Loving winter break

We have been having a busy and fun winter break. We have been swimming, taking treats to the doctor's office, enjoying Christmas and family, and just hanging around. Logan had asked for a "Blue Avenger's Bike" from Santa, and Santa delivered. Thankfully, Logan was able to ride his bike in the morning outside before it started snowing on Christmas. That is good, because it has snowed more and has been so cold that the snow is not melting. It is great to see Logan feeling better this year and enjoying Christmas and everything that it entails.

The antibiotics that they gave Logan at his last clinic visit seem to be doing the trick. His nose is no longer runny, his cough is gone, and he has not been complaining of headaches. Yay! Maybe it was just a chronic sinus infection, which is a relief. It was no fun with Logan being sick over and over again.

Other news is that Logan will be starting preschool in the afternoons at one of my preschool classrooms. I think he will thrive in this environment, but it will also be tiring for him. Maybe this will help build up his endurance and gear up for Kindergarten next year. He will still get the mornings and some afternoons at Cathy's, but will also have the preschool in addition.

I am making a resolution to update this blog more often in the new year, and will work hard to make this reality. Happy New Year from Logan and our Family!

Big catch up

I am getting really bad about not updating this blog. Sorry to all of Logan's followers. We have all just been super busy with daily life and getting ready for Christmas. Logan has had some fun and exciting things lately. He went to the Annual Wish Store at Children's hospital that Make A Wish does so that the kids can go shopping for their loved ones. Logan had a great time decorating his bag, meeting the Broncos cheerleaders, meeting Dinger from the Rockies, talking with Santa and Mrs Clause and, of course, shopping. It was so much more fun for him this year than last year. Last year, he had chemo (including a spinal) that morning and we went straight to the event. Logan's fabulous wish granter helped him through, but he still barely made it through and crashed in the car afterward. This year was all excitement and fun for him. We also ran into a couple of friends, Connor and Jacob, that we only know "virtually" by following their progress and blogs. It was nice to actually meet them and see them looking stronger.

Then, last weekend, we went to see Santa (again) on Sunday because Alexis had not had a chance to talk with him. We decided to go to a mall that was not very close to us because they opened earlier than the others and they had a Frozen themed village along with Santa. Well, our plans to get in earlier did not really pan out and we waited about an hour to see Santa (and Olaf), but the kids had fun. We are on the countdown to the holidays and it is so fun to see Logan feeling so much better this year.

The only bad thing has been that Logan has been battling a cold (again). It seems that whenever he almost gets rid of one cough, then the cycle starts over again. Here's to good health  through the holidays!

Smoothish sailing

Logan has been doing pretty well since his last chemo. He still has a dry cough that he cannot seem to shake, but not much else in that area. Thankfully he is mostly healthy. They thought his numbers were a little high (too close to the "normal" range), so they increased his medication dose. He now takes 1 1/2 pills on four nights instead of 1 pill of his mercaptopurine. Not too big of an increase, but we are just trying to get into the routine. They had us come in this week for a two week lab check and his numbers are coming down but still higher than they prefer. So, we just stay the course for now.

Thanksgiving went well, and we enjoyed having family here with us. This year I am thankful for so many things. I am thankful that Logan has made it into Maintenance and is doing so well with it. I am thankful for little things like his ability to swallow pills. I am thankful that he has been able to take treatment like such a champ. I am thankful for all the support and love we are shown each day. Thankful for our friends and family who are understanding and love us, and we know that they are there for us.

Rough night after chemo

I had been trying to publish this for a couple of days, sorry about the delay:

Logan had chemo Tuesday, and the plan was to draw blood from his port, do his IV monthly antibiotic while we waited on his labs and then give the chemo. This avoided having to go in for a finger poke the day before since we were going to be there long enough anyway. Well, it never goes exactly to plan, does it? They accessed his port with no trouble, but then it would not give any blood. Medicines went in, but nothing came out. Hmmm... Well, this happened once before, but they thought it might work after the IV. No such luck, so they put in some of the medicine to dissolve the clot and we waited. No luck after 30 minutes...no luck after an hour...tried again about 20 minutes later...nothing. They did decide to go ahead and do a finger poke for the labs so that he could get chemo. Then while we were waiting for results, they decided to use a larger syringe and see if that would help...success. Finally! At least it was cooperating. The results were back by then, and his numbers were a bit high. So, they increased one of his meds (unfortunately on a funky schedule of alternating doses every other day). They gave him his chemo and home we went. Overall he did very well throughout the extended visit which lasted about 3 1/2 hours instead of 1 1/2.

Logan started having some trouble when we got home and was not feeling well. He said he had a headache and just wanted to lay down on the couch. Unfortunately he threw up several times throughout the evening, but thankfully was able to keep his meds down long enough that he did not have to take them a second time. He slept pretty well, and woke up with plenty of energy this morning. He is feeling great and even helped put sprinkles on my birthday cake. Eric and the kids made it just for me, and it is super special.

