Ice Cream Sundae Birthday

This was the year for Kylee to have a party.  True to herself, she chose a candy and ice cream sundae party.  I had a lot of fun decorating and getting things ready for the party.  Their take home bag had different ice cream themed items which included ice cream shaped bubbles, ice cream shaped sidewalk chalk, and ice cream pencils and erasers.  They also filled up a box of candy.  

We started out the party with IBC rootbeer and pizza.  The girls then made their ice cream sundaes with cute bowls I found at TJ Maxx that they got to take home.  

For an activity the girls painted washers with nail polish that were turned into necklaces.  Ellie Snarr is wearing hers in the picture.  They also played Wii dance.  

Some girls were a little camera shy, so we didn't get a great picture of everyone.  From left to right it is Lydia Dahlke, Meghan Miller, Amber, neighbor Sarah Hart, Berlin Mason, and Kara Wetz.  On the couch it is Lily Sears and Ellie Snarr.  Kylee had another friend from school, Hayley Kemp, who left a little earlier.

We had a cinnamon roll breakfast on her birthday.   Matt didn't get to make her birthday cake until September 30th because he went out of town for some training.  He did a great job on the cake and took a lot of time to make it.  It was a jewelry box with some various candy jewelry.

Aeromedical Primary Course

For several years I have wanted to attend the Aeromedical Primary Course, which is six weeks of training that doctors go through before they can work as a flight surgeon in the Air Force.  Flight surgeons are the doctors who take care of aviators and their families, and they have to deal with all of the specific physiologic concerns that are unique to the aviation community.  They also serve as the primary care doctor for aviators and interface with all of the subspecialists taking care of more specific problems aviators might have.  Flight surgeons are often assigned to a flying squadron and are required to log flying hours.  

I don't actually have any desire to be a flight surgeon, but with refractive surgery we work quite a bit with the flying community.  The way things are looking, I expect to be running the refractive surgery program in the Air Force within a few years so there is definitely value in the training.  After trying to work it into my schedule for a couple of years, I finally blocked two weeks to fly up to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio to do the first part of the training.

There was a whole bunch of classroom work, which wasn't too bad.  The hands on part was much better.  I got to go up to spend some time in an altitude chamber going up to 35,000.

You  have to breath oxygen through a face mask at that altitude to survive, but they had us take off the masks for a little while to experience the effects of hypoxia.  There were clipboards in the chamber with some simple math problems to do, but within less than a minute you start acting pretty drunk and are unable to function mentally.

We also got to experience the Barany chair which spins around and simulates vertigo and spatial disorientation experienced in flight.

At the end of the two weeks I got to fly a Cirrus SR22, a really cool single engine aerobatic plane, with an instructor pilot by my side.  It was a partly cloudy day so I was able to climb up and around the big fluffy white puffs of cotton, which seemed a lot neater than flying on a completely clear day which I had done at the Air Force Academy more than 15 years ago.  While the experience was really cool, the air sick feeling I often get in very small aircraft was a good reminder of just one of the reasons I decided to be a doctor and not a pilot.

Overall it was very worthwhile training, but I'll have to see if there is any way to cram the remaining 4 weeks into my schedule to finish it up.

Enchanted Springs Ranch and Comfort

Camille came to San Antonio to visit because she was going to be doing some training in Austin.  We wanted to get out and do something fun with the kids. We decided to get and try something new so we decided on Enchanted Springs Ranch.  It was not too far of a drive, out by Boerne.

They had various activities to go to.  Blake and Luke were a part of Doc Dakota's story telling. 

We went on a covered wagon ride through their wild animal park.

We took turns sitting on Woodrow the Longhorn Steer and we watched Pistol Packin' Paula do a gun twirling show. The kids also played on a neat playground and explored the town.

Uncle Carlos paid $5 to have Jackson "arrested" for not having clean underwear.  Jackson didn't know anything about it.  He had to sit in a jail for a short time.

Carlos gave the suggestion to go to Comfort afterwards for some pizza.  So, we went to Comfort and explored main street and ate at Comfort Pizza.

Back to school

First Day of School - August 27, 2012

Kylee - 6th grade                Brayden - 4th grade

 
Julia - 1st grade               Blake - Pre-K

     On the first day of school Brayden had to wake up earlier than everyone else because he is doing patrol this year.  He realized it is not as fun as it had looked and said, "I kind of don't want to do patrols because you have to get to school earlier and stay later."

