Our Summer Rolled Up Into One Posting

Our summer has been busy as I know everyones has. I once again have been poor at keeping our family Blog up to date. I have been hung up on Facebook so I am now going to try and balance the two. Back to summer...it started with a garage sale Mothers Day weekend. I did manage to clean out our house, but at the same time was picking up merchandise from neighbors. Vivian got a new bike that is more her size. Here she is with her new bike. Her helmet is not on in this photo, but she has learned to be very good about using it whenever she gets on her wheels.

As always Alaina got Vivi's hand me down and was happy as ever. Now by summer's end she no longer scoots and uses the pedals.

We didn't get to use Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Charlies pool this summer (I cannot believe it). Although we were not deprived of the water. We get to splash around in our pool on our deck and met with our good friend the Holdsworths at Elm Creek Beach.

While Cory worked Wednesday evenings at Fox Hollow; Vivian, Alaina and I frequently met the Holdsworths at "The Lookout" for dinner. Where else can you go and have a burger and go down the slide all within six feet of each other.

Cory got us tickets to attend "Dora Live!" Vivi was ecstatic and Alaina did great considering a two year old sitting through a musical: it helped that it was so full of action and the singing was familiar to her.

The Albertville Friendly City Days was another year of fun! Vivi and Cory did their annual Tilt-a-Whirl ride and both girls got enough candy from the parade to last until Halloween.
We had a great day at the Como Zoo and had lunch on Grand Avenue at Dixie's. The day was a hot and I made us sit outside for lunch rather than in the air condition. Our summers are too short to be spent inside!

July 4th was spent at Richmond Lake at the Hanson's. We had an awesome time and enjoyed every minute of it! It was a mini vacation needed by all. Cory got a lot of fishing in, both girls took their first rides on the jet ski, we ate the annual smores and had a fireworks show in the back yard. Thank you Mark, Gail, Spencer and Trevor for a great holiday weekend!

A couple weeks later we traveled back to Mitchell, SD for a family reunion. This was a great opportunity to see those that are not near. Some of the relatives met Alaina for the first time. Unfortuantely I do not have photos from this weekend. I will put a mental cap on to get some from Cory's uncle.
Great Grandma and Grandpa were home from Arizona for the summer. We have had gracious opportunities to spend time with them. Vivi now calls her Grandma "Granny." We love you guys.

It would not be summer without going to the Great Minnesota Get Together! Although we didn't eat much, we left the fair with full tummies.

I surprised Vivi and took her first musical... Mary Poppins. We had a great time. Cory was our chauffeur; dropped us off at the front picked us up. Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Charlie met us for dinner at Bucca. What a great day!

The last day of summer. We joined our neighbors and had a BBQ. Everyone gathered in our cul-de-sac. The grills were brought out, tables, chairs and a dish to share. We took advantage of the beautiful warm day...most likely one of our last.

Merry Christmas

After unpacking from vacation, working a couple of days and doing some last minute shopping, we repacked our suitcase and the car and headed to Mitchell, SD for Christmas. We had a great visit. It was a special Christmas because all of Cory's siblings were able to be home for the holildays.

Curtis was able to return home after 9 years and it was wonderful to see him.

Chloe is doing well and it gets more difficult to keep her from running around. She thinks she can use her knee fully and although it appears healed, she still has 4 weeks before she gets an xray. At that time she will either get the go ahead to run freely or will have another 4 weeks of recovery. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she will be able to return to her normal routine sooner than later.

Cabo San Lucas

Somewhat last minute, we decided to take a vacation to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for a little bit of sunshine and R & R. Everyone had a wonderful time and we could not keep Vivian out of the pool. Both girls did not love the beach...however, mom and dad loved the walks (great exercise). We stayed close to the marina so we were able to walk into town each evening for dinner. The whales were migrating so we were fortunate to have a couple sitings, quite amazing! Cory also celebrated his 40th birthday on a pirates ship with some shots of tequila and a few margaritas!

Chloe Day 14

It's been two weeks since Chloe has had her surgery and is doing great! Cory cut out the remaining 2-3 sutures on Sunday and the incision is healing and is closed up (thank goodness). We can thank the E-collar for that.
As you can see, the collar doesn't bother her and she tolerates it well. She also sleeps downstairs by herself with her collar on and Christmas music playing in the background. With us leaving on vacation Saturday, I feel a lot better that she seems to be on her way to recovery. Amber, a co-worker of Steph's, will be staying at the house to watch Chloe for us.

Vivi is getting excited for vacation. She kept asking "when are we going to the pool?" She has all her swimming stuff ready to go!

Decorating the Tree

Today we decorated the house and put up our trees. We put up our small one in the front entry way and the "Hallmark" tree in the basement. We decided we'd pass on our real tree this year because we would be gone on vacation and traveling to South Dakota this year for Christmas. Vivian was up from her nap early so she helped mom trim the tree with the ornaments. It was amazing how long it kept her attention and stuck with it till the end. Surprisingly, Alaina doesn't really take any interest in it.

Santa & St. Nicholas

This morning the girls had their picture taken with Santa. Vivian did great and was not frightened at all. Alaina did not cry, but definitely did not want to sit on his lap. It took a little bribing with fruit snacks.
Later that evening we had the St. Nicholas Party at the Parish School. This is an annual event sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. Again Vivi did well sitting on his lap but Alaina was terrified! The girls had a lot of fun running around with all the other kids. I guess I would say Alaina ran around and Vivi chased after her.

Chloe Day 7

Chloe's sutures were looking better by Monday morning so we chose not to bring her in. However, while we were upstairs eating dinner, she was back licking on them again and removed some more sutures. Stephanie took her into the vet in St. Michael this morning to make sure they looked ok. The vet said that there was no gapping and that that the incision is swollen and slightly red. He expects it to be swollen, but does not want to see the redness around the incision. The important part is to prevent her from getting an infection. She is already on antibiotics from the surgery, but will now have to wear an E-collar (lampshade) at all times when we are not present. The remaining stitches will be removed Friday or Monday.

Alaina's appointment at Children's Hospital Feeding Clinic went well. The reason we were there is that she has now fallen in the 3% category for her height and weight. We are already mostly doing everything correctly, but have to try to help her eat more high calorie foods and push the Pediasure more with monitoring her snacks between meals. They want her to be very hungry when it is mealtime. What they observed was that she seems to have a difficult time chewing her food therefore spitting a lot of items back out. I guess it is just too much work for her so we have to work on strengthening her jaw. She will then have a weight check in a couple of weeks and another at her 2 year check up. Her doctor also mentioned that we may have to see an endocrinologist if we are not seeing results.