Part of that world

A few weeks ago we took a vacation we had been looking forward to for a long time- a Disney Cruise!  We were doubly excited because Thunder's side of the family could all come- Nana and Papa, and Uncle K, Aunt V and R1 and R2 (cousins).  We flew to the Orlando airport on a red eye (which was actually great with kids) and then hopped on a Goofy shuttle to the boarding area.

Here is a miniaturized version of our boat, called the Disney Magic.  And oh, it was magical.

Here we are crossing over onto the ship!  There was an entire crew waiting on the other side and our names were announced over the loud speaker while people clapped.

Our first meal was lunch, and we were still docked.  The food tasted delicious after being on a plane all night long and the kids were so excited to explore.  I loved that they had people to help your kids carry their trays to the table.

We played shuffleboard while we waited for the rest of the family to arrive.

I dressed up the kids in their Disney shirts and tried to get a pic, but Sunrise was not happy to be away from the porthole.

Ahh, that's better.

Here is the slide that goes into the Mickey pool.  There was also a Goofy pool with a giant movie screen, and the Adults-Only pool.

Coming from a snowstorm, we really appreciated the sun!  We spent many hours just relaxing out on deck 10...

... and enjoying the free access to the ice cream machine.

Did I mention you could get room service at any time and it's included??

Coming down the Mickey slide.

Just chillaxin'.

Here is a bad picture of an awesome place.  We rotated dining rooms for dinner and this place was called The Animator's Palate (we also went to Parrot Cay and Lumiere's).  Also you can finally see Uncle K and R2!  When we arrived, all the walls were white and covered in drawings from Disney movies.

You can clearly see how much Sunshine loved it there.

Then as dinner progressed, everything came to life.  It was mesmerizing.

Cloudburst got her hair braided and it stayed in for over a week.

The glass elevators were always easy entertainment.

Our first port of call was in St. Maarten.  Half is owned by the Netherlands and half is French.

Finally a group shot!  Well, minus Thunder who took the picture.  Along the back there is me, Aunt V, Nana, Papa, and Uncle K with R2.  Along the front is Tornado, Cloudburst, Sunrise, R1 and Sunshine.

We toured the island and ended at a Butterfly Farm.

As soon as we entered, Fate spoke and declared Papa to be "Butterfly Man" aka "The Butterfly Whisperer." Butterflies flocked to him and covered his arms.  Why, you ask?  He was wearing a cologne called "Wings."

Here's Nana enjoying the butterflies.

And here I am in front of a giant moth (moths keep their wings open while resting, while butterflies close them).  See, this trip was purely for educational purposes.

Papa was a celebrity.  Even back on the boat he would hear whispers "hey there's the Butterfly Man!"

Sunshine got to show everyone the Monarch caterpillar (he made sure to tell everyone it is poisonous if eaten).

We checked out the beach on St. Maarten for a while, but it was actually pretty windy and cold.  Of course, the kids didn't mind. They were busy finding sea shells with Aunt V.

That night was a big Pirate Party, complete with Buccaneer Mickey zip lining across the boat.  There were fireworks too.

The kids were taken care of in some activities, so we headed down to do some karaoke.  Uncle K did "Tainted Love," complete with every necessary dance move.  Definitely a crowd pleaser.

And then I took to the stage to sing "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, of course.  I could hear people in the audience saying "dude, she can actually sing!"

The next day we docked in St. Thomas, a US Virgin Island.  We had earlier decided to go Scuba diving, but due to Thunder's injury he had to stick to snorkeling.  He ended up staying out longer than anyone.

Here is a side view of the ship.

On deck, there was always a live concert or movie going on.  Sunrise loved the action.  Maybe that's why he hated sitting still at dinner every single night.

The older boys also clearly love the action.

On Thursday morning, we got to have our Character Breakfast.  The kids loved seeing all their favorites.

Sunrise fell in love with Goofy on the trip, as you can see.

He's still looking at Goofy.  He called out "Goo Goo!" every time we saw him.

And here is Cyprian!  He was our server at every dinner (and yes, cut the kids' food!).  He is just a wonderful person.  We really enjoyed getting to know him.  He is from India and has a young family.  He works on the ship for months at a time and is also a professional chef.

The kids enjoyed all the little extra touches at dinner.

Man, this hat is almost as orange as Thunder's real hair after a week in the sun.

Every night, we were treated to a live broadway-style show.  The kids even sat through them.

Towards the end, the kids got to join with other children from the cruise in a show called "Friendship Rocks."
It was fun for them to be up on that big stage.

There are a few kid-free zones on board.  One is the adults-only pool and another is a fine-dining restaurant called Palo.  All of the food on board was fine-dining (not just Vegas style buffet, but true cuisine), but this was truly 5 star.  It was lovely.

Our last port was in Castaway Cay, which is a Disney owned island.  The weather was a little windy and cool, but we didn't let that stop us.  The men sprinted off the boat to find the best spots and we had a marvelous time sifting the sand through our toes, shrieking down the water slide and scarfing down excellent BBQ.

