The biggest question I have been hearing since we got back is “was it worth it?” and the answer is most definitely yes. In two weeks time, Aubrey went from eating 0-200 calories a day by mouth to eating about 800-1000 calories a day. It was astonishing and fun and scary all at once (if you’re wondering about the scary part, it was just hard to believe this incredible change could stick!).

A lot of people are curious about what makes Seattle’s program so effective and the answer is really pretty simple – they are willing to let the kids go without very much food for a period of time so that they get very hungry and this hunger eventually drives them to eat. While this seems like a very simple concept, not many doctors are willing to cut back on a child’s g-tube feeds because they are afraid the child will lose too much weight, get sick, or something bad will happen. In the past, our GI doctors have allowed us to cut back a couple ounces here or there to see if we could get Aubrey hungry, but as soon as she started to lose even a little weight, they would tell us we needed to feed her more. Karen, our occupational therapist in Seattle, told us that in her experience 80% of what kids are being fed through the g-tube needs to be taken away before they experience enough hunger to be motivated to eat, which is why those couple of ounces we took away in the past never made a difference in Aubrey’s desire to eat. This time, we began slowly cutting back on the formula that went through Aubrey’s tube the Wednesday before we headed out to Seattle, replacing it with water to keep her hydrated.

By the time we arrived in Seattle and started doing 6 meals/snacks a day (three on our own, three as feeding therapy sessions with Karen) Aubrey was good and hungry and she started to eat almost immediately. We had an amazingly good first week and then on Saturday morning she woke up with a fever and retching (she had a surgery when she was 8-months-old that keeps her from throwing up, so she gags and retches when she is trying to vomit). Saturday she was sick and slept most of the day, which meant she ate absolutely nothing.  Sunday and Monday were not much better, which was really tough for me since we were still giving her such a small amount of food through her tube, but Karen assured me she would come out of it okay and it was important to keep her hungry. Tuesday and Wednesday Aubrey started to eat more and by Thursday and Friday I was so thankful to see her back up to eating almost as much as she did the first week.

Aubrey’s biggest challenges now are learning to get better at chewing and swallowing and getting more comfortable with drinking liquids. Karen said it was quite common for kids be more adept at either eating or drinking and to struggle with the other one and Aubrey definitely prefers eating over drinking so in time we will need to work with her to get her to take in more liquids. She also has a hard time knowing how much food she can handle in her mouth at a time so she will put a lot of food in her mouth and then not be able to chew and swallow it, so she will spit it all out and then start over again. Karen assures us that she simply needs to practice and over time she will learn how to pace herself and get more brave about chewing some things that require a little more work (she especially struggles with things like chicken or meat or other things that require more vigorous chewing).

Now that we are home, we are keeping up the schedule of 3 meals and 3 snacks a day (eating every 2-3 hours) with each feeding session lasting ideally 20-30 minutes, but right now sometimes up to an hour since Aubrey is a slow eater.  This is pretty intense, as you can imagine, and makes me feel some days like all we are doing is making meals, eating, cleaning up, and then starting all over again.  In addition to her meals, we are currently feeding her 6 ounces of blenderized diet daily to supplement what she is taking by mouth.  If you are wondering, blenderized diet is just what it sounds like – several different foods blended up in the blender and then syringed through her g-tube.  This 6 ounces of blenderized diet replaces the 32 ounces of formula that she was receiving daily before we left for Seattle, so you can see from this alone that she has come a long way in how much she is eating.

As far as where we go from here, it’s all up to Aubrey.  We are weighing her weekly to determine how to proceed (she has only lost about a half of a pound through all of this, so that’s pretty good).  If she loses too much weight, we will add in more blenderized diet to supplement.  If she stays steady, we’ll stay where we are at and wait for her eating to pick up.  And if she gains weight, we’ll start to cut back on the tube supplementation and then eventually hopefully be able to cut back from the 6 meals/snacks a day because she will be eating more at a time.  Of course the therapists can not say anything for sure, but we were told that it looks hopefully that Aubrey may be eating everything she needs in the next three months or so.  And then, after three to six months of not using the g-tube, they will finally let us remove it.  Words can’t express how much rejoicing there will be in the Lehmer household when that day arrives!

