Hiking, 4 Wheeling, and Camp Firing.

Logan and I had some Mother/Son time last week and enjoyed hunting for treasures.  Logan has become an enthusiastic geocacher and we recently found out that he will have to stay out of the woods for many months following his transplant.  With this in mind, we been doing some extra nature adventuring to store up some memories.

This geocache had trinkets you could trade for.  He took a poker chip and left a cool car sticker.

We find these treasures with the GPS on my phone.

Then Saturday afternoon we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's woods for a tractor ride and bonfire.

Logan and Eric took several trips back to clearing, transporting supplies.  Logan has been learning the art of driving a 4 wheeler under the watchful eye of his father.

Eric decided that Logan was skilled enough to give his sister a ride around the circle drive all by himself!

(I have video too, but for some reason it's not uploading.  I'll try again later.)

As darkness falls, Amanda and her cousin entertained everyone with skits and stories.

The best part of a camp fire is feeding the fire!  Burn, baby, BURN!

And burn it did.  : )

Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for moving the annual bonfire up a month so Logan could attend.

More Fun...

Sunday we packed a family picnic and headed to the park to feed the bison and elk.  We took apples and lettuce for the animals....

... and the younger bison loved it!

Then Logan and Amanda discovered that the elk LOVE acorns.  There was a big tree near the bison so we loaded up our bags and hiked back over to the elk.

The girls put on quite a show, pushing the other elk away so they could eat the tasty acorns.

There was one big daddy there too that enjoyed the crunchy treats.

Tuesday, Logan had multiple doctor appointments.  One of which was the eye doctor.  They dialated his eyes for the check up and hours later he still couldn't see properly.  No homework was getting done in this condition, so we headed to the local aquarium for the rest of the afternoon.

Logan LOVE LOVE LOVES aquariums and will spend hours watching the fish.  Amanda is not as big of a fish lover so it was good that we picked a day to visit when she was still in school.

I think Logan spent an hour just at the touch tank.  He charmed the staff person into letting him hold and touch all sorts of critters.

However, his favorite by far was the stingray exhibit.

 I wasn't planning on a trip to the aquarium when we left the apartment this morning so I didn't have my "real" camera with me.  I still took pictures with my cell phone, but the quality is not the same.

Some of the exhibits you can climb under to get a different view.  Logan was pretending to hold his breath like he was in the tank with the fish.  : )

  We also spent a lot of time in the shark tunnel.

 But the best part of our visit was the octopus feeding.  This little guy was crazy active, swimming back and forth across the tank, playing with the humans, and devouring the fish.

Then yesterday we in the were hanging with the cousins when Logan noticed something hanging in the tree.  It was big K's kite from 4 years ago.  It had gotten stuck in the 'ole oak tree on it's maiden voyage and had stubbornly held on through the seasons.  Logan was determined to get the kite down.

 After some re-design of this extension pole, we all took turns trying to free the kite.

It took a metal pole, long branch, rope, duct tape, a pocket knife, 6 people and 45 minutes...

But we were VICTORIOUS!!!

I hope big K treasures that scrap of kite and all the memories it has created.

Fishing, Baseball, Family and House Hunting

Since being dismissed from the hospital Tuesday we haven't done a whole lot.  Most of the days are filled with school as Logan tries to keep up on homework.  We have many doctor appointments scheduled, but this weekend has been chalked full of fun.

Friday evening Logan had his cousin/best buddy over for a wii tournament.

Saturday morning we took D home to the farm, visited with our dogs and did some target shooting.

Then we headed out to Grandpa's Lake for some much anticipated fishing.

After our fishing, we headed to the K for a baseball game.  We've been trying to get to a game all summer.  This weekend it finally worked out for us!

 The Royals couldn't pull off a win for us, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.  The blue snow cones were VERY frozen and took a good 45 minutes to consume.  They also left our monkeys with blue lips, teeth, and tongues.

