Melissa's Birthday

We missed celebrating Melissa's birthday because her Grandma Whitley passed away and they went to Texas for a week for the funeral and to support Mike. A late birthday celebration is better than none, right? This strawberry cream cheese cake is one of Melissa's favorite desserts. We are celebrating Denya's birthday today too. I always make a cake on Sunday when someone had a birthday during the week. Two birthdays!! We sang the "Happy Birthday" song extra loud.

We gave Melissa a new touchless thermometer. They are one of the newest gadets with Covid going around. Plus with kids, it seems like we are checking for a fever quite often. You just point the thermometer at the forehead and touch the button. Walla! Instant temperature! Pretty fancy! We also gave her a gift card to Ross, one of her favorite stores. Happy Birthday Melissa! We love you and are so, so happy Austin chose you! You fit into our family perfectly!

 

Denya's Birthday and Hike

It was so fun to have Denya at home with us for her birthday!! Britta had a doctor's appointment at Sky Ridge, and Denya drove up with us. Afterwards we went to Jamba Juice. They are having a limited time Birthday Cake Smoothie that Denya wanted to try. She loves birthday cake flavor anything!  

Panda Express just recently came to Castle Rock and the family has been dying to get food from there. Everyone except me, I don't care for Asian food. We decided it would be a fun birthday dinner for Denya, especially since it is one of her favorite places and I agreed to give it another try. I wasn't impressed. Most of the chicken was dark meat and I like white meat much better, I think it's mostly the spice I don't like. 

Everyone else loved it.

Denya and I made this lemonade cake that she loves. We've had it before and it is amazing! Dagny and Lincoln are so excited anytime there's a birthday. And why shouldn't they be? What's not to love about candles and cake? And presents?

One little present! Good things come in little packages, right?

She already has some ear buds, so she knew it was something else in the box. What could it be??

 

She read a note and couldn't believe it--

An inflatable paddle board will be coming in the mail!!! YAY!!!

So excited!!

We spent the evening playing Golf. We love this game and have played it a lot since Wayden taught it to us at the reunion.

Denya loves to celebrate on her birthday, and she should! The day we were born is important! Yesterday everyone had to work and I had all three kids, plus Britta had a cardiology appointment. Denya took the day off, but we really didn't do anything fun. Today Landon, Denya, Freya (the dog), and I are hiking in Castlewood Canyon for Denya's birthday.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but this is a rock bridge. It's really cool!

I love flowers, and have to stop for pictures when one catches my attention.

Landon sure loves his dog! Megan was the one who wanted her originally, she is interested in maybe doing some search and rescue with Freya. Bloodhounds need a lot of walking to keep them calm and Landon walks with her early in the morning before he brings the kids over.

I was surprised that Denya likes her quite a bit. I didn't think Denya was much of a dog person, she loves cats so much, but she took the leash for a big part of the walk and enjoyed having Freya with us.

She is a pretty dog and we got a lot of compliments on her from other people who were on the trail.

The canyon is surrounded by trees, and is so pretty.

The walls of the canyon are rock, at the bottom there is a little stream.

Here we are on the edge of the canyon. After we hiked for a bit, we turned around and headed back to the car. We decided to drive to the other entrance and see what what it was like over there. Landon has hiked quite a bit, but he always uses what I call the back entrance. 

This side of the canyon is mostly rocks, a few trees, but not nearly as many as the other side, so there isn't much shade. The trail on this side is cement, the other trail is a dirt one. It got hot fast, so we didn't go too far. 

We decided we like the other side of the canyon best. It feels like you are in the mountains even though we are only 15 minutes from home. It was fun to try both sides today and see the difference. If you have a stroller, this side is nice and smooth. The other side feels more like hiking. Happy Birthday Denya! It was fun to hike with you! Thanks Landon, for taking us!

Britta and the Wheelchair

Britta has been having some chest pains off and on the past few months and she had an appointment with a cardiologist for today. We didn't realize it was so close to her foot surgery when we made the appointment. We didn't want to reschedule because it takes a couple of weeks to get in, and hearts are scary things when they aren't working right! We want to know what is going on. Britta can hardly walk, and she had the great idea to borrow this wheelchair from the Porras family who had it for Amelia.

It was a good thing, because her appointment is at one of the offices next to Sky Ridge, and parking is always so challenging there. We had to park quite a way from the front door.

Driving a wheelchair is not easy and Britta grumped at me several times because I got too close to people or the wall when we were inside. I told her I was doing my best and to just be glad I didn't dump her out like Barry Birchell did to Grandpa one time. 

