Katie’s 14th Birthday Party

We celebrated Katie’s party early, before we left for our Utah vacation, and just two days after Ryan’s 16th birthday party.  It was quite the party week!  Katie invited some good friends from school and church to come hang out.  They jumped on the trampoline for awhile.

We played some fun games… the block game, the ‘yelling out matches’ game and some Pictionary.  Then the girls ate treats and Katie blew out her candles. 

She is lucky to have some really great friends here.  Allison, Elaena, Kate, Ally, Emily, Brooklyn, Katie, Maddie and Elise and more that couldn’t make it to the party.

Katie got lots of gift cards, candy and nail polish.

The girls hung out outside for a long time talking and laughing and I think I heard some boy’s names thrown in there too.  They stayed outside to play night games in the dark until it was time to leave.

A Broken Foot

THE INJURY

Chris: My sports life was good.  In fact, the best it has been since 2007.  I was playing in a competitive indoor soccer league and in a very competitive basketball league.  I was playing sports at least 3 nights a week.  Life was good.  And then during one of my soccer games, I dribbled past a guy on the other team and when I went to plant to take on the next guy, the front of my foot caught on the turf and rolled.  I immediately heard the pop and was pretty sure it was broken. I hobbled off the field and within a couple of minutes, the other teams goalie was injured and replaced.  The score was tied 4-4 and I really wanted this win.  I figured I could score on the new goalie even with my hurt foot so I went back in the game.  Not a good decision.  I wasn’t able to put any weight on it at all and had to sub right back out. 

As the adrenaline wore off, the pain started to become unbearable.  The drive home was miserable.  In fact, my friend Scott saw me driving home and called me to make sure I was going to make it.  Lisa wanted to take me into the ER, but I know the drill.  They would only splint it and instruct me to go to the Orthopedic clinic in the morning.  So I took some drugs and settled into the couch downstairs.  The worst part of the night was when I got a Charlie horse in my calf and couldn’t stretch it or do anything to help it subside.

Lisa: My poor guy.  He was hurting for sure that night and kept saying, “How could this happen when my sports situation is so good here…”  to which I replied… “Honey, it’s your sports situation which did this to you!”  Of course I tried to get him to go to the ER but I wasn’t surprised when he said he wouldn’t go till the morning.

DIAGNOSIS

Chris:  The next morning, Lisa drove me to the hospital and I got an x-ray to confirm it was fractured.  It was an oblique fracture through the mid to distal 5th metatarsal with approximately 4mm of displacement and mild foreshortening.  I called up to the Ortho clinic and told them I was on my way up.  The podiatrist tried to convince me I would do just fine without surgery, but I really wanted it fixed perfectly, especially given the foreshortening and displacement.  They put me in a bulky cast and scheduled the surgery for the following Monday morning.

Lisa: The funniest part of this morning was walking in with Chris as he let himself into the imaging center and asked the techs to image his foot.  Then minutes later he walked across the hall to his co-workers office, sat himself on an extra chair and told his friend to pull up the x-ray.  Within minutes there was 5 Radiologists in the room with eyes fixed to the screen and discussing the diagnosis.  I should have taken a picture… it was pretty amusing.

SURGERY

Chris: The surgery went great with a perfect result.

Lisa: We were at the hospital by about 8:00 and soon after he was wheeled into surgery.  I sat in the van and read my book for most of the time and then went back into the hospital until they came to get me.  I walked back into post-op room just as he was coming to.  He glanced over and saw me and gave me a funny wave.  The nurse leaned over and said, “It’s the men that are the goofiest coming out of anesthetic.”   The doctor came out to talk to me and Chris tried so hard to communicate to him asking questions that we had already covered moments before.  Of course he doesn’t remember even seeing the Doctor.  I helped get him dressed, picked up his meds and brought the van around as the nurse wheeled him to the door.  Just the movement getting to the van made him nauseous.  We had to wait in the van for nearly 30 minutes before I carefully drove home.  Getting him in the house was even more difficult.  Ryan held him on one side and I held the other side but just getting through the kitchen and onto the family room couch was something.  Chris fell asleep and didn’t move for hours.  Later he had some soup that the Pattersons brought over and some more medication and regardless was in a good deal of pain for that first night.

RECOVERY

Chris: My recovery was as good as could be expected.  I slept in the basement most of the time with my leg elevated, because any time it wasn’t elevated the pain was horrible.  I was on the heavy drugs for about a week, but then transitioned to Ibuprofen so I could get back to work.  I got a normal cast about 2 weeks after surgery and had that for about 4 weeks.  Then I transitioned to a walking boot, although I couldn’t walk on it for another 2 weeks.  However, that was so nice because I could take it off to shower and to hang out around the house.  I then spent about 2 weeks walking in the boot before finally being back to normal “pairs” of shoes.  So about 8 weeks of cast and boot. My foot feels great now with very little residual swelling.  I am running and biking and almost back to sports.

