Going "Nuts" with Family

After my exhausting NY trip, I brought my parents and youngest brother home with me for more Michigan fun. Here are a few pics of our adventures at the Lugnut's game and a shot at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit.

Here's Chris and I riding in a Model T Ford at the Henry Ford Museum's Greenfield Village. Who would have thought there'd be a Ford at the Henry Ford Museum?Grandma sporting her many pairs of shades. You gotta be cool at the Lugnuts game, because they sure aren't this year...
Grandpa and Brooklyn just being themselves. :)
Sadie I believe is the one who started the whole sunglasses thing. I think she got the idea from looking at a few pictures of her aunts' Val and Alli. I love my Dad. He cracks me up!
Sadie wouldn't quite sit by Chris. She was quite content to sit behind Chris. Notice the huge sold out crowd supporting the lugnuts tonight. Double header and a double loss. I think the most exciting thing was Chris had an opportunity to be in a hot dog eating contest but declined. It was eat the number of hot dogs correlating to the inning being played. One hot dog the first inning, two the second, and so on. I think we had more fun eating popcorn and cotton candy.
Go Nuts!

NYC Insanity

Anyone ever tried to do NYC in 2 days? Can I just say EXHAUSTING! I had my own adventure just trying to get to NY. The fun part about this trip was that it was time for me and just me! I can't remember the last time I went by myself overnight anywhere! I was to fly out of the Detroit airport at 1:30 and arrive at 3:30pm simultaneously as my parents were to land. My bro-in-law Jake was to meet us all at the JFK airport and escort us to their awesome accommodations literally a couple blocks from ground zero, with a view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and New Jersey from the sun deck atop their building.

Well I board my flight on time, only to find out JFK is having "issues" of some kind and is not allowing any flights to take-off until it is resolved. After an hour wait, we finally get clearance for take-off, HURRAY! But wait! It gets better...we get pushed back, start taxiing to the runway when an attendant call light starts beeping incessantly. Due to condensation buildup from the a/c it caused the button to malfunction. We have to head back to the gate, only to wait for another hour just for the ground crew to get us to a gate, to do the repair. I'm now fast approaching 2.5 hours on the plane. It's now 3:30pm, my parents have landed and I'm still stuck on a plane in Detroit! An announcement is made, if it will take 15 minutes or less to repair we'll turn around and head out, then they stop short and announce for everyone to get off the plane. Our flight was canceled! WHAT?!? I don't have time for this! I have plans!! I paid $70 for a ticket to see Dave Brubeck an 80+ year old world famous Jazz pianist at the Blue Note and it starts at 8pm! Through some divine inspiration I picked up a phone and after a 5 minute hold rather than another hour wait to get re-booked with a flight agent, I was able to secure a seat on the 5:15pm flight, which was in half an hour. Talk about a LONG day. Of all the times I've traveled with my children by myself, we have never had this happen. I was just grateful that the one time (keeping my fingers crossed this will be the ONLY time this happens) I'm traveling alone and not checking any baggage. I get on the next flight and miraculously we actually go somewhere. I arrived in NY after 7pm, sadly without the welcoming committee and help I'd planned on. I received my instructions to navigate myself through the Metro system in NY knowing it would take an hour and a half to get to the Blue Note. I arrived at the Blue Note just in time to hear the last song. It definitely wasn't worth $70 in my opinion, maybe if I heard the show I'd feel a little better about it. But oh well! What can you do? With that adventure of just getting there now over I could enjoy the time I had to be with my mom, dad, youngest brother, youngest sister and her husband. We then moved forward at a breakneck pace to catch all the sights and sounds of NYC!!

To sum up the trip, let me just post what my dad wrote to my bro in his mission:

Friday we land at JFK airport NY. After we catch the “Air Train” to the Howards Beach stop, Jake is there with a box of cookies, huge, thick, warm, 8 oz plus cookies, chocolate walnut, oatmeal raisin, choc chip etc…. he knew we’d be famished for good cookies. He then help us get our unlimited subway pass and off to the Manhattan accommodations, 2 transfers later, we were on the streets and rolling our luggage among the Friday rush hour crowd.

This was the reception I was hoping I'd receive and would have had everything been on time...

They have the most ideal place to live. 50 yards from the Hudson River, a penthouse on the 27^th floor overlooking all of Manhattan (M) including ground Zero about 3 minutes away from their home…….We had Tickets to Dave Brubeck , at the Blue Note Jazz Club, $70 per seat……which according to Jake (and I do believe every word) is about the most famous jazz club in NY, Jake even has a CD of Dave performing the entire CD at the BN. Natalie was also coming and her flight was supposed to land about the same time as ours but the flight was cancelled….that’s another story. We met up with Alli and decided to do dinner at the BN so we caught several sub connections and arrived at this cramped probably 30’ by 100’ facility crammed with tables and chairs. After dinner the group shows up and this old guy (I told Jake before that Dave had to be at least 110 years old) comes on the scene and has to be hoisted up to the piano literally by a couple of guys….and off they go with 15 minute plus pieces of “Somewhere over the rainbow” and “I’ve got Rhythm” and others…..Dave calls up some lady from the audience to sing a number which was fantastic…then at the very end Natalie makes her entry finally (but unfortunately misses 90% of the concert). It was a night to remember thoroughly enjoyable. After we get Nat a pizza and headed to Times Square, a lot like Piccadilly Circus in London except about 10 time bigger and brighter. I have photos we’ll send…. After we returned to the apt we go down to the Hudson River and enjoy the night lights on the water and plan a bit for Saturday….real fun to have Nat there too!

