North Shore

So we have been here in Minnesota for 3 weeks now and we are still not sure if or when anything may happen with this business that we are trying to get involved with. We have spent the last 3 weeks holed up in a cabin that we are staying in, watching movies on our computer, driving into town to play at the park, and driving around the region enjoying the beauty of the Northwoods. The other day at the park we were blessed to overhear this conversation between a handful of 13 year-olds talking about some 9 year-olds who were playing baseball at the park.

13 year old number 1: "yo, check out those loser 9 year olds"
13 year old number 2: "yeah, for reals, how lame is that"
13 year old number 3: "remember when we were that young?"
13 year old number 1: "yeah, back then we thought that we we actually legit cool dudes, and now look at them, they think they are cool."
13 year old number 2: "don't worry when they get to be as old as we are, they will know how lame they are, and appreciate being as old as us"
13 year old number 3: "yeah, then they might actually be as legit and cool as we are now, but probably not, because they still won't be us."

Besides listening to conversations between 13 year olds, we took a day and drove the North Shore of Lake Superior. We drove up to the Canadian border and then followed the highway that runs along the coast of Superior. We started at the living history heritage site that is right on the border. There we toured the fort that has been restored, learned about the rendezvous where the trappers and Indians would get together, toured the facilities and stayed until Kasey was bored(she doesn't particularly like this sort of thing).
When we were touring the "Great Hall" at the fort we were told that sometimes hall was used to hold dances. The tables would be moved and the benches were moved to the sides to create space for the dancers. Ady heard the word dance and wanted to show that she doesn't need anyone to move tables or benches for her to be able to dance.


Next we visited a half a dozen water falls, one was half in Canada and half in the U.S. and was 130 feet tall. Some of the falls we stopped and hiked to see and some were visible from the roadside. This is a picture of how we hike.

We visited Split Rock Lighthouse, which was built to help ships navigate Lake Superior's rocky shores during storms(the year before the lighthouse was built 30 ships wrecked in one storm that had near 100 mile hour wind and 30 foot waves). Ady obliged us with this pose.
All in all, even though we are frustrated with the lack of progress with our business deal, we have taken time to enjoy our surroundings and the time with each other.

June Update

For starters, Brock had his big check-up on his heart this morning, and the results weren't exactly what we were hoping for. He will have to have another surgery, probably in the next few months. He acts and looks like a healthy baby, but it seems his heart still isn't working quite as well as it should.

As for our move to Minnesota, things haven't been fully finalized on the deal yet, so we aren't doing much with the new business yet, but are hoping that things will be taken care of by mid next week. Due to the confidentiality agreements and non-disclosure statements that we have signed we can't give exact details yet but we will be working at an outfitter in the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness. For those of you who don't know, or didn't read about my trip last June, the BWCA is a large, 1.2 million acre, federal preserve that has been set aside for non-motorized outdoor recreational activities such as hiking, snowshoeing, canoeing and other such activities. Every summer roughly 200 thousand people enter the BWCA at various entry points that are designated and controlled via permits. Most of the people rent or bring a canoe and camping equipment and then will paddle through the BWCA. So what we will be doing is running an operation that will provide lodging the night before you depart and all the gear, food and equipment for your trip. We will also arrange for your permit, transport you to your drop-off site, set you up with a suggested route, answer any questions, and then pick you up at the conclusion of your trip and bring you back to the lodge for your vehicle and a shower. When we are legally able to, we will post the link to the company's website. If anyone is interested in going on such a trip, I will be going on 10 to 12 five day trips this summer in order to learn the most popular routes, fishing spots, and choice photographic points. I would prefer not to have to go on each trip by myself and would welcome any interested person as a "research" partner.

Since we have been here, we have been enjoying some of the local points of interest. One that we went to is the Wolf Center. It is a place where they educate people about wolves with exhibits, interesting presentations, and a wolf viewing area. Here is Brock hanging out at the viewing window.

We also went for a short hike on a trail near the cabin we are staying in and at the end of the trail was this 35 foot waterfall.

