Round Four

Today there is snow in the mountains of Utah, so looking at this picture of our return trip to Minnesota taken in July seems like another lifetime. 

Wyatt was the epitome of a patient patient. He bore everything with dignity, and a splash of goofiness (thank heaven!).  I can almost read his mind in this photo: "Okay I'll smile - AGAIN!"

Back at the Hallstrom homefront, here's the cat utterly exhausted. He would chase the broom around when I'd sweep the kitchen floor (always accompanied by the music of either the Beatles or Herman's Hermits which was played by their magic music machine "Alexa!"). I told Angie my job was to be "Alice" on the Brady Bunch. It's a lot more fun to clean someone else's house. It's no fun to clean my own house.

This was taken the from the freeway as we were heading into Minneapolis. I love the Mississippi river and the Minneapolis skyline in the picture.

My project for round four was making Wyatt a Twin's blanket. I saw a smooth binding like this on a blanket he received during round three and wanted to copy it. The cat was enthralled with everything about this. He would pounce on my arm, attack the pins, loll about on the fabric and completely derailed my progress. You can tell when a family owns a kitten because everyone has scratched-up arms! I finally had to lock him away in the mud room so I could finish pinning the blanket. And then I completely forgot about him because he didn't meow or anything. That'll teach him!

We celebrated so many milestone in that hospital room. That's what happens after six months in that hospital room. Happy Anniversary Angie and Forrest! And yes, that's a cast on Angie's arm. Unbelievable but she broke her arm riding her bike while they were on a get-away at a resort, between rounds three and four. She handled it like a trooper. No, that's not even a good enough description. She handled it like a general! She has been amazing. Pins, plates, cast, zipper stitches up the forearm and all. Like she said, "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" I will add, "HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID!

Angie and Forrest's Anniversary crepe. Wyatt reaaallllly wanted crepes that day, and Forrest and Angie produced some beauties! Forrest made the crepes at home, with lemon curd, fresh home-grown raspberries and all the trimmings. Then we brought everything to the room along with the griddle (!) and rewarmed them right in the room. I was nervous that we would get in trouble. You know, give 'em an inch they'll take a mile, the next thing you know the Hallstroms will be bringing in Forrest's smoker and doing a turkey! But Forrest told me that if any of the nurses objected, just give 'em a crepe. And of course, none of the nurses objected, they thought it was awesome. Wyatt demolished five crepes and could have eaten more but Angie told him that was plenty!

Round Four was a long haul for Wyatt. He was in the hospital for about 40 days, during which time he went through puberty and grew a stach!"

One evening Forrest drove us to St. Paul and oh my gosh we loved it! Jonas and Elise started laughing every time Dennis and I would say "look at that!" "Hon, look at THAT!" over and over as we drove through the area with the old houses. I adore old houses. Forrest, we discovered, leans more toward the post-modern sleek and angular look. And here is beautiful Elise looking very post-modern, sleek and angular on the river  walk.

Wyatt playing jazz with his cool music therapist. She was pregnant and due any minute as were four of the nurses. CRAZY. They were all due within two weeks of each other.

Dennis with eyebrows! Egad!

Touring the heart of downtown Minneapolis. It's all fun and games until Dennis and I both try to take selfies at the same time, and his arm hit my arm and my phone went flying. My first shattered screen - it's never been the same since. My cheeks are constantly hitting "mute" and "speaker" while I talk (as you kids know, sorry!).

Duct tape slippers! Wyatt and I also made a duct tape wallet and it was a blast! We followed a  YouTube tutorial given by a darling little 12-year-old girl who was as exacting as a rocket scientist. I didn't bring a ruler but a nice nurse found me a nursing tape measure (used to measure the circumference of limbs or heads?) and we meticulously cut out and assembled a duct tape wallet in a night and a morning, including six handy dandy pockets for credit cards! No photos though, dang.

Every day fresh sheets and a mopped floor and a bed made so tight you could bounce a quarter off it. It probably is billed at $1,000/hr. but sure was nice to watch.

Each Sunday a family would bring Wyatt the sacrament. This day it was two Priests - the one in the suit coat had just been ordained a Priest that very day. Three mighty handsome, glowing young men there!

Wyatt trotting along behind the guys as they left, pulling his cart full of a myriad of medicines

We saw winter, spring and summer come go through this window on the 7th floor of Children's Hospital.

Here we are playing Ultimate Werewolf , a game which I never quite got the hang of, but it sure was fun. It always gave me a jolt when during the spooky music beginning part my eyes would meet someone else's eyes and it would be like, "okay, hey, we're both Werewolves!" But NOW what do I do? We played a ton of games in the hospital. We taught Wyatt Up and Down the River, played Old Maid and Speed, and a super fun game I'll always remember playing with one of their friends Kimmie Sandberg that they no longer make but you match pictures with your team-mate and score points on how many you guess that match your team mate. It was so fun.

This photo was taken on our last day at the hospital with Wyatt before we headed home for Utah. I love this photo. He looks so calm and knowing and sweet.

And Joe-Joe bunny. I guess that's not a name a 15-year-old still wants? He's the greatest. I love being with Jonas. He is the glue in so many ways!!

Waving a final good-bye until we see you in Utah in a few weeks. Love you Wyatt Dean!! I didn't think it would be difficult to leave the hospital for the last time, but it was really hard.

I love you too kitty, but not quite enough to keep you in the suitcase, although I am impressed with how perfectly he fit himself in!

Good night moon; Good night room; Good night pillow, Good night lamp, good night blankets, good night blinds, and good night to an old lady who never eats mush and never says hush.
Thank you, bless you Angie and Forrest and Jonas and Elise and Ethan and Wyatt for sharing your lives with us during this time of trial  and sharing such great faith and love.  Wyatt is in remission, he's healthy and glowing and loving 4th grade. So grateful!

