Almost done ... and a pineapple

Last Saturday was the Winter Pineapple classic.  I ran with Patrick and Luke.  It was lots of fun.  We ran about a third of it, but I did all the obstacles.  I had no problem getting muddy on the course.  It is something that I think we might make a yearly tradition while we are here in Washington.  It was awesome to have my family at the finish line when we crossed.  Pictures are at the end of the post.  You can still donate until the 2nd of December here: http://www.llswa.org/goto/Sarah

Last Wednesday was a big day for Sarah as well.  It was her last clinic appointment during treatment.  She got a bone marrow biopsy as well as the other medicines that she usually gets during her clinic visits.  Her bone marrow came back clean.  She has a surgery scheduled for the 25th to get her port out, and her last day of medications is the 29th.  We are excited for her to be done and to let her body get back to full health.  She is ready to be there as well. 

Yesterday, the Sunshine Kids had an event at the EMP Museum.  They invited Sarah and 3 others to join her and the other kids.  It was fun.  Gus stayed home with a baby sitter.  We found out that Sarah is a drummer at heart.  She must take after her auntie Shan.  The sunshine kids did a music video and Sarah got to be the drummer and she rocked out.  It was cool to see her get into it.  Unfortunately she didn't last much longer than a couple of hours at the event.  It was a fun family day.

One other item in our family.  Our ward boundaries recently changed.  We had two wards with a east-west boundary.  That boundary changed to a north-south one and caused a bunch of reorganization in the wards.  I was called to be the Young Men's president of the ward.  It will be a busy calling but it will be fun to work with the youth again.

Thanks for all the love and support.  Our family wouldn't have done as well over the last two and half years without others to help and support us.

Sarah and the Runners at the finish line

The runners before the race.

The finish line

October 27th Update

It is two weeks until I run the Winter Pineapple Classic.  If you haven't donated yet and would still like to, the link is here:  http://www.llswa.org/goto/Sarah

A couple of things of note that happened over the past few weeks.  First I had my birthday on Monday.  It was fun.  We had a cake and I got a couple of presents.  A nice small birthday.

Second, we had trunk or treat yesterday.  Gus was dressed up as a racecar driver, Sarah was batgirl and Lilly was supergirl.  They had a lot of fun.  Pictures attached.

Lastly, we are down to one more set of steroids and one more monthly appointment for Sarah.  She goes in the second week of Novmenber for her last chemo visit.  She will get a bone marrow biopsy as well as scheduling the surgery to pull out her port.  After November, she will be off all medications as part of her leukemia treatment.  She have monthly visits to check her blood for the first year and then it will change to quarterly.  We are looking forward to the sense of normalcy, what ever that is.  :)

Sarah as batgirl

Lilly as Supergirl

Gus ready to drive a racecar

Sarah's 6th Birthday

Sarah had her birthday on the 19th.  She is now 6 years old.  We have been dealing with her leukemia treatment for over 2 years.  Time sure flies.  Ever since Lilly's Birthday party at Paint the Town, Sarah wanted to have her birthday there.  So we let her invite a few friends.  Gus only lasted about half of the party and then I was outside running with him and keeping him happy.  It was a fun party and everyone enjoyed it.

Sarah and her friend Zoe

Sarah and her friend Zoe

Gus and the Pig he painted with dad

Are we done yet?

Winter Pineapple Classic - Come run with us

I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to run the Winter Pineapple Classic.
We are looking for a couple of team members to join us.  It should be a great time and will raise some good money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Let me know if you want to join us.  Even if you don't want to run with us, you can come out and support us or donating to the cause.  The page to donate is here: http://www.llswa.org/goto/Sarah

Thanks!!!

September 8 Update

A couple of events over the past few weeks.  Jess took off to Utah for my sister Kate's baby shower.  I had the 3 kids to myself for 3 days.  We did well.  I even took the kids to Discovery park with Deedee, Melody, Michael, and Emily.  Pictures at the bottom.

Gus also had his 3rd birthday at the end of last month.  We celebrated with a cake with a race track on it.  Gus didn't take his nap because he wanted his cake.  He asked us about every 15 minutes if it was time for cake yet.  What a cute boy.  He got a bulldozer that makes sounds.  He plays with it a lot.

Gus has also found that he can see himself in the door knobs.  He stops at them and looks at himself.  It is funny.

Kids at the Beach

Building a Sand Castle

Gus looking at a door knob

Gus looking at a door knob

Gus's 3yr old birthday cake

Blowing the candles out

Gus gets a bulldozer

Sunday Aug 18th Update

So I am going to try and be better about updating the blog. It has been an emotionally rough couple of weeks. Not for any particular reason, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with Sarah's issues, but we still have a ways to go. Sarah's treatment should be done on November 29th this year. We still need to work out the details of what that means and when she stops taking medicines. We are looking forward to that. We need to have a party when she is all done.

A friend of ours has invited me to do a 5K in November that the LLS (The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) puts on. It is called the Winter Pineapple Classic: www.winterpineappleclassic.org. I will have links for our team up soon, but if you are in the Seattle area and want to run/walk with us, let me know. More information will come later.

We planted a little garden this year. It has been good and bad. I think less than 20% of the seeds I first planted survived. We have planted a few more things since, and have started to see some success from the garden. We got 5 beans of the bean plants on Friday. Hopefully we can get a few things from our little garden. I don't think I have much of the green thumb that my grandmother did.

Gus has been growing and growing. He always wants to go outside and goes a million miles a hour. We had the Annual Amazon Picnic last weekend at Century Link Field. Gus spent 15-20 minutes in the bounce house until he bonked his head and came out. He probably would have spent hours in there if he could. It was a fun Saturday with the family.

We have been fighting a cold or something in the family. Sarah is home from Church today because of it. Hopefully, we will recover quickly. Thanks for all the love and support.

Gus pushing a mini shopping cart

Gus pushing a mini shopping cart at the store

Gus sliding down a bouncy slide

Gus in the Bouncy house

Gus after he fell down in the bouncy house

July 28th 2013 update

I have been pretty bad over the last month to update the status on the blog.  Sorry for that.  There was a lot that happened in our lives that I haven't caught up on.  Lilly got out of school on the 21st of June.  That Sunday, we headed down to Utah as a family.  Jess and the Kids stay in Utah for 3 weeks until the 10th of July.  They had a good time with the families during their time there.  They drove back to Seattle in a caravan with Jess's parents.  Jess's parents are heading to Hawaii for 6 months while her Dad does more research in the islands.  Her parents stayed with us in Seattle for a week and a half as they shipped their car and left from her to Hawaii.

I only spent a couple days in Utah before I flew out to Dresden, Germany for work.  We acquired a team in Dresden that I have mentioned previously.  I spent two and a half weeks in Germany working with the team there.  It was productive.  It is a gorgeous city with the Elbe flowing through the middle.  We were able to bike to work a number of the days along the river.  It is amazing to spend time in a city with a lot of history.

Since I got back from Germany, we have tried to get back into a Summer routine with the kids.  We are counting down the time until we finish with Sarah's treatment sometime in November.

Yesterday, we had the ward picnic at Hamlin Park here in Shoreline.  It was a beautiful day and a great day to let the kids get out and run around.  We love the ward and our friends out here.  We are grateful for all the help that we have and the love that surrounds us.

I am trying something new with some pictures. Here is the album of pictures from Dresden:

Dresden, July 2013