Logan's Updates
08/30/2010: Today was another big day at our house. Emily popped out of bed this morning an 11th grader, put on her most casual ‘dress code approved’ outfit, got into her Prius….. and drove herself to school! She returned after a good first day and seems five years older to me, yikes!
We are extremely proud of her. She works very hard at staying off the website but she approved this picture with her car and sends along a special Thank You to Aunt JoAnn for the Prius that takes her to school.
08/29/2010: Logan has had a nice relaxing weekend and is feeling very lucky that school doesn’t start for him in the morning like it does for Emily. This was her last lazy day of summer but she is rested and ready to go! We have heard terrible things about how hard 11th grade can be at her school but she is up for the challenge.
This picture was taken on our last full day in San Diego at the Safari Park. Logan and Amanda climbed this Rhino sculpture as we were leaving, I think they were really just happy to be sitting down.
08/26/2010: Yet another great day! Logan went about his back to school shopping this morning with list in hand and checked off most of the things on his list. He is getting very excited about 3rd grade, but was worried when he did the math and realized they were asking each child to bring in 48 pencils…in his words that is a whooole lot of writing!!
We spent the afternoon in mandatory traffic court attending the class/lecture that allowed Emily to get her official license to drive. Yay Emily! She is having a big week, she started the week with a girl’s night and shopping trip, picked-up this year’s text books (I mention this because books are her favorite thing), was licensed today and gets her braces off tomorrow. Wheew, its exciting stuff!
This picture was taken in San Diego at the Wild Animal Safari Park. Logan and Amanda enjoyed feeding these very friendly deer. The deer were let into this enclosure a few hours each day and seemed to enjoy lazing about…until a child started the coin operated pellet dispenser, then they turned into big puppies. It was fun for all.
08/24/2010: We have had a great day. We are still on a good news high and just can’t believe Logan is free and clear of this now. Whew, what a relief! He is starting to talk about school supplies and having enough hair to go out without his security hat (sometimes). It is a wonderful feeling.
This picture was taken on a tour of the BUDS/Seal team training center. We were given a behind the scenes tour by some of Aaron’s oldest friends. It was spectacular to see the places where he trained and the obstacle course that he used to run. The guys were gracious enough to let Logan and Amanda try out one of the cargo nets, they climbed a 20th of the way up and decided that was hard work. They posed for this picture and came back down.
08/23/2010: Great News! Logan's scans came back showing NO new cancer and NO growth on the old cancerous tumors!!! We are thrilled. He is happily prancing around telling everyone he passes that he is currently cancer free. It is wonderful, thank you all for your support and for all of the positive thoughts and prayers you have sent our way. We couldn’t have done it without you. I took this picture of him just after the doctor gave us the good news, it shows his joy and relief.
08/21/2010: This picture was taken yesterday on the beach in Coronado, CA. Logan had a wonderful time playing and catching-up with Amanda. They met at the airport with hugs and big huge smiles and didn’t stop smiling until the end of our week together. Logan would be the first to say his time went much too quickly. The two of them ate, played, and bunked in the floor together and they laughed all of the time. It was great. Logan felt good and had pretty good energy for our west coast adventure; he wants me to post some pictures of the space needle when I run out of pictures of him with Amanda. ;)
08/09/2010: This picture was taken the same day as the snake picture, at Busch Gardens. This baby Clydesdale was so sleepy that she dozed off when there was no one scratching her nose. Logan loved her, he stood in line two times to pet her and pose.
We have been staying home this past week, resting up and trying not to melt, so there aren’t any interesting newer pictures to post. Logan is feeling good, he gets tired very easily but I think that is partially due to the heat. We had a doctor’s appointment last week, his blood work was fine, a little low in some areas but not enough to need transfused :)
We have his scans scheduled for the fourth week of August, and we are taking him back to see the doctor in California next week.
Thank you all for your support! Please keep the prayers and positive thought coming our way. It’s going to be a long couple of weeks.
08/31/2009: Our girl started 10th grade today and graciously smiled for her traditional first day of school picture. She has accepted that it’s useless to resist, I must have the picture.
Our boy didn’t do a whole lot of smiling today but he is resting comfortably now. His bone marrow extractions went okay and the slides made from his marrow looked normal. His actual bone samples must be…soaked (I don’t know) for 24 hours before they give any info so we will hear about them tomorrow. A biopsy was also done but it was doubtful that they were going to be able to get to the actual tumor, it is embedded deep inside his pelvis. An examination over a few days will tell more about that as well. After all of these things he rested a little while and started Chemo and that was ugly. The bright side is that today was the hard day and tomorrow should (insert a prayer here) be easier for him.
