Taos, New Mexico

We spent one day exploring Taos, where we saw lots of strange things including a dog driving a car, bears sitting on park benches, babies wearing sombreros, gorillas at the soda counter, ducks you can ride on, a few wild Indians and even a truck with testicles. By the way the boys chickened out when we encouraged them to walk across the Taos Bridge. At least now we know that we don't need to plan a Grand Canyon vacation anytime soon.

At the Cabin

Our first week in Colorado was mostly spent in the mountains at the family's cabin. The boys loved getting and being dirty, smelling like a campfire, riding the 4-wheelers, hiking to the bear cave, playing in the creek, catching water snakes and horny toads, sleeping in sleeping bags, surviving off of S'mores and hotdogs, and of course watching their uncles roll giant rocks down the mountain.

Harley's Baby Blessing

We decided to bless Harley in Georgia with Scott's family. She was blessed on the 4th of July and her daddy did a great job. It was fun to be able to have some family around for her special day.




After the blessing everyone played in Grandpa and Grandma's pool. Nash especially enjoyed relaxing on the raft with Grandma Butler and of course peeing on the monkey grass.


Then we had root beer floats and lit fireworks. It was only a little scary having so many small children running around with flaming sparklers.

Atley's latest Incident

We just returned from our annual July trip to Colorado and have much blogging to do. First, Atley officially completed Kindergarten! Yay! Unfortunately, he missed the last week of school because of an illness that kept returning off and on for about 5 weeks. The doctor's finally wised up and admitted him to the hospital where they proceeded to run a battery of torturous tests. Test one CT Scan. Atley had no problem with this. He has been there and done that before.

Next, blood tests and IV administered.
Then the doctor's returned with the results of the CT Scan. The results showed a severe sinus infection but then I was also told that they had found a cyst on Atley's brain and further tests needed to be administered. News like that definitely deserved a reward and Atley savored his Popsicle.
The head of pediatric neurosurgery at Georgetown wanted an MRI of Atley's brain. This didn't go so well and after three attempts they decided that they would have to put him under to conduct the test.

After coming out of the anesthesia and while waiting for the results, the pediatric nurses were amazing at keeping Atley entertained. They even gave him a doll that he gave an IV to with a real needle. It took a few pokes to get the IV just right and the doll reminded me more of a VOODOO doll than a patient but it kept him distracted for a few minutes.

After many prayers and a lot of anxiety the neurosurgeon called me down to look at the MRI images. He came to the conclusion that the cyst on Atley's brain was harmless and most likely just the way his brain was formed. They don't believe that its' presence affects him neurologically. The plan is just to observe it over the next few years and make sure that it does not change. Fortunately, when Atley fell off the stairs 18 months ago he had a CT Scan. The doctor's were able to compare the results and discover that the brain had not changed in that time period. If not for the previous CT Scan, exploratory surgery might have been the only other option. I never thought I would be thankful for that fall but sometimes things work out in mysterious ways. He seems to be doing a lot better now. He has been treated with steroids, antibiotics, and nasal cleansers over the last 4 weeks. The doctor's think that allergies are the cause of this horrible sinus infection so he has an appointment with an allergist next week. There is never a dull moment with Atley and never a month without at least one Doctor bill. Hopefully now he can healthfully enjoy his summer.