Road trip and Ambulance rides

Since we are moving to Minnesota to work full-time in a company that operates during the summer months, we realize that we won't be able to take summer vacations for the next 15 or 20 years. So we decided to route our drive through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and enjoy a family road trip. Of course pulling a trailer with all our possessions and having two young children have greatly redefined our idea of the notion of a road trip. Of course we started out by leaving several hours later than planned, and had an unexpected stop to pick up a prescription refill in Evanston WY for Brock. On top of that, it seemed that we couldn't get the potty breaks and meal break to line up with each other and had to make stops in Randolph UT, and Afton WY. So instead of getting to our first stop early in the afternoon with time to relax and look around Jackson Hole Wyoming, we got there late in the evening, didn't get to see much, and had used price as our main factor in finding lodging and ended up driving for forever up this steep pass(pulling our overloaded trailer) that wasn't in our direct route. But Thursday morning we awoke, ready and determined to make up for the previous days mishaps and enjoy Grand Teton National Park. This is what we found.

Snow, and lots of it in a few places. Ady as you can see, wouldn't wear her coat even though it was in the low 50s and had to play in the snow even though she was wearing a skirt.

This is Jenny Lake, we really liked this place. It was so beautiful and peaceful. The water was perfectly flat and as you can see the reflection of the Tetons on the water was idyllic.

Here is another shot of Jenny Lake, I like this photo since you can see the rocks on the lake bottom through the extremely clear water.

This is shot from the side of the road of Jackson Lake with the Tetons behind the lake and a herd of elk grazing in a pasture.

We ate breakfast at Jackson Lake Lodge and Ady found this bear in one of the lobbies. She would stand in front of it, raise her hands and growl at it. I asked her what she thought of the bear, and she said "it is like a monster". Ady loves monsters, she loves the movie Monsters Inc. and loves playing monster, meaning that she runs around growling and chasing anything or anyone who will run away.

We finally made it to Yellowstone early afternoon and at first I was really disappointed. After the picturesque mountains and lakes of Grand Teton NP, the 2 feet of snow at the Southern entrance didn't go over well. Then we went to Old Faithful and my disappointment didn't improve. I felt that Old Faithful was overrated. Some think that it is the highlight and main attraction of Yellowstone, but it didn't connect with me. And all those crowds of people waiting around to see hot water be shot up. So we left to find something else to look at. And the next place was better. We found a bunch of Bison on the road and they had calves with them. Ady liked seeing the babies and mommy animals. We thought this was a real treat, with the calves and them being right on the roadside. But after about 40 more groups of animals right on the road and many with young, we realized that animals on the roadside wasn't a rare occurrence, still special just not rare.

Our next stop was these cool pools of boiling hot water that were this pretty blue color at the center, but then became almost any color the further you got from the center. Here is Ady again, and yes, once again she wouldn't wear her coat so yes, she is shivering in this picture.

This is the edge of one of those pools, and you can see that this one has orange and black lines going around it. Really neat designs and amazing colors at this place. The pool is being hidden by the steam.

Later, after waiting for construction on one of the passes we finally made it to Mammoth Hot Springs. The hike up was along a boardwalk and I swear there were a thousand steps. Which at the end of a long day of driving, and then hiking around at high altitude is bad enough, but with Ady wanting to be carried up each flight and then wanting to hold hands, count to 3 and jump down each individual step I had to tell myself a thousand times this had better be worth it. And it was.

This is the Canary Spring and we thought it was pretty cool. Another amazing natural formation. The colors, stepped-almost terraced pools and the water flowing over it all was really something to see.

This is the lower falls on the Yellowstone River in the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. Absolutely breathtaking, the fact that it was raining really hurt visibility and of course made a lousy photo, but was neat to see none the less.

After being so disapointed with the first impression of Yellowstone, I was really glad we went. I think that this picture is more of what I was expecting, you know--herds of buffalo grazing by a stream with a mountain in the background. The snow and Old Faithful got me off on the wrong foot, but in the end, I like Yellowstone and would love to go back.

