Getting out!

We’ve had beautiful weather here in Phoenix over the past week. So, we’ve been able to spend quite a bit of time outside this week, which is really nice. Here are some highlights of this last week.

On Tuesday, Julia and the kids joined some of our friends on a trip to the Desert Botanical Gardens. It was a day where everyone could get in free, so they piled in the van and headed over. The big attraction was a butterfly exhibit, where the kids got to see all kinds of different butterflies, and one or two even landed on them.

Physical therapy is continuing to go well, and they’re saying that he’s making great progress. We reached a point where they are reevaluating him and setting new goals, which include doing new and different exercises. We still use his wheelchair when we go out to places and have to do a lot of walking, because he’s still low on stamina, but other than that he’s walking, and halfway running, all the time. He hardly even uses his walker anymore. Now, he does get tired and sore from all that movement, but that’s okay. His feet are doing pretty well, though his right foot still wants to point to the side, and we’re continuing to work with him on that. And his movements still aren’t quite fluid or completely natural looking, but again he’s making progress.

Another exciting part of the week was having his final birthday party with my side of the family. This was a combination birthday celebrating his birthday as well as my mom’s birthday. That was the first time he had been to Grandma and Grandpa Atwood’s house since the surgery, so it was nice to be there again and for him to see all of his cousins again. Plus, he got some more great presents!

Oh yeah, Julia also reminded me that they got to go see some of their friends at the rec center this week, where Elijah got some more presents as well! He’s one lucky kid!

Other than that, the week was mostly normal with school, art class, Good News Club, playing outside, and some video games here and there. Oh, we did also plant our garden this week. Abigail and Elijah helped Julia and I plant some seeds for carrots, lettuce, spinach, onions, and cilantro. We have some tomato plants as well, but they didn’t help with those. We’ll see how well things grow this year. Last year the carrots did really well, but nothing else worked out.

Anyway, that was our week, and we hope that you’re all doing well. Will talk to you more next weekend!