60 Things

Today is my dad's 60th birthday.  In honor of him, here are 60 things I love, am thankful for, or just plain old fun facts about my dad.

This picture is a few years old, but I still love it.

1. He is kind
2. Resourcefulness is one of the best things I've learned from him
3. He is gentile

4. He shaved his head for Esther...and then lost his own hair shortly after, during his own treatment for cancer
5. He is cancer free!
6. He is a hard worker








7. He loves my mom

8. He's a good cook who taught me to love all things spicy
9. He loves to fish
10. He's an excellent grandpa

Holding Zinnia and Esther

 

11. I love dirt track car races because he raced them or participated in a pit crew for most of my childhood and teen years
12.  I always thought he could secretly fly because he said he was like Peter Pan (and never wanted to grow up)
13. His tender heart is a gift (My grandma always like to tell the childhood story of how he came home from school and cried because baby Jesus didn't have a bed)
14. His favorite color is baby blue
15. He forgave me for the time several policemen showed up at our house over a not honestly acquired cement pig (it really wasn't mine...but I did participate in the acquisition)
16. He likes to create adventure and fun

Snowmobiling with my sister.

17.  Once we built a carburetor together
18. I loved waking up to KBCO and breakfast on the weekends
19. He was on track to become a police officer but due to a really crummy circumstance, ended up in the Navy instead
20. He is a hard worker
21. I remember planting green beans in our backyard in Commerce City and being in awe of a garden.  I can remember the sunset and the smell of well watered soil behind our house.
22. He made one particularly difficult decision to pull away from a lifelong friendship to make better choices for our family.  I don't think I've ever said thank you.
23. He has performed the Heimlich on both of siblings because of cheesy pizza
24.  He is generous
25.  He has a special heart to help those down and out
26.  Stripping "rabbit" (copper wire) is a fond memory
27.  I love rummaging through vintage and antique stores because he often took us to the flea market (once the ticket agent asked if I was his girlfriend...we were both horrified).
28. I used to hide on the floor of his '57 Chevelle
29. He made us learn to drive a standard transmission
30. He's an early riser
31. I always thought I would break him when he asked us to walk on his back
32. He's a very good teacher
33. He's a thoughtful leader

On vacation in Glenwood Springs

34. He values honesty and integrity
35. He was never much into sports but always supported any desire we had to pursue them
36. I can sing almost every Beatles song because we always listened to Beatles' tapes in the Chevelle.  The sound must've been good on the floor.
37. He's a thrill seeker
38. He wears skater shoes
39. He is incredibly loyal
40. He took us on bike rides and showed us how to make big splashes through the puddles
41. He is smart and can figure out a solution to most any broken thing
42. He played a 12 string guitar

43. He always encouraged us that we could be anything we wanted to be.  Because of his and my mom's belief in us, I never doubted.

44. He is humble and considers others
45. He loves garden gnomes and pink flamingos
46. He proudly wears a t-shirt of a gnome, bull riding a pink flamingo.  And it is awesome.
47. I only remember him being angry because we did something really wrong
48. Even in times when our family didn't have much, he and mom always figured out a way have some fun
49. We went on a camping trip and the water leaked out of the camper, so he boiled our hot dogs in beer.  That was one of my favorite camping trips.
50. He took me on a date to Blackhawk a few days before I got married.  One of my all time favorite dates.
51. I always knew he would be home after work

52. He would do pretty much anything for any of his kids
53. He likes to look at the night sky
54. His favorite number is 29
55. He's taught three of our kids how to fish.
56. Getting up early in the dead of winter to ice fish is one of my favorite memories.  Maybe it was because we got to eat those little chocolate frosted donuts and grape Big League Chew for breakfast (and lunch), or maybe it was because it was fun.  Either way, I loved it.  
57. He's bravely worked to learn to live short several sound tones because of the same chemo that took some Esther's hearing.  That's scary as a grown up and I'm proud of you for sticking it out.
58. He is faithful
59. He's the only driver I feel truly comfortable with in a snow storm
60. He's a good dad, and I'm thankful for every day I've had the gift of being his daughter.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Clean Scans

A pic for tonight, some thoughts soon. 

Scans Tomorrow

Just a quick update to let you know Esther will have scans tomorow (Thursday). I will write an update tomorrow. Thanks for praying for clean scans. For now...look who is sporting french braids! The girls said since they flip out she looks like Doc McStuffins.