Finally getting back into the swing

Logan is finally feeling more like his normal self. He is finally eating at least one good meal a day and is playing more. We have been having quite a few struggles around him taking his medicine lately (mostly since he was sick). He did decide he wanted to try swallowing the pills instead of from the syringe (I usually crush them). So, we practiced with some M &Ms, and he did great. Then before bed, we gave him a cup of juice and his chemo pill. He took it with no trouble and was so excited for himself. He says he preferred this to the other way, so we will do this from now on. Hopefully it will go this well when Tuesday rolls around and he has 12 pills to take.

Here are some Disney pictures that I just found and thought were cute, but had not shared:

End of a rough week

Well, last week was a rough week with Logan being sick most of the week. He still has a cough, but thankfully the worst is behind us. We are also thankful for the fact that he never spiked a fever high enough to warrant going to the hospital. The best thing was that Logan was well enough to go to an event on Friday. He was invited by Make A Wish to go to the local launch of the Believe campaign at Macy's. For every letter to Santa written and dropped into the big mailbox at Macy's, then they donate $1 to Make A Wish. There were some firefighters there and Logan got to check out the firetruck and even ride in it. He asked so many questions that I lost count! The firefighters and paramedics were so patient with him and answered everything he asked. Logan was in awe the whole time. They even went into Macy's and wrote letters to Santa, too. One's wish was for Logan to come visit them at the fire station. It was a pretty amazing experience all around. A special thank you to Make A Wish, Macy's, and the B shift from South Metro Fire Station 34!

After all that excitement, we had a pretty quiet weekend, but Logan did get a chance to start making out his Christmas list. Now, where am I going to get a fully functioning suit of Iron Man armor?

Reality again

Well, we have finally come down off of the high from our fantastic trip. Logan had chemo the week we got back, and he was a rock star with the spinal and IV chemo. We were at the clinic for quite awhile since he always gets IV fluids when he has the spinal tap and he now gets his antibiotic through a second IV. But, he just took it in stride and watched Star Wars without a complaint.

Then we just had a "normal" weekend with Alexis' last soccer game and soccer party. Of course Logan was right in the middle of it all and had fun too. Then it was Halloween week. Logan has a new Spiderman costume from his birthday, but had also wanted to be Ironman again and wear his costume from last year. He also has a Captain America costume that he could wear. Finally, Logan decided after many changes of his mind that he was going to be Spiderman, but did not really like the mask. Halloween was a busy day with parades, and trick or treating at his hospital as well as the evening neighborhood events with friends. The kids had a blast and thankfully stayed warm.

Then Saturday night, boom! Back to reality. Logan wakes up about 10pm throwing up. We were up all night sick and with a fever. Thankfully it did not get too high to immediately call the doctor, but he (and therefore, we) did not get much sleep. He continued to have a fever all day Sunday, but since it did not get to that 101.5 threshold they let us keep him at home and just wait and see. Finally right before bed time it went down almost to normal and he slept well. Apparently all the daycare kids had a stomach bug, but it seems to have hit Logan especially hard. Hopefully no more issues and he will feel better today. 

Make A Wish recap part 4 (the last one, I promise)

On Wednesday, we took advantage of our tickets to Universal Studios. The kids really enjoyed becoming Minions at the Despicable Me attraction as well as meeting Gru, a yellow minion, a purple minion, Agnes, Margo and Edith. We also went to see the Transformers attraction, and we were able to meet Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. Again, everyone was so nice and really made the experience special for us. The kids also enjoyed going on the Jurassic Park ride and almost getting eaten by a T-Rex! Of course, to the kids, it was all Disneyland, but we are also grateful to Universal for the tickets and the treatment.

On our last day in California, we were able to sleep in and then go down and have breakfast with Mickey and his friends. It was a really nice way to say good bye to Disneyland. After packing up our room, we headed to the beach. It was wonderful to be back at the beach and to share it with the kids. They loved it and played the whole day in the sand and water. It was a relaxing end to our action packed trip. We cannot say enough about Make A Wish, Disney, Universal, and everyone, including Cherokee Trail High School, who had a part in making Logan's Wish come true.

Make A Wish recap part 3

OK, where were we? On to Disneyland day 2. First we had a prearranged meet and greet at California Adventure with the Cars characters, so met in the park early to see Mater and McQueen together. This was pretty awesome because usually there is only one of them at a time to meet and take pictures, but they were together for our meeting. After all that excitement, we decided to go back over the the Disneyland side since we did not spend as much time there the previous day. We rode some rides, and then the kids decided to wait for the Star Wars Jedi Training show. Both kids were picked out of the audience to undergo Jedi training. It took Logan a little while to figure out what he was doing, but he had a great time. Then...there was a disturbance in the force. Out came Darth Vader, Darth Maul and a couple of Storm Troopers. The kids then got to defeat the Dark Side. Logan battled Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers, and Alexis battled Darth Maul. They then received their Jedi Training certificates after the epic battle. After the show, we were told to meet the cast members in an area off to the side for a meet and greet. With one other family, we were able to meet the Jedi Masters, Darth Vader, Storm Troopers and Darth Maul. Again, there was the speechless (for a short time) face of awe from Logan. He then recovered his voice, and only Logan would tell Darth Maul that he had something in his teeth (the makeup was pretty realistic and his teeth were yellow and black).

