She's In Ireland!!!

    Brooklyn left Thursday night, 8/21, and landed in Dublin just after 10am on Friday, 8/22. She spent the rest of Friday and most of the morning Saturday just outside Dublin with other AFS Exchange Students who were also spending the year in Ireland. 

    Before she left we talked a lot about how things would be different, specifically the toilets and the food. We were getting videos after videos after videos of her being in complete awe of the differences. I definitely won't post them all but these are a few that I could literally watch over and over and over again! We got videos of the toilets, the restrooms (with no gaps in the doors!), her hotel room, how the windows open, of her eating meat!, the maple syrup, tons of food and drink pictures, the steering wheel on the right, another of how a different window opens, her at a party, her animals at home, an escalator, and of course, her in her school uniform, which I swore on my left pinky toe I would not share. Sorry. :(

    Her first day of school was the next week. We always get first-day-of-school pictures on the front porch so I sent her the sign and she got a picture. Here she is on her first day!

    

    More updates to come!!

One Last Hoo-Rah in Chicago!

    AFS told us we needed to get our student to one of their "gateway cities", which included LAX, Chicago, and New York. Since we live in LA we figured...easy-peasy! However, when we got Brooklyn's travel documents, it said her flight left from Chicago. So off we went to Chicago for a few days before she caught her plane. But first, quick "see-you-later"s from her sisters at the airport:

    Dustin, Brooklyn, and I left on Monday the 18th and were supposed to land at 5:30pm. However, because of weather in Chicago (lightening, thunder, and tornado warnings) we were diverted to Tulsa, OK where we got to spend a glorious six hours. LOL We were given 3 - $12 vouchers for food so we sat in a restaurant and explored the airport. The food was amazing...but we were so excited to get on the plane!

Finally ready to board in Tulsa!

Amazing chicken nachos!

Off we go!!!

    We landed at midnight but I had chosen a Hyatt super close to the airport to redeem my Hyatt points. Unfortunately for us, that's a hotel the airlines chose to put some of their passengers in when they're stranded. Because literally every flight out of Chicago was canceled, you can imagine the *insane* line I had to wait in just to check in. We finally went to bed around 3:15am. 

DAY 1 in Chicago

    We had Shedd Aquarium reservations at 9am so we had very little sleep. Today was a run-on-coffee-and-wine sort of day! We had gone to the aquarium every trip we took to Chicago for Brooklyn's surgeries so it was more nostalgic for us than anything. We perused the aquarium for a few hours then went to Millennium Park, had lunch, and went to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. Yes, I was *that* person who wore a Justin Turner jersey to a Cubs game. Hey...I gotta represent!! (His wife, Kourtney, actually reposted my picture to her story. #fangirl) Here are a few pictures from the day:

DAY 2 in Chicago

    Being the coffee-holic that I am, when I found out the largest Starbucks IN. THE. WORLD. is in Chicago, we just HAD to go. And boy it did not disappoint! It was *five* floors of amazing coffee goodness. They had pastries, lunch, breakfast, sweets, treats, literally anything you could want. They even had two bars with fresh-made coffee drinks, one of which I just had to try. I could have spent hours there.

    After the Starbucks Reserve Roastery we quickly ran to the Harry Potter store then to the Nederlander Theater where we saw 'MJ-The Musical'. It was so well done and we all liked it a lot. After MJ we went to an Irish restaurant (fitting, I know) to have dinner then went to Navy Pier and walked around before getting on an old fireboat for a fireworks tour. It was such an amazingly fun last day to spend with Brooklyn! Here are some pictures:

Starbucks Reserve Roastery

espresso martini

Navy Pier

Chicago skyline from the Fireboat tour

DAY 3 in Chicago

    This was a hard one... We didn't get much time before we had to leave Brooklyn at the airport. Lucky for us, I booked our flight back on American, which was in the same terminal as Aer Lingus. We left just 30 mins before Brooklyn so we were actually able to walk her (and the three other exchange students going to Ireland) to the gate. 

    It's no secret that Brooklyn isn't a touchy-feely kind of person, especially to me. But we had a deal that she would give me a 30 second hug...and boy did I use up every second I had! I knew it would be hard saying bye to her but I didn't know I would get as emotional as I did. 

all the letters you wrote her at her going away party

with her three new friends, who are also in Ireland for the year

with their plane in the background

Thanks for following along on Brooklyn's journey! 

**There are lots more pictures that I posted on my Instagram - one post per day actually - of our time in Chicago. Feel free to see more at @finallyacaliforniagirlagain on Instagram. Or linked HERE. 