Ady was fairly non-committal about most of the animals until we saw these bears. When she saw elk she just said they were big deer, and the buffalo were just big cows. But for the bears, she went nuts. "Wook, wook, mommy bear and two baby bears." She kept talking about these baby bears all day. We actually saw 3 sets of bears, one grizzly with cubs and the rest black bears.
We had planned on spending more time at Yellowstone, but Kasey hadn't been feeling well all day and she ended up waking me up in the middle of the night and said she needed to see a doctor. So we went down to the front desk and were told that the medical clinic is closed, but there is an EMT available at all times. So the EMT came over and after talking and a short examination Kasey was put in an ambulance and sent to Livingston Montana(the nearest hospital) and our Yellowstone Vacation was over. They thought that Kasey was going to need an emergency appendectomy, but after the internal abdominal images came back they found out that she had been passing a kidney stone. So now we are stuck in a motel in Montana that is right by the hospital, hoping that Kasey will be able to pass this stone soon.

Aerobics and Minnesota

Kasey does these aerobic workouts where she bounces around the room doing whatever some lady who wears a pastel swimsuit does on this old workout video. The fact that all the ladies in the show have make-up on, have their hair done, and never break a sweat during the workout is funny enough by itself. But lately Ady has decided she wants to join in. Much to Kasey's chagrin(she assumed when I was taking the pictures that I was cutting her out of the pictures) I have not only captured the moment, but I am sharing with all of you. Note that in this first picture Ady has her hands out and is facing the same direction that Kasey is facing. She could almost pass as if she is actually following the workout.

Now this picture is a much more realistic view of Ady's exercise routine. Note that she isn't facing the TV, and more importantly, her eyes are closed. After about ten seconds of some loose interpretive form of doing what Kasey was doing, Ady just starts bouncing around, spinning circles, swinging her arms, sometimes jumping or kicking...basically she just goes nuts. Realistically this is also how she dances, so maybe she is just trying to dance to the beat during the workout?

And now for the big news... we are moving to Minnesota--Today. I know, I know, so many of you have heard for years about how we have been wanting to move to Minnesota, well it seems that day finally arrived. We are excited to have the opportunity to do what we have been dreaming of, talking about, doing research for, and preparing for over the last few years. We will provide more details when we legally can, but we are finally headed North and will be hoping to see many more beautiful sunsets on the lake.

Entertainment:

Brock's hair does a mohawk pretty well. So the other day we gave him one and Ady looks and says "Wook, Mom, Wook, Brock's a shark!" Then she claimed he turned into a dolphin. Ady is pretty entertaining, sometimes it is even good entertainment! Ya gotta love the things kids say. And Ady is getting a bit better at pronouncing words, but I have to admit that I am gonna miss her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It went something like this "Twinkie in the sky, Twinkie in the Sky you are, Twinkie in the sky".

Insurance

Before Adam and I got married we had an interview with our Stake President(sorry, I don't remember his name) from our USU stake. He gave us 2 items of advice before we left the meeting. The first was to love Heavenly Father and make Him and His way the top priority in our life and marriage-things cannot end up on the wrong path if we are following Heavenly Fathers plan for us. The second was to make sure we had insurance-never gamble with putting your family in a situation that might put your family in so much debt, it would potentially damage and definitley strain, the families future ability to live a more fulfilled life, or have to think to consider money before more important things. Life is already fragile.

To this day, I don't know if that was inspiration to tell us that, or if it was just his advice that he told to everybody, but we committed to make sure we always have insurance. And it has been pretty dang expensive sometimes, especially when you don't have an employer with benefits. Before this year, I was figuring that by following his advice it was pretty much, more or less, a guarantee that nothing will happen. Isn't that how it goes? If we didn't have insurance, something would happen?

This year, things all changed. We were in an accident with our car and if we had no insurance, we'd be out alot of money and a car. Then we had a baby and he needed heart surgery and was in the Intensive Care Unit for a week. We would be in ALOT of debt right now, and working for a very long time to get out of debt, if we didn't have insurance to pick up most of that bill.

