Calm Amongst the Chaos

I wanted to share our weekend we had last weekend in Greer, but have been so busy it almost seems to late to bother. But I am going to anyway. And add some fun photos to boot.
Our family went to visit my parents in Greer last weekend. It was the Kick Ash Bash weekend they started last year after the Wallow Fire almost left Greer nothing but a memory. We went up after Lily’s long fitting for new AFO’s. I must add to this that Orthotic Specialists is the best, most innovative place ever to get AFO’s! Brett and Barb are a husband wife duo that care about each client and keep up with the most current education and they are just so darn sweet! I just love those guys. They are so patient with Andi Jane and Oliver, it was a long appointment, and they really care about Lily. Brett decided to try Lily’s AFO’s with a heel and she walked so much better! She even stood more firm. It was so amazing to see and we are just waiting for the  ugly shoes to accompany the impossible to fit AFO’s to get her wearing them daily. We will also add SPIO when the weather cuts us some slack, possibly in October. Brett really thinks Lily will do better with more pressure on her and help her proprioceptive “issues”. I was so impressed by the AFO’s, I totally believe him!
So after that appointment we headed up to Greer. A fun little 4 hour drive. Ha. Kids were good. Weather was amazing. Saturday the sun shined and the rain poured. It was a bi-polar weather type of day that us from the valley enjoy. My mom needed some help finishing up these little wooden boats for the boat races on Sunday so my Saturday was spent on the porch making boats. Sitting inside watching Olympics making boats. Making boats.

Andi really wanted to stand with Lily and I got some amazing images from the sweet session. I love these girls. I love Andi’s compassion and tender heart and I adore the way Lily loves Andi Jane. At times it hurts seeing “typical” sisters interacting, playing, having fun and I wish for my girls that type of relationship, but then we have moments like this that tell me our family is who it is supposed to be.

The rest of the day, in between boat making, was riding on the Ranger and being silly.

Saturday night we realized Oliver had been playing in the van and locked the keys in it. I needed to run to my parents store and so Andrew and I tried to jimmy the lock. There was a lot of “to the left” “who’s left?” “My left? No your left” It was fun. Divorce court fun. The rain started. The sun set. It was a blast. I ran inside to get a towel, I bent down and came up hard on the corner of a cabinet. I hit so hard I saw stars and my head bled. I came back out and finally he hit the unlock button. Sigh. By then it was to late to go to the store and my parents were heading back to the house with what I needed. An Advil and dinner out while my parents watched the kids mended it all back up.
Woke up to a beautiful morning. My parents took Andi and Oli down to the boat races and Andrew and I took Lily to meet everyone in the Ranger. We had not driven the van since we unlocked it, just a note to keep in mind. On the drive the the creek Andrew got stung in the belly by a hornet. His belly was inches away from Lily’s arm. He took one for the team because I don’t want to know how Lily would have felt about that. The boat races was fun. Oliver had two boats make it to the semi finals and Andrew, Andi Jane and Oliver had the fun job of catching the boats.

Grandpa and Oliver

Lily had the job of catching butterflies. Poor girl had a seizure and slept the day away.

After all that fun we had to get going, we had a group to meet up with back at home at 5pm so we get to the van, get all loaded up and….. the battery was D-E-A-D. Yuppers. Oliver left the auxiliary button switched. Gah. My dad had to jump us, it took way too long. We were to late to make our group. But we had some Chinese food and watched the Olympics. And then we all went to bed.

And this is how Monday started for Oliver.

I loved that weekend. We always love our times in Greer, but that short weekend had so much happen that made us laugh (in retrospect) and made me think of all the family vacations we had as kids where someone got injured, or scared or made a mess and those end up being our favorite memories of all.

What did Jon and Kate say, It’s a crazy life, but it’s our life. I totally concur.