County Fair

I am really enjoying summer. It's going to be so different once school starts up. I am not going to know what to do!

This past week we again were busy. On Tuesday I took Courtney (and Kasey) to the library in Monument. They had mini-horses visiting! They had the kids make a cute (and thankfully very easy) horse craft, then they got to visit one of the horses. We got to pet the one named April. She was so cute!




Wednesday was her OT day, followed by grocery shopping. So, nothing too exciting.

Thursday on the other hand, was very exciting. As usual it was zoo preschool day. We learned about leopards and three toed sloths. The kids decorated boxes then put a meat popsicle inside for the leopards, and then we delivered them.

After class, as usual, we hung out with our friends the P's (we'll call them). Jared, the dad, had the day off from work, so he was with us as well. We ate lunch, rode ponies, the merry-go-round, and the train. Then we were off to feed the giraffes.

Hubby then met up with us as we had a special event planned for our family! We got to feed the baby Rocky Mountain Goats. Man were they cute! They are being bottle fed still, and so we got to do a bottle feeding for them. They make the cutest little squeak noise. It was so neat to get in with them and feed them! We all had a blast! I think they are about 2 months old now.
It rained a bit on us, which I blame on Hubby because he rode the motorcycle down to the zoo. After feeding the baby goats we (the girls and I) headed for home and Hubby headed down to Cheyenne Mountain State Park. He had some extended family out here on a motorcycle trip, and so he went down to catch up with them. While they were here in Colorado Springs, they camped down there.

The next day, he took the day off from work and went for a ride with them. Hubby, Art and his wife Cheryl went down to Bishop's Castle. Bishop's Castle is a castle this guy has been building by hand for years. Apparently it was a nice ride there and back. Once they got back into town they caught up with the rest of the group they are on their trip with and everyone came here for dinner. We had 5 bikes in our driveway as you can see by the picture. It was Bike Night at the Kirouac's as I called it! We smoked a brisket and I made potato salad, we also had corn and a home made veggie and fruit tray. Everyone loved the brisket, and I have to say we are getting darn close to perfection!
The next day (Saturday) was the opening day for the El Paso County Fair. This is the same fair we get a cow and pig at almost every year. But this year we are only going for a pig. Much smaller and MUCH cheaper. Anyway, since Hubby will be out of town next weekend (the weekend of the auction) we decided to go this weekend. And we decided it was time to introduce Courtney to the fair. We left Kasey with Nana and Papa and that really worked out for the best.

Anyway, we went with our friends the P's. Addison and Courtney had a blast! They are only about 4 months apart in age. They got to pet goats, a pig (see picture), snakes, cows (again, see picture) rabbits (last picture), sheep, chickens, and a great dane (and probably more, I just can't remember what at the moment). They also got to ride rides and eat lots of Fair food. Gotta love those funnel cakes! Mmmm.... I got to try frog legs (not so mmmmmm...) Jared loves them, and he couldn't believe there was a stand selling them. In fact, I couldn't believe it either. But he got an order and ate them right down. I tried them, they tasted a bit too fishy for my taste. We drank tons of lemonade and had a great time! We finally said goodbye to all the rides and animals and fried food and headed for Nana and Papa's house. Kasey had taken a good nap so she was in a great mood when we got there. She got to play all day with no competition from her sister! She got to soak in Nana and Papa time all to herself. Apparently she loved it! And she also said "Nana" once! Progress!!!

Courtney on the other hand, didn't get a nap and so she was getting a bit cranky. We were scheduled to have Amber come and babysit for us, and we had planned on picking her up a bit early so that Courtney could get some play time with her. But she was so worn out that it ended up working out that I had her ready for bed and as soon as Amber got there, she put Courtney to bed. At least she got to see Amber. Kasey on the other hand, got to stay up another hour! She was rested. And we got to visit our friends and spend the evening on their new deck, kidless!

Today was a quiet day at home. After church I came home to find that Hubby and the girls had come up with a new game. It's called "rip up the Sunday ad's". Kasey found it to be quite fun, as you can see by the picture!


