The Smith Family Adventures

A couple weeks ago we received a visitor in the mail….Flat Audrey! Our niece is doing a “Flat Stanley” unit at school, and she has been sent on a mission to find out about where we live. Since she arrived she has mostly been hanging out at home with us. However, today we decided to take her on an excursion to down town Portland. Since the weather was great, we knew the boys would have a good time walking around down town as well. I took about fifty pictures, only a few of which I will show here. Most of them will be sent to Audrey’s class, and she’ll do a presentation after she returns home. We were ready for some good old family fun on Valentine’s Day.

We buckled everyone up in the car.

When we arrived down town, we parked near Daddy’s work so the boys (and Audrey) could see the building. Here they are crossing the street. The boys were very preoccupied by the trains and buses.

Audrey got a bit tired from all the walking so we let her stop by a Benson bubbler.

Our first big destination (although we saw a lot on the way) was Portlandia.

We had fun exploring on this beautiful day.

Eventually, we made it down to the water front where the boys mostly wanted to look at geese. Here is Audrey standing on the Hawthorne Bridge.

And the boys enjoying a closer look at the river….

Next we walked along the sea wall, and snapped this picture of the Morrison Bridge.

I am so lucky to be married to this man! He is a very good Daddy too!

While we were standing there looking at the river and the sky and the beauty of the morning, the Spirit of Portland cast off, and the Hawthorne Bridge began to raise. I was thrilled, but poor Elias was so nervous from the big honk the boat’s horn gave that he was in tears for most of the spectacle. The horn was really really loud!

I did manage to get a few pictures of Flat Audrey and a few members of our family during the bridge lift, but we just stood and watched most of it.

After the bridge returned to its normal position, we found a bench and ate a picnic lunch. Then we walked back to the car and went home for nap time. It was a fun excursion for Valentine’s Day. The boys did really well walking everywhere since we forgot the stroller! I think we only carried them about four blocks total!

Simon is now a big two year old! We spent the morning dedicated to hosting a big valentines party for our friends. That tuckered Simon out because he napped two and a half hours! I don’t think he has done that since he was about three months old! He woke up a little groggy, and there were only a few minutes until Daddy got home so I turned on some Curious George for the boys to watch while Simon rejoined the land of the awake.

Once Daddy got home it was party time! We had a pizza party. Then while Nathan and I cleaned up the dinner mess, the boys played. Simon chose puzzles. Here is my big two year old:

Then it was time for him to open presents from Mommy and Daddy. He wasn’t the only one excited about it.

After the first present he wanted to stop and read it. That’s my boy.

Elias quickly tutored him in present opening by saying something like, “Put that book down! Open another present!” And so he did. We got him a small bowling set that the boys had fun with. (Although later in the evening as we approached bed time it caused more tears than happiness because their sharing skills were diminishing by the minute).

The main thing we got Simon, though, was a mini basketball hoop. Both boys had a blast with it.

After play time, Simon got to have a little bit of dessert: strawberry ice cream. He thoroughly enjoyed it. (Please ignore my hair in the picture. I think there is a weird shadow effect going on with the flash. It did not actually look like it appears below….or maybe it did and no one told me. I live with three boys after all).

I am now the mommy of a two year old again. Yay!

On Sunday, I was happily watching my sister-in-law open gifts at her baby shower when my phone rang. I briefly considered getting up to answer it (it was in the other room) but decided against it. A minute or so later, my mom’s phone rang, and as she sheepishly looked around at the other guests, I advised her to answer it since that was two in a row. As I watched her face, my heart sank. I knew something was wrong. She put me on the phone with my dad, and he informed me that Nathan had fallen down the stairs while carrying Simon.

Simon was ok except for a banged up cheek. But Nathan had dislocated his shoulder among other minor injuries. My brother was driving Nathan to the ER while my dad watched the boys.

Now I have to admit that while I was still concerned for Nathan, all I could really feel was relief. So much more could have happened, and I was just so thankful that they were ok. I packed up my stuff and, knowing that my boys were in good hands, I headed to OHSU to be with my husband.

Poor Nathan was in a lot of pain, and was still in the waiting room when I got there. He had to go through quite an ordeal at the hospital to get his shoulder back in. The nurses couldn’t get an IV in because he was in shock. Three different nurses had to try six times before they finally were successful. The first thing they tried was giving him a muscle relaxant. This had worked the first time his shoulder was dislocated about ten years ago. Despite four nurses and doctors all pulling and heaving, the shoulder would not go back in place.

We had to wait some more, and Nathan would have to be sedated. The sedation worked and only about fifteen minutes after I had left the room, they came out to get me and tell me it had worked. When I walked in, Nathan was peacefully sleeping, but as he came out of his drug induced state, he said many amazingly funny things.

Nathan has been home from work since then, and declares himself pitiful. I wouldn’t say that he is pitiful, but the whole thing has been pretty tiring for me. I won’t complain, though, because I am just so thankful that things turned out as they did instead of so much worse. Nathan is recovering slowly but surely.