This post has gotten very long, but I do want to end by expressing how much gratitude I have towards all of you who have been thinking about us and emailing and leaving messages on facebook and praying for us.  While I have not had time to respond to all of you, it has really touched me to hear from so many people (even some who I have not talked to in many years!) and to know that we travel this road surrounded by such a great crowd of family and friends supporting and loving and encouraging us.  So thank you, to each and every one of you who follows our story!  We want you to know we are happy, and hopeful, and looking forward with great anticipation to a g-tube free future.  Way to go Aubrey!

One traffic camera spotting the Fridley tornado

With the abundance of severe weather in the midwest it seems that a lot of people know what it’s like to sit through a tornado. It can be a vastly different experience depending on what shelter you have and the intensity of the tornado. Before I describe Ella and my experience last Sunday, I just want to offer my sincerest sympathies and prayers to those who’ve experience loss as part of the tornadoes in Joplin, MO. If you so desire you can give to the American Red Cross to help out with the recovery. You can also still help out those in North Minneapolis (many of whom still need basic necessities) through Urban Homeworks (an organization that intimately knows the needs of North Minneapolis).

After dropping off Rebecca and Aubrey at the airport early last Sunday morning (5:00 am) , Ella woke up at her normal time and started asking right away where Mommy and Aubrey were. She seemed more curious and was definitely not distraught so I thought that was a good sign. We had breakfast, got ready for church and pretty much had a normal day. Ella went down for her nap a little before 1:30pm and once I finished cleaning up the kitchen I decided I’d take a nap as well since I had gotten up so early. I laid down and was asleep before 2:00pm.

At at about 2:15pm I was in and out of sleep and very groggy but I thought I heard a siren going off. After getting my bearings I sat up in bed and confirmed that I was hearing sirens, tornado sirens. Now usually when I hear tornado sirens I don’t get too alarmed. Normally I just pop on the radio or TV to watch some severe weather cells pass close by or even over us without much danger. This time was no different. I casually walked downstairs and flipped on the TV. While I was waiting for the TV to fire up I decided to search for “Minneapolis tornado” on twitter just out of curiosity.   Here are the first three tweets I read, “Just sat through a tornado in St Louis Park“, “Just outran a tornado in Brooklyn Park, crazy!!!“, “Watch out Fridley, it’s coming“. Immediately the meteorologist had my attention. The first thing the guy said was “…please hold on a second I have to take this call from the National Weather Service…”, you could hear him pick up the phone and narrate what he was hearing. “The traffic cameras on Highway 100 and Interstate 694 have spotted a tornado moving into Fridley”. For those that don’t live here, that intersection is about 4 miles from our house.

Another picture from the highway taken two miles from our house

OK this was more serious than usual, but I thought I’m going to go upstairs and see what I can see from our top floor windows. I know, I know, it sounds stupid but I really didn’t want to wake up Ella unless we were in real danger. Well we were. When I got upstairs the wind had picked up significantly and the rain was coming at the west windows sideways. I also noticed the tree in our backyard bending beyond what I thought possible before a break. At that point the urgency set in. I ran across the room  to head downstairs to grab Ella and I noticed the rain was now coming sideways at the east side of the house (ROTATION!)…I ran faster. I grabbed Ella out of her room covering her head with the blanket and darted downstairs into our laundry room in the back half of the house shutting all the doors behind me. As soon as I shut the first door we lost power but I was able to use my cell phone for light.

As we sat down in the laundry room, Ella was still groggy but was asking me with a hint of nervousness, “Funny Daddy, funny?!”. We could hear the wind pick up and whistling/whooshing noise all around us. That’s when the wall behind us started to shake a little bit. That freaked me out enough to start searching the room for the safest place to sit if the wall was going to fall in on us. It was at that point that things started to die down. Eventually the whistling and shaking stopped, my guess is the peak lasted 45 – 60 seconds. I waited there for a few more minutes just to make sure it wasn’t just a lull and then walked through the house to survey the damage. Looking outside I could see tree limbs everywhere. The neighbor to our north had what looked like a couple trees on his roof (one of which was ours) and part of his roof damaged. The neighbor two houses to the south had several major tree limbs sticking into her roof. I  quickly got Ella’s rain coat on and ran next door to make sure everyone was alright (they were). We could also see that we were missing some shingles, siding and facia off of our house. But compared to the rest of the neighborhood (and other areas of Minneapolis) our house was relatively unharmed. After calling around to make sure all nearby family and friends were alright, Ella and I drove to pick up my Mom so she could watch Ella while I surveyed the rest of the house more closely.

