Memorial Weekend in San Antonio

Did you hear? Thomas is a RATTLER now! Steve is coaching the Rattlers, a select baseball team, and they kicked off the summer season with an out of town trip to San Antonio for their first tournament.

The boys were all very excited to spend time together at a hotel, wear their new uniforms and play some baseball.  They actually did really well. They went 2 and 2 losing to a really great AAA team called the Texas Thunder.  The Rattlers are AA (one division below) and had not officially played together before this tournament.

The weather was actually nice and cool in the mornings and we had a fun trip.

In the dugout before the first game on Sunday.

The main reason we decided to go to San Antonio that weekend was because Michael is graduating! We celebrated with him and all the cousins at Larry and Yvonne's house on Sunday night.  

Being the coach does have it's perks; we drug the whole team 5 hours down the highway so we could play ball AND congratulate Michael!  I can't believe he is graduating, but we are very proud of him (even if he will be an Aggie)

May 2012

May has been a BUSY month around here. We had a birthday, a first communnion, baseball championship games, a talent show, a band concert, National Junior Honor Society induction and a piano recital. Whew! Here are some highlights

Joshua is a TEENAGER! Donuts (in a 13) for breakfast before school



Birthday dinner at Jinbeh (Hibachi) with his buddy Eric.

Home for cake after dinner.

Charles's First Communion was the same weekend as Joshua's birthday. Joe and Nohemi came from El Paso and were able to celebrate both occasions with us which was so wonderful! 

So handsome!

Steve giving Charles his new cross before the Mass

Charles's best friend, James, came to Mass to celebrate with him.

There is Charles on the front row. Around 450 kids made their first communion this weekend at our church!!

We had a barbeque later that day to celebrate. Grammy and all the kids!

Opening Gifts.

The next weekend, Thomas was in the talent show at school. He played "Heaven" by Los Lonely Boys on his guitar and did an awesome job! The following week all the boys played in City baseball tournaments. Both Longhorns teams that Steve coaches (Charles and Thomas) were out in the first round (which was a BIG surprise) and Joshua's team made it to the final game (which was also a BIG Surprise). Joshua ended up finishing 2nd in his division!!

That same week Joshua was inducted into National Junior Honors Society at his school.

 Funny story: Steve had a baseball practice and was going to meet us at the ceremony right when it started, and Papa had taken Grammy and Charles to dinner.  That is when Joshua and I realized neither one of us knew how to tie a proper tie and the two guys who could help us were not available. So we got on youtube and after about 15 attempts, we got it done. The knot is a little bigger than we wanted, but not bad!


Charles was thrilled because there were cupcakes. Thomas, not so much.

Finally, Joshua performed in his Spring concert and Charles was in his first ever, piano recital. Both performances were really great.

Charles and his great piano teacher, Mrs. Tackett.

We were very proud of Charles for working so hard on his songs.  Here he is playing his favorite piece.

Coat's disease

Joshua woke up a couple of days ago with slight blurry vision and a small grayish blue spot in his vision in his right eye. Because of some history of a hole in his retina, we went to see the eye doctor that morning. After dilating his eyes he sent us directly to a retina specialist. He saw some abnormal blood vessels in the back of the retina that were leaking and causing swelling.

The retina specialist saw the same thing and diagnosed this as Coats disease. Upon learning more, we found out that Joshua was born with these abnormal blood vessels and they typically start to show problems at this age. Sometimes even younger. There is no cure, only treatment. If it isn't caught and treated it can cause blindness.

Needless to say it was a huge blow to us all. We had a very emotional couple of days, saw a second specialist to confirm the diagnosis and treatment, then proceeded with laser surgery last night.

Basically, they try to seal off and essentially kill the blood vessels that are leaking with either heat (laser) or with a cold cryogenic process.

Joshua was an awesome patient, very brave. He had to deal with a needle in the eye to numb the area and about 15 minutes of laser. He said it was like looking at a strobe light in a disco. He was very anxious to just get the treatment done and move forward.

At the doctor's office, right after receiving the lidacaine to numb his eye.

It looks like he was punched in the eye

We are done for now and we won't know how well the treatment took for weeks. The leaking and swelling should slowly reduce and in the best case scenario his vision will return to normal. He may need more laser and/or cryotherapy at a later date. This is something we will have to monitor for a very long time.

If you google Coats Disease you will find lots of scary stuff.  The good news is that we caught this fairly early in the progression.  It is extremely rare.  We looked for someone around here that specialized in it. There simply isn't anyone.  We would have to travel to Duke or John Hopkins to find someone that is a true specialist. Our retina doctor worked at both those Universities and does have experience with this condition. He said he has worked on roughly 50 cases throughout his career. This is his third this year, but he hadn't had any the last few years. The other cases were also boys about Joshua's age.

