I don’t think we did too bad.  But next time we’ll have a better plan and better tools, because it was a little lame :).

Of course the best part about building a sandcastle is destroying it!

Back in January when we were collecting items for the Silent Auction, I had contacted this Foundation and asked if they would be willing to donate some Legoland tickets to the auction.  The lady I spoke with said that they couldn’t do that, but that they would like to send our family on a trip with all expenses paid.  Um…ok!  We were so thankful for the opportunity to take our little man on our first real family trip together.  It was so fun showing Asher California, the beach, the ocean, homeless guys, real crabs, the taste of fresh fish, and the famous Legoland.  We had such a wonderful time together.  Here are a few pics from Legoland…

Jeremy put up a picture of me on Facebook implying this trip was more for me…I beg to differ :)…

Asher wasn’t real crazy about the huge slide, ha!  I think we saw this exact same face when he went down the flume, ha!  But he did however love the ride where we all got soaking wet!

If you ever want to go to Legoland and you’re looking for a place to stay.  We can’t recommend the Sherton enough!  They had this beautiful paved pathway that you can walk down the hill right to your private entrance gate into Legoland.  We completely bipassed all the general admission lines.  It was fabulous.  Plus, we also recommend planning your visit right after they have a huge festival thing the night before to avoid crowds and long lines.  This was totally by accident on our part, but it was such a blessing!

Asher survived the 6 hour trip to California like a champ!  But that’s mostly due to the fact that he slept all the way from Yuma to Carlsbad, which was a huge blessing!  We stopped in Yuma and went to a nice park recommended by a friend for a picnic and to let everyone stretch their legs…mainly a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed cutie.  This park was so perfect!  It had nice picnic tables, lots of grass, and a couple of huge play areas for Asher to tear up.  The park is called West Wetlands Park if you’re ever traveling through, it’s totally worth the stop.

After we checked into our resort we decided to head down to the beach for some dinner.  There really is nothing like the smell of the fresh ocean air!  And, everything is really in bloom here now, it just smells so gorgeous outside.  So, here’s us smelling all these wonderful smells, watching the ocean waves and the beach clientele, and shoving our faces full of fresh fried fish and chips.  It was so great.  Then of course we had to watch the sun go “nigh nigh” on the beach.  Asher was hysterical about the ocean.  He totally loved it, but you could tell he had a deep respect for the ocean and it’s powers.  The waves were pretty big, so I’m sure it would be a little intimidating if we were his size :).  It was such a wonderful day…one Jeremy and I (and hopefully Asher) will never forget for so many reasons.

I just had to post these pictures.  Asher has recently loved using my camera to take pictures.  It’s so cute watching him behind the lens, especially this time.  I had my big huge lens and flash on, and his little arms could barely hold that thing up, but he wanted desperately to take a picture of mommy and daddy.  So he was really putting up a fight, but kind of falling over while shooting…I think we’ll just label these as having an artistic angle :).

When Grandpa Necas was here he took Asher to the bike isle at Target, and the two of them came out with the Gravel Blaster.  Oh boy does Asher love his new bike!  Jeremy had to put it together that night, and it took Asher about 20 mins before he was riding his bike all by himself.  It’s so cute watching him with his little Spiderman helmet (side note: it takes at least 10 mins to put his helmet on because his neck is ticklish and there are lots of laughs and squeals :-)), swinging his short little leg around his seat, and peddling away.  The toys are getting bigger and more dangerous over here!

Grandpa and Grandma Necas were able to make the trip down for the Great Strides Walk.  We were thankful they were able to be here with teamASHER, and of course Asher ate up the time he had with his grandparents.

We decided to make the trip out to the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium.  It’s quite the drive, and really expensive, but we really enjoyed the morning we had together out there.  Asher loved feeding some animals, riding the skyline, carousel, train, and looking at all the sea life in the Aquarium.  My favorite was that for every new creature he saw he would go running up to it and shout, “Mommy, show you me, Mommy, show you me, right here, right here” in this really high-pitched voice and pointing frantically.  I just love his excitement for life!

And then the mother of all memories happened!  Dare-devil Grandpa wanted to go on the flume, which of course I wanted to go too, but he suggested that Asher would love it as well.  Asher met the height requirements, and the worker guy said he would be fine, so before I knew it we were all in the flume floating away.  I don’t think I realized how big of a ride it was until we were going up the hill.  I turned around and asked Asher what he thought and he said, “whoa, big hill!”  I got a little nervous at that moment, but it really was too late, we were going down.  I can’t stop laughing when I look at these pictures of us coming down!  Dad and I look like we’re having a ball, and Asher is so confused as to what’s happening!  He didn’t cry, and was completely out of control happy when we got off (he kept throwing his head back and letting out this huge cackle – which was probably from all the adrenaline!).  Jeremy said he was so happy because he probably felt like he just faced death, and cheated it!  I’m sure he’s right.  Well, I guess we’re ready for Legoland now :).

12►

Not even joking.  All the people who have graciously decided to join teamASHER and our family’s commitment to fight for a cure for Cystic Fibrosis rock major booty.  Between this blog, Asher’s fan page on facebook, the silent auction, and the walk, we have been so blessed by so many people!  We really have the best team, and are so thankful for the outpouring of love we have received since we found out about Asher.

We had such a great turnout for the walk this year, despite the fact that it was ON a Sunday.  It was pretty incredible how many people sacrificed their time to be with us that morning.  Grandpa and Grandma Necas even flew down from MN to walk with us!  We totally rocked that big huge arch with teamASHER people!  It was a great morning, thank you to everyone who joined us!  And, a special thanks to Ms. Lorraine, and Mr. Jim for hanging out with the Ash-man all morning, he kept telling us about the tomatoes and Lucky barking all day :).

