August 3rd Christian complained of some rectal pain, so I gave him the tube of Desitin and figured it would be fine in a day or so. It seemed the same on the 4th, but the morning of the 5th he woke up crying in extreme pain. I rushed him to Wee Care and left Tony home to get ready for church as he was teaching a Sunday school lesson. The doctor checked him out and found that he had a perianal abscess (a swollen cyst just inside his anus). She said it was very large and that I would need to take him right over to the emergency room.
Poor guy was in so much pain, he could barely keep himself from crying and couldn't even sit down! When we were finally taken back, it wasn't very long until they had him hooked up to an I.V. and gave him some morphine. This is his happy morphine face:
The ER doc took an MRI and said that it was so large and so near nerves which, if damaged could cause life-long issues with bowl control, so he consulted with a regular surgeon to handle the operation the following day. After sending the info, the surgeon said he thought the ER doctor could handle it, so Bud went under propofol and the knife. Tony had texted his teaching partner by then and met us at the hospital, so we were both in the room with Bud for his operation. They drained the cyst (which was even larger than it looked on the MRI!) and filled the cavity with cotton cording. Always the funny guy, just as he woke up from the anesthesia he exclaimed, "I'm alive!"
Glad they helped my baby boy, and he's lucky that he's worth the four grand it cost (our portion after insurance)!
On the 7th I had Faith drive Buddy and I to buy some doughnuts. I love the little macrame fake plant she has hanging from her rear view!
(Clearly doughnuts help with recovery from butt surgery!)
On August 10th, only Heather and I showed up to early morning workout. We still got our sweat on!
That afternoon Joy & Jordan's family + Eric took their flight to Seattle.
Our flight was with Delta that evening. Everything started fine, but just as we readied for landing at Seattle/Tacoma International, we were diverted by air traffic control to Portland. Turns out a ground service airline employee stole a plane and was flying it around! He was chased by fighter jets and then he crashed. Super crazy and it caused us to be delayed by several hours getting to our destination.
We arrived in the middle of the night, so we slept in a bit on the 11th. Here's Bud playing with the hotel in-room coffee maker.
We then boarded our Holland America cruise (Eurodam was the name of the ship) that my dad was so amazing to take the whole family on!!! (minus Celeste, who had a ticket, but then decided to leave on a mission early instead) We didn't love that they didn't let you serve yourself at the buffet, but the food was good.
Dad ended up getting the perk of a free drink package, so the kids often had a virgin mango daiquiri in their hand!
Towel animals are always a hit.
Tammy sent this photo to let us know Skittles was making herself at home there :D
On the 12th, Tony and I started our day at sea with a galley tour.
And Christian deviated from the mango to try a virgin chocolate mudslide.
Be careful of this ship's gargoyles--apparently they bite!
Bud had some fun with the big google eyes from the towel animal. He even went to the balcony next door to scare grandma!
That night was a fancy dress dinner.
August 13th and our first port was Juneau!
Loved these cute chocolate otter pops!
Our excursion first took us to the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center by bus.
Shortly after arriving and starting to walk around, I saw a huge dog out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look and noticed it was a black bear!! Pointed it out to everyone as they were also seeing it. It wandered across the walking path and went through a hole in the fence on our left. As we were remarking how cool it was to have seen a bear, two little cubs came along, but couldn't find the fence hole! We backed up due to the instruction of the park ranger, but were able to get some pictures of the cute little guys. Eventually they found their way through and to their mom, which we were grateful for because a threatened mamma bear didn't sound like a fun time!
We also enjoyed seeing the glacier.
And the salmon!
Then back on the bus to take us to our whale watching portion of the tour. Here we are on the boat:
We were able to spot whales!!
All the adventure apparently wiped Buddy out :D
On the 14th our ship did a scenic cruise of Glacier Bay. We were so thankful for our balconies!!
It was so breathtaking!
Here is Skittles barking at everyone on her car trip with grandma and Tammy on the 15th.
That day we arrived in Sitka. We took this photo because seeing the bank made us think of Tam!
Souvenir purchases:
We got the whole fam together and walked the Totem Trail in Sitka National Historic Park.
The tall trees were stunning!
It had a serene beach.
I got adventurous and ate a red berry found on a tree.
We loved the totem poles,
and even saw Bald Eagles up close!
Also saw more cool spawning salmon.
Such a gorgeous city!
We went to trivia most days hosted by Faz, the assistant cruise director, and he quickly became a celebrity to us!
August 16th we arrived in Ketchikan. We had an excursion which took us for a rain forest walk through Tongass National Forest,
and then, after a break with a delicious snack of smoked salmon dip, a tour through Totem Bight State Historical Park.
That afternoon, Christian and I finally made it to tea time and enjoyed lots of yummy treats!
More interesting decor:
The 17th was mostly at sea. Here we are, ready for more trivia.
And that evening we pulled into port at Victoria, British Columbia Canada. There wasn't much we wanted to do there, but we did get off the ship and visit the port shop.
We had such an amazing time!! I think we all enjoyed it more than we thought we would and fell in love with Alaska. It was also incredible to be able to share our experiences with so much family!
Here are some photos that we did not purchase:
And some souvenirs. My mom loved to visit the jewelry stores and collect the free charms at each.
After just a few short days at home, it was time for back to school on the 22nd. Bud had a bit of a rough time and I forgot to get Faith's picture before she left.
Just as Faith got home, we had the craziest storm with HUGE hail!!!
It decimated our poor garden :(
But we still got cute first-day-of-school pics that afternoon.
August 25th and the new schedule is wiping our Baby Faith out! At least she has a nap snuggle bunny.
We made a cheese factory and Smith & Edwards run that afternoon.
On the 26th we celebrated our Buddy boy's 12th birthday at the grandparents' with an awesome Harry Potter themed cake which he made.
photobomb!
Tammy said this would be her last themed party since the kids were getting so big, and she made this a cute one!
Christian did some Lego building on the 30th and came up with some cool stuff.
