Pier 60: A Vacation

The days leading up to our vacation were rather tumultuous. Just a few days prior to leaving, Jason was riding his bike on the path near our house and felt a bug go in his eye. His eye bothered him for a day or so and he felt pressure on that side of his face. After hearing him whine complain about it long enough, I firmly commanded that he go to the doctor to get it checked out. Men, I implore you, SEE THE DOCTOR.

He made an eye appointment and the optometrist referred him to to an Ophthalmologist stating that his optic nerve was elevated.

There's all manner of diagnosis on the internet for optic nerve. I know, because I searched.

He was able to get into an Ophthalmologist (after many phone calls) a day later and she had him get an emergency MRI. As it turns out, she believed Jason had a brain tumor causing the optic nerve to be elevated (which is what was causing the pressure). 

This brought about much dismay and discussions about someone he had recently heard of having a brain tumor and had to learn to eat, walk and do normal daily activity all over again. We were fearful. 

I went with Jason to his MRI appointment and upon arriving, I locked myself in the lobby restroom, fell on my knees before God and asked for help.

Help He did.

Jason was called by the Opthamologist soon after his appointment saying that scan was clear, there was no tumor. Relief.. but that meant we needed more answers. 

As it turns out, Jason has permanent damage to his optic nerve and his vision has been effected. After a visit with the primary care physician he discovered that this problem had been caused by high blood pressure. ... And here we had thought he had a bug in his eye.

He has been put on medication and the doctor said the pressure on his eye should get better with time, but we are waiting to hear about the vision factor. Jason is really bothered that he can't see correctly from that eye but he deals with it.

A few days passed... and... it was time to leave for vacation.

It was the day we were to leave and we were stuck in the airport. We were informed that our plane had a mechanical problem, there were no mechanics on site and the part was not available-they would have to fly it in on a flight coming from Dallas.

I went up to the flight attendant and asked her if I could have a look at the plane and she said no.

Jason got on the phone and several hours later we we were on our way to Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, -we had to switch airlines, go through security all over again and pay a $50 baggage fee. I should charge baggage fees when people ask me for advice. This new flight, consequently, was in the middle of a rare thunderstorm which put our flight on a holding pattern over.the.ocean. Please put me on a holding patter anywhere but over the ocean. I don't want to die in the ocean and be eaten by a shark and drown. (I also don't want to die naked, which has been discussed in a previous post when Evan took pictures of me in the shower).  I was beginning to feel a bit forlorn about the pattern evolving around our vacation but I tried to hide it by snacking profusely.

We landed safely that evening while it was still raining, got in our rental car and headed to the condo.

I was certain we were on the highway crossing the ocean and I was excited about it:

 I've named that photo "Fuzzy Ocean at Night". It's for sale.

I saw Palm Trees! And tail lights.

 My excitement was catching on:

 The condo was just beautiful. Newly renovated, because they know I like stainless steel. I definitely dislike 24 carat gold and platinum appliances.

Look! A tiny crack in the blinds just waiting for me to come to the balcony and behold our view of the beach! 

So I did.  Simply glorious.

 We landed so late that Evan fell right asleep. May I remind everyone that this little bundle of cuteness crawls in my bed at 3 a.m. on many nights and sleeps just.like.this.

 I could hardly wait until morning, but morning came. My finger got in the way.

Ahhh. Vacation.

I'm quoting myself from my FB status. 

I love the sound of the ocean.

A day into vacation I received a text from my mischievous neighbor:

A short walk to the beach was in short order.

Or the pool. The boys found a little lizard on the pink thing that Evan is floating on.

You think I'm getting a closeup of the lizard but my intent is to show the prune status of his hand.

We bought boogie-boards and enjoyed having our feet and legs torn to shreds by the broken shells in the sand as we got tossed about by the waves.

We showed no partiality between beach and pool, in case you were concerned.

Of course when we saw the Coast Guard flying over several times, I was certain death by shark was imminent. But the condo managers assured me that they have a training school nearby. 

This is the view on the opposite side of our condo. The bay. Which is where we could swim with manatees if we so chose. 

I'm throwing this in for good measure and because I'm sporadic. This was hanging in the shower and I thought it was funny.

One of the best parts about vacationing at the beach? Evan takes naps.

We ate a little place called The Pub" that had birds begging for food by cawing incessantly so I fed them, toppins a bag.

I love sunsets on the beach. When I'm there to enjoy them.

On the third day, there was morning.

And it was the day we took the boys to the Florida Aquarium.

I believe it's important to note that on our way, I discovered that Tampa has found ME. And they were encouraging others to find me!

Dear sisters, yes, I plan to print this off, and send it to you for Christmas ornaments this year.

Back to the aquarium...

 

 We went back to the beach and Jason turned Dawson into a Manta Ray:

 And later we drove to Clearwater (because we felt too lazy to walk the 6 miles down the beach) to a seafood restaurant called Frenchy's where I enjoyed snow crab legs and Jason got a lobster roll.