08/30/2009: Logan is feeling good tonight and is actually very accepting of his scheduled Chemo and bone marrow sampling tomorrow. This picture was taken to show off his blond hair that he is so proud to have for a few more weeks.
08/27/2009: This is an update that is very hard to write. We have had a rather serious setback, on Tuesday Logan had his first set of ‘post-treatment’ scans and they picked up an abnormality. We’ve been scanning and checking since then and this evening it was confirmed to be another Ewing’s tumor. It isn’t far from the original pelvic tumor and that made it even more suspect. But, we have just heard the good news that it is a single tumor and it is small, it should respond to low dose Chemo. It’s quite a shock for his cancer to be back this soon, we had hoped for three years instead of three months, but this is the hand we’ve been dealt. So, we will be starting Chemo on Monday and the doctors believe that Logan will be well enough to go to school as a ‘normal’ 2nd grader for at least a few weeks. He has taken this news in stride and is really focused on starting school full time with a full head of hair. We are all okay, it just stinks! As always, thank you for your prayers and well wishes.
This picture was taken on our trip to Texas.
08/20/2009: Hello there, I’m sorry it has been so long since our last update. It has been a very busy time for us, with all that has happened in the last year we had many people we wanted to see before summer’s end, and Logan had many “Thank You Hugs” he wanted to deliver.
We managed to finish out our summer travels with a trip to Dallas, Texas. These pictures were taken in Dallas at the Corporate Headquarters for Southwest Airlines. Logan was invited there to meet a few of the many friends from Southwest that have been so kind to our family during his cancer treatment. The first picture was taken with his special friend Miss Colleen, he really enjoyed meeting her in person after a year of steadily streaming get well notes, gifts and even encouraging phone calls. The second picture was taken at the flight training center with Mr. Torti, he helped keep Logan’s spirits up during treatment by writing with invitations to come to the training center and fly in the 737 simulators when he was well enough. As you can imagine Logan didn’t forget that invitation. It was great fun for Logan and Emily to ‘fly’ around Dallas in the simulator and Emily got to land the plane at Love Field, she was thrilled that she was able to keep the plane on the runway. It was a bumpy ride, the simulators have amazingly realistic movement in response to whatever the pilots are doing, but she did keep the plane on the runway. We can’t get over the Luv and support we’ve been shown from the wonderful people at Southwest Airlines. It really is an honor and privilege to have them as part of our family and support net. Thank you all so much, it was wonderful to meet each and every one of you last week.
08/08/2009: Now that the suitcases are unpacked and the laundry is nearly done I can sit down and post some camp pictures. We started our trip to Camp Sunshine with a flight from Norfolk to Manchester, NH (Southwest doesn’t fly into Maine) then we drove into Massachusetts for a great overnight visit with our dear friend Kimberly. It was Kimberly that took us to the bumper-boat park on Sunday morning before our drive north to Maine. This first picture is of Kimberly with the kids while everyone was still dry and happily waiting in line for their bumper boat rides. The second picture is of Logan enjoying a late night dip in the pool after we arrived at camp on Sunday. As you can see in the picture Logan is finally gaining some weight, he is really looking better and is very happy about that. The third picture was taken on Talent Show night, Logan was square dancing with his favorite camp counselor (the guy dressed in a banana suit). We don’t know why his counselor dressed as a banana or why Logan wore a mask to dance with him, but they were having a great time!
08/06/2009: Wow! Camp Sunshine in Maine was wonderful. We had a great time and we have just made it home, we are tired and sticky and we are headed to the showers and then our own comfy beds. We just wanted to check in and post a few pictures from the beginning of our trip. At Camp Sunshine there was no internet service, no TV and no radio…don’t panic the guys are okay. There was a point each night when it was questionable that they would make it, but we are home and they are stretched out in front of the TV waiting for their turns in the shower. ;)
This first picture was taken at a little amusement area where we stopped with our friend Kimberly on the way to Maine. Logan, and Emily had never been in bumper boats and they had a blast. Aaron had fun making sure that Kimberly left soaked to the bone, so I can’t speak for her but it was a really neat part of our trip. The second picture was taken at the same place; this was a resident Lemur baby that Logan was thrilled to meet.
08/01/2009: Today Logan and his Dad got home from an overnight campout with their Boy Scout Troop. This picture shows the boys with the drums they made at camp. Logan had a great time playing and fishing and was thrilled to catch this huge fish! As soon as they got home we repacked their toothbrushes and we are headed north for a week at Camp Sunshine. It is a camp for cancer kids and their families in Casco Maine, the four of us have never been to Maine and we are really excited to see the sights there.
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