Colorado

Every year we head to Westcliffe, CO. Brent's family has a cabin in the mountains. We loaded in the car after Ezra's Championship swim meet, Saturday the 29th. It is a 13 hour drive to the cabin, so we try to drive 8 hrs the first day and then the other 5 the next. Our goal was to stay the night in Amarillo. I remember going last year when Elynn was younger and it was a harder trip. She 'cried it out' a lot in the car because we couldn't really do anything else with her. She was so hard to entertain and just wanted to be out of the car or held. So this year, I was praying it would be a little bit better of a trip. It was the best trip ever. The kids did AWESOME! In that 8 hr period, we stopped 1X for dinner and potty, got back in the car and drove about 2 more hours to our destination. No crying/screaming/fighting or complaining! When we told them we were going to stop, they even said, "don't stop. Let's keep going till we get there." ha! The same thing happened on the way back. Super easy/Fun road trip!!
We stayed in Colorado from Sunday to Friday afternoon. We lacked a lot of the regular crew this year. So, this year it was Opa, Oma, Our family, Brent's brother, Brian, brent's sister Melanie and her family, Uncle Johnny, Aunt Mary, Adrian and his girlfriend.
The weather was amazing. Cool/cold with afternoon showers the whole week. We were able to hike and camp in the mountains with Ezra and Emersyn while Elynn stayed behind with Brent's parents, sister and brother-in-law. Emersyn and Ezra even hiked up 2.5 miles on a trail to a lake at the top of the mountains. They loved camping in a tent and wanted to stay 2 nights. The day we came down from the mountains, it was July 4th so the little town was having a parade. We arrived just in time for the parade, with even a few minutes to spare. So we loaded up on coffee and baked goods and watched a cute parade. That evening the guys went fishing while the girls stayed back at the cabin. We all met up at the lake later that night to watch the fireworks that were going off over the lake. Such a fun day. Friday was another fun filled day. Most of the crew went to this great stream to catch more fish. When they were satisfied with the amount of fish they caught, we headed back to the cabin to eat lunch and pack up. We love Colorado and hate leaving, but are so thankful we are able to go every year.
Such a cute thing..Ezra was super sad to leave. He was crying so hard and kept saying, "it just makes me so sad to leave. I love Colorado. I don't want to live in the city. I want to live in the wild!" All Brent could say was, "I know what you mean, bud." I am sure that is the same feeling Brent has often. Ha!

Texas Weather..

Our first pit stop in NM.

The view from the cabin!

One lake we went fishing at

It rained a little while we were there. Then had a TRIPLE rainbow!

Our camping spot in the mountains.

Brent caught the first fish of the week!

Hiking to the lake at the top of the mountain

The lake at the top of the mountain. That little dot you can kinda see is Emersyn

The kids fell in LOVE with these dogs at the parade. They kept asking if we could get one.

This dog's name was Elin.. like my Elynn!

Part of the crew for the parade

Small town parade.. of course someone is riding a longhorn

Colorado weather..and this was a warm day!

Getting ready for the fireworks. It was chilly.

My girly girl LOVES the outdoors too.

Cleaning the fish they caught

You can't tell, but this was a little herd of 5 HUGE Elk bulls.

End of our crazy June

I feel like I can breathe a little easier now that June is over. June was such a crazy month for us. We were super busy with Ezra's tball, swim team and him being in the hospital with Meningitis. We also had the girls in swim lessons and Emersyn is doing gymnastics. When I am writing this, that really doesn't sound like a lot, but EVERY DAY..
June ended up really good in spite of our busy schedule. Ezra placed 5th overall in his age group with swim team. That was for our whole division, so like 20 kids! Pretty good. He was one of the youngest. I am pretty sure my children are part Fish! Emersyn started swim lessons in the middle of June, maybe, and she is swimming all over the place. I really didn't think she would be swimming until she was a lot older because she had such a fear of the water! One day it all clicked and she hasn't stopped. Oh and Elynn. She.Is.FEARLESS!! She jumps in, goes under, kicks to the side, dives for sticks like she is 5. I cannot get over it. I love it but at the same time its pretty crazy and you cannot take your eyes off of her! Here are some pictures.. I have a video of Emersyn and Elynn swimming so I will try to add those too.

Championship meet

His crew!

Ezra's end of the season party

Emersyn swimming on her 1st day of lessons!

Viral Meningitis

You read that right..Viral Meningitis! I mean, who really gets meningitis!?! We do apparently!