Ya know, now that I have used it, I'd definitely rather not have to use insurance and pay all those premiums that seem paid for nothing at the time, except for the small chance something might happen. But now all the money I've paid over the years to insurers will not even come close to compensate what they've paid for us this last month. So, even though they are sometimes a pain to deal with, the importance of being insured has been made aware to us. I am so so grateful for that advice, and the resolution we made when we were engaged to follow it.

Birthday fun and Brock's Blessing

Well last weekend was Kasey's and Adyson's Birthday. Kasey turned 29 and Ady turned 3. I was unable to be there for either of their birthdays as I was in Minnesota looking at a property, but Kasey told me all about it and Ady even sang to me on the phone. For some reason Ady thinks that she should sing the happy birthday song to herself. As you can see in the photo from the last post(if you can't tell what it is, don't tell Kasey) Kasey made Ady a "Nemo" cake. Ady loves the Finding Nemo Movie, and thankfully Grandma and Grandpa Haddock have a copy so she can watch it once in a while. The best part is that Ady is confused with Nemo's name. If you've seen the film, you know how Dory gets mixed up once or twice and calls Nemo 'Elmo'? Well Ady also is mixed up and calls Nemo-Elmo. We have given up trying to get her straightened out. It isn't too big of a deal except when we go somewhere and they have an aquarium with a clown fish. Then it is always the same scene, several kids pointing and saying "look there's Nemo", and then you will hear Ady correct them, "No that is an Elmo fish." For Kasey's birthday, She went to the Cheesecake Factory with her parents. I got back from Minnesota the day after Kasey's birthday and we headed down to my parent's house to have a belated celebration. Rachel, Sam and Jett came up and we went to a Korean Restaurant for dinner and then to Chuck E Cheese. We went there last year and I swore if I ever had to go again I wasn't going to eat the pizza. So I was really glad we ate first this time. But we got a bunch of tokens and had a lot of fun watching Jett and Ady play. We were about the only ones there and it wasn't too chaotic.

Here is Ady playing skee-ball. This was one of the best games value wise per token. Ady liked to roll the ball but wouldn't roll hard enough for the ball to make it over the lip. So the ball would just come back, and Ady would get another try. After a few misses I'd roll the ball in, and Ady would grab the next ball. Usually you only get to roll the ball 9 times, but Ady she had at least 3 times that many tries. We didn't catch it on the camera, but she even tried throwing overhand a few times.

Sam and I got playing this shoot 'em game and Ady wanted to join in. So she ended up on my lap doing her impression of aiming and yelling, "shoop it dad, shoop it" right in my ear.

Ady and Jett loved riding all the slow motion rides. Surprisingly enough, Ady didn't even mind sharing the rides with Jett.

Since I was in Minnesota, Kasey decided to go buy her own birthday present. Personally, I think this is the best deal ever. The way I see it is, Kasey likes to shop, Kasey likes to buy herself things, and Kasey likes to get new things for her birthday. I hate shopping, have a hard time picking things out for Kasey and always worry that she won't like it, (a few of my previous gifts, including the gift I gave her for our first Valentines, have ended up being thrown out or taken to a thrift store. So I felt this was a win for everyone--Kasey got to go shopping, didn't have to hear me complain, I didn't have to go shopping or complain, and Kasey got a a present that she actually likes and will use.

This past Sunday we had Brock's baby blessing. It was a beautiful day, the sun actually decided to join the party, and we had a fun outdoor barbecue get-together after church with family. It was really great to see so many people. Brock will be one month old tomorrow and we have so enjoyed having him in our lives.

Ady's Birthday and Brock's Checkup

Although most thought she was turning 4,(it must be the long hair) Ady had her 3rd Birthday! She loved having her relative friends come and help eat her Nemo cake(just in case you couldn't tell what it was). Yes, I attempted to be domestic and make Ady a cake. It's a good thing my mom, who is artistic, helped out or it would have been a big whale-ish looking orange and white blob.

