Disney Day 2 - A Sporty Exploration

When we were discussing this trip, the thing that put me over the top was the idea of not doing parks.  Park days felt so crammed and overwhelming and overpriced that the trip didn't seem feasible until that element was removed.  But would we be way too bored just sitting around the resort?  Whenever we talked about a trip like this in the past, I had visions of hopping on buses with excited people going to parks and feeling immense sadness that we weren't.  But when I realized that I could do all the resort hopping I've always wanted to do to still make it feel like a new adventure and a more eventful vacation, that sold me.  I figured that if we covered one little outing per day, that would be enough and still leave time for the pool and doing things at the resort and Disney Springs.  Day 2 was going to be my first attempt at testing the theory!

We all slept in a bit that morning after the previous very long travel day.  I think everyone needed the sleep, and the boys loved having their own beds.  We had a slow start in part because Craig had a conference call.  I sat out on our patio transferring the previous day's pictures to my computer to kill the time.  It was actually pretty nice out there, and it's my favorite thing to sit out there in the morning, usually with my breakfast, and listen to the pond fountain and look at the foliage.  Even though this was our worst view, it was still so peaceful.  Once everyone was ready, since we didn't finish our grocery order the night before, we decided to go back to Olivia's for brunch.  Jacob and Carter wanted Mickey waffles. 

It was such a good breakfast!  I had an omelet and Craig had oatmeal.  The potatoes and biscuit that came with mine were SO good.

After breakfast Jacob wanted to carefully get in some shots.  He was using a towel to cushion his jumps a bit.  

After that, it was time for Carter and me to start our first resort hopping adventure!  We took a bus to Disney Springs to transfer to All-Star Sports!  Of course, I had to take a pic of another gorgeous hibiscus near the bus stop.  The yellow was so cheery!
 

Craig and Jacob were originally going to stay at the resort, but I guess they decided to go to Disney Springs instead to do some shopping.  While we were waiting for the bus, Craig sent us a picture of him hugging a giant stuffed Figment.  Figment was one of my favorites from my first EPCOT visit when I was 9.  I even bought a little vinyl figure of him as my souvenir then (along with a Daisy Duck in 80s attire--think a PG Madonna or Cyndi Lauper!).  As a result, when we went to Disney when Carter was a baby, I wanted to get him a souvenir (we had been gifted gift cards for each of us) and I decided upon a stuffed Figment.  He's been hanging out in Carter's room ever since and recently he made a comeback in the stuffed animal hierarchy.  He even made the cut to come on the trip in Carter's bag (along with Chewbacca from our last trip).  The one Craig was holding looked a little like a Pillow Pet, though not as pillow-like.  He was long and soft and squishy, laying on his belly and looking like he was sleeping.  We found out there were tons of others like him--Mickey, Minnie, baby Yoda, Simba, Kermit, Baymax, and many more.  Anyway, he sent us that picture and then this Figment crossed our path immediately after!

When we got to All-Star Sports, it was SO hot.  I knew we wouldn't have long before Carter wanted to leave, so I tried to make it quick but also see as much as possible.  Right out of their main building we saw this giant football, which was that section's method of covering the outdoor stairwells.  The surf section next door had giant shark fins and lifeguard stands, and the tennis section had massive tennis ball cans.

The football section had this giant turfed section and a couple more stairwell-hiding football helmets.  It was such a cool, playful theme.  Someone was playing soccer on the turf further down.  

At the end was the baseball section, which was adorable.  There were these fake bleachers (the ones on the other side were the pool house bathrooms) and a big scoreboard.  The buildings had MLB team pennants lining the top, and big bats going up across the building.

Of course we had to get a picture with one of the bats!

The pool was set up to look like a baseball diamond!  The giant Coke cup was cool, and Goofy was "pitching" in the middle.  It was so cute!

We walked back toward the other sections of the resort to go see the basketball section.  In between basketball and tennis was this Mickey statue.

For some reason Huey, Dewey, and Louie were playing baseball on the turf in the tennis section, but Uncle Donald was on the other side of a tennis net so maybe they were hitting it to him?  Carter decided to play umpire for the picture!

The basketball section was cute--balls and backboards everywhere!

The ends of the buildings had giant megaphones (which you can see in the Mickey statue picture) and the areas between the buildings had giant whistles.

There was a super tall backboard, which was ironic since there isn't actually a real court at this resort.  Sort of a missed opportunity if you ask me, but it made for quite an odd photo op!

Carter for scale

I had Carter pretend to "shoot" one of the balls on the building.  He was over the heat by that point so I was lucky to get it!

We trudged through the heat to head back to the main building, past the surfing section and main pool (which was pretty unexciting, to be honest), and grabbed some lunch.  The quick service there had a lot of choices and I really liked my sesame chicken bowl.  The dining area was huge and had these cute glass dividers of all the sports.  Goofy with the hole in his baseball glove was cute.

The basketball one of Donald looking up was also a favorite.

They had a series of wall pictures of a basketball bouncing off the heads of various characters, followed by Minnie getting a slam dunk.  This one of Donald was the funniest, but honorable mention to the Mickey one that had him seeing floating Mickey heads instead of stars!

