Central Park, shopping, eating and Wicked

We started off tired this morning, can you tell? Jeffrey had the morning to spend with us, then he had to head to work. So, we decided that we wanted to see some of Central Park.

Trying to get going.

Jeffrey and I

We got on some bikes pedaled by some very tired fellas one of which was from Turkey and the other from Russia. They took us around part of Central Park. We stopped at the fountain for some pictures.

After Central Park, Gail and I went to Macy's to shop. I found some really cute clothes one of which I decided to put on right away for our night to dinner and to Wicked.

Before Wicked, we decided to eat at Stage Deli. We ate there last year from a suggestion by Doug Carter. We decided to go back again. You'll see why in the next picture of our strawberry cheesecake. It is divine!

After dinner, we walked a few blocks to Wicked. I enjoyed the play, but fantasy is not my favorite genre. I am glad I saw it though.

A great day around the city.

Jeffrey, Gail's son that lives in New Jersey right across the river from the city came to spend the day with us.
Grand Central Station

Inside Grand Central Station. Carole decided that she would go and stand in the rain all morning to try to get into the Regis and Kelly show. She did get in, but missed some of the morning fun.

I just had to do this. However, I thought it was quite funny because sitting to my left was a lady that very obviously did not care what the sign said.

Carole finally joined us at Rockefeller Center. We purchased tickets to go to the top which they call The Top of The Rock.

Some very nice Italian boy took this picture of us. Central Park is right behind us. The view up there was just amazing.

After Rockefeller Center, we went to the Seaport and saw the 4 waterfalls that are there for a limited time. Here is one of them.

For dinner we went to some really quaint Italian place in Greenwich Village. After dinner we walked a few blocks for some fabulous gellato.

Fly from Burbank to New York City!

We left Burbank, California at 7 PST. We arrived at JFK at 3 something in the afternoon. We caught a taxi to our hotel room and the headed off to Serendipity. Oprah loves their frozen hot chocolate that you'll see below.

See, I'm really there!

All of us right after our food arrived. Gail got sick after eating. She had gastric bypass surgery the beginning of June and has to be very careful when she eats.

The very popular Frozen Hot Chocolate. It is quite tasty!

Tour day!

We decided to take a tour today of Hollywood. Here are a few things we saw. I didn't see any stars, of course!

The Hollywood Bowl

Famous Beverly Hills sign. We had to stop the tour bus to go to the bathroom and we went to the Beverly Hills hotel. It was really nice and right as I was walking up this Lamborghini was pulling out. That thing was SUPER loud. Mom and Gail were behind me and they said that the mother from the Mary Poppins movie was leaving as we came in, but I either didn't see her or I didn't know her when I did see her.

The bus stopped at the Santa Monica Pier for us to get out. We had to walk by The Hotel California and I had Mom take my picture because I really like that song.

Well, you'll just have to take my word for it, but that's the Santa Monica pier sign.

Mom and I on the pier and in front of The Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory. Do you remember in Forrest Gump when he is running, he goes to the Santa Monica Pier. That was kind of neat. The pier was all wood, of course which had a neat look and made odd sounds when cars were driving on it.
The tour bus driver was AWFUL, and that is being nice. However, the bright side is that we lived through it and are better because of it! :)
That night, we ordered pizza to our room.

The Price is Right!

Carole and I got up at 4:00 this morning to go to the Price is Right. You have to request tickets online. Then, all that does is give you the "chance" to go to the show. You have to get there REALLY early and sit around and wait all day. No, I'm not kidding, ALL DAY!

We got to the line outside the studio's at 5:30 this morning and we were still numbers 189 and 190. That just meant that we got to wait even longer to see if we could get in. If large groups come, you get bumped.

I was pretty excited.

After a VERY long day, we did make it in. You had a very brief thing they call an interview where they ask you in groups of 15 or so your name, where you're from and what you do. A woman in our group got picked and I could tell that she was going to. I told her afterwards that she would be picked and sure enough, she was!

This is what Gail and Mom did while we were gone. They stayed in the hotel in bed all day. Carole and I stopped at Inn and Out Burger for dinner. We took some home for the sleepy heads. Tasty stuff I'm telling 'ya! I refer to this day as the Robert and Maria Valentich day. Robert LOVES Inn and Out Burger and Maria is a die hard Price is Right fan. I had a great time you guys, thanks for all the tips. :)

Visiting the beach, temple and family

I wanted to take a picture of the sand. We have white sand on the Gulf Coast. I thought it was neat how different the sad was on the Pacific Ocean.

Mom and I at the Santa Monica Beach. Carole did a great job with this one, didn't she?

Santa Monica Pier

The family statue at the Los Angeles temple. I LOVED it there! The temple was huge and the grounds were just beautiful.

