When you first have a baby, people who already have children often say, "it goes so fast." It can be hard to see that in those first few months when you aren't getting sleep, there's a lot of crying and you're up to your ears in diapers. But as your kids get older and you have more kids, the time does seem to speed up. This summer has been a good example of time flying. This month, we have had friends come visit from Arizona, Texas and the bay area. It has been so much fun to get visit with people that are so special in our lives, especially since we really haven't traveled much since Brooklyn got sick. We typically like to go places and visit family and friends (the crazy ones that can handle this family of 6!) but we have stayed pretty close to home the last year and a half to avoid infection and to be sure we aren't too far from Brookie's doctors. The first year or so she also had a lot of doctor appointments, home health visits and infusion room trips. With her schedule now, we are able to be more flexible, as long as we have her daily medicine with us when we go somewhere. Along with our fun visitors, Braden and Kayla also went to VBS at our church one week this month. Brooklyn actually was old enough to go this year, but we didn't want to expose her to being around so many kids in such close quarters. I tried to do fun stuff with the two little girls each morning that the older two were at camp. They have also been playing Jr Golf at my parents' golf course on Mondays. Yesterday Braden won the 6 hole and Kayla won the 2 hole championship!! This last weekend Mike and I got to go up to Oregon for a good friend's surprise birthday party. It was beautiful and relaxing and fun to hang out with friends we don't get to see often enough. The kids had a fun weekend with my parents and aunt and uncle, but their favorite part was when GaGa and Nana finally got their hair wet in the pool! I can't believe that school starts in less than 3 weeks but when I look at all we've done this month, I can see how quickly the time has gone! I'm still in denial that they have to go back so soon. Yesterday morning Brooklyn had her monthly appointment. It was actually great to talk with the doctor about the remainder of her treatment and what she will have to do when it's over- how often she'll get tested, when her port will come out, when she will catch up on her immunizations, etc. Her growth and everything is still great and she did well getting her blood drawn and getting chemo in the infusion room again. Her blood counts were all really good, so we took the kids to Six Flags today. The older kids had gotten tickets from reading a certain number of hours during school this year and we wanted to have a fun family day together since school is starting so soon! It was a perfect day to go, we hardly waited in a line more than 10 minutes and the weather was great. Brooklyn and Kelsey got tired toward the end of the day, but so did I! I so enjoy these days when the kids are still young and we have fun all being together, I want time to slow down so that we have more days like this. However, at the same time, I feel like I want the next year to go by fast so Brooklyn can be done with all of her treatment and surgeries and we won't have to worry about her getting sick anymore. But then, everyone will be a year older and into more stuff, so I think I want time to go slow until then. I know that what we want most of all is for our whole family to be healthy and happy, and I know that time will be here soon, and we are enjoying every day until then.
