Lassen Family visit last week!

Lynn Lassen and I grew up together in Dubuque IA.  She is one of my dear friends who has so been there for us through all of this.  She and her lovely husband, Andy, brought all 4 of their kiddos here to visit!  7 hours in the car to see us with 4 kids!  They both took off 2 extra days of work too - how unbelievably kind!  We of course had a BLAST!

They arrived around 2 on Wed the 4th.  Of course this was the day of all days my cell phone finally died and I couldn't even answer my phone - so off to Verizon Erik, Finn and Elan and I went - after all it was 102 degrees and they were not due until 2 and it was noon when we headed out.  Well as everyone knows even with the best Verizon folks decisions have to be made, transferring information etc so took much longer than hoped.  Lovingly the Lassens picked up pizza for lunch (only place open was Papa John's as EVERYONE closed for the 4th - it is too hot for a picnic, beach or even pool - so what was everyone doing???).  So we had lunch around 2:30 and then hung around the house as not much open that is in A/c.   We then headed to the park around 6 - but it was still 100 degrees out!  So not a ton of fun - all of the kids basically melted.

Thursday Lynn came with me to the Proton Center in the morning - so wonderful of her to want to know all about it.  She couldn't get over how nice everyone was.  She kept calling me the cheerleader of the waiting room - but that is how I am functioning.  Why be miserable about our situation, right?  She was able to meet all of our great nurses too.  No one believes me that Elan loves to go there but she saw it!

Lynn speaks Spanish so we were able to communicate more in depth with one family who I always have smiley short conversations with.  I told them about how the cancer center has a counselor for parents etc so glad Lynn could translate.  They have the cutest 4 year old boy with medulla blasphoma (what we hoped Elan had) and a 10 month old - boy do they keep busy!  They have been in treatment for 4 months now and the husband is no longer working.  He said so much stress and gets mad but didn't think they needed to talk with them.  I don't think they fully understood what the group does.  They will have their translator there tomorrow so maybe I will mention to her.  I also gave them the Family Happiness book in Spanish as it has a great chapter on how to handle stress as a family - I hope they read it and it helps!  I just hate seeing such kind people so sad.  He was almost in tears when saying how he gets mad and stressed.  I just had to do something!

So back to the fun!  Erik and Andy stayed back with all of the other kids.  The plan was to head to the spray park - but when we got there it was closed - only open to public Friday to Monday... arggh!  So we headed to the Wonderlab here in town.  I only stayed with ELan about 30 minutes as he was sooo tired (and the heat!)  So I took him home and put him down for a nap and I was able to get some work done which was needed - got to love Summer of Learning! :)

Here are some cute pictures of them there.  THey also stopped at the Chocolate Moose for a cone which they all loved!

Notice the 117 - it was actually at 119 before I had my cell phone ready to take the photo!

At wonderlab - all in swimsuits for splash park that didn't happen that day!

Finn adores both of their girls - Ava 5, and Audrey is 3 so he fits right in with them (as you see in the photos from the spray park!).  Ethan is 10 and Ely is 8 so they are sooo cool to Finn.  They had each of their parent's I Pads and showed Finn several games - need I say more?  So then that night I made Rachel V's pulled pork with coleslaw - so yummy!

The next day Lynn came with me to the center again while Erik and Andy took the boys to the splash park (this time it was open!).  Lynn and I stopped at an antique store - I found a mid century chair that is actually from the Indiana University - with stamp on bottom and everything!  It will fit in the car too! Only $25 so had to grab it.

We then headed for Thai - all of the kiddos yummed it up and the place hooked us up with our own room!  Still sooo hot!  104 degrees out!  Insane for anyone let alone someone who is getting radiation!