We had a bit of a long wait for the bus back from Disney Springs, which wasn't ideal, but it was trying to rain at that point which actually provided a little relief.  It only really sprinkled by us (other areas got hit worse), but the sprinkles actually felt nice and the accompanying breeze was much needed.  90+ degrees isn't bad when the sun isn't out, and thankfully most afternoons we got just enough cloud cover from surrounding thunderstorms that we usually got a bit of relief!  This actually ended up being one of our best weather trips as far as rain was concerned.  We just had the one downpour the first day and a couple other sprinkles, and otherwise the storms avoided us.  However, it was super hot and the heat index sat at or even above 110 on our last couple days.  There was a heat advisory, and we heard from some cast members that it was indeed more intense than usual.  On the bright side, it was a bit more manageable without park days.

We hit the motherlode on lizards when we got back to our resort.  They're usually everywhere at Old Key West, but I think the weather got a bit too hot for them to be out much later in the trip.  Glad I got some pics while I could!  The size and marking differences on them are fascinating!

We regrouped for a bit back in our room, debated dinner options between Port Orleans and our favorite Chef Art Smith's Homecomin', and finally decided to go to Port Orleans for dinner and beignets.  The boats always take a while, but it's well worth it.  Had to get a picture of Carter with the built-in Mickey ears!

Dinner ended up a bit frustrating.  Craig and Carter figured out what they wanted pretty quickly, but Jacob wanted me to wait with him to talk to the chef.  That took extra long, and then I still had to go order my food, which was also delayed because there was a run on shrimp and they had just put a new batch in.  Once we both finally got our food, we got in line to pay and were at a standstill for at least five minutes.  The people ahead of us had issues using their meal plan, the cashier had trouble getting someone to help, and then the other line got a second cashier while we were still stuck.  We finally got through, but that was frustrating!

We headed over immediately after to get beignets.  They are just SO good.

And of course, on our way back to the boats, we had to grab another pic with a member of the gator band!

I happened to catch this cool picture of the hot air balloon in the air on the boat ride back from Disney Springs.

When we got back for the night I was a little sad to realize that I hadn't gone in the pool that day, and decided to just run around the corner to our "neighborhood" quiet pool.  There were a few groups of people in there, but it was generally a pretty quiet, relaxing visit.  I only stayed about 15 minutes, but it was enough to not feel quite as sweaty and sunscreen-y after a hot day.  I might have stayed longer but I was weirdly annoyed by these two guys (probably father and son) who were doing fake wrestling moves in the pool.  They were these big 300 lb. guys, and were doing their own play-by-play with their moves.  I think that was the day that Hulk Hogan passed away, so perhaps that was how they were memorializing him.  I was trying to ignore it, but it definitely took away from the relaxation of it all to listen to their ridiculousness.  But I was tired anyway, so I wasn't planning on staying long regardless.

That brought us to the end of another day, and the days were already starting to feel limited!  I knew that would happen with the shorter trip as even a week barely feels like enough aside from the complete assault on my feet from park visits and the inevitable sunburn.  To only have three full days plus two half days wasn't much.  But while we were considering the trip I compared it to when we went to the Dominican, and it was essentially the same thing on that trip--three full days with a couple partial days.  Even though that also felt really short, it still felt very worthwhile and was packed full of memories, so I decided this trip could be too.  And indeed, this was a great start!

Disney Day 1 - Getting Settled

So, in case anyone's wondering whether it's possible to plan a last-minute Disney trip, it sure is...although we're probably some of the most low-maintenance Disney people ever because we're not about dining reservations or super fancy, high-demand resorts.  The idea came up Wednesday, we did the bulk of the booking Thursday, and we left the following Wednesday--or really Tuesday night to drive to Buffalo for a super early flight.  Definitely not my ideal timeline, but we made it work.

Because this whole trip felt pretty last-minute, packing was a bit of a challenge.  Thank goodness for my saved Disney packing list, but I had to do a lot of laundry and organizing in a very short period of time.  I had so much to do around the house especially.  I had lots of plants to water, water again, and set up with upside-down bottles or watering globes to try to keep them alive despite the coming extreme heat and only slight chance of rain (spoiler alert: it was only modestly successful).  I spent the day or two before trying to clear out the fridge a bit (because my previous grocery trip and meal planning were not done with the knowledge we'd be gone for 5+ days within a week.  I tried to manage the dishes so there wasn't a ton of stuff just sitting there for days.  On top of packing, and especially waiting on Jacob to pack, it just seemed to take forever to get us moving.  

We finally got on the road mid-evening, and stopped at Anderson's in Buffalo for a quick dinner (so as to not make more dishes at home).  When we got to my parents', Jacob was incessantly asking me to help him put a band-aid on the sizeable cut he gave himself cutting a bagel a couple days prior.  I was also trying to book our transportation from the airport, as rental cars ended up being super pricey.  As much as we wanted to do that, we had to forego it yet again!  I slept in the bedroom with the boys, and Craig took the couch.  Jacob would not let us go to sleep.  I don't know if he got a second wind or what, but Carter and I were desperate to get some rest before a very early wake-up and Jacob just kept talking and laughing.  Finally he got himself under control and we had a decent "nap" prior to my 3am alarm.  I got up, showered, and started getting myself together before I woke up the boys.  Craig didn't end up sleeping at all.  Sometimes that happens to him on the road, too, just because he's not in his own bed and is nervous about early travel.  It wasn't the best way to start the day, but we managed to get ready almost on time.  Jacob was vacation-ready, for sure!

My dad drove us to the airport and we got there by about 4:30am.  Security was quick, and I couldn't help but take a selfie with the Little People pilot at our gate!