Neighbor's yard one block to the west of us.

It was a frightening experience but we are just so thankful it wasn’t worse. In the end the National Weather Service rated the storm a strong EF-1. I’ve posted pictures of the aftermath around our house and neighborhood here, pictures from around Fridley can be found here and the damage to North Minneapolis can be viewed here.

Aubrey and I flew in Sunday morning to Seattle Tacoma International Airport, where a hospital shuttle picked us up and took us to the Ronald McDonald House, where we will be staying for the next two weeks. We spent the day Sunday trying to settle in and find our way around in our new surroundings – it’s a little more disorientating than I expected to try to figure out how to do all the things our program requires in our new surroundings, but I’m sure that will get easier as we find our way around the house and neighborhood more.

Monday morning we met with a nurse for an initial physical evaluation and then we met with the occupational therapist who will be directing Aubrey’s care. She spent the first day mostly observing Aubrey’s eating behaviors and then set us up with the following daily plan (to change as needed): breakfast: 7:30 am (on our own), snack: 10 am (at the hospital), lunch: 12:30 pm (hospital), snack: 3:00 pm (hospital), dinner: 5:30 pm (on our own), snack: 8:00 pm (on our own). Since each eating session is about an hour, that gives us six hours of intensive (as in, highly interactive and directed by an adult) eating per day.

Positives so far:

*There was space available for us to stay at the Ronald McDonald House, which is a very easy walk from the hospital, provides many meals, laundry facilities, etc., and is very inexpensive.

*All of the nurses, therapists, and staff we have met and worked with so far have been extremely kind and competent and everyone we meet tells us stories about what a great hospital Seattle Children’s is.

*Aubrey is already eating and drinking far more than she ever has in her little life. All the therapists are delighted and assure me that she is poised for success.

Challenges so far:

*We are still figuring out how to best work out our schedule. Yesterday we were at the hospital from 10 am – 4 pm straight. This involved 3-4 hours of therapy, 30 minutes of waiting for therapists, and about 2 hours of free time. Trying to keep a very active child busy and out of trouble through all of this felt almost impossible.

*Aubrey has some social behaviors and mannerisms that lead the therapists to believe it is possible she may have some sensory issues and they want her to have a developmental evaluation. This evaluation will take place once we come home so that we can get follow-up at home with the same person who does the evaluation, if necessary. That said, the therapists also admit that at this age it is hard to sort out which of her behaviors may indicate a problem and which are just a normal 3-year-old reaction to being in a strange environment and being pushed to do things she doesn’t really want to (i.e. eat).

*I’m feeling completely exhausted. This schedule feels extremely intense and grueling. Not only that, but I am realizing that I will have zero time to myself for the next two weeks, which is mentally exhausting as well.

*In the midst of everything else, our neighborhood was hit by a tornado on Sunday afternoon. Our house faired better than many, but we’ll need new shingles on the roof and one of our big trees went down on the neighbor’s house. Hopefully Jason will have a chance to post his story about that crazy day soon, but for now you can check out a couple of the pictures he posted in our picasa album.

A Rare Hug

Today was a gorgeous spring day and the girls and I took full advantage of the opportunity to be outside. After such a long, cold winter it is pure joy to be able to go barefoot and run in the sun and play in the dirt!

One of the things that I have been most concerned about finding the time to get done before Aubrey and I leave for Seattle is preparing and planting my garden. We were planning to slowly dig up more bushes/small trees along the south fence to expand our garden area but Jason got ambitious and almost got the whole length of the fence cleared out, which I am super excited about. (Thanks, Honey, for spending Sunday afternoon digging out that horrible tree with the proliferate root system – I know you’d rather just forget the whole awful experience but I am so glad you persevered!)