After singing the cutest version of "Birthday to You" to herself, and trying to blow out all 3 candles at once several times and never quite making it, she opened her present. If you can’t tell by her face in the picture she was more than ecstatic to get a pink unicorn stick horse. They were selling them at our hometown grocery store and every time we walked past them, Ady had to stop and pet the pink horses and since we could not pry her away easily, she would usually end up there the whole time while we got our groceries. It even makes horse noises and plays the Lone Ranger song. We already are hoping the battery dies soon. Happy Birthday Ady!

Brock had his check-up with the Cardiologist. It was good, good, and not so good. First he got to get rid of the oxygen! No more heavy tank to carry and tubes up the nose! Also his right ventricle has become less thick and is not clamping together every time the heart beats. However his gradient pressure from the ventricle thru the pulmonary valve has gone up since we left the hospital 2 weeks ago from a 36 to a 50. Below 10 is normal. The doctor said this was moderate and that we should keep a close watch on him. If it continues to get worse, into the high 60's low 70's we will be looking at doing another surgery to open the pulmonary valve more because it is still only opening part way. If it stays the same then they will just keep monitoring him. Hopefully it gets better. We will continue to pray it does and would be very grateful for anyone else to pray with us.

Not that having any type of heart condition is good at all, but on the scale of heart conditions, Pulmonary Valve Stenosis is on the lower range of severity. Yes, it is a critical condition, but it is something that is treatable in today’s world of advanced medical science. The surgery Brock received was invented in 1984. Actually it was pioneered at Primary Children’s. And I thought having epidurals was reason enough to live in the 20^th century, but having our little boy survive more than trumps any other reason.

As we were talking with one of the nurses about all the possible things that could go wrong with just the heart developing, if you take that and add in all the body and its many, many parts, it is almost amazing that babies are ever born completely healthy. But more often than not, that is the case. Our bodies really are amazing. This experience has really strengthened my knowledge and I’ve felt a stronger testimony that God lives and is over all. Thanks again for all your prayers and support. It is truly felt.

P.S. Adam has been in Minnesota, so I’ve been driving around a lot lately. I realized I really haven’t driven much at all and especially not on the freeway since Hawaii. (being pregnant I always made Adam drive) As I first got on the Freeway I thought I was driving pretty fast, but I noticed a LOT of cars passing me. I looked down to notice I was going about 45 MPH on the 70 MPH Freeway. So I sped up, and felt like a rocket! I am still way too used to Hawaii highway speed limits.

2 kids

Brock just hanging out.

Ady kissing Brock.

So the past couple of weeks have been very full- full of ups, downs, and alot of in betweens. In all of the roller coaster of emotions, I just wanted to add a couple of things to the great job Adam has done in keeping everyone updated with our lives. He has been the strong one to get us through this ordeal.

After and through it all, I have really realized how blessed we have been. We have mentioned several times that thru this whole ordeal, we have really been reminded of how intrinsically good people are. From having so many people care and pray for us and take care of Ady for us to how nicely we were treated by Primary Children's and the Ronald McDonald House, we have really felt so grateful for everything and everyone, and I especially felt a lot of love from my Heavenly Father. Although I don't wish it on anyone to go thru having a sick child, they really have such a neat program at the hospital, they really take care of you and your family. I would never have known about it had I never had this experience.

Being able to come home has been great. Although Brock is attached to a tank of oxygen, we have really enjoyed getting to know him, and he is being a pretty good baby. Ady still has a few more meltdowns than normal, but she is enjoying having Brock around as well--she especially likes to get 5 inches away from his face and yell "Hi boy!" over and over. Having 2 kids is so great. I am loving being the mom. It is way way better than being pregnant and way better than being pregnant with 1 kid. I hope my feelings don't change when Adam isn't around as much to help out.

Brock has been sent home

Well Ady has finally been allowed to spend time with her new brother and we can see that it will take some time for her to adjust to him and the whole concept of him being part of the family. As you can see in this first photo, Ady doesn't want to touch Brock, or even be near him, or even smile for the picture. Yesterday, the hospital discharged Brock and we were told to take him home. Since Kasey has the flu I asked the hospital if we could just keep him there one more day but they said no. Kasey's parents also have the flu so I called my parents and asked if we could come stay with them for a couple days while people recovered and we could keep Brock away from the pukers. So then yesterday found me and Ady at the hospital filling out paperwork to take Brock home. After several hours of meeting with doctors, filling out paperwork, and receiving training on the oxygen tank they were sending with us, they told us we could go.

