7:30PM.

All in all, a great trip. I am a complete klutz and I fell while at the Grand Canyon and sprained my ankle pretty bad. Luckily that's all that happened. I had Matthew in the backpack carrier, so it could have been worse. By the end of the ride to Vegas, my ankle was swollen up and I could barely walk on it.

Also since I'm a complete klutz, that night when I got up to go to the bathroom in the dark hotel room, I stubbed my toe on the other foot and am pretty sure I broke it. But maybe not. All I know is the entire toe turned 3 shades of purple and swelled up and well...it was very interesting walking around Vegas with a sprained ankle and broken toe. On different feet. It's an entertaining limp to watch I'm sure.

Thankfully, both felt much better and I was able to enjoy some very light hiking in Utah. Beautiful.

As we got ready to leave Park City, Matthew had a little ouchy moment. He stuck his thumb in the part of the door where the hinges are while Mike was closing the bathroom door. We heard a very loud crushing sound and man was it awful. Neither one of us will ever forget that horrific sound. His thumb was all kinds of deformed and we took him across the street to a medical center for xrays. We were thankful, yet surprised, to find his thumb was NOT broken. Apparently something about a lot of cartilage and rubbery bones at that age. It's swollen still and a little purple, but not bothering him at all.

So, several injuries later....over 2000 miles later....7 states later....we are home. :-) Pictures later.

Road tripping

Day 1- (Saturday) We left Keller, Texas at about 9:45AM (yes, we, ok I, had proclaimed "we'll get an early start!", however a party was thrown the night before, we stayed up way too late, and well...that's that).

We made several pit stops (breakfast, lunch, diaper changes, let the toddler run around) and ended up in Tumcumcari, New Mexico by about 6PM. It is COLD. Each stop we made got a bit colder, and by the time we got to New Mexico it was 34 degrees or something like that. We went to dinner and then back to the hotel. Matthew went right to sleep and didn't stir until morning. I watched a few episodes of private practice and grey's anatomy on Hulu and then slept.

Matthew did fine in the car today. He slept only a little bit, played with toys, looked at books, and ate snacks. I'm not going to lie, by the end it was obvious he needed OUT, and right NOW.

Can't wait to see how thrilled he is to get back in the car today! :-)

A boy and his dad

Matthew has a huge fascination with his daddy. Like, I mean, HUGE. It's cute- always has been, always will. The past 3 weeks have probably been amazing for him, since he gets to see daddy all the time. I think it was hard that daddy couldn't hold him, but other than that, he is just loving all this Daddy time! (I'm not going to lie--sometimes it's slightly annoying. I mean, come ON, I spend all day with him and it's daddy who he always runs to!)

Trying on daddy's shoes.

Nope. Don't fit just yet.
Too funny. At the hotel one day, he picks up Mike's breathing exercise thing and starts blowing into it just like he's been watching Daddy. Too cute.

In other news- Mike got the all clear for traveling back to Oregon at his appointment yesterday!! Woohoo!!! We will be leaving Saturday and taking a very long route with many stops. We figure we'll try to minimize the time Matthew has to be in the car each day, by breaking it up. And yes, if you know my husband, it does involve a slight detour to Vegas. Vegas with a toddler--I'll let you know how that works out. :-)