We needed some time to rest and recover
from our really fun, but exhausting day at Disneyland.
So we spent the next few days...
cuddling with baby Elijah
playing with the bubbles in the front yard
counting Elijah's fingers
and playing keep away from Daddy
(or maybe it was the other way around)
Then we went to a really cool local park to
get pictures made of the 4 boys together.
This picture shows how excited they were about this activity.
As a reward for sitting still for the pictures (yeah, right)
they got popsicles from the ice cream truck
Tristan definitely enjoyed his the most!
We spent some time playing at the park
Owen "catching" Tristan at the bottom of the slide
All that playing made us very hungry,
so we headed over to eat at the food trucks.
Tim was in heaven, of course.
The next day we went to UCLA to meet Dr. Joanna Jen.
A few days after getting Ethan's diagnosis last July,
I sent an email to the 3 doctors who had written articles on SCA29.
One of those doctors was Dr. Joanna Jen at UCLA.
Two hours after sending her that email she called me on the phone.
She had been researching SCA29 and was interested in getting
skin biopsies of Ethan, Tim and I with the hopes
of finding a treatment for this or other types of ataxia.
Unfortunately, there is absolutely no money for research of a condition so rare,
so we were just going to wait until she was coming to our area
for another purpose and get the biopsies done then.
It just so happened that Aunt Jenny moved to the LA area only 4 months later
and gave us another reason to come for a visit.
Little did we know that a few months after that,
a 13 year old girl named Grace,
living less than 2 hours from where Aunt Jenny had moved,
would also be diagnosed with SCA29.
All pretty amazing.
And Dr. Jen pointed out that the day we were there
was almost exactly a year from the date of my first email to her.
So, we weren't going to California
without getting those skin biopsies done
(as much as I was dreading it).
I'm not big on blood, needles, or holes of skin being taken out of my arm.
We had to get a picture with Dr. Jen and her two lab assistants.
They were all so nice - in fact - she had one of her assistants
personally walk with us a few blocks from the campus
to point out some of the best places to eat in the area.
We decided on Falafel King
Ethan taking pictures of the city
My falafel sandwich was amazing,
so I had to be like Tim and take a picture of it.
We were also told that we couldn't go to UCLA
without stopping by Diddy Riese.
And we thought we all deserved a little ice cream treat.
Ethan and Owen both chose chocolate ice cream, of course.
Tim - a chocolate cookie with oreo ice cream sandwich
Me - a peanut butter cookie with chocolate ice cream sandwich
Owen had to get every drop
We then headed home and got stuck in a few extra hours of LA traffic
And within a few minutes of getting on the highway,
Ethan said, "I have to go potty." So we had no choice,
but to stand him up in the seat and let him pee in a cup.
I guess kids in LA have to have strong bladders.
Owen was so exhausted, he slept most of the way back.
The next day was the Fourth of July!
helping Ray wash the dog
Elijah was a little too young to play with the big boys,
so he just laid in the shade and looked cute.
water fight with Uncle Kevin
I think Uncle Kevin won
Ethan loves getting water poured on his head, by the way
And the Fourth of July isn't complete without corn on the cob
cousins
the little firefighters at the tree
and then we had to say goodbye
headed home
We were greeted by this cute little face when the elevator doors opened