Los Angeles family. Left to right, Don Evan ( a cousin), Mom, June (married to my mom's cousin who is now deceased), Gail, Melody (a cousin that I was named after), and Carole.
Don Evan and Melody are June's children. Gail and Carole are sisters. June married Mom, Gail and Carole's cousin. Confusing.

That night, we ate at the Queen Mary, a docked ship from England. Caroline who is Gail's daughter met us for dinner. There was a submarine there too, but it was closed. That would have been fun to check out.

We're off to Los Angeles

The Golden Girls and their escort (me).
We met at the JFK airport. David, Gail and Carole had gone to the keys a few days before, and all the girls were going to LA and David was being 'shipped' back to Utah. No boys allowed!

David and Gail
Gail is my mother's first cousin, but they are like sisters. Carole is her sister.

We ate dinner at Johnny Rockets in Hollywood.

We got into Burbank and rented a car. That car rental place was just a mess! I think that it took us about an hour and a half to get a car. But finally, we were off to our hotel and then to dinner in Hollywood.

I'm getting ready to leave

I leave tonight when Chris gets home to go to my mom's. We leave the Tampa airport bright and early in the morning on our way to Los Angeles. Stay tuned for pictures after I get back. We stay in LA for 4 days and then NYC for 4 days.

Memory Game

This should be fun!

I got this latest "blog game" from Tricia and I've decided to play along...

Rules:
1. Leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together (it doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, just anything that you remember).

2. Re-post these instructions on your blog. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

New tile

We had carpet in front of our sliding glass doors that was always getting dirty from coming in and out all the time. When we added the pool, it was not only getting dirty, but wet. So, we decided to add tile in front of them. I really love it!

Happy 7th Birthday Lauklan James!

7 years old

6

5

4

July 14, 2001 birth day!

Lauklan is a great child with an energetic and animated spirit. He loves to dance and entertain. I think that I use his middle name more than anyone else's because Aislinn thinks that everyone's middle name is James. Does that tell you something? :)

Love you Lauklan!

Its working!

No fever this morning!

WAHOO!

Lauklan's little party

Lighting Lauklan's cake

Grandpa and Grandma Kenney (cute face, huh?)

Doug and Suzy

We had an impromptu party for Lauklan today since Dad and Kenney were her to drop off the kids from the beach. I also made a quick call to our friends Doug and Suzy Bell to come with their boys. It worked out really well for being so spur-of the-moment. We grilled out hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken and ate birthday cake.

We started the fourth antiobiotic today, I sure hope this one works.

On to antibiotic number 4!

Aislinn is only marginally better. She still runs a fever as soon as the Tylenol or Motrin wears off that she has to take every 4 hours. We are changing her antibiotic again tomorrow morning. Hopefully that will do it. I feel so sorry for her. We have an appointment with the pediatrician Monday morning. I sure hope she will be doing MUCH better then.

Some of us came home.

I came home this morning with Aislinn and Greyson. I wanted to be with our doctors so they could take care of Aislinn. We left Brennan, Kerstyn and Lauklan with Grandpa and Grandma Kenney to enjoy the beach. They will be dropped off tomorrow.

I took Aislinn at 3 p.m. to Dr. Soto's office. Dr. Soto was not in the office this afternoon and we had to see the nurse practitioner. I am not happy. Aislinn is still running a fever. They told me to give the antibiotics, the new ones, a little longer. I am growing impatient! We'll see...

It's much easier around here with only 2 kids. Huh...

Here are some pictures from the trip. We did have quite a few good times, I just wish we could have stayed longer and not been preoccupied with Aislinn's illness.

We're off to Yoo-Ma's and Papa's to get Lauklan.

Kerstyn

Playing at the pool. You can see here that Aislinn is not right. :(

Relaxing inside the house.

Greyson riding Shamu.

Kerstyn taking on the wheel.

Brennan

Brennan and Aislinn

Greyson

Lauklan

Day 3 at the beach

Last night was a little better for Aislinn, but still not good. We went to the pool this morning, even though that is usually an afternoon activity, but we haven't had much afternoon time since all the storms keep coming.

While at the pool, I just knew that Aislinn wasn't well. We loaded the kids up and brought them home and Aislinn and I headed off the the ER.

We got into a room quite quickly and they got a urine sample and took blood. She had to have an IV with fluids then another type of antiobiotic and some medicine to help the nausea. She started vomiting while we were in the hospital.

The tests showed that the infection was not going away. Apparently the antibiotics were not working and the infection was 'immune' to that type of medication. They gave her her fist dose through the IV and sent us home with a prescription for more. She is sleeping now and it looks like she is much more peaceful.

I am so glad that I took her to the ER. It was a Children's hospital and they were excellent! Aislinn still wasn't happy, especially when her first IV had to be redone, but they did a great job playing with her and trying their best to keep her comfortable.

