Skiing, Tubing, Luray Caverns and a visit to the Ophthalmologist !

Tomorrow is April and I haven't posted a single entry all year !  That means two things.  First, work has been insanely busy and second, the kids have been healthy and life has been normal!  The year hasn't been all work though.  We've had several fun adventures!

We started January with a ski trip to Wintergreen.  We had a great time and Johnny and I actually broke out our skis too! Neither of us had been skiing since before having children.  Little did we know our bindings were no longer serviceable....which meant new skis for both of us!  We had a great experience at Wintergreen with the adaptive program two years ago and decided to take the kids back again. Each of the kids had a team of three instructors!

It has been hard getting lessons in any of the adaptive programs since they fill up quickly.  We also found a program at Canaan Valley but they didn't have any availability all year when we called in January.  They recommended we contact them in November next year.  Unfortunately it was also a very short ski season this year.  The kids loved it though and we are looking forward to planning more trips next year.

We literally only had one snow of about 4" all winter so we needed to go to the mountains to find snow.  We also took advantage of the snow and took the kids tubing to Liberty.  It was insanely fast but everyone had a really good time.  Despite it being very cold, they worked up a sweat and wanted to take off their coats!

In addition to skiing and tubing, I took the kids with a few of my nieces and nephews to Luray Caverns.  I've been wanting to take the kids for a while but haven't had the opportunity.  It was a great experience and they were the perfect age for it.  I've been several times before but seeing the excitement on their faces was so fun.  Cole walked the entire tour with the guide asking as many questions as possible.  Also, the guide asked if anyone wanted to sing and my niece Jacquline sang Ave Maria.  It was absolutely beautiful!

In addition to all the fun, Cole had his six month appointment with the ophthalmologist. He was dilated at the previous appointment so it was a pretty straight forward visit.  Dr. Jeffries said she is very happy with the improvements from his eye surgery last year.  In previous appointments Cole was unable to read the eye chart from the chair and had to walk halfway to the monitor to start reading the letters.  Although the font still needs to be very large to read the letters, he is able to sit in the chair now.  Unfortunately she doesn't expect to see any additional improvements, but she also doesn't expect his vision to get worse.  She was also happy with his new bifocals.  Unfortunately, however, she felt the optometrist didn't make the bifocal part of the lens large enough and asked to have it increased when he gets new frames next year.

Next up is Reagan's EEG, appointment with the neurologist to review the results, and an appointment with the orthodontist to talk about a palette expander and braces.  But first, Spring Break!