Sunday, August 24, 2014

Aug 23, Little Gage update

Due for an update for our family.  The summer has been cruising by. Over the last 3 weeks nothing major has happened. We have been involved in haying, working, and raising kids.
Just to put our lives in perspective, a few weeks ago we drove to Parma to visit Stephanie and Kade Thomas. They are our good friends we met in Calif two years ago who had a daughter born with a half a heart. Tristin had a pretty rough year, and now she is going on the transplant list.  They will be leaving their nice Homedale home, and living in an apartment in Palo Alto area as Tristin is placed on the transplant list. Needless to say, we had much to visit about as they prepare for the 'wait'.  They have a huge challenge in front of them as they care for Tristin, raise Wyatt (their 5 year old), Kade keeps his job in Idaho, and stay together as a family. We have a lot of respect for them.  So when we start complaining about anything, we just have to remind ourselves about the Thomas's.

Kids have all been doing very well. Each night Stacy and I are grateful for this time we have to be in Oregon together as a family. Nothing to report on Sierra and Lindsey, they take their meds and act pretty normal.  They both have biopsies in September. As for Gage, he had a pacemaker check the other day.  We are able to transport data from the pacemaker over the phone lines to Calif. We do this test every 3 months, and this time they called us back with some results.  To our surprise, according to the pacemaker 'memory', Gage had 3 runs of V-Tack between May and July. It also showed increased fluid retention.  So they were wondering if he has been acting strange, getting puffy, or passing out. Good grief NO!  He looks and acts great. If we had any concerns with Gage, they would have been the FIRST to know.  Anyway, after that test, we had a echo done on our little guy. It showed a slight increase in fluid retention and a small increase in the size of his left ventricle (both not good).  This is all a blunt reminder of the heart disease he has. Many times I hope we are done with all this, but we are not. There will always be something to watch and worry about.  Worrying doesn't do any good, so.... they take their meds, we watch their activity, and, as I said, we are grateful for this time we have to be together here in Oregon.   Now we are waiting to hear what Calif wants us to do. His next scheduled checkup will be in November, but now they may want to see him in September with Sierra and Lindsey.  It's easy to say, but hard to execute '...highs to high, or the lows to low'.
   
 Kade, Stephanie, Wyatt, and Tristin


 Sierra and Nori, her good friend from Calif.
 
 Some cute pictures of Megan with her good friends, Mattie and Logan.



 And our teenager heading into high school
 And Hunter showing off his triceps!
Gage at our Family reunion 3 weeks ago.
 Hunter trying to keep it between the lines.


Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Aug 6, the Bingham Reunion

We had the Dale Bingham family reunion in Sugar City last weekend. Great time at Josh and Tara's. They did a great job planning, entertaining, and feeding us. Friday we went to and jumped off the Fun Farm Bridge. Seth, Justin, Josh and I jumped off the top. Even Roper and Keanna jumped off. It was a lot of fun.  Saturday we left early and rafted the Hoback over by Jackson.  Mom, Dad and Tara stayed back with the little guys.  Everyone else got wet and had a good time.  Stacy, Ayla and Lindsey got bucked off the raft after one of the rapids. Only draw back was that on Friday Hunter came down with a high fever and was wiped out most of the time.  It's been 6 days and his fever is still hangin' around. 

Kids a doing okay. Sierra and Lindsey's echo both looked good.  No scheduled visits to Calif until September. Sierra still has a nasty cough, and Lindsey is starting to cough the same way.

Doing a lot of haying here on the Warm Springs Ranch.  Stacy is really getting into the swathing and raking.  Tonight she is working her night shift, and Cory is out driving the baler, so I had a chance to update.

Here are few pictures from our Bingham reunion....
 Uncle Josh floating in air.
 Uncle Justin and I
 Ayla, Sierra, Megan, Bently, Lindsey, Keanna, Michone, Roper, Landon, Dalley Jo, Kallie, Range, Ryan, and Uncle Jason.

 The Dare Devil, Keanna off the top.






 I little fun and the sand dunes.