XOXOXO
Grandma

What Today Looked Liked

Here are 10 of the hundreds of photos we took this morning on our drive up Big Cottonwood Canyon to Silver Lake. It was stormy which made it even more beautiful. What a beautiful world and my favorite time of year. I would like to go up in the mountains every day. We have both been fighting bad colds and I needed to get out of the house today and it was a perfect cure. We're supposed to get eight inches of snow in the mountains tonight!

If you stayed with me until the end thank you!!
XOXO
Mom

Living The List

Andrea showed me a list of all the things she hoped to do while they were in Utah. My response? "Woo who I'm coming along for the ride!" I'm so grateful Tony and Cindy's family were able to join with us too. It's the cousins that make it fun!

One day we went to the trampoline place. It's a fun place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. The big kids were all over the ninja course, all of them doing great and making it further than they did last year, and the little kids bounced themselves sweaty-heady, and all had curly hair to show for it. Eli the buddy was not little enough to be little or big enough to be big so he needed Jack and Wyatt to be medium with! It was a blast watching everyone jump, dive, twist, turn, fall, laugh and play. 

One day we went downtown Salt Lake City to the Church History Museum across from Temple Square. It's a beautiful building, and you can visit as a group, or one-on-one (as I was able to do with Jonas and Elise later this summer) or alone (as I did while I was serving at the conference center). The new film of the first vision is really captivating, although it's in pana-vision and can make me motion-sick if I'm not careful.

Jane Marie and Whitney Amelia showing their lovely and feminine spirits, matched by the equally pretty stained glass window behind them.

Calvin sat down at this station and stayed the entire night. He was hooked. I'm not even sure exactly what it was he was doing either. And I think he's going to be left-handed. I usually am slow to notice if someone gets a new watch, or shoes, or purse. But I always notice if someone is writing left-handed.

These are light tables where the kids created different shapes with pieces of plexi-glass. It was colorful and challenging and rewarding all at the same time, as you can see by Lauren's look of total concentration!

Vivi and Eli putting their geometry skills to the test. See, sometimes we use math in real life!

Reagan is my go-to gal whenever I can't figure out instructions, and she was a whiz at this origami table. Seriously I look at those instructions that are painted on that table and my mind sees three different ways to do each instruction, and I don't know which one is correct.

When Andrew was a little boy, I'd give him puzzles to work on, and he would dutifully complete lots of them, but finally one time he said, "Puzzles give me a HEADACHE!"

Denny and Joe and Emma hosted us one night at their beautiful home. They've got a brand new kitchen, new theatre room (spelled "re" for Grandpa Hiatt); and have completely redone their family room in the basement. It's so beautiful! and we enjoyed the best treats - frozen sherbet deserts in cute coconut shells and grapefruit halves. There was lots of visiting and piano playing! I would have photos of the piano playing but it's hard to get flattering photos when people are playing piano player piano players.

Another item on the list was to hike to the waterfall above Sundance. Andrew and Andrea and their family had arrived before we did, and already taken some family photos before, so I don't have any of them. But here's the Tony and Cindy Sweat family, sans Lauren (AGAIN) because she's a teenager and has to work! It makes me realize how fleeting the years are when they are all under one roof. There were lots of other things we did while we were home, but I don't have photos so I can't remember them ha ha. I shouldn't use "ha ha" because I'm almost 64 and that's reserved for people 35 and under, but, it fits, ha ha.

I want to wake up to this every morning  - I can't look at it without smiling! I just pictured Tony trying to throw me up in the air like that and now I'm laughing.

Picture-framed Care Bear!

Okay......okay, let's take "jumping" photos! Ready?

 "JUMP - No, Reagan, not yet, wait!"

 "Oh, never mind, JUMP B!"

   Hilarious.

 Well, at least they're both on their feet in the first and last photos!

 Cute girls in their hand-crafted "Sweat" shirts!

Cindy and Andrea would probably have done a jumping photo if I would have asked them!

We definitely are beyond the "jumping photo" stage. These are the "Sweat" shirts we made. See how mine is white with blue lettering? That's the "happy accident" that worked out in the end because that's how the "Keep Calm and Carry On" saying is printed. Did Winston Churchill say that? Or maybe Ann Landers, or the CEO of Hobby Lobby?

The destination of the hike is this waterfall.

It's a long hike, but I really love it. It's nice to work up a good head of sweat and steam, and I don't do it on my own! It's probably two miles up and two miles back. These three teenagers ended up getting there before we did and were already soaked to the skin after going underneath the f-f-f-r-r-r-e-e-e-zing cold waterfall a few times.

Last year Jane had "go under a waterfall" on her bucket list, I'll never forget that.

There is a steep cliff off to the right side of the waterfall, above the path (you can see it in the first photo) It's not the really big cliff, just the rocks to the right). As the rest of us were reaching the waterfall, I started having cold sweats thinking about these three who had arrived ahead of us. I was afraid they would climb the cliff. I was so glad when we arrived and they were on the ground, smiling, soaking wet and safe! I told them how relieved I was they hadn't climbed the cliffs. They exchanged glances......Well, at least I'm glad I wasn't there to see it :-) I lectured them "sternly" about risks, and said if someone "dares" you to do something, don't do it! Dennis smiled and said, "I don't think Brandon and Reagan have to be DARED to do anything!"

And so from the shadow of the everlasting hills, and with one cute spit-bubble added for good measure, we say good-bye til next year to the North Carolina Sweats!