And the adventure continues

Ly, her Dad, Rory, and Alan were expecting to continue the ankle surgery adventure at home today, but since Ly's surgery experiences rarely go as planned, their adventure has kept them at the hospital for a little while longer. Here's a summary:

Monday 7:30 AM - Ly goes into surgery
Monday 9:30 AM - Surgeon informs Alan that the surgery was a success and that Ly is going to be very pleased with how her ankle heals. Ly is in recovery and should be ready to go home in a couple of hours
Monday 12:00 PM - Ly is still in recovery trying to control pain and keep her oxygen saturation (O2 Sats) at normal levels.
Monday 2:00 PM - Doctor decides to admit Ly to hospital to giver her more time to manage her pain and get her O2 Sats under control
Tuesday 3:30 PM - Doctors decide that Lyis ready to be discharged, she loads in the car and begins her trip home
Tuesday 3:45 PM (in the car, driving on I495 northbound) - Alan looks over at Ly and notices that she is turning blue; Alan and Rory try to yell and shake her awake, but nothing happens
Tuesday 3:46 PM - Alan dials 911 & states that Ly stopped breathing, gives his location and begins CPR on Ly while in the car
Tuesday 3:55 PM - After several cycles of CPR Ly, while still unconscious, begins to breathe on her own again. Emergency services arrive.
Tuesday 4:20 PM - Alan and Ly arrive at hospital ER via ambulance and are immediately admitted
Tuesday 10:00 PM - After several hours of testing the doctors conclude that Ly has pneumonia and needs to be admitted to the hospital
Tuesday 11:00 PM - Ly is finally admitted and settles in her hospital room; she begins antibiotic treatment for pneumonia
Wednesday 3:00 PM - Doctors decide that Ly stopped breathing because of a combination of pneumonia and narcotic pain medicine sensitivity. The doctors expect that she will stay in the hospital two to three more days until her pneumonia clears up

Needless to say, it's been a long couple of days. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and support.

And the adventure begins

Since Ly's attempt to convince both Alan + her dad to go to Philadelphia instead of the hospital for her ankle surgery this morning epically failed, the three of them have loaded everything into the car and are en route to the hospital.

Updates will come as time permits.

Spontaneous Snow Fight with Dad

For your viewing pleasure:



We especially like the part when Lyanna adds snow to her snowball to make sure it is bigger than her dad's

Merry Christmas...

With lots of love from Ly + Alan. Here's hoping that your day is full of holiday cheer enough to last all next year! =)

Snow Day!

Due to the blizzard of 2009 (as the news people are calling it) the schools and all federal buildings were closed yesterday...yay for snow days! Poor Alan had to go in to work for a little bit to feed his cells (apparently those little buggers don't care if it is a snow day or not) but after he got back the fun began. Ly desperately wanted to go play in the snow again but was overruled by Alan and her dad. Instead they took a much needed trip to Costco, went to the movies, and went on a search for some geese.

Apparently everyone else decided to use their snow day to visit Costco because it was a madhouse. About an hour or so later, Ly+Alan left Costco with their wallets significantly lighter and their arms full of groceries and holiday goodies.

Next stop was the movies. For weeks Ly has been talking about seeing the Princess and the Frog. So she convinced her dad if he gave up his desire to go see Avatar then he wouldn't need to give up his man card while watching the princess movie. Being the awesome dad that he is, Ly's dad agreed (the man has seen twilight after all) The Princess and the Frog was sooo good! Ly loved every second of it and would go see it again...it isn't wall-e worthy, but still one she'd like to own for her collection. Ly's dad, on the other hand, thought differently as he fell asleep during the movie. Oh well you can't win them all. After the movies Ly+Alan took Ly's dad to their favorite Mexican place for some happy hour extravaganzas. Ly's dad enjoyed his beer while Ly enjoyed her nachos.

They also found some geese and Ly was so excited because Alan had told her that the geese left because of the snow storm. They didn't have anything to eat here in the 2 feet of snow Alan reasoned and convinced her (with the help of her dad) that the geese flew to Pennsylvania. Ly proved them both wrong, however, when she sighted a huge family of geese outside the movie theater. The geese were skating on the frozen pond and enjoying some quality family time - because that's what everyone does this time of year, obviously.

Snowy Sunday in DC

After our awesome Saturday full of snow, Ly + Alan (and Ly's dad) decided to venture out of the house and visit downtown DC. A ton of fun was had by all, however for Ly one of the best parts was preparing to leave the house. First they needed to dig out their car out of the snow...and Ly enjoyed it so much she even helped the neighbors dig their cars out too. Ly's dad loved the snow too (obviously).