You might've noticed the hearing aids. One of the chemos she recieved causes hearing loss so we're trying out hearing aids. They seem to be helping!

 

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Make-A-Wish Trip

Often when thinking back to Esther's cancer and treatment, I find it all unbelievable.  Did that really happen?  How did we do that?  Esther's Make-A-Wish trip was filled with similar wonder...is this really happening?!

Esther's official wish was to go to a fancy princess ball at Sofia the First's castle.  This wasn't quite possible, but the Make-A-Wish Colorado foundation was as accommodating as possible putting together a princess makeover and a special time with some of the Disney princesses.  In addition to two days at Disney, we spent a day at the Pacific Ocean and a day at Knott's Berry Farm.

Our hotel room overlooked the California Adventure Park.
 In the distance you can see Cars Land, our favorite!

Meeting the characters was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Esther was given a special pass to wear signifying she is a Make-A-Wish child.  As soon as any of the cast members saw her pass they would escort her right up to the character and they were all so sweet.  They would give her the sweetest embrace like they have been waiting just for her the entire day.

Mickey was so funny.  He kissed each girls' head and when it came to Rourke
he blew a raspberry that sounded like a "toot."  As you can see, it was
hysterical!

After some fun on the rides we had a special meet and greet with the princesses.  Make-A-Wish had sent some beautiful, long, to the floor, dresses for our girls, so we let them put them on.

Sleeping Beauty

Ariel

Cinderella is my favorite princess and she showed some extra special attention to our children, even dancing with them, like at a fancy ball.  I think every girl wants to be recognized as the princess she truly is.  Esther watched Cinderella almost every day in the hospital and she was so sweet as she told the princess all about it.

 After a bunch of rides...yep, a bunch!  Esther's special pass also allowed us to bypass most lines and get right onto the rides.  I was thankful for the Make-A-Wish backpack to wear so no one started yelling, "Hey!  No butts, no cuts, no dirty coconuts!"

Anyway, after riding almost every ride in fantasy land, it was time for the Bippity, Boppity, Boutique.  When we arrived we learned there was a bit of a mix up and the makeover was supposed to happen before we met the princesses.  It worked out fine and the kids didn't know the difference.  Each child was given a fairy godmother in training.

Before

They had their hair done, make-up put on, and their nails painted.

After all the primping it was time for the big reveal.  They would make a royal proclamation introducting, for the first time, "Princess ___________" After the proclaimation they would have the girls say the magical words, "Bippity, Boppity, Boo!" and then turn them around.  As they swung the girls around the curtains would part to reveal the princess in a magical, glittering mirror.

The Alvarado Princesses!

Protected by their Royal Knight, Sir Rourke

The royal knight, Sir Rourke

Rourke was a really good sport.  He even said, "You know, mom, meeting the princesses wasn't as bad as I expected. I actually kind of enjoyed that."  I'll bet you did, little man.  I do think he enjoyed this a bit more though.

Across from our hotel was a retail and dining area, including
a Lego store.  

After a full day of rides and fun concluding with a spectacular fireworks show, we went back to our hotel room to unwind.

The next morning we headed out for more fun.  We started out at California Adventure to ride the Cars rides and to catch a Disney Junior puppet show with Sofia the First!  It was a ton of fun complete with a snowfall, bubble drop, gold doubloons, and a confetti shower.

Then we headed back to Disneyland.

We rode the train and the monorail around the park.  

Some of the shots from the Radiator Springs Racers, Space Mountain,
and the best roller coaster I've ever ridden, the California Screamin.
Zoom in on these, there are some classics!

Our other favorite ride was space mountain, so thankfully the train has a stop nearby and we rode it a couple more times then it was off to meet the Frozen princesses, Elsa and Anna.  They had the longest wait in the whole park, 2 hours!  We were thankful for Esther's wish pass!

The kids took a picture with Elsa and Anna, but Esther wasn't finished.  She made sure to tell Elsa she didn't like it when she froze Anna's heart because "that wasn't very nice."  Ha!  She scolded a princess.  Elsa was quick to be sure to tell her that she didn't like doing that either and that it's okay because Anna's better now.

Cars Land was really spectacular.  It felt like you were walking down the streets of Radiator Springs.

We had a special seat for the "World of Color" light show.  It was amazing.  The lights were timed with sprays of water creating a beautiful show.  At points there was a mist used to project scenes from many of the Disney movies.

