Virginia Beach Trip

We try and turn these trips to Virginia into as much fun as we can fit in alongside a surgery. Coming in January this year was a bit disheartening as we were hoping for a summer visit this time, but it does make an oceanfront room affordable so that has its perks. We love the easy walk to the sand, the sunsets and sunrises, and seeing dolphins almost every day. So here are the highlights of our trip...

Trip Prep
Okay, so I got this crazy thought since I knew there would be plennnnnty of tv watching as Makin recuperated from surgery...lets get through this plane ride without any DVDs...so Super Dad Brad found us lots of Magic Tree House audio books we could put on our phones. Worked wonderfully!!!

Awesome Airport Seats

Lost Luggage
I'm officially going to cram our stuff into carry-ons moving forward. Can't even tell you how many kids I saw toting around a backpack and pulling a carry-on through the airport...that is going to be us! I have flown twice in the last year, and BOTH times my luggage was lost. I'm officially motivated.

By day two we checked our bags status and it was still in Dallas (can you say DIRECT FLIGHT PEOPLE!?!) so we made a trip to Target to get the things we needed to survive another night/day. We called and talked to customer service every day to "nudge" our bag along and finally got it Friday, 4 days after we arrived. Brad and I were very thankful the bag with our clothing made it with us. So much easier to buy a quick outfit for the kiddos. This pic is the kids showing off their new jammies and tooth brushes. Of course that was the bag I moved all my shoes, soap and makeup into since ours was too heavy...I'll try to end the rant now...but in case you keep wondering why Brad needs to shave in the following pictures, now you know he was waiting for his shaving supplies to arrive. :)

Nauticus
This was a museum Brad and Lorelei went to last November and Makin wanted to check it out since he missed out last time. They especially enjoyed running around exploring The Wisconsin.

From Left, Clockwise - Loved trying to capture items with the claw in the yellow sub. The Wisocnsin
Petting some kind of crab, seeing jellyfish in the water by the ship (Lorelei spotted them!). Pretend fishing.

Such exploring to be done on a ship this size! I have no idea how they ever learned where anything was on these things. My favorite part was the donut shop. They had donuts all day long according to the info I read!

Favorite Foods
We wanted plenty of yummy food before the mush diet. :) No surprise at what Makin picked for our last meal! Brad and I decided a hotel with a kitchen would be important this trip, especially with how many days they wanted us to stay after the surgery! It made a HUGE difference in our sanity for the recovery time and we were really glad we made that choice.

(Not in the day's order.) Magnum bars (crushed up for loose teeth)
fish sticks with mac n cheese, chocolate chip Eggo waffles

First Friends
I love that we can get together with Melissa and her family when we visit. It seems like so long ago these kiddos were having playdates together before they were even in preschool. We saw the Bonfiglios one evening and one afternoon during our stay.

Taking a walk. Lorelei and Kira playing in the snow with Callie.
The boys enjoying a game of ping pong.

Beach Time
This is Lorelei's happy place. No doubt about it. I'm not sure I ever see the girl smile as big as she does when she is at the beach. Combining beach pictures into a collage just doesn't work most of the time...can't do them justice!

We took a walk one evening (when normal humans would not wear swim suits ;) )
and saw some HUGE jellyfish. We were walking to look for shells and saw about 10 jellyfish this size on the sand.
Much of the time Lorelei liked to pretend to be a dog. :)

The weather wasn't great for Makin, but we talked him into getting out the warmest/sunniest day.
My favorite part was that as soon as we got him out to where his sister was playing that morning (first day "home" after surgery) we looked out at the water and a dolphin jumped out right in front of us.
It was like they waited just to make our day! :)

Down Time
There has to be a lot of down time worked in when recovering from surgery. We stayed several days longer this time than last time, which made the trip home much more doable, but the hotel stay does get long when you can't get out much.

The hotel pool was a bit iffy, for the most part Brad thought it was too cold, but he toughed it out as much as he could swim with L. She swam at least a short amount almost every day. We saved some of the easier school work for the hotel, so we didn't have quite as long of a week beforehand trying to fit a week and a half of work into a weekend. Lots of TV after recovery. The hotel had a game room which Makin loved. It was a little variety when he got sick of TV.