     Kylee got in the car after the first day and said, "My math teacher is mean."  She also explained to us that she was going to sit with some girls from her class at lunch and they got separated while in line.  They have them sit down in the order of when they get their food and they have to fill up the table in order.  So Kylee said she had to be with 7th and 8th grader boys.  She said, "they were scary.  The guy in front of me had a mustache."

After the first few weeks of school this is what the kids say they like about school.

Kylee - She likes that she can walk freely in the hall, and there are no lines.  She also likes all the different friends.

Brayden - He likes that his teacher Ms. Young is nice.

Julia - She really likes that they get to play on the bigger playground.  The first week of school she came home talking about how she gets to go up to the big kids playground and tries to go across the monkey bars.  She would report on how far she had gotten.  Julia's teacher is Mrs. Branch, the same teacher Brayden had in 1st grade. 

Blake - He says his favorite thing is fun friday.  That is the day he gets to choose fun things for their centers.  Ms. Sandoval said he was very focused on making a bead necklace and spent most of his free time working on it and didn't even want to go to the  play doh center. 

Tiny Tim

Our last week before school started we tried to pack in a lot of fun.  On our second time around that week at Sea World Blake was running down a ramp and fell and skinned his knee.

This injury apparently affected his walking ability.  He skinned it on Friday and was unable to walk all weekend long. The first couple of requests to be carried we helped him out, then we realized he was not planning on walking anytime soon.  We decided to let him try to get around on his own to encourage him to walk.  He just hobbled around the house crouched down.  As the start of school drew closer I began to worry he wouldn't be able to go due to his unwillingness to walk.  Monday morning came and he was still not able (willing) to walk.  After we finished dropping off all the kids Matt decided to work with Blake.  He turned some music on and started doing laps around the room and got Blake to get up and move.  At first he was limping and then he gradually put more weight on his leg.  He was doing pretty well for about 5 minutes up and sort of walking. For some crazy reason he got back down in his crouch position in the kitchen and then accidentally bumped his knee and it started bleeding again.  Of course that only exacerbated his handicap.   We took him to school despite his inability to stand up.  The picture on the right is the first day in front of the school.  Matt carried him to the school and then he kind of hobbled into the classroom.  Amazingly when we went to pick him up from school he had been healed and he could walk again.  

Blake trying to get to the bus the next day. It wasn't going to work so he got dropped off. So, he waited outside of his class in the flamingo position until it was time to go in. 

Summer In Review

We started off the summer by taking swim lessons the last few weeks before school ended.  I was impressed with how well the kids advanced in their swimming abilities.  They did the Swim America program at the Northside aquatic center.  

Julia said goodbye to Julianne.  They were in the same Kindergarten class and did lots of playing together.  

Blake did a lot of phone stealing and luckily he left evidence that it was him.  

The kids played with the circuits that Ryan sent.

We went to another Missions game because our neighbor gave us tickets that he was not going to use. There were enough tickets that we were able to invite the Mason's to go along with us. 

Blake and Julia were a little more independent in feeding themselves.  Blake made some interesting sandwiches.  He made a cracker and cheese  sandwich and a cracker and cracker sandwich.

Julia made a lunch of fruit: bananas, watermelon, and an apple.

Brayden went to the Witte Museum with the cub scouts and we tagged along,  so the kids were able to try out the rock climbing wall.

We finally broke out the Harry Potter Clue game that Uncle Carlos gave us a few years back and had fun times playing.  

We enjoyed the new Aquatica water park at Sea World.  It was a lot of fun.  

Julia went on the Steel Eel for the first time and loved it.  She ended up riding it several times.

We enjoyed swimming at our neighborhood pool during the summer. 

summer of clubs

This summer our family benefited from the creativity and talents of others.  One of the Mom's from church that has a daughter and son the same ages as Julia and Brayden set up some clubs for her children (Brooke and Bryce Ball).  She did a Monster club for her son and a sewing club for her daughter.  Brayden was very excited for the treats that they had every week.  Julia was very excited to learn how to sew and enjoyed getting together with other girls.  

Kylee was also took a sewing class with several other girls from the ward that was hosted by one of the girl's mom.