Road Trip to Rapid City

PETER'S FIRST ROAD TRIP!

Peter officially ventured out of the state of Colorado 'over the hills and across the river to grandmother's house'! Despite a crazy week that had me in New Hampshire Monday through Thursday, and Denver on business Friday - we loaded up and headed to South Dakota to see John's parents. Peter traveled in luxury having graduated up to a big boy car seat finally! We left late and arrived in the wee hours....2:30am on Saturday to be exact - John and I were the walking dead at that time!

It was all go all weekend....thank goodness for Starbucks! Saturday we took the kids to "Story Book Island" in Rapid City. This is a park with statues and small attractions based on different story books - from Thomas the Train, to Winnie the Pooh, Pinochio and so many others. It was HOT that day. Peter pooped out at the park (I think from the long ride they night before) and slept through it all. Alexandra and Michael remembered the park from prior visits - so they ran Jack and Tommy around to the different attractions. I myself have been there once before - Thanksgiving in sleet.....so the 100+ degree weather was a welcome change. Tommy and Jack were extremely excited to wrap up our stroll by getting cowboy hats. Sidebar for a second - Jack and Tommy's treat every weekend is to go to our local King Soopers stores to ride the penny horse ride. John insists I have lost my savings with the price of gas - but often the cooperation I get on a Saturday morning is rewarded with whipped cream from Starbucks and a few rides on the penny horse ride. Tommy likes the big horse at one store, and Jack the smaller double horse ride at another....so there is some drama there! However, the two boys and I had been on the look out for cowboy hats they could wear to ride the penny horse - and now we have them! And just in case you are wondering about the picture with Winnie the Pooh below - yes, that is Tommy; yes, he likes primary colors; yes, he dresses himself! And in the whole trip this was the one day he survived without wearing his favorite red M&M t-shirt...although he did insist on putting it back on after bath time!

Then we headed off to Canyon Lake Park - close to the golf course where John learned to golf. We enjoyed lunch outdoors and Peter perked up great. He was starving and ate like a champ in the outdoors. We then headed over to the creek/river so that John and Michael could go fishing. Tommy and Jack played around. Alexandra's highlight of the trip was sliding down the spill way. Michael was petrified and after a minor melt down at the top of the spill way eventually took the plunge. Not sure he will do it again, but Alexandra will not doubt be taking her kids down one day. Peter enjoyed crawling around and climbing on us all. And - for the first time - completely on his own moved from the laying down position to the sitting position WOW!! Of course I went wild taking a million pictures - wish I could post all of them here!

We wrapped up the day with Mass at Grandma's church. The kids were worn out, but there are so many wonderful people who have been praying for Peter - that it was great to show him off! It really is amazing when we think not only of the power of prayer - but of how wide spread the web of prayers for Peter have been - I would say spanning the globe including good old South Dakota! Talking of spanning...well, spinning....here are some shots of the little boys mastering the skill of hoola-hooping.....and long lost skill among today's younger generation if you ask me!

Sunday was our hiking/national park day. How many of you have seen the "National Treasure 2" movie? Well - we recreated the movie. In the morning we headed out to Sylvan lake somewhat behind Mt Rushmore. That is the scene in the movie where they open the entrance into the temple of gold, etc. Anyway....after doing much research - which really just involved watching those scenes a hundred times over - our kids were thrilled to see John had figured out the appropriate location of the filming. And - amazingly enough they climbed the same rock formations and after much searching found the hole in which Nicholas Cage stuck his hand. Amazing!! The views were spectacular and we got lots of walking around the lake in. Peter rode in the backpack and really was a trooper enjoying the fresh air.