Grecelyn's Mom texted this to me. Her journal "I like to play..." :)
Made me smile! Notice their matching GCA shirts and correct eye color for each?

Mug of ice cream soup.
Every. Day.

When a little boy doesn't want to clean the dried up blood out of his nose...
you make sure and tell him they look like walrus tusks! Anything to make it more fun!

Amazing views to brighten up our days and nights!

Dolphin Watch - saw them almost every day...even saw a baby once!
We also saw some kind of whale one day, couldn't figure out what kind but that was pretty awesome!

Heading Home
Loved the kiddos playing Legos at the airport. It is pretty rough combining the mush diet with a full day of traveling. I am amazed at how many smoothie/ice cream places they have at airports, but its still not great on any tummy when you combine sugary mush diet with flying nerves...Was so glad to get home.

Surgery Time

"Why are these doctor people so into fish?"

Where to begin on this one...

It feels like God has guided us through this challenge from before we even knew we would have Makin. We truly feel that is why we took the job in Virginia Beach. We were put with this surgeon without even asking. We had help from the CHKD team very quickly after finding out Makin had a cleft lip and palate in the womb. It was really emphasized this visit, just how blessed we were. Not only because we have the reality of changing to a different surgeon moving forward, but also because Operation Smile was doing some filming for their 35th anniversary AND they had a celebration luncheon shortly after our appointment with Dr. MaGee. We were able to meet more people affected and hear some great stories about Dr. MaGee. We were also filmed and will likely be in a video they put together for the 35th anniversary of Operation Smile. I'll post that when we see it. (Not sure when the exact date is.)

Being Dr. MaGee's LAST surgery at CHKD made us feel a bit like rockstars. :)

I loved hearing about how Operation Smile got started. It has been easy to dote, "Yes, his surgeon is one of the founders of Operation Smile" but it was more of a reality as another founder shared a bit of the story at lunch. (Which was really a lot of people crowded into their office waiting room, Dr. MaGee didn't want a fuss about it and his assistant said he would be annoyed at her for organizing it. :) ) Apparently the insurance system was not going to approve of these surgeries. When one of the other Doctors (who is now retired) told Dr. M this, he simply said, "Well, we need to raise money for them to have these surgeries then." His wife suggested the the idea of a run for raising funds, which they continue to do now 35 years later. Through Operation Smile they (along with other doctors who volunteer) have performed 250,000 surgeries. Brad did some reading during Makin's surgery, and it mentioned the first trip overseas to the Phillipeans, there were 300 families greeting them as they got off the airplane, and they were only able to do 40 surgeries that trip. They determined they had to come back.

Dr. M also mentioned how hard it was to retire from his practice. (Although it sounds like he has more than a full time job working for Operation Smile, which he plans to continue.) "When you retire from this type of profession and you hear from many of your patients, you go home feeling rather depressed. So keep me in your prayers."

One other fun moment was in the parking garage of all places. I noticed a man from the lunch coming up the stairs behind us. (He accidentally went up one extra floor...God-thing in my opinion!) I asked him how he knew Dr. MaGee. Turns out his son, who is 33 now, was born with a cleft lip and palate. His wife had some medical connections and they told him to go to Dr. MaGee. He moved from Fort Worth, Texas to Virginia in order for his son to have Dr. MaGee doing his surgeries. Now his grandson is 1 1/2 and has had Dr. M doing his surgeries until now as well. They both came down with the flu so weren't able to be at the party. What a great story! And boy I wish I would have gotten his email. I love meeting other families who go through this.

Indulging in a strawberry milk the day before surgery.

Now for the surgery...Makin walked back to the surgery room without any kind of meds to make him sleepy. He teared up a bit, gave us hugs, and then walked off with the nurses asking him questions to distract him. Oddly waiting through his surgeries is feeling a little too normal for me. Lorelei was on her best behavior coloring and listening to audio books. Brad usually makes a Starbucks run downstairs as we have never had anything to eat/drink that morning since Makin can't before surgery.

