Candlelighters Egg Hunt

We went down to Eugene this weekend to participate in an Easter egg hunt with Candlelighters, a support group for kids with cancer. It was fun to be out and meet other families on a beautiful, sunny day.

Then we continued our Easter festivities by dying eggs at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

What the ...

This is a burp chart.  Annikka created it to track Eila's burps.  Annikka finds it very amusing.  It is not clear whether Eila also finds it amusing.

Zoom, zoom

Well, after nearly 10 years of coordinating schedules and rainy walks to the bus stop, we finally bought a second car.

Disneyland day 3

On our final day, we did more of it all. We went on several rides, while getting more autographs and pictures.

Then we had lunch with the princesses at Ariel's Grotto. The girls were so excited to see the princesses, it's amazing they were able to eat any thing. We got to see Ariel, Belle, Cinderella (who actually remembered Eila from the day before!), Aurora, and Minnie Mouse.

After the princess extravaganza, we went out for more rides. Annikka and Joel did another drawing class before we went to see Aladdin the Musical. This was Eila's first play, and she loved it! It was something both girls talked and talked about, and I'm so glad we included it.

Before heading back to the airport, the girls got to go and spend their "Disney Dollars" at the biggest Disney store I've ever seen. They both got princesses dolls, jewels, purse/glove sets, and a few other things. It was a good thing we didn't have to go through an airport security line with all the stuff we were bringing back home with us.

We had a great plane ride back, complete with more opportunities for Joel to take scenery photos.

We now know why so many families take Disney vacations; we couldn't have wished for a more fun, carefree vacation. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the end of Eila's chemo. And the only tears came at the very end, when we were driving home from the airport - Annikka starts crying and says "Will we ever go to Disneyland again?" We assured her that we would go again. Everyone had a wonderful time, and practically fell asleep before their head was on the pillow.

And there are of course more pictures for you to enjoy in Joel's web album.

Disneyland day 2

The plan for our second day was to do little girl stuff: get autographs (the girls were also both given autograph books as part of their goodies in the hotel room) and pictures with some of their favorite characters. We started with fairies and moved on to princesses, with rides sandwiched in between.

Vidia and Tinker Bell:

Snow White, Tiana, & Merida:

And finally, Eila's favorite, Cinderella (who couldn't have been sweeter to Eila):

During Eila's nap, Annikka and I went out for a couple of rides and also got Rapunzle and the Wicked Queen's autographs.

After nap we went to Mickey's parade and the girls were completely entranced.

Then it was time for a little Disney break, so we ended the day with swimming at the hotel (a favorite activity of both girls).

Disneyland day 1

What should you do when you complete six months of chemo, for the second time in less than 18 months? Go to Disneyland! And that's exactly what we did because of an extremely generous gift from a couple that Joel knows, whose lives have also been changed by cancer. It was a trip like no other, starting with our very own plane to fly us there.

It was very fun and exciting, and filled with way too many opportunities for Joel to take pictures of geography.

When we arrived, it was a little cool and rainy, but that didn't slow us down much. Our first rides were Dumbo and It's a Small World.

We ran into a few characters,

and went on a scary Roger Rabbit ride - although you can see the terror on Eila's face, she sat calmly through the ride, but needed her pacifier afterwards. Then our hotel room was ready, so Eila and I headed in for nap while Annikka and Joel went on a few more rides and took a drawing class.

We were treated to an incredible suite at the hotel, filled with stuffed animals, mouse ears and hands, balloons, and bedtime snacks.

That night my cousin Joy came over and took the girls out for more rides so that Joel and I could explore some rides on our own. It was a great start to our celebration trip.

Moving forward

Today Eila returned to DCH for her first round of post-chemo ultrasounds and xrays. She did amazingly well in the ultrasound, now that she's old enough to be distracted by tv. Everything came back clear, so she is officially done with chemo! She will return for another round of tests in 2 months.

Along with the imaging done today, Eila had blood work done and met with her nephrologist. Overall, her doctor was very pleased with how well Eila is doing, but she did note that her blood tests have been slightly acidic. So Eila will be starting a new medication to try to help correct this. We're not sure what this means long term, but the nephrologist didn't seem alarmed.