I'm going against protocol here to allow this picture to show up on my blog:

I got to have my favorite seafood, snow crab legs with drawn butter. A little photo bomber lurked nearby.

 We went for a sunset stroll down the beach which was across from the restaurant and I found Pier 60. Which at first I thought was a fraud because the 0 was missing.

 We briefly discussed the possibility of going on this pirate sunset cruise but truth be told, the aquarium wore me out and thereby destroyed my mood for swashbuckling.
Evan especially liked the sand at Clearwater, but we found out that the sand is smuggled (use of the term is only with creative license) in. 

We came back to this beach later in the week to have dinner with Jason's cousin Chad who lives in Tampa. Can you believe we didn't get a picture? I mean, I had cute hair that night so I'm rather destroyed by the fact.

Days 4 & 5 were spent at the beach and the pool. Evan discovered his life vest would keep him afloat if he ventured off the stairs and decided he could swim.

On the final day, we went to Honeymoon Island State Park. 

 There were was a dad with his 2 boys catching fish with a net. I noticed that they were foreign so I asked where they were from. The dad gave me a look and said "We're from here. We just speak a different language." 

Oh. 

Even though that little discombobulation occurred, he was still kind enough to give some fish to Dawson to put in our bucket.

Fortunately for us, a portion of Honeymoon Island was under construction.

 Evan wanted to stay forever.

 I had scoured every beach I came in contact with the entire week for a Sand dollar which managed to evade me. But Dawson found Harry the Hermit Crab. 

 We called it a day a day and headed back to our beach to end our day.

Jason stepped on a Stingray so I swore to myself I would not allow such tomfoolery to happen to me and within about 5 minutes I stepped on one and screamed so loud and so long that the people on the beach assumed I was being attacked by a shark. The Stingrays didn't sting us. Their slimy little bodies just glide right under your foot.

A few minutes later, Jason found a starfish and Dawson wanted to take it home.

 Evan spent most of his time digging in the sand with his bozeus.

 As the evening got cooler and came to an end, I persuaded Dawson to help me in my mission to find a sand dollar. I never found one. Now don't you feel so sad?

 In the meantime, Dawson and I had created a sand volcano which Evan climbed.

 I gave up on the sand dollar and started searching for money and diamond rings.

These guys followed us around. Probably because I called "here kitty kitty" and tried catching one.

 Finally, our beautiful vacation came to an end.

Will someone mail me a sand dollar?

Are You Ready to Rock?!

Fall is my second favorite time of year. I'm quite sentimental at this time of year because I love the crisp air, the colors and the fact that Christmas is right around the corner.

Last weekend we went back to Cripple Creek and Victor so that we could see the Aspens. There is a limited time frame to see the Aspens change color before the leaves fall to the ground. Dead. Brown and Dead. 

Here is the view looking over the town of Cripple Creek. I wanted this picture the last time we were there a few weeks ago but Jason wouldn't pull over. So this time I climbed out of the car window while we were driving.

 Before the little tour de Aspen (I just made that up. That's pretty clever). First we took two starving children to eat a restaurant located on top of a casino. This caused many old people to stare in displeasure. I assured them all that our children were not going to move in on their slot machines and take their money. I would do that.

Afterward, we took the boys to the park. Evan calls this playground "Space". "I wanna see space" he yells to me in order make me let him see this picture.

 While Evan was busy playing in space, Dawson was on the verge of a take down.

Dawson is having his life turned upside while Jason is daydreaming of unicorns.

 

 And... done. 

 Dawson got up and went about his merry way and I decided now was as good a time as ever for a photo op.

Jason thought he was toothpick Popeye.

 So I said "no" and shot again. I will take this time to say that I can't stand that piece of hair by my ear that isn't long enought to stay in my ponytail.

 And then we were off for the Tour de Trees. Not nearly as clever.

 Jason worked up the courage to drive me to my favorite truck in Victor.

 Of course my favorite part about Victor is the old dilapidated buildings so I encouraged Jason to allow me to get as many pictures as possible of these buildings at any cost. Such as stopping in the middle of the road and pushing him against his seat to get the picture. 

This is my future house. 

I believe this building is available if anyone wants to be my neighbor.

And then we were back on the road with the tour of color.

 You may be wondering what pictures of the Aspens has anything to do with my post title. It doesn't. I couldn't very well waste a whole blog post on a video when I had perfectly good mountain aspen fall colors to share. 

Before I move on, does anyone believe that the font on this blog needs to be bigger? Or is it just me? Because I have horrible eyesight. No lie.

Now on to the Rock. 

Evan is rather entertaining. And Dawson is rather invasive.