Lisa: Chris’ explanation makes it sound just quick and easy, but I assure you it was not.  It was long and frustrating.  He literally sat on the couch for a month – which was painful for both of us – especially during a long season of soccer for 5 of our 6 kids.  The picture’s right below were actually taken by Matthew and I think it captures his time on the couch perfectly.  He was definitely frustrated about not being able to move but he also had too much time to think about our future and his different job opportunities.  Some stressful months for sure. – More on that later…    Thankfully his recovery did go quite smoothly and he’s back to walking and starting to get some exercise.   So grateful to have him back to normal.

Canada Trip for Me and the Girls

My Dad’s back hasn’t been good for awhile.  He had back surgery five years ago and he seemed to be doing pretty well until his motorcycle accident with Katie last August obviously made things worse.  In February it really got bad and he started working from home when he could, but could hardly deal with the pain.  He’s seen all kinds of doctors and tried numerous things before finally deciding he needed to have another surgery.  With a wait list of 9-12 months through the Canadian health care system, he decided to pay for the procedure and scheduled it for three weeks later, in mid-June.  Since our Walton family St. George trip was a no-go, several of us decided to head up to Canada as official back-surgery cheerleaders and support givers.  I decided Emily and Megan would be the perfect service-giving companions… and right I was.  They were pretty excited for the trip, loved being up there to help out and see Grandma and Grandpa, and had plenty of fun.  We had a really great time.

We flew into the Bellevue airport on Wednesday afternoon.  The flight is a piece of cake with these two girls.  Easy travelers!  Grandma picked us up in Grandpa’s new red car and took us across the border.

Amy and Chris and kids were there the same time we were and had arrived a day earlier. Our first evening we went for a walk in Watershed Park, which is just two minutes from my parents house.  So beautiful.

We had overcast weather for most of the days but we were content just hanging out at home.  The girls couldn’t wait to make Rhubarb Pies with Grandma.  So good.  We ate it several nights.  In fact, we ate way too many desserts that week!

On Thursday Amy, my Mom and I went shopping at Guilford.  That mall is so fun – especially with the new changes they’ve made recently.  We did well in RW&CO.  Love that store.  We also had fun shopping for dresses at the BAY.  Amy was our fashion consultant and made Mom and I try on dresses that we ended up really loving.  It was a really fun afternoon.

We walked up to the neighborhood park with Jane that day.  The girls loved pushing her in the swing.

Of course Grandpa pulled out the BB gun to shoot at pop cans in the backyard.  Grandpa cracked up when Megan couldn’t keep the right eye open to aim.  Silly girls.

Brian came in late afternoon and surprised Mom and Dad.  We played several games of O Heck that week.  This was the pre-surgery O Heck game.  Then rhubarb pie.  Then Brian gave Dad a blessing.

Surgery Day.  On Friday morning at 6:30am my Mom and I drove Dad downtown Vancouver to the clinic where he would be having his back surgery.  We waited with him for a few minutes before they called him back and then returned home to wait until they called us back.  To pass the time we got out the family history stuff and scanned pictures which was really fun. At 1:00 he was out of surgery and ready to be picked up again.  Mom and I drove back and they wheeled him out to the car.  It’s amazing that he could even move at all only a couple hours after surgery.  He spend the next couple of days either laying down or sitting up keeping his back as straight as possible.  Mom acted as his ‘recovery police’ and laid down the law of do’s and do not’s. 

Two days after surgery.  Question time for Megan.   The kids love ‘Grandpa’s Questions’.  Then into the office for some education of Chuck Wagon Races and who knows what else…

Fun to hang out with this little guy… Peter.  5 months old.

FATHER’S DAY  It was fun to be there with my Dad for Father’s Day.  I sure love him.  He looks pain-free in these pictures but he was faking it.  His recovery was slow and painful.

I got Dad some little paperweight Wingtips that I saw at Deseret Book.  Of course they remind me of him.  He’s wore a pair just like them for as long as I can remember.  I think he liked them.  : )

Amy put together the annual Walton photo book and this year it was Dad’s Father’s Day present from all of us.  Amy does a fantastic job putting it together and they absolutely love it.

Chris got go-pro accessories for his Father’s Day present.

Skyping with Scott and his cute kiddos on Father’s Day. 

Monday we left my Dad at home to recover in peace? and headed for the outlet mall and shops of… I don’t even remember where and shopped with the girls, and Brian and Chris and Amy.  Then we ate lunch at Five Guys Burger and it was delicious.

We watched a LOT of World Cup Soccer, which was so fun.  The USA Ghana win was pretty exciting. 

My girls had such a great time playing with Jane and Peter.  One last shot of them before bed on the last night.  Messy hair and all.

I just love my family.  So fun to hang out, talk, eat, watch movies and play games together.  Really, such a great trip.