Here is Joshua this morning. He looks pretty normal actually. And the only pain he has so far is a swelling/pressure feeling in the eye.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Spring Break 2012

The Kalls Spring Break...a tour via cell phone picture

We visited Yvette, Anders and the kids in San Francisco. It was a great time!

They live on the other side of the Golden Gate Bride. The boys loved driving over this bridge.

Our first day we watched Alexander play basketball (he won, and came in 2nd place for the whole tournament.Way to go Alexander!!) Then we headed over to Stinson Beach. First we took a hike near the beach.

It was a beautiful, (uphill) walk with lots of really interesting trees as we got deeper into the forest. 

Annelie and Charles checking out a hollow, fallen log

A few miles later, we headed to the beach. The fog had rolled in and it was chilly, and misty and kind of miserable. But (most of) the kids still had fun playing in the sand. Yvette and I went to get a coffee.

Stinson Beach

They were filthy and wet and sandy. They cleaned up and had a hot dog break.

The next day, it was off to Tahoe for some skiing. But first we stopped at Trader Joe's for snacks. I was very excited about this (we are getting one in Dallas, but don't have one yet).



About 4 hours later we got to Squaw Valley. We checked out the amenities (kids room here)...

Then the kids had a snowball fight in the "village". There wasn't much snow on the ground, but enough around for a fight.

This is the base of the slopes. We stayed right here in the village. Everything was walking distance. We loved that!!

The next day we skied. The kids did ski school and the adults went up the mountain. The weather was great and so was the snow.  My favorite part, this ski-thru Starbucks at the top of the mountain!

Lunch Break, Yvette and I



View from the Gondola

Steve and Anders checking out the map of the mountain at lunch

 Here is the only picture I have of anyone actually skiing on this trip (and it is of me!!)

Yvette took it. The view was gorgeous!

After skiing the first day we took the kids to get hot chocolate.

That night it snowed and the wind howled ALL NIGHT. We woke up to tons of snow.

They loved playing in it!

We thought skiing would be out because most of the lifts were closed. But a few were open and my boys REALLY wanted to go. So Anders, Steve and the boys braved the wind, snow and cold and went up for a few hours.  See between those two buildings below? That is the ski lift. Oh wait, you can't even see it because of the snow and wind.  Yvette, Annelie and I stayed down to check out, load up the car, drink coffee and play in the snow. I won't lie, I was a nervous wreck. I was really afraid someone would get lost because the visibility was so low.  They returned safe and sound and COLD. The only one who really enjoyed it that day was Joshua. BRRRR.

 Steve and Charles came down before the others and he had some hot chocolate and warmed up.

Annelie built some excellent snowmen while the crazies skied.

Around 3 everyone was back. We had lunch. put chains on the tires and drove home. Whew!

Snow in the Sierras means rain in the San Francisco area.  The next three days it rained, Alot.

After Tahoe, the Kamperins had to go back to work and school, so we were on our own.  We hit the city and ate some Thai Food at a place we found online called King of Thai Noodle House, then we drove over to Ghiradelli.

 It was raining too hard to enjoy Fisherman's, so the boys got ice cream instead.  Yes, 4 Huge Ice Creams, right after lunch. They each ate about 1/4 of it (except Steve)

From there we drove to Morgan Hill (south of San Jose) to visit our good friends, the Rashids, from Flower Mound.  We had a great time eating and drinking with them (thanks Bob and Cheryl!!).  We stayed the night there, then made plans to see Fisherman's and Alcatraz the next day. It was the only day that was not supposed to rain very hard.

Fisherman's with the Sea Lions



Alcatraz Audio tour

The view of San Francisco from Alcatraz

It was windy, but no rain!

 Alcatraz was great! We got off and walked around Fisherman's and then took a drive down Lombard street so the the boys could see it before crossing back over the bridge to the Kamperin's house.

Lombard

Our last full day in California was pouring down rain. We decided to check out the Jelly Belly Factory because the Rashids said it was Fun, Free and they give out free samples. Perfect!

Charles had no shame, he visited the "free sample bar" about 14 times.

Jelly Belly Art

Getting ready for the tour

This was a great activity for a rainy day! 

It was a really fun trip.  Anders and Yvette put up with us for 8 days, fed us (thanks Anders!) and showed us a great time.  Because of the rain, we didn't get to see Muir Woods, go to Napa or ride Bikes across the Golden Gate.  We will have to come back soon!!