Merry Christmas 2013!
We
have had another busy year filled with ups and downs (thankfully more ups than
downs this time!) and started it off planning and packing for JP’s Make-A-Wish
trip to visit Mickey Mouse in Orlando, FL. We spent 10 days on the best
vacation of our lives visiting three of the four Disney parks, SeaWorld,
Universal Studios, Legoland and even caught a Braves Spring Training game. It
was amazing – we were given a spacious twin home at Give Kids The World
Village, didn’t have to cook or clean, got to order room service any time and
eat ice cream for breakfast, played arcade games, air hockey and mini-golf,
went on a train ride, fishing and swimming and that was all just at the
Village! At the theme parks we never had to wait in line for a ride or a
character. It was so much fun – completely stress-free and just the kind of
breather we needed.
Ironically
enough, visiting the Disney parks was the least exciting thing we did. We fed
dolphins, sharks, stingrays and sea lions at SeaWorld, had rides all to
ourselves at LegoLand and Universal Studios really made JP feel special. As
soon as Captain America saw him, he knelt down to his level, saw his name badge
and said, “Hi JP! You know what? You’re MY hero!” Then a worker asked us to wait
for a few minutes. They opened a door to their backstage and brought us back to
meet all of their characters privately. Flexing his muscles to superheroes who
were ooing and ahhing, JP could not have been happier.
At
the Braves game we were given front row seats behind home plate and JP received
autographed balls from Tim Hudson and Jason Heyward. We beat the Phillies,
which made it that much better. At the end of the game he went down to the
field where he ran around the bases while the crowd stood and cheered. It was
incredible! We can never recreate a vacation like we had and although we wish
we never qualified for such an amazing gift, we will never forget the
generosity of the Make-A-Wish program and hope to pay that forward someday.
Elsie
is almost 2 years old already and such a little princess. She likes getting her
make-up on, dressing up in princess attire and wearing mommy’s high heels. She
is all girl! She is such a sweetheart that anytime someone coughs or sneezes
you’ll hear her say, “Bless you!” and until you thank her for blessing you she
will keep saying it. She started getting hives this fall and so far we think
she’s allergic to dairy. She just wanted a little bit of that spotlight we’ve
had on JP ;) She has all of us wrapped around her little finger.
JP
is a busy 4 year old who keeps us on our toes. He is too smart already! He follows
and understands sports, much to Josh’s delight. He can tell you what kind of
play they are doing, what down it is, which team he wants to win (he knows
every team in most sports – college AND professional) and we constantly have
sports games filling up our DVR because he knows how to record them and insists
on watching each game over and over throughout the week. The Utes mascot,
Swoop, is still one of his most favorite people and we just adore our little
man so much. As far as his cancer goes, we do oral chemo (pills) at home each
day, a concoction of many other meds throughout each week, blood work at the
hospital every 4 weeks and IV and spinal tap chemo every 12 weeks. Other than a
couple ER visits for fevers, his treatment has been much less difficult and we
are trying to find a sense of normalcy again. He will continue receiving chemo
until May 2015 so we are just over halfway.
Megan
still works for JetBlue and still tries to work as little as possible. She ran
Ragnar on a team called “If my kid can fight cancer, I can run Ragnar!” in
June. Ragnar is a 200 mile relay race divided up between 12 team members. It
took them about 36 hours to run from Logan, Utah to Park City, Utah and Megan
ran 12.5 miles in total. She is not a runner (hasn’t gone for a run since!) and
taking on this challenge was very difficult and therapeutic at the same time.
She left a lot of built up sadness and anger out on the road and even though it
was hard, it was nothing compared to what these kids go through. The team plans
to run again next year and Megan or Josh will run 14 miles this time. Yikes!
Josh
has been busy with his honey-do list. We closed on our new home in Layton,
Utah, at the end of May and then spent the summer remodeling. Since he is so
handy, Megan talked him into redoing everything. Only some built in bookshelves
and the stair railing is the same as when we bought it. Josh has been hard at
work tearing down walls, putting up new ones, painting, tiling, plumbing, you
name it. We were so excited to move in at the end of August! Josh is a
perfectionist and our home is wonderful. He is still working for the IRS and
was recently called to serve in the Young Men’s Presidency.
We
had to say goodbye to our dog Ralphie in July. We got him when he was just 9
weeks old and were always outsmarted by him. He never really grew out of that
puppy phase, either. If you’ve seen the movie Marley and Me, well, that should have been titled Ralphie and Me. He would take us for
walks instead of the other way around and was always our little Houdini escape
artist. Unfortunately, one night we came home to find his last attempt was
unsuccessful. It was a tragic loss and we are still heartbroken. JP still prays
for him and Elsie calls every dog she sees (except Missy) “Walfee!” He was just
shy of 8 years old and left us much too soon.
Josh
and Megan celebrated 10 years of marriage on the beaches of Punta Cana,
Dominican Republic in October. Thank goodness for free airfare and last minute
resort deals or that never would have happened! We had 4 short days to sleep
in, soak up the sun and play on the beach. It was pretty great.
We
feel the love our Savior has for us all year, but especially as we celebrate
His birth. We recognize we can not go through life without His help. We are
extremely grateful for the prayers that have been offered on our family’s
behalf and thank you for them. When we feel we can not go any further, we are
buoyed up by the tender mercies often given to us from the Lord through our
friends and family. Thank you – we truly are blessed to have such wonderful
people surrounding us.
With
love - Josh, Megan, JP and Elsie