Overnight temperatures for the next 10 days are finally looking good, so today was the chosen day for all the seedlings to move into their more permanent garden homes (except the potatoes that went in about a week ago).  Does anyone else talk to their plants while they transplant them?  Because I have to admit that I did, begging them to root well and grow tall and bear much fruit!  I’ve got 3 different varieties of pepper plants on the east side, 7 varieties of tomatoes on the west, 2 bush cucumber plants, some carrots, and a big patch in the middle called a Three Sister’s Garden that will have corn, beans, and several different kinds of vining squashes (I planted zucchini, summer squash, delicata squash, pie pumpkin, watermelon, and green and yellow scallop squash).  I also have a separate patch by the garage for potatoes and am planting some herbs in my deck boxes.   Most of my gardening ideas and my heirloom seedlings came from my gardening guru friend Stephanie – so here’s a shout out to Steph for helping me succeed!!  I’m so excited to see how well everything grows – it’s always really hard to imagine and trust that something useful can come from a little tiny plant or little tiny seed that is dropped in the ground, but last year’s harvest reminds me that it does indeed happen!

While I was busy planting, the girls were entertaining themselves by running around attempting to fly some kites that they made this morning.  We have been taking a “Creating Together” class through the Minneapolis Children’s Theatre and today they got to paint kites.

Aubrey Planting Tomatoes

Aubrey was SO upset that the whole class didn’t take all their kites outside to play together (they will do that next week but Aubrey will be in Seattle) and it took forever to convince her that we could leave class and go fly the kits on our own.  Of course the girls had a blast running around the backyard with them once we finally got home though!

If you want to check out a couple more pics of  today’s adventures, I’ve posted them in our Picasa album for your viewing enjoyment.  Happy spring from our house to yours!  :-)

Seattle Skyline

At the end of this month, Aubrey and I will be off to Seattle for two whole weeks (May 22 – June 4). We are placing a lot of trust and hope in Seattle Children’s Hospital and the intensive feeding program that they have developed to help children like Aubrey who have been on g-tube feedings since infancy and thus have not learned to eat properly. Obviously, all the children are different in the challenges that they experience and the reasons they are not eating, but the program reports that typically kids are eating 50-70% more by the end of the two-week time frame. Since Aubrey only eats about 10-15% of her caloric needs by mouth right now, that probably won’t take us completely off the g-tube but it will get us really close to where we want to be.

Aubrey has been and continues to be a medical mystery (our GI doctor told us that her case should be written up in a medical journal because she’s been so difficult to diagnose) which makes it hard to predict what kind of progress she will make in the program.  We do not know what exactly is causing her on-going GI problems, but she still can only consume small amounts of food at a time or her stomach gets upset.  As you may have read previously, she was given a diagnosis of Celiac Disease in December, but after both blood and genetic testing came back negative this spring doctors were pretty sure this was a misdiagnosis.  However, just to make things more complicated and uncertain, a follow-up biopsy a couple weeks ago showed the damage in her small intestines was repaired after several months on a gluten-free diet.  Because of the negative blood tests and the fact that Aubrey’s stomach problems were not eliminated while she was gluten-free, the doctors are still not convinced that she does have Celiac Disease, but it is back on the table as a possibility.

My mother will be coming to stay with Jason and Ella while we are gone (thanks mom!) and Ella is such a momma’s girl that I am praying everyone gets through this okay.  The only other time I’ve ever been away from her was last October when Jason and I had a quick weekend getaway, and she still cries every time I leave the house with out her.  I keep thinking if it’s that traumatic when I go to the store for a couple hours, what’s it going to be like when I’m gone for two weeks?  We just keep telling ourselves that it will all be worth it if Seattle Children’s can help Aubrey as much as they have been able to help hundreds of other kids with feeding issues.

We’ll try to post an update or two about Aubrey’s progress, but I’m not sure what kind of internet access and/or free time I will have while we’re in Seattle so it might not be until we return.  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers in the next month or so – we hope this is the path we have long been waiting for that will allow us to put some of Aubrey’s medical challenges behind us!

Daddy's Girl

Aubrey is and has always been a total daddy’s girl. She is always so excited when she wakes up on weekend mornings and finds out he is home, she cries for him when she gets busted for doing something she shouldn’t, and she plays “going to work like daddy” all the time lately. However, this last week she took it to a new level. We finally took the girls in for a long overdue haircut and when we told Aubrey where we were going, she ran over to Jason, started rubbing the back of her head excitedly, and said, “Like Daddy?!?”