This morning we are lazing around, but we will soon get a move-on and continue the house hunt with our Realtor.  We did a little searching on Thursday, but Amanda felt left out since she was at school.  This time we planned a day of house tours with her in mind.  Our goal is to find a house we can agree on before Logan heads back to the hospital.  So far we have found 1 we like, but we have 7 more to look at today.  This apartment seems to shrink when all 4 of us are living here!

Two Week Vacation

Logan was released from the hospital this morning!  : )

He is currently getting to know our temporary home and enjoying some basic freedoms. We'll keep you posted on our fun outings and adventures!

Testing, Testing, and then some more Testing

Tomorrow Logan will begin the bone marrow evaluation.  They have 25 different blood test scheduled to look for a multitude of viruses, check kidney and liver function, metabolic function and more things that I can shake a stick at!  He will also have a respiratory evaluation, hearing/speech test, EKG and echocardiogram, and see a dentist all in preparation for the bone marrow transplant.  I wouldn't be surprised if they throw in a bunch of x-rays as well.

While I know all these tests are necessary, there is only one test I'm interested in right now.  His CBC (complete blood count).  Before they drain my little guy for all these other tests, they will check his hemoglobin, white blood cells, and platelets.  I hope this test shows that he is recovering and that we will be able to leave the hospital soon.  His ANC (absolute neutrophil count) needs to be above 200 and rising for 2 consecutive days... Saturday it was at zero.  : (

He is still feeling well and handling the confinement like a champ. 

Eric also did well with being on hospital duty three nights in a row while I recovered from my illness.  Looks like we were successful in keeping those germs from Logan!  

Bad Luck

I am SO ready for this black cloud to lift.  It seems that if it's not one thing it's another.  This time, it's not Logan that is the recipient of bad luck.  No, it seems to be following ME around, but I wouldn't have it the other way round.

It seems that I have caught ANOTHER bug at the dreaded hospital.  A place where people go to get better seems to be riddled with germs at every turn.  Eric and I have  been VERY diligent about cleanliness, but nevertheless a nasty bug has found me.  I started running a fever last night (while at the apartment with Amanda) so I'm stuck here until I'm all better and Eric is on full-time hospital duty.

Hopefully it will only be me affected with is bug.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Phone Woes

Logan is still feeling good but his body has not recovered yet.  His blood counts are still dangerously low, so we'll still be in the hospital through the weekend.  To complicate things and add to my stress levels, I dropped my cell phone this evening and destroyed it.  Completely inoperable.  Until we can get my phone repaired, you may call Eric, our home phone (forwards to the apartment), or the hospital room and maybe I'll be near one of those phones.  I feel very naked without my constant connection.  I keep having flashbacks to my youth before cell phones... how did I keep in touch back then?  I guess you just left a message and I called back later, huh?

Skype

Since Logan's immune system is compromised with the chemo therapy, Eric and I are being extra cautious about young visitors.  Especially now that Amanda has been attending the germ factory some call elementary school.  So to ease the loneliness, we got his buddy/cousin set up earlier today, and Amanda this evening, to call and chat.  It's so much better than a regular phone call.  Logan showed Amanda his new tricks with his Yo-Yo and we showed Logan around the apartment (that he hasn't seen in person yet).

I know both my Monkeys enjoyed the experience so we will make this a new routine for keeping brother and sister in touch in the long months to come.

Nearing Rock Bottom

Logan's blood counts are nearing rock bottom. I would expect him to hit zero Tuesday or Wednesday this week in regards to his neutrophils.  Today he got a transfusion of platelets and he will probably need another blood and platelet transfusion on Thursday.  Eric and the doctors keep telling me that with each round of chemo the body takes longer and longer to recover so I shouldn't expect him to be released by the weekend.  I'm still going to secretly hope for an early release, but I'll keep telling my head that it won't be until early next week...

Logan is continuing to feel good.  He is keeping busy with activities like practicing with his Chinese Yo Yo and building with his erector set.  We have also been working on school work and will be meeting with his home-bound teacher this afternoon for tutoring.