April turned out to be a very full month. We travelled to Montana for Spring Break, had Easter the next week with all the fun of Easter stuff, and then we had a traumatic and very difficult injury happen to our sweet Claire. It was a crazy and busy month and will take a bit to recount.
We started off April with a spring break trip to Montana to visit Hans' parents and have lots of fun!
We drove all day on Saturday, April 2nd to get to Whitehall. It was quite the drive....long but beautiful!
And then as we went over the last pass we were slowed to stop for awhile for the accident of an overturned semi-truck.
Sunday was a fun day to hang out in Whitehall. We took some rides in our new to us Jeep. So, fun that the Grandparents gave us a fun new ride.
And we drove the Razor around.
And of course we had to spend some time with the horses. We fed them and then we took them a little ways away to do some riding. They only have 2 now so we had to take turns, but each girl got lots of rides and then we also rode the razor around while the others were riding horses. It was such a fun day!
Then it was time to saddle up the horses!
And this part the pictures are all out of order, but it would take too long to sort them out...so here are the pics of the girls and Hans riding the horses. They are such beautiful animals! I love that God created them for us! The girls had a great time riding the horses and razor around.
After all the riding and fun we headed back to unsaddle the horses, brush them and have a nice evening of relaxing and watching a show.
On Monday, we got up and got packed and ready to head to our next adventure. We drove to Bozeman that morning and to the Museum of the Rockies. It had been a long time since we had been to the museum and it was fun to take the girls there. We were able to see the planetarium as well which was fun to see the stars above us and learn about the telescopes they use to study them. These pictures are all out of order once again and I don't want to take the time to put them in order. The dinosaur bones and replicas were so cool! Minus all the millions of years talk. I am so glad that my girls now that is just a theory and not true. God created the earth and he didn't use evolution to do it...he spoke it into being and created all the amazing animals and people!
This area had pioneer wagosn and cabins. They were fun to see because we had been reading little house and the prairie series and it made them come to life.
And the last little area had some fun technology things to play with.
After the museum we went to Pickle Barrel to get some sandwiches and then we went to the SUB building to eat them. The girls were so embarrased, but it was fun to see our old stomping grounds. It looked so different, yet the same. The new buildings sure were fancy. It was super windy and cold though so we didn't walk around too mcuh after lunch. We did go to the bookstore to look for fun Bobcat gear.
Aftere our time on campus we drove through the wind to Chicco Hot Springs.
We had such a fun and unique stay at the Chicco Hot Springs. Grandma Mary had called and gotten us 4 rooms that had no bathroom in the room. There were shared bathrooms in the hallways for all of our rooms. We were kind of spread out, but it worked great and was a hotel we will never forget. The three younger girls stayed in one room, Olivia in one, Hans and I in one and Mary and Eric in one. We had reservations for dinner at the restaurant, which was good because it was the only one and busy! And what a yummy dinner we had. Steak or prime rib for most everyone and fancy drinks! The girls thought it was so fun and it was really fun, to do something we don't normally do like that.
After our amazing dinner we got ready and headed to the hot spring. It was cold and windy out, but the water in the hot tub and pool were great! The girls had a blast! In no particular order her are some pictures from the time we spent in the hot springs. Some were that night and some were the next morning after breakfast and before we packed up to go.
The next day after our stay at Chicco, we went for a little drive down to the only open gate into Yellowstone to see a little bit of the north side of Yellowstone where we had never taken the girls. We also got to see lots of animals while we were driving!
These are the Mammoth Hot Springs! They are such cool looking formations. The girls were not super impressed and were kind of grouchy. It was really cold!!
After a little driving around the park we headed off and back around to the cabin in West Yellowstone. We couldn't go through the park unfortunately since it was still closed. It was a long drive, but it sure was pretty. And we drove through Bozeman again showing the girls some of the places we remembered and where we met. Well the building where we met, as they don't have movie rental stores open anymore.
That night we got to enjoy Mary and Eric's new sauna. It was really fun to experience and we all really liked it! It was hot and sweaty though...lol!
The next day was ski day at Big Sky! And what a gorgeous day it was for skiing! I decided not to go as I just wasn't feeling it. I decided to spend the day at the lodge and work on some homeschool planning and reading.
These are in random order...
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| Claire |
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| Olivia |
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| Claire |
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| Aubrey |
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| Raelyn |
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Cool ski lift pic
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| Aubrey |
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| Claire |
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love this little Rae!
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It was a great day to be on the slopes! Fun was had by all!
That night we again got in the sauna. It was really nice and a fun way to end the day.