Last Sunday, after Ezra's first tball playoff game, Ezra started complaining that he had a headache. I gave him some Tylenol and we ate dinner. He didn't really mention it again and ate all his dinner. So, that evening we decided to go to the pool and go swimming a little bit before bed. He swam and had a good time. Towards the end of swimming he started crying, saying his head hurt really bad. We decided to go home and have him drink some water and Gatorade, thinking he was a little dehydrated from playing in an afternoon ball game. He couldn't drink much because his head hurt so bad. SO, we decided to just get jammies on and hit the sack. While getting his jammies on, I was getting the girls in a quick bath, I went back in to check on him. He mentioned to me that he felt like throwing up, so I was getting him off his bed to take him to the bathroom. Well, he just started throwing up everywhere. When he finally stopped, I threw him in the bath to rinse off and see if that would make him feel better. I was a little nervous about him sleeping in his own room so I had him sleep on a little crib mattress by our bed. I am so thankful I did. About every hour or two, he woke up complaining that his head hurt so bad, a few minutes later he would run to the bathroom and throw up. It went like this until about 330 in the morning. The next morning/day, he stayed in the same spot, barely waking up. We would wake him up to give him sips of water, but he barely woke up and would go right back to sleep. Around 2 I got worried. I just had this feeling something isn't right. So, I called the DR and talked to them about his symptoms. They told me to take him to the ER because they were concerned about his headaches and the fact that he hadn't urinated in 12+ hours. Brent was working, so I called my dad and his wife to see if they could watch the girls while I took Ezra to the ER. They immediately came over and off I went. I was so nervous, and doing it by myself, but I truly thought I would take him in for IV fluids, he would perk up and we would be back home by dinner. NOT THE CASE! After a round of IV fluids..nothing changed. He was still pretty lethargic and complaining of a headache. The DR made him sit up and move his head/neck around. After looking over some things and getting bld work back from lab work, he decided that he need to do a SPINAL TAP to test for meningitis. I lost it! Meningitis was not even on my radar and Brent was still not with me! I called Brent to let him know what was going on and that he needed to come as soon as he could. I asked the DR "well, what if it's just a cold or sinus infection??" He said, "it could be but I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't do this". The whole time I was in the ER room, I was praying over Ezra and wisdom for the doctors, so I had to trust that. They came in to do the spinal tap and I was still by myself. That was one of the hardest things I had to watch as a mom! My sweet boy was so out of it that he barely moved/flinched when they did it. But they still had to have a guy basically strong arm him to keep him still. I could not hold it in. I was BAWLING. Still  makes me cry writing this!!
After the spinal tap, we had to wait and hour for the results. Results were.. MENINGITIS! But now the real scary part, waiting to see if it was viral or bacterial. We were praying for Viral. They were concerned that it was going to be bacterial because the WBC in his spinal fluid was 743, which is extremely high and an indicator of bacterial. While waiting, I knew Ezra was exactly where he needed to be so I was able to have a peace about that. My next fear was the girls. What if it was bacterial?? Do my girls need to come in and be tested and treated?? Waiting.. that was hard. The previral test came back positive, meaning that it was probably viral, but they needed to admit him and treat him with IV antibiotics just in case. The tests usually take 48 hours to get true culture results.
With the girls taken care of, we spent the night in the hospital praying the tests would come back viral and that we would be able to go home sooner than later. On Tuesday, we didn't get to see the DR until around 430. He was about 90% certain it was viral because the enterviral test came back positive but that they were still concerned because of his WBC. So, he called in a specialist and she agreed that we should stay another night to make sure the actual test came back negative.
Tuesday night was the 1st night of our church summer bible study that I was facilitating and leading. With the girls being taken care of, Brent being able to stay with Ezra, I decided to go. It was a great break from emotional ride I had just been on. I know God wanted me to be there. I shared my story with the ladies and how there is a difference from just KNOWING God and Trusting and BELIEVING God. And through this experience, I had to cross that point once again. I couldn't just know the verses I know and know that our God is a big God, but TRUSTING and BELIEVING those things! After I was done with my part, I had a lady in the crowd raise her hand, so I called on her and she asked if they could all pray over me for Ezra and our family. Yes, thank you! So, Ericka got up and prayed for me while 240 LADIES extending their hands toward me! That is the POWER OF PRAYER!!
The next morning, Wednesday, the doctor called me around 830 in the morning to say Ezra's test came back NEGATIVE for bacterial Meningitis and that he was going to be discharged at 10AM! PRAISE GOD!!

Since then, Ezra has had the best/fastest recovery. He came home Wednesday feeling back to normal but was still a little tired. Thursday morning he was 100% back to NORMAL and hasn't slowed down since. It is so crazy!! He played in his championship game Thursday and swam in a swim meet Saturday. He was running around all over the house Thursday so we thought, "whats the difference". I have to remind myself he was in the hospital this week and SO SICK.

I truly believe it's only because we serve a BIG GOD!! Thank you everyone who lifted our family up in prayer!! We love you and are so blessed by you!

He was so lethargic and out of it..i can't even tell you how scary that was

Doing crafts to pass the time. Methodist Children's is the BEST

Finally going home!!

St Matthew's DRAGONS!

