another visit home!

for the 3rd time in the past 2 months, we made another trip to our home away from home! me and becks spent over 7 weeks in canada this summer, so i can't say i was overly excited about another 12 hour drive and throwing becks off his schedule again, but our families make it all worth it, and we had lots of fun like we knew we would :) here's becks on day #1 loving the amazing taber corn - lots and lots of smiles for the grandpas and grandmas on this trip!

 

becks is a little nervous around my dad to begin with on our visits home, but he always warms up to grandpa hill and loves how my dad sings to him and plays with him and makes funny faces at him!

 

grandpa dick was sooo excited to see little becky (that's what he calls him despite constant reminders that nicknames for beckam can consist of becks, beckster, beck, etc but NEVER becky!). beckam loved grandpa dick's motorized chair and gave him lots of smiles and high 5's!

 

dust was in heaven golfing and hunting away with my dad, and i just love how the 2 of them get along so well! dust got his 1st duck and got some partridges too, and he was a proud hunting fool all decked out in camo with his hunting dog :)

 

beckam loves grandpa peterson, and we finally got some good shots of the boys! he had his 1st sucker on grandpa's lap and even shared some of his sticky fingers, and they went on their 1st drive together too! becks loved it even though he was more interested in the water bottle than the whole driving thing!

 

a good shot of becks with grandma moj too! i think she loves his smiles best of all, and he didn't disappoint this time around - yay!

 

the whole reason for our trip home was a cardiologist appointment for becks in calgary. we headed up thursday morning, and beckam was a trooper again. they didn't sedate him for the ultrasound this time, but he did pretty good considering it was 20 minutes of laying as still as possible!

 

he played with toys and they had a tv in the room with cartoons playing and they also had a monitor shining this water bubble thing on the wall. the nurse was so nice and patient, and we LOVED being at a children's hospital where they deal with kids all day and understand the little quirks that come along with that. the part that me and becks loved the most though was that dad was there with us this time!!! yay for appointments over school breaks!

 

he had a little heart trace too, and then it was in to see the pediatric cardiologist. our doctor was so nice and had good news too which made her even nicer! she said that beck's hole in his heart was 6.5mm but that there is tissue around the hole "shrouding" it making the actual functional hole where the blood is getting through small enough that it's not cause for any big concern - yay!!! so....no more medication and no follow up appointments down in portland, and we just watch his weight and shortness of breath and appetite and head back to calgary in march to see how he's doing :) it was fantastic news and such a blessing and relief for us. thank you everyone for your prayers and concern - this was just the answer we were hoping for!

 

my 2 spaced out boys after a long day at the hospital :) haha

 

my little trooper! we found some toys outside between appointments, and beckam was loving the sun and getting out of the stuffy hospital.

 

there was a little car for beckam to play with in the atrium too, and he loved that steering wheel and the mirror to gaze away in!

 

grandpa decided to award beckam for his long day of hospital stuff with ice cream - and not just any ice cream - haagen dazs ice cream! he had a little taste which just wasn't enough of course...........

 

so he took the whole thing and had a blast! he gave himself freezer brain a few times i'm sure, and he had a hard time figuring out which end of the stick to hold, but he was super cute and deserved a little sugar love after his day :) thanks for sharing grandpa!

 

a trip home is never complete without a ton of love from grandma hill (or nana as we're trying to convert to!). beckam loves loves loves his grandma hill, and she loves him too! she took over a few bath times when dust was out hunting, and she took him for walks and played with him and nash and didn't hold back in the funny face/random song/wonky dancing category! miss you nana!

 

we got a chance to stop by great grandpa and grandma smith's this visit, and beckam loved it. grandpa even helped him ride the cat!

 

hahaha - me and kait have this thing for doing ugly face contests in the car when we are headed somewhere and jammed in the back seat together, and this trip was no different! i seriously didn't know i could make such ugly faces, and she's pretty good herself! we even broadened our fun this time and made random animal faces! love my time with kait and love our ugly faces (which i totally won this time by the way!).

 

CLOSE CALL! seriously - the wind in southern ab is crazy!!! there were some super hard gusts on saturday night, but we never imagined that they could blow over the bball hoop in our driveway as well as blowing nash's (a huge golden lab) kennel across the yard! the hoop came within inches of the hood of our car, so not only were we blessed with good news about beckam, but we had a working dentless vehicle to drive home in! phew!

 

anyway - our trip was lots of fun! when we left to drive up to canada, i didn't want to leave. i love our home here, and the drive was so not exciting to me. then, when we left home there to come back to home in portland, i didn't want to leave! i love my family, and i love our visits no matter how many hours we have to drive with a cranky baby! thanks for letting us stay and for all of the visits and fun everyone. we miss you and will see you at christmas :)