"Drake's got a bloody Nose"

Well come to find out, the bloody nose was the least of my worries. On Tuesday afternoon I was on the computer (probably blogging) and all of a sudden, I hear this horrible scream from the backyard. I knew it wasn't good. You just know those certain screams are serious and this one was one of those. I get outside and Wesley is running up to me "Mom, Drake has a bloody nose!" I go over to Drake, who is standing on one foot limping, and his whole face is covered in blood. He is standing under our huge cottonwood tree so I knew this couldn't be good. He is screaming bloody murder and won't stop. I throw him on my back( I wished it was that easy) and took him in on the couch. By then, his ankle was twice as big as normal. It was so swollen I knew something wasn't right. I tried to get him to calm down--take deep breaths--"I CAN'T!" he says--screaming again and again! I was trying to figure out what happened but I can't get anything out of him, so I go and get some ice, but of course -what kid likes ice on their wound--NONE--he definitely wouldn't let me do that because it killed even worse. So by now I'm frantic wondering what to do. I knew he needed to go to the ER, but I only knew of the one that was downtown which is 30 minutes away. No way was I going there, there had to be one closer -right? So I called Jenn(my sister-in-law) who's had several experiences in the ER with her kids not breathing, so she would definitely know. Well sure enough there was one I could go to that was only 10 minutes away. Thank goodness, I don't know if I could have listened to that piercing scream for 30 minutes. Luckily I have awesome neighbors who dropped everything they were doing and came right over to watch Wesley and Charly--who was sleeping. I felt so bad for Drake, he looked miserable. I'm just trying to talk to him to get him distracted of the pain, so I asked him how it all happened and what happened. I guess he was sitting on the branch of the tree(probably about 6 or so feet up), lost balance and fell off forward. He must have landed on all the big roots and twisted his ankle and then fell forward and messed his eye and face up pretty good. He looked terrible. Come to find out later, he said it was Wesley's fault because he wiggled the branch he was sitting on. That was no big surprise that he would blame it on Wesley---but Wesley did say it was an accident, but who knows what really happened? So anyway--I called Mike and he said he would meet me at the ER. So off I went. Everything went very smoothly. They cleaned up his face, did X-rays, and gave him some pain killer. He finally calmed down after a little while, but you could tell he was in a lot of pain. Mike was so shocked when he got there he was secretly laughing at what Drake looked like. He took some pictures and emailed them to some people, the first one he took all he said on it was "bummer" and the next picture he said "ouch." Sooo rude -I know. Even though you feel so bad for Drake, you just sort of laugh because it is so bad and you know he's just fine. So most of these pictures are from Mike's phone, so they're not the best. After checking the X-rays out, they said he had fractured both sides of the ankle bone, so there won't have to be any surgery. And his eye wound wasn't bad enough to get stitches, so they only had to do this glue stuff which was awesome. So we are definitely counting our blessings. He could have been a lot worse! They put a splint on his ankle to help stabilize it, and then once the swelling goes down they will put a cast on it. It looks like monday morning we will get that put on. I asked him what color of cast he's going to have and he said Red! I think he's ready to get that on, it will be a lot more comfortable than the splint. He's excited to have people sign it, but not too hip on using the crutches, so I've basically been carrying him wherever he needs to go. I'm just hoping I don't have back problems after this weekend, that boy is a tank!!!!! I sure am glad when Mike gets home so he can do the hard part!

Well---Hopefully he learned his lesson about not climbing trees, but today our neighbor was talking to him and said "so when are you gettin back in that tree again?" And he said "after I get my cast off,"----boys will be boys I guess! They just never learn!
Picture #1

Picture #2
He was pretty wiped out, so it was nice that he fell asleep for a minute!

Day 2



Day 3
He's definitlely milkin' this injury for all it's worth. He's pretty much in heaven. I think he's gotten more "prizes" than he has for his birthday and more treats than he could even imagine- He doesn't have to go to school and he gets to watch tv all day. What a life! Oh yah --and you can't forget all his "servants" as he would call them. He says he has lots of them. This is the bed we set up for him in our room, to make him more comfortable. It his so hard trying to get that boy to elevate that foot. We'll take what we can get -I guess.

Yesterday it was really nice, so he decided he wanted to go outside and see all the kids playing. So we gathered all the pillows and some blankets to make him comfortable out there and he probably stayed out there for at least 4 hours. I think he just enjoyed the change of scenery. He has many fans. I didn't have my camera that day, but I think just about every neighbor kid was huddled around him as they were putting together his new legos on the blanket. His "uncle" Rich, brought him some new legos at the hospital and Drake has not left him alone to have him help put it together, so he was there putting it together out on the blanket. Drake is quite popular one! I'm sure he loves all the attention---who wouldn't?? He deserves it!

We tried going outside again today, but we didn't last as long because it was a little chilly. Charly is trying to make Drake feel better in the picture below. His brother and sister have been so sweet to him. (if only he would appreciate it back-) The other night we actually found Wesley in the bathroom as we were all sitting around talking in their room. He was in there saying a little prayer for Drake. He always blesses him to feel better and has helped him with getting things he needs all the time. He has been so great! Maybe someday Drake will appreciate his younger brother. There's hope!
Wish me luck for our long weekend of service to my sweet, lovely, Drake! He's pretty demanding at times, but just looking at that face, makes you almost want to cry. I keep imagining him falling and it makes my heart just ache. I feel so bad for him, so I will serve him till the end--even if he drives me crazy! Poor guy!!

The 3 Musketeers!

Mike took this picture on his phone and I just barely got it from him.

I just love this picture of these boys. Wesley, Tyler, and Drake. They are the best of friends!

This was in Disneyland after they just got their pirate hats. So fun!!!

Disneyland!!

Disneyland here we come!!!!! This was my whole families first time at Disneyland except for me. Yep, even Mike has never before been to the "happiest place on earth." Poor kid, he was so deprived as a child, and boy was he in for an adventure. I think he was even more excited than our kids were. This was about the most sun we saw the whole 3 days we were at Disneyland. Rain or Pouring Rain-- was not about to stop us though. The first day, as you can see, we weren't really prepared for rain. It was obviously nice in the morning, but man did the storm come. We were all freezing and soaked by the time we made it back to our condo. You could literally ring out the kids socks. We learned for the next day of all day rain, and we went and bought ponchos for all. They were a lifesaver. The best(only) thing about the rain was we went on any ride whenever we wanted. No need for fast passes this trip. The longest we had to wait in line, was probably 15 minutes max! It was so great to just hop on any ride you want. Drake's favorite was California Adventure where he went on the Grizzly Bear Mtn.(at least that's what he calls it) ride at least 10 times and also for the snacks(of course he can't forget about the food). He wasn't too into the scary ones. Anything was really scary to him though, I was hoping he would have been a little more brave(maybe next time). Poor Wesley would have loved to go on the scary ones, he just wasn't quite tall enough and missed it by a couple inches. I think if Charly would be tall enough she'd be on every ride too. There wasn't an ounce of fright in that girl, she was going on everything she could! SHe was a great girl most of the trip. We were a little hesitant about how it was going to be with a 2 year old, but she surprised us all(although you wouldn't think so in this picture--she got over that attitude real fast)!Drake, Tyler, Halle and Wesley on Main St. DisneyCharly and Wesley just having a snackDrake and his "best buddy" TylerHalle and Charly in front of the Princess Castle!!Charly had her first real experience with Princesses. She fell in love with them. SHe is all girl for sure! Here she is getting her face painted with sparkles.....every girls dream!checking herself out in the mirror...."I'm so pretty!"Beautful butterflyThe 2 princesses themselves. If only this would last forever!
Halle and Charly after the famous flying elephants


Charly, Natalie, and Halle
The Characters were so much fun. I wasn't sure how Charly would react to them, she was a little nervous and wanted her Mom by her side if we were ever close to them. We finally found Mickey Mouse--now we are in Disneyland.

and you can't forget Minnie Mouse..
and Beautiful Belle.

We saw a few others like...Jasmine, snow white, Arial, Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland.

The spinning ladybugs, not my favorite, but the kids LOVED it!

And then we have STAR WARS!!! They had a Jedi training where they would call up a bunch of kids to train to fight Darth Vader and Darth Moll, but Drake and WEsley were too chicken, but Tyler was chosen to fight. I think they were regreting it and wishing they were up there after watching how cool it was!

Tyler fighting Darth Moll

We had a great time and thanks to Natalie and Brandon for having us tag a long! Hopefully we can go back soon and get some SUNNY California!!!!

Huntington Beach

We made a wonderful trip to CA this last week. We met up with Mike's sister Natalie and her family, they had a condo that they invited us to come and stay in with them. We flew in before they did, so we decided to check out the beach and walk down the pier for the afternoon. What a beautiful place. The kids could have spent all day there. They loved the ocean and especially that you could run forever in the water. It was perfect for kids. The boys played a little football with their dad and collected a bunch of seashells(or "Sheshells" as Drake would say). Charly loved it too, she was just trying to keep up with those boys. I couldn't believe any of them stayed in so long, that water was FREEZING--you didn't find me in that water too much. I decided I would try to catch some rays on the beach, just wish I could have been there all day! After a little while we walked down the pier and ended up seeing 3 dolphins. We had a great lunch at Ruby's on the pier and then headed to the condo to meet Natalie and Brandon and fam......