I was not allowed to go the appointment with Britta because of Covid. I was quite grumpy about it because she is still quite young and hearts are serious things. The good news is that her heart is strong and healthy and the doctor thinks her pain might be caused by reflux. Britta has had reflux issues before, she had laryngitis for 3 months when she was 12. She is going to take some over the counter medication and come back in the middle of August. What an adventure! Thankful for the wheelchair, but sure thankful we don't need one on a regular basis.

Britta's Surgery

Britta had a soft tissue removal last summer on her pinky toe and it came back. Seriously??!  Plus she has one on the bottom of her left foot! Here we are again at Lincoln Surgery Center, prepped and ready to go. 

Because of Covid, the waiting room/reception area was closed, so they had me wait in the hallway where there was a recliner. I was right next to Britta's cubicle, so I was there immediately when they brought her back and I think maybe I wasn't supposed to be in her  cubicle so soon. She was really out of it, waving her arms, groaning, making scary noises. There was a poster on the wall of a germ and how to stay safe by frequently washing your hands. Britta kept asking, "Is that Jesus? Is that Jesus on the wall? Jesus loves me and you," her voice was slurring and it was so funny.

When Dr. Christensen came in, she was still a little out of it and wanted to know if people fart during surgery. Britta!! Really?? But he just laughed and made a joke out of it, replying that yes, they do. Britta wanted to know if the doctors and nurses laugh and he said, "Of course!" and then assured her that they are professional in the operating room.

Britta had to wear a mask the entire time. I was a little surprised and thought maybe she could take it off during the surgery.

Time for some juice and cookies. Eat up so we can go home!

They went really deep on her pinky toe and the stitches are really tight. Her toe was white instead of pink, so she had to hang her foot off the table while Dr. Christensen did his next procedure. When he came back to check on her, it was back to a normal color.

Two bandaged feet. Poor Britta!

How crazy is this--two different shoes??! They gave us one at the Doctor's office before we knew she would be having surgery on both feet, and then the hospital has a different type. The nurse tried to get them to give us two that matched, but they kept insisting that it would be fine. One has a thicker bottom, so it might be interesting. We'll see if Britta is off balance for the next few weeks.

Here is Britta modeling her hospital gown. For some silly reason that I don't understand, she wanted to keep it (who wants a gown that exposes your backside??), so she asked Dr. Christensen if she could have it, and he said, "Yes!" She was so happy! 

Wheelchair ride to the curb. Thanks to everyone who took such good care of my girl during this procedure! Everyone was so kind.

Back home with her feet elevated for the rest of the day.

They gave Britta these these leg pumps (I don't know what they are called) to help protect against blood clots. She is supposed to wear them whenever she is lying down for more than 30 minutes and also overnight for 3 weeks. They pump up and then deflate, kind of like a blood pressure cuff. She also has an ice pack for each foot.

Hoping for a quick recovery! And someone tell those tissue masses they are not welcome and not to come back!

Paddle Boarding

 I am determined to go paddle boarding at least a few times this summer. I didn't go at all last year!! Britta is having some surgery on her feet in a couple of weeks and we wanted to make sure we went at least once before that. Lisa Ellis and her husband took their kayaks to Palmer Lake and I saw some pictures. I wanted to go and check it out. I can't believe we have lived here all these years and have never been! Especially since we share the same name!  It's not as big as the gravel ponds at Chatfield, and it was a little crowded, but overall it was a fun place and I would definitely go again. The water is somewhat green for whatever reason, you have to look twice at the picture to see the water, but the mountains and the trees make it a pretty place.

All ready to go check out the lake!

Floating around in the middle and talking.

We saw one duck, all by itself. We were a little surprised it didn't have any friends. I got pretty close to it and it was neat to see his feet and how he used them to swim.

;

Ryan and I had a race, and of course he won.

We saw a couple of dead little fish belly up in the water, yes, kind of gross. Ryan flipped one into the back water bottle holder on Britta's kayak and she thought it was so disgusting and wouldn't touch it. The kids were amazed that I would pick it up, but somebody had to get it out of there.

Denya can't decide if she likes paddle boarding or kayaking more. You can go faster in kayaks, but it's fun to stand up too.

Ryan was showing us his supreme balancing skills by holding his oar up above his head. It was so sunny I was having a hard time taking pictures and I almost cut off the oar, you can barely see it above his head. Go Ryan!

Britta wanted to take a little break.

The beach Buddha is a good sport to bring us and watch over us.

My favorite place to be!