Pre-practice jitters
Hannah Gray held this coaches hand for most of the practice I think. It’s the only way she would peel off of us
Doing her closing cheer with her “team”. She actually did have a really good time and was excited and ready to go the next week.
When we moved here, I heard that Tahoe was close. But looking around the town where we live, you wouldn’t think anything outdoorsey was within hours. I was having a hard time adjusting, feeling like we were well outside of regular trips to the mountains. Then we took our first trip to Tahoe.
We took the girls and Tuk and drove up to the lake and just explored. We found a hidden beach that allowed dogs. Tuk and the girls played in the water, and ended up joining Ethan for a swim too. Tuk was so excited that he bumbed HG as she was playing and she fell over and got completely soaked. So we did what any other classy family would do. Stripped her down to her underwear and dried her clothes on the rocks.
hiking down to the lake and our first glimpse.
I have never seen a lake so clear and so blue!
Tuk is totally in his element outdoors. He runs freely, is so happy and even super obedient!
And then we drove through Squaw Valley which hosted the Olympics back in the 70s I think.
It was a great day for all of us and super rejuvenating to our spirits to get out and about!
We left for a visit back to Ohio to see both sides of our family. It was my first time flying alone with two girls… but it was totally worth it.
We arrived on Wed evening with the plan being to spend the weekend at my parent’s lake house (Lake Cumberland with the whole Kuhnell crew) and then spending time in Cincinnati Monday and Tuesday am. Then we would head to Findlay Tuesday until we flew back to CA on Saturday afternoon. My mom, recovering well, ended up with a bit of a fever early, early Thursday and had stroke like symptoms Thursday AM. Finally Friday, her neuro called to let us know that stroke like symptoms can be a side effect in a stroke patient if they are overly tired or have had a high fever. So that seemed to answer it and her family dr said she had the flu. She was horribly, horribly sick, so we cancelled the trip to the lake and we relocated ourselves and the plans to my brother and sister in law’s house. We had a great time together but concerns over mom were continually growing as she was getting exponentially worse and knew it was worse than the flu. I headed to Findlay on Sunday as we were told not to be near my mom until they knew what she had. So I spent Sunday until Thursday in Findlay, and also hoping to give my mom time to recover. We so enjoyed our time with Nana and Papa and Aunt Annie there. But I was still so concerned about my mom. It got bad enough that I told Ethan if she didn’t round a corner soon I could not head back to CA and that I thought he might need to come into town. After much, much prayer and diligent care by her doctor, family (specifically my sister in law Sarah who is now a nurse, praise God), they discovered that my mom had a form of hepatitis that is a side effect of a very, very common drug, Plavixx. Praise God that the doctor and nurse practioner had the foresight and knowledge to recognize some of mom’s symptoms, pains and deterioration to run tests for hepatitis, but that the neuro then recognized as a side effect. Some side effect!!
Regardless, we so enjoyed the time with our families and we were so thankful to have been able to be close when my mom was so, so sick. Here are some pictures from our time in Ohio!
Hannah Gray and Mimi at the airport… and Tenley and Hannah Gray with her aunts, uncle and cousins at the pool enjoying a treat on Mimi who couldn’t be there.
All the cousins and Tenley EXHAUSTED after a full day of swimming and no nap!
That night we had a birthday party for Kyleigh and then HG had a snuggle with Caleb. One last group photo before we headed to Findlay.
Papa taking the girls for a wagon ride and Hannah Gray enjoying some story time with Nana
Fun in the pool and celebrating Papa’s birthday!
We went to the Toledo Zoo with Aunt Annie and Nana
We have pictures of Hannah Gray at around 16 months, where she tried on all of these animal masks (so she was almost exactly Tenley’s age now), except this time she can reach them on her own!
Nothing like cooling off with a popsicle and a pool! Bedtime with Aunt Annie
Giggling with Nana and Papa, HG’s first penny ride at Meijer, saying good bye to Aunt Annie
Then back to Cincinnati as my mom was recovering. My dad took Hannah Gray and I to see her first movie in the theatre. We saw The Winnie the Pooh movie which was actually really cute (made me laugh a few times) and Hannah Gray loved it (especially the popcorn). Then we had our good bye pictures with the Kuhnell side too…
Hannah Gray finally shared her window seat view to Tenley who had been trying to climb over me for what seemed like hours. But you would never know it from this picture.