Going-Away Party

Thank you so much to those of you who took time out of your busy schedule to say see-you-later to Brooklyn on Saturday night. To be honest, I was pretty stressed out by all the people who canceled the day of, but it turned out to be such a nice gathering of people who came to show their support and are so excited for Brooklyn's adventure! 

We had an assortment of Irish foods, decorations, desserts, and drinks. 

Brooklyn gave a short presentation with info on her city, family, and school. 

People were able to write her a going-away letter as well as take a flag, pin, and an Irish blessing on their way out. 

Thank you all again so much for your support of Brooklyn. We are so blessed to have you all in our lives!!

SURPRISE!!!!

We were beyond blessed to have some pretty special visitors come for Brooklyn's going-away party this last weekend. First, my best friend, Amie, came to town from AZ. Then, Dustin's sister, Marji, surprised Brooklyn. And at the very last second, our nephew, Kobe, came too! 

Here's some pictures and videos of the surprise and of our super fun weekend. It went by way too quick!

Thank you, Amie, Marji, and Kobe, for coming this weekend!!!

 
Marji and Kobe's first time at In-N-Out!!

Going away party fun

Airport sadness :( 

Save The Date!

To save money, we only mailed these postcards to our friends and family who are local; however, this invitation is for anyone and everyone who is able to come send Brooklyn off! No RSVP needed. The more the merrier!

She has less than 6 weeks to go!!

Stay Tuned!! Life Updates Coming!!!

Wow! It's been a hot minute since I've posted anything. After Brooklyn's surgeries I just didn't feel like there was much going on. It was kind of a nice little calm there for a while. But now we have something big going on... Brooklyn is going to Ireland!! She has applied and was accepted to be an exchange student with AFS (American Field Service) for the class of 2025-2026. She will leave the end of August and return home in June. While we know we will miss her more than we can express we are just as excited for her and this amazing adventure she's about to embark on! 

So stay tuned! More info to come. :)  If you're new here...WELCOME!! We used this blog to keep everyone updated on our surgery journey many eons ago, or so it feels like! There is a "follow" button at the very bottom of this blog. Click on that and you'll get an email notification every time I make a new post, which, let's be real...won't be too often. But I'd love to keep you all updated on how she's doing!!

Here are the links in the letter:

Brooklyn's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brooklyn_marie_2010/

AFS Ireland Info Page: https://www.afsusa.org/programs/ireland-high-school/

I Have an Awesome Kid!

Wow...what an awesome couple of days we've had!!! Yesterday (Wednesday) we decided to not drive anywhere...to just walk around & see what we could see......for free!! :)  I had already bought a Groupon for the Willis Tower several weeks ago & since yesterday was super sunny (even though it was super chilly) we decided to go there since we'd have a good view. On a map, it looked really far. But I had my app figure out how long it'd take to walk & it said only 30 mins! It was 1.5 miles from the Ronald McDonald House. So I was super stoked to be able to leave our car in the garage, not worry about driving anywhere, & definitely not worry about parking! So we got loaded up & were on our way. It took us about 45 mins to walk there w/ all the red lights & people walking about. But we had all day so I definitely wasn't in a hurry!

 

Brooke taking in the view!

It was chilly outside, but was so beautiful!

So just in relation... The RMH is about 2 blocks from the John Hancock building, which is the black one at the very top of the picture. That's where we walked from. Total all day was about 3.5 miles! I'm super glad I have an awesome stroller!!!

At first she didn't want her picture taken. Then she said the reason was b/c she missed daddy. So after calling dad, she was ready for the pictures!

The SkyDeck!!!!! Holy cow I didn't think I was afraid of heights at all...& then I stepped on the SkyDeck. Yikes! They keep that glass super clean, too, so you can see everything below you. It was quite awesome!

When we were done at the SkyDeck we were pretty hungry. We grabbed Cali a cute little Chicago book at the gift shop & the only thing Brooke wanted was a hot dog. She'd actually said as we were walking to the tower that she wanted a hot dog. Chicago --- hot dog --- You'd THINK that'd be easy to find. HA!!! I must have been walking on the wrong streets, or looking in the wrong places, cause I couldn't find hot dogs anywhere. I took some snacks, thank goodness, that she munched on until we could find something. So I was super stoked when, right next to the gift shop, was a Nathan's Hot Dog place. We grabbed lunch, sat down for a bit, then got her medicine & were on our way again...