We had a decent boarding group (thanks to waking up right at 6am the prior morning to check in), and we managed to sit together, Carter and me in one row and Craig and Jacob behind us.  We took off just after sunrise, and one of the first things I recognized was the Bills' stadiums--both the current one and the almost-built new one!

Carter and I ended up with a rather weird seatmate.  I'm convinced he was on drugs.  He was talking a lot of nonsense about Chat GPT and something that sounded like he'd had his mind opened or something.  It also sounded like he didn't like to fly.  He wasn't threatening, per se, just a bit weird.  Thankfully he only talked to us a few times and Carter did a great job handling it when the guy tried talking to him.  

We also flew over Cleveland and then Cedar Point, but it was a bit too hazy to get a good view of the park.  I think I could spot Power Tower, but that was about it.  But you could make out the peninsula, and the flight tracker confirmed that's where we were.  On our way into Midway, we were on the wrong side for the city but did get a fantastic view of Rate Field where the White Sox play.  I had just gotten through saying that if we were on the southern end of Chicago we might be able to see it, and there it was!

Midway is not our favorite airport after a rough layover there a few years ago with almost no gluten-free options and way overcrowded gates.  This time wasn't quite as bad, but the food was still a bit of an issue.  At least the Dunkin' was more functional this time.  Last time they wouldn't even toast bagels.  This time Carter got a donut and I got a breakfast sandwich and an iced coffee.  Our layover was a couple hours, which is typically my sweet spot--long enough that you don't have to rush getting food, but short enough that you don't feel like you're sitting there forever.  We boarded again and were off to Orlando!

I chose to watch "When Harry Met Sally" on the plane, as I usually either choose a comfort movie or one that I feel like I'd get too distracted from anywhere else.  After there was a commercial recently that brought those two main characters back to life, I had tried to watch it on streaming but I couldn't find it.  So, that was a perfect opportunity.  Good as always!  The flight was pretty smooth and relatively uneventful other than the giant family group on our flight.  They were a jovial African-American family--they did a group prayer in the terminal and then sat right behind us on the plane.  We couldn't help but wonder where they were staying, because hopefully it was one equipped to deal with a large, boisterous group.  They live life out loud, apparently, because there were at least a few times where the whole group got going and it sounded like we were on a party plane!  With every bit of turbulence someone would let out a "whoop", and everyone else in their group would laugh.  It was a bit much compared to the relative quiet of most flights, but I have a feeling they had a very fun vacation!

We landed and opted to just go straight to the resort rather than trying to find lunch in the airport.  We had zero waiting for our shuttle, which was just a small van shared with a handful of other people, rather than a full bus.  We were also the first resort stop, so that was pretty amazing compared to last trip where it took forever to get to our resort.  Unfortunately, our villa wasn't in the best spot.  It was a little too far to walk to the hospitality house, for the first time ever.  Well, I would have done it more if I was alone, but my fellow travelers weren't into that, and the heat and usual wear-and-tear on feet made it less than ideal.  It was about a 15-minute walk.  We were able to utilize the buses well, but I did miss the ease of the quick 10-minute-or-less walks we'd had on our prior stays.  We also didn't have as good of a view as in the past, but it was so nice being back "home".  

I love staying at Old Key West because it's got a great, chill vibe.  It's themed but not cheesy, and while there are plenty of families, it's not overrun with kids.  Having stayed there all four times we've been there as a family, it's now this familiar comfort place.  And I realized while we were there that one of the best things about it is how it brings back memories of past visits.  Our villas always look the same--they're all pretty much identical in layout and decor--so it's just like being plopped right back in some of your memories.  I think of Carter sitting on the couch as a baby, or how it felt for us to finally get back there three years ago after the pandemic made us wait extra long to plan a trip.  I don't even feel compelled to take many pictures in the villa because it always looks the same!  This time, however, because we stayed fewer days, we were able to use the points to upgrade our room to a two-bedroom.  That meant the boys got their own room with their own beds instead of having to use the couch and chair as pull-outs like we have in the past.  That also meant our living room was much more easily utilized as there weren't suitcases and piles of stuff everywhere, and we didn't have to worry about pulling the bed in and out to use the couch.  It was SO nice and the boys loved it.

We got settled and wanted to eat lunch at the sit-down restaurant at the resort.  We'd actually never eaten there before because we weren't sure what would work for Jacob, but he did some research this time and determined he had some options.  We headed out to the Hospitality House, and I took this picture on the way to the bus stop.  I was obsessed with these hibiscus plants on our route.  The pink was just so pretty and the red part was a perfect contrast.  Every day we would walk by them with new, fresh blossoms, and I would love them even more! 

Unfortunately, we discovered the restaurant closes between 2pm and 5pm, so that ended up not working for us.  That was an extra bummer because I was hoping for a quick late lunch so Carter and I could use our free check-in day water park passes.  When I suggested splitting off and Carter and me eating at the water park, Jacob got a little annoyed, so I consented to going over to Disney Springs, still hoping we could squeak out a couple hours later.  We went to D-Luxe Burger, and I couldn't help but get this very interesting burger that had pimento cheese, a fried green tomato, bacon, and jalapeno jam, all on a cheddar-chive biscuit.  I just had to try it, and it was probably the best meal I had on the entire trip.

We did our requisite visit to the Lego store, where we almost always at least build three minifigures (and interestingly, I think that's one of the only things that hasn't gone up in price!).  The boys also found one small set that was way cheaper than it was listed online, so we got that too.  I liked this cool mural made of Lego on the outside of the building.

Inside they had this rather amusing build of a summery Darth Vader, complete with flippers, a tank top, and a popsicle.

