Week of Rest and Recovery

It's been a week of rest and recovery for me.  I'm beginning to feel much better and am excited to have the staples taken out of my head tomorrow.

One item of note: this week has been a real breakthrough for Landon who is now pronouncing his words so much better. For the longest time he struggled with his "S's".  Something clicked this week and he is doing so much better.  

Also, Alyssa has decided that she no longer wants to slide down the stairs.  She was so good at sliding down the stairs, but now she only wants to walk down.  This has disaster written all over it, but so far she hasn't fallen.

The boys love being in pictures.

Logan won another basketball game on Saturday and his team is undefeated this season!  We have one game left; it's been a great season.

I Have A Headache This Big

Its been a rather slow and uneventful week. Everyone was getting back into post Disneyland routines and I worked a full week at work.  By the end of the week I was feeling a cold coming on and with a big trip to Florida next week I opted to rest all weekend.  Friday evening and all day Saturday all I did was rest. In fact I was worried that on Sunday I wouldn't have much to blog about because it had been an otherwise uneventful week.

That all changed Saturday night.  In the middle of the night nature called and I went into our bathroom to relieve the problem. I vaguely remember feeling a bit queazy and then the next thing I remember was "coming too" in the dark on the cold bathroom floor where I had fallen after blacking out.

I yelled for Jill to come quick to help me and I cold feel blood coming from the back of my head.  I crawled to the tub and leaned over into it so the blood wouldn't make a mess of the bathroom.

Jill was a trooper and got herself ready in no time and called my awesome sister Shanel at 3:30 a.m. to come over and watch our kids while Jill took me to the ER.  We took the car as to not bloody the new van, and Jill drove with tremendous urgency.  She even ran a red light for me which is very uncharacteristic of her.  It may have backfired slightly as we speed through the IHC parking lot (which was a sheet of ice) she wasn't able to make a turn because of the ice.  Luckily we slid to a stop and she made the turn and delivered me safely to the ER.

There was no wait although considering how much blood I was loosing I'm sure I would have moved to the front of the line.  I was quite awake and alert to all the talk around me however I did have a concussion.  It is the first concussion of my life.  I remember thinking I have all my whits about me, but when they asked my primary care provider on 3 separate occasions I said it was Dr. Brian Tavioan (who was my dentist while I was in college), rather than my actual doctor who is T. Lee Borne. Luckily I caught myself after I said the wrong doctor name but it was quite the strange experience to think you know something and   have it be wrong.

I recall a medical team around me while Jill watched on and they were trying to stop the bleeding.  The doctor put in a single stitch on the inside of the wound which stopped the bleeding. Before the rest of the wound was attended too, I had a CT scan. Everything came back okay and so a nice young man cleaned my head up before the staples were put in.

Thankfully they don't shave heads anymore with injuries like this.  This nice young guy cleaned me up well and I get to keep my hair.

This picture just looks creepy.  My eyes are open but I think my concussion is manifesting itself from my blank stare.

The doctor came in to put in the staples.  She was a nice lady and I guess about 5 times I told Jill, "she looks familiar to me." Most of the staples didn't hurt going in, but there were some that I very much felt.  The only medication I took was some Motrin for the pain.  

We were in the ER from just after 3:30 a.m. til about 7:45 a.m. Thankfully Shanel had already taken our kids to her house and they were all ready to go to church at 9:00 a.m. It was when we were home that the picture became clear with what had happened.  

I blacked out in the bathroom and fell backwards with my head hitting this garbage can on the way down (the can is dented from where my head hit it).  

Growing up I always liked playing cowboys and indians.  I never fully understood what was involved when an indian "scalped" a cowboy until the movie Last of the Mohicans.  This movie showed in graphic detail exactly how to "scalp" someone. The garbage can in our bathroom "scalped" me as I fell.  From the picture below you can see a large gash coming down, but less obvious is another gash that comes back up the head almost forming a "V".  There were a total of 29 stitches put in my head to try and put me back together again. 

The doctor said this will definitely scar but I have good hair that should cover it nicely.  

With this major head dressing is how I will look for the next 3 days. 

Then I should get the staples out of my head in about a week.  I'm not sure exactly what lesson is to be learned here but perhaps after my concussion subsides I'll be able to think about it more clearly and take something away from this experience. In the meantime if you have to be down it's good to have the AFC and NFC football championship games to pass the time.