If she is not MUCH better by tomorrow evening, I am to take her back. I sure hope AND PRAY, that she will be.

When I left the hospital, I was trying to get Chris, and I called home and had 2 messages from the urgent care center that saw her Monday, telling me to call them. They left the messages at 10 this morning, and 2 this afternoon. I called them back and they proceeded to tell me that the lab results came in from Monday and the the antibiotics would not work. I replied, "Well, I guess that is why I just spent half the day in the hospital!" I sure do wish they would of called my cell phone, like I had told them to!

I sure hope that tomorrow will be a much better day and we can all start our vacation...

Day 2 at the beach

I will post all of my cute pictures when I get home. We are really enjoying the beach and the fantastic view! It storms each afternoon and into the night, so we have a great light show to watch too.

Aislinn had a very bad night last night. She was burning up through the night and did not sleep well at all! I had to give her Tylenol every 4 hours and it still wasn't doing the trick. This morning I headed off to CVS to get some Motrin. It seems to be helping, but she still has that fever come back up every 4 hours. I'm worried...

If it's not better, way better tomorrow, I might have to take her to the ER.

Not so fast

We were all up bright and early this morning to head off to the beach, but something was wrong with Aislinn. She kept saying that she needed to go to the bathroom and then she eventually started crying and saying that it hurt.

I looked up urgent care facilities in the are and we headed off. We got worked in quickly, produced a urine sample and it was determined that she has a UTI. They prescribed an antibiotic and sent the sample to the lab for further tests. Not before scaring me about how I need to follow up on this as soon as I get home given her history with the right kidney and ureter! Not good!

We stopped by the drug store, picked up the kids, went back to the drug store to get the medicine, gave it to her and off we went.

This afternoon Aislinn started running a fever. I have been giving her Tylenol every four hours.

We are all excited to be at the beach, but it is hard with Aislinn being under the weather.

On our way

We attended church today as a family then the kids and I came home to pack up for our week at Ft. Myers Beach. We got in the car around 3 and arrived at Mom and Dad's around 5. We hadn't seen Lauklan in a week and we were all happy to be together again.

Tomorrow morning, it's off to the beach!

Two Saturdays!

I love that today was like a bonus day! I thought yesterday was Saturday all day and I got another one.

Well, you might be shocked, but I spent most of the day out at the pool. I first went into work and got things squared away so that I can be gone all next week. Then, I was in the bathing suit and having fun!

Chris and Brennan met Kyle and Ethan for a 5 mile hike that Brennan needed to complete to earn his Second Class for Scouts. After that, we had the Garrett's (plus Jensen) over for swimming and dinner. It was a very relaxing day and I am really looking forward to going to the beach on Monday.

We are going to church in the morning, then coming home, packing and heading over to Mom and Dad's to spend the night. Monday morning, we're off to Ft. Myers until Saturday at 1. Fun times ahead!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a fun day today. I kept thinking that it was Saturday, so tomorrow I should be pleasantly surprised! We were out swimming in the pool by 10 this morning, then a little after 1 we went down the street to a party that one of our neighbors was having. We stayed there until about 5 and we came home with a very worn out bunch of kids.

They all just went to their beds, they got to stay up until 9 tonight, which is quite a treat in this house! :) I hope that everyone sleeps well and in late.

What a blessing it is that we live in this country. I am thankful that I live here and have the opportunity to raise my family in this great nation. A special thanks goes out to all those who made it and who now make this possible.

He's sad

Lauklan called today and is sad, wanting to come home. He made Chris and I feel so bad. My mom isn't feeling well today, she has a migraine and Lauklan did not have a good day. I am going to call again in the morning and see if I need to get in the car and bring him back home.

I hope that this is just a 'bad' day, but my heart is hurting for him. We love you Lauklan and want you to have fun with Yoo-Ma. She'll be feeling much better in the morning and you will have bunches of fun.

We love you!

I couldn't get out of bed!

I don't think that I wanted to go into the office today. I just had the hardest time dragging myself out of the bed! I am trying to work in the office each day this week since we will be in Ft. Myers next week. Aislinn asks several times a day when we are going to the beach. It will be a very needed get-away!

Last night for FHE, Kerstyn was in charge of the lesson and Brennan was in charge of the music. We had FHE at the pool and Kerstyn decided to teach the lesson on being helpful. She talked about how we can be nice, then she followed up with helping each of the kids do something that they wanted to do. It was so sweet! I might have a little teacher on my hands. :)

Aislinn requested Popcorn Poppin' and Brennan requested Once there was a Snowman. Those are favorites of the Shipley children and I just love to see them smile the whole time they sing.

We had a nice little lesson and I was pleasantly surprised at how well they all did. FHE is not usually fun, maybe the key is having it around the pool?