The next morning (Saturday) we had arrived back in Florida.

The weather was dreary and we all felt the same way!  It was a truly magical week and it was so nice to be able to share it with family.  It was a bit of "happily ever after," at least for a week.

Medical Misery

The day before Cloudburst's baptism, Thunder was at the gym lifting weights.  He was benching 300 lbs when he felt an explosion in his chest.  He screamed for his spotter to lift the weight, and they drove straight to the ER.After doing some tests and meeting with an orthopedic surgeon, they determined that Thunder had completely separated the pectoralis major muscle away from the (humerus) arm bone.  The tendon had ripped away from the bone and curled up in his arm, which you can see from the bruising.  The muscle recoiled into his chest cavity and it was all incredibly painful.

The surgeon, who used to be the head of BYU orthopedics, said that he could repair it with surgery.  They scheduled us for same day surgery on Tuesday, so we headed to the hospital, thinking we would come home that night.  Here is Thunder getting prepped around 1 PM....

... and here he is after the surgery, about 6 PM.  I was in the waiting room for several hours.  I finally called the nurses in the recovery room and they said that they couldn't move him yet because his pain was not under control.  Yikes.  They gave him a spinal block and then he was moved to a hospital room. He was pretty unaware of what was going on.  He kept asking over and over and over to please straighten his arm.  He looked so miserable, but was definitely altered from all the pain medication.  He got a blessing and he begged them to straighten his arm.  It was so sad to hear him ask over and over.

 As he started to wake up more, he complained that it was very painful to swallow.  The nurses assured him that it was minor irritation due to a breathing tube, but it was hard for him to even drink water.  Since we had a babysitter at home with our kids, I finally left him at 11 PM that night to go home.  I should have figured out a way to stay.  When I came back at 7:30 the next morning, I found out he had not had any pain medication since I left the night before.  It still hurt to swallow and they had given him lemon juice for hiccups.  He was throwing up a little blood and wheezing.  He was so exhausted.  He couldn't eat and could barely drink water.

But we hoped it would get better, so we checked out that afternoon on Wednesday.  I was so uneasy but was hoping that being at home would be more comforting.

The next morning, Thunder was throwing up significant amounts of blood and had a fever.  We called the surgeon, who said to go to the ER.  Thunder was complaining of excruciating pain with swallowing.  They checked for blood clots and recommended an appointment with a GI doctor to scope his throat.  For this, he had to go without food, drink and medication for 12 hours.  It ended up being 13 hours of nothing by the time they got us in.  He was shaking with pain and weakness.

When they finally did the endoscope procedure, the doctor showed me the results.  He could see dozens of open lesions up and down his esophagus.  He said that a particular virus can rarely cause this infection of the esophagus and somehow Thunder had gotten it in this rare form. He pointed out multiple white spots and said that they would all swell and burst over the next 48 hours.  Some had already burst and were bleeding into his stomach, causing nausea and vomiting.  But the doc said that it would get worse until they all burst and started to heal.  Thunder barely ate a few bites a day for a week.  He just slept and tried to swallow his pain pills.

Now, this whole time, my foot had been hurting.  I had run 12 miles the Saturday before the surgery and it started hurting the next day.  I was hobbling around Thunder's hospital bed, but I couldn't very well go off to the doctor with him in his condition.  So I called in reinforcements!  Nana had called a few times and offered to come out, so I finally accepted her offer.  And boy was I glad.  One by one my kids were coming down with Strep throat too.

With her here, I went into a foot doctor and discovered I have a stress fracture in my left foot.  Part of me was kind of glad I wasn't just being a big baby about it, that it was something real.  But mostly I was just so deflated.  I had been training for a marathon and had been doing my runs, getting up at 5:30 AM and really doing my best to stick with the training.  All that was going to be lost in the 4-6 weeks of recovery, and there was no way I could jump back into the training.  So I withdrew from the marathon.  It was probably good, since I came down with Strep the day after Nana left.

Here are all of Thunder's pills he was taking after surgery.  I had to make a spreadsheet to keep track of it all!

So here is Thunder now.  He has to wear this arm brace for 6 weeks and will then start physical therapy.  He is still recovering.  We all came down with the stomach flu this past week and the poor guy got it.  He was been working a lot from home, since it's been so hard for him to have energy for long periods of time.

It's been quite the ordeal! But once again we feel so loved.  So many neighbors and friends helped with kids and food and I never had to worry about them for a minute.  And of course for Thunder's mom to drop everything and come out here and help us, it was so incredibly nice and needed.  We feel so lucky to live in our neighborhood and have such great family.  And dang, I'm grateful for texting on cell phones.  I've never sent/received so many texts in my life, and it was so nice to update people that way.  As you can see below, the kids didn't miss a beat.  Here they are racing down the stairs in their footie pajamas.

And here we are, broken foot, kevlar-stiched chest, Strep infections, random viral esophagitis, stomach flu and all.  Here's to no more doctor's visits!!!  Man, maybe it's time for a vacation in the tropics...

...then again, we have met our deductible....