A wet time

We're home from the Dells. Thankfully, my pain was not as bad as it had been on Thursday and Friday. And my husband was really great with taking care of the kids and going on all the water slides with Cameron, when I just wasn't comfortable enough to myself. (It really took all my effort to put on the bathing suit...and I basically wore a cover up and carried around a towel most of the time. The whole fake boob thing was just too weird and I was worried that I looked lopsided the entire time!)

The kids absolutely loved spending time in the indoor water park. This was Cameron's first time when he wasn't afraid of all the big slides. And although Max was too afraid to go down any slides, he loved hanging out in the hot tub with me. If you just mentioned the word "swimming" to Ella, she would get so excited, she could hardly contain herself, speaking in some crazy tongues so it seemed the whole walk down the halls to the park. When we told her that we were getting ready to go, she would rush to get her shoes on, grab my hand and pull me, saying, "Come on Mommy! Swimming." And she didn't care that her snowboots weren't really the proper footwear for the occasion.

Despite all the time they spent in the water, the only picture I can show for it is this one:

It was impossible to take any pictures in the actual park because Ella just kept taking off to wherever she wanted to go, with no concern as whether I was with her or not.

I also had a really great picture of my husband sleeping, to demonstrate how exhausted he was after literally spending almost the entire day with the kids at the park on Saturday, but he told me that I am NOT allowed to post it. And since he was such a good sport with the kids, I must respect his wishes.

Overall, it was a good time. It was especially great that because we were indoors the entire trip, we missed the snowstorm that blanketed the area. And when we came home, our neighbors across the street had shoveled our snow. Now how wonderful is that!

The kids are excited.

I had my 6th chemo treatment on Monday (my 2nd Taxol treatment). The shooting pains are back…but worse. They’re mostly in my legs. What I described last time as just annoying is a bit more agonizing. The docs gave me pain meds, but I have this fear of getting addicted to them ,so I take the mildest form possible. It’s not working very well.

It should be an interesting trip to the Dells this weekend. 3 hour car ride. 2 days at a waterpark. One day I’ll look back and laugh.

35!

Friday was my husband’s birthday….35 years young!

Because we were snow bound for a couple days prior, I had a lot of last minute shopping to do while he was at work…and I had the three kids.

At the grocery store, the kids were surprisingly good. They each picked out a birthday balloon for their daddy, which kept them quite happy going up and down the aisles of Cub Foods. Cameron chose the biggest one, Max chose a Dora one, and I chose one for Ella…it said “It’s not your age, it’s your attitude.” Cameron’s balloon ended up where most of our helium balloons ascend to, hovering at the top of our 20 foot ceilings in our family room (the last time this happened, the balloon remained there for over 3 months...I hope this one is not of such high quality).

For most of the day, the boys worked on making picture presents for their daddy.

Max made a really great picture with all kinds of paint, markers, googly eyes, and puffy balls….and then he decided to cut the whole thing up. Cameron told him he must be making a puzzle, and Max was very excited about getting to carry around a Ziploc baggie of paper shreds for his daddy. Cameron took a lot of time to make a miniature Melvin, complete with blue scrubs, and he wrote him a note that said, “Daddy you are the best daddy in the whole wide world 35 years old guy.” It was all very cute.

When Cameron wasn’t creating pictures for his dad’s presents, he was working on another present for him…..completing pages in his “math homework book” (a workbook Melvin bought him one time). I couldn’t even take a shower without that boy interrupting me to ask me how to do the next page…and the next page…and the next page. I think he completed about 20 pages in all.

Before Melvin and I snuck out for the evening, we lit all 35 candles, and the kids helped him blow them out. After singing happy birthday to his dad, Max managed to continually sing it to the rest of us as well.

Once Sara was able to brave the snowy streets and arrive at our house to watch the kids who were all strung out on cake sugar, Melvin and I headed to our destination for the evening.

Did we go to some fancy schmancy dinnery place? Or some chic new club? Or to some terrific bluesy concert? NOPE!

We went to the Waterpark of America! This may sound strange to some of you, but we go to water parks a lot (especially since we only live 2 ½ hours from Wisconsin Dells and we now own a condo there). However, we NEVER get to go on all the cool slides because of our kiddos. Even Cameron is still afraid of the bigger slides, and Max and Ella are way too small for them. So for his birthday, Melvin and I celebrated by slipping and sliding around the largest Indoor Waterpark in America.

It was very fun.

But I have to admit that I did feel a tinge of guilt because ever since this place has opened Cameron has been asking to go there. If he ever knew that we went without him that night…he’d really would probably break down in tears. But the guilt was not enough to keep us from going without him and enjoying ourselves.

So to end this post, I’ll do as I did last year for his birthday…with a cheesy acrostic poem.

M—Melt my heart
E—Everything I need
L—Living and Working for his family
V—Very fine
I—Invincible
N—Needing his wine.