One thing I haven't mentioned here I don't suppose... is that Brad dislocated his knee a couple of weeks ago. It was actually the day over our school break that the girls and I went to see my parents for the day. He got home from work, sat down, and went to get up and apparently his knee just 'popped' out of place. He fell and then had to 'pop' it back in to place. Yikes. Yea. That hurts! Its happened to him a couple of times in his life, dating back to when he was in middle school! However, this time, he said was really bad and exceptionally painful. This was on a Thursday. He couldn't get in to see a doctor until Monday. Monday he goes in and sees Brenna's old orthopedist (and they ALL remembered her :P ) and gets X-rays and the whole nine yards. They tell him that nothing is broken, there IS ligament damage that just takes time to heal and they think it keeps happening just because of how he was born - the way his knee is made up. Most people it happens to at 14, 16, 18...they would do surgery to correct. However, at Brad's age, the doctor didn't recommend that (thankfully!) b/c his body is used to the way his knee is and it would probably be more traumatic to him that just leaving it be. He did recommend physical therapy to try to build up certain muscles and such that could help in preventing it from happening again. We looked into it, but frankly...it was just too expensive. So, he gave him some exercises to do on his own at home and an appointment to come back in 3 weeks to see how it is. He's been wearing a knee brace and that seems to steady his gait some, but it is still VERY tender, weak, and painful. And now, he says its numb. :( He has another week left before his followup appointment, so in the meantime its managing day to day.
Whew. All that to say.... he did finally go back to work... but when he gets home, all he can do is sit - well, actually lay. The bending of the knee is a problem. He's been a tad irritable (can't you imagine?!?!) and the girls want to just pounce on him, which wouldn't be a good scenario. So, over the long holiday weekend, we decided to take a little mini vacation. Me, the girls, and my mom! We left Brad at home to rest and recuperate and we took off to the Dallas area to go to the Wildlife Ranch. We had been a few times before, but never with my mom. And never overnight (we usually make a day trip out of it...but my mom's not really up for getting up at 7am to drive! LOL). So, this time she helped getting us there and we found a nice hotel nearby and made a little trip out of it!
The girls always enjoy just staying at hotel more than anything I think! We stayed at the Baymont Inn and Suites - and it was really pretty cheap! And very nice. They even had an indoor heated pool that we were going to try out but it was always crowded, so we skipped it.
My mom thought it was funny that as soon as we got there, the kids automatically took their shoes off and lined them by the door. Funny? I think it means they are well trained! Ha!
We got a double king suite (and it was only $72) and the girls decided they wanted to sleep together. So they did! For most of the night anyway.
Then we got up the next morning, had a good hot (free) breakfast from the hotel and then headed to the wildlife ranch. It was a little chilly in the morning, but the animals probably loved it!
The giraffes are always a huge hit! And one of the main reasons we like this park so much (some of the others don't have giraffes!).
At the top of the hill, we visited the petting zoo and had a great lunch at the restaurant! (though their water was apparently a little off this time so all the drinks were pretty gross)
Then, back in the car, headed back down the hill to feed more animals...
Look! So, here I was a little bit extra adventurous and got out of our car to take a picture of the zebras eating from the girls!
LOL Ok. Not really. I'll fess up. It just so happened there was a car identical to ours in front of us the whole time. Haha!
The cheetahs were out in full force again (they have A LOT of cheetahs there). But this one was exceptionally creepy looking at us. ;P
At the end of the drive thru, they had this ostrich separated from the rest of the crew with her egg apparently? It was pretty cool to see the big ostrich egg! And you could feed her through the fence too.
On our way home we detoured, stopped and saw Shannon, stopped for kolaches, and some other stuff. But when we got back home, the girls got right back in the groove of things with their dad. And their technology. LOL
No comments:
Post a Comment