Heart Cath and Other Fun

Life has been a bit busy around here! (Nothing new for us). We are trying to keep Asher away from people, so he doesn't get sick. But we are also trying to let the other kids still have fun- not an easy balance! Before Ash had his heart cath, we took the kids to an old farm to take pictures. They were not particularly cooperative, but I still got a few decent shots:

Crazy Asher!
Jon playing on a tractor

Taylor

Jon being silly!

King of the tractor

Cute Ash

Taylor

Love this one!

The day before the heart catheter, my mom came down. We went to the fair, and she stayed the night, so she could watch the kids bright and early while we spent the day at the hospital.

Eating dinner on the back porch- followed by yummy homemade ice cream at the neighborhood ice cream social.

Day of the heart cath- we don't like hanging out at the hospital during procedures, so we went out for a yummy breakfast at Gourmandies Bakery in Salt Lake City.

Asher had his cath done this past Thursday. Everything went well, but not exactly according to plan. They had planned on ballooning open what they thought was a narrow branching pulmonary artery. But when they got in with the cath, they felt it didn't need to be ballooned- which is good. The Dr. did find a fairly large collateral artery coming off of the aorta and connecting to one of his lungs. Asher didn't need it, since that lung segment was already receiving blood flow through the proper channels. So they put a coil in the artery to cut off the unnecessary blood flow. Then they took lots of images for the surgeon.

Now we are just counting down to surgery on the 26th. It's coming fast! The cath felt like a trial run. I realised while Asher was in recovery, that there is no way I can have baby Jacob at the hospital with me when Asher recovers from surgery. He is way too active! He takes every ounce of effort to keep entertained and happy. So- I made sure to schedule sitters for Jacob, and the big kids.

This past Sunday we took the kids up into American Fork Canyon. We had a nice picnic, and then tried doing a little rock climbing (Adam is and avid climber). Rock climbing with 4 kids was not our most brilliant idea! As I was on the mountain, trying to figure a tricky move(for me-at least)- Jacob was down below screaming bloody murder, and Asher is throwing rocks everywhere. I gave up. Then we tried getting Jon and Tay to climb- they were both more than willing to try. And they both totally chickened out mid-way; I think I set a bad example for them! We'll have to try again without the little babies.

The kids and a fuzzy caterpillar they found

Jon Jon climbing

Out of order pictures- oh well. Outside of the fair. Thanks HopeKids for getting us in!

Asher and Grandma riding the train

Asher, Grandma and Jon on another ride

We were pretty freaked out having Ash on dirty carnival rides! He pretty much got a bath after each one. But he had fun- and had some good Grandma time. Now we are on the super-quarantine. No more parks or anything for Asher- surgery is less than a week away!