Fun with Family - Part 1

First off...baby update. Mark and I are finally Aunt and Uncle to our first nephew - Bradley Wynn Ezzell. Congrats to Kathryn and Brad on their beautiful little boy who was born late Thursday night (August 16). Wish we could be in NC to meet him. Unfortunately we don't know when we'll get to meet him in person but we do finally get to meet Emerson next week. Ginni, Lilli and Emerson are coming out next Tuesday night through the following Wednesday morning for a visit too.

Now on to our visit with Angie, Dad, Ryley and Harper. Unfortunately for them, they were here the hottest week of the year so far. We reached record breaking temperatures while they were here, but that didn't slow us down! Since they got into town on Thursday and were up at the crack of dawn on Friday, Angie took the girls to the playground in our neighborhood at 8am in hopes that the slides wouldn't be too hot yet. One playground was better than the other and they got to play for just a little while before it was too hot. When they got back, Harper took a nap and Ryley got to play in the pool. She showed me how well she is swimming and even was able to get dive sticks off the bottom of the pool! After lunch the girls took naps and Dad, Angie and I hung around the house. We made Ryley's day I think when we went swimming for a second time that evening.

Ryley

Cheesing Harper (I can't get it to turn, sorry)

Diving for dive sticks

Future Olympic Swimmer

What are you doing Aunt Patti?

Saturday we got up bright and early and headed to the Phoenix Zoo, even though it was supposed to be really hot. We had planned on getting there earlier than we did since they are open from 7am - 2pm this time of year but we didn't get there until 9:40am. Luckily for us, there was quite a bit of shade and they had misters at many of the bigger exhibits.

First stop - elephants

Ryley figuring out where we're going next

Ryley making her fish face

Harper Grace

Pretending to be caged

Cutie Pie

Angie, Dad, Harper and Ryley

Looking at the giraffes in the distance

Harper enjoying the misting systems

Uncle Mark and Ryley jumping on the bouncy bridge to see the Giraffes in the distance

Ryley with the Zebras

Riding the carousel

Harper wasn't so sure about the carousel

Splash park at the zoo

If you can't tell, Harper LOVED it!

Getting cleaned up for dry clothes

Mark and the elephant

CHEESE

I didn't get a good picture of the two of them together

Ryley and the orangutan

Picture compliments of Ryley

Ryley wanted a million pictures with this frog

We got home sometime after 2:30 and we all took naps/rested. Sunday, we got up and headed to Lake Pleasant for a little while. I think both Ryley and Harper weren't sure what to think of the boat at first but they warmed up to it and had lots of fun once we could actually get in the water. Although, it did wear us all out and called for another afternoon of naps for the whole house!

Daddy unknowingly took Bentley's spot on the boat

Angie and her girls

This one shows Ryley's unsure face about the boat (she didn't like going over wakes at first)

The water level at the lake since the last time we were there has dropped about 50 feet (we think). You can line on this cliff.

Harper getting her boat legs

Harper, Aunt Patti and Ryley

Daddy, Harper and me

Ryley swimming in the lake

Bentley's cooling off too

And so is daddy

Harper's about to go swimming in the lake

But snack time first

Yay! Harper got in!

Not sure about sitting in the front of the boat with the wind blowing on her. I wonder what she was thinking.

Riding back to the boat ramp

Sure is windy up here

Tuckered out

Angie forgot Harper's swim diaper. This regular one was HUGE when we got off the boat!

Mark and I both went to work on Monday and Angie, Harper and Ryley tried to go to the playground again but it was too hot so they went to a nearby splash park instead. 

On Tuesday, Dad headed to the Mayo Clinic at 8:30 with Mark and me for my blood work, clinical trial visit and nurse visit. We found out that my neutrophil count had gone back up (YAY) but they decided they wanted me to start giving myself injections after all (BOO). The good side was that instead of 5 times a week they are only having me do them 3 times a week. This is just to make sure my neutrophils stay up so I don't get any infections that put me in a worse situation (like ICU or on a ventilator). I think those are worse case scenarios because I'm not sick at all but I guess with my white blood count down, I'm much more susceptible to infections and it could get bad fast which we don't want. So anyway, didn't have to do those yet because I had to wait for Medco to mail me the medicines.

We met Angie, Ryley and Harper for lunch and then left the little girls with Dad and Mark to play while Angie got to come up with me to start my chemo treatment. She got to stay for about 30 minutes and actually got to see my oncologist who we had asked to come by so Dad could meet him (whoops, should have known he'd come when Dad wasn't actually there). Then Angie left with the girls and Mark and Dad came up for the rest of my treatment. That night, Ryley got to play in the pool extra late since it was her "last night" of summer (she was going to be on a plane all day Wednesday and had her first day of preschool on Thursday). 

Back to the airport they all went on Wednesday and I went to work. My medicines were delivered on Thursday so I called to make an appointment to get shown how to give myself injections. Mark and I went over there at 4pm Friday and this really nice nurse walked us through the process. I'm pretty sure both her and Mark thought they were going to have to hit my hand or do it themselves to get that needle to go into my belly! It's not my fault though - I HATE NEEDLES and I'm just happy that I was able to do it. Let's just hope I can do it again on Monday.