Easter!

 Our Easter weekend was so wonderful!  Saturday Scotty had off work so we did our Easter egg hunts and celebrated all the candy and fun! 

 We took the kiddos to a park where we had an Easter egg hunt with a bunch of friends.

 Here is Briony and her pal Metta.

 Lilly and Liam with Mckenna!

It was such a fun weekend celebrating our Savior. Scotty was unfortunately on call on Easter Sunday but we had some friends take us in for dinner so we were not alone.  Thanks again Brandi and Justin.  After dinner we took some cupcakes to Scotty and the hospital to share with all the other doctors and nurses who had to work on the holiday. 

Hospital visits!

 For the last couple of months Barrick has had some weird health issues so we have been to so many doctors appts, it was kind of crazy!!  Why Scotty was in Chicago we had scheduled an EEG for Barrick.  I like the way the neurologist explained prepping for the test, in that his brain needs to be angry.  So in doing that I had to keep him up as late as possible and wake him up no later then 5 am.  So we stocked up on candy and played Skylanders until about 12 am.

 We took about 30 pictures similar to this one to send to Scotty.  We had a pretty fun night, the morning not so much, but still fun just to have some one on one time with my little guy!

 He was NOT happy about getting the EEG.  Nothing hurts it just terrified him to have all of the cords glued to his head.  It took a lot of convincing for him to do it.  But he finally relaxed and got hooked up.

 He got some prizes and I loved that it was just me and him!  The results thankfully came back normal!

A couple of weeks later, I went to give the kiddos a bath, and noticed one of Liams testicles was swollen.  Sorry if this is too much information.  When married to a doctor nothing is ever too personal or private.  It continued to get larger and was painful so to make sure their was still good blood flow we decided to take him in. 

 Here he is taking his wheel chair to ultrasound.  He thought the whole thing was pretty awesome.  Every other time he has been to the hospital it is quite traumatic with medications and breathing treatments and always resulting in being admitted to the hospital.  So for him to have a pretty low key hospital experience was pretty fun for him.  He kept telling me he was having so fun!

 Plus free toys!  It doesn't get much better then that!!  Thankfully the ultrasound showed good blood flow so we didn't have to worry!! 

Spring Break in Ohio, and Scotty is Chicago.

 The day Scotty flew home from Utah, he had to drive out that same day to Chicago for a Cheif conference in Chicago.  For those of you who don't know, Scotty is just finishing up his Pediatric residency.  A couple of months ago they had the staff and other residents vote and choose a chief for the next year and Scotty was chosen.  So we will have one more year here in OH, where Scotty with be an attending here at WPAFB along with the responsibility of taking care of and teaching the 50 residents in this program.  We are so proud of him, but with this he had a week long conference to go to a training.

While he was gone we tried to keep really busy.  With no school and a week by ourselves, we made it fun.  We spent a lot of days searching for sticks!   

 We did a couple of Chic Fil A lunch dates.

 A lot of time riding bikes.

 Going to the park.

 We also went and saw Mr. Peabody.  Then the rest of the week it rained so we stayed in watched a lot of movies and played skylanders.

Scotty on the other was either sleeping in his hotel room in Chicago...

 Or in this Banquet hall.  It was busy and he trained all day, but he was also very spoiled.  When he walked in the hotel they greeted him with fresh chocolate chip cookies and always checked in to make sure he didn't need anything, so yes he was busy but he was also spoiled!  It was a great week for both of us, we just wish we could have done them together.

Ruth Francis Stewart.

 While driving home from Gatlinburg we got word that Scotty's grandma had gone into Kidney failure and with the only choice of going on dialysis she decided she would let her body take its course.  She was happy had lived a long life and was content.  We were able to talk to her for quite a while on the phone, and one of her wishes for her funeral was to have Scotty sing.  She has always had Scotty sing for her.  At her 80th birthday years ago she had him sing a Frank Sinatra Medley for her so it was really important that he sing.  With the help from some great friends and coworkers who were willing to cover his shifts Scotty was able to fly home for the weekend.

 Here is his Gma and Gpa Stewarts last picture together.  They are pretty amazing people.  Such great examples of what we want to do and accomplish in our lives.

 It was such a great weekend for Scotty.  Family came in from all over the United States, and he saw cousins that he hasn't seen in years.

 Scotty and Shauni with his Gpa Stewart.  Such an amazing man!  Our little Liam (Walter) is named after him.

 The funeral was wonderful and such a great celebration for such a loveley lady.

 More then anything each time we go back to Utah it  helps heal from Scotty's dads death.  We miss him everyday and it has been really difficult for Scotty.  This trip was so good for him!  The thought of snow Skiing has been really difficult for Scotty.  That was him and his dads thing.  That was their passion that they shared and to do it without him made Scotty very sad.  I knew he would have a free day before he flew out in the evening so I basically forced him to go and it was the best thing for him.  Such a healing wonderful trip to feel such love for his Stewart family.  

