Road Trip...Here we come!

Wow, what a difference a few days makes. We were just planning a long weekend trip to Dallas to visit Rob's family, but it has turned into a full blown 3,000+ mile road trip. Why not? It isn't like we have jobs here waiting on us. Ha-ha! Actually, the way this came about is that I was talking on the phone to my cousin, Tracy, who lives in Colorado, and we were kind of laughing about how we should head up to Colorado after we leave Dallas. Like she said...we will be halfway there already. Well, in our initial conversation, I told her that there was NO WAY that Rob would ever agree to that long of a road trip. But after we hung up the phone, I started to really think about it and I realized that it was really a great idea and a perfect opportunity for our family to create some wonderful and lasting memories together. Who knows when we will ever have this much available time without commitments and we don't know what the future holds regarding the health of our family. We need to grab every moment we can and cherish it. And that is just what we are going to do. We don't even know exactly how long we will be gone, but it will be approximately two weeks.

We will leave this Saturday and head to Dallas for a few days. Ethan and Emily are so looking forward to seeing Grandma Burks and the rest of the family there. After we leave there, we will make our toward New Mexico and then head North into Colorado. We will stop along the way and spend the night. The next day will drive on in to Colorado Springs and do some sightseeing. Later that evening we will finish our drive through Denver to Greeley, where we will be staying with our cousins. We'll stay with Tracy and her family for a few days and spend time hanging out with them and visiting Estes Park, CO, and just having a great time enjoying the mountains. Not only has Ethan and Emily never seen the mountains, but Rob has never seen the mountains either. This is going to be exciting for all of us! Once we leave Colorado, we will head East into Kansas and go to my hometown where I was born, Junction City, and where I spent my summers growing up. This is also where Rob was stationed at Ft. Riley when he was in the Army and where we met. We will stay overnight and then look around for a while and see my old school, house, other family members houses, etc., and then also tour around Ft. Riley. Once we leave that area, we will then make our way to Kansas City to see Gram. I will also get to see my aunt and uncle and cousins that I haven't seen in many years. I am so very much looking forward to seeing everybody and catching up. After we have worn out our welcome there (Ha-ha!), we will start heading south by way of Branson, MO, where we plan to stop and go to Silver Dollar City. We will stay the night in Branson and then get up early the next morning to make the long journey home.

Now, here is some of the best part of this trip. Last year when Ethan received his wish and we stayed at Give Kids the World Village, we received this thing called a World Passport. It entitles our family to free passes at hundreds of amusement parks across the world. These passes are only good for one year from the date the child's wish was granted. That means that we can only use this Passport until December 2009. Well, guess what???? Since we decided to take this trip, we decided to do it right. We are going to hit as many of these amusement places that we can since we can go there free of charge with this Passport. We can go to Six Flags in Dallas, Santas Workshop near Pikes Peak in Colorado, Elitch Gardens in Denver (we might skip this, though), Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, and Silver Dollar City in Branson. WE CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

I need to talk now about Ethan's pulmonology appointment we had today. This was supposed to be a check-up appointment. With the exception of his hospital stay over Memorial Weekend, Ethan has actually had a good summer. He hasn't had any asthma attacks at all. I did, however, have to talk to the doctor about Ethan's allergy testing that was done and discuss with him that we STILL haven't seen the allergist and haven't even been able to deal with it because of the stuff we have dealt with regarding Emily. The doctor talked in great length with us about Ethan's allergies. In fact, he gave me a copy of Ethan's allergy test report and explained to me just how much Ethan is allergic to his overall environment. He said that there is a medication that he thinks Ethan needs to take, but it isn't FDA approved for children younger than 12 years of age. Because of this, he will have to fight with our insurance company to get it approved and it will take time. Basically, it will be a monthly allergy shot. He said that he is going to start working on this before we see the allergist so the process can be in place. There is something else, though. We told him about our trip coming up and that we will be out of town for two weeks. He wanted to know where we were going so he would know what kinds of medical facilities would be near. He also said that with Ethan, because of the altitude and climate change that will be taking place, he wants Ethan to be taking an oral steroid throughout our trip. We are to call him as soon as we arrive home and he'll tell us what dosage to give him to wean him off of the medicine. And of course we are to make sure that he gets his regular nebulizer treatments twice a day, too. We have to make sure that he stays well.

Now, I only have three more days to pack, and I have done nothing! I haven't even done laundry to get ready for this little trip. Goodness gracious!