Tricia and the door

It doesn't matter how long you are in a hospital, half an hour, weeks, or months. The wonderful feeling you get walking out the hospital doors never loses its charm! This was just a short follow-up visit on Aug. 20, 2008. In the background is the revolving door at Shriner's hospital

Dr D'astous

Tricia has been seeing Dr. D'astous since she was 3 years old. He is her orthopedic surgeon at Shriner's Hospital. We sure like him. He is warm and caring and and thinks about the whole child and what is best for them overall. When Tricia was small there were really no good options for many children with infantile scoliosis. A mother from Colorado asked Dr. D'astous if he would meet with a European Doctor and learn a technique that was currently almost unused, halo traction for the spine. This doctor trained him and Shriner's now uses it to delay spinal fusions (traction then bracing then a few years later they will do the traction and bracing until the child grows bigger, and also as in Tricia's case, to get as much correction as possible before a spinal fusion. The Salt Lake Shriner's is one of the few places in the world that do this. What a blessing to have it so close.

Bear Pa Challenge

Several months ago the PR person at Shriner's asked us if he could do a write-up about Tricia and her involvement at Shriner's for a charity benefit. This began a nice little association with the "Think Outside" children's charity and their cycling event for the year--a three day almost 200 mile tour from Bear Lake to Park City. The charity was started by Tyler Hooper (he is on the right side of the check) of Centerville who had done his eagle project for Shriner's and wanted to be able to help more. Tricia and I met them at a kick-off barbeque in July and again at the finish line in Park City last Saturday. They were an incredibly nice group of people. Tyler's brother told Tricia that he had been riding up a very steep hill the second day. He was exhausted and ready to pull over and give up. Then he remembered Tricia, saw her cute face, thought about all she had been through and it inspired him to keep going. He told her he had made it up that hill because of her.

quote of the day

I was trying to convince Katrina to clean up her room this morning. She whined and fussed then sat down on the floor and started sorting the clean from the dirty clothes. Then under her breath she mumbled,"Why can't I have mice that would help me?" Too bad we can't all be Disney princesses, Sorry Katrina.

Merman Blaine

Katrina has been helping me this morning learn how to blog and insert pictures. This is really just a test. Tricia, Krysta and Camille have been doing some creative play. They spread out blue blankets and created a fisherman, alot of mermaids, and (to the dismay of all of our Ken dolls) a couple of mermen.

Meet the Fam

Here's the family. This was taken last August. Thanks to the Bell's next door who arranged us and took the picture. In the back are Katrina, Camille, Staci, and Krysta. In the front are me, Angela, then Tricia and Bruce.