They also had this giant version of the basketball head minifigure that's in the recently released "dunk" sneaker set.

And, of course, a funny Fortnite banana guy.

Disney Springs is always interesting, and always a very hot walk.  I did snap this pretty pic in one of the few covered areas, which always felt like such a respite from the ridiculous heat.

Carter and I wanted to check out the rooftop bar of the Coca-Cola store because he wanted to see if we could find Beverly or any of the other fun flavors we tried at Club Cool last time.  It appeared they were only in a $17 international flight of samples, so we sort of had that on our list to get back for later in the trip.  Nice view from up there, though!

Notice, of course, that it was raining by then, and boy did it rain.  It really poured for a while, which made the water park not seem like a very good option.  That was a bummer.  We headed back to the resort to wait out the rain, and then went back over to Olivia's for dinner.  The weather had improved by then and I had to snap a scenic pic of our building, as I just love the look of them.

More fun foliage on the walk to the bus!  My plant app tells me this is called Croton.  I just loved the colors!

I actually decided not to eat because I was still very full from lunch and I sort of wanted Dole Whip that night, so I just went to dinner as moral support.  Jacob was excited to try prime rib for the first time, Carter ordered chicken strips, and Craig had salmon.  

Everyone was very happy with their meals, especially Jacob.  He ended up having it more over the course of the trip, for reasons I'll get into later.  After dinner we headed to the pool for a late-night swim.  It was pretty darn perfect out there.  The water was just a bit warmer than the air, it wasn't busy, and of course we weren't baking from the sun either!  Carter and I mostly had the water slide to ourselves.  We had a nice, leisurely swim in between water slide runs.  I sadly wasn't able to get Dole Whip because they shut down the machine a bit early to clean it, but thankfully I was still pretty full! 

It was such a nice way to start our trip--some good family time and the bliss of being back in our happy place.  I was a little bummed about the water park, but overall it was still a pretty pleasant day.  Travel can always be stressful and we managed to get through it pretty cleanly, and our non-rushed vacation was off to a pleasant start!

We're doing WHAT?!

On Wednesday I was in the office doing a marathon of meetings.  I kept getting calls and texts from my family, which isn't uncommon, but among all the meetings was less than ideal.  Jacob was still reeling from his appointment on Tuesday with his MRI results.  He was asking about taking magnesium to help with his sleep, which in turn should promote bone healing.  He was talking about stem cell treatments in Mexico and the bone stimulator he wanted to order.  Craig checked in, too, and at one point during the day, he texted me, "Jacob wants to go to Disney Wed to Sun because Conner is off next week."  Conner is Jacob's trainer.  I replied, "Ha".

Joke's on me, apparently, because guess where we're going Wednesday through Sunday?

So...there is a whole lot about this trip that is super unorthodox, but in the end it makes quite a bit of sense.  It's not easy to convince me to do stuff like this, so there would have to be a lot of reasons it works.  Here's why:

1) Jacob doesn't really trust anyone else with his training, so he'd be a bit adrift with Conner on vacation, especially since he's a bit limited on what he can do anyway.  But once he gets cleared, he's going to want to be full speed ahead, so going now while we have a lull works.

2) Having a trainer is extra important right now because Jacob is pretty much supposed to be resting his leg to see if the bone stress goes away.  He already gets pretty antsy not being able to do much, and without a trainer he'd be extra lost.  He was already eager to go on vacation, so wasting a week on both counts might drive him positively insane.  Now, most Disney trips would not be considered "restful", but this one could be--more on that in a minute.

3) Craig and I can both get off of work.  He doesn't work on summer Fridays and I actually have this Friday off as a staff recognition day for a really good year (that, and we cut our baseball game outing for budget reasons and the building is also being shut down for the day for an electricity upgrade).  That means just two vacation days and a voluntary half day on Monday morning so I don't have to get myself moving any too quickly, since we get back late on Sunday and are flying in and out of Buffalo.  While we both have plenty going on at work, we only stand to get busier at this point, so getting this out of the way now is probably better. 

4) The rest of the summer is full of scattered things like important work meetings and a bunch of doctor's appointments, including Carter's GI follow-up, Jacob's dermatologist appointment that was scheduled months ago, two dentist appointments, my work planning retreat, and a lacrosse tournament that Craig is running.  We also have sandlot baseball for Carter, and Jacob's aforementioned training.

5) We were able to get a suite at Old Key West, our favorite, even though it's so last minute.  Once again we're fortunate to do it through Craig's parents' DVC membership, which is a huge money saver.  Our flights were actually not terrible because Jacob and I still had flight credits from a flight we canceled back during our Midwest basketball travel two years ago.  I'm thankful we can use them and not worry about some policy changing that would cause us to lose them.  We managed to get pretty good flights, timing-wise, as well, to maximize our limited time there.  

So how is a Disney trip restful?  Well, the wacky thing about this trip--and yet also the one that made it more doable in my mind--is that we're not going to any parks.  I know, that seems impossible, and I had totally shot down Jacob's suggestion of that years ago.  But in this case, it made perfect sense.  We're there such a short time and since Craig and Jacob don't usually want as much park time, that would have left just Carter and me at the parks most of the time if we tried to cram them in.  Then we'd essentially have two separate vacations, which defeats the purpose of a family vacation.  Not to mention that tickets aren't cheap this time of year and parks are busy, and with so few days you're paying more per day--about $150 for just one park day or $200 per day if we wanted a couple park hopper days to hit all four.  With shorter days you're not getting your money's worth, with longer days you don't have a good balance of resort time.  Also, picking only one or two parks would be impossible because I love different things about all of the parks.  In the end, it felt like it would be a lot of money and effort for something that would inevitably feel rushed.  Taking that out of the equation simplified everything and makes it possible to do things we've never had time for--more pool time, resort-hopping, maybe a water park (since they're free on check-in day), and maybe some mini-golf.  

