Days 3 and 4

Not too much exciting happened. We spent some time both days getting Ben's stuff ready for moving. And, Carissa and Gabe just love being able to spend time playing with their cousins. On Sunday afternoon, we drove up to Denver and visited with a couple of friends and had dinner. Then headed back to the Springs and got everyone ready for bed.

Day 2

We didn't have a lot of plans if any for our second day, but we that ended up being a good thing. Our cat, Leo, had started acting uncomfortable late in the afternoon on Friday. Then, he barely ate his food that night, and sometime during the night he threw up everything that he had eaten. Basically, Leo was acting exactly like he did a few months ago when his urethra was blocked and his bladder was full of stones. The first time this happened Leo, had surgery to remove all of the stones, and spent several days at the vet's office recovering. Then he had to switch to special food, and he took medicine at home as well for weeks. He was supposed to stay of the new food forever though. Well, because of all of that we made him a vet appointment for 11:30 on Saturday. And, we went in prepared to hear the worse. We talked to the kids about Leo, and let them know that he might not be coming back. We were already looking for a new home for Leo, because of Carissa's allergies and they weren't happy about that. But, I think knowing that Leo was going to be going away anyway made it a little easier on them. We told them to say bye to Leo before we left. And Gabe said, "Bye Leo, you're going to heaven." Carissa said bye too, but she was still hoping that Leo would come back. As soon as the vet examined Leo, he said that yes Leo was blocked again. He let us know that we could still try one more surgery that would remove part of Leo's urethra and would cost a lot, and there was no guarantee that Leo wouldn't be back with another blockage later. So, we made the decision to put him to sleep and we stayed with Leo until he was gone. It was a very emotional day, and I'm glad that we didn't have any other plans for the day. I'm also happy that it happened when it did so that we could both be there with Leo. Leo was almost 9 years old, and I adopted him when he was 6 weeks old and my mom adopted Leo's sister at the same time. Leo's sister was put to sleep a year earlier from kidney failure, so he lived longer than his sister and he had a pretty good life. He will be missed.

Day 1 Colorado

After getting in so late, we all slept in. We had planned on going to Santa's Workshop but between some miscommunication and the storm that was supposed to be coming we decided to wait. Instead, we took the kids mini-golfing for the first time and then went to buy a snack. The rain came while we ate our snack, but it looked like it would be a quick storm so we headed over to the Garden of Gods anyway. It did clear up and was sunny for a little bit before the rain started again. We went to the balancing rock and let the kids climb for a bit, but it was slippery and the rain had come back. We also drove by the little church where my parents got married 29 years ago, and I pointed it out to the kids. We had a very nice family afternoon together.

WIC, Drive to CO

Gabe and I had a WIC appointment on Thursday, so we packed up the van for our drive to CO and then went to the WIC appointment. At the WIC appointment, Gabe is still staying around the 10th percentile and growing. This was Gabe's last appointment, since he will be 5 in August. For me, I've gained weight and was told that I look like I'm pregnant. But, I'm just barely at the bottom of their weight chart. Next appointment will be for me and the new baby at the end of August. August is going to be a very busy month.

Then we had lunch, and got gas and headed out to CO. The trip took longer than we thought and longer than we wanted, but we made it by about 1:30 am. We made a few stops for gas, food, bathrooms along the way. We drove through a few construction areas in WY, and through a good sized hail storm and there was lots of lightening and thunder too. Gabe was started to get a little worried with the lightening, thunder, and heavy hail coming down. But we made it through. Then, we hit parking lot traffic at about midnight just north of Denver. We thought that was crazy, but they were detouring everyone off of the interstate and then back on again. So, once we were on the interstate again things went back to normal speeds.

School is over for the summer

Carissa and Gabe both had their last day of school for the year today. This year neither one of them had any graduation or special event for parents to end the year with, but as far as they are concerned they have graduated from kindergarten and preschool. Two very big steps for them. They are both very excited for summer vacation and to be going on to 1st grade and kindergarten in the fall. Carissa is excited to go to school all day and to get to have lunch at school. Gabe is excited to get to be in one of the kindergarten class rooms, because he really likes Carissa's kindergarten class room. There is lots of cool stuff in there, you know. Carissa's report card for the end of the year showed that she got top scores in every area there is consistently for the whole year, and she is ending the year reading above grade level. A very great first year of school. Gabriel knows some letters/letter sounds, and numbers. (That is something that we are going to work on this summer.) And he is constantly working on math problems now at least orally. He likes add numbers together.

30 week appointment

I had my check up this morning, and I have gained 0.6 lbs since my last appointment. I passed my glucose test, but I'm a little anemic now. So I will start taking iron. The baby heart beat was about 160 bpm, and everything looks good. I am good to travel to CO and to walk around at Santa's Workshop too. I just have to pace myself, and while traveling stop and walk around every so often.

Baby stuff

I finally got the crib assembled about a week or so ago, and now I've got most of the clothes washed and put away. And, I bought a mattress and put the mattress, sheet, skirt, and bumper on the crib. The crib is brand new this time around, but the sheet, and skirt Carissa used and Carissa and Gabe both used the bumper. The bumper is one of a kind too, since my mom made it for us. Carissa and Gabe helped put the mattress and everything together and they were very excited to help. They even offered to carry the mattress up stairs for me and they did a very good job with it all by themselves.
Also, a lot of the clothes I've got so far have been a gift from Sheralyn, or I bought them at Kid to Kid. Kid to Kid had a great sale a little while back where you could buy 2 clearance baby items and get 1 free, and then they had a fill a bag sale. I filled my bag with 15 items and only had to pay $8.55 with tax. I have baby clothes ranging from newborn to 12 months now, at least a little in every size. But, mostly the newborn to 3 month sizes. I'm happy with how the closet in Gabe's room is coming along too. It is a deep closet and we've always used to for storage, before it was Gabe's room. So now the storage is in the back and I have 2 shower curtain rods in it to hang up Gabe's clothes and the baby's clothes.