Friday, July 11, 2014

Healing Journeys

We got back on Tuesday from a crazy, wonderful, hectic, relaxing and just plain awesome summer vacation. The vacation was wonderful and healing, on so many levels.

It was healing for me, physically and emotionally. I had my d&c on Tuesday, June 24th, and we left for our vacation on Wednesday. That vacation seriously could not have come at a better time. I needed to get out, to get away, to go somewhere that didn't have constant reminders that just days before, we had been pregnant and excitedly expecting a baby. There was no question that we'd go on vacation as planned. 

And it was healing for our entire family. This was our 4th time doing our family vacation to Tahoe. The first year, we brought 02 for Bodie just in case. He didn't need it, but we watched him like a hawk. The second year, he did great. Last year was the most frightening family vacation we've gone on yet, with Bodie just way too close to his Fontan and in constant arrhythmias. It was just an all around rough vacation.

But this year was SO different. For the first time, we weren't constantly checking his sats, worrying about how purple he was, listening to him get so winded just from walking up the stairs. He was pink, he had tons of energy and he was so robust. It was a whole different ballgame this year.

It was the vacation we've been waiting 4 1/2 years for.
The vacation we never dared to dream of.
Tahoe 2014.



We did a lot of our usual stuff, things that have become part of our traditions..
Swimming and beaching
Getting tatted up
Loving all over Grandma Jan and Popo Alan!

Eating ice cream at our favorite, Susie Scoops!
Taking a trek up to Virginia City.
(where did this beautiful girl come from???)
Taking our annual picture at the Mt Rose sign,

And this year, we tried some new things!

Mini golf for my birthday.
(For the record, Sierra LOVED it - and was pretty good at it for her first time. Bodie, on the other hand? I lost count of the number of times he threw his club...or his ball...or just threw himself on the ground sobbing because he couldn't get the ball anywhere near the hole. It was super fun. Or not. Ah well, there's always next year.)

We met a group of paramedics who offered to let us go inside their van and told us all about what they did. Bodie (who wants to be a paramedic when he grows up!) was moderately impressed. Dusk and I were totally impressed. The paramedics were pretty impressed, too, with our Bodie man, and his cardiologist for allowing him to come up to elevation.
 We stumbled across the sign, which made Bodie's day!

 And arts and crafts at the clubhouse - pottery painting
 and mosaics.
 We tried our hand at racquetball

Finally, we finished our vacation with a couple of days in San Francisco! SO fun! 
What is that saying - the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco? Yep, that was pretty much our experience. But even so, we had a wonderful time!
 
Our vacation was exhausting. But totally wonderful and fun! Such a blessing for us! Praise God for our health that we can make memories as a family like this!

Photobucket

1 comment:

  1. So happy for the Bennett Family to have a wonderful family vacation. The kids grow up so fast and the memories you are making now are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete