Sunday, December 21, 2014

A GREAT day and a snow day

Elliott had his very last appointment ever with Dr. Miloh, his hepatologist, last Wednesday.  We already knew the results of his blood draw (all his liver enzymes were normal!) but we still needed to have an appointment just so we could get an actual report detailing how totally fine he is.  

We checked in at security, checked in at the kiosk and checked in at the hepatology desk.  Then we waited in the big waiting room and then we waited in the exam room.

Finally, finally, Dr. Miloh came in.  We had a 5 minute chat with each other about how there is nothing wrong with Elliott and we have nothing to worry about (liver wise) for the future.  Can you even believe it?  That's the end result of an almost 3 year saga.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd be at this point where it's just, goodbye!

Once the appointment was done I asked if we could take some pictures for Elliott's baby book. 

The stethoscope picture was actually Dr. Miloh's idea.


I wish I had a picture of Elliott as a newborn with him to do a comparison.  I wasn't in a good frame of mind back then though.  Part of me didn't think this day would ever happen.


After the appointment we picked up lunch and went to Michael's office to eat with him.  It wasn't exactly a ticker tape parade, but it was a nice end to what was a nice end.

Moving on.

My last day of work and Spencer's last day of school was on Thursday and Michael is off on Fridays so everybody was home on Friday.  It was the beginning of a big weekend I've been planning since September.

Not part of those plans that I've been planning since September was taking Elliott to get his staples removed.  But that happened at 8:00 am.  Then Elliott and I went and got gas in the car.  Then we stopped by the ATM to buy stamps.  Did you know that they charge an extra 10 cents PER STAMP to buy them from the ATM?  No thank you.  Our last stop was at Krispy Kreme.  We have a Krispy Kreme right by our house but honestly, I have never even considered going.  Until Sherry had these snowman donuts on her blog and I was intrigued.  



Once we were all appropriately sugared up we went to an actual post office to buy stamps (without the insane ATM fee added), got our Christmas cards in the mail and then stopped by a second hand store to buy a winter coat for Elliott.  And then, finally, we were headed to Flagstaff for our fun, cold, Christmassy weekend.
2.5 hours after we left home we arrived in Flagstaff.  We stayed with my aunt and uncle all weekend.  Flagstaff got a big snowstorm a few days before we got there so there was still a lot of snow for the kids to play in.  This was the first experience in real snow for both of them.

We didn't buy a real coat for Spencer until he was in kindergarten.  There was just no reason he ever needed one.  A thick sweatshirt or a windbreaker type jacket was all he ever needed, so we didn't have a hand-me-down coat for Elliott to wear. Luckily I found a coat in his size within 45 seconds of entering the second-hand store.  It was in really good condition and pretty cute too.  And only $10.







Don't let Michael and his no coat fool you.  It was a legitimately cold 30-ish something degrees.









They played and played and played in the snow and then Spencer realized that he has always wanted to make a snow angel.




Elliott tried too.



Right before going inside Spencer wanted to do some sweet, sweet jumps off of the rock ledge.




Frozen to the bone, we all headed inside for drinks and appetizers.

Spencer warmed up with some hot cocoa.  And a weird face.

After happy hour we had to wait for the lasagna to cook. It was cold so we warmed up under a blanket.  Spencer took "under a blanket" to the max.

The next day was a huge day for all of us, so it was an early bedtime.  Had I not been sharing a bed with Elliott I had the potential for sleeping 10 hours straight.  I say potential, because it ended up being about 6 hours, not continuous.

2 comments:

Jeannette said...

Ahhhh! It still makes me so happy that he's "graduated"! Just incredible.

Spencer looks waaaay too much like a teenager in that shot with the donut. What's with that?!

I gotta know, do you mean you tried to buy stamps at stamp machine or an automatic (bank) teller machine? If it's the latter, I had no idea you could buy stamps at an ATM.

I'm pretty sure Flagstaff was colder than Michigan when you were there and it was certainly snowier! Looks like the boys had a blast! :)

Sherry said...

What a momentous day! Elliott's release from the doctor and the first real snow experience! Just awesome! Also, I do hope that you got yourselves some fresh, hot glazed doughnuts because there is nothing else like them. Trust me! And for the assorted doughnuts, Eddie and I both agree that the raspberry filled are the absolute best. Everything else is for the kids who don't mind the super sweet icing and junk. Of course, just hope the crazy store employee doesn't accidentally (or on purpose maybe?) stick lemon filled in your box instead of raspberry because you won't realize it until it goes in your mouth. Sigh. Nothing like expecting sweet yummy raspberry filling and getting tart lemon instead. Haha!