During this time Ady had not one, but three meltdowns, all before we were off the hospital grounds. The first one came in the hospital room when I asked Ady if we could take the baby home with us. She immediately started balling and said "no I no want baby go home." After crying for a bit and taking a nap on a chair while I filled out paper work we finally made our departure. As we were walking out and went to pick up the car seat with Brock Ady then threw another tantrum. This one because I was carrying Brock and not her. She was screaming about wanting to be carried and why was I carrying the baby and not her. After I finally got her calmed down, I told her she either walked out or she was staying in the hospital by herself, Ady decided that she wanted to help carry Brock's car seat. So there we were walking down the hallway, three wide, me carrying Brock and Ady on the other side of the car seat, both hands on the seat and acting like she was about to pass out from the exertion of carrying her part of the car seat. I think the nurse that was wheeling the oxygen tank out behind us had a pretty good laugh about the whole ordeal.

When we got to the car I decided to move Ady's seat to the door that way she wouldn't poke or be able to reach Brock while I drove. Ady watched me move her seat, asked me what I was doing, and freaked out after I told her I was simply moving her seat to the side. I had no tolerance for her antics by this point, so I picked her up and forcibly strapped her in. The mistake I made was putting her directly behind my seat, Ady made sure I was well aware of her absolute disgust at not sitting in the center of the seat, not only did she scream and cry, but she kicked my seat relentlessly for a good 5 minutes. I tried reasoning with her while I drove, and I asked her what the problem was. I asked her if she could still see her Barney movie, which was playing on the dvd player, and she said through tears, "yes, but the baby can too, and I don't want to share my movie." I told Ady that Brock was facing backwards, was sound asleep and that he wasn't watching the movie. Ady didn't believe me, she kept telling me that he was watching the movie and she didn't want him too. By this time I was wondering how I was going to survive two kids.


Today has been a whole different experience. As you can see in this picture Ady is being very nice to her brother today. She has helped me change his diapers, held the bottle(quite firmly) for Brock when we feed him, got his binky a couple times(jammed it in his mouth once), told me when his oxygen tube slipped out of his nose(I came over just in time to see Ady trying to force both tubes up one nostril), and asked to hold him twice, and has kissed him and rubbed his head dozens of times, and my favorite was when she climbed up on the couch next to me and put her feet by his and said "look Dad, his feet are small, mine are big". We might survive being a family after all.

No more ICU!

We had been told that if everything was looking good that Brock might be able to move out of ICU tomorrow(Monday), and out to the "floor". Well the doctors have been very pleased with his progress and decided to move him out of the ICU today! He is now on the third floor, in the Children's Surgical Unit and has his own room with a door, and bathroom. We've been told that he can now have visitors, even Ady will be allowed to visit. After the way the last few days have gone we are so happy that we are back in a standard, "regular" hospital room. If you want to come visit him he is in room 3073. While we are very grateful for all the prayers and support, we've also been very appreciative that we haven't been flooded with calls and visits the last couple days. But things are looking good, and he is really cute, so if you want to see him we are probably able to handle seeing people now. Tonight Ady will get to see him for just the second time ever. We are really looking forward to having our whole family together.

Finally feeling like a Mother!

Kasey and I were talking about how hard some things have been the last few days and one of the things that Kasey said was really hard for her was not feeling like a mother. She said that she hasn't been able to do any of the things that you normally do for your child and she wished that they would let her hold him a little more, feed him, change his diapers and just basically be a mother to him. Well today they finally let Kasey feed her little boy. She was so happy to be able to hold him and give him a bottle. If it wasn't for the nurse standing there the whole time and all the cords keeping Brock connected, you could have imagined we were just sitting at home with our baby boy. We both got a chance to hold him for about 30 minutes this morning and he really seemed to like being held. He snuggled in pretty well and liked holding our fingers.

