Was just perusing some pictures from the lemonade stand and found this one of our neighbor Brendan displaying his athletic skills.  The kid has some spring in his jump.

So as I posted before Melanie successfully finished the marathon and the real vacation began.  We got home this past Saturday and we have been running nonstop trying to play catch up ever since.  I am trying to work through the hundred, if not thousands of pictures we got, from our many adventures, to find the best ones to share but I find myself day dreaming trying to figure out which was best: landing on the glacier in the shadow of Mt. McKinley, Walking within feet of bears, Being surrounded by breaching whales, Watching a coastal glacier calve, and the list could go on.  As I work through the photos I will try to post some of our better photos with some small descriptions of the mini excursions including watching our friend Andrea almost get pulled into the sea as she reeled in her monster halibut.  🙂  Until then just a few of my favorites…

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Today, and I still have 40 minutes to say that, is my mother’s birthday and in order to celebrate we got a bounce house!  Happy Birthday Mom!  We love you!

After a couple of fairly rough days in the office and a very rough night of little sleep, thanks to Cutler I may have been a bit extra grumpy with both of the boys tonight and especially Mason.  Ok, who am I kidding?  I was unjustifiably extra grumpy  and short-tempered with Mason tonight.  So after getting home from a boys dinner, Melanie is out of town for work, I was relaying a story to Kobi about how I was a horrible parent for letting Cutler cry for 30 minutes in the middle of the night in hopes he would just fall back asleep only to find that he was just hungry and a simple banana did the trick when from across the room Mason quickly corrects me and tells me that I’m not a horrible parent and that I’m in fact a great daddy.  His words, not mine…or something to that effect (I’m tired people).  It damn near brought tears to my eyes as it wasn’t just 15 minutes earlier I was lecturing him on how he needed to be more grateful for all he gets to do and showing his just how great of a daddy I can not be at times of stress. 

I post this not to brag or show everyone how sweet and compassionate Mason is, but simply to have it documented to show Mason in a few years when he is sure to have changed his mind and have completely forgotten about how great of a daddy I am.  Ok, there I go kidding again, there is a bit of bragging involved in this post as well.  🙂

Finally Mason got to play in a “game” for hockey.  Actually it was just a little scrimmage across the short length of the ice, but it was worth the price for the entire semester of lessons.  Mason is the one in the black sweater with gold trim across the top.  In the first video he shows his skills in getting to the puck and then falling down, but wait until the very end of the video for the best part of the video.  In the second video, Mason shows his skills in falling down and delivering a cross check on the way down.  All in all very entertaining and a lot of fun for Mason as well.

It’s hard to believe that one year ago this week, Cutler was released from the hospital following his bone marrow transplant!  We never thought we’d get back to being just a normal family…but that’s exactly what we are.  Okay, some of you will question the “normal”, but hey, we feel normal.

Cutler still has a cough that we are treating and we hope to see some significant improvements this week.  He still does not care much for school.  He cries either as you pull into the parking lot, when he’s walking into the building or as he approaches the classroom door 🙂  The good news is he stops crying pretty soon after we leave.  Hopefully it will get better in time.

That’s it for now.  Just wanted to acknowledge the anniversary!

Cutler had his oncology appointment yesterday and he got the all clear!  Thank God all he has is a cold…the same as virtually every other child we come across.  Today is a snow day here in Murphy.  The sleet and snow hit us hard last night, so we are hanging out, in front of the fireplace and watching the movie Cars for the first of many times today 🙂  Poor Aaron is stuck on an airplane at DFW Airport waiting to take off to Atlanta.  His flight was to leave at 7:00 AM and it is now 10:00.  Not looking good.

My newest “adventure” is to tackle a marathon!  Yes, 26.2 miles in Anchorage, Alaska of all places.  Please click my link below to read more.  I know everyone who has followed Cutler has been so generous, and we thank you!  If you are still feeling generous and wish to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, please do so through my Team in Training website.  All the money I raise goes to help cure blood disease!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ntxok/anchor11/mfricke

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm.

Melanie

Just a quick update to let everyone know that the congestion appears to be gone.  Like any other cold, at least for me, it sounds like it has now moved to his chest.  But the coughing has reduced and the constant stream of love from his nose appears to be gone.  So life moves back to normal and our worries are at rest.  Next oncology appointment is on Monday morning.  I will post an update with plenty of good news then…including the return of Kobi.  No, she’s not coming back to work, just to freeload enjoy the Texas way of life while she figures out what she wants to do next.  We will be very happy to have our dishwasher dear friend back.

Below is a picture of Kobi and Cutler that I stole from Kobi’s facebook.

Strawberries!  Sunday Cutler’s focus was on blueberries as he packed away a pint in record time.  Yesterday it was bananas as he polished off five throughout the day.  We even had to make a special trip to the grocery story (all before the fever).  Today he was out of control on strawberries as he went through an entire container.  Oh and today his fever is gone and his cough is getting better.  Unlike Mason, Cutler has never lost his appetite when feeling bad and wasn’t really all that needy.  In fact, today he was the model child that was more than happy to hang out and play on his own and allow dad to work and didn’t require Chuggington constantly.  The topping on the cake is that he would let me aspirate his nose without fussing.  So it looks like it is definitely just a cold as the doctor told us, but Monday is his bi monthly oncologist appointment to help put our overly active worrying minds to rest.

Below are a few pictures during one of his strawberry runs…

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