In the middle of all this I pondered whether it would be cheaper to just go somewhere else, but with the hotel savings, no park tickets, and the flight credits, it was probably on par with almost anywhere else and obviously Jacob prefers Disney.  And as I've said before, if you can get the teenager on board, just go with it.  He's busy picking his meals so we have a better plan than usual, and we'll also spend some time at Disney Springs, which he always likes.  

One other different thing is that we're more than likely renting a car for the first time.  Usually we get the airport shuttle, but we've long talked about trying a rental car, and for a shorter trip, it seems like a good chance to try it out.  It will hopefully get us to the resort sooner and let us leave for the airport later, and also make grocery shopping, rainy night dinners, or any other non-resort outings easier.  Nice test run, I think.

The one downside that almost singlehandedly made me not do it is that we have to miss my family reunion that I'm on the planning committee for.  I feel terrible about it because it's a bit of a dying reunion as it is, and it's usually one of my favorite days of summer to be back on that ridiculously rocky beach.  Apparently it's even been cleaned up this year, and the water is as warm as it ever gets, so it will make me very sad to miss it.  But this was a prime opportunity where all the stars aligned and it felt like it needed to happen, for many reasons.  Jacob needs the mental health boost after this endless string of health issues.  Carter's obviously had a tough go for a while, so this should be a nice distraction for him too.  And I think we're due for some good family bonding, and I'd really have hated if the summer went on and we realized we couldn't make anything work.  Jacob has been wanting to go back since we came back two years ago, although he had conceded we wouldn't go last year.  It just felt like this needed to happen, and when everything fell into place very quickly--we went from my "ha" text to booking flights within 24 hours--it felt right.  I'm still nervous, of course, but hopefully all goes well.

It's still a little bit of a shock to dive into this so quickly, and it's left me a bit panicky this weekend.  I did go to Buffalo on Saturday for the day to go to the Canal Fest craft show with my mom and just spend some time with my parents before they leave on a long trip next month.  We had a really nice day--sometimes in the midst of a lot of stress, it's nice to just be someone's little girl again, you know?  I love my kids, but the mental break from mom life (well, aside from Jacob's call insisting he has POTS--long story but I think we got him off that now) was refreshing.  But now I have a lot of packing to do.  I'm doing some laundry to get us a full assortment of clothes to pack from, as I'd like to pack the bulk of it now before we accidentally wear something.  I'm starting to gather all the miscellaneous things, like our fans, Magic Bands, wet bags, and all of our charging cables and power banks.  There were a couple things I wanted to buy before we went next, but probably can't get most of it.  Prime came through on Carter's filtering water bottle, but I'm not sure what to do about his rain/pool sandals that are a bit small or the three-way charging cable that broke on our last trip that no one seems to have in-store.  Going at this time of year instead of right at the end of summer is a bit more stressful because usually if my plants die while I'm gone, I'm only losing a couple weeks or so, and they're all pretty rough by then anyway.  Now I need them to stay lively for another month or so.  My garden is just getting going and my flowers (the ones that weren't eaten by Japanese beetles) are finally blooming.  I don't want to come back to them all dead, so I need to set up a lot of watering globes and bottles to keep them going while we're gone in case it doesn't rain.  Same with the pool--can we keep it clean and clear?  It's just a lot of planning and busyness I wasn't expecting a few days ago.

It's all very exciting though, and I'm eager to see what this kind of Disney trip looks like.  Weather is always a crapshoot and the heat will be brutal, but without park days things feel a bit more flexible.  We love being in the Disney bubble and I'm hopeful it'll be a great getaway, even if it's a bit shorter than usual.  Hopefully I can pull a few more days here and there this summer to get Carter and me on some coasters and still do more fun things, but I will be happy to get this one under our belt...even if we are maybe peaking a bit early compared to our usual vacation schedule.  

Well, off to advance the laundry and do more packing!  Full speed ahead...

Updates from the Medical Ward

I feel like my life revolves around MyChart right now.  Seems on any given day I have at least a couple notifications, whether it's a reminder for an upcoming appointment, a note from a recent one, test results, or messages to and from doctor's offices.  If I'm not getting notifications, I'm logging in myself to look up appointments or reference test results.  Between myself and the kids, it seems endless right now.  I'm tired.

