And Now for the Fun

We came home from vacation to a big flurry of appointments, laundry, and therapy while we played catch-up from being gone.  Life has pretty much settled back down (as much as it ever settles), so I wanted to make sure to check in and post photos from our vacation.

Right before we left, Deena had an appointment with Dr. Vincent, her orthopedic surgeon, for a final surgery follow-up.  He said her leg was healing beautifully, she was cleared for all regular activity, and (barring any emergencies) we don't need to follow up for 6 months!  It's so exciting!  It was nice to be able to head out for vacation with a clean bill of health.

First up on vacation was Disneyland and California Adventure, of course.  We contemplate not going every year, because of the cost, but the kids love it so much and we always seem to end up there.  The parks were packed and a bit difficult to navigate, but it didn't stop us from having a blast.  There were multiple times I had to make a human blockade around Deena to keep people from bumping her, but we managed and it was totally worth it.  The girls favorite part was getting the princesses autographs and riding Dumbo, It's a Small World, Radiator Springs Racers, and the Haunted Mansion.  Conner loved all the fast stuff, with Guardians of the Galaxy being a favorite this year.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the parks this year:

After spending a few days at the parks, we headed over to Carlsbad and spent a week on the beach.  It was exactly what we needed; time to relax and recuperate, with no agenda.  We found a really nice, clean beach that had two beach wheelchairs, and the girls had a blast being out in the water.  Conner spent most of his time boogie boarding and couldn't have been happier.  We also spent time with my birth mom and her husband, as well as my birth dad and his wife.  It was really nice to get to see everyone, and the kids really loved visiting.  They have so many people who love them; we are so blessed!  We also spent part of a day at SeaWorld because they had their kids-go-free in October deal going on, and Ramya's been asking to go.  It was nice and slow, so it was pretty relaxing even though it was another park.  The kiddos all had a blast, and their favorite part, hands-down, was putting their hands in the tank with the fish that clean you.  They crack me up!!  We probably could have used another week on the beach, but we are so thankful for the time that we had.   

(This is Deena's face when she is "not cold")

Though there were a few bumps in the road with hotel issues and the crowds, we found most places to be really accommodating.  We are so glad we got some time away to re-connect and relax.  I have a lot more  "life stuff" to share, but the rest will have to wait.  Thank you for checking it!

Running Away Day 2... California Adventure

Today was day 2 of our yearly vacation and we spent basically the whole day in California Adventure park.  It was crazy, crazy busy again, but we managed to get on most of the rides the kids were hoping to ride.  Keeping people from bumping in to Deena has been interesting, but with some gentle assertiveness and my protective shield (aka my arms) we have done ok.  People really don't watch for wheelchairs well, and Deena's is low to the ground, so that makes it challenging, especially when it's so crowded. 

Tomorrow is our last day here before we head to the beach.  The kiddos are pretty excited about our next phase of vacation as well.  Here are some photos from our fun day...

Conner, his friend Ethan, and his "cousin" Keegan

Rob gave Madi a Listerine strip right before the picture.  I told him she wouldn't like it, but somehow she ended up with it anyhow.  You can see how well that worked out for us...

These 3 are inseparable  

Deena and Aunt Adella (Adella and I sandwiched her in to keep her safe)

I usually don't let the girls wear makeup, unless we are just playing around with it.  When we do, though, I keep my red lipstick away from them.  Today I let them wear it (though Ramya didn't want to) because hey, it's vacation, it matched their cute dresses, and you only live once.  They were super excited.  I had to re-apply about 5 times.  They wanted a photo to remember what their lips looked like.

I thought we were going on the tires ride, but apparently it's now the singing cars.  The kids liked it anyhow.

Our House is On the Market and We Ran Away

This past month has been crazy with multiple curve balls and working crazy hard to get our house ready to list. 

As I previously posted, we decided to sell our house and free up the equity to help pay for a big van, travel fees to bring Deena home, medical bills once she's home, and to help take financial strain off David.  After making that decision, David's boss asked us to relocate to Tucson so that they can work more closely together.  We do not know what we are doing yet and been praying like mad for wisdom and discernment about the possible move.  David will be spending October in Tucson to see how it goes but the kiddos and I plan to stay here in Phoenix.  We recently learned Deena will likely be coming home in November, though, so we need to decide soon.  It is very important that we are settled either in Phoenix or Tucson in a rental before she comes home. 

We already had a California vacation planned before all of these "extras" were in the works.  We had decided the best thing to do would be to work our booties off to get the house ready and then list it the day we left on vacation. 

In order to get our house ready we needed to get down to a minimal amount of things in the house (and get them moved out in to a storage unit), get new paint and carpet, fix some landscaping, and re-do our travertine floors.  We also had to temporarily re-home our pets so that our house showed better.  We had to move out of our house and in to my parent's house temporarily due to paint and carpet fumes.  We moved back in when those faded, but then had to move back out due to the fumes of re-finishing the floor.  I homeschooled at my parent's house and the therapists came there for consistency for the kids.  When we weren't in therapy, at appointments, or homeschooling we were at our house working like crazy.  Many nights after I put the kids to bed my mom would watch them on the monitor for me so I could go back and work at our house.  It was nuts, we didn't sleep much, and we were beat, but we did it.  Our house looks amazing and went on the market Wednesday.  We've had a few showings and are hopeful it will sell quickly.  It would be amazing if it sold within 30 days so that it sells before we need the funds to travel and bring Deena home.  It would also help us avoid multiple house payments, since we need to be settled in a rental before she comes home.

Yesterday we ran away and headed for California.  We already had a week booked in Carlsbad, but needed a few nights in Anaheim for Disney/ California Adventure.  We considered skipping the parks to save money, but wanted to get one last "hurrah" in before life got even more crazy when Deena comes home.  I was so crazy busy, though, I hadn't spent much time looking for a hotel.  By the time I could, all of the Disney hotels were booked and many others were pretty full.  We decided to look on VRBO.com for a place we could share with my parents, since they were also heading to Disney, and found a great little place 6 miles away for cheaper than we could have gotten two hotel rooms for, which worked out great!
 
Today we spent the day at California Adventure.  It was, sadly, pretty busy, so we didn't get to ride as many rides as normal, but the kids had a blast!  Here are some photos from today....

Madi wanted to sit this one out...

 

 

Poor Conner was starrrrrving, even though he had already eaten  multiple times that morning, so he decided to make funky faces in all the photos....

 

David's face here is amazing....

 

72 pounds?  Eh, piece of cake ;)

Tomorrow we head to Disney and then we head to Carlsbad to rest up and relax.  We have a lot of sleep to catch up on and are looking forward to some down time.

Please join us in prayer that our house sells and closes before our Deena comes home.  Thank you!

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