Dr. MaGee felt good about the surgery and feels pretty confident we won't have a problem in this place (front of his palate) again. Sure hope he is right, but we have learned there are no guarantees. We have a "no chew" rule for food (again) to try and keep this fistula from coming back. We were all very relieved he did not have to have packing in his mouth after surgery since the hole was smaller. This made the initial recovery much easier. They also worked to open up the left side of Makin's nose, so that makes the recovery more obvious on the outside. He could hardly breath out of that side of his nose, so we felt it was necessary.

Amazingly in the recovery area we had the same nurse we had last November. She and I both recognized each other, but I was surprised she even recalled how he reacted after surgery. "I remember he is really stoic right? Doesn't want to tell you he is in pain?" He probably never remembers her because of the meds, but she is def my favorite. The funny thing is Makin is usually not that stoic when it comes to pain. He is definitely what I consider the typical male and needs a hug when he gets hurt. Surgery somehow he reacts differently. He got one dose of pain meds right out of surgery and didn't want any more after that, even though it was through his IV. Not sure where that comes from, but we respect his wishes.

He was very happy when we found out his hospital room had a DVD player. He used some of his Christmas money to buy the Nexo Knights DVD and had not seen it yet. When he found out he could watch it he clapped his hands. (He talks minimally the first 24 hours after surgery or so...)"That's the only thing I have seen bring him joy, he is going to have a DVD player!" That was another nurse who called someone to replace a broken player in his room so that he could watch his DVD.

He is such a trooper and we were thrilled to be getting out of the hospital around noon the next day. I'm still glad we stay the night just so that he has plenty of fluids in his system, but no hospital stay is any fun!

I was a little disappointed when talking with the patient coordinator about what we need to do moving forward. I really want a break from all of this, but it looks like we can't wait long before meeting with an orthodontist. Then he will asses when Makin should have something put in his mouth to spread out his teeth to make an arch. This is usually done before he turns 8 or so...crossing my fingers they will opt to wait until he IS 8. I would like a year and a half off. Then when the archway is formed, he will go in for a surgery to have a bone put into the palate. That will likely warrent another trip to VA as we are planning to use the surgeon Dr. M worked most closely with as they have similar views of how to do things. The first step is finding the right orthodontist here.

Surgery #5

If you are feeling like we seem to average a surgery per year...that'd be about right and those are our sentiments exactly.

We are tired of surgeries and mush diets...but when you walk into CHKD you can hardly contemplate feeling sorry for yourself...we have a boy who is healthy, active, and smart with a full life ahead of him...these are still speed bumps...just one of those really annoying parking lots with way more speed bumps than you wish it had...

We noticed there was another fistula in Makin's palate and got ahold of Dr. MaGee's office around Sept/Oct to let them know. Then we got the email I have been dreading for about 6 years...Dr. MaGee was retiring...in December. I emailed asking if there was any way he could fit us in in December...forget caring about eating Christmas cookies, I wanted our surgeon! Well, Dr. MaGee must have decided to bend the rules a bit and offered to do a surgery for Makin in January. While our hearts are a bit broken we don't get a summer beach trip combined with surgery, we feel that strongly about Dr. MaGee's expertise. So, the decision was made and we just had to decide how many of us were going.

We decided it would be best if all four of us went. We got a bit more space in the hotel this time around and are staying several days longer for recovery, so hoping that means I won't need to carry this sweet boy through the airport on the way home. :)

We appreciate your prayers. Surgery is January 11th and we will spend one night in the hospital.  He has a really hard time the first few days after surgery because he is miserable with the packing in his mouth. We will have yet another mush diet for 3 weeks following.

Winter Break

Because we had a week where it was a lot of Christmas prep at home and family time, we were very ready for getting out and meeting friends right after Christmas. I quickly started making plans of how we were going to keep Makin from looking like this for another week and a half. :)













Arbor Hills
We absolutely love going to Arbor Hills. The weather was perfect and this was something I knew the kids would enjoy just the three of us! We loved adventuring up new trails and it was nice enough the kids could put their feet in the water. Thankfully I was smart enough to pack flip flops for those wet feet this time!

We even headed to the park after this trip because Makin needed another chance to fly his new drone...so Lor spent some more time in the sand while Makin and Brad (on a lunch break) got some drone time in.