Wait...what about Belle?  Esther's favorite princess is Belle, and meeting her was quite the task.  We were alluded SIX times!  After missing her a few times We were told we could meet her after a show, so we watched her show, but she never came out.  Then we were told we could meet her the next morning, so we went back, but it didn't work.  They said come back again...but she was inside an open air theater (the same one we watched her in the night before) and they wouldn't let us in to meet her.  One lady said we could wait along the side and maybe get a wave.  Well, Belle did stop for Esther and then was promptly mobbed by a bunch of other people.  One lady even told her daughter to just "stand right in front of that girl" and took a picture.  I might've gotten a little snarky and played that cancer card.  Might've.

Right up front for a Beauty & the Beast live show,
where we didn't get to meet Belle.

Meeting Belle before the mob took over.  

We were extremely tempted to buy tickets and return to Disneyland for another day because Esther's pass was good for our entire stay.  However, we decided against it and told the kids we could get Mickey waffles for breakfast.  Thankfully Make-A-Wish gave us a food budget...we had no idea breakfast in the hotel restaurant would be as much as a dinner out at a REALLY nice restaurant.  The characters were fun and by this time the kids were pretty comfortable with cuddling right up.

We had discussed going to Lego Land, but after realizing how much admission would be, that we didn't have a wish pass, and that we really wanted to see Anthony's cousin who lives a couple blocks from the ocean, and we'd need to cut the day short, we couldn't justify it.  Instead we told Rourke he could pick out a cool new Lego set.  Deal!  We are certainly saving some dough that way.

So...we headed to the ocean.  It happened to be the coldest day we'd been there, but did that stop the fun?  Of course not!

Esther loved playing chase with the waves.

We love you!

 After lunch with Anthony's cousin, we drove along the coast for a bit and stopped at this pier in Oceanside.  Even with cold and haze, it was so beautiful.  I love the ocean.

On our last day we went to Knott's Berry Farm for Snoopy and the Gang and big roller coasters.

For some reason, the girls really liked these statues,
especially Zinnia.  I wonder if she thought they
were characters....

I love carousels!  They are so magical.  Esther
was so excited to ride a chicken because,
"I have a chicken named Carla and 'nwurse'
named Carla."

I stayed with the girls who weren't tall enough
for the big roller coasters.  Lydia was quite
the thrill seeker!

After picking up some jam, we headed down the street to Medieval Times.  The girls said eating with their hands wasn't too bad, especially because our knight, the yellow knight, threw them each a flower.  I was impressed with the skills of the riders on their horses, hitting such small marks with precision.  The sword fighting (sans horses) was also pretty incredible with sparks flying.  We studied a bit of knight history this year in school, so it's kind of crazy to think that men really battled in that way.  As you can see from Esther's face below, they were all enthralled.

As we woke up the next morning to head back home, we rose to the most beautiful sunrise.  I will admit I wasn't quite ready to head home.  I was overwhelmed with emotion watching the sun come up thinking...did all of this really happen?  It did and God is so kind to wake us up to a sunrise.

21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 

22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 

23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

 24 "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."

Lamentations 3:21-24

Make-A-Wish

When I was a little girl, every birthday and fountain full of coins brought the same wish...to be a princess.

The day we moved into Brent's Place was a day I will never forget. Every corner I felt more and more blessed. Our experience with Make-A-Wish has been the same. After Esther made her wish a couple months ago, we've been getting little bits and pieces of the surprise. This last weekend Esther's wish grantors came and delivered all the details, as you can see, Esther was completely enamored.

Along with goodies for Esther, long to. the. floor. gowns and "real" crowns were delivered for each of our princesses along with a pirate hat and sword for Rourke. We will get to spend almost a week in California including two days at Disneyland where we'll have a special meet and greet with the princesses, front row seats for a beautiful light show, and appointments at the Bippity Boppity Boutique where the girls will receive a royal treatment by the Fairy Godmothers, and Rourke will get to step up to be the defender of these beautiful maidens as a royal knight. Esther can't wait to meet Sofia the First. We'll also get to spend some time at Knotts Berry Farm and Rourke is totally excited to eat with his hands (and not have do all that princess stuff) at Medeival Times. We're hoping to be able to see some family and friends who live nearby and to take in the vast beauty and power of the ocean for a day.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Colorado has been phenominal, every need or request has been met with incredible grace and generousity. We are so thankful for this gift to our family.

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