SPRING IS IN THE AIR

Spring rain tonight. It's so soothing, and it smells so good. It makes our trees and lawns beautiful.I'm not sure when this happened, but this is our cherry tree. My favorite cherry tree, a little on the wild side, since we hardly ever find time to prune her.

Every time I switched the calendar page a month forward this year, I wondered where the past month went. This year has been speeding through so far. Volleyball, lots of work, and our boy needing extra attention and care with pancreatitis and pneumonia made the months go by. Very fast.

Now we're middle of April, and we made it through another winter! Winters are hard in this house. I'm not a home body. I need my social and outdoor time. We so easily get stuck in the house during the winter months due to Jacob needing to avoid all the nasty germs that can make him so sick.

The last couple of weeks minus the blizzard that hit Denver, we have started to venture out of the house more and more with Jacob. Therapies have happened on the front lawn, and we are out walking again. I love that nurse Ana shares our philosophy to get Jacob out of the house as much as possible. She has moved his care outside the house, and lets him be out in the fresh air on most days. I know it's quality of life for our boy.

Today, we ventured out to Summits for Samantha's kickoff party. Our boy is not a little boy anymore. He's 70+ pounds, and a tall boy thanks to his dad's genes. I was nervous to get him up the tall stairs, but we made it in one piece! That wheel chair is not a little piece of equipment, that's for sure. But it was all worth it, and here he's hanging with his buddy Cal, sleeping after having been up literally all night! Luckily, he woke up before the party was over.

With sunshine and warmer temperatures, it's time to get the dust off our bikes. Last weekend, Jacob and I both got our first bike ride in. Jacob sure has grown into his bike. No need for extra padding on his pedals any longer. He went on his longest ride in our neighborhood last Sunday!

If all stars align, Jacob will go back to school on Thursday. Jacob is ready. It now depends on the health of his school. Before spring break, there was still a lot of strep throat going around, something that can make our boy so sick. We're hoping for a positive health update on Tuesday, and that we can send Jacob off on the school bus on Thursday! Fingers crossed.

To spring! Love, Maria.