After that, we went on some rides, and met Tigger and Pooh. This was an extra special part of the trip for Alexis as Tigger has been her buddy since she was a baby. Then, back over to California Adventure for the Pixar Parade. We had to check in a little early because Make a Wish had arranged a special viewing area for us, and it gave us the perfect view and area to dance around. The kids loved seeing all their favorite characters going through and waving. That evening, we went back to Cars Land which is pretty spectacular at night with all the neon signs. We were able to ride the racers again and enjoyed DJ's dance party. We hit a few more rides, but by then we were pretty exhausted (and it was close to closing time) and went back to the hotel room.

I am going to skip a day here because we went to Universal on Wednesday, but I will talk about that in the next post. We knew that we would not be able to see Disney in just the two days, so we decided to purchase an extra day for the kids (and us). It was a great day to ride the rides that we had not gotten to on the other days as well as ride many rides again. We also had booked a Princess makeover for Alexis and a Knight makeover for Logan. They really enjoyed this special attention, and then meeting Princesses (Ariel, Cinderella, and Snow White) afterward. I had also learned during the makeover time, that we needed a pass to meet Anna and Elsa from Frozen, so we went over to see if they were giving out any more passes. They had handed out all the passes for the day, but they told us that our special pass from Make a Wish would get us in. Yahoo! After all these great times, we continued to revisit our favorite parts including Thor, Captain America (Logan wore his CA shirt and mask this time), Cars Land and all the rides (somewhere in there we had some great pizza for dinner). We were able to watch one more World of Color show from our room to cap off the great day.

Make A Wish recap part 2

Now, on to the Disney part of our trip. We got in for the "extra magic hour" for hotel guests which was for the California Adventure side on that day. We went straight to Cars Land and checked out the replica of Radiator Springs which really thrilled Logan. We explored and got to ride the Radiator Springs Racers which is a car ride that is super popular. Disney gives their Wish Kids a special pass that allows us to go to the front of the line. The cast member even made sure that we had a red "McQueen" racer, and let us go two times in a row. This was an overarching theme throughout the trip. Everyone was so nice and really tuned into the fact that Logan was on his wish trip, and they made an extra effort to make the experience special. From getting to go on the ride a couple times in a row, an extra meet and greet, getting picked out of the audience for a special privilege, or just an extra greeting, we were treated very well.

After Cars Land, we explored California Adventure some more, riding rides, grabbing a quick lunch followed by more rides. After an ice cream snack, we decided to go over to Disneyland. It was pretty special watching the kids go through the front gates and the big Mickey in the flowers and then the giant Mickey pumpkin. We went straight to Tomorrowland, which we knew we would be spending a large chunk of our time during the week. They now have Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America attractions. A cast member grabbed us when we arrived and asked if we would like to go see Thor and Captain America. Of Course! So, they led us over to a little waiting area and we were able to then go in and have some time in a little room that had artifacts from the movies. Then we were transported via the Bifrost to Asgard with a group to meet Thor. Logan was in awe, and he was even picked out of the crowd to come and try to lift Thor's hammer. He was able to do it with Thor's help, and then we got to take pictures as a family with the superhero. After that, we went to meet Captain America, and Logan was again in awe. Once he found his ability to speak, he had a lot to say to the Captain and posed for more pictures. Logan got to explore Iron Man's Hall of Armor with many of the suits and a virtual experience where he could become Iron Man on a TV screen with him controlling the image. He really enjoyed that. This area was his favorite from the trip, and we actually went back a couple of days later.

After the excitement of Tomorrowland, we went on some rides, ate dinner and enjoyed some more rides. Then we found a spot for the parade and had a great time dancing and watching all the characters. After the parade, the kids were pretty exhausted, so we went back to the hotel and watched the World of Color show from our rooms and went to sleep. Too much excitement for one day, and we so much more to do the next...

 Sorry this one is sideways, I am having technical difficulties:

Make a Wish recap part 1

Question: How can Make A Wish ruin the Disney experience for our family for the rest of our lives?

Answer: By making it so far beyond amazing that you know the experience could never be replicated or topped.

From 5:30 am on Sunday morning when the limo picked us up to go to the airport until 2:15 am Saturday morning when it dropped us back on our doorstep, the time was packed with fun and memories of a lifetime. I do not know if I can do it justice in just one post, so I will do this in installments this week with lots of pictures.

I will skip ahead to our arrival in California. The first things the kids noticed: "coconut trees" and "the air feels different." It sure did feel different from the dry air of Colorado, and it felt like a  nice change. Once we had the rental car, we headed for the hotel. We checked in and were met with a representative from guest services who went over our packet and explained some of the procedures and benefits we would be receiving. After that, she made some suggestions for lunch, and we went on our way. We had a great lunch, and shopped around the Downtown Disney District including stops at the Lego store (for some Avengers legos of course) and Elsa and Anna's Boutique. After that we went to the pool at our hotel and relaxed a bit. That evening we dined at Goofy's Kitchen with lots of characters coming over to the tables and taking pictures with the kids. It was a great start to the trip.

 View from our room (the best view for the World of Color water/light show):