Ezra was on his 1st Tball team this year. He has a LOVE for baseball, but this is the first time he has ever been apart of a team sport. We have always been big on waiting to put them into extra curricular activities because they will have the rest of their lives to be going going going!
This year when he turned 5, we thought it would be the perfect time to start. We were trying to decide between two different team options, and ended up picking the CYO (catholic youth organization) a) because it was super close to our house..maybe 1/2 a mile for practices.. and b) we had several friends who have done this organization and loved it. I am so thankful that we picked CYO! I have loved every bit of it. Ezra has too. It was a pretty competitive little league, but so fun and patient and Christ centered. Every time after practice they ended their team huddle in a prayer. BEFORE and AFTER every game they prayed! LOVE it!
The team and the parents have become like a little family to us. We love getting to see them every week. I am sad it's over. Me might have to try soccer in the fall just to see everyone. The best part about the team is, every year you play, you are with the same team and players. How great is that!!

Another really sweet, blessing this team was to us was when Ezra was in the hospital this week, Coach Dylla called everyday to see how he was and let us know the team missed him and was praying for him. When we were released from the hospital, we went to the Wednesday playoff game to sit and watch and they were super excited to see Ezra. They did several team huddle cheers for Ezra and asked him to come on the field for prayer. Several players made him cards that said "get well". Such a great team!!

To wrap up the St. Matthew's Dragons Season: 14-0, Undefeated Zone CHAMPIONS!! It was a great season!!  Here are some pictures.

Getting the trophy after winning the Championship Game!!

Elynn celebrating the win with a cupcake

My little slugger and I

End of the season swim party at one of the players resort..(i mean house)

handing out trophies 

Coach Dylla said something sweet about every player!

St. Matthew's Dragons!

Beach 2 Bay!

This past weekend, Brent and I ran in the Beach 2 Bay Marathon Relay for the 1st time! It was a lot of fun. We had two teams that we got together to go up there and run. Brent and I were on different teams so it was fun being 'competitive' with each other. His team consisted of him, his uncle, 3 cousins and a friend. My team consisted of me, two good girl friends, their husbands and another good guy friend of ours. My team beat Brent's team, of course!!
Brent headed down early with Ezra and his buddy, David, who ran on my team, to go fishing. They didn't catch anything, but had a good time. My girls and I met up with David's wife, Chantel, and her girls to make our roadtrip down there on Friday. Once we got to the condo, we unloaded and headed out to dinner to load up on pasta for the big race the next morning. We didn't really do much that evening but hand out the bib #'s and shirts to the rest of the teammates.
Saturday morning was the big race. It was a cool/humid/windy morning. We had a great time running. My team placed 54th in our division (out of 1,034 teams) and Brent's team finished 96th in the same division.
After the race we changed and got the kids ready for an afternoon at the beach! It was so much fun. The kids LOVED the water, which was pretty chilly at first, and loved playing in the sand. We spent a couple hours on the beach because it felt so nice outside. There was a cool breeze the whole time, so it wasn't HOT!
After the beach, we came back to the condo for quiet time and rest. We ended the night with burgers and a swim in the condo pool.
Sunday we packed up and headed out by 10 because Ezra had a t-ball game we needed to get to by 2:30. It was such a great weekend. Hopefully we will be doing it again next year!

I ran the causeway bridge leg. This picture does it NO justice!!

Brent's uncle Tom also ran the same leg

The bridge

All the people!

Finishers!! 4.42 miles in 36:45 for me and 36 min for Tom!!

BEACH!!

Brent, David and the kids

Chantel and I relaxing!

Love these two!

David, Amelia and Avery

Me and Chantel

Building a sandcastle 

My littlest LOVE

My sweet FOUR YEAR OLD!

Emersyn turned 4 on Tuesday. I know I say this with each year that they turn older, but I CANNOT BELIEVE SHE IS 4! It truly goes WAY TO FAST! Her stats: 33 lbs (s20-25th %) 42 1/2 inches tall (92nd%)= TALL and SKINNY!

Poor girl was so sick on her birthday and most of this week. Luckily she got better before her party!

Got her 1st bike!

How I LOVE this girl. She is my little best friend. We definitely have our hard moments with her strong personality and independent strength, but this girl has made me a better mom, wife, friend, sister, daughter! She has taught me to love, trust, let go and rely only on God. How I love, love, love her. I am so excited for the friendship/relationship we are growing and going to grow!!

This girl is SMART. She loves school, loves reading, writing, being girly, dressing up, wearing only dresses, leggings and skirts. She loves, bugs and butterfly's. She loves the color pink and purple. She loves to swing and taught herself to pump at the age of 3. She loves her new bike and is great at peddling around! She LOVES animals. She loves her family and loves to help. She loves anything SWEET. She has such a sweet, big heart. She makes us smile. I sometimes get a glimpse of what it's going to be like when she is 16 and explaining to me the reason why she did what she did. How this girl makes our family so complete!

For her birthday, we did two of her favorite things.. We had a PJ and Pancake party. She loves to have pj day and if you ever ask her what she thinks we should have for dinner, her answer is ALWAYS pancakes!!
It was such a fun little party 13 of her sweet friends came over in their pj's and we had pancakes with different toppings (strawberries, bananas, blueberries or choc chips), with doughnut holes on a stick, oj, choc milk, and watermelon. We made fruit loop necklaces, played outside on this gorgeous day, sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY and ate cake. It was a great party!!

Pj's, pancakes and sweet friends!

Making fruit loop necklaces