Summer Vacation 2010

We kicked off summer vacation June 3rd with Dave having the week off.  He took us up to Mt. Baldy in the FJ Cruiser for our first family off-roading tour.

My favorite moment was after I hopped back in the car after helping Dave navigate a very tight passage and Rachel said, "I know something that starts with S, Mom"  What's that Rach?  "S is for SCARY."

Apparently, she doesn't have an adrenaline addiction developed yet.

Rachel's dance recital was June 5th and she did marvelously.  My daily calendar's quote that day was, "When in doubt, twirl."  How fitting.  Especially if you saw the dance.  After the dress rehearsal she told me she almost cried when she got on the stage and I was surprised but tried to comfort her.  She said "No, Mom.  I wasn't sad.  I wanted to cry because I was so happy."

Here are some photos of our little ballerina.  Just this week she was moved to a longer ballet class with older kids.  It makes my life considerably more complicated having dance after the boys get home from school (since it's soccer season) but she seems to love it.  She's not a baby anymore!

And swim team began even before school let out.  It was the defining activity of our summer since it took up every weekday morning from 7-9:30am.  Rachel followed with swim lessons every day until 10:45am.  That's a lot of pool time!  It's a good thing most of our friends were at the pool too every morning.  Baby Dane was the source of much joy and love this summer.  He probably will not remember the summer but we will never forget it...

Jake is on the back row and Ben is nearly dead-center looking like he's ready to jump out of the picture.

The boys did a great job on the team and the coaches were tremendous.  They both improved in form and speed considerably.  Jake has even said he will go out for the high school team since he knows the coach now.  Great news!

Ben's Injury - Part Two

I can't really move on without documenting "Part Two" of Ben's hurt leg.

All the kids went to the pediatrician for their well-child checks after we returned from vacation.  While there the pediatrician insisted on removing Ben's stitches.  It had been 7 whole days but they said to leave them 7-10 days so I was hesitant.

That night we attended the end-of-the-season swim team party but would not let Ben swim since the stitches were so newly removed.  Good thing because he woke up the next morning with it splayed open again.  SO gross.  Dave was so mad he was fuming.

We had to get him to the ER to  get it cleaned and re-stitched.  The painful shot to numb it and a good scrub down followed by thirteen more stitches.  What a trooper.  I became a wound-care nurse for two more weeks and worried myself sick about infection and complications.  I am not cut out for dealing with medical issues!

I was a wreck.  Everything turned out OK but I'm mad at the doctor for taking them out too soon and mad that every medical thing at our house has to be so darn complicated.  Remember my wisdom teeth...

Here's sweet Ben surviving round two of the ER.

He's such a charming guy...

Dave took out the stitches himself after 14 more days and it was a bit tough.  Ben endured quite a bit of pain and then the nervousness of it opening up again (though that seemed incredibly unlikely since the stitches had nearly grown into the wound).  Let's NOT do that again.

It finally, finally looks like a normal scar to me.  As the second ER doc told him though, his leg-modeling career is over...We sure love you, Ben!