At the beginning of March, Thomas's grandparents celebrated their 80th birthdays by having a get together with all of their family and friends. It was held at the White House in Bountiful and it was really fun to see all of the extended family members. This is a very candid picture of all their grand and great grand children.
A week later, Thomas checked himself into the hospital to go another round with his pancreatitis. As unpleasant as it is, there were some tender mercies with this bout. First, Thomas was able to go to school to turn in a big project that day and had taken a big test the day before, which left him with no homework for the rest of the weekend and spring break the next week(I also happened to have Monday of the next week off to help him recover). He also checked himself in early enough that it didn't progress to the intensity that it normally does, so he was only in the hospital for 3.5 days. He was a trooper and I am always in awe of how well he handles it, how quickly he returns to health after, and how optimistic he remains. I also owe a lot to his parents who were there to help out when I couldn't be. Right before he went in, he had a test done to see if he was allergic to gluten, which would inflame his intestinal system, which in turn inflames his pancreas. The test came back positive, so in addition to trying to eat a low fat diet when he got out, we also tried to eliminate gluten......... which doesn't leave much, and what it does leave is not very appetizing..... poor guy. He has been very patient with the gluten free attempts and up until about a week ago, was doing pretty good. Then we found a doctor who says he can fix his allergy to gluten, which Thomas took to mean he didn't have to avoid it, lol. I will let you know how that turns out!
2 weeks after he got out of the hospital, it was his birthday...... and the end of the term for me. With that being the case, the only thing I managed to do on his actual birthday was take him out to dinner with our friends. We had a pretty good time, and he even got sung to! LOL.
Over the next couple of days, we saw family and I was able to take him out shopping, so he got to keep his birthday going for a couple of days. This is a picture of him with most of his presents (minus a little basketball hoop that his sister got him, which I think was his favorite present!) He got a couple of shirts, a few ties and some gray dress pants. He turned the big 2-6 this year! My how time flies!
This was his birthday cake- a gluten free jelly roll, which actually turned out very well and was very tasty!
Next came Devin's final men's chorus concert so a bunch of us went and it was pretty cool! They sang some fun songs and had a good time doing it!
For one glorious day, it was fairly warm outside, so Thomas and I and our friends headed to the range to hit a few balls. This is him getting ready to hit the ball. Looks like good form to me, he he.
And this is right after he hit the ball! ha ha ha I only show you this in comparison to what I look like hitting a ball, which is below...............
"Feet shoulder width apart, arms straight, head down........."
"pull back while keeping your left arm straight (ha yeah right!) and..........."
"Swing!" If you look at the right side of the picture, just above the peaks in the background, you can see my yellow ball heading in the complete opposite direction I intended it to go...... oh well, at least I made contact with the ball!!!! ha ha ha.
This last weekend we headed up to Logan to celebrate Easter and April birthdays for Thomas's family. It was raining really good when we got to the park, but miraculously stopped and cleared up right after. We had lots of fun doing easter egg hunts (both for the kids and the adults!) and just being together as a family. Our intention was to fly kites, but there was never enough of a constant wind to keep them up for long unless you constantly ran with the kite. Thomas was just one of those people and here he is getting a kite ready with his sister. He's a pretty good runner! he he he he.
During the other part of the weekend, we spent time with my side of the family, including some in town from North Carolina that we don't get to see very often. It was a lot of fun catching up with cousins and sharing stories! Then to finish the weekend off, my brother Cody decided that he wanted to take out his endowments. It was weird for me to think that Cody is old enough to do that. He is still a little toddler in my head who said "Chup" instead of yes. :) It was wonderful nonetheless and it was awesome to be there with most of my family (Torie is only 16 and will be the last).
Anyway, sorry this is so long, but that pretty much sums everything up. Until next time!
Thomas has gluten allergies?? Oh man, that's terrible! One of my really good friends out here in Iowa has Celiacs and it completely changes the way you eat. Umm...the doctor said he could get rid of the allergies? How is he going about doing that? Does it include worms? You know what, I am asking too many questions, I'm just going to call you. :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, Congrats to Cody on his endowments, isn't it's crazy how fast time is flying??