Brock had another echocardiogram, or EKG which is an ultrasound of the heart, and things look pretty good. He still has a hypertrophic artery, which means that his right ventricle chamber is too thick. But the prognosis looks good. The doctors have decided to take him off the prostaglandins, which is the hormones that they have been injecting to keep patent ductus arteriosus, or PDA, which is an extra valve in babies when they are in utero to help with circulation. This will cause that valve to close, and we will be able to see if his heart can function normally. If so, then he will be able to leave the cardiac intensive care unit in a few days.

The Surgery

Brock had his surgery today at 11 am. The process took about an hour and a half and went really well. Yesterday the hospital helped get us a room at the Ronald McDonald house which is only a couple minutes from the hospital so that we could be closer and more easily able to visit Brock. While we were checking in a worker there asked us if we would like to go to the Jazz game. We were a bit confused as to why she would be asking us, I was initially appalled that she was going to try and hawk tickets to us given the situation. But she explained that they had received a charitable donation in the form of 20 tickets and asked if we would like some so that we could have a break from the whole situation and could enjoy an evening together. Kasey very quickly accepted the tickets, they even gave one to Ady and we ended up at the Jazz game a few hours later. Although the Jazz forgot that the game was important and got absolutely abused by the Suns, we enjoyed the experience. At the game they announced that Deron Williams' charity had supplied the tickets. I was very proud to be wearing his jersey after I found out that he, or at least his charity, had made it possible for my family to come to the game.

This morning at breakfast, Ady puked a little. Then about 20 minutes later she puked a whole bunch. So there we were, getting ready to go back up to the hospital and Ady was puking. (She did manage to let me know early enough in advance on the third time that I was able to get her to the toilet). We decided that Kasey should go on up and be with Brock and I would stay with Ady till we could figure out what to do with her. After a little while Daron came and got her and I was able to join Kasey at the hospital at about 11:45 am. At about 12:30 we were paged, and they took us into a room with a cardiologist, and then they showed us clips of the procedure. Literally they had video footage of the surgery. We got to see the pulmonary valve before, the balloon being inserted and inflated, and then the size of the valve after the procedure. The valve is now a normal size and the doctors were very happy with the results. They did tell us that one of his ventricle chambers and outflow valve have grown excessively thick and will need time and possibly another surgery to repair. The doctors said we just have to wait and see what happens over the next few days, weeks and even months. We were so glad to hear them talk about months rather than what needed to be done in the next few hours. Brock is breathing normal room air right now, and is enjoying holding his Grandma Van Tassell's thumb. Once again we are so grateful to all the prayers and support for Brock and our family during this time.

Today-A day of waiting

Here's Kasey enjoying a moment getting to hold her baby. Brock has taken well to the medication stuff that he is hooked up to. He looks much better than he did, he is now a normal color, no more gray or blue color. The cardiologist talked with us today and they are planning to have him in surgery about noon tomorrow(Thursday). So I guess today we just hang out and wait. The waiting is kinda hard, but it beats having people rush around and then having them take your baby away to rush him into surgery. I figure that since they are comfortable waiting till tomorrow, Brock must be okay. Yesterday I counted about 15 cords, wires and hoses coming in or out of him. Today I only counted 8, so I guess that is a good thing. Both our parents came up last night and got to see Brock, and then we went out to dinner together. I think getting out of the hospital and enjoying a meal together was good for us, Kasey even smiled a couple of times. We are very grateful to all of the prayers, thoughts, and support for our family from all of you and will try to pass along updates as we learn more. Here is another picture of Kasey holding Brock and you can see in the background some of the machines and monitors that he is hooked up to.