Kasey also finally said "Dada" again today! It's been about 2 months since she last said it. Hopefully she continues on this path of adding new words. But she does have her audiology evaluation this coming Tuesday. So, we will see what that says.

Courtney has always had a hard time "shutting down" at night. Once you put the kid to bed it took her an hour plus to fall asleep. Almost no matter what we did to try to deter this, it didn't work. Her OT and regular therapist feel this is a part of her sensory stuff. So, we have tried many things to help her be able to shut down. It has taken us a LONG time, but we think we finally may have found the answer. We really have to feed her sensory system prior to bed by either letting her swing outside or do her "spinning" inside on the spinning board we have. Follow that with a regular bed time routine and then we added in spoken books on her iPod and I think we have a winner! I think the trick really is the spoken books. She has to lie still and concentrate to listen to them. We don't keep the volume up, so she really does have to work to hear it. This causes her to be still which is then letting her body shut down and then she falls asleep! Since we have started this routine, she is falling asleep within 20 minutes or so of putting her down! I can't believe it! It's the small miracles that make me happy.

Seems like there has been an influx of hurt/ill kids in my life recently. The funny thing is that I don't know any of them! I will explain.

Claire is the granddaughter of a couple that goes to my church. I go to a very large church in town. A couple of people in my Sunday School class know the grandparents. They shared a few weeks ago that Claire (who lives in TX) had been in a near drowning accident. She was without a pulse for 30 minutes before she was revived. Due to the lack of oxygen to the brain for that amount of time, she has been completely changed. She was in the hospital for about a month, then to a rehab place for about a month and now she is finally home. She might never be as she was before, and they have a long road ahead of them, but she is home! Her dad has been updating a blog just about nightly with Claire's progress. I read it daily and I know several of my friends do too. (the blog address is: http://ourclaire.wordpress.com/ )

Then there was a little girl here in town who was attacked pretty bad by a lose pit bull. They had several stories about her in our local paper, including one that had the web address to a blog the little girl's mom is updating. She lost her upper lip, and part of her nostril, among other injuries. She is going in for surgery to repair her nostril tomorrow. Her name is Meagan and she is 6 years old. (her blog address is: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/meagangarrow/journal?jid=5845745 )

THEN, I found out Thursday night that one of the mom's from my MOPS group had her baby and the baby has been having difficulties since birth. The baby's name is Evelyn. Evelyn was born without a full esophagus, and a hole in her heart. They had to immediately fix the esophagus. They expect the hole in the heart to heal itself. But then baby Evelyn started to have seizures. She had an EEG and they don't see any reason as to why these are happening. Good news, they think that means it will fix itself. But this poor little kid has gone through so much already and they have a feeling the battles aren't over yet. (Evelyn's blog address is: http://evelynsheridan.wordpress.com/ )

I am just amazed at the way we all communicate these days. I have had this blog since October 2004, and it is such a great way to update everyone at once! It's sad to think that these 3 families are using it for the same purpose, but in a much different light. At least all 3 have had nothing but good news to report. So, if you can, please say a prayer for these 3 girls. All of them need it.

And then there is Facebook! I am amazed at the people I have reconnected with. It has really been wonderful! And it is such a great way to stay in touch as well. Funny how we all seem to be getting more connected now a days. For a while there it felt to me as if we were getting disconnected. It felt like all we would do was to email. Then along came Facebook. You have the ability to communicate, chat, and share pictures! Plus I think text messages on cell phones help as well! I am now starting to feel much more connected to friends. And with Facebook reconnecting me to so many, I feel like my circle of friends has quadrupled! What a wonderful thing! Life is good!

I can't tell you how blessed I feel every day. I have a wonderful family, we all have our health and we get to do wonderful things together. I am so thankful for what I have.

But what I need is sleep! So, I need to finally end this here and go crawl in bed and maybe read a chapter from Pride and Prejudice. It is taking me FOREVER to get through that book!

HUGS!