County Fair Fun

Our little family hadn't been to the county fair in years.  

I guess mostly because I thought it would be too stressful...especially since Ben doesn't love being confined in a stroller.

So I was excited when Dad mentioned that he and Mom would love to go with us and help out.  Dad was anxious to take the kids to see the animals.

Angie was still in town so she was able to join us as well.

Quite the wind storm picked up right before we were to meet and so we were worried that we wouldn't have much of an evening...but it turned out to be perfect.

Dad and Andy took the kids down to the animals first thing while Ang and Mom and I walked around the 4-H, Home Arts and Community Display buildings.

Then we got some really healthy food to eat...

...and Ben found a train he wanted to ride.

Abby's such a good little mother :)

Thanks Dad, Mom and Angie for making it such a pleasant evening and for being so helpful with the kids.

 

I literally don't think we could have done it without you...I know I wouldn't have tried :)

Angie

It was so fun having Ang in town again.

We did many things together...swimming lessons, games, shopping, sewing, a sleepover, and all kinds of family gatherings.

Ang and Dan are hoping to adopt soon.

While she was here I showed her how to make the mitered corner baby blankets.  She chose some cute, non traditional, non gender specific flannel and they turned out great!

We stayed up until 2:00 a.m. sewing.

 

All four of us siblings gathered a few times for late night games.

(Andy was able to join us for one)

We have so much fun together!

It was great to have her in town again for a few weeks.

Water Babies

We had a pretty sweet deal with swimming lessons this summer.

After the first day, things were rearranged so that it was just my three kids and a cute neighbor boy in our session.  They were able to receive more one on one time and it was really a blessing in helping them progress.

My sweet mom and sister who was in town helped so much by watching Ben and coming and supporting the kids. 

Olsen Reunion 2013

Just pictures...

Wouldn't you know it?...

...he had 9 again today.

10% and 1/3

July stunk as far as seizures go...

He set a couple of records for himself.

9 is the most he's ever had in one day...then to have 4 the next day and 5 the next.?!?!

For some Dravet kids these would be good numbers but for Ben they are not.

We got worried that his seizure pattern was changing and that he would be having multiple large seizures daily from now on.  Thankfully, after a few days things got back to normal.  Now it's been 8 days since he had his last one (I guess that's not normal either :(  What's normal?  Who knows.).

 

We did a lot of this this month.

 30 tonic clonics in July...another record for one month.

Ironically, his last one was #301.  

{When he first started having seizures I take note of each one on my little calendar that I have now, but when I decided I wanted to keep track of numbers I went back through my journal and tried to figure out where we were...so the number 301 is possibly not exact but a fairly good estimate.}

Andy pointed out that that means Ben's had 10% of all his tonic clonics in this last month.

While July was such a bad month for seizures it was wonderful month for fundraising :)

We received an anonymous and very generous contribution in our mailbox.  My cousins' kids did a lemonade stand and then my cousins added more money to the kids' earnings. Some girls in my ward did one also and contributed some of their profit. My good friend's kids went door to door to raise money for Ben's research fund and then did two bake sales with their friends the next week!  Together, this last group of kids raised approximately $250!  I wish I would have gotten pictures of these amazing kids when they came to our door to deliver the money.  They were so cute and said how much fun they were having. 

Bless them!...bless all of these sweet people!

We are almost a third of the way to our $30,000 goal!

Kidd Camp

I almost combined this with my last post but I figured there would be too many pictures for one post...like I've never done that before :) haha!

For as long as I can remember it's been a tradition to have an extended family camping trip the weekend of Grandpa's birthday.

Many great memories there as well.

 It was so fun to have my sister and her husband back in the valley for a minute :)

They live in New Hampshire now and we don't see them nearly enough.

Some Minute to Win it games were organized and it was great to see my kids get involved...

...and Mom...

...and Grandma :)!

My camera died at this point :(...but luckily Mom had hers hard at work :)

Ben being silly

He fell asleep in my arms which is pretty rare if he hasn't just had a seizure.

Here, Grandma is telling me what an angel he is

Josh and Matt slept in their own tent and the plan was for the rest of us to sleep in another one together but due to a leak in the air mattress, Andy 'slept' in the van.

The morning was extremely pleasant since there was a light rain and the temperatures lowered considerably.

On Uncle David's motorcycle

Someone didn't want to eat his breakfast.  C'mon, who wouldn't want chicken and mayo for their first meal of the day?

Out for a walk with Uncle James

Ben loves independently filling up his water cup!  We sat here for quite a while :)

Over here Andy...

Our little family hasn't actually camped overnight for the last few years because of Ben but I really wanted to try it this year.  I  knew the hardest part would be keeping Ben happy and safe since he doesn't enjoy being contained in his stroller unless it's moving.  Thus, we spent just one night - going up in the evening and leaving the next morning. 

It was kind of hard but with so many helping hands it was very doable.

We had a great time and I think it went well enough that we can plan on spending the night again next year.