Our week off track

We scheduled Bean's surgery for the first Friday she was off track, which meant that the majority of our break was spent at home.  We had been able to go to Las Vegas for a few short days, which was great.  But we still felt bad that most of Bean's surgery would consume her break from school.  Luckily, her health improved so quickly that we were able to have some fun before she had to go back to school.

We celebrated the two week post-op mark by taking the kids to the aquarium.  They love this place!  It was pretty busy that day, but it always surprises me how, no matter how many people are there, it really doesn't feel too crowded.

One morning while the kids were watching PBS Kids, I happened to hear about the Curious George display at the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.  (I guess Bean happened to hear about it too because she immediately said she wanted to go!)  It was the last week before school started again, so S, Bean, Boy and I made the long (And I mean long) drive up to Ogden.  I am so glad we did.  I had never heard of this place--it is terrific.  It reminded me so much of the old Children's Museum in downtown Salt Lake.  The one thing I don't like about the new Children's Museum (Discovery Gateway) is that there aren't as many interactive, hands on things as in the old one.  There was so much to do at the Treehouse Museum that we left promising we would go back again.

We recently had a change in a few schools in our town--we will be switching from year-round to traditional class schedules next year (and probably only for a few years until growth catches up.)  I think if I had heard this news last year at this time, I would have been ecstatic.  But after doing the year-round thing I actually really like it and this most recent off-track proves why: we were able to get Bean into surgery without missing school and we were able to go do fun things on a 'normal' school day without fighting crowds.  Here's to hoping we get our year-round schedule back!

Bean does Surgery

We were told several months ago by Bean's pediatrician that her tonsils were enormous and that she needed to get in to see an ENT.  He, too, confirmed they were too big and said they would need to be removed.  It should have been as easy as setting up a date, showing up, and letting the doctors do their work.  But on 3 occasions after that we received calls from the office saying that the doctors (now 3 of them) either had 'forgotten' they had a conference that week or completely scheduled us for the wrong day, S threw in the towel and found a totally new office and doctor.  It ended up being such a blessing in disguise because the original doctor was kind of an arrogant jerk and the one who ended up doing her surgery was very kind and soft-spoken.  PLUS they made the appointment for surgery with less than 2 weeks notice.  We were on kind of a time crunch because we'd already had this trip to Vegas planned and her tonsillectomy had to be done with enough time for her to recover while she was off-track from school.  Everything worked out perfectly though and we prepared for what I was concerned might be 2 of the hardest weeks Bean has had in her short life.

Her surgery was exactly one week after her Valentine's party at school.  In that week we celebrated Valentines twice, took a 3 day 12-hour drive-time trip, and I worked an extra shift.  It was a crazy week, but Bean woke up ready to go early Friday morning.

In preparation of her surgery, I told her my experiences, one of which was I remembered they let me choose the flavor of gas I would fall asleep to.  I also told her that I had as much slush and Popsicles and ice cream as I asked for.  I think this made the procedure a little more enticing.  I also told her how clearly I remembered the blessing that my dad had given me and how much better it made me feel.  I told her that, if she wanted to, I was sure her Gpa H would give her a blessing the night before when we went to drop Boy off so he could spend the following day with Gma.  She kind of started getting worked up so I dropped the issue, but as we were leaving (like, buckling up in the car) she blurted out, 'I want a blessing from Grandpa please!'  He blessed her that she would heal well and not be scared.  I think it immediately put her mind at ease.

We had to be to the hospital (which is thankfully 15 minutes from our house) by 6:30 that morning.  We literally woke Bean up and loaded her in the car, pajamas and all.  This girl loves art so I wasn't surprised when, at 6:35 in the morning, she was breaking out markers and paper!

The pre-op exam was next and you should have seen Bean's eyes light up when the nurse asked her which flavor of anesthesia she wanted.  Initially she chose strawberry but, when the child social worker came to talk to her about what to expect, she smelled the root-beer and decided on that (which I guess was a good thing because supposedly the root-beer flavor hides the scent of anesthesia better than the other flavors.  Interesting!)

The waiting room was loaded with toys.  Bean was the oldest kid there, and the only one interested in playing, so she had her pick of what to play with.  She chose to take her Sparkle Purple Princess Unicorn she had received for Valentine's Day to surgery with her.  So of course Sparkle Purple Princess Unicorn needed the full pre-op exam.  She was having so much fun!