Lake With Friends
We met Alex and Amelia at the lake. Amelia is one of Makin's closer friends in his class. Their mom and I have gotten to know each other better this year when I'm at the school making copies and she is at the front desk. Alex is in 3rd grade but she and Lorelei ended up playing great together, especially when they found out they are less than 6 months apart in age. :) Yes, this also made it the third day in a row to the lake.

Park and Chic Fil A
We met more friends at the park for a few hours and then headed to Chic Fil A where we ran into another set of friends, so stayed there playing way longer than planned. It was great.

So appreciate this weather, especially since you never know how rainy spring break will be!

American Girl Bistro
Since Lorelei asked Santa for "surprises" this year, he gave her a reservation for an American Girl Tea. She has my Kirsten doll from my childhood and while she doesn't play a ton with dolls, she does like them enough I knew she would like this special tea. She did get an outfit for her and her doll as well so it was fun for her to get dressed up alike...although definitely not Kirsten's usual style. ;)

And yes, L chose pink lemonade over tea. :)

We had special mother/daughter time together. It was a little overcrowded for my taste, but I know she felt very special. :) I'm now contemplating recreating out own tea at home sometime in the spring...will see if it happens. :)

Ninja Warrior
We met friends at Ninja Warrior but were pretty disappointed at how crowded it was. Makin only had a handful of kids there last time, so we plan to hold out for a non school break day for our next visit! Thankfully our friends had already planned to come to our house afterwards and they loved running around together for a couple of hours. :)

Movies
We needed to do something fun for our New Years, so Brad and I decided a special trip to the movies was it. We went to see Moana and "Loved it." was the review from the kids. :) Makin was cold in the theater so seriously sat on my lap the entire movie...which is harder than you would think with those theater chairs! I kept telling myself...someday he will want you to drop him off with his friends for a movie...enjoy this! :)



Sweet and Sassy and Interskate
Savannah invited Lorelei to join her at Sweet and Sassy for a girly makeover. This meant updo, makeup and nails done...and a few extras. This was one of her Christmas gifts and what a treat to be the friend to enjoy it with her. So special! I knew Lorelei would be in heaven. We snuck in getting Lorelei's ear re-pierced beforehand. (It closed up while recovering from the whole earlobe debacle.)

I kept the little brothers busy at the play area while the girls got pampered. They basically ran laps around the play area...and loved it.















We had to check out the indoor surfers...this is on the kid's bucket list. :)

Then we all headed to a roller rink. The week before Makin had commented while roller-blading around the entire house, "I wish we had our own roller rink upstairs." That got my gears turning and I immediately started planning a trip to one of the closest roller rinks. All the roller skating/blading they have done around the house made this a wonderful outing! They were loyal to their not-so-used-to-skating friends while also enjoying the freedom of being confident skaters, and one more family from GCA joined us as well. It was such a great time. As soon as we got buckled in the car after 2 hrs of skating Makin just said, "That was fun."

I was so thankful for this fun-packed break. Feeling so blessed.

Goodbye 2016

We read through our jar again this year. I feel like we slacked a bit in tucking away the memories, but it was still fun to read through what we did remember!

I seriously spent close to an hour trying to find a different song...they just didn't cut it!

And so...here are the Stahl Family Highlights of 2016!

Christmas Highlights Week 4

Special Breakfast
I love setting the table the night before this one. :) They took their time decorating their Santa pancakes and of course loved eating them!

Kiss Time
The kids were great helpers with these cookies. :) I ended up spending plenty of extra time baking this year. Lorelei said I had to play Mrs. Claus (while she was a reindeer or dog of course) since Mrs. Claus is always baking. :)

Makin helped unwrap these kisses, caramels, and peppermints (for games) so he said, "I'm like a professional unwrapper!"

Macie, Peyton, Lorelei, Makin and Nayeli

Reindeer Games
We invited several friends from school along with the Armstrongs this year. A few of them got sick at the last minute, but we were glad for the kiddos who made it! It was still on the small side but lots of fun...

Reindeer Ready! :)

A few of the relays...

And who doesn't love the snowman wrap game? :)

Christmas Charades and Gingerbread Man Shuffle

(trying to get the gingerbread man into your mouth using only your face)

Peppermint Stack - First on the table, then on a popsicle stick for an extra challenge.

