NF Clinic

Today Sara attend her annual visit to the NF clinic.  She did great, and for the most part, was cooperative with the doctors.

Sara's MRI we did 10 days ago shows that the tumor in her belly has grown barely at all.  It had "no visible change."  The report does state, however, that the tumor has moved further into her lower spine, and her left hip is almost completely dislocated now.  There is nothing we can really do about her spine, but I'm planning to schedule a consult with her orthopedic oncologist to see what he thinks about the increasing issue with her hip.  At this point Sara doesn't complain of pain, so I don't feel any rush to do anything about it...especially since it would seem that walking isn't in her future.

Everything else went really well!  The doctors seem happy with her progress, and so am I.  We have no plans to do any testing or return to NF clinic for another year!

The Pumpkin Patch

The calendar says its fall, but I'm not yet convinced.  Its still hoovering around 85 or 90 degrees here almost daily.  We have had a couple glimpses of fall, and if you go up into the mountains its definitely there.  The leaves are turning and its beautiful.  There are a couple leaves beginning to turn on our tree in the front yard, so I'm hoping the weather will follow my tree's shining example soon.

With that said, Sara and did a very fall time activity today and went to the pumpkin patch!  We had a great time, and got some really nice pumpkins.  It was really hot, and dusty, but it was still fun.  Here are some pics of the events of the day!


We started with a chance to "pan for gold."  This was really just buying a bag of "dirt" with "gems" in it (shiny rocks) and playing in the water.  But all the kids had a great time, and that's what's important.

Then we went over and did some rides.  The first was a ride in some blue barrels turned into cars for the kids to ride in, and all pulled by ride-on mowers.  Sara said this was her favorite part, and by the smile on her face I'm a believer! There was also a fenced in track with pedal bikes on them.  Obviously Sara wasn't about to be left out even though she can't pedal the bike, so I pushed her around while she did the steering. 

There was also a place where you could shoot little pumpkins and gourds from slingshots tied to posts!  This was a little tricky for Sara, so I helped out just a little.

We then rode out to the pumpkin patch to actually pick our pumpkins.  On the way we had to go through the cow pasture, so the transport stopped and the kids got to pet and feed the cows.  Sara rode in my mom's lap on the way out and it was nice for them to get a little one on one time.

After picking our pumpkins and getting them back to the cars, we had some time to take some pics and just sit for a few before driving home.  Sara found this garden statue of a plow horse, so she wanted to "ride" it and play cowgirl for a few minutes.

And here they are, the pumpkins!  They're pretty big.  I'm guessing the big one is around 50 lbs or so.  I can barely lift it!  Oh the mess it'll make when we carve it!

It was a good time even though it was almost too hot, especially in the sun!  But the kids had fun, and it was a good way to get in the mood for fall to arrive.  Hopefully it gets here soon!