A heck of a vacation!

We are back from our family vacation (Carson and Kellen's first real vacation!). We went with my family for a trip out to Banff, Alberta (where Mom and Dad celebrated their honeymoon 35 years ago!). Round trip we put 4700 miles on our car and made tons of memories (even those that were not so fun at the time, are already funny memories now). 

The boys thought vacation was great! Their favorite parts were the many playgrounds we stopped at to let them play. Our resort in Banff also had an awesome playground! After one stop to let the boys get some energy out, Kellen remarked, "This is THE best. And we're on vacation!"

Just wanted to share some of the many pictures! Thank you all for following our journey (the highs and the lows)! We will be heading to Cincinnati next week for Carson's airway reconstruction...I will post an update soon on more specifics of that trip.

And we are off...Poppy was a life saver!

St. Joe, MO along the MO river

the boys thought the hotels were awesome!

Corn palace in Mitchell, SD

Great Falls, MT

Glacier National Park

Red Rock Falls, Glacier national park

View from the top of the Banff gondola

Lake Moraine

Lake Louise

Hike in Johnston Canyon

Upper falls

Waterfowl lake

Columbia Icefields

The playground at our resort

Escalators...so much fun (glad Nana and Poppy were there to ride along with the boys)

These 3 had so much fun together!

Delicious dinner thanks to Emmett!

Our last ice cream stop (Clinton, MO)

Our last picnic (outside Van Buren, MO)

We have a surgery date

Carson's surgery is scheduled for Friday, September 18th. He will have a swallow study done the day before and then a 7-10 day hospital stay after the surgery. The reconstructive surgery itself will be 7-8 hours long! I am already praying for all the details of the trip, there are too many to even name and I'm sure alot I don't even know! Honestly, I am praying for some sort of miraculous healing, knowing that God's timing and plans are much better than mine, I still dream & pray because our God is in the business of miracles! I can just hear it, the doctors coming to talk to us after the reconstructive surgery, 'We don't know how to explain this but....'

Thank you all for your prayers! I have moments of fear and anxiousness about what the future holds for Carson, long term, success of the surgery, and with the hospital stay but I'm working on that TRUST that God wants from each one of us and just staying in the present moments. We went to a Tenth Avenue North concert recently and something that the lead singer said really struck home with me. He was saying how we so often ask God to show us our future/our path/His plan and really God just wants us to find joy IN our current place/our current path (whatever it may be). That is one thing small children are so good about...they are always in the moment - with little concept of time or future events.
"Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances" 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

My dentist confirmed the presence of cavities and referred us to a pediadontist : (

Carson's turn...he did great, especially with his many oral aversions

Kellen's first visit at the pediatric dentist...he then had a minor surgery to repair three cavities...he did well but no more sticky hard candies for him

But nothing was said about ice cream ; )

Ellie's FIRST birthday!!

Ra-Ra even made sure the boys each had a monkey cake

Ready for our favorite 4th of July parade

Ready to sing some songs!

The WHOLE gang...we had a blast!

Had to throw in a puddle picture!!!

Silver Dollar City frozen lemonade!

The boys rode EVERY kiddie ride there was : )