Freedom!

We spent another day at the hospital, but the good news is: it was our last! Evan was hoping to have the chest tube removed today. As a trial, they removed the auction and clamped the tube. After several hours they took another X-ray. Unfortunately, Evan flunked! In other words, his lung collapsed slightly. The surgeon determined that Evan needs to keep the tube in for our flight home. He will follow up with a thoracic surgeon at home and have the tube removed next week.

Evan was a good patient and did his laps around the hallways, totaling at least a mile. He also did his breathing exercises and learned how to care for his incision and drain valve. Exciting stuff, huh?! We also got ahold of the (somewhat) local missionaries, who took a very long bike ride to help John give Evan a blessing. Interestingly, they were the third set of missionaries we met during our trip!

Evan was finally released this evening and he walked (nearly) a mile back to our hotel. I had to include another photo of the amazing view from his room since yesterday's shot was cloudy. The other picture, with the fence in front, is of the hospital.

Although Lavender wasn't quite as angelic today, she did continue her hobby of making friends wherever we go. The hotel staff played a board game with her, brought her fresh pineapple that they cut into little pieces and a huge chocolate covered strawberry! When we left the hotel lounge this evening she gave everyone hugs and kisses! It was unbelievable!

We are grateful Evan is out of the hospital and we are on our way home!

Reasons to be Grateful

We spent today at the hospital with Evan. I didn't think he'd appreciate me posting pictures of him in his hospital gown, so you only get to see a bit of his arm as he is being comforted by Peter (Lavender's doll who is the star of Ezra Jack Keats' book The Snowy Day).

Evan had a spontaneous pneumothorax and had a tube surgically inserted in his chest. It seems to be working well and it looks like the hole in his lung has closed too. Tomorrow they will clamp the tube. If all goes well, they will remove it tomorrow and we will be able to fly home Friday.

One of the doctors told us that it is a good thing this happened before our flight. He said that if Evan had flown, it could have put pressure on the heart that would have been "incompatible with life." Interesting way to put it, but we are grateful for the timing, even if it meant spending a few more days away from home.

The hospital is really beautiful and they didn't even charge extra for this amazing view!

We had some other sad news today. Our dog Roxy passed away early this morning. Aaron got up early to let her out. She was curled up asleep next to the couch, but when he went to pick her up, he realized she was gone. Aaron, Ryan and Marianne buried her. We are sad not to be there to say goodbye, but grateful she died peacefully in her sleep. I don't have a picture of here on my phone, but here are a couple of blog posts with her picture. Scroll down near the bottom of both posts.

http://happyhartz.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-walking-secrets-part-2.html?

http://happyhartz.blogspot.com/2011/10/our-weekend-and-beyond.html?

Finally, I am grateful that Lavender was so good while sitting in a hospital room all day. She even took a nearly two hour nap. I consider it a miracle. Really it was a tender mercy from God. We celebrated by letting her ride up and down the escalator and letting her take a long bath before bed. 

Melanie

Farewell?

Today was our last day in Chicago and John and Evan were both excited to spend it at the Art Institute. We waved good bye to the bean and said hello to the lions in front of the museum. After about 10 minutes of the impressionists, Lavender made it clear that she was not going to sit in her stroller while we looked at art! I took her down to the children's room and she played for awhile. Then we went to the still life room full of objects that kids can arrange to make their own still life. Lavender and her new friend Alison decided to use every possible object they could get their hands on to make "dinner." They had a great time and made quite a mess.

After lunch, Evan went to look at a few more things by himself. About 15 minutes before we were supposed to go pick up our luggage and head to the airport, I got a text from Evan saying the right side of his chest hurt and he couldn't breathe. When we met him, he was obviously in a lot of pain. John got him in a taxi and took him to Northwestern Hospital. After an EKG and a chest x-ray, they diagnosed a partially collapsed lung. It can happen spontaneously, often to tall, thin men. He had surgery to place a tube in his lung and is spending the night in the hospital. Hopefully, we can fly home soon. Meanwhile we are all feeling a little crazy. This was not the way we wanted to extend our trip. Please keep Evan in your prayers!

Firsts and Nots

Today was the first time:

* We visited Frank Lloyd Wright's beautiful prairie style Robie house
* We narrowly missed being caught in a Chicago storm!
* We ate at Noodles Etc
* We visited the Museum of Science and Industry
* Lavender saw chicks hatching
* Lavender "drove" a real tractor
* I took at two year old to a 45 minute film about D-day. (It was excellent and she slept the whole time. Win-win!)
* I took a two year old on a motion simulator ride (She loved it.)
* Evan stood inside a tornado (Twice! Once he even took his little sister.)
* Evan experimented with ferromagnetic fluid.
* I heard of ferromagnetic fluid
* Lavender tried repeatedly to steal a ball from the air pressure exhibit.
* We took a taxi to the magnificent Buckingham fountain where the kids got completely soaked!
* We soaked our tired feet in the creek in Millennium Park
* Evan tried Chicago deep dish pizza
* I have eaten pizza in over a year (they had gluten free, so I decided to try the chicken pesto pizza.