We hate to break it to you, Aubrey, but the growing bald spot on the back of your beloved daddy’s head is not a fashion statement. It’s just old age. And possibly genetics.  Jason, all I can say is that you better enjoy this while it lasts, because I’m pretty sure that soon after the stage where your daughters covet your receding hairline comes the one where they make fun of it!

Take my favorite Ella quote from yesterday:

AHHHHH! I’m MAD at you!

I’m figuring this is just the first of many times I will be hearing this one, but it’s a little disconcerting to hear it from a 28 month old. At least she knows how to express her feelings. That has to count for something right?

And then there’s Aubrey, who comes up with this one while I’m making supper tonight:

I need BACON! I need BACON mom!

Me: What? You need bacon? (I find this request rather strange, as she has only had bacon a couple times in her life so I’m surprised she knows what it is)

Yes, I need BACON! I’m sick of tomatoes, I need BACON!

Me: We’re having spaghetti for dinner, honey (just as a side note, there are no bacon or tomatoes anywhere in sight, since I’m serving the spaghetti with alfredo sauce)

No, I’m sick of spaghetti, I need BACON!

I’m pretty sure her dad is to blame for this one somehow, even though he wasn’t home at the time. All I know is, he was very proud to call her his own after he heard that story. . .

Ella: Ella has a lot to report from this past year. Some of her accomplishments include finally growing in a full head of crazy, curly hair (it took awhile!), moving from a crib to a toddler bed, figuring out how to unlatch every child lock and open every door in our house (sometimes her 6 year-old cousin Isabel asks Ella for help opening a child-proof cupboard)  and becoming quite the chatterbox.  Yesterday morning she woke up, came downstairs, saw her sister in a new shirt, and said with great excitement “Really cute, Aubs!”  And believe me, Aubrey should have appreciated that comment, since if anyone is particular about clothing, it’s Ella.  She has officially entered the I-must-pick-out-all-my-clothing-by-myself-or-I-will-have-a-gigantic-meltdown stage.  I”m pretty sure this is an official childhood stage, as we’ve been living in it for a couple of months now!

And it’s not just the clothing.  Even as an infant, Ella had strong ideas about how things should be done, but this year has seen her turn more and more into little Miss Independence.  She wants to butter her own toast and pour her own milk and pick out her own cereal from the cupboard and climb into her own high chair.  I’m pretty sure she would cook her own eggs and drive us to the grocery store if I let her.  Notice all the previous statements revolve around food?  Well, that’s pretty much Ella’s life.  She always wants to eat!  She doesn’t eat that much at a time, but at least every half an hour all day long I hear “sack mama?  sack?” (translation: please please give me a snack mama or I will let you know how very unhappy I am that you are starving me to death).  Her only greater love than her cup of milk is her three pink blankies that she carries with her everywhere, trailing around behind her like Linus.  She can not fall asleep without all three present and accounted for – the two little ones grasped in her hands so she can rub them on her face and the biggest one laid out across her whole sleepy body.

Ella is definitely our little firecracker and we love her dearly.  She has the hugest smile and the biggest tantrums and the deepest belly laugh and the saddest “cry face” and the sweetest hugs and kisses (when she decides to share them) that you can imagine.

Aubrey:  Not to be outdone, Aubrey has had a busy 2010 as well.  Some of her accomplishments include mastering an amazingly large vocabulary, learning how to identify more musicians than her mother (not hard to do, but pretty impressive for a two-year-old), discovering a love for swimming (this girl has NO fear!), and rocking the potty training (she definitely still has plenty of accidents but is picking it up surprisingly quick and is going diaper-free during day time hours now).  She is our sensitive, active, creative child and loves imaginary play.  For example, I bought the girls a little pop-up tent last week and she first played with it on the floor and told me it was her “office,” then she put in on the couch and said it was a “bus,” and then she flipped it upside down (it has no floor, just walls) and said it was a “crib.”  Ella and her played in the “crib” pretending to be babies and bringing each other blankies and pacifiers most of the afternoon – it’s so sweet to see the girls begin to interact with each other in such playful, creative ways.