Day 2 began with a dozen of the most unique/fantastic donuts, a trip to the “rip off store” and a 8:00 AM date with a ferry to the Statue of Liberty (We live in a Great Country!!!!!!!!), a ferry ride to Ellis Island where all the emigrants who came through NY were processed from 1892-1943. Then to Macy’s Store famous for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (9 stories tall and a New York block long, it is huge), then lunch at the Grand Central rail station, then to the Empire State Building and up to the 102^nd floor observation deck for a look over the city,

(Actually it was only the 86th, if you paid an extra fee, you could go to the 102nd)

in the evening we saw the most clever play “39 Steps” by Hitchcock…..what a funny show!!….you really had to be there, after we went to Times Square again so Chris could photo with his new camera and we did a late dinner…getting home after midnight. Sunday we went to Alli and Jake's M ward, very interesting building 5 stories with sacrament meeting on the top floor, with the full previous day it was tiring going up the stairs and back down for SS and up for Priesthood Meeting. Back to Alli and Jake's for a bagel lunch, starts to rain lightly, we walk to Wall Street and the NY Stock Exchange, see the Wall Street “Bull”, pass the Trinity church but they were closed (George Washington went there after shopping at Macy’s or something….Andrew Hamilton is buried there…next time you spend a $20 or a $3 bill think of Trinity), over to Ground Zero to see the reconstruct of the World Trade Center, past the Dow Jones Industrial Stock Exchange, then to the Museum of Natural History (Free with Alli’s passes, then to Central Park (what a great park we probably spent nearly 2 hours there, lots of pics), then to the Ghost Busters Building, on the same long block but at the other end is the Manhattan Temple and across the street is the Metropolitan Opera Center, then off to Columbia University to see the Campus where Jake works (reminded me a bit of Harvard, old , well kept). We went to some Italian place for some fab pasta, and one chocolate desert that was devoured by 6 hungry hombre’s. Then a subway ride to the Ghost busters Fire Station in lower M and then home to crash. Monday get up to see Alli off to work pack up and head to the airport with Jake's help. Fly to Michigan and start to recover from the breakneck pace. PHEW!!

Needless to say we were utterly exhausted!! I think I'm still trying to recover!

Small Animals and Not so Small Animals 2010

Aww! Small animals! We love where we live! So much to see and do, well that is if you can find out about it before it happens rather than read about it after it's over. Advertising is lacking out here...

Fortunately or unfortunately, I spend a fair amount of time researching fun activities like this to do. We've been the last couple years and have thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the highlights is that you get to ride a bus and visit the nearby poultry farm and horse farm, on your way there you drive by the beef and dairy cattle farms, which are actually closer to my house than the pavilion where you load on the bus. But the kids and I love it just the same. It's even more fun when Daddy can come!

Here is my sweet Eric holding a baby duckling. They are so cute, definitely my favorite!Brooklyn and Sadie petting a baby chick! They had baby chicks, turkeys, quails, ducks, all available to hold. The girls absolutely loved it! One of the turkeys I was holding was so tired as soon as you held it still in your hand it would fall asleep. I didn't want to put it down just to let it have a little rest. Poor little babies were so tired from all the picking up and holding going on that day.

A dairy cow a not so small animal. Cows to sit on, cows to milk, what more could a kid want?

This little piggy went to small animals day, and squealed the whole time he was away from home! Quite the noisy little porkers! But still fun to pet.
Go Babe! I mean, oh wait, that's a real sheep dog herding sheep. Babe hasn't quite learned the ropes yet. It was fun to see the dog in action and the sheep respond.
Baby lamb! So soft. I just love the spring and all the new life that comes with it.

Spring Break in a Nutshell

Brief update from the Hogan household. We're alive and well. It's been so long since I last posted, what to catch you up on...we'll start with Spring Break.

Spring Break 2010: A Trip to Chicago!

Sadie enjoying her bread at dinner.

Brooklyn eating only the "soft part" of the bread. She doesn't care for the crust and will leave piles of crust carcasses on her plate, as shown below.

Sadie and her chocolate dipped and sprinkled marshmallows. She's my sugar baby!
On the ferris wheel on Navy Pier. Such a fun place. I still haven't heard the end of the time we forgot to ride a ferris wheel. I think I'll be trying to make it up to Brooklyn the rest of her life.

Look! I'm a turtle! The awesome Children's museum on Navy Pier. I highly recommend it to any parent visiting the Chicago area! So much fun. Something for every little kid.

Sadie and her catch of the day.

Brooklyn walking through the pipe headed toward the water room at the museum.