Gatlinburg, Tennessee!

In March we went on VACATION!!!  WOW we were in need of sometime together as a family.  This residency thing is not the easiest at times, so when we can have time off we like to get away.  We had some friends invite us on a cruise but since we went to Chicago without kiddos in September we didn't feel like we could leave our kids again so we planned a vacation with our families.  We had such a good time!

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First stop was Wonder Works museum.  We had some people offer some free tickets, so we only paid about half the price which made it even better.  This Giant light bright entertained our kiddos for quite a while.

The bubbles were quite the hit!!  We could have done these all day!  Scotty was able to get almost all of the kids inside a bubble.

The shadow board was was pretty fun as well. 

Swimming was fun as always.  Of course our kids prefer the hot tub.  With no fat on their little bodies I don't blame them.

There are so many dinner shows to choose from and we decided on the Dixie Stampede and it did not disappoint.  The horse, pony and pig races were pretty fun.  Lilly LOVED the part with the dancing, singing girls with the lighted dresses.  It is a fun show with great food!  Other then Scotty's serious allergic reaction to the horses it was great!  Nothing some benadryl and albuterol couldn't fix.

The fact that Lilly got this close to the animals was shocking!!!  She even touched the horses!!  Lilly hates animals!!  Seriously does not like any.  Hopefully this is a sign she is coming around.

Ripley's aquarium was the next day and with it being rainy outside it worked out perfect!!  The kids were absolutely fascinated by the fish.  Barrick wanted to stop at every single exhibit and learn about all of the creatures.  I cannot get enough of Lilly in this picture.  She adores that big brother of hers and this picture shows it all.

Briony loved growling at ALL of the fish.

By far the favorite part was the tunnel you would ride through and look at the fish.  The kids could not get over the sharks!!

Even though it is fuzzy this was my favorite picture.  They would squeal every time a shark would swim by.  We went through this 3 times!!!

We let the kids pick out and crack a geode.  They were amazed by the sparkles inside and also the fact that they broke a rock.

They all got to pet some sting rays, Jelly fish and a couple of others I can't remember. 

We then went and looked at some of the shops downtown.  Such a fun atmosphere!!  Bands playing on the streets, cute little shops all surrounded by beautiful mountains!!  We took the kids to a fun candy shop with everything you can imagine in it.  We told the kids they could choose any treat they wanted and Liam chose a ring pop.....  Seriously this child is so easy to please. 

Lilly got a little bigger candy, and Barrick who I didn't get a picture of chose a gum stick the length of himself. 

We found this fun little fountain area where they had a doughnut shop!!  YUMMY!  As you can see everyone was way too focused on eating their doughnuts to look at the camera.

They chased birds, played in the fountain and relaxed which we never get to do.

Me and my Barrick boy!!  This kid is really the BEST!

 

 Another day we decided to go on Ober Gatlinburg.  You ride the tram up to the top of the mountain where they  have a ski resort, ice skating rink, shops, and an animal exhibit.  The kids loved the ride up, Barrick wouldn't admit it but he was scared of how high it was.  He put on a brave face.

 

While up there we decided to see the animals and this was by far Brionys favorite thing.  She ran around and growled at the bears and was pretty mad when we made her leave.

This was the kids favorite bear.  They thought it was hilarious that he was sitting in a tree.  Here are the Scotty and the kids showing us their best bear face.  I think Barrick was a little embarrassed. 

 

We also walked around downtown some more, and did a little miniature golfing.  That was their number one request for our vacation was that they got to mini golf.  They are a little obsessed.

Of course you cannot vacation and not have some amazing food!  We went to a Hibachi restaurant and our kids were mesmerized.  Scotty and I go quite often but never take our kids.   They loved it, including the food.  I think Lilly ate her body weight in salad along with a lot of shrimp.  Liam and Barrick stuck with chicken.

We also ate some amazing BBQ.  This night we wanted to stay in and got some yummy take out and fed the kids oatmeal at our condo.

The kids all had a buddy that they hung out with.  Briony mommied Declan and he didn't seem to mind.

Lilly and Carson were inseparable.  I think Liam got a little jealous, he came to me one day and said Lilly is my girl!

Even for their age gap these two got a long really well.  They played ipad games together all night.

It was so nice to have a big condo.  Everyone had their own bed.  The boys were upstairs in the loft, Lilly and Briony shared one of the bedrooms and Scotty and I in the master.  As much fun as we had playing, we had just as much fun relaxing. 

Who doesn't love a big jet tub. Lilly was a little nervous in it but the boys thought it was the coolest thing ever!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was being able to jog outside in the mountains!!  Man alive I miss the mountains, and the best part was jogging up to those cute little faces waiting for me to come back!!  

It was such a fun vacation with such amazing friends!!  They are moving to Spain this summer which makes me so sad.  We feel lucky that we got to spend an amazing vacation with them!!  Thanks Brandi and Justin for such a great week.