Welcome to our chaos:

A Friend in Need

This is my amazing friend Mindy. Emphasis on amazing so make sure you really enunciate the italics when you read the word. Mindy is one of my BFF's from college. No. I did not call everyone in college my BFF because I know you're thinking that. 

. Our friendship began at Bethel College.- In case you couldn't tell by the date time stamped on the photo above, or that I'm much younger looking and sporting the highlighted hair I used to cherish.

  Mindy has been through some tough times in her life. The photo you'll see below is not one of those times. It was the time she kidnapped me on my birthday and took me to Olive Garden for a surprise party.

We were roomies and did nearly everything together. Even when I had bangs.

 

 We've stayed so close over the years, even after we both graduated and moved on and I've blogged many of those occasions.

 Yes we went to pajama parties together with our hair in pigtails.

 

 I love her dearly.

 

 Mindy is my friend in need. 

Her husband Kevin, (who she met at Bethel) is in need of a kidney transplant, and due to many complications (which I'll share soon) they have to raise the money through fundraisers in order to pay for the transplant.

I'm happy to report that Kevin is not the one picking his nose in the this picture. He's the nerd with the headphones on holding the discman with a smiley face on it. Ha Ha Kevin! I just got away with calling you a nerd on my blog!

Here is a bit of their story, taken from the constant updates that Kevin and Mindy give on their FaceBook page dedicated to Kevin and his progress:

If you took the time to read that, you can see that they have been through a lot in order to get to the point where they realized they had to begin raising money. That's not even half of it.

My whole premise in composing this blog is to reach to anyone willing to give. If you have the time, please watch the video and then if you will please GIVE. I will leave a link at the bottom of this post that will take you to their website where you can donate.

If you don't feel comfortable with giving a donation through their page, please contact me. I will give you their address and you can send them money directly. Or you can send the money to me and I can promise you I will send them every penny. Even though I saw a Coach bag I really liked the other day. Well, send me the money for the Coach bag, and then send me more money for Kevin. That's a horrible joke! I'm totally kidding. I feel bad.

Really, feel free to contact me with any questions and I'll be happy to go to Mindy and Kevin for answers if I don't know the answer myself. Also, if you really have nothing to give, pray. Pray for my friends. Pray that God will give you money to send. Hey! That's pretty clever right there if I say so myself.

  

Donate Here

Mindy, if you get the time in your crazy schedule to read this post, I hope you know I love you and I pray for you and think of you often.

Bozeus

Bozeus. Pronunciation: (Bo-zee-us).

This is the word Evan uses for Bulldozer. Well, actually, I think there's a chance that "Bozeus" is the plural form of the word for Bulldozer and all such construction equipment. He also uses the word Bozea when pointing out a bulldozer or a digger BUT he can say "excavator" which means he might grow up to be a construction worker rather than a trash man like I previously suspected. 

He has a red fireman hat that his Aunt Nessa gave him for Christmas last year and he wears it around the house as a construction worker hard hat. Recently, he donned his hat and decided to wear it in the car for our short trip to pick up Dawson. He made quite a noise in the back seat bossing me to "see a bozeus". As it turns out, we have some construction going on near our house. So I turned my car around, parked my car at the neighborhood near the construction site and walked Evan to the site so that he could see the machines at work. The construction men stared but I stared back. I have a Captain America shield and I could take them all. This set me back in time to pick up Dawson so we had to run back to the car and Evan was unhappy.

No toddler should be unhappy. All manner of screaming, whining, emotional trauma and tears are a result of an unhappy toddler. 

So.

On our way to pick up Dawson I pass the Focus on the Family campus every day. I'm calling it a campus because it's a big sprawling building with lots of land. There is no Focus on the Family college so don't apply and use my name as a reference.

There on the side of the road behind Focus on the Family was a bozeus!

So I did what every great mom would do. 

I picked up Dawson from school and on our way home, pulled into the Focus on the Family parking lot, grabbed Evan and ran to the bulldozer with Dawson trailing behind. 

There were 2 kind construction men talking and working on something near the bulldozer. I walked up to them, introduced myself and told them that Evan would love nothing more than to sit in the bulldozer long enough for me to take his picture and possibly drive it and destroy something important and then I asked if that would be okay. So one of the men walked over and unlocked the door of the bulldozer and went right back to what he was doing.

Evan was excited and terrified at the same time. Like excitified.

 

I actually had to have Dawson climb in first so that Evan would climb in too.

 

There was a half full (because I'm an optimist) coke sitting in the cup holder beside the seat but I didn't let Evan drink it. I told Dawson he could though.

 I didn't want to make the kind men wait if they were in need of using the bozeus so I got my pictures, thanked them profusely and ran right back to the car the same way we came.

And now Evan thinks I will do that every.single.time. we see a bulldozer.

I'll end this post by saying that if anyone has construction equipment that they would like to donate to the Evan loves Bozeus cause, please feel free to do so.

Of course you have to hear him say it: