Zoo Pic's

He was not afraid and was just in aw at it's size

The dinosaur exhibit.

It was a flower outside the elephant exhibit. I liked it so much I just took a picture of it. We had a good time in Portland.

Visting the Babies

On the last two days we got to spend them with Kevin's sister Diane, Tony and Her two new little twin girls Madison and Alexis. They were the cutiest things, almost makes you want to have more (keyword ALMOST). We had a great time there just relaxing and getting to be around those girls for the first time. So we took a couple of pics and can't wait to see them again.

These pictures were all taken with Kevin's phone so they are a little grainy


Ethan was trying to tickle the twins at the same time. He thought it was pretty fun.


This is Alexis that I'm holding with Ethan.


Here I have Madison in my arms and Alexis is on the couch.

Animals, Trains and Dinosaurse oh my

The Doctors visit was over so now it was time to play and what better then to go visit the zoo. Ethan had a great time seeing all the animals. The best part was Ethan got to ride the train which goes around the zoo and the surrounding forest area. He is always talking about Thomas the train so we thought it would be great if he could ride one. I will admit I was a little worried at first that he would be scared of the loud noises but he wasn't. He never once got scared and was smiling the whole time while watching the train pull on the tracks. We were so happy we got to do that with him. Next time he gets a train ride it will be a big train. Walking the whole zoo was fun and Ethan seemed to enjoy it or at least he never complained. Besides the train I wasn't to sure what he would think of yes the dinosaur exhibit at the zoo. It is a recently added attraction with animatronic dinosaurs. I was thinking he might be a little scared, but nope not my boy. For someone who used to cry when the vacuum came on he was not bothered by all the Dino noise. Yet it did spook Kevin and I when two of the Dino's spit water at you from two directions. So we had a great time and came home with a stuffed green monkey for a prize and fun was had by all.

The fish tank

One of the water foul in the bird section

The gal across from us took our pic before the ride started we did the same for her and her two boys.

Here is the train we got to ride

Ethan watching the ducks play in the water and sleep.

Dornbecker vist

Morning of or first day in Portland we got up had breakfast then set out to find the hospital. Naturally it has been two years since we have been to this hospital so we trusted Kevin's GPS to help us find the way there. To much dismay we found Portland's China Town instead. This was not the kind of start I wanted, needless to say I was a little worried we were going to get lost.

So while I'm trying to figure out this GPS thing Kevin continues to drive around. The clock is ticking down and we are about 10 minutes from missing our appointment. As we are going up all these crazy streets going the direction that we know the hospital is in. Right there in front of us at the stop light is our saving grace.

We turned right behind a car which on that right side of the trunk was the Dornbecker Hospital logo. We were saved so we got to follow this car all they way up to the hospital. We parked the and briskly walked to the hospital, jumped on the elevator and took it too our floor and checked in. All with one minute to spare. Out of all of the times we have gone to this place it seemed the waiting area was the busiest this time around. Normally there would be maybe one or two family's. This time it looked like there were six. It made me sad to think there were that many children going in for surgery because the door we go in for Ethan's Echo (echo cardiogram) is right next to the surgery rooms. Ethan's name was called and we were off to see if Ethan could hold his spirited dislike for doctors down long enough for the Echo to be performed.

All didn't start out to well. Following the nurse was ok. She was the one who was to perform the Echo and she was nice. Ethan had no problem with her until she asked him to stand next to the height ruler on the wall. He broke out into tears. So we didn't get a height but we did get a weight of 36lbs . So once we turned away from the scales he stopped crying and we walked to the room. This is when the nurse started asking us if we had a follow up with the doctor there. Well we thought we did but to our surprise we didn't. The Doctor we normally saw retired. Therefore they didn't know who should see us after his appointment to go over the echo, nor did they say we would have to have an appointment for sedation just in case either. This day just kept getting better. She went off to see if anesthesiology could be used just in case Ethan wouldn't hold still. Kevin and I didn't want to have this happen. We would rather try again then sedate him because of what happened the last time. Last time Ethan had a adverse reaction and ended up not sleeping or eating all day. We ended up in the ER trying to figure out what was wrong. I didn't want a repeat of that. So once she got back it was time for the Echo and more tears. Starting out he didn't want to hold still and let the nurse touch him. However once we found out that we could watch the movies Cars he settled down enough for the nurse to finish. Wow this was a savings grace. Every now and then he would try to cry but we kept directing him back to the cars and he would stop. Once we were done Ethan got his kangaroo which he called a rabbit and everything was all better. Thank God this was finished.

So Ethan's Echo seemed to come out fine from the nurses point of view. She didn't see anything that alarmed her so the paperwork was sent to Ethan's normal pediatrician in Pullman for her to review and see if he needed any further testing. Right before we left I got a picture of the lobby entrance and one of Ethan playing with one of the statues out front while Kevin went to get the car. I do love this hospital since it is a Children's hospital. It has that warm feeling to it and I love all of the fun art work they set up through out the building for the kids to look at. I will miss this hospital since this will be the last time we go to Portland for an echo for Ethan. We will most likely go to Sacred Heart in Spokane from now on (Yah).

Oregon Ride up

Finally we had to make that fateful trip to Oregon to have Ethan's heart murmur check up at the Dornbeckers Children Hospital in Portland. So day one we left for Oregon. The ride up was actually very nice. We went a little bit of a different way then normal so we could stop by a food stand outside of Connell. Here we got some lunch and treats and of course Ethan got to sit on the this great looking old Farmall Tractor (CUB).

The only exciting thing that happen was a truck that crashed into the median and well as you can tell it went up in flames. The traffic wait wasn't to bad it only added 8 minutes onto our trip. We did learn that the truck driver was ok and got out in time which is more then i can say for his truck poor guy.

You know this kid used to sleep the whole way on any trip (kind of like his mom used to). Yet now he stays awake the whole time except as it seems for the last few minutes of the ride. We were only miles away from the hotel when Ethan decided he wanted to take a nap.

Not sure how any kid sleeps in those care seats it looks so uncomfortable. So we checked into the hotel ordered some pizza and went to bed to await the hospital visit in the morning.

Mom & I

Ok I'm a little late on this one but i did want to just share some pics. The first of August my mom and I got to go to Lake Payette in McCall for 4 days. Mom rented a house for us to stay in which was 60' feet from the lake and only a corner away from the Pondarosa State Park. We spent a lot of time biking around the park which we got lost (yes lost) twice on the first day. To top it all off we rode for about 6 miles and I swear it was 80% up hill the whole time. But hey we burned enough calories to enjoy a nice piece of chocolate mouse pie that night.




This was a spot we found to go down by the lake on one of our hiking adventures to the Lilly Marsh in the state park. There were so many beautiful views of the lake.



That's us lounging on the beach. The water in the lake was so warm. We found a little strip of beach on one of our first rides that wasn't very busy, so that's were we went each night to take a refreshing swim. Before we left for our trip I did some digging and found a hot spring outside of a town called Donelly which was only a 15 minute drive from McCall. So we went there for one of the days and it was so nice. After you went through the town Donelly you took this road out to the springs which was such a beautiful drive. It snaked along a creek, pasture and some mountains. I loved it. At the hot spring there was a total of 6 pools and each one ran into the next. So starting at the top was the hottest pool which was a pure run from the spring so it was extremely hot. The water went down each pool and as it did the water got cooler then the last. Also they had this giant chess board. Watching the kids move the pieces was funny considering they were almost as big as them.






So before we left we did a little more downtown shopping and had brunch at the pancake house. Love that place. I like going through the Christmas house section and seeing all the cutie stuff in there. So we had a great time and looking forward to possibly doing this again next year. This time with the whole family so Ethan can play on the beaches and Kevin and i can rent a jet ski.