We finally got an answer over last weekend on Carter's colonoscopy.  I nudged the doctor on Thursday because we still hadn't seen the biopsy results and Carter was clearly back in a flare, so I wanted to see if we could do anything in the meantime.  The doctor pushed the results through that day, and nothing was particularly surprising aside from maybe some signs of reflux, but there was definite inflammation throughout the colon.  The doctor messaged us on Sunday night and confirmed a diagnosis of ulcerative pancolitis, which basically means that it's throughout the colon, not just in one part.  He brought up some possible treatment options, although I'm not clear on what they actually mean, and I'm honestly hesitant to Google anything.  Kid stuff can be different from typical adult stuff, and it's pretty overwhelming, so I'd rather just get it straight from the doctor (for a change).  It sounds like we may be able to start treatment sooner than his appointment, but it does sound like we need to re-run the blood and stool testing to rule out c-diff, which I assume is because he will likely be on immune-suppressing drugs to calm the body's overreaction and letting c-diff run wild would be dangerous.  It's been a pretty bad flare and I really want to get this show on the road, so I'm hoping we can get the testing done soon.  It might actually be easing a bit--he did lower his dairy intake, but this might just be cyclical at this point.  I guess we'll see.  I'm just heartbroken for him, knowing he'll likely have to deal with this in some form for the rest of his life.  I don't think he really understands yet all that this diagnosis entails, but I'm holding off on sharing much because I feel like pediatric doctors can probably do that far better and in an age-appropriate manner.  I guess it's good to get answers regardless, and in the grand scheme of things this one was probably one of the better ones.  In case I needed a reminder of how much worse it could be, I saw something online the other day featuring a Crohn's patient with an ostomy bag, so there's that.  While bad things can happen with this, too, hopefully we won't get to that point if we can get it under control.

Jacob is still just one adventure after another.  He's been dealing with shin pain still and trying to figure out what's causing it.  He saw one doctor, got referred to another, had an MRI, and had a follow-up.  The doctor isn't entirely sure, but there is inflammation in the bone, which he thinks is something along the lines of a bone stress reaction--meaning, some form of a stress fracture.  Except he hasn't really been putting a lot of stress on it, so we're not sure if it's just weak and he irritated it recently, or if his original stress fracture a while back never healed properly.  They said there was a chance the bone cyst he had removed could be making a comeback, but I feel like that would be unlikely, as if there were cells left over, surely they would have started making themselves known sooner than nine years later?  So they are suggesting rest for now, until he sees yet another doctor (his surgeon this time) next week (moved up from next month).  There are a few different treatments out there, although none seem super accessible or like a sure thing.  The one device to promote bone growth is thousands of dollars and we're not sure if insurance would cover it, but we could look into renting one.  The doctor yesterday mentioned that if this doesn't resolve, some surgeon down the road is probably going to suggest getting a rod inserted, which seems like a really extreme idea.  However, Jacob is so frustrated that he's like, yeah, let's do that now and get it over with.  Ugh.  While he understands the recovery time, I don't think he realizes how life-altering that could be.  The other day he was calling me and messaging me at work about supplements and stem cell infusions in Mexico.  Clearly this feels a bit over the edge at the moment.  He started his new anxiety med, Lexapro, earlier in the week, and let me tell you, it seems like he could use it more than ever right now because the rabbit holes he's going down are...a lot.

My stuff is stable enough right now.  I did have my physical this week and my doctor was very happy I was down a couple pounds.  My cholesterol was up a bit, though, which was odd since I take medication, and of course she gave me the resulting lecture about reducing simple carbs.  I think she thinks I eat like crap, like eating out a lot and eating a ton of breads and cookies, which is not really the case.  We eat out once, maybe twice a week if things are busy, and I have *one* dessert cookie in my lunches.  I eat salads for some of my lunches and almost always have some fruit or a veggie.  I probably eat more noodles/pasta than I should, but honestly, I think I eat pretty balanced.  I'm still convinced I could eat salad every day and have high cholesterol since I have two sides of bad cardiac genetics, but my doctor downplayed that factor.  The internet says otherwise, but whatever.  They gave me the option for an EKG and I took it, because I've had heart palpitations from time to time for the last year or so (maybe once or twice a week).  It was perfect, but when the doctor and I were talking about it, she's like, "Any chance those are happening after you've had a bunch of caffeine?"  And I'm like, nope, I barely ever have caffeine and even my morning coffee is only 1/3 caffeinated.  So it's definitely not that.  I barely drink soft drinks or alcohol, and I work out probably 3-4 days a week right now, if not more.  Most of it's walking or bike riding, but still, not bad.  But yep, I got a lecture.  Even though I'm at the prime age for peri-menopause to do all the weird things, surely my habits are causing all the problems.  Ugh.  I pretty much have a weird-thing-du-jour, random symptoms that trade in and out day-to-day.  Nothing serious but annoying nonetheless.  Stomach pains here, lymph node discomfort there, knots in my neck and shoulders on one day, a sore calf the next.  Nothing's worth mentioning yet, I suppose, but I reserve the right to bug the GI in September if the stomach pain sticks around or any of the other intestinal unrest resurfaces.  Under normal circumstances, especially with anxiety meds, it's all pretty much a non-event, but on top of the kids' stuff, it's usually one more thing that I didn't need.

All of it has me pretty overstimulated at the moment.  Jacob has a near-constant external dialog about his stuff, and there's an underlying sense of dread every time Carter announces he has to poop...which of course, he's now in the habit of doing after months of tracking his status.  Imagine all of that as constant interruptions while I'm working from home, or frequent calls or texts while at work, and it's no wonder I'm a bit distracted these days.  Summer is hard enough with coming off a year-end rush for school and work while every fiber of your being is craving some downtime in the beautiful weather outside.  But when there's a lot of questions and food requests and "Mom, look at this" on top of it, it's a lot to process.  

As if there wasn't enough going on, we do have a good distraction coming up.  It literally came out of nowhere on Wednesday--I literally replied to the suggestion via text with a "ha"--and 24 hours later we were booking things.  I'll get into that in another post, though!  Suffice it to say, it's going to be a busy weekend!