Alyssa's Brave Climb

While the rest of the family was off at Disneyland having a great time, Alyssa stayed home and was able to learn a few new things.

This new trick is compliments of Shanel, Taylor, and Hudson.

It reminds me of the story that one time my uncle Keith watched me as a baby and he taught me how to climb out of my crib.  My mother was forever grateful to him for teaching me this.

Flying Home

All good things must come to an end.  Such is our trip to Disneyland.  We had a terrific time and now we head back to our regular lives.

The kids reviewed the safety card information.

At the airport Alyssa had fallen asleep when Grandma Bunkall arrived to pick us up. The boys woke her up and she was pretty shocked to see everyone.  From the airport I went to the office and when I got home later in the evening Alyssa was so excited to see me.  She was so adorable with the biggest smile and wanted me to hold her for the longest time. It was sad to leave her home on this trip, but with everything we did, Alyssa never would have been able to keep up.

Disneyland Day Two

Day two at Disneyland was just as much magical as the first.  The boys were so happy to start the morning at McDonalds.  They like McDonalds as much as Disneyland. We worked our way clockwise which we have read is faster than working counter clockwise. We split duties running over to get fast passes throughout the morning to the Tomorrow land area while and we rode on the Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones, and Splash Mountain. Splash Mountain was so good, we had the boys in front then Kandis, Jill, and me in back.  At the "splash" part of the ride I thought to myself that wasn't bad at all, but the boys were soaking wet! 

Then we did some Fantasy land with Peter Pan and Mr. Toads ride. 

We have never been to Toon Town before so after It's a Small World we checked it out.

We've never cared to meet the characters, but Donald came out just as we were by a certain ride so we took our picture with him. I was surprised how the boys liked meeting him.

Jill and I riding a kids roller coaster that ended about as soon as it started.  Of course Logan thought it was "Awesome!"

The entire trip Kandis has been teasing the boys about riding the Tea Cups with her. I think she was mostly kidding and couldn't care less about doing it, but there was no line and the boys actually seemed to want to do it.... only for Kandis through.

The drama of the day was Autopia.  Logan was tall enough to do it himself but has never been in the cars before.  We let him go alone and it's good I took this picture before the ride started.  By the end he was almost in tears because, "it was too hard." He actually did fine I was behind him and he drove it great but pushing the gas pedal was hard for him and he didn't like it. He wasn't actually in tears until he started telling Mom how Dad made him ride it alone and he didn't like it.

The tears were short lived because we did the Buzz Lightyear ride and let the boys spend their allowance money on a toy.  They bought something from "Store Command" and opted for some really cool Cars toys. Logan got the spy car, and Landon opted for the private jet they flew on. Pretty cool toys.

Jedi training was a huge success.  Both boys were picked and they both did really well. 

Landon battled Darth Vader and did a great job.

Logan took on Darth Maul again. Before our trip Logan has been practicing his light saber moves.

We cashed in our fast passes and did Star Wars again and Space Mountain.  We finished up everything in Disneyland and all wanted to do "Soarin' Over California" again.  That ride is so cool.

To finish the night we went over to Goofy's Kitchen next to the Disneyland Hotel.

The characters come around to your table and again we were impressed with how much Landon liked meeting the characters.

The food was terrific and we were able to relax, visit, and fill our bellies with all we could eat buffet.

The signature dish for kids is the Peanut Butter Pizza.  Landon wouldn't eat it because "I don't like jelly!" But Logan tried it and liked it.  Jill asked if she could take a bite and Logan asked her nicely, "why didn't you get your own then?"

Part of dinner had a conga line to the song "Twist." Landon and I joined "Chip" in the conga line and we passed a guy who shouted "Go Cougars!" (I had on a BYU shirt)  This guy was a huge Tongan so I said hi and asked if he played for BYU.  He causally said no but knows players that did, he played at Snow.  

Dad saw me talking to him and asked me who he was. I told him some guy who played football at Snow College.  Dad pointed out he did more than that judging by the jewelry on his fingers.  Deuce Lutui came over again by our table and we talked for a few minutes. Come to find out he played a year at Snow then played for USC with Matt Lienert and won a National Championship ring!  (I believe he played in 2 National Championship games and won the first). Now he plays in the NFL for Arizona!  I looked him up and a year ago he signed a 2 year contract for $8.5 million! He let me put on his ring, what do you think is it too much?

What a great trip to Disneyland.  We had so much fun with Kandis and Grandma and Grandpa and only wish the rest of the Bryants could have been here to experience it with us.