It was time to go and they asked if she wanted to play games on the iPad while they wheeled her back in her own wagon.  Again, her eyes absolutely lit up!  I'm telling you, the physicians and nurses at Primary Children's are geniuses!  The anesthesiologist even admitted to me as they were prepping her that the invention of iPads has made his job so easy!

We told Bean goodbye and, less than an hour later, her doctor was meeting with us to tell us that the surgery had gone perfectly and that we could go in a few minutes to see her in recovery.  I wasn't there, but the nurses told me that her first words were, "I want my tonsils.  I want to see them."  This sounded like Bean, but the nurses thought it was so adorable!  I guess kids coming out of anesthesia more frequently request to see their parents!

She was pretty mad at first and wouldn't drink anything.  But as they took her out of PACU they brought us to a private room where they had the Disney channel playing.  Bean was so distracted (and the pain meds started kicking in) that eventually I got her to start eating slush and drinking water.  An hour later they discharged her--she was alert and feeling relatively good and, best of all, she didn't get nauseous at all.  The first thing I remember when I woke up from my surgery 25 years ago was the sound of sick kids all around me.  I'm glad that Bean's experience was more like mine and not theirs!

One of my biggest concerns was how Bean would react to the pain.  This kid gets tiny little scrapes and you would think we needed to go to the emergency room.  I've decided after this experience that Bean is reacting more to the sight of her being hurt than she is to the actual pain.  There have been several days that I have forgotten to give her pain medication because she simply doesn't complain that she is in pain!  She's a tough little girl!

My biggest problem has been keeping her sedentary.  The first day she was pretty content to lay on the couch and watch movies all day.  But even by that evening she was starting to get bored!  So by day two I ran to the store to buy her some fun quiet activities.  Here you can see the puzzle she built in about 5 minutes (notice she's still in a little bit of an altered state!)

By day 4 she decided that she would heal faster if she built herself a healing tent.  This allowed her the opportunity (in her mind) to not only get better more quickly so she could play again, but she put all of her fun new books and games inside so she could play somewhere without Boy distracting her.

On the outside she put the card my cute visiting teacher and her family made for Bean the day of her surgery.  (They brought her Popsicles too.  Bean was so overwhelmed by all of the love and support her grandparents and friends showed!  I was too!)

We made it through the initial 7 days and celebrated by taking Bean and Boy to the aquarium.  Even poor Boy was suffering by Bean being home-bound.  I think they both really enjoyed the outing.

I am writing this post on her 9th day post-op so she is still under light restriction, but I am just so impressed by how well the surgery went and how much better Bean handled it than I thought she would.  The night of her surgery, as we were going to bed, she looked up at me and said, 'Mommy?  I think the blessing helped.  The doctors were so nice and I wasn't even scared at all.'  If I had to pick my favorite part of this whole event it would be that moment.  Even little Bean at 5 years old knows what faith is.  Sometimes her little reminders are huge examples to me!

Our Whirlwind Vegas Trip

S's sister and her husband (B & W for the purposes of this blog) gave us the most awesome Christmas present this last year: they gave us tickets to go see The Blue Man Group at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas and they, in turn, would watch the kids for us.  B & W moved down there last year for W's work and this was the first time that we were able to go visit them.

Before I continue with our trip, I need to give a little of my opinion on Las Vegas.  When I was a kid we went down there a lot.  It was never for my parents to gamble or anything: it was just a close-by great little getaway.  I grew up exploring a lot of Las Vegas that was off The Strip.  We loved going to Red Rock Canyon and Lake Mead.  Of course we would spend a day on The Strip, but it was never more than a day.  Then after S and I got married we took a few fun trips down there: again it was close-by and relatively inexpensive.  Our last trip we took, however, was with some friends and while I love our friends, the majority of this trip was spent inside casinos and it totally turned me off from wanting to go back anytime soon.  I just couldn't get away from the noise and cigarette smoke and it just wasn't the kind of trip I was used to.  Anyway, while I was super excited to see The Blue Man Group, I wasn't particularly excited about spending a lot of time downtown.  I have to say that this quick 3-day adventure of ours was probably one of the best (if not the best) time I've had in Las Vegas.  Here's why...

The drive down worried me because Boy was getting over roseola and he had been miserable the days prior.  I didn't particularly want to spend 6+ hours in the car with them.  Thank goodness for modern technology and the movie Frozen.  Between our infrequent WiFi connection and the latter movie loaded on our iPad, we somehow survived the journey.  W & B took us to this most awesome barbecue place for dinner.  I would have never even known it was there--it was so off the beaten path.  But I guess that's the advantage of staying with locals!  The kids were so exhausted when we got back that they needed no encouragement to go to bed.  