Fizzled Out Fourth

I had high expectations for last week.  I was only working Monday to end our fiscal year, and then I would be off for the rest of the week.  That meant I was only working one day out of nine, and it felt like a much needed break I'd been living for throughout June, especially with the kids off of school and all that had been going on in the prior few weeks.  It started pretty strong, with whipping through the random little stuff on my to-do list.  But then it just sort of fizzled out.  I spent WAY too much time disassociating on my phone and didn't get done a couple of the big things I'd had on my list.  I did get the kids' new CD accounts created (though I have yet to add the money), I did a bunch of yard stuff, I did a ton of laundry, ran errands, got to the 2/3 point of my diamond painting, did walks and bike rides, got in a little pool time, and got it together enough to do s'mores on the 4th of July.  But a lot of the rest of the time...I was just feeling a bit blah.  A couple days I was more tired than I felt I should be for getting extra sleep, but even when I wasn't, it just felt hard to convince myself to do anything of substance.

I've been trying to figure out why.  On one hand it could just be a hormonal or chemical shift.  Sometimes I get them--I'll go from super energetic and thankful and optimistic for one week, to tired and unmotivated and unfocused the next.  This feels a lot like that.  My therapist questioned whether it's actual depression, and I hesitated because it doesn't feel that serious or long-lasting (from experience, anyway), but maybe it is some sort of short-term version.  There doesn't have to be a cause, but suffice it to say there's no shortage of reasons why that could be the case, including:

• The state of our country - All politics aside, what's happening now does have a lot of similarities to fascist regimes of the past.  The Constitution feels like a mere suggestion, everything is politicized, and increasingly crazy things get splashed across the media daily--things that we never would have believed even a decade ago.  The new "Big Beautiful Bill" that was signed into law on the 4th of July includes a lot of concerning things, including tax breaks for billionaires, cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, and limits on student loan borrowing that will make higher education very difficult for lower-income students.  It's hard to know which side to believe as one side downplays things and the other side probably inflates things, but I've seen enough smart people share disturbing enough facts that it's hard to not be concerned about what this might do to our country.  Oh, and a couple weeks ago we bombed Iran and it's still not clear if that could escalate further.
• Floods in Texas - Overnight heading into the 4th of July, massive rains hit Texas and made a river rise over 30 feet in a little over an hour.  It flooded out a couple summer camps and some RV camps along the river, and more than 100 people (including dozens of kids) died, with over a hundred more still missing.  I can't imagine sending your kid to camp and they die in a massive, unprecedented flood.  So many families were just wiped off the map, or kids lost their parents, and it's absolutely crushing.  It's one of those things that validates all of the irrational anxiety that plagues a lot of my parental decision-making.
• Craig's job - We're still waiting for official good news on his job, although it seems to be getting closer.  There's one strong ownership group that they're working with, and it looks promising.  But it still remains to be seen what all of that will look like long-term.  He's getting paid for now, which is good, and could even be in line for a raise, but he might be doing more (or different) and the unknowns just feel a little icky still. 
• Carter - Still no test results for Carter, which is making me a little spastic.  We got our follow-up appointment moved up, finally, but it's not until early August, which just seems crazy.  Once the biopsy results come in, which should happen any day now, I'm going to message the doctor and see if there's anything to be doing in the meantime.  Carter's having another particularly rough week--an official IBD flare-up, I guess we can assume at this point--and it would be good to know if there's any way to help him right now.  He's also spending a lot of time on screens and I feel a bit powerless to stop it, and he's preoccupied waiting to hear if he's going to make the Little League all-star team.  We thought that was getting looked at last week, but we're still waiting.  Seems to be a theme here.
• Jacob - Is there ever a dull moment with Jacob?  No.  This past week has been one endless conversation about his shin.  He's having pain again, and we're on to another round of figuring out what it might be.  There's a slight chance it's something called compartment syndrome, which is essentially too much internal pressure around the shin.  That would involve a very invasive surgery, but if all goes well, it should take care of the issue.  But it would be a long recovery and has a high risk of infection.  He got an initial test for it today, and while they don't think it's that, they're doing an MRI next week.  It could also just be the adhesions of his scar tissue.  That would be a less clear path and maybe longer-term complications and treatments, but it would be less invasive unless that eventually gets to the point of surgery.  I swear he searched the entire internet and ChatGPT over the last week on this topic, so he might know better questions to ask than even the doctors at this point.  But he's not a doctor, and neither is ChatGPT, which I need to keep reminding him every time he asks me what I think about something.  We just don't know.  For example, there's a type of compartment syndrome surgery that is less invasive, but it doesn't seem like anyone around here does it.  That means it would likely be out of network and very expensive, but he kept asking if we could get it covered if the doctors here said it was necessary.  I have no idea, obviously--they would certainly know better the likelihood of something like that.  But he has been talking about it literally non-stop since last week.  We also chose to discontinue his Prozac.  He was experiencing more anxiety and major fatigue from it, so the nurse said he could stop.  Hopefully we can try something else in the coming weeks, because as evidenced above, his anxiety is still in hyperdrive.  We were supposed to be going on a four-day tournament trip later this week, but as his appointment isn't until tomorrow and they needed to know either way, we're not going.  He probably wouldn't have held up for four days of games anyway, and it was a really expensive hotel stay, so it's probably just as well.  I guess Hersheypark will have to wait a bit longer for Carter and me.  The return to Atlantic City the following week is still up in the air.  And depending on whether Jacob will need some sort of extensive treatment or surgery, that could impact our vacation plans further this summer.  Jacob has been lobbying hard for Disney, and I might be okay with that, but surgery would make that a definite no...and maybe anything else, too.  And our schedule keeps filling up with hard-to-get appointments, so the longer we wait, the harder it will be to do anything.
• General stuff - As much as I've gotten seemingly more efficient in some parts of my life, other parts seem to be suffering during this mental lull.  I'm finding it hard to motivate myself to do a deep clean of the house (or what qualifies in my world, at least).  The kids' school piles are still sitting around needing to be gone through, and their rooms really need an overhaul.  One of the jobs I needed to do during my break and didn't was putting up a bunch of stuff on the Buy Nothing page.  There's a pile down in our office (Craig's new office when he works from home in this time of uncertainty), and I just can't bring myself to do it.  Craig finally sorted through a bunch of toys that I'd been wanting sorted for probably over a year, so those added to it...and really, Carter's existing toys really need to be gone through since he barely touches them anymore.  I also need to reorganize my linen closet, and probably some kitchen cabinets, but I'm struggling to tackle those, too.  I'm just noticing some things I've gotten rather blind to in my house and for whatever reason, I'm just stuck.  I'm struggling to think up dinners, or to have the right things in stock for the dinners I want to make.  I'm just hitting brain roadblocks all over the place.  The thing is, it's not that I'm sad or anything like that, or even physically tired, it's just that my brain is stuck in a place where it's not sure it has the power to think through things properly, which in turn makes it harder to get my body along for the ride, and I get discouraged about my inability to overcome that and get things done, so it's just easier to sit on my phone and hope the relaxation magically restores me.  Hopefully the funk passes soon.