Here Brooklyn and I are atop the Willis Tower (formerly called the Sears Tower) 103 stories up sitting in the glass lookout. It's quite an experience to be 103 stories up and be able to look straight down to the sidewalk below.

Such a fun trip. We spent most all of our time at museums. We visited the Shedd Aquarium, the Field Museum, Children's museum, a Hershey store, double decker bus tour, went to a mirror maze and freaked out the kids probably the "broken elevator" starting out the maze was the problem...and so much more! I think next time I want to do all the museums, I'm going to go in the winter time and avoid all the lines. The lines to get into the museums just to buy tickets were ridiculous! We waited an hour outside the Shedd aquarium just to get into the building to purchase tickets! If you go, buy tickets ahead of time and skip the lines!

I think the thing that made me laugh the hardest was that our hotel happened to be right across the street from a fire station. Needless to say we heard a fair amount of sirens and each time the girls would run to the window to see it before it disappeared into the city. The first couple nights were interesting trying to get kids to settle down and tucked in and then off goes another siren, back to square one.

A good trip, a good time. Chicago is a fun city!

R.I.C.E. The recipe for recovery success

After struggling with knee pain for the last year or so I couldn't take it any longer and had knee surgery on Feb. 23. I started training for a half marathon about this time last year. When I first started running I felt great! No pain in my knee for the first time in a long time. Then I went to a running clinic to improve my form and instead of improving it seemed to cause more problems than good. I started to have pain in my foot which I have never had before and then my knee pain started. I continued to train as the pain was only prevalent when I was running. But as the mileage increased and the pain lasted days after a long run, then progressed to pain all the time.

It was time to do something. I had x-rays done which showed nothing other than some arthritis was developing. I continued to finish my training as the half was fast approaching. The week before the half marathon I had so much pain in my knee I could hardly walk. The worst part of all of that was I was in San Francisco walking everywhere and supporting my dad in his swim from Alcatraz! At the finish of the swim, I ended up standing in the ocean to get the best pics and soaked my only pair of shoes. Not wanting to just wear flippity's (flip flops as they are called at my house) with no support with my knee pain as I walked back to the hotel I saw a shoe store and decided that I needed a new pair of shoes. I went in, saw a pink pair I thought looked nice, told them my size and attempted to try them on. I really didn't try them on long. Here's why, not wanting to make a nuisance of myself that my feet were soaked and I was leaving puddles just standing there, as I slipped off my soaked shoe I left a good portion of the beach there on the floor. Not wanting to add to much sand to the new shoes I slipped it on with my wet foot, noticed my toes didn't rub the end and said I'd take them. I bought a new pair of dry socks to go with them. Bam! Less than 10 minutes in and out with a new pair of shoes. My knee began to feel a little better with the new shoes.

I questioned whether or not I should even run the half the pain was so intense. But I had trained so hard and had traveled across the country! With the new shoes the pain lessened and I decided to do the half and did them in those pink shoes. Ever since the half I have had constant knee pain and I haven't run since the half. I came home had a MRI which showed I had tendinosis of the patella retinaculum and decided it was time to try physical therapy. The first time I went to PT it seemed to make my knee pain a lot worse and they gave up and threw in the towel.

My next step was to visit an orthopedic doctor. He palpated my knee and thought I might have a plica. He wanted me to give PT another go and see if it made any difference and follow up with him in a month. The second round of PT was much better than the first, I tried a different location but I still had a constant ache in my knee and was not able to exercise. At my follow-up appointment it was decided that arthroscopic surgery was the way to go and I scheduled it that day.

The surgery went well. They examined the integrity of all my ligaments and menisci were examined. There was no sign of arthritis, the plica which Doc said was huge and inflamed was removed. My PCL, the stability ligament in my knee is loose from an injury about 10 years ago when it was partially torn, but it is stable. No further surgery is required to repair it. Hooray! I came home with crutches but never used them.

Brooklyn was very concerned about crutches. She had told me that if I came home with crutches she would cry and run and hide. She also said she'd rather that I be in a wheelchair than to have crutches. Eric helped me in the house after surgery then went back out to the car to get the other things and brought in the crutches. As soon as Brooklyn saw them her heart sank and she clouded over and covered herself up with a blanket. I had the bright idea to let her decorate them with stickers. One crutch for each girl out came the stickers and I have the fanciest crutches ever.

Recovery has gone well with lots of rest. Thank goodness my mom could come to town and run the fort. The only hiccup was I had some calf pain that I thought was probably just muscular stiffness from walking funny and a couple extreme charlie horses, but decided it best with my family history of blood clots to get it checked out. After a trip to the ER and a Doppler ultrasound no blood clots were found. Now a week and a half post-op, stitches has been removed. I can now shower without wrapping my knee in saran-wrap to prevent infection in the knee joint. I'm almost walking normally. I still have some swelling and pain but overall it hasn't been near as bad as when I tore my PCL 10 years ago. Lots of rest, ice, and elevation for me. The doctor and I are confident that the plica is the culprit of my knee pain. Now we'll just have to give it some time to heal and test it out on the roads.