Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Arm surgery for Torii

When Torii was much younger Fred noticed that there was a curve in Torii's left arm. We mentioned it at his next doctor's appointment, but decided that we would let it be for awhile and see how he grew. We knew we would eventually have to go to Minneapolis and talk to a specialist. As luck would have it, this past summer I learned that Shriner's Hospital would be seeing children locally to see if they qualified for treatment. Torii qualified and after an appointment in July we were back in October for surgery.
 
The "before" picture. See how his left arm has a curve to it? 

Torii picked yellow and black stripes on his cast for the Steelers. 

Of course we had to do a little spoiling the day before surgery. Here's Fred and Torii on a roller coaster at Mall of America.
 
Torii picked the Rainforest Cafe for dinner the night before. 

Shriner's Hospital is located in a nice quiet area of Minneapolis. It's sort of tucked in a hillside next to the Mississippi River. There was a nature trail that we explored our last full day there. It was a beautiful fall day to be outside.

There was also lots of things for kids to do to stay busy. We played some air hockey, pool, watched movies and played a lot of Angry Birds on the iPad.
 
 
I can't say enough about Shriner's Hospital. They had an excellent staff and took great care of us while we there. We were also able to stay in the parent's center that is attached to the hospital. They are definitely going to be a charity of choice for our family.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

5 years

I started this blog back on Aug. 27th, 2007, just a couple of months before we got to meet our little girl. I can't believe she is already five years old! In some ways it seems like yesterday. Of course, some days it seems like a lifetime ago. Once in awhile I'll get a bit nostalgic and read old posts. There are a lot of things I have already forgotten about. Four years ago at this time we were in Minneapolis with Cordelia for her surgery. I forgot we almost didn't get home in time to vote in the last presidential election. There's also stories about people that are no longer with us and a lot of happy and funny stories too. I've been lax on the blog lately, but I am thankful I've had the blog to record some of our family's adventures together. For family and friends reading along, I hope you've enjoyed reading about our adventures too.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Wednesday, August 1, 2012