The next day we hung out for a bit at the cabin, but then we packed up and headed back to Whitehall, to shorten our drive the next day.
The lake was so so low! I had never seen it that low!
Back in Whitehall for one last pet of the horses!
And the next day we were back on the road home. We drove both our van and the jeep home. And it was the windiest drive I ever remember. From Idaho on it was terrible driving. Either the mountain passes, then the wind started just after Spokane and lasted till Cle Elum and then it was rain! Oh boy! A long and terrible drive home, but we made it.
When we got back from Montana we had to have our friends over as they were getting ready to leave and it was our last chance. So we had the Cooks and Haapalas over for dinner on a Sunday night. It was fun to have one last dinner with them and they got their house sold while they were over as Sarah was their realtor. So they were figuring out which offer they were going to take and it was kind of crazy and fun to watch it all go down. The youngest girls got in the hot tub! The rest of the kids had a blast playing!
Spring is always fun as the flowers start popping up and I love getting to see my yard start to be beautiful again! And the tree gets pink flowers! So pretty!
My tomatoes I started as seeds all got transplanted to new little pots!
And then we got a crazy snow one day. It didn't stick, but they were big flakes coming down! Looked pretty and crazy with the flowers and pink tree.
After a fun spring break we had just a week to prepare for Easter and fit in all our Easter fun. So we started it off with building resurrection gardens with our friends the Mills. Always fun...and a good representation of what happened on Easter Sunday!
The girls always love to dye eggs. It is fun and creative and we like deviled eggs so that is a plus! They took their time and made lots of pretty eggs! I didn't get pics of them all until a day or so later when we were doing the sugar cookies.
We cut out and cooked all the sugar cookies on Thursday before dance classes.
Friday the girls had a really fun birthday party for their friend Ava that was an Anne of Green Gables party. Really, really fun and even better since we had just recently read the book.
And that night we had our last ladies night out with Kelsey. It was a super fun night, but so sad to have our friend be leaving!
Saturday was decorate cookies and prep for Easter and company! The girls did a great job decorating their cookies as always! Olivia only decorated 3 cookies. She has no patience for arty things, but she does like sugar cookies so she makes a few.
They turned out so pretty and tasted so yummy!!
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| Olivia's cookies...isn't she creative?! |
And here are the eggs that they decorated a few days before.
The last night of hiding the shepherd...the lost sheep was found! We always have fun learning about Jesus rising from the dead.
My grandma's cheesy potato recipe, in her handwriting. I sure miss my Grandma a lot. I think of her often and can't wait to see her again someday in eternity.
Easter! A fun time for Easter baskets, and egg hunts, and yummy food. But mostly I love remembering the sacrifice our savior made for us on the cross and that he did not stay there, but rose again 3 days later conquering death and making a way for us to be saved and to one day have resurrected bodies someday as well.
Easter service was our friends the Cooks last Sunday at our church. We prayed for them as they left. It was so sad to have to say goodbye!
I love that our church family truly feels like family! WE have so many friends that are like family to us! And with our family so far away it is great to have that!
We rushed hoe wto get some pictures, before Auntie Anna,Grandma Mary, and Grandpa Eric arrived. Here are the girls in their Easter attire, in no particular order.
And from my big camera came these pictures!
I love these 4 beautiful girls so much!!
Me and my man!
The 2022 Easter cake...mostly decorated by Claire.
The boys weren't here this year and that was hard. We missed not having them and the annual Easter egg hunt wasn't as fun without them. But the weather was nice and the girls did finally find all their eggs, even though some of them were very hard to find!
We finished the fun day off with some cornhole.
And the girls convinced Hans to look for their eggs so they hid a set and he found them. He is a good sport!
And then the day came that changed Claire's life. We were invited to go to Defy (a trampoline park) to have a final jump session with the Cooks before they left. It was Tuesday (April 19th) afternoon and the girls had been wanting to go and play there. So I was excited to take them. Claire wasn't going to go because there was no one her age, but at the last minute she decided to go and play with Jovi and Natalie. Everything was going great till the big break! Here are the few pictures I got of the girls playing. It still makes me sad to think of that day. To think we will probably never go there again and how hard the last 5 months have been since...and all the things lost in that moment. All the regret from Claire and myself that she decided to go that day. Oh how we wished she hadn't and oh I wish sometimes we could just go back in time and make a different decision.
I tried to get a picture of Claire with Jovi and Natalie but they would not let me get one of them posing so this is all I got. I wish I had gotten a great picture of the three of them together. This was the last time they got to see Claire before they left and they saw her hurting and in pain. It is so sad still for me to think of this.
And then it happened! Raelyn came running and said "Claire's leg doesn't look right!" and I ran to her and sure enough it didn't look good at all! All I could think was oh no....dance!! Elias was there and he said it was dislocated and offered to drive me to the orthopedic urgent care. I was so sad! Claire was in shock! I was in shock! It was a lot! I just kept thinking, they will just put it back in place and it will be fine....but I think I just didn't want to think the worst. Well we got to the orthopedic and they couldn't help us as they had no way to put her under so they could put it in place. So we headed to the ER. I had called Hans and he met us there. This is the picture I took at the ER. She did not want a picture, but I had to document it. Poor thing. The pain was so intense. She was deep breathing and did amazing through it all. I just wanted to cry, but held it together mostly for her. I held her broken leg in my hands. It felt so weird. It was all so terrible!! It took a bit at the ER. They took x-rays and then took us back to the waiting room. A nurse came to take us back, but took one look at her leg and said the hallway wouldn't work and that she needed a room. A bit after that they took her to a room. The nurses were so impressed with how well she was handling it. She really did handle it so well. They got her an IV and some meds fairly fast. But by this point it had been about an hour since she had broken it. Shortly after that they told us they were going to cut her pants and then get her leg re-alligned and then re-x-ray it. Hans and I left the room while she was under and it was put back in place. Hans had to leave a bit before that as he got woozy. Then they put a big splint on her leg. Soon after that they got us set up with crutches and a prescription for pain medicines. The we heard from the pediatric orthopedic doctor in Tacoma that the bones were broken (both of them) and that she needed surgery soon. It was all heartbreaking terrible news for me and her. The dance recital was out the window and the weight of this was all sinking in as we left the ER to head home about the time that Claire should have been getting home from her dance class (around 7:30) we were instead heading home from the ER with a girl in a lot of pain! It was heartbreaking!
Original x-ray that we got a picture of Thursday when we were in Tacoma for the surgery. That night was one of the most terrible nights of my life and I know it was also Claire's. Even though we had pain meds they were not working as well as we had hoped and I didn't know how much was safe to give. So even though I was giving what was prescribed, plus ibuprofen I was not giving a high enough of a dose sadly. And Claire was in a lot of pain that night and barely slept. She just kept saying she wished she had never gone. She was also really traumatized by how her leg had looked when it was broken. I think I was too! She got up and moved around a lot that night, she just couldn't get comfortable and I think it was swelling really bad in the splint, she just kept saying it felt like it was exploding in there. We read aloud, listened to a meditation app, all we could think of to try and help her sleep. I felt so tired and so helpless in trying to help her. It was so hard!!
This was Wednesday in her splint. That morning we got word that she would have surgery the next day. I got lots of calls getting me all the information I needed and getting us all ready to go the next day. She was still in a lot of pain and the pain meds were not keeping up. I ended up getting ahold of our friend who is a nurse and this was a total God thing, but the doctor who set her leg was her friend and we had recognized him when we were at the ER and told him we knew him. So she was able to get ahold of him and he called to let us know we could double the dose of the pain meds. So we did that and it helped so much. She was then able to sleep way better that night. I set my alarm and would give her meds around the clock. When Claire broke her leg, she moved into my bed and I slept by her for about 2 weeks while she had her big splint(s) on and Hans slept in her room on her bed.
Thursday we headed to Tacoma to St. Joseph's children hospital for Claire's surgery. It was a pain to go that far, but I was thankful in the end that the ER doctor referred us to a pediatric doctor at St. Joseph's for multiple reasons. The hospital was all set for kids and well versed in helping kids with surgery. The doctor knew exactly what to do, was super kind and informative, and was able to get 5 pins in her leg without opening up her leg and didn't have to use other hardware that would have had to been removed later. And last but not least the hospital offered financial assistance which we qualified for at 95%! So our medical bills were greatly reduced due to this! Surgery is expensive!! I can't remember what time we needed to be down there. I think it was around 10 so we left here around 9 I think. Claire of course couldn't eat before the surgery so she was kind of hungry. She could have liquids and her medication the night before though so that was good. We got down there and parked and all set up. But then we were delayed for our surgery time because an emergency surgery came in. So we had a little extra wait time. We had the funniest time with Claire though for about 45 minutes before she was taken back. They gave her some medication to relax her to get the IV and she was saying the funnies things. I got some really fun videos, but she doesn't want anyone to see them, so not sure if I will share them ever. I think we could win some AFV money with them. I was laughing so hard, I had tears coming down.