They then took off to Indianapolis for the rest of the time as we had other friends coming that night and they wanted to head home.  Pat and Gary were coming!  So kind of them too!  Gary is who Erik had Bible discussions with several years back and even though we don't see them often they have been so supportive through all of this.  Well they were still in Schaumburg IL at IKEA at 5:30 PM - on a Friday night none the less!  If you know anything about Chicago you know you don't want to drive through all of town at that time - a 20 min drive will take 3 hours.  Apparently Gary and Erik hadn't communicated well because they thought we were in Indianapolis - so it was really the 5 hour drive we were telling them!  So we convinced them we are OK and we will just see them next time they are in North Carolina - they come through now since their daughter Shannon moved to the area.  She is now learning Chinese to help out with the Chinese congregation in Raleigh - how cool right?  Who knew?

Well we had planned on taking Pat and Gary to the farmer's market here in Bloomington but it was already 93 degrees at 8:45 AM so we didn't want to put Elan through that.  So we thought about what to do in AC on a Saturday and decided to go back to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis (only 50 min from our house).  So we gave the Lassens a call to see what they were planning on doing and they were also headed there!  So we met up again and had a great time as expected.

This time the museum had a bunch of special things going on.  The Hot Wheels exhibit is almost ending and had a build your own prototype - the kids had a blast!  I took that time to try and put Elan down for a nap in his stroller - didn't happen.  I also headed to the mother's room, still didn't happen.  I did chat with 2 wonderful mothers there.  I don't plan on telling everyone I meet about our situation but when they ask how old Elan is and he still isn't walking again I feel this need to explain.  Well both had such a nice way about them.  One is a special ed teacher and has had several brain tumor children.  She has had several who had radiation CSI as Elan has (means cranial spinal irradiation).   She said each child really is different and Elan could honestly show no signs down the road.  Just a nice thought to think about as a possibility... not a huge one but still one none the less.

So the museum also had a LEGO family challenge since LEGO is only around for a few weeks there too.  We were planning on doing a head to head against the Lassen family :) but Elan decided it was a great time to throw up.  Thankfully we caught most of it in a towel (we were stupid feed tubing him in the room while the woman was explaining the deal and he was at an awkward angle which is why he vomited... Lynn is so great - she makes us feel so good about everything!  It is funny looking back that Erik and I were feeding him in a room of strangers and not really thinking twice about it.  Now we were in the corner and not facing the group of course but still we have really risen to the challenge of this new way of life!  We are sticklers to keeping things as normal and fun for both boys and I think we are doing pretty good if I do say so myself!

Well Finn stayed with the Lassens while Erik and I went to feed Elan and clean him up. Apparently Finn did his own car and went up in front of the group and explained his vehicle.  Lynn said he even corrected the lady when she was restating what he said since he was quiet.  Lynn said he was so specific about what his car could do and it was adorable!  Wish we could have seen it but glad he stuck with them of course.

Here are a ton of photos again!

This is in the Dinosaur Sphere - so cool!  Ava and Finn were in total awe. They had a paleontologist talking about a specific skeleton and how it was injured and healed itself... of course it also had a brain tumor (but lived!)

Poor Andy - Audrey wouldn't let him put her down into our stroller.

in the Hot Wheels - putting on decals - literally 10 x more people than last weekend!

in hot wheels prototype room - check out the lab coat - so cute!

Lynn and AVA

Testing out the cars... Finn did one for Elan too :)

The pony ride actually cost 5 cents - how cute right?  Of course Erik had to literally pan handle to get nickels since that is all it took.  Fun!

Finn in the play cooking area

Elan on the horse too!  He loved it!

We were there for several fun hours and then headed to the German restaurant... the oldest in all of Indianapolis.  It was a true German experience!  Guess where they put us??? in the stammtisch table!  So fun!  For those who have no clue what I am talking about:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stammtisch

here are some quick photos from there:

Outside... we tried another photo of them walking away and Elan was in the stroller and I didn't have the break on... he literally ran into the car behind us.  This girl is 6 inch heels stopped him. 

See the plaque in the middle of the table???  that is it.  All the kid had a great time!