Abigail’s Knee

Our priority when we got home from our road trip was to figure out what was wrong with Abigail’s knee.  We had an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon the morning after we arrived home.  He suspected a torn meniscus, fitted her with a high tech leg brace, and ordered an MRI for that afternoon.  

Surgery was scheduled a few days later – Friday, August 25.  She wasn’t too keen on getting any pre-op pictures taken, but with her arms wrapped in warm compresses to help with getting an IV into her stubborn veins, she really couldn’t do much to stop me.

Pretty sure I bribed her back at home to cooperate for this post-op picture.

Abigail must have an incredibly high tolerance for pain, because she plowed through life with a messed up knee for over three weeks – even biking the Golden Gate Bridge – TWICE!  Then after a pretty serious surgery she didn’t really have any complaints of much pain or discomfort.  Her biggest complaint was that her leg was orange for many, many days afterward – like really bad spray tan orange.  Apparently the alternative is a blue antiseptic so orange was definitely better option.  I kept her on pain meds for the first couple days, but she was amazing.  Her attitude was seriously impressive.  I think I took her diagnosis harder than she did.

• Abigail continued using crutches for another week with her leg locked straight in the brace.  That’s almost 4 weeks on crutches.
• At 2 weeks post-surgery she was able to bag the crutches, but her leg was still locked completely straight 
• At 4 weeks post-surgery she was able to unlock her brace to 30 degrees so she could have a little bend as she walked and had 90 degree movement when sitting down
• At 5 weeks post-surgery she was able to bend 120 degrees when sitting down, still limited to 30 degrees when walking
• At 8 weeks she was able to take off the brace completely

She started physical therapy a week and a half after surgery and has been going twice a week since.  She actually really loves going.  She has developed a friendship with her therapist and has even picked up a babysitting job with her.

I only went back with her to her first appointment with the therapist.  No wonder she loves it – a leg massage, some sort of electric pulsating treatment, etc…  Doesn’t she look relaxed?

To be fair as her knee heeled the intensity of her therapy has definitely increased.  She’s working hard there and often comes home sore.

Because I’m so far behind in blogging I can actually sum up the majority of her recovery as well.  We had her 12 week post-surgery follow-up with her doctor last Monday (Nov 20) and she is progressing right along schedule.  To Abigail’s disappointment he’d like her to move away from physical therapy to strengthening and rebuilding muscle in the gym three times a week.  We’ll take advantage of physical therapy for the rest of the year since she’s already maxed out our insurance, but then she’ll be off to the gym to get herself sports ready.  Her doctor thinks she’s going to be good to go come tennis season in February!  So grateful for skilled doctors and a daughter who could not have taken such a cruddy situation with any better of an attitude.  She rolls with whatever life hands her and didn’t let the disappointment of missing out on both high school and club volleyball get her down.  She’s a tough girl!

Road Trip 2017: Day 16 - {Home}

This morning came far too early.  We dragged ourselves out of bed, packed up the van - again!, and attended sacrament meeting before making our final stretch home.  We'd talked about visiting Silver Falls State Park near Salem on the way home, but after two weeks on the road, the additional hour in the car was a deal breaker.  During our road trip we listened to the first two Harry Potter books and started the third.  It was such a fantastic audio book for both kids and adults.

The "continental breakfast" at the motel was the worst I've ever seen so we were all quite hungry.  Justin asked how far off the freeway Pine State Biscuits would be and when we saw it would only be 6 minutes off the road we settled on that for lunch.  I've been a few times with girlfriends and Justin was curious to see what all the hype was about. 

Unfortunately, the line was really long and the service quite slow so it took over an hour to even get our food.  I could tell Justin was seriously frustrated and tempted to just bag it.  Thankfully, everyone loved their meal (except Katie who's corndog was pretty disappointing) - when I asked Carly and Jason if they liked it I got raised eyes and unquestionable nods of yes. 

After 16 days on the road we were happy to be home and able to sleep in our own beds.  While we were gone with had the carpet in our family room replaced with hardwood so unfortunately the house was pretty disheveled, but that’s home.

Road Trip 2017: Day 15 - {Crater Lake National Park}

The Tolman's ward had a breakfast / talent show this morning.  We joined them for breakfast and then snuck out before the program began. 

Justin x 2 (aka Fletcher & Tolman)

About 15 minutes on the road Abigail realized she left her library book at their house so we had to double back to find that - oh joy! 

After seeing pictures of my sister Brenda's recent visit to Crater Lake we decided it would be worth catching that on our way home.  We knew there was a chance there would be limited visibility due to fires, but we were hopeful.  Added bonus is that we had a free National Parks pass that Jason received as a fourth grader and we were happy to put it to use once again.  When we arrived at the visitor's center around 3pm we were informed that the smoke had just rolled in and that we wouldn't be able to see much of the lake at all.  We still traveled up the eastern rim and stopped at the outlooks and hiked the Sun Notch loop. 