In the meantime, I'm taking bits of joy in my flowers, which are really starting to bloom.  Look at the three pretty colors on my hydrangea!  

One side is mostly blue and purple and the other side is pink to light purple.  I am loving the blues in particular since that was the blue in our wedding flowers.  I've been putting coffee grounds around the bush for a while now and it seems they're really working on that side.  But I do love the variety, too.

This was one of the first mystery flowers in my seed pots.  Apparently it's a type of marigold.  I love the color!

On July 3rd I took a bike ride along the canal.  I went farther than ever, a few miles past Spencerport.  This was the view when I finally turned around.

Spencerport looked so pretty during the Golden Hour.

I had fun snapping pictures of foliage on my way back.  I loved these purple flowers.

I also found some morning glories that were surprisingly still chipper so late in the evening.

At one point the trees cleared and I glanced sideways to see this.  I practically skidded to a stop to take this picture!

When I got on the path in Greece, I noticed some fencing that hadn't been there before.  I noticed the foliage was less than usual, and shortly thereafter I found out why.  There's apparently a goat grazing study happening in that area!  Sure enough, there were a number of goats chilling out near a couple tents just off the path.  They were definitely a bit of an attraction for the people on the path.  

As I mentioned, we did s'mores the night of the 4th.  It was a nice night and they were so good!

The neighbors were back to their usual firework ridiculousness.  On one hand I appreciate not having to go to a public display with crazy clouds, but on the other hand, giant fireworks like these scare me half to death.  

It probably didn't help that there was a house fire on the next street over that morning, and I really didn't want another one.  The fire was on the same street as one that took place last May.  I was really enjoying being able to walk on that street again over the past few months now that the other house had been repaired--it felt sad and gawker-ish so I didn't walk there as much until the repairs were well underway--and now I feel like I need to avoid it again.  This one was a garage fire, and while the garage was pretty soundly destroyed, apparently they prevented extension into the house.  I'm sure there's still smoke damage, but it was a better scenario than the other one, for sure.  But fire is one of my big phobias and the fireworks had me on edge even more after that.

I'd been waiting for some of the other mystery plants in my pots to bloom, and I figured out one of the more interesting ones was Clarkia, which came from a seed packet I got at work.  It was a flower I hadn't seen before, and once they bloomed, I was not disappointed!  They're so cool!

There's now a white one that's extra frilly like the pink ones in the last picture.  I'm just so excited about them!  The zinnias are coming, and hopefully some of the other mystery ones will start blooming soon, too.

My black raspberries are also producing!  These self-seeded in the last couple years, but this is the first year with fruit.  These are not to be confused with the wild blackberries I've had back there for years.  There's still a few of them left, but those are slowly getting taken over by other plants and their quality has been sketchy over the years.  These are absolutely perfect.  I have covered them with deconstructed shower poofs (it started with one of Jacob's that self-destructed and it worked enough that I bought a couple more) to keep the birds out, and so far so good.  The deer seem to be busier eating my lilies and hostas, so hopefully I can enjoy these.  I'm so excited to go out and pick them every few days!

It's been a little tough getting back in the groove this week.  I had a couple unfocused work days before I had to dig in today for the closing of books and all the associated reporting.  From here on out there should be plenty of work to do.  But we're all feeling a little off because we're launching a campaign in the fall and we have none of the creative or talking points yet, and it appears we're getting some sort of logo change as well, so we can't do anything for the fall right now.  We're also phasing in a new database, working with a new printing vendor, and getting a new teammate, and losing a teammate (a good friend, too, which makes me sad), so there's all sorts of upheaval.  I guess I do a little better when I'm busy, so I guess it's fine, but summer balance is always a challenge--get the work done, but have some fun; make the most of the family time, but try not to leave work hanging.  I always get to the end of summer with regrets, so I guess I'll give it another shot this year.  If I can just get back out of this funk...