The Gelter's: June Headlines

Umm... if you could see me my body language it would reflect that of a 4 year old in trouble who doesn't dare make eye contact with Mom. A month... that's just sad. I'm gonna try to get you caught up as quickly as possible.

Porter Turns 4

So this actually was May 31st but to help prevent sensory overload for Porter we broke up his celebration over 3 days. This event will have it's own blog post. Did you know Porter 3rd birthday never got posted? I find that lots of things about Porter don't get posted, mostly because they're very special to my heart and I just can't find the words... still not a good excuse.

Released

With Aaron being called into the Elder's Quorum presidency and me serving in Young Women's, our family was apart more than we liked. I mentioned it and prayed about it and talked with my Young Women's President. I came to the conclusion that whatever was decided we'd be just fine and that either way would be a blessing. In the end I was released and called to serve in the Nursery! It's been such a fantastic change, I really love it!

Thompson Family Retreat

36 hours, 7 rooms at the Little America, 7 children, 2 huge Pie pizzas, 2 birthdays and some VERY unhappy hotel neighbors. We were spoiled and loved getting to be a complete family.

I felt the bathroom was a little over kill.

Well Checks

I was a brave Momma and did back to back well checks with a new pediatrician on my own. It went as well as possible with Porter. We're doing good. Priya wasn't happy about shots.

Last Day of School

It was a much sadder day than I was expecting. We get to go to our Preschool another year and we're keeping our favorite teachers. But it was goodbye to our bus driver and bus aide, which broke my heart a little. They played a huge role in Porter's well being. He was so handsome and we were so proud of him at his end of year Program.

First T-ball Game

We are blessed with wonderful friends who arranged to allow Porter to play in a T-Ball game so we could see how he handled it. He did okay, but the heat ended up being more than he could handle.

Summer Time = Play Time

I covered our play set in shaving cream and filled up some dishes for the kids to play with. In accordance with their personalities Priya loved every second of the messiness and Porter hated it!

Horse Therapy

We decided to follow through on some spiritual promptings we've been having for a long time. We were lead to a wonderful place called Hoofbeats to Healing. They use World Champion Fox Trotter horses and there is a theory that their unique stride strengthens the connections between the two hemispheres of the brain. We found this information after a new research study was published showing brain mapping for a brain with Down Syndrome. The study showed that the Down Syndrome brain doesn't connect like yours or mine does. While this was fascinating and helpful information it breaks my heart to learn these things because that makes it that much harder for my little boy. Put it all together and it feels like answered prayers. We're seeing improvements and are excited to observe how things continue. Therapy is expensive and we cannot afford it on our own. My Grandparents have been offering us help for a long time and I finally swallowed my pride and asked for their help. They agreed to help pay for his therapy before I could even get the question out and I'm so overwhelmed by their kindness.

Zoo Trips

We love the zoo as much as ever. I really love the hand holding that happens.

Hair Cut

I've always wanted to donate my hair to a wig making program for cancer patients. I cut it off when I was 13ish but I still have the braid that got cut off. I vaguely remember my Dad having a hard time with me sending it off so I kept it. I wanted to follow through on this goal so I cut twelve inches off and sent it into Pantene Lengths. I took this picture just after leaving the Salon, this was my OH. MY. GOSH! moment. I was so scared to come home to Aaron, but he actually really likes it.

RUN

We like to run! We had a successful Ragnar Relay this year and really enjoyed how everything played out. There was no sleeping for me and very little for the people who were able to sleep. Our team was made up of strong and fast runners with the exception of yours truly ;-) I am a strong runner I'm just slow and I'm okay with that. It really is an amazing experience and I really enjoy running with Aaron.

My cute cousin and runner extraordinaire, Randy!

24 hours between these two photos. :-/

Aaron Conquering Ragnar Hill

Our Van #2

Tired and happy to be done

With my training going well and being halfway to a Half Marathon I decided to sign up for a race. I feel a little crazy.

Daddy went to Tennessee

Aaron had fun listening to the bands on Broadway in Nashville. Maybe I can get him to blog about it. We missed him so much and were so excited to have him come home.