Aubrey has experienced a small amount of progress in her willingness to eat over the past year and as she has gotten older has been able to express the discomfort and pain she feels when her stomach is even remotely full.  A couple of months back the doctors decided to do some more testing, during which they discovered that Aubrey has Celiac Disease.  Celiac’s is a digestive disorder involving intolerance to gluten that can cause a number of things; most notable in her case are nutritional deficiencies, stomach pain, and an inability to gain weight.  Unlike an allergy, it is not something that a person can outgrow, and so we are settling into a lifetime of gluten-free eating for her.  We had been eating less and less wheat over the past year already, as I have found that it bothers me as well, but going completely gluten-free is a big lifestyle change that involves checking every little food, lotion, toothpaste, etc for hidden ingredients and even having to buy a separate “gluten-free” toaster and take other measures to avoid cross-contamination.  However, the fact that we have finally been able to pinpoint some sort of diagnosis gives us hope that in several months, once the gluten is mostly out of her system, Aubrey will finally be able to gain some needed weight and hopefully become interested in eating more so that her tube feedings can become a thing of the past.

Aubrey is outgoing, curious, adventuresome, loud, and lovable.  She is a joy to have as a daughter and we thank God every day that she is part of our family.

Rebecca: While 2008 & 2009 were totally consumed with taking care of two babies at once, 2010 and the small measure of independence the girls are gaining has definitely allowed me a tiny bit more time to focus on some of my own interests once again this year. Which is good, because it’s something I had really been needing for my own sanity!  This summer I was happy to get back to running with my former running partner Katie and was hoping to train for a marathon, but was only able to pull off a half. To keep in shape I joined the YMCA in December and the girls and I have settled into a nice routine of heading there for a couple hours most mornings of the week. They have a great childcare center that I feel really comfortable leaving them in while I work out (although the girls still cry every time I leave them, which is hard to see) and I have found that hour on the treadmill or in the yoga class really makes my whole day’s outlook so much brighter.

Another thing that I am knee deep in is helping develop our church’s Sunday school curriculum for ages 3-5th grade. It is a huge project that our committee began working on in mid-winter 2010. I have a leading role and estimate that I spend 10-15 hours on each unit (there are 40 units total we plan to develop and I just finished up unit 6 so you can see this is a long-term commitment). I really enjoy the work (when I can find the time for it!) and also appreciate the fact that when my kids enter the Sunday school program next year when they are 3 they will be taught the materials that I personally researched and developed (i.e. the things that I think it is most important that they should learn, being taught in ways that I think will appeal to and stick with them).

Finally, a lot of my time this past year has been taken up with food. Yep, food. As in, cooking, shopping, gardening, canning, researching good sources of, etc. I am excited that a lot of the goals surrounding food that have long been in the back of my mind became a reality this year: cook mostly from scratch, start developing my backyard garden, slowly learn how to can, find sources of meat, vegetables, milk, eggs, etc to buy directly from local farmers, and develop some broader philosophies and strategies that guide how I make the eating decisions regarding the food our family consumes. This is too big of a topic to write more about here, but if it’s something you are interested in, ask me in person because I love sharing what I am learning!

Jason:  One of Jason’s major highlights of 2010 was definitely his MS bike ride in August.  Even though he wasn’t able to finish for various reasons (check here and here if you haven’t heard the story yet) it was a great experience and he was already debating which ride to sign up for in 2011 as soon as the 2010 one was finished.  He has really enjoyed biking since he started two summers ago and has been talking about needing to buy a road bike to replace his hybrid as he gets more serious and wants to improve his times and distances.  Last year it was pretty tough for both of us to find time to get our training in, so I think Jason’s hoping for more training rides this summer since the girls will be a little older and may even be willing to ride along in the bike trailer for some of his long rides.  Since he can’t get out on the roads to bike currently, he is staying in shape by shoveling ridiculous amounts of snow out of our driveway – what a crazy, snowy, cold winter it has been (and of course our snow blower chose this year to break down)!

For most of this year Jason has been busy building websites and custom applications on the side (some paid and some volunteer).  He is always looking for ways to stay a little more “hands-on” as he worries that some of his skills are getting a little rusty given his current role at work.  At the beginning of the year Target’s IT went through some substantial role shifts and now Jason is doing more high level system design and less actual programming. He was also promoted in September, which was something he’s been working toward for about a year.

