Surgery done!

The doctor put a plate on the fibula to hold the two broken bones together and then a screw from the fibula to the tibia to hold them together.  I don't know if I will need to have them taken back off or if they will stay with me forever.  It kind of creeps me out to think of a hunk of metal being attached to my ankle from now on.  

My biggest challenge?

 to let others take care of me.  

I have been waited on hand and...wait for it...FOOT!  (of course you saw that coming.) It is so hard to let others wait on you!  It has always been MY job to take care of home, kids, meals.    John will not allow me to do anything but hop from the sofa to the bathroom and back again, he makes sure to get the ice on and off, he brings me meds and food and water, pumps pillows, and gets really irritated at me if i even try to do anything on my own.  He even races ahead of me to make sure to turn the lights on for me before I enter a room.  It is like I am suddenly a celebrity.  

Then there is Jessi bringing over dinner every night, complete with dessert!  She is cooking dinner for her family, plus us, then drops it off on her way to work!  It is hard to accept. 

Second biggest challenge?...the stairs.  

The bedrooms are all upstairs, the sofa is a loveseat, so you can't fully lay down on it.  I have to go upstairs for a bed.  I have not figured out how to get up them with the crutches yet.  But I have figured out a pretty good method to get up without the crutches.  I sit and lift myself up with my arms...one step at a time.  It takes a while, but I get there.  To get down, I sit and go back down on my butt, one step at a time.  At least I am getting a workout on my arms that way.   I make the trip down every morning after my shower and stay down until time for bed each night. 

The Unforgettable Fall...

 Since retiring, John has decided that he wants to do some hiking.  Of course I don't mind that at all since it gets me out to places I had not thought I would get to shoot photos of before.

They have taken us over bridges...

and bridges...

Over rivers.

 Up mountain sides.

 and through the woods.

I have seen some pretty amazing sights.

 

 This is Upper Punchbowl Falls and then a view of Lower Punchbowl as we hiked on down and then the view of Punchbowl from the bottom.  It was a weekend and the place was so crowded.  I was disappointed at first because I was going for that postcard look with no people, which was impossible that day.  But once I got home and saw this set of photos, I realized that the kids in this shot really added to the look of it.  I like the summer feel to it.  We will hike back on a weekday next time and maybe then I will get that unspoiled shot, but in the meantime, I am pretty happy with the version I did get.

Then came Ramona Falls, up on Mt. Hood.  It is a hike I for sure want to do again.  The whole hike was so beautiful, not just the destination, walking in along a creek was so tranquil.  It is a popular trail for horses too.

 I really love the black rocks with the white water.  The green moss is the topping on the cake.

The next was back up to the Columbia Gorge for Wahkeena Falls. 

Above is the view from the bottom before we began the hike and below is part way up.

 

 We continued on up the trail to Fairy Falls.  It was so pretty and delicate, reminding me of a smaller version of  Ramona Falls.

There is an old bench up there to sit a while.  Not sure if you can see it there beside the trail.

On my list was Wahkeena Springs, so we continued on.  I am not sure what happened, but we never saw the sign for the springs and we kept on going and going...until I finally found a sign...but it said...Angel's Rest.  From my little map, I knew we had gone way too far, but, oh well, I wanted to see Angel's Rest sometime anyway...why not now?

 The view of the Columbia was so worth it from there! Here is a view towards the east and then to the west.

Last Tuesday, we started at Horsetail Falls.

 Continued up to ..you got it...Ponytail Falls.

 Just as we arrived at the cave behind the falls, it started to pour down rain, at first I thought it was just mist from the falls.  We waited it out...about 5 minutes and then continued on up the trail.  The higher we climbed, the sunnier it got.

Next stop on the trail was Middle Oneonta Falls. I had hoped to find the hidden trail to Upper Oneonta Falls, but it remained hidden to me, even though I had a map to the secret trail, I could not spot it.

 The final falls on this hike was Triple Falls.  So worth the climb!!!

 We continued on up to the top of it and past it along the creek.  Sometimes I find that the creeks leading into the falls are equally as beautiful as the main event. 

 I love the quiet the calm and peacefulness there.

 Love those greens.

And then came the unforgettable fall that I had not planned on...

Yep...I fell. 

 Ends up I broke my ankle.  I replay it in my mind.  One minute I was walking along looking for a good place for a picnic and the next I was on the ground. The sound of a pop in my ankle replays over and over in my ears. I am happy to report that my camera seems to have survived it all, even though it hit hard on the ground beside me.  After a couple of waves of heat and nausea, I was able to get back up on my two feet and test them out.  It hurt, but it seemed to hold me up, so little by little we inched our way down.  John donned my camera pack and tripod along with his own back pack and lent an arm all the way down to the bottom.  So many nice people along the way offering help.  One girl sacrificed her ice bag to me.  She didn't know that it had already been activated and was not cold at all, but even so, I was so grateful to have it, as it gave me some support on the ankle to hobble along.  We took an alternate, shorter route to the bottom instead of the way we had come up.  When we finally arrived to the bottom, the sign said 1.8 miles up to Triple Falls where I had fallen!  It had taken us 1 hour and 50 minutes to get down!!! 