Before the surgery Nathan Frost the doctor came in and told us what to expect for the surgery he wasn't sure at that time what he was going to do, but gave us all the options. He showed us the x-rays from the ER and we were able to get pictures of them on our phone. You can see in the photos below the big breaks in both bones right through the growth plates. He explained all that could happen because of the break through the growth plate and those things we will be watching as she still has some time to grow and this could effect her growth in that growth in that leg.
Here she is when she was being funny and talking to Hans and I about a bunch of crazy things.
And when doctor Nathan was there he initialed Claire's knee with his initials. She later thought the rapper NF had signed her knee and that Olivia would be so jealous (Olivia loves NF)...lol!
They finally took her back around 3 I believe and Hans and I went to have some lunch in the cafeteria. It wasn't great, but nice to get some food and a coffee. But then before we knew it, they said Claire was out and the doctor came to tell us that he did not have to open her foot, but was able to put the 5 pins with just using manipulation and x-ray. Amazing what they can do these days! He showed us a picture he had take of a large blood blister that had formed on her ankle because of the trauma that he had to drain and clean. He was happy with how it went and so were we. Shortly after we were able to get Claire from the recovery room and we got some of her meds, but not the important pain killer. So we were scrambling to get that figured out as we drove back to Silverdale and had to find a pharmacy open past 8. The doctors assitant was very nice and called me and sent the prescription to multiple different pharmacys till we found one that was open. This was her leg in the mondo heavy splint after the surgery. It was so heavy had to hold it up for her while she crutched around and she needed it propped up to go to the bathroom.
Another thing they did when Claire had her sugery was give her a block in her leg. This was supposed to make her leg numb (kind of like when you get a filling) for the surgery and then afterward. Well he either gave her a larger dose than she needed or it just took a long time to wear off because she had numbness in her leg and toes for 24 hours plus. WE also got to bring home this really cool foam wedge that helped to keep CLiare's leg elevtaed. This became her new way to sleep and to she took it everywhere. On the Friday, the next day Claire had a couple of visitors. Her good friends, Kelsey and Amaia , came to visit for a short time. Such sweet girls who felt so bad for Claire and wanted to show her love! They brought her balloons and a few things. They were so happy to see Claire!
We were also preparing to sell the white minivan. This was really hard for me. I loved this van so much and all the memories I had in it. It was such a great ride too and still running so well. It is always hard for me to make changes and especially when we had had this van for so long. I took these pictures after I cleaned up the van on the inside so that we could post it on craigslist.
Aubrey drew this unicorn on the seat belt and I took a picture so I could remember it. I didn't know Hans would post it on the listing, but he did and the gal who bought it was really excited about the unicorn drawing.
Samson loves to sit on my van and put his footprints all over the van when he does.
That Sunday we made it to church, with Claire, and we were able to watch Marissa and Maddy be baptized. What a joyful celebration. It is always fun to see people be baptized!
And Gina had a party afterwards at her house for Marissa. And even though Claire wasn't super excited about it, when her friends were able to go (because I brought them along). The girls ended up having fun and everyone took great care of Claire as she hopped around. She did have to sit a lot though too. I think it was nice for her to just be around friends.
We listed the white mini van and we got a lot of interest right away. Hans was fielding a lot of emails and questions. We took these pictures before we went to meet the first people we showed it too. Unfortunately, I had found when I was cleaning it, that the trunk had been getting wet and it smelled musty in there. So I had tried to dry it out, but I felt we had to be upfront an honest about it. So we showed it to the first couple and they were turned off by the water and smell. After this Hans was letting all that were interested about the water leak issue and this turned many away. But then we found the right person and she was just the sweetest. Her and her dad came over to look at it one night. The thought it was really clean and took it for a ride and liked it. She was a young gal about 21 or so and she loved driving minivans. So she was so excited and really loved our mini van. She also loved the unicorn drawing. Turned out her dad had graduated from Montana State too, so we thought that was great! They then met us the next night at the licensing office. It worked out well for them as they could license and register it right there and there was no line. It was hard for me to watch it drive away, but I was really glad that she got it and I know she will take really good care of it!
Last pictures of the van!
Cute little Raelyn with her playdough creations.
The girls were playing with some friends on the trampoline. I cn'at tell for sure but I think it is Hudson and Holden, lying on the trampoline.
And the end of April we had a work day at the church. Claire did not come with us, but the other girls and I went to help. It was a sunny nice day and we got a lot of work down around the church. It looked really great afterwards! And we got lunch to boot! The girls had fun helping and being with their friends.
Another crazy month gone by. Full of ups and downs. God is faithful and even in the hard we were able to find light and hope!
