peacock

davinci and girl scout photography night

Monday morning of Spring Break arrived cold and snowy. I talked the girls into exploring the DaVinci exhibit at the Science Museum  with me even though I know they would have preferred to stay in their pajamas. 
I really enjoy a good trip through a museum. I couldn’t spend an entire day exploring but I appreciate my families eagerness to check it out…and then get the heck out. Gwyneth is probably the exception to that rule. She can typically waste a day away exploring too. 
The DaVinci exhibit just opened and it’s pretty amazing. 
We learned so many thins about The Mona Lisa. I think the girls were actually pretty engrossed by that portion of the exhibit. 
We made it home in time for Gwyneth’s Girl Scout meeting. The girls played with digital photography. They had a great time using their phones, ipads and a few even had digital cameras. They had a blast taking pictures of each other!

arcade

The previous night was super snowy, but in true-Denver fashion the roads were clear the next day. It was still pretty darn cold though! We checked out the hotel’s lounges on both the 27th and 35th floors and were not disappointed with the views. 
Just a typical 11 year old expression…
We spent some time at the pool in the morning. I am a go, go, go momma and the rest of my family likes to move a little slower. I am doing my best to slow down. 
The Tyler’s were awesome and braved the cold to come meet us for dinner and games. We introduced the kids to Chicago style pizza at Giordanos. It was delicious and just as good as I remember from Chicago. Giordanos was never my go-to pizza, but having a little taste of the Windy City here might just make it my new favorite. 
After dinner we hit the arcade at the Pavilions. The kids all played games and the parents got to enjoy some beers and catching up. We’ve known those Tylers for so long and love that friendship. We always love an opportunity to hang out. 

harlem globetrotters

Annabelle loves basketball and was really excited that the Globetrotters were coming to town. We got tickets to the afternoon game and grabbed lunch at Brooklyn’s before tip off. 
We decided to stay downtown for the night to kick off a fun weekend of spring break. It was snowing really hard that afternoon so we couldn’t really walk around much. We did grab dinner at our favorite restaurant….yep, Morton’s. They sure do take care of us there. It was restaurant week so we initially had trouble getting reservations. They had over 160 cancellations due to the weather. Yikes! We made a night of it and enjoyed a long, delicious meal. 

mall night

Spring Break is here! 
It still feels an awful lot like winter around here. It’s cold and snowy so Spring Break feels a bit off. It’s really early for us this year. We are not complaining. We always love a little break. 
We kicked off the break with a trip to Gwyneth’s surgeon’s office. This girl is doing far better than they had even anticipated. She has a limp that will be worked out in physical therapy. She has ditched the crutches and is getting around wonderfully. We will follow up with more scans in a few months. 

 The girls requested a mall evening since B was working. How sad that Payless is closing all their stores in the US. These girls burn through shoes so it was always our go to place. We did manage to pass on these gems though…

 Annabelle purchased these today which makes me ’90s heart oh so happy. I lived in Birkenstocks all through high school. I made sure to keep that tid bit to myself as not to change her mind.

 We grabbed dinner and dessert and enjoyed a lovely girls evening together. It was a pretty great kick off to the break.

gwyenth’s room

I guess I’m not a very sentimental lady because I don’t keep much. I’m quick to toss things out and I don’t like clutter. I think my penchant to toss has created little hoarders. The girls love all their trinkets and don’t want to part with anything. 
When the floors are no longer visible and the closets are bursting, we tend to reach an agreement that it’s time to get out the garbage bags and do a little purge. I love the feeling of a clean house and I love when everything has a place. The girls definitely don’t love the process, but they love their organized rooms. 

three margaritas

Gwyneth is on the move again! Her first request was a night out at Three Margaritas. We were happy to oblige and loved getting these sisters out again together. They have been amazing! They have been so sweet and Annabelle has gone above and beyond to care for her little sister. It’s great to see them so connected.

weekend friend visits

Kids are so resilient. 
Gwyneth took it easy for a day or two but was ready to conquer the world. She was getting a bit stir crazy so we organized a few visits for her. 
I didn’t get pictures of all very visitors but we had a steady stream of friends coming over to wish her well. Her friend, Ruby brought pizza. B’s sister Jen brought ice cream sundaes. 
Her friend, Charity brought coloring books and played games with her all afternoon. 
Ella and Kierra brought stuffed animals, flowers, candy and chocolate cake.  
The Tendlers had pizza with us Sunday night and Sarah kept Gwyneth company while they watched the Academy Awards. We have such great friends who take such good care of us. 
Gwyneth begged to go back to school on Monday and I cleared it with her teacher. She grabbed those crutches (while her sister carried everything else for her! Annabelle’s a rock star!) and off she went Monday morning. She loved being back to school and seeing all her friends. 