Pulmonary Valve Stenosis

We FINALLY made it to Primary Children's Hospital and just met with the Cardiologist and FINALLY found out what is going on with our little guy (well kind of found out, I'm not sure we totally understand). Kasey is exhausted and is sleeping, so I thought I'd share a bit of what has happened in the last 24 hours. Kasey delivered an 8 pounder at 4:47 pm yesterday afternoon. He was pretty fussy for a bit and we were thinking to ourselves, "sheesh Ady didn't cry this much the first day." We finally got him calmed down about the time the grandparents showed up. (Watching the Grandmas be forced to share him was somewhat comical). About midnight we asked the nurse if they could take him to the nursery since Kasey was exhausted and needed some sleep. When the nurses got him into the Nursery, which was much better lit than our room-since we were trying to rest, they noticed that his color wasn't right. So they ran some tests and found out that Brock wasn't getting enough oxygen. They sent him to NICU and we got called and woken up. I told the physician that called to do whatever tests were needed, and let us know. I assumed that meant in the morning they'd have some paperwork for us.

No. We got another call about an 90 minutes later asking us to come down to NICU. We'd never been woken up in the middle of the night and asked to come down to NICU. This was when the first real worry crept in. We got lead to NICU and we saw our little baby hooked up to these machines and had numerous hoses coming out of him. Worry was quickly replaced by all out fear. The nurses brought some chairs over and asked if they could get us a drink. We knew this was a bad sign, not only is getting someone something to drink and having them sit down a way to deliver bad news, I saw a sign on the way into NICU that said no food or drink. We knew that if they were offering us a drink and bending/breaking rules this was not a good sign. We were informed that something was wrong with Brock's heart, and that they wanted to life flight him to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake. However, due to the snow storm they couldn't fly him, so they took him in an ambulance instead. We were told that something was wrong with a valve and surgery was needed, but weren't told much more. They told us that we had a few moments and allowed Kasey to hold him. We asked if we could pull the curtain and I gave him a blessing. 10 or 15 minutes later, at about 4 am they took him away.

We got to Primary Children's Hospital about 8 or 9 hours later after Kasey got discharged and we picked up some things that may be needed for a potentially longer hospital stay than we had planned. Those 8 or 9 hours seemed like forever. My mind kept racing around trying to think about what little I know about hearts realized that I know virtually nothing about human anatomy. When we got to Primary CHildren's we had a couple doctors, several nurses and a cardiologist come and visit with us. (Oh yeah, two social workers came by also). We were told that his condition is currently stable but he is in "severely critical condition". The cardiologist went on to explain that Brock's right pulmonary valve wasn't formed correctly and the heart isn't able to get enough blood to the lungs. He told us that we are fortunate and they believe that his condition can be surgically repaired. Somehow, I didn't feel at all "fortunate" hearing that our baby is in "severely critical condition".

The cardiologist must've been able to tell from the million and four questions that I asked, that I had no idea what a pulmonary valve is nor did I know what it does. He drew multiple pictures and labeled vents, chambers, and all sorts of things for me. I kept asking about long term scenarios and recovery time, and basically the answer to all of those questions is we have to wait till the surgery and see how it goes. They are talking about a minimum of one to two weeks for Brock to be hospitalized. (Hello maximum out of pocket for the insurance). They are hoping to not have to do open heart surgery, they plan on doing a cardiac catheterization. They are hoping to get him into surgery for Pulmonary Valve Stenosis tomorrow afternoon. That is about all we know at the moment. We appreciate all the support and prayers on our behalf and hope to soon be sharing a healthy Brock with all of you.

Primary Children's Hospital

Brock's vitals started showing some low things, oxygen levels and heart rate issues or something like that. He was taken to NICU due to a heart murmur, and after some work it has been discovered that one of his pulmonary valves has a problem. He has been taken to Primary Children's Hospital for emergency heart surgery. We've had a bit of a rough night and would appreciate any prayers for our little boy.

Baby Brock

Kasey gets to hold Brock for the first time.

Ady is not sure what to think of her little brother. Although she did give him a kiss on his forehead when she left, she didn't want to touch him and she is even covering up her new "I'm a big sister!" shirt in this picture.

Kasey wanted everyone to know that this is why her ribs were always hurting, his BIG feet were pushing on them. (Ady had really big feet too).

Brock may have come, but he wasn't happy at first.