Thanksgiving Celebration

We've had quite a busy 5 days. We left Cleveland on Wednesday morning and drove to St. Louis, MO. For those of you who don't know, that's about a ten hour drive....not counting stops! It made for a very long and tiring day, but once we got there, we met up with Tom's brother and kids whom we haven't seen in nearly 4 years...and Tom's parents. We all had dinner together and relaxed at the hotel. The next morning we got up and drove to Hermann, MO, which is about an hour and a half away from St. Louis to have Thanksgiving dinner at Tom's Aunt Janet's house. It was the first time Jaime was able to go. Janet lives on a farm and cares for cows. The kids had a blast! That evening, we drove back to St. Louis and the kids swam in the hotel pool.
Black Friday was another fun-filled day with family! The only store we hit was a hobby store in St. Louis. The kids were all able to get something to bring home. I was able to get a beautiful, turquoise glitter butterfly ornament for my Christmas tree in honor of Jaime and CDH (Breath of Hope, Inc.), thanks, Nana! I will definitely put pics up on the blog when we get our tree up! :) After the hobby store we went back to Tom's Aunt Elaine's house. I stayed there with Jaime so he could nap (and I needed to do a little laundry) and the rest of the clan went to a Spaceship park and the Science Museum. When they got back, we were treated to a Magic Show put on by Tom's Aunt Janet who came in to St. Louis from Hermann to spend more time with us. It was super cool! The kids (and adults) were amazed at her tricks! After the magic show, we had a delicious Italian dinner-thanks, Papa! Tom's dad always tries to let me have Italian food on our trips! :) After dinner, we went back to the hotel to swim one last time with Ted, Jessica and Joshua. It was very sad so say good-bye to them. They live in San Diego, we can't fly with Jaime and all of his equipment and Ted often travels for work, so it's very hard to see them. We are so grateful that we were able to get together these past few days.
Saturday morning, we left St. Louis and headed back to Indiana (Tom's parents' house), but....we made a few stops in Illinois on the way. We stopped at an Arby's for lunch. Sitting behind us were two veteran pilots-we knew that because of their hats. I told Jared he should talk to them, he didn't want to. So, we left, but just before we started on our way again...Jaime needed changing. I changed him and brought the diaper in to throw away. On my way back from washing my hands, I talked to the pilots who asked me if we had 30 minutes to spare...I said sure! We followed them to the Logan County Airport where they were starting a flight museum. Jared was able to "fly" in a homemade cockpit simulator and we were able to see some war planes that were on loan to the museum. http://www.heritageinflight.org/ It was such a fun, spontaneous adventure! After the museum, we went to the Kozik's house for a visit which turned into having a WONDERFUL dinner with them! For those of you in the CDH community, the Kozik Family delivered Emily (LCDH) in Cincinnati about a year before Jaime was born. We had to drive through their town to get to Indiana and thought...why not stop? It was so great to see everyone again. Jaime was pretty jealous of Emily playing with his big brother! ;) Thank you, Sue and Mike for your hospitality and to the kids for playing with my kids! I really hope you stop by during the holidays, we'd love to see you again! :)
We got back to Nana & Papa's house in the evening. We relaxed and shared our photos with them. This morning everyone went to church and then we headed home. We're about 2 hours away as I type! It was a busy, but extremely enjoyable 5 days!
Jaime did well with traveling...he usually does. He didn't eat much, but the good news is, we were able to control his bowel movements. (This is usually pretty challenging on a normal basis, traveling usually makes it worse.) We have nothing new to report in the way of medical or progress with Jaime. He is as he was in my last post and we still have plans to go to Cincinnati in early January for additional testing. This week I have a meeting with the Help Me Grow social worker to discuss school options for Jaime...YIKES!
I've attached the slide show of our Thanksgiving festivities to this email. Enjoy! Happy Holidays!


29 more days until Christmas......