We wore red this year too to honor little Conner, who is battling CF.  Thank you to everyone who has joined us in praying for him and his family.  They just decided yesterday to take him home.  His mom said they are taking him home “not because he’s well, but to just keep living each day and enjoy it and find the quality in each second until there is no more.”  Red is Conner’s favorite color.  We’ll be sending his family a picture of our team so they know we are all thinking of them.

Thank you again, friends!  It has been a blessed year of fundraising!  I’ll post the total our team collected as soon as the numbers are in!

If you follow our blog, you may remember my cry for help with Asher’s nebulizer mask awhile back.  The all important strap was either flying off his head resulting in the medicine spilling all over our carpet, or pulling down on his ears giving him a winged look that just didn’t look comfortable.  Well, our friend, Melissa answered that cry, and in a big way.  Not only has she invented something for our family that has been an incredible blessing in making Asher’s treatments easier, but she is now working her tail off to make these for other children in the CF community as well.  Asher was featured on one of the top blogs in the CF community (runsickboyrun.blogspot.com) making “Breathe Easier” nebulizer mask holder public.  Ronnie Sharpe (30 years old with Cystic Fibrosis), and his fiance Mandi Melin (who also happen to be our great friends) are the brains behind this blog, and the creators of an incredible networking website called Cystic Life (which has been a great blessing, and a whole separate blog post I need to write).  Between RunSickBoyRun, Ronnie’s facebook, Cystic Life, Cystic Life’s facebook, the word about this Breathe Easier nebulizer mask holder is definitely out there, and the response has been SO wonderful – Mandi said that they had 2500 hits on just their blog the day this post went up!  People are really excited about Melissa’s invention, and we’re so thankful to her and all the work she has put into helping the CF community.

I just wanted to share the link to Asher making his debute on RunSickBoyRun, as well as the link to Melissa’s etsy page.  If your child, or you know of someone’s child who has to do nebulizer treatments, pass this etsy page link onto them.  This holder would be a blessing in making their treatments easier too.

http://runsickboyrun.blogspot.com/2010/04/sliced-bread-for-cf-toddler.html

http://www.etsy.com/listing/45103961/breathe-easier-nebulizer-mask-holder

This book cracks us up!  It’s been a favorite in our house for awhile, and I’m sick of checking it out at the library so I guess we need to buy it.  Duck on a bike is about a duck who comes across a kids bike on a farm, and he decides he wants to take it for a ride.  He rides around the farm saying “hi” to all the other farm animals.  The other farm animals whisper under their breathe as duck peddles away about how crazy he is for riding a bike…that is until a pack of kids riding their bikes come racing onto the farm.  The kids leave their bikes, and all the animals are standing together starring at the bikes with these huge eyes thinking their dreams have come true!  This is the page that cracks us up.  I had to take a picture of it, that horse makes us laugh every time!  So part of the fun is asking Asher if he can make big eyes like the animals.  He just stares at you with his face barely moving then says out of frustration, “it’s hard!”  LOL!  It is pretty hard buddy.

Anyone want to walk with us in the Great Strides Walk on Sunday, April 25th?!  We’re all getting together to to make a statement (the “take this CF” statement), bring awareness to Cystic Fibrosis, and celebrate the funds that have been raised this year to help find a cure for CF.  The walk has always been on a Saturday, but this year they’ve changed the location of the walk and so I guess we all got bumped on the priority list and Sunday was the only option.  We’re really hoping we’ll be back on Saturday next year, because we know Sundays are terribly inconvenient for people with church and family activities.  If you happen to be available, we would so love to have you walk with teamASHER.  It’s at Tempe Beach Park, registration begins at 8:00a, and the walk starts at 9:00a.  It’s a 5K (3.1 miles) and takes about an hour.  It’s a family event, all ages are invited, and there will be food and drinks and entertainment.  We’ll have a bright, obnoxious rainbow colored umbrella so you should be able to find us when you arrive at the park.  We’ll be taking a 2010 teamASHER photo at about 8:50a, so don’t miss that fun part :).  Hope you can join us!!!  We’re so thankful for your continued love and support!

Asher and I met our friends at the Museum last week.  We had never been there, but our friends invited us, and Jeremy had left for a few days, so we needed something fun like this to do, it was perfect!  I think Asher could have spent all day there had I thought to bring his big boy bed.  Part of the museum was under construction as they are getting ready for their new “Sounds Like Art” exhibit.  But my friend Joanna and I had lots of fun watching Isaac and Asher roam around Artville popping in and out of the different themed rooms from the garden, the studio, the gallery, and the kitchen.  I think Asher really could have spent another hour just in the kitchen.  He was having so much fun putting all of his food into the microwave, cooking them, and then serving them to us.  It was really cute to watch him be so confident and all business in the kitchen.  He was opening and slamming doors like he was looking for just the right spice or utensil to cook his fish.

The boys also enjoyed playing in the black light room.  Isaac was doing more structured things like Star Wars stances, and Asher was wiggling all the sticks and then chucking them across the room, ha!  Then the boys made about 6 custom pennants, they loved being able to color and stamp until their little hearts were content.

And then Micah joined us at the end.  And, (bless you, Micah) he was wearing his teamASHER tshirt.  His mom said he was happy because it just got washed, and he could wear it to school that day :).  Thanks for helping us spread the word about CF, Micah!

It was a great morning, and we’re so thankful for friends!