From the Willis Tower we headed straight east to Millennium Park. We'd already been there before, but hey, why not again?!! There's actually a picture of Cloud Gate in our RMH room, so I thought I'd take Brooke to see the real thing!

Cloud Gate

From Millennium Park we headed back to the RMH b/c our friends from IA came in to town for surgery today. We were meeting up with them for dinner. We took a different way back to the house...State Street (which I'd wanted to walk down b/c of all the cool shops.) We stopped in Target on State St (which was super impressive), grabbed Cali a few souvenirs from the dollar bins :) as well as a couple other necessities, then kept walking. And we ran into this....

 ...which I was super excited for!!

When we got back to the house we met up with Krystal Phillipson, her son Brayden, & her mom. Brayden had surgery this AM w/ Dr. Bauer. Here's the 4 of us in front of Brooklyn's favorite area...the doors at the RMH.

After dinner we ran into some super heroes at the RMH!! The lady from the Incredibles as well as Captain America & some other lady superhero that I don't know (haha surprise surprise) were there handing out hats & taking pictures with some kids. It was SO cute!

Brooke loved her hat (even though it was quite challenging getting it on & off!!)

After the ice cream social we ran into some other nevus families so we just had to get a picture!! The little boy on the far left is Jace from FL, then Brayden, Brooklyn, & Michael from Russia! (Jace comes every 6 months & Michael has been here since August.)

I just LOVE that every single night is something fun for the kids to do. Dinner is always at 6:30pm & then the activity is at 7:30pm. Last night's activity was pumpkin decorating!! It was SO cute! They had a boatload of pumpkins & TONS of foam stickers & paint. The kids could decorate it however they wanted...& Brooke had a ball!! Here's her pumpkin...

The funny thing...they let us keep it! So now we have a permanent fixture in our room. Brooke wanted it on her side table... So there sits her pumpkin, until we have to leave! I still haven't convinced her that she can't take it on the plane. She says she will carry it...

And then she went to sleep. She was given a little puffin puppet that helped keep the pressure off her head...little sweetheart.

This morning we woke up & the first thing Brooke did was go grab a drain, 2 alcohol wipes, & her medicine!!! I swear this kid!! ;)  She was SO scared of the drain at first, but now she's a pro at it. And her medicine...my gosh I'm glad there's a kids safety cap on it. She draws it up herself (I check it, of course), takes it, then draws up the second syringe (she gets 1 1/2 syringes), I check it again, & she takes it again. We do this 3 times a day & she's seriously awesome.

After we got dressed we decided to head to the Water Tower Place & walk around their mall. It's 7 stories & pretty quiet. The John Hancock building & WTP is only about 2-3 blocks from the house, so it's super quick to get to.

On our way (we took Michigan Ave) we stopped in the Disney Store & got her some little 'Jake & The Neverland Pirates' & 'Sophia The First' figurines that were on sale for $10...couldn't resist!!

After eating lunch at Water Tower Place & walking around in the mall & realized I hadn't had my coffee for the day. Yeah, ummm, seriously. So I snapped this quick picture in front of Ditka's, right next to Starbucks!!

American Girl. I'm glad my girls don't really understand HOW amazing those dolls are. Because seriously it'll be 3 Christmases from now before they get one! I did walk with Brooke through the American Girl store & we picked up a magazine. Coincidentally enough, about 3 days before we came to Chicago we actually got a smaller American Girl catalog in the mail. I'm not kidding... Cali & Brooke would sit on the couch together & go through that magazine every single day. Brooke wanted to bring it with us!!! So she spent a couple blocks looking at HER very own personal American Girl catalog!

Dinner tonight was from The Lurie Foundation & was some pretty good Chicken Pot Pie. And leave it to my daughter to surprise me yet again when she had about 5-6 drink choices & she picked water... Yessssss!!!!!!

Tonight's activity was cupcake decorating by Swirl Cupcake. It was so cute. The owner had some big vanilla & chocolate cupcakes that only had frosting on them. Then she had some mini vanilla & chocolate ones that were already decorated. The kids could eat their small cupcake while they decorated their big one. It was so adorable watching them use every single color & every single topping. Brooke LOVED it!

She was in awe of the lady!

I just love this one...

Eating her big masterpiece

After the cupcake decorating she was able to decorate a princess crown, which she loved, but it was pretty hard getting it on her head!

 

We had an awesome couple of days. I've had SO much fun with this adorable little girl that I have. I have just loved watching her in awe of everything she sees. She's growing up so fast & I'm truly treasuring every moment I have with her!