Adventures in Southern Utah

 As I mentioned before, we went to Tuacahn a couple weeks ago for a little mother-daughter adventure.  We joined John's mom and grandma (Grandma lives there), and we were so excited we could hardly stand it.  (Poor Maddie spent her first birthday in a car all day and being babysat at night since she was too young to enjoy the show.  The horrors of being a fourth-born.)

Tuacahn is amazing.  The shows beforehand are even fun.  Bella was entranced by these musicians . . .

 . . . so entranced she decided to sit herself down next to a complete stranger to listen to the music.

 Once Bella realized that she had been looking out the face of the prince instead of the face of the mermaid, she was not happy with this picture.

 Mimi kept saying throughout the show, "I think I might be falling in love with Prince Eric.  He is so handsome."

 Olivia and her grammy (John's mom) are best buddies.

 And luckily (as I mentioned before), I was so happy to have my sister with us.  Annie is the best!

 Bella would have done better if the show had been a hour-and-a-half rather than three hours. Too long for a three-year old.

 I love my girls.

 The next day, we spent the morning in downtown St. George, where they have this fun park that has a redrock stream that all the kids can play in to cool down.

 Maddie loved it.  It was just the right depth for her to crawl and splash around in.  She'd scootch her bum up the rocks to get into standing position, and she crawled all the way to the top of one particular stairway and scared her mama good.

 They also have a carousel.  Very fun.  Except Maddie wasn't so sure about it.

Olivia picked this particular horse because of its painted flowers.

 Naomi wandered all around the carousel before finding this one.  You know, if you are going to get only a couple rides, you have to make sure you are riding the perfect horse.  Nothing subpar for this girl.

It was so much fun, and I'm already signing myself up to go to Tuacahn next year.  Who's with me?

Why I Live A Charmed Life

Note:  We have moved and are settled in.  Posts about our summer activities will follow.  This post, however, was just begging to be written.  

The girls and I just arrive home from a trip to see "The Little Mermaid" on stage at Tuacahn in St. George.  It was fantastic.  I fully recommend it, and I have pictures to show how much my girls enjoyed it as well.  However, on our trip home yesterday, we made it only as far as Cedar City before the van completely broke down.  Here are the reasons that worked out well for me:

1)  We had promised to stop at the Cedar City Wal-Mart in order to buy money orders for my dad.  Breakdowns in a Wal-Mart parking lot are infinitely preferable to breakdowns at 75 mph on I-15.

2) Mormons in Wal-Mart parking lots are incredibly friendly and helpful.  A mom with three kids of her own took pity on this scraggly band of girls and gave me a jumpstart when we had a suspicion it was my battery.  

3)  When it turned out that it was not my battery, but rather probably my alternator, I had on hand my fantastic younger sister, Annie, who was willing to take all four of my children out of the 95-degree heat and into the air-conditioned comfort of the Wal-Mart toy aisle, where they can be entertained for hours. 

4) We recently switched car insurance companies to one that includes roadside assistance--that means towing--and the lovely customer service agent arranged a tow for me.

5)  The tow truck driver on call was just pulling into Wal-Mart himself, with his two darling and helpful little boys, to do some shopping for his wife.  That turned an estimated 45-minute wait into a 5-minute wait.  (Thank you, Brett from Bradshaw Auto!  You are amazing!!)

6) My mother- and grandmother-in-law were willing to drive both of their cars (to accommodate all of us) all the way to Cedar City and back to St. George.  I love them.  

7) We arrived at the service station at 6:15, when it ostensibly closes at 6:00, but the kind manager left his shop open long enough for me to explain my troubles so he could start on my van first thing in the morning. 

And it all worked out.  We were back on the road from Cedar by noon, and home again by 7:00 (after a brief stop visiting my mom and brother in Provo).  Phewsh!  Since my van insists on malfunctioning only when I do not have John to repair things, I think that went about as well as could be expected.  My only regrets are that I didn't have any contact information for my dear friends the Corrys (Melissa--e-mail me!), so I burned all my time in the aisles of Wal-Mart instead of checking out her wonderful new digs.  

Party in the Windy City

My dad was in Chicago last week for a judicial conference at Northwestern.  We decided to go over and meet him there on Friday.  Since John's schedule didn't coincide with the South Shore schedule (and who wants two cars in Chicago?), the girls and I rode the train over and then walked up to meet my dad at the hotel.
The big girls were doing great walking through downtown until we got stopped on the sidewalk to wait for the Obama motorcade.  For 30 minutes.  It nearly killed Olivia, and after that, she lost the spirit of walking adventure.  She kept looking across the street to determine if that side was going to be let loose any earlier than our side.

