Summer Fun

We're well into our summer clinic break and loving it! Today was the second week with no doctor's appointments, no chemo, nothing but a blood draw yesterday. Sure, he has to be in the hospital next Monday and Tuesday, but that's so much easier to take when we haven't been driving up there every week for long clinic visits.

Jake's doing great. After a low hematocrit count 8 days ago and a few days' of worrying whether another transfusion was in his future, Jake's count came up 4 points in 4 days. So we were able to enjoy the 4th with no worries :)

The big fun of the last two weeks was the Vans' Warped Tour at the Utah State Fairpark. The Warped Tour is a wide selection of alternative rock bands (I'm guessing there were 30 or 40 playing the day we went) and Matt got tickets for his birthday. One for him, one for Jake, one each for Mom and Dad . . . As the day came closer, all I could think was, "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Of course, at the time I bought the tickets, it wasn't averaging over 100 degrees.

We were able to work out a good deal--two of Mat's friends bought tickets and so I took the 3 older boys up at noon shortly after everything opened. I walked them right to the entrance, made sure they had my cell phone number programmed into the cell phone they were carrying, and gave them two instructions: The one that said Don't Split Up and the one that said I Trust Each of You So Don't Do Anything That Would Make Me Change My Mind.

And then they were on their own for a few hours. I didn't go far--just to a nearby Barnes and Noble where I could enjoy a few hours of cool peace and quiet while still being close enough to rescue them. Chris and Jake came up at 4:30 and I met up with them to hear a couple bands. We found the big boys in time for the show we all most wanted to see--Angels and Airwaves. Jake, fortunately, didn't want to be in the pushing mass of humanity but was happy in a somewhat shaded spot where we could see the side of the stage and had a good view of the crowd-surfers. Which is when Jake proved his eyesight is indeed 20/20, as he said, "Isn't that Matt?"

Yes, it was. Sigh.

Believe me, it could have been worse. I haven't had this much fun people-watching since the Blaqk Audio concert. I did not see any corsets this time, but there were lots of varieties of "What were you thinking?" and "Does your mother know you're wearing that?" But there were also lots of kids that looked like my sons and his friends, teenagers who like music and like live performance and don't feel the need to pierce every available (and some not so available) body part.

So where is my Coolest Mom in the Universe crown?