On our way out of the park we caught the best glimpse of the lake, but it's still not enough to qualify as having seen Crater Lake.  We'll have to return again another time for sure.

We got into Springfield, Oregon late and hungry.  Since Crater Lake wasn't a part of our original plan we didn't make hotel reservations until just a few days before.  Due to the eclipse being just two days away, and Oregon being a prime eclipse watching zone, we didn't have a lot of options to stay and what we did find was much more expensive than it should have been.  I got the three youngers ready for bed while Justin went out to get some takeout for dinner. 

I was wasted but the girls hearts were set on going out and getting our school supply shopping.  A Wal-Mart was nearby and I'm a sucker for saving money so the lack of Oregon sales tax sealed my fate.  We shopped til I nearly dropped and we're back at the hotel just before midnight. 

Our last night away from home yields my favorite sleeping photo of the trip.  Adorable!

Road Trip 2017: Day 14 - {Gridley, California @ the Tolman’s}

We had the reunion house cleaned up and were on the road this morning at 9am bound for Gridley to spend the evening with our friend Justin Tolman from BYU.

It was supposed to be an eight hour drive today, but due to traffic it ended up taking nearly ten! Ugh! When we finally arrived they had a yummy dinner ready for us and it didn't take long for us to get outside to enjoy their awesome backyard and pool. 

They have the sweetest setup.  Lots of property, established food producing trees, storage galore, a guest apartment, a basketball hoop, etc... We played outside until probably 10:30pm then got the kids showered, let them hangout for a bit and then after the kids were in bed the adults stayed up visiting.  It was such a fun evening and we loved catching up with Tolman and getting to know Libby better.  Wish they lived closer!

The only drawback to the Tolman estate is the incredible amount of mosquitoes they have – the bites all over my feet were still irritating me several days later.

Road Trip 2017: Day 13 - {Big Bear Reunion – Last Day}

Normal rules and routines are pretty much thrown out the window when you're traveling, especially when there's lot of other people involved.  Abigail and Carly slept on the main floor with the Gardner cousins and pretty much went to bed whenever they wanted.  The other three kiddos were in the same room as Justin and I and went to bed MUCH later than normal.  Each family was in charge of three meals during the week.  We ate well.  Drew was quite spoiled.  He ate what he wanted and didn't eat what he didn't want.  When he wants a can of lemonade... Grandma gives him a lemonade.

When he wants Aunt Robyn to paint his toes pink just like she did for Katie - then by golly, he gets himself some pink toenails - while enjoying a sucker, of course.

A big group of us roamed around "The Village" later this morning.  We popped into a few gift shops and treated ourselves to some ice-cream just minutes before lunch.  Cause apparently, on vacation, dessert can be had anytime, anywhere. 

a Pokémon stop 

   

There was a fun woodcarving of bears that we were getting pictures in front of.  Drew was being a stinker and didn't want to get in the picture.  I told him if he didn't cooperate he wouldn't get ice-cream.  He ignored me and marched right out of our family picture. 

When we were all picking out ice cream he stood there crying because I was determined to stay true to my word.  His tears didn't last too long, but I also think he had a few family members show pity on him and sneak him some of their ice cream.

This afternoon was the field games tournament at the park.  There were three events - bocce ball, ladder ball, and corn holes.  Justin and I were assigned as partners (with Drew).  Our first event was ladder ball against Lee and Gina.  We ended up losing by one meager point.  I highly suspect we would have won had we not let Drew throw a few of our tosses. 

We take our field games very seriously

After all was said and done Justin and I emerged as the corn hole champions, beating Jason and Katie in the finals (Jason was not at all ok with that). 

Caylee and Jayden earned top rankings in bocce ball.

And Brenda and Mom cleaned it up on the ladder ball competition.

I think a field games tournament needs to be an activity at every reunion.  It was so much fun.  What a fun crew we have!

The teens went back to Boulder Bay later that night and took some fun pictures. 

And then we broke out the s'mores for our last night together. 

I stayed up late with Brenda and Lee trying to finish up the Snoqualmie Falls puzzle we brought with us.  In the wee hours of the morning I finally conceded and called it a night.  Here are a few of the puzzles we did finish up during the week.

Such a fun week playing games, exploring Big Bear and enjoying our time together as family.  I asked each family member what their favorite memories of the past week has been and here are their favorites:

Justin:  lawn games

Holly:  watching the kids interact with their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents

Abigail:  "park adventure" with cousins on the last night

Carly:  water balloons and field games

Jason:  hiking up to Castle Rock

Katie:  playing games (especially the ones involving candy)

Drew:  football ("soccer")