Kotter Family

Lucas’ 10th Birthday

It’s hard for me to believe that I have a 10 year old! I’ve been a father for a decade! Definitely makes me feel old.

Lucas had a party with some of his friends, going to Leo’s place, playing games there and having pizza. We then had family over that night for cake and ice cream, and then he stayed up late watching a movie. We are so lucky to have Lucas in our family. Over the past year he’s been such a great help around the house, doing anything that we ask of him, and being a great example to his siblings.

Opening some presents while we skype with my parents

Trying out his new ripstick. Didn’t take him long to get the hang of it

4th of July

We didn’t do much for the 4th this year, which was fine to have a more laid back celebration. I had a few fireworks we did earlier in the day, though Samuel and William were pretty scared of those. We then went over to Kryssi’s parent’s house that night for dinner and then they took Lucas and McKinley to bike into the fireworks. Kryssi and I went home and watched the fireworks from our front yard, which was nice.

Doing poppers. William wasn’t scared of these, though Samuel was

No one wanted to get any closer than on the deck for fireworks

William’s surgery

At the end of June, William had his tonsils removed. It was something we had talked about for awhile, and every time he had a checkup with the doctor, they would mention how big his tonsils were. He snored pretty bad at night as well as his breathing didn’t sound the best, so the doctor was worried about sleep apnea.

We finally decided to get it done this summer, so he would have plenty of recovery time, as we heard the recovery from this surgery can be rough. The surgery itself went great, he woke up from the anesthesia fairly well, all things considered, and a couple hours after we got home, he was acting pretty normal.

He was kind of up and down for the next 8 or 9 days, pretty grouchy and whiny, but very rarely did he complain about any pain. He mostly just took tylenol, instead of the stronger prescription pain killer he had prescribed. I think the biggest issue was he couldn’t eat as well, so that made him grouchier then normal. Nights were also rough, as I think his throat would dry out when he slept, so he’d wake up every couple hours crying. If I could get him to take a couple drinks, he’d usually be fine and go back to sleep.

But after that, he was pretty much normal, which was great. We were told it could be 2 weeks for recovery, so he did better then that. He now sleeps basically silent, which were still getting used to. I go and check on him before I go to bed and I can never hear him now, so I have to go farther into his room to make sure he’s okay. I’m sure I’ll adjust soon though 🙂

The hospital let him pick out a stuffed animal, which he was excited about

After surgery, trying to wake up. He didn’t really cry but wanted me to hold him the entire time

EIRMC family fun day

For the last couple years, EIRMC has hosted a Family Fun Day in the summer, where the main attraction is a teddy bear clinic. They give out free teddy bears and then you take them through multiple stations, progressing from getting checked into the hospital, getting prepped for surgery, having surgery and then getting released. It’s meant to prepare kids that end up needing to go to the hospital not be as scared.

There is also free lunch and a bunch of other games and activities you can do, most of them free. It started to pour on us right when we finished lunch, so we went running to our car and left at that point. But the kids got their teddy bears, so they were happy.

William got a free bag and some other goodies

Meeting Charlie the Chukar while in line

McKinley playing softball

McKinley played softball again this year and it was fun to go watch her. She had the same coach and some of the same teammates, which was nice. You can definitely see the improvement though from last year. She hit the ball really well and had some really nice plays in the field.

Chukars game

Lucas got a free ticket to a Chukars game from the baseball league he was in, so him and I got to go one evening. We didn’t realize that any little league players at the game got to go out on the field and run the bases, so he was excited about that.

Gregory reunion – day 3

For the last day, I had to work most of the day, so missed out on the activities. But we had breakfast at Kryssi’s parents house, then we had collected rocks and those that wanted, painted those. We then went to Hells Half Acre, to hike around and hide the rocks they had painted.

Lunch was back at the Gregory’s, then just hanging out the rest of the afternoon. We had gotten babysitters for that night, so the adults could all go do an activity. We went to the gun range and then got dinner after.