After fishing, hiking and taking the paddle boats out (thanks Grandpa!) we headed over to Mt Rushmore. Tommy was the most excited and keep wanting to get closer to the "big heads in the mountain". He talked to them and of course waved big good byes when we left. He is still talking about the "heads"! We also went through the exhibits they have there....and Alexandra in true tradition of the ladies on my side of the family could have spent the whole day in the gift shop picking things up, putting them down, trying them on, walking around and somewhere hoping someone would hand her a lot of money to buy all the items she fancied! The younger boys spent time dancing on the colored blocks in the cement floor. However, the highlight was the exhibit where you can blow rock up....so in the museum area they have an old fashion detonator - you push down on the handle and a video screen shows rock blowing up. The boys remembered it from last time and I think they could have spent all afternoon blowing up virtual rock! We wrapped up the day with a homemade spaghetti dinner joined by John's niece Shannon and her boyfriend. It is hard to believe Shannon is now in college as she was younger than Jack when she came to John and mine's wedding in Florida so many eons ago!

John got up early Monday with his dad to golf. Of course it rained! But they persisted and got all 18 holes in! Grandma and I took the kids to play in a swimming pool/water park type theme park at a local hotel - it cost an arm and a leg! Peter slept, Tommy rode the lazy river once and then wanted nothing to do with the water, Jack made lots of friends hanging out in the hot tub (really not sure what that spells out for his future - oh Lord have mercy on the girls he fancies one day!). Alexandra explored the most and loved getting soaked. Michael got every penny worth of that experience by climbing the stairs and shooting down the slides for almost three straight hours!

We then headed back home....and finally got home around 10:30pm. We were exhausted. We took the scenic ride home and actually saw incredible amount of wild life. The kids most enjoyed the huge herds of buffalo.....of course we were not quite so amused when the buffalo decided to nap in the middle of the road - hmmm....how close do you really want to be to a sleeping buffalo who wakes up grumpy. John really didn't think our insurance company would buy it if our minivan lost a battle to the buffalo! Thank goodness all ended well!!

(and for the record - no - I didn't get out of the car to take the picture of us passing the sleeping buffalo on the road - that is the car in front of us.....just in case you doubted my sanity after what is clearly an long period of sleep deprivation and a lot of fresh air!)

Back to Mr. Peter given that this was his first trip out of town other than Denver. Rapid City is a lower altitude than Colorado Springs by several thousands of feet and we really believe it made a difference. Peter's coloring was better, his appetite and feeding was better and his energy was through the roof - honestly you would have thought we had him on a caffeine drip. At 11pm we were shutting off the lights and rocking him till he finally would go to sleep. Now, unfortunately I forgot our pulsox probes at home and we didn't want to risk going to the hospital and being lumped with an unpaid out-of-network claim.....yes even us people in the insurance business worry about our claims not being paid! I probably should have lowered Peter's oxygen level as we got lower, but without any readings we left him at his same O2 levels. I think we may have given him too much which would explain the hyperactivity. Since he got home he is back on a more normal sleeping schedule. We have our next cardiologist appointment next week so I will give him our annecdotal experience and let you know what he says. I honestly have mixed feelings. John and I had somewhat decided to try our hardest to stay in Colorado assuming that we could get Peter stable here by the time he turned two - but the change was quite significant. Now, we really weren't there long enough to get a true reading on his improvements - but it does confirm in my mind that a lower altitude may be required. Other Peter highlights - Peter did push into the sitting position on two other occassions - and then today pulled himself up to standing at the couch (after the cushions were removed). And, as if that weren't already enough for this weekend - Peter's 4th tooth came in....so now we have two on the top and two on the bottom!! YEAH PETER!!!!!

OK. I have to go to Denver tomorrow....so better get to bed! I hope you enjoy our pictures....if I have time I will put them all in a slide show and add them to the blog some other time. And one more request - please pray for my parents' safe travels. God has kept them safe despite the hurricanes in Florida where they have been visiting. They were headed back to Peru at the end of this week - but surprised us today by letting us know they are coming up to Colorado! We are just besides ourselves with excitement at their visit. They get here on Friday and will stay just over a week. I have a feeling they won't recognize the kids as they have grown so much over the last year!

God bless you all!

catherine