Jason topped off the year with a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Vikings play at TCF Bank Stadium due to the collapse of the Metrodome roof. My older brother had reserved tickets for a Metrodome suite and then decided not to go so Jason, my younger brother Nick, and our friend Brad Dewing all got to attend the game. This was the first Vikings home game played outdoors since 1981, it turned out to be the last game Brett Favre ever played in, and that was also the night the Vikings celebrated the 50 greatest Vikings players of all time. The game itself wasn’t so good (the Vikings got destroyed by the Bears), but watching the game from the suite and witnessing first-hand all of the milestones for the evening made it a highlight of 2010.

January 2010

Here’s just a snapshot of the things we’ve been up to these past 12 months:

Winter 2010: Jason went to Vegas to see good friends Ryan & Sara tie the knot; Jason & Rebecca were the featured speakers at Brephos Crisis’ Pregnancy Center’s Annual Fundraising Banquet (one of the organizations that helped us adopt Aubrey in Grand Rapids, MN); Good friends Jake & Cari came to visit from Omaha, NE.

Spring 2010: Had a new back deck & patio installed; Visits by Jason’s best friend Erik & wife Annabel from  Columbus, OH and Rebecca’s college friend Kaylene from Wheaton College/Chicago area; Aubrey’s 2nd birthday; One of our bi-annual visits with Aubrey’s birth mom.

Summer 2010: Enjoyed an awesome week of fun and relaxation at Craguns Resort with friends Richard & Sara and some of Rebecca’s family; Rebecca ran a half marathon; Jason successfully biked half the “MS 150 Cruise the Cornfields” ride; Spent lots of time in the backyard on the new deck and patio that we absolutely love; Rebecca planted a “real” garden for the first time

Fall 2010: Hosted Grandpa Ron and Granny Teresa (Jason’s dad and his wife) for a fun-filled Labor Day weekend; Had a good/exhausting morning of family fun at the Minnesota State Fair; Celebrated Ella’s 2nd birthday; Rebecca tried her hand at canning, also for the first time;

November 2010

Visited in Grand Rapids with Aubrey’s birth mom again; Jason & Rebecca had our first weekend ever away from the girls at the Orr Hotel in northern MN; Spent 8 days visiting family & friends in Council Bluffs over Thanksgiving; Enjoyed visits over the Christmas holidays from Rebecca’s mom from Arizona and her brother and soon to be sister-in-law (Nick and Amanda) from their new home in Hawaii.

As you can see, it was a fun and full year! We look forward to more visitors and time with family and friends in 2011!!

First let me point you to this picture of Frank and I at the finish line of day 1. Those are two guys that look like they’ve just accomplished something big…and we did…except neither one of us started day 2 of the ride. It turns out that Frank, who I’ll affectionately call “Speed Demon” for the duration of this post, was so fast on his new bike that he threw his back out. He was pretty sore when we sat down post ride in front of the Cowboy’s preseason game. For the record we also devoured a fantastic pizza but I can’t remember where it was from. Anyway, the next morning when we got up to get ready for the start of the ride Frank was feeling it pretty bad, not to mention he couldn’t really stand up straight. By the time we showed up at the start line to pick up our bikes he’d decided he would scratch from day 2.

Shortly after talking with Frank I started wheeling my bike toward the start line and I noticed my back tire was catching on the back brake pretty severely. It seemed like the wheel was bent but since I hadn’t fallen I wasn’t sure how that would have happened. I wheeled the bike over to the mechanic and he pointed out I had a broken spoke. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the last leg of the route on day 1 was in terrible condition. I must have broken the spoke during that section of the ride. Unfortunately, the mechanics didn’t have any spare spokes on hand so I was pretty much dead in the water.

Admittedly I was a little relieved to be done since I would have been riding without Speed Demon to set my pace and we had also heard the wind gusts were predicted to be up to 30 mph head winds. Nasty. Since we had both scratched from the ride we inquired about taking the sag wagon back to the finish line but the driver said it would basically take all day to get back to Ankeny. We then called Dave to come pick us up yet again at an hour of the morning he would not have seen had we not called. After the trip back to Ankeny we picked up Arkay and went out for a mid-morning breakfast before Frank and I headed home. We were both disappointed to not have finished the ride but it was also great to spend more time with Dave and Arkay.

It also gave us some extra time to plot which ride we’d take part in next year. Would it be Minnesota, Wisconsin, Hawaii (seriously it’s possible)? We haven’t decided yet but we’ll let you know.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to our ride, we appreciate it but those with MS appreciate it even more. Thank you.