Now that summer is almost over, I think I need to post some of our fun times. Truth be told, my little brother, Jared, reminded me it was July and not April. Before the official start to summer, we spent some family fun days picking strawberries, playing in some local parks and we ventured north to visit some gold mines. We have been blessed with the time to take these day outings.
Ummm, our summer has not be too eventful. We have mostly stayed around home. We do join a pool for the summer and the boys really enjoy swimming. The pool has a slide and diving board and both boys take full advantage of both. We also found some great ear plugs for Dixon. They are could Docs Pro Plugs. Our ENT has always recommended Max's wax plugs but these pro plugs are great. They are fitted to his ear which makes it easy to put them in, none of that squishing and shoving of the wax stuff. The big bonus is that they float, so you can find them when they fall out. (which does happen on occasion)
Porter was on the swim team this year. He competed in the 25m Freestyle, the 4 person Freestyle relay and 25 m backstroke. He loved getting ribbons, whether they were for participation or winning, as long as it was a ribbon. I learned that swim meets are a whole lot of sit around and wait! We would be there for about 4-5 hours. It is unbelievable the amount of stuff you need to pack and bring along. It was as much fun as it was work. We do hope that next year will be more fun for Dixon. This year he was too big to keep contained to the stroller but too little to be entertained in a camp chair with activities. He only wanted to run around and I just wanted him still. He loved cheering on his big brother. He couldn't understand why Porter got to be in the pool and he couldn't.
Our special trip for the summer was a weekend in Sevierville, TN. We booked a night at Wilderness of the Smokies. It was super expensive but with the room rate, we got 2 days of water park admission and the kids ate for free when we bought a meal. We had never taken the kids to a water park and it was so much fun for all of us. I am not sure who had more fun. Porter loved riding the 'big slides' with Matt and Dixon had his own water slides which he loved. Everyone had fun in the lazy river and wave pool. To help stay within our budget, we booked a 'cheap' hotel for the second night and just went there after the water park closed. It was a wonderful weekend for our family. We had not done anything like this since we have had Dixon and it was time for a mini vacation. Matt played with the boys a lot and gave me time just to chill out and read a book. 
On our way home, we detoured through Greenville to visit with Jen Thomas Gaillard (best buddy from high school) and her family. Her boys and mine are the about the same age and it was great to have the day with them. I love to see our kids play together.
July has brought us some challenges. Matt had some medical testing done which turned out to be okay but for a few days, I was terrified. From the testing, we learned that he has a left branch bundle blockage in his heart. All further testing came back normal so we are going to assume this is just part of his makeup and do nothing further. Should he develop more problems or blockage, a pace maker would be the remedy. Once we knew that Matt was okay, Porter had his turn. He has suffered horribly this past school year with strep throat. His Doctor wanted him to have a tonsillectomy and adnoidectomy. He did that on July 19th. We were given pretty clear instructions that he needed to drink a lot and take his pain meds around the clock to stay ahead of the pain. I faithfully gave him his meds and tried with all my might to get him drinking enough. On Wednesday following surgery, our AC broke and we went to spend the night with friends. He started vomiting and we couldn't get it to stop. The next day we knew we were heading back to the doctor. When he went to stand up to go to the van, he collapsed. It was so scary for me. I yelled up to the AC guy who carried him to the car. I called Matt at work in a panic and told him to meet me that we were heading to the hospital. Porter was admitted to peds and put on iv's. It took several attempts because his veins kept 'blowing' due to extreme dehydrati0n. As it turns out, the pain meds I was so adamantly giving him, made him sick. Even though he would complain, I made him take the medicine. Can you imagine how I felt? Talk about worse Mommy of the Year Award!! Send it my way now. My brother, Joseph, was kind enough to take a day off work and come up to stay with Dixon so that Matt and I could tend to Porter and his needs. We discharged from the hospital the next day. Porter perked up over the weekend and is now on his road to a full recovery.
As if our medical things weren't enough for one month, we had some appliances trying to see which would be the first to die and which would be fixable. The ac won the dead competition. We have a brand new unit now installed and are hopeful that it will keep us cool and happy for years to come. Handy Dandy Matt was able to keep trying this and that and was finally able to solve the refrigerator problems with a new evaporator fan motor which turned out to be relatively inexpensive as compared to a new unit or even a service call from the repairman.
We are looking forward to starting back to school in another week.
