The Floating Hospital

Well this has been a long week I will not lie. We figured this week Deven put in close to 100 hours. He got lucky and got the weekend call so we didn't get to see him this whole weekend. He finally got home Sunday about noon, but now he is sleeping soundly poor guy he is tired and gets to start all over tomorrow Thanks goodness he switches rotations this Thursday. I will not miss this one. He had one afternoon off this week and he had heard at the hospital that The Mercy Ship was at Pearl Harbor apparently it only docks here about once every 2 years The doctors told him he should go check it out. It was amazing. It is literally a hospital on the water. Right now it was returning from a humanitarian mission, but in war times it acts as a rescue ship on the water. It is capable of staffing up to 900 people. We got a tour and and it was amazing. The Mercy Ship

This is up in the captains bridge. The guy was so awesome and he showed us all of the new GPS technology they have on board. They were in the process of mapping their route home to San Diego. They were leaving the next morning.

He let Gracie and Deven touch the captains wheel. Gracie was a little nervous she didn't want us to really go out to see. We tried to assure her it would take a lot of effort to get that ship out of the harbor.

This is on top of the flight deck. The sheds is where they store their two choppers when they are not on a mission. They said the wings fold up and they fit inside. On their last mission one of their helicopters got 4 bullet holes in it. I think is is so sad people attacked a ship that was coming to help them. They said it was a little scary as they have very little fighting power on this ship. They take with them a small security force.

This is the CAT Scan machine on the boat. Deven was amazed at all the radiology technology. They usually have 2 radiologist on board. This boat had 12 Operating rooms, and ICU, a huge pre op room. A full Dental and eye clinic. It was amazing.

Deven Gracie and I walking up the dock to get on the Mercy Ship

This is a picture of just how big this ship is. We had just parked our car and couldn't believe how big this ship was. It towered over all the other ships in the harbor. They usually go out for 4 month missions at a time. Deven thought one day he would like to have the opportunity to do this. This time they visited Guam, Vietnam, and a whole bunch of other tiny islands between Hawaii and Australia. I can't remember all the names. Anyways they told us of all the people they helped. In each island they will do surgery on up to 50 people a day. I just forget sometimes how lucky we are to have good medical care and access to it.

More Family Fun

Well one more week down of Deven doing his pediatric rotation. I will admit this is not my favorite. Plus I hate hearing about all of the sad things that can happen to kids. He has been busy but he has been trying hard to come home and have fun with the family even though he has been on call all night and hasn't had any sleep. I really appreciate it and so does Gracie. Deven and I have found our favorite beach on the North Shore. We go there almost every week. Unfortunately the waves are starting to pick up and they say in a week or two they will be getting big. But we will just have to find another beach until next May when the North shore calms down again. But we are excited to see just how big the waves get. Just a little scenery from our favorite beach.

Gracie is following in her dad's foot steps she has really taken up boogie boarding. Even though she doesn't take on the really big waves she has figured out how to ride the waves into the shore. We can't get her out of the water.

As you can see it is now evening and she is still going. She also put on her goggles by this time. She decided she had enough water in her eyes. We thought it was cute.

Well Deven came home after being on call one day and decided he would finish painting our room. We were suppose to have our carpet by now but wouldn't you know it got damaged in shipping it. We have to start all over they had to re order it and it could be another 6 weeks. I was pretty down so Deven painted my room for me while I took Gracie to a birthday party. He thought that would help and it did. But that night I couldn't sleep in my room the fumes where to strong so I slept down stairs on a blow up mattress. Well Gracie found me the next morning and couldn't believe I had a slumber party without her so we promised her she could sleep in her pump bed the next night. She finally decided that was ok.

OK so this picture is kind of dark but I hope you can appreciate this outfit as much as we did. Gracie was so insistent on wearing her ballet outfit and I didn't have it in me to fight it so we agreed but when you add bowling shoes to it we had to laugh and I tried to capture it on camera.

Gracie and mommy got new running shoes. She was so excited she decided she was going to go running with mommy and daddy that night. We made a special outing just for her. She did it we kept saying do you want to turn around and she said no I need to run to the park. Well the park is a 1/2 mile up and a 1/2 mile home but she did she wouldn't stop she ran the whole mile. She slept so good that night I think she truly ran herself out. Now she asks me everyday if we can go running.

Family Fun Fest

Well it turns out Deven got Labor Day off!!!! Yeah we loved it and he did so much yard work for me today. I should have taken pictures may be next time. He planted me new plants and trimmed up all the trees and shrubs it looked great. So we had to take some time to celebrate. Today our stake had a what they call Family Fun Fest. It was at the stake center and they had set up carnival rides and all sorts of slides and jumping gadgets. We had a ward pot luck and then of course they had cotton candy and snow cones and popcorn. Gracie thought it was awesome. Her favorite ride was this shark slide. I wish you could have seen her face when she came out the first time we weren't sure if she liked it she looked so unsure until she said "that was so fast I want to do it again." Gracie and mommy in front of her favorite slide "Jaws"

Gracie coming down the slide. Its too bad my camera delayed on taking the picture her face coming down was priceless. She is getting so brave.

Gracie and her friends on the train ride.

Of course on a hot day nothing was more refreshing than a wonderful snow cone.

At the ward picnic Gracie was enjoying her pixie stick.

With Deven being a little more busy this month we spent one evening down at the park we like to take Gracie's car out and let her ride it around the tennis courts. She has so much fun she pretends to go to the store and of course McDonald's. I just enjoy watching her play and we both love a little fresh air.

On Sunday night Deven was desparte to play guitar hero and so he convinced Gracie she wanted to play to she thought it was so neat but was complaining the guitar was to heavy to play standing up so she decided to sit down to jam. I must say she was a natural. Unfortunatley real life starts again tomorrow. Deven is on call again and I need to be prepared for a long day. We will find some way to get out and make the day a little more bearable. I think this week will be long so we are just going to have to have a good attitude, and I guess we'll just have to have fun without Deven.