The babies (although Bella would object to that term) did great.  However, only those who have walked with a double stroller (and a total of four children) through downtown Chicago can understand how conspicuous I was.  C.O.N.S.P.I.C.U.O.U.S.  I think I drew every glance for a mile.

We headed to Navy Pier with my dad, where we ate, of all places, at McDonald's, by the children's request.  They probably could have gone back to the hotel with their Happy Meal watches and been pleased with the outcome of the day.

This is Bonny Bunny, who was performing with those crazy actors that roam around Navy Pier.  (One actor, dressed as a Louis XIV-style king, asked Mimi for the time, and when she gave it to him, he said, "Thank you, young lady."  Best part of Mimi's day, hands down.)  Bella thought this enormous bunny was fun from a distance, but terrifying at this range.

We visited the Children's Museum, which was super fun.  (I especially love the skyscraper project, although building a skyscraper was a challenge with Maddie in the backpack and Bella putting plastic bolts in each and every hole in our structure.  There is a reason that construction crews normally contain no two-year olds.)

My dad reserved rooms for both of us at the Inn of Chicago, right on the Magnificent Mile.  It was the perfect location.  (Thank you, Dad!)  We were able to walk anywhere we wanted to go for entertainment or food.  The lobby is super fancy, and my girls showed their delight at the fanciness by bouncing into each and every wingback chair while I was trying to check in.  (Again, conspicuous.)

When we got up to our rooms, it was obvious that this was an old hotel that had been renovated. The rooms were still really small.  My stroller could not fit through the narrow passageway that led from the room door, past the bathroom, to the beds.  But still, delighted with the shiny marble and sparkling chandeliers that had greeted us in the lobby, Olivia plopped herself onto the double bed, ignoring the cracking paint and the window AC unit, and declared, "This is the fanciest hotel EVER."  Then she stated her intention of slipping into her swimsuit and going for a swim.  I said that I didn't think they had a swimming pool.  She immediately sat both upright, disgusted, "WHAT?!  No pool?!  And they call this a fancy hotel."

Mimi and Bella (as well as my dad, ahem) were easily entertained once they realized that the drawers in the TV console were roomy enough to serve as spots for hide-and-seek.

John joined us that night.  All my girls decided they would rather be in the hotel room with "Big Grandpa" (which differentiates him from Great-Grandpa Anderson, a.k.a. "Little Grandpa") than with Mom and Dad.  With only Maddie in our room, John and I slept like logs.  I don't have room for the story here, but suffice it to say, my dad was not nearly so fortunate.

In the morning, we headed down to Millennium Park, where we showed my dad The Bean, which is a favorite of my girls.

And again, as you can see, even in this Picasso-esque perspective, the Ergo carrier keeps the smallest one perfectly happy.  (I heartily recommend it.  Heartily.  Everyone should have one of these.)

Trips like these make me so sad to move away.  I love Chicago!  

On the South Shore Line

Our conductor on the train to Chicago was female, but with a very short haircut. She was incredibly friendly and helpful and kept coming back to talk to us. And, every single time, Bella would say to her, "You're not a boy, you're a girl. A girl!  You're a doctor?  [conductor] Where is that other doctor?  I want that other doctor."  

Luckily, the woman never understood her.  She just kept smiling and nodding and responding happily to Bella's rants.

Viva Honduras

John went to Honduras for his favorite medical mission in March.  He went all four years in medical school, and he was able to go again this year with the same group from Toledo.  It was delightful.  Here is his report.  
Edited to add:  Some of the pictures below are a touch graphic.  Please be careful if you are, like me, sensitive to yucky medical stuff.

Here's the view from my room the first week.  That's mostly smoke from burning stuff with a little fog.  People cook with wood and burn trash so there's a lot of smoke.

Front of the Hospital in La Esperanza

The ambulance we donated when I was a 3rd year med student.  Well used with 270k miles.

The hallway looking from the ED entrance.  That's the table where ED blood draws are done using gloves for tourniquets.

The ED complete with intern.  It's really more like two office rooms with one exam table each.  No O2, no suction, no bed.  They want to remodel since they recognize the limitations of the current ED.

The other half of the ED room complete with exam table and Barbie curtain for privacy.

Drug reps look the same in any country.

The home behind the hospital women who live out of town move into when they get close to their due date.