It was not the first time:

* We visited a Frank Lloyd Wright House in Chicago. (Love his work!)
* I realized my kids are smarter than me.
* I was grateful to have Evan along on this trip
* One of my children has tried (or succeeded) to steal something
* I wished we had cool fountains at home (we've got the beach though, and you can't beat that!)
* My feet have gotten tired while site seeing
* We took pictures at the bean AKA Cloud Gate. It is so cool you have to keep going back.
* John and Evan went to the Sears/Willis Tower. The view is worth another trip up to the 103 floor!

Today's Top 10

10. Meeting a T-Rex named Sue at the Field Museum
9. Discovering that Evan's hand is not as big as a gorilla's and that Lavender "DO NOT LIKE that gorilla!"
8. Visiting ancient Egypt and trying to explain mummies and sarcophagi to a 2 year old.
7. Taking a Marianne-style selfie (I have dozens of silly poses of my two girls. Today it was my turn.)
6. Jellyfish and seahorses at the Shedd Aquarium
5. Watching Evan pet stingrays and sturgeon while little sister desperately wanted to and stuck her hands in the water over and over again, but exclaiming, "too scary" every time.
4. A willing, cheap babysitter! (We brought him back Chipotle)
3. Finally finding the sushi place (even though it was closed)
2. Finding a fabulous Asian Fusion restaurant with some of the best sushi John's ever tasted
1. A stroll along the river with my sweetheart.

Bonus: A toddler who slept over 12 hours last night and then took an hour nap in the stroller this afternoon.

Out of This World!

The title is a good description of our day--and not just because we went to the Adler Planetarium!

Before our trip, Evan learned about an event at the planetarium called "Civic Hack Day." He signed up for two workshops and earned us all free admission. I thought it was brave of him. I never would have done something like that at his age! He spent the day with local teens and had a great time. He especially enjoyed the Rube Goldberg challenge.

One of the employees was nice enough to let John, Lavender and I into one of the space shows for free. Then John headed to work while Janey and I explored the museum. I am so grateful that they have an amazing children's wing! It is the best I've ever seen in any museum. She spent hours playing and we didn't cover it all!

Evan joined us for lunch and I tried to get a picture of the kids touching a moon rock. I never know what face she'll pull when I ask her to smile! We closed down the museum and then joined the crowds outside for a selfie with the skyline view. There were lots of wedding parties and prom goers getting their pictures taken on this beautiful afternoon/evening.

Evan put our exhausted girl to bed while John and I went out to celebrate our 27th anniversary. We ate a great meal at the Walnut Room in Macy's. We have fond memories of eating there with Susan and Dave (John's sister and brother-in-law) when we took a trip together back in 2009 (I think I've got the year right!?)
The restaurant isn't quite the same without the giant Christmas tree, but it was still beautiful! I loved spending time with my sweetheart in this fantastic city. We decided it has the sights, shows, parks, museums and shopping of NYC, but it is cleaner, cheaper, less crowded and less crazy!

Almost Perfect

It was a wonderful, busy day. Here are the highlights. I'm sure you can figure out how the pictures fit in.

We started out with a trip to the Hancock Tower. The views were spectacular and we tried the "Tilt" where you lean out over the city. It was definitely worth the extra 5 bucks. We bought lunch at an Italian deli and ate it next to a waterfall while Lavender napped in her stroller. The sun was shining and Evan fed little birds out of his hand.

We walked all around the Tribune Tower where rocks and pieces of monuments from around the world are embedded in the walls. Then we walked down to the shore of Lake Michigan where scores of teenagers thought it was perfect beach weather even though the temperature was barely 70. Evan had fun with the awesome mural.

Next up was an architectural tour down the river. Our guide was awesome and we loved learning about the city. Just as we got started, the little ladies in front of us pulled out an umbrella for shade and completely blocked the view ahead of us. Evan and I just started laughing. Fortunately Evan had his GoPro on an adjustable pole so he still got lots of pictures!

In the evening we headed out to Chicago's other favorite skyscraper, the Willis (AKA Sears) Tower. We enjoyed the sunset and took lots of pictures out on the glass ledge. Evan even did a handstand! Lavender ran around and around and made lots of new friends.

On the way back to the hotel we saw several cool sculptures and finally met up with John. He was the only thing lacking from our practically perfect day!