cheese fest fun!

wow, what a day! it's the cheese fest weekend which we have loved since we were kids. now our kids are loving it. rides aren't really brandon's thing. he went through the maze twice and the merry-go-round once, but wasn't interested in any other rides so gave the rest of his tickets to his cousin. ethan really enjoyed the rides this year. he wanted to go on the alligator roller coaster but ended up not getting a chance. he enjoyed all the other rides and went on the ferris wheel with grandpa too.

melanie is having major problems with pain with administration of medications through her j-tube, so those have had to be given extremely slowly. she wasn't even done with her morning meds when it was time to start her afternoon meds. same with this evening, she wasn't done with her afternoon meds when it was time to start evening meds. we will get them in eventually, but it sure is an all-day process. spreading them out so far does seem to help her pain. slowing down the rate of her vancomycin has also seemed to help her feel better. she was still on-edge today and dealing with pain, but had a much better day than recent days. her ostomy output has decreased since surgery for whatever reason.

melanie had a really fun day. i took her up to the cheese fest this morning before it got hot. everything was closed, but she got to look at the rides and the games and food stands.

then i took her to the park where she loved swing in the supported swing.

later we went to the kiddie parade where she got to see and hug the "famous" cheeselies -- the mascots for the cheese fest.

she played with grandma at their house during the hot part of the day. i took the boys to the cheese fest where they had fun on the rides with their cousins (brandon would prefer playing the games though).

in the later afternoon melanie got to play out on grandma and grandpa's deck in the shade with the boys. more fun she rarely gets! so glad it was such a nice day!

then grandpa drove melanie (and ethan and i) up to the cheese fest one more time. parked right near the merry-go-round, and carried melanie to the line. she got to ride the merry-go-round for the first time in many years--usually the weather is much hotter during the cheese fest. she was thrilled!! she is pretty fearless, so i'm sure she would have loved to ride many more, but that was plenty for her and she was pretty wiped out and warm. her heart rate is a bit elevated tonight and SATS down a bit.

it was a fun day for everyone. so glad melanie was able to feel relatively well and enjoy a fun-filled day.

here are some videos from the day!