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

This morning Alan + Ly awoke to the sound of Alan's cell phone announcing "blizzard conditions" for the DC area. Very excited, Ly rushed to wake her dad and announced her brilliant plan of going to play in the snow at her school. Thus, Alan got their snow clothes from the garage and before you can say jingle bells Ly, Alan, and Ly's dad were decked out in snow gear (complete with snow boots) and ready for a morning of fun. There was so much snow on the ground that it went up to Ly's knees! Ly loved the opportunity to play with her dad (and Alan too) in the snow -- they made snow angels, threw snowballs (one hit her dad in the face and bounced off his head), slid down slides, buried one another, and even tunneled through the snow.







Upon returning from the escapades in the snow, everyone agreed to spend the rest of the day inside - the roads were not cleared very well and businesses had started to close by noon. Once everyone was toasty warm and wearing pjs, we made chocolate covered pretzels, watched some movies, and played lots of cards.





**Some of the pictures are taken by cell phone so please excuse the poor quality**

Wintery Weather Warnings

Last night, Ly + Alan picked up Ly's dad from the airport for his three week extravaganza to visit the Lee family and help with Ly's upcoming surgery. Ly has been busily planning for his trip and created an itinerary that included items such as visiting Philly, seeing Shenandoah National Park, seeing the pandas, and lots of holiday activities. Those plans, however, might need to be changed given the fact that this evening it started to snow...and if one is to believe the weatherman then we are expecting a record breaking 24 inches of continuous snowfall by Sunday morning.

Ly's dad is unable to contain his excitement about the snow - it's the first time he's seen it since he was a kid in Pennsylvania. In fact, he is so excited that he has text messaged everyone (including Ly) photographs of the snow and mentioned the following things on more than one occasion:

1. I told you I would need some snow boots
2. Look, it's still snowing
3. When I was a kid on the farm.....

Here's hoping the weatherman is right -- Ly's dad (and Ly) would be very excited.

Xmas Time in NYC

Last weekend Ly + Alan went up to visit Rich in NYC for the weekend. The weather was icky - it rained a lot and was freezing cold, but that didn't stop Ly from insisting on going to see the various holiday sights around the city. Alan and Rich indulged her holiday desires as long as Ly promised to enjoy an evening of Chinese food and movies. It was a win-win situation for all involved. In addition to seeing the holiday festivities, Ly also got in some shopping on fifth avenue.

Ly + Alan loved seeing Rich before Christmas and hope to get up to NYC again soon.

Virginia Beach

Last weekend Alan surprised Ly with a trip to Virginia Beach. Ly had been talking about going for weeks so needless to say she was quite excited when she discovered the destination of her weekend getaway. Despite the fact that the weather was very stormy, the weekend turned out splendidly. After checking into their luxury hotel suite (complete with an ocean view and private beach), Alan taught Ly how to play backgammon - and she then proceeded to beat him multiple times in a row. It is now her new favorite game.

Besides playing backgammon, Ly + Alan enjoyed some quality seafood, watched a few movies, strolled along the boardwalk, did some shopping, and enjoyed the benefits of an in room jacuzzi. It was a very relaxing getaway and Ly was sad went it came time to go back to go to DC.

La Jolla Cove

Here comes Santa Claus...

One of the highlights of Ly + Alan's Thanksgiving Extravaganza was the family Christmas party. We had our first ever white elephant gift exchange which turned out to be a blast...although perhaps next year we should make sure everyone brings gender generic gifts.

After the gift exchange we had a special visitor -- Santa! He made a special visit from the North Pole just to have everyone sit on his lap and tell him our wish. Ly wished for a visit to see the Pandas in China. Alan, of course wished for medical school acceptance letters. Here's hoping Santa can work his magic!

Thanksgiving on the beach

Ly + Alan spent Thanksgiving this year on the beach in San Diego (complete with BBQ turkey burgers) and it was wonderful. We were reminded of all the things we are thankful for - our families, our friends, and the beautiful world surrounding us - just to name a few. We hope your Thanksgiving was full of family, good food and lots of laughs.

DC Weekend

Last weekend Mel came to visit us here in DC all the way from SLC. We had tons of fun showing her around all our favorite places in the DC metro area. We went on a tour of the monuments, did some shopping in Georgetown and of course went to Ly's favorite place - to visit the pandas at the zoo! Following are some of our favorite pictures from the weekend.

Sunset in Shenandoah

Harper's Ferry, WV

Here are a few pictures from our recent trip to Harper's Ferry in West Virginia.