Fall Update...

We haven't been doing a whole lot lately but I thought I'd post some random picks of what little we have been doing.

I've been working a little more, and of course still going to school. This semester has been a little better (less time consuming) and I feel more like a "real" nurse now that I am able to do IV stuff. For clinicals I was in the GI lab the other day and was able to start a handful of IV's. I was so nervous at first but the more I did the better I felt about it. This semester we also get to do a lot more specialty rotations like the ER, ICU, Pediatrics (which we did last year also), and we get to go around with the wound team for a day (that should be interesting). Things are really starting to come together for me as far as a whole nursing prospective, I think it will just take a little experience to get me really feeling ready.

Peyton has been playing soccer still and we are all having a lot of fun with that. He has made at least one goal each game. Sometimes the goal is sort of a fluke but it's a goal none the less, so he's stoked about that! He spends a lot of time on the ground during the game, as do all the kids. It's pretty funny how they all trip over each other, I'm so glad he is playing AYSO so there are only 3 kids per team on the field at a time, otherwise he would probably be on the ground a whole lot more!

We have been trying to get P excited about riding his bike without training wheels for a while now but he just wasn't into it. The biggest problem was that he was too big for his bike! Luckily Lindsey's little guy Wyatt had an old bike he was no longer using that they generously donated to P. After a little fixing up it's good as new. I put P's old training wheels on it (which were of course way too small), there was about 2 inches under each training wheel! We started on Friday and by Monday (yesterday) he was a pro!! He's just a little wobbly and unsure but that'll just take time. I'm so proud that he stuck too it because he really didn't want to do it.

The other day there was a big thunderstorm. Peyton and Bailey were having so much fun. They would stand at the sliding glass door until the lightning flashed then run away screaming as loud as they could. Bailey was so silly about the lighting, she was so cute we just had to get a little clip of her explaining it...

Last night we went to a fund raiser put on by a friend of mine who owns the Punkinaze corn maze in West Haven. They had lots of yummy food, huge slides for the kids to play on and a 7 acre corn maze. Peyton LOVED the slides (Bailey, not so much) we should have let P go down the slides all night instead of getting lost for 2 hours + in the freaking corn maze! I really didn't think it would be too bad when we went in, but about 45 minutes into it Peyton started getting concerned. His first little melt down consisted of him ranting (while bawling) about how he was never going to be able to ride his bike again, never going to see his friends and we were going to be in there FOREVER! Over the next hour and a half he had at least 2 more freak outs where he ranted about how he HATES corn fields AND CORN and we were never going to see our home again! At one point he asked if I had my cell phone and if I could call and have a plane or a helicopter come get us outta there, or at least a bulldozer to knock over all the corn! Dan and I were busting up, I almost took out the camera and recorded him going off but then I thought I should be a little more sensitive to his extreme concern. Toward the end Dan and I were actually getting kinda worried that we might not get outta there! Needless to say...we wont be doing that again anytime soon!

While you were away...

While Dan and Peyton were in Seattle for the LSU game, Bailey and I were able to spend some quality time together. It was amazing how different she was without Peyton around. She hardly acted up, ate her food faster than ever and was just so sweet. I think when Peyton is around they just provoke each other, especially at meal times! Of course they are great together but I was really surprised at the difference. While they were gone we watched a few movies, tried to stay up late, but she fell asleep around 8:30 every night and went to dinner with some of my friends. Even though we missed Peyton and Dan, it was nice to spend some one on one time with her.

LSU...

****THIS POST IS WRITTEN BY DAN!!!!****
(it was part of the deal, "you want to take a trip too see LSU, you WILL take pictures (not hard to get him to do) and you WILL be blogging about it!" he took the trip so, after a great deal of begging, here's the blog post...)

This past weekend was somewhat of an historic event in the Hoover home. Peyton and I went on a guys only vacation with my brother Shawn and his son Trey to Seattle Washington to see our beloved LSU (Louisiana State University) Tigers play the Washington Huskies. We decided to take a roadie and spend a few days doing and seeing all the fun things in Seattle. We hit the road bright and early on Friday morning at about 4:30 a.m. I was really excited to drive through this part of the country because I had never been up this way and I like seeing different parts of the country. I thought that we would see a lot of cool things. But come to find out the route we took was lame. There was literally nothing cool to see until we got about 60 miles out of Seattle. I can't even put into words how awesome that first day was. We pulled into our hotel around 5 p.m. We then wanted to go down to what is called the Pike's Place Market to check out the scenery and find a place to eat dinner. We ate at Lowell's Family Restaurant, they served the most delicious fresh fish, caught that day, and we got to eat looking out at the amazing view of Lake Washington. It was awesome.

After dinner, we decided to walk around and sight see. The part that I will remember the most, is walking around downtown Seattle with my son and my brother and his son in our LSU attire and sending shout outs to all of the other Tiger fans that were roaming the streets. It was so awesome to see all the purple and gold flooding the streets. Even the locals were saying things like, "You guys are everywhere". We called it the Cajun Invasion of Seattle. After we were done walking around we decided to go back to the hotel because Peyton really wanted to swim in the hotel pool. The next day was game day, we were so excited. In the morning we took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island and back. That was really cool.

Then we went to the Seattle Aquarium which was fun for the kids as well.

Then to top off the day we went to the game. I have to admit, when the LSU tigers came running out on the field and the band was playing our music and the LSU fans erupted in cheers, as I looked at Peyton as we were screaming L-S-U....L-S-U......L-S-U, I got a little choked up.

I know, I am a dork but it's true. That moment will forever be etched in my memory. I hadn't been to an LSU game since I was a teenager, and to be able to take my son to one and start his LSU experience off in that way with Shawn and Trey is something that I wouldn't trade for anything. The game ended up being closer than we would have liked but it was good nonetheless. The Tigers won so that is all that mattered. The next day we had to go to the Space Needle. You don't come up to Seattle and not do what we ended up calling "THE NEEDLE!!!!" It actually was a lot cooler than I thought it was going to be.

(The view of Husky Stadium from the Space Needle)

After "THE NEEDLE!!!!", we ended up leaving Seattle around 2 p.m. taking a much more scenic route along the Columbia river through Portland.

(Waterfall along the Columbia River on the way Home)

We drove through the night and got home on Monday morning at about 6 a.m. I am so grateful that I was able to do this trip with my son. He was so cool with his LSU jersey on and all the fans there were just eating up how cute he was, even Washington fans. I also thank Shawn and Trey for coming with us and helping us get done all that we did. I will never forget this trip, and I hope it's not the last.