Since I was able to halfway walk on it, I was pretty sure it was a sprain.  We went on home, got some ice on it and I assessed the damages.  It was the first time I took off my shoe since I had fallen.  It was already black with bruising and swollen up about as fat as a foot could get.  A while later, I got John to take me in to Urgent Care to get an x-ray.  I was afraid to wait too long and then find out that I had damaged it worse by waiting too long to go in.  Sure enough it was broken.  An appointment was made for me to see an orthopedist this morning.  The verdict was given that I will need to go in for surgery next Wednesday.  Not the news I wanted, but if it helps me heal back to normal, then that is what I will have to do.  Bleh!  I don't look forward to using crutches for the next two months! 

Arianna is ONE now!!!

Her birthday party had a Bee theme.  Great Grandma made a darling bee cake I made her a bee dress.  Jessi went all out with bee decorations and food. 

It was BEEutiful!

SanDiego!

Months ago, John junior decided he was going to run in a marathon in San Diego and that he would take the family along for a vacation at the same time.  Since Dennis and Abby live close-by they decided to join them.  Well, one thing led to another and the rest of us decided we would all join them! In the meantime, John became injured and decided not to run the marathon, but the 5K(3mile) instead and he signed up Rachel and Emily and Joshua.  Ariel decided he would run the 5K with them.

Friday night they all went to pick up their running numbers and one of their favorite runners, Meb Kerflezighi, was there to sign his book.  It is titled 'Run To Overcome".  Meb won the Olympic Silver in the marathon for the United States in 2004 and was 4th in the London Olympics in 2012.  John knew he would be there and already had his book, so he brought it along with them to have it signed. He also signed the official Olympic hat that John bought in London last summer.  They were there early and first in line, so Joshua  had a private chat with Meb and was pretty inspired.Gabe was so excited about the trip and spending time with his cousins.  The last time we went to LA was for Gabe's birthday, so somehow he put us coming down in the category of party hats and favors, so he asked if he could bring the party things when they met up with us.

It was so fun hanging out by the pool with everyone.    I still find it amazing that I am a Grandma.  It seems that these little people have always been a part of my life.  I find myself in awe at times like these.

Jessi brought Dennis a belated birthday present.  He is known for his dislike of cats, so she knew this would become a favorite shirt for him.

It was fun watching these two little guys get to know each other.

Saturday, we went to the San Diego Zoo.  Dennis and Abby and John and Rachel stayed back at the hotel, but we got to spend the day with Emly and Joshua and Gabe anyway. Gabe and Josiah seem to be having a bit of a nose problem from the sun in this photo.

I love flamingos.  I have never seen one sit like that in the top right corner.  Surprising to see that the babies are plain gray. (photo just below sitting one.)
Giraffes might be my favorite zoo animal, and I was so excited to discover that there was a baby one!

 

 

Poor Gabe, he didn't even get his lunch finished before he fell asleep at our table. I moved him to his stroller and he didn't even wake up.  Notice he still had an apple slice in each hand.  so cute.

We had a seagull that loved to spend time at the pool, just hanging out and taking a sip now and then.

We ordered pizza delivered when we got home from the zoo.  Josiah was showing everyone how strong he was after he ate his.  There is always One piece left that nobody will eat, so we decided that we All would eat it...so everyone but Arianna helped to finish the last piece.  

Just hanging out.

I love this family of mine!!!

OK, so they get a little tired of my camera...

After pizza, we all went for a walk along the water.

Sunday morning was the race.  The runners left the hotel at 5:30 and were back about the time everyone else was getting up!  We spent the day hanging around the pool, playing croquet (or mowing if you are Josiah), a few rode bikes, some went to Old Town and Emily and I got in a little photo shoot (photos of the photo shoot are the next collage).

Emily is a freshman this year! 

She has grown up so fast and is as pretty on the inside as she is on the outside!

Monday was Sea World.  

 I stole this photo from Jessi.

These guys just cracked me up.  It was the end of the day and they were all falling asleep.  See the one on the rock? he had fallen over.  Funny how they fall asleep standing up.  The one with his beak open was snoring!!!  really!  every time he took a breath, he would open his beak and out came a tiny tweet sound.  Almost as cute as Gabe falling asleep at the lunch table.

There is a statue called 'Unconditional Surrender'  on the other side of the harbor from where we stayed.  It was made after the famous photo that was taken in Times Square on V-J Day in 1945.  It is huge and I was pretty happy that I was able to see and take photos of it.

Check out what this little boy is doing!!!  hahaRight near the statue is a Bob Hope memorial.  It has a staute of him in front of a group of soldiers.  Also the USS Midway is there and you can take tours of it.  The top was covered with airplanes and helicopters.  We didn't do the ship tour, just walked around and took photos outside.

  It is all at Tuna Harbor Park.