Amanda got up to 9 stacked on a popsicle stick! I have such talented friends. ;)

Another little note on this one would be Makin's technique. The kids immediately asked if they could lick the peppermints to stack them...I said I didn't know why not. Makin was very concerned because he thinks peppermint is too spicy, so we had him get a wet paper towel so his peppermints would stick together! :)

5th Annual Reindeer Games in the books!

Christmas Lights
I have to laugh at the traditions that pop up occasionally by accident. The kids insisted that we had to take popcorn to go and see Christmas lights. I realize that we have done this several years but didn't realize it was now a REQUIREMENT. :) Somehow they forgot the hot chocolate part we used to add...but I wasn't about to remind them. :) We also delivered coffee cakes to a couple of friends and the kids enjoyed playing Santa and dropping off gifts.

We headed to a singing house this year and really enjoyed just parking and watching for about 30 minutes to the lights choreographed to the music.

Christmas Eve
Because of a few kinks we ended up having our family Christmas games on Christmas Eve. It worked well having something to do to keep us all busy waiting for the afternoon to arrive.








This year Christmas Eve was more teaching the kids about serving. I was in charge of finding hot water, coffee and cookies for our church service we usually have outdoors on the square near a restaurant shopping area. Because of rain, it was moved indoors to an art gallery, but we still ended up having the drinks and treats just outside the studio. Needless to say we were busy picking up all of these items from the various places that donated them, and then setting up the tables and making sure everyone was caffeinated and sugared up before and after the service. While I can't say it was my most memorable Christmas Eve, I know this is just a season and it doesn't hurt the kids to see what goes on to put together a service that many people take for granted showing up for. :)

Had to get a family shot at some point!

Cookies (for Santa), carrots (8 reindeer) and a candy cane (for Rudolph)

Christmas Day
We had a lazy (hmmm sort of...Brad and I sure didn't feel lazy helping the kids with all of their projects...but we were in pajamas so it felt lazyish) morning opening gifts followed by an afternoon at the park and lake. :)

This girl is getting harder and harder to buy for. She is actually really good at being content with what toys she has, but its hard to not get an 8 year old any toys for Christmas! I'm sure its only going to get trickier, but she was very happy with her gifts...and p.s. pottery is messy. ;)

This guy is so grateful when he receives gifts. This year his reactions were typically a big squeal, hugging the item and then coming and hugging us to thank us. Of course, he was really in suspense as to whether Santa would bring him a drone since he wasn't quite old enough...but Santa must have thought he could handle it. The boys sure had a fun time flying it that afternoon, despite the wind.

No Snow? Okay lets play in the sand then. :)

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Highlights Week 3

Baking Sugar Cookies

This year we needed to bake these for Makin's class party so they got done pretty early.

I don't know what L was so shocked about in the bottom pic but I loved it anyway!

School Parties and Library Singing

I was in charge of Makin's party this year, which meant I didn't get a single picture of Lorelei's party!

The chaos of organizing 13 kindergartners to eat lunch and frost cookies got the best of me and I didn't get a chance to sneak over and get a pic of Lor's class. (Oh...so mad at myself!)

Such sweet smiling faces!
Top: Amelia, Gracelyn, Makin and Micah
Bottom: Makin and Lorelei with festive head-wear. Gracelyn and Makin (Best Buds!)

Then they had early release and we headed to the library to sing.

Savannah and Charlie rode with us and we took a few extra ups and downs on the elevator for entertainment. :)

I especially loved the Kindergartners song they learned for the program this year.

Christmas Sleep Out

I love this one. :)

This year we added an air mattress, much better sleep!

Cards

We made Nativity cards to mail to grandparents.

Ice Skating

GCA always has a school ice skating party. Because of rescheduling for weather there wasn't a great turn out, but the kids did enjoy their time. I was reminded why I don't love taking kids ice skating...while Makin took off like a pro, Lor needed me with her the whole time. :) She did get away from the wall as long as she was holding my hand, or within arms reach... Maybe next year she will feel more confident after a few trips around!?

Lego Advent Calendars

These were one of Nana and Papa's Christmas gifts and the kids loved opening them each morning!