Santa Cruz Continued

As I said before we take an annual family picture with Casey's side of the family.  I love this for so many reasons!  Here are a few pictures we took.

Santa Cruz

Errrrrr....back it up.  Our life crisis is over for now!  Thank the lord!  So I'm going to rewind life a bit and talk about our summer.  Woo Woo!  We kicked off our summer with a family vacation to Santa Cruz.  We left on a Friday and headed to Pismo Beach where Casey's grandfather lives.  We used his house as a pit stop and made the rest of the trip on Saturday morning.  When we arrived we settled in to the vacation house and the rest of the week we played games, swam, drank, ate, visited the Monterey Aquarium, the mystery spot and of course the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.  We also take an annual family picture which is always fun with four kids and 8 "adults".  :-)  Hope you enjoy some of the pics!

 

Every year MC celebrates everybody's birthdays at once... This was one giant birthday party for everybody!

Grandpa waiting to open his gift! 

And Bryan oh so excited... I see a little smirk there.  Right??

Now this is excited! 

Auntie Mel Mel 

OH MY GOSH!! I forgot to mention banana slugs! GRRRROOOOOSSSSS!  Apparently this is the mascot for UCSC!  Ha!  These little buggers welcomed me the second morning we were there.  I was ready to pack up and leave.  Gross (again), but kind of cool in a sciency (yes Mom I know that's not a word) way.

Casey, Grandpa Frosty and Corey modeling the birthday cake that Cadence, Cheira, Noah and Gabe helped to make.

All of Grandpa's grandsons: Casey, Bryan, Grandpa and Corey

Cadence and Gabriel

Grandma Coco, Cheira and Cadi playing cards

The first few days we were in SC were a bit rainy and cool so we decided to make those our tourist days.  The first outing was to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  This picture was taken downtown Monterey.  

This is Gabriel checking out the jelly's.

Octopus!

Auntie Chaudra helping Gabriel touch.

These 3 were having such a great time watching the wave come over them. I had to snap a few pics while they were giggling.

The cousins.

The view from the patio.  Gorgeous

If this looks like a random picture to you it's because it is.  This is our annual Quelf night.  And yes there were large quantities of alcohol consumed.  

Noah checking out the starfish

YEAH!!!

Another quick update...

Last Monday we received the results from our doctors office (our doctor was on vacay).  We were told that the biopsy taken in surgery had positive margins meaning that they hadn't removed all of the diseased cells, but the good news was it had not progressed into C yet!  It was just one step away.  Good news and bad news.    They said we could either wait 6 months to see if my body's immune system cleared them up or we could go in for more surgery.  We were devastated, happy, and confused all at the same time.  We had to meet with our doctor on Thursday and we were well prepared with questions and fully prepared to undergo another surgery to remove more cervical tissue.  HOWEVER, when we arrived our physician assistant and OB came in to tell us that they had received the FINAL biopsy report and that the margins were actually CLEAR!  I repeat CLEAR!  I burst out crying in shock and relief.  We are so blessed.  Period.  This experience has made me appreciate my boys so much more and most importantly it has made me learn to appreciate each and every day that I am able to spend in my life.  I definitely cherished life before, but now I appreciate, cherish, and thank God for every day that I'm able to spend with family and friends.  I know the last two posts have been kind of heavy... I promise to lighten things up from here on out! :-)  Thank you for everybody's love and support! 

Been A LONG time!!!

Oh where oh where has all my time gone! 

This year is flying by and we have done so much in the last two months.  I haven't blogged in quite some time as my computer bit the dust and I "lost" all of my pictures (they have since been recovered by my amazing brother and I'm waiting for my computer to be returned soon!)... We have also been dealing with a little health scare for little old me.  We have been in and out of the doctors office, had several biopsies taken and surgery last week for a bigger biospy.  Yeah me!  We are currently waiting for results to see if all these abnormal cells have turned into the big C.  Yuck...what a dirty dirty letter...  Anyway, we will keep everybody updated.  We are praying and hopeful that statistics are on our side.  A big shout out to my amazing husband for picking up wherever I leave off and really carrying our family for the last couple of months.  I have truly married my other half and it is so comforting knowing that I can count on him through thick and thin.  Also, a big thanks to my Mom for dropping everything and flying out to be with me and to get me started on a better, healthier regimen.  And MC!!!  Thank you to MC for racing home right after vacation, doing laundry, and then racing to San Diego to take care of us while I recovered.  Our entire family has been amazing and we are just so blessed to have so many caring and loving people in our lives. 

The boys are doing great and so ACTIVE!!!  To leave this on a WAY lighter note enjoy the various "lives" of Noah and Gabe...