The Kothe Clan

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Transplant Games Day 3

Day 3 we had to get up and head down to the games pretty early. Neal competed in ping pong, I mean table tennis! After day 2 I decided the babies would be released from the stroller to crawl around. It worked, although it was completely disgusting! After an hour of crawling, Grandpa Moustache again walked them to sleep.

Look at how dirty they are!

Neal did great going 2 of 4. We then headed to lunch at a barbecue joint. Thank god for corn on the cob is all I can say about that trip. Also, why do they only put changing stations in the ladies room? I had to change 2 poopy diapers there. I should have checked out the men's room just to confirm.

We took Neal over to tennis practice and the babies played on a court.

After we took the babies home for a nap. Grandma and Grandpa volunteered to stay at home that night so I could go watch Neal play basketball. Neal's team won the first 2 games, but unfortunately lost the third. It was a tough team! This was his first year competing in basketball and it was very exciting. It is a big crowd and very loud and exciting event.

Oh yeah, I did give the babies a bath some time in there!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Transplant Games - Day 2

Day 2 felt like it was 96 hours long, no exaggeration here. We did not even set an alarm and the babies did not wake up at the crack of dawn. We started out with breakfast then headed down to the transplant games around 10. We spent a couple of hours looking around, getting some swag, took a team picture.

The team seemed much bigger this year. Now you can play where's Neal...

After that we decided to walk around downtown Madison. They had a huge farmers market. It was very nice.

The babies sporting their OH - IO shirts.

After that Neal headed to basketball practice and the babies took a short nap in the car. Next thing was a tailgate and the opening ceremonies. Grandpa Moustache did quite a few laps and finally got the babies asleep at about 8:30 (typically they go to bed at 7). We positioned them so we could see them from the stands.

It is quite inspiring to see all of the lives that were saved by transplantation. I again had tears when the living donors and donor families proceeded out. It truly is a miracle the sacrifices these people have made, not to mention the fact that they are supporting the cause. I believe there were over 130 living donors in attendance. I immediately thought of how lucky we were to have Ryan make the decision to donate to Neal. This is my favorite event at the games.

Unfortunately Grady and Gwen had other plans. This is when the screaming, whining, honestly I do not even know because at this point mommy was 100% exhausted that she wanted to cry too. It was at this point (about 12 hours after we left the hotel in the morning) that mommy made the executive decision to head home. Daddy got a call to get outside or find a ride home. Finally we arrived home at about 10:00 and everyone went right to sleep.

Breaking news...

Neal won a medal today! Doubles tennis. Great job Neal!

These are the pictures we had taken day one at the games.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Transplant Games 2010 Day 1

This year we took a road trip to Wisconsin for the US Transplant Games, basically the olympics for transplant recipients. It was our first real vacation with the babies, thankfully Grandma and Grandpa Moustache joined us. With Neal busy most of the time I needed 4 extra hands. We rented a mini van and headed off on what would be an 8.5 hour drive with no stops. We ended up making 4 stops, only 2 of which we got the babies out and we made it in 10 hours. Not bad at all. The dvd players were a life saver. The adults almost went crazy from Yo Gabba Gabba, but the babies could not get enough. We only had about 5 minutes of whining right at the end of the trip. The babies car seats were closer than normal, so they got to share some toys.

We left at 5am, so I figured we would have some more sleeping in the car, but really only 2 very short naps all day.

After arriving at the hotel we decided to take the babies swimming so they could enjoy themselves a little. If they were not totally exhausted before swimming they were after.

The babies first kiss! Ok, it was a little staged since we did not have the camera ready for the first one, so it is really the second. They are just starting to kiss and wave at one another!