Disneyland Day One

Everyone slept well after a long day of travel and we were all ready for a long day in the park.  For breakfast we met AD and her daughter Jessica for breakfast. They are really fun and it worked out really well that they are local Southern California residents, so we got an incredible deal on tickets into the park. 

Everyone is excited to be at Disneyland!

We were going to World of Color the first night, so to get tickets we first went to California Adventure and tried out the new Ariel ride.  

The boys remembered the ropes course so we got to run around for a while and work off our big breakfast.

 

Last time at Disneyland we waited in line forever for the Toy Story ride so it was one of the first places we went.  The line was so much shorter than last year. 

The adults did Tower of Terror while Mom took the boys over to Bugs Life. 

We all did Soarin' Over California together and loved it. 

Here is our annual family picture in front of the waterfall.

Mater and Lightning McQueen have moved

 

We worked our way over to Disneyland in the early afternoon after doing everything we wanted to in California Adventures by 1:00 p.m. First stop of course was Space Mountain, but the kids got side tracked by the rockets and then it was off to Space Mountain.  They loved it again mostly because it is a great ride, but also because that is Hayden and Tanner's favorite ride, too.

Star Wars has a new ride that the kids loved.  Now it's in 3D. 

Submarines

It's a Small World looked amazing at night.  The ride was still all decked out for Christmas and rather than singing "It's a Small World" the song was "Jingle Bells".

Jill checked in a few times and Alyssa was doing great without us.  Shanel said she did seem a bit confused and was walking around our house looking for her family, but she was happy.  The handoff to Grandma Bunkall went well and Alyssa went to bed while Judy held her.

World of Color was AMAZING, but a bit challenging as I held Logan the entire time and Jill held Landon.  The kids were tuckered out on the walk home. Last year we had a stroller to give the kids a rest, but this year they were really good about walking everywhere.  They were pretty tired by the end of the day (so were Mom and Dad).  It was a lot of fun and we can't wait for another day at Disneyland.

Boys' First Flight

The big trip is finally here.  Jill and I have been planning this for a while now, but the boys have only known about it since Christmas.  THE BRYANT FAMILY IS FLYING TO DISNEYLAND!  Since Christmas we have been talking up Disneyland every day.  The boys have been excited but they are at an age of instant gratification.  Until the big day, the boys have been pretty happy playing Wii.  The big day is finally here and they have been very excited.  A couple days ago Jill told them that Alyssa wouldn't be coming and it made them both so sad.  Luckily they had all been out on an outing to an aquarium and Alyssa wasn't very good, so we told them if Alyssa came it would be harder to do everything we want to do. 

Aunt Shanel agreed to watch Alyssa for the first half of our trip and Grandma Bunkall will watch her the second half of the trip (we are so grateful for their kindness).  While Jill was SO sad to say goodbye to Alyssa, our baby wanted to go with Aunt Shanel.  

Grandma Bunkall drove all of us to the airport and for the first time the boys got to go inside. Security was very nice and helped everyone through, then we ate dinner in the airport. The boys wanted to eat at Burger King (it's not like they won't be eating hamburgers every day for the rest of our trip). 

They liked going on the moving walkways.

Before we boarded our plane we looked out the window and took a look at the airplane we would be flying on.  Landon took one look and exclaimed, "Wow it has Rocket Boosters!" (The jet engines were mounted by the tail).

The flight was at 8:15 p.m. which is normally bedtime, but with so much excitement they didn't even act tired.  Walking down the jetway.

Boys will be boys.  They had to touch every button, light, tray, and reclining button within reach of their seat.  The flight attendant was nice and she even gave them a set of wings.

They wanted to sit by each other, but not at the sacrifice of not sitting by a window.  So both boys had window seats and Jill and I sat by each other on the aisle.  

They loved looking out the window when we took off and landed.  Neither of them slept on the 2-hour flight.  They played games, read, and talked; it was so much fun.  As we were coming in for landing, Logan said "I've never been so much excited!"

Grandma and Grandpa and Kandis all had a nice flight. 

We arrived in Long Beach at 9:00 p.m. caught a taxi (another first for the kids) and on the 25 minute drive all the excitement finally caught up with the kids.

Aunt Amy arranged the same great Marriott that we stayed in last year so we are right across the street from Disneyland.  I'm confident tomorrow's excitement will eclipse day one, but the boys' first flight was a huge success.