Ovarian cyst and ovary. (the little white part in upper right is ovary).  This was taken out of a 17yr old.  I only saw two hondurans cry and it wasn't the machette/hatchet/gun shot wounds it was this girl and another girl that had a ruptured tubal pregnancy.  Did not see a single narcotic used in two weeks.  All tylenol, diclofenac (like ibuprofen), and ibuprofen. Even surgery patients got tylenol.  It was same in Bolivia though I did see narcotics used once there to put an elbow back in

Machete to the hand.

Rural Honduras....typical home.

Bull used in construction of adobe house.  Water hole is where mud for adobe blocks was taken from.

170 water filters pre assembly $4020 worth.

Univ Toledo team.  This was our work station/teachers desk.  We're usually in schools or churches.  Different town each day.

Sweet little 6 year old who has lost his two front teeth.....

.....because they along with a few others have rotted out of his head.  This is where Dave comes in a few years from now.  There was a dentist my first trip as a student in 2005 but hasn't been one since.  Dr. Paat says he hasn't been able to get one to go since then and he was the busiest guy there nonstop pulling teeth.  I wish this picture wasn't common but I'd say about 1/2 the people I saw kids included had at least a couple teeth that were completely rotted out.

Somethings not quite right with that right eye.

It's called ptergium and it's where the conjunctiva because of UV light and dust (irritation) grows over the iris.  I can become problematic if it grows too far.  Treatment is surgical removal.  We gave sunglasses to help with dust and UV light.

It was trial and error with random glasses from a box which included old prescription glasses (like those above) and a bunch of dollar store reading glasses.  I saw several people with cataracts too which glasses help very little and that need to have them removed.

As we were driving Satruday to the R&R location (a beach resort) we came across a three care accident two of which are pictured above.  What lucky people to have a bus full of gringo doctors be amongst the first on the scene.  Amongst whom are the chair of internal medicine at Mayo, the chair of peds at Mayo, a GI doc from Cleveland Clinic (all U. Toledo grads).  The wilderness life support course came in handy as I got a Honduran to cut us some sticks to splint the lady's very obviously dislocated knee (possibly broken too), and her husbands wrist.  An ICU nurse got the IV going on him.  We moved his wife using empty duffle bags since one of the cars (a pickup) involved was leaking diesel all over the road. Eventually we loaded both into a pickup and sent them to the hospital.

Over all the second week I was there which was the week with the team we saw a record 2247 people if you count the two on the highway and the one team member who passed out and was seen in clinic and transported to the hospital but was released shortly afterward.  

A big thanks to Susanne for coming out to take care of the ladies.

Chugga-chugga-choo-choo!

As part of our spring break festivities, we headed to the Train Museum in Elkart today.  It was really fun.

They have a ride-on Thomas the Tank Engine for the under-three-year-old set.  Bella loved it.  She's recently become obsessed with Thomas.

 She did, however, ask me where Percy was, and if she could ride Percy too.  I'm afraid my answer was a little disappointing.

 They have an engine parked just outside the main museum that you can climb into.  However, after all thirteen children in our group had climbed in, there was no room for adults.  This picture was taken through the very dirty window.  The best part of this train cab is the actual working horn.  (No, the actual best part is that the air compressor that supplies the horn runs out of air after 8 or 9 long honks.  Long LOUD honks.  8 or 9 is plenty.)

 The museum is covered with crazy signage and old railroad ephemera.

 Plus it has two tracks full of abandoned cars with sets of stairs leading up to several of them.  Some of them were death traps. . .

 . . . and some were perfect for a little nap.  (If a little dirty.)

 Bella thought all of them were terribly exciting.

 The tracks were so much fun to climb around.  I have no idea how the museum's liability insurance lets them get away with all of this, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

 Getting all these little faces to look our direction at once was impossible.  This was the best of several shots.

 We loved the train museum.  I definitely recommend it.

 And if you're wondering how I could take four little kids to the train museum by  myself, meet my new best friend.  (And I'm not talking about Maddie.)  This is my ergo carrier, (Thank you, Krista and Karen!), and it is how I vacuum, how I make dinner, how I do all my chores.  Maddie loves to be right next to me, and this way, she can be.

 I love it when she falls asleep and her little face peeks out the armhole.  :)

 Oh, as an afterthought, I wanted to share these two little still lifes set up in the model railroad room.  I think a crashed airplane is in great taste, no?

And if that's not your style, how about a classic bear mauling?  I wish I could have gotten a clearer picture of this--it was hysterical.