The next day we wanted to take Bean and Boy to do some fun things on the strip.  It became apparent that Bean was going to have to narrow down her choices (traveling with kids takes much longer--and though we were early-ish risers, nothing in Vegas opens much before noon.)  

First of all we went to the M&M factory.  It's one of my favorite things on The Strip.  Bean and Boy loved all of the little attractions--and the chocolate!  We bought $18 worth of M&Ms and the kids ate it to their hearts' content.  They still have that little 3D movie on the 3rd floor.  Bean said it was a little scary.  I think Boy hated it.  But it was his first movie experience (and 3D nonetheless) so I think he did pretty good.

Bean chose to go on the enormous new Ferris Wheel called High Roller over going to Circus Circus.  (I was kind of glad!)  When we found out how ridiculously expensive it was ($25 per person) we decided that I would go on it alone with the kids (who were, fortunately, both free.)  I would definitely do it for $25/family...but not $50!

I wish you could have felt the excitement of these two!  They kept shouting and running around, which was awesome and totally acceptable because we had the entire cabin to ourselves.  They kept shouting 'DADDY!!' over and over in hopes that S would be able to hear them from down below!

 

The view was remarkable.  This Ferris Wheel (or Observation Wheel as they call it) claims to be the tallest in the world.  It looks big from the ground, but I don't think you can fully grasp just how big it is until you are suddenly higher than most of the hotels on The Strip.

After the High Roller we head back to B & W's place for lunch and to put Boy down for a nap (any questions I had about whether this kid was ready to give up his nap were answered on this trip.)  S took Bean swimming and I relaxed.

That evening S and I headed out for a night on the town while B & W played 'coolest Aunt and Uncle ever.'  Seriously.  Their evening consisted of pizza, gong to a park, and eating ice cream.  Best night ever in my kids' eyes!

S and I went to an Italian restaurant off the strip.  It was pretty small, and apparently they highly encourage reservations because we kept being referred to as 'party of 2, no reservations.'  I therefore didn't understand why we ended up getting the best table in the whole restaurant.  The food was really good (like authentic Italian, not The Spaghetti Factory Italian) but my favorite part was when the pianist got up for awhile to mingle with all of the diners.  He was so nice and as soon as he found out we had kids he started telling us about his twins and 4-month old baby.  It's amazing how much just having children can bond total strangers together.

After dinner we headed to The Strip.  Our first stop was the newly opened Hershey's World.  It was right across from M&M world and was on our list of attractions to see with the kids that morning, but we didn't have time.  I am kind of glad, too, because S and I unapologetically stocked up on Hershey Kisses (they have an entire wall of 'fill it yourself' chocolate like M&M world does) and shared the most decadent chocolate cookie I think I've ever had.  They had all sorts of attractions built out of chocolate, but my favorite thing was the upper level which had all the other kinds of Hershey produced candy.  I can still smell the wall of Bubble-Yum!  And if I had the money (and the means to carry them around all night) I would have bought one of each of the Jolly Rancher scented candles.  Seriously.

This trip got me excited for our upcoming trip to Chicago.  I LOVE big cities, especially at night!  This whole city section of the Strip (the Aria and Mandarin) was completely new and I thought it was beautiful!

Our favorite place to visit is still the Bellagio. With as many times as we've been there I have never caught one of their fountain shows at night.  We only had to wait 10 minutes or so and we had a really good spot to watch it from.  I would argue that, these too, are much better at night!

A view of The Strip (and the High Roller wheel) was amazing from the Bellagio.

Another one of my favorite things to see are the gardens at the Bellagio.  Chinese New Year was just a few days after our vacation so everything was decked out to celebrate the year of the Ram.  It was breathtaking (and, again, maybe even a little more so at night!)

The highlight (and reason) for our trip was to see The Blue Man Group.  I LOVE this show!  If you remember, a few years ago S bought me tickets to go see them when their tour hit Salt Lake City.  It was the same show we saw a few years ago.  This concert was much smaller in scale and a few things were updated technology-wise, but I loved it!  I was first in line to meet a Blue Man when they came out after the concert.

We went to the newly opened Shake Shack and split a delicious strawberry custard shake.  It was kind of sad to see the night come to an end!  The next morning we woke up and headed home.  The kids were tired but I think they had a good time and considering that Boy hadn't been feeling good he did REALLY good on the drive there and back.  My only regret was that we weren't able to spend a lot of time with B & W because the only time we could go was while they were working.  But this gives us even more of a reason to go do a repeat trip!