FAVA surgery

This surgery has been a long time coming. Gwyneth has been suffering from what was determined to be a FAVA (Fibro-Adipose Vascular Anomaly). It’s rare and painful; read more about it here. 
After more than a year of appointments, testing, MRIs, etc, etc etc. we finally had a course of action. Rather than surgically removing the mass (which would have been more invasive, taken a large portion of her muscle, caused intense physical therapy afterwards, produced a large scar on her leg, and may have even left her with a limp) the doctors opted to operate using cryoablation. 4 tiny little probes were inserted directly into the tumor and extreme cold was used to destroy the cells. Modern medicine is truly remarkable!
We arrived at 5:45 am to check in at Children’s Hospital with a tired, anxious and hungry girl. We were then transported by ambulance to University Hospital for the procedure. It’s about a 30 second drive but University has the cryo machine and Children’s doesn’t. 
Of course, there’s always some waiting around time and that’s when our girls started to really get anxious and a bit hangry. 

The surgery lasted approximately 3 hours which is absolute torture for the parents.  We couldn’t wait to hug our girl after this was all over. We walked back to recovery to find a very upset little lady. Her little body was so, so cold from the procedure and they were doing their best to raise her body temperature. She was shivering and in a lot of pain. Her entire body was trembling from her tears. It’s so difficult to see your child suffering like that. I wanted to just snatch her up and hug her close. It makes you feel so powerless and helpless.

She was transported via ambulance back to Children’s and into her own recovery room. We were meant to stay one night at the hospital but this girl was in a lot of pain. The doctors were having a difficult time managing it. She slept most of the day. Around 4 pm the intense pain set in and she was nearly inconsolable. She was thrashing around, couldn’t get comfortable, and couldn’t sleep because the pain was so intense. They tried all different medications. The pain was excruciating until about 11 pm. The night was restless and we had doctors in and out every 4 hours. We had to get an ok from the physical therapist for our release. Gwyneth couldn’t/wouldn’t take a single step. We were asked/told to stay another night.

Around 4 pm she started to feeling better, the pain was less intense and that smile we all know and love made it’s appearance. She scarfed down lunch and was ready to give those crutches a try.

She would stay awake about 15 minutes at a time. Enough to eat and take a few steps with her crutches.

Her amazing girl scout troop leader, Kristin, stopped by with a giant cards and gifts from her friends. It was so, so kind of them to think of her.

Kids under the age of 13 couldn’t go to the rooms because of a flu outbreak. Her friend Ruby really wanted to visit and Gwyneth’s doctor gave her special permission to meet in the lobby. The visit only last 10 minutes, Gwyneth didn’t have the strength for more, but she was grateful to see her friend.

She had a few more visitors and worked her way around the room on her crutches. 

The absolute highlight of her day was the visit from her sister. Oh man, these two are thick as thieves. B, Yaya, and Annabelle came down for a visit after Annabelle’s dance class. Gwyneth could hardly contain herself.

Annabelle pushed her around in her wheelchair, caught her up on the all the happenings at school, and was an absolute amazing big sister. I could see the love, support and care in their eyes, smiles, and laughter. It makes a momma’s heart proud. I hope they never lose this connection.

Gwyneth lasted longer than any other visit that day. After 30 minutes she was wiped out and it was time for everyone to call it a night.

The next morning was pancakes, physical therapy and a very eager girl for a hospital discharge. She mastered the stairs on her crutches and we were given the ok to head home.

We are so thankful to everyone who took such good care of us, for all the phone calls and texts, and for the pain relief for our little lady. Recovery here we come!

butterfly pavilion

There was definitely a lot of anxiety at our house with Gwyneth’s upcoming surgery. Everyone was a little bit on edge. B had to work on President’s Day so I tried to take as much of the day off as possible to spend with our girls. 
The girls requested a trip to the butterfly pavilion. I love that Miss Annabelle doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty….
They are doing major reconstruction and setting up for some cool new exhibits. Unfortunately that meant that only the butterfly exhibit was still open. That’s the great thing about memberships though – we just hope in and out. 
I really do love the butterfly pavilions though. I think I’m more excited than the kids. 
just being silly
We finished off the evening with the Melting Pot. The service was way off tonight and we waited around a long time between courses. We typically don’t mind that type of thing because we just have some drinks and chat it up, but tonight there was a lot of anxiety about Gwyneth’s surgery. I think everyone was just a little on edge.

cook on your table

Gwyneth has a pretty big day on Tuesday (surgery!!) so we’ve been basically giving in her to every whim. Annabelle could have easily become annoyed by this, but she’s an amazing big sister and has been extremely compassionate. They both make my heart very, very happy. 
Gwyneth’s request for dinner this evening was “cook on your table”. She loves this place. 
Afterwards she requested just a little bit of yogurt from Menchies. 
It’s really more about the toppings than the yogurt as you can see.