Friday, January 4, 2008

Update on our trip

Sorry for the lack of information on the last post. We were trying to get all the pictures online and we've been pretty tired.

Instead of making all kinds of slide shows I decided to post the pictures on the website Shutterfly. The link to view all of the pictures is: www.brendonadunn.shutterfly.com
Once there you can click on the different albums to check out the pictures. There are a LOT of pictures and I'm still adding and updating so it will probably change frequently. We took a total of about 800 pictures while we were there so it's taking a little while to get them all up.. Thanks for your patience.

The first night there we were starving by the time we checked into the hotel. We drove around trying to find something to eat. San Diego does not have a lot of fast food places like Maine does. We ended up finding a pizza place and ordered a large pizza. We were so tired that we didn't really think about how large a 28 inch pizza would be. The box was so big that it had to be folded on the sides to fit in the back of the impala that we were driving.. Andy felt really goofy carrying that huge box into the hotel. Needless to say, that pizza was breakfast and dinner for a couple of nights. Here is a picture of the box next to a newspaper to give you an idea of how huge this thing was.
The next day (Sunday) was Legoland. We were all very excited to finally check it out! There were a lot of people, but it wasn't as crowded as we thought it would be. We were amazed at all of the things that they made. You'll have to check out the pictures to see how cool everything is. They had a full size Volvo SUV made from legos. It looked so real! The rides were not what we thought they would be, but they were still cool. They were a little kiddie. The ride part reminded me of StoryLand in New Hampshire. Brendon's favorite ride was either the Bionicle coaster or the firetruck ride. The Firetruck ride was like an old fashioned rail car where you had to pump the lever up and down on both sides to get it going down the track. Once you reached the end you had to put the "fire" out using a pump water gun. Once the fire was out you had to pump the truck back to the starting line. Andy and Brendon had so much fun with it! They had fireworks that night, but we didn't stay because we wanted to make sure we made it back to the hotel in daylight. We also wanted to make sure we had time to get some food and all that good stuff. We stopped for dinner on the way home and then spent the rest of the night relaxing at the hotel.

Monday was a free day. We decided to drive around and check out the sites of San Diego. We ended up at Silver Strand beach. It was beautiful! We walked on the sand and we found 5 sand dollars and some pretty funky shells. We also went to another beach on Coronado island called Imperial Beach. We walked on the pier and then got some lunch. After that we headed to a place called Balboa Park. They have playgrounds and all kinds of museums to check out. We ended up going to a Science Museum and saw a movie about monsters of the sea on the astrodome. Bren had never been to one so he thought it was pretty cool. We headed back to the hotel after the museum. Behind the hotel was a place called Seaport Village. It has all kinds of cool shops and restaurants. We got some dinner and walked around by the water for a little while. Then we decided to check out the pool to see if it was heated (it was an outdoor pool). It was! They also had 3 fire pits set up outside that they lit each night and a hot tub. Very nice!
Tuesday was Christmas Day and we were headed back to LegoLand. It was Brendon's 10th birthday. The place was so BUSY! We did not think it would be so busy on Christmas, but it was. We decided to check out the shows that they had and try to see as much as we could since it was our last day. We saw a 4d movie, built a robot, watched a play and checked out all the shops. We didn't hit too many rides, but we went on all the ones Bren wanted to. Halfway through the day my flip flop broke. Not broke like it was still wearable, but completely trashed. Andy tried to get me another pair but they did not have any in my size, nor did they have any other shoes (just slippers). What to do?? Andy taped my shoe for me. The rest of the day was spent walking around in a pair of shoes that felt like they had a huge wad of gum on the bottom. It was pretty funny!Wednesday was another free day. We went to check out the USS Midway (Naval aircraft carrier) which was in the harbor next to our hotel. We were able to go on it and check everything out. It was pretty neat to see how things are done on the Navy carriers. Brendon thought the planes were cool.. Then we drove to La Jolla to check out a place where sea lions and seals relax on the beach. It was so cool! They looked like giant rocks that moved. Very cute. Brendon really wanted to go swimming so when we got back from driving around La Jolla we went back to the hotel so Brendon and Andy could swim.. The water was warm, but the air was cool. I was cold so I didn't go swimming. They only stayed in for a little while. Here are some pictures of them swimming..

After swimming we went back to our room, showered and went to walk around behind our hotel to find some dinner. It was a little chilly, so we brought the food back to our room to eat.

Thursday was the San Diego Zoo. It was amazing! So many cool animals. We were there all day and still didn't see everything there was to see. We saw all of the animals we wanted to see so we were happy. Pandas, Tigers, Monkeys, Hippos and all kinds of other creatures. We went on the "skyfari" which is like a ski lift, only it takes you all over the park. It was cool. They also had a double-decker bus that took us all around the park. We took lots of pictures, which are almost all on Shutterfly.

Friday we had to be out of the hotel by noon so we packed up and checked out around 10am. We picked up some final souvenirs behind the hotel and thought about what we wanted to do for the day. We had to be at the airport by 7pm. We decided to drive to the Cabrillo Monument. It is a state park that has an old lighthouse on it. We checked out the sights and then went to get lunch. We went to Dave & Busters (kind of like Chuckie Cheese, only bigger and geared more towards older people) to meet a friend and her daughters. It was so much fun. Brendon played the games until it was time to head out. We had to fill the rental car up, get some dinner, return the car and get checked into the airport. Everything went smoothly and we arrived at the airport by 6:30. We went through security and then found our gate. We had plenty of time to kill so we got some dinner at the airport. Our flight left at 9pm, right on time. As we were leaving it started to rain. It didn't rain at all the entire time we were in San Diego, until we left. The flight was a little bumpy, but not too bad. Bren stayed awake until around 1am, then he fell asleep. He did so well! He was exhausted when we arrived in New York, but he's such a trooper. He was cracking jokes and being Bren. Our flight from NY was on time and we landed in Maine around 10:15am.. It was a long night, but we were so excited to be home! We were met at the airport by another Make-A-Wish Representative, Linda, and a couple of family members (My mom and her boyfriend). A limo was at the airport to take us home. Again, we were so tired that we slept in the limo. It was still cool to go home in a limo! Very nice. We opened a few presents when we got home, then we all took a nap. We were only going to sleep for a couple of hours, but we ended up sleeping for 4 hours. The rest of the night was spent enjoying being home.

The weekend was busy, but fun. We met up with family members to celebrate Christmas and unpacked and tried to adjust to the time change. Our trip was the trip of a lifetime and we are so grateful that we were given the opportunity.. Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible!!

Back to normal life, Brendon went to the clinic Wednesday for his chemo and checkup. He's taller and thinner than he was a month ago.. He looks and feels great so he got another clean bill of health from his doctor. His chemo was quick and he won't have another iv until the 30th. He's been fighting a cold since we returned and yesterday his body was achy (side effect of the chemo). He didn't let it stop him from doing his normal activities. He went to bed early last night because he was so sleepy. His counts are good and he's doing good. He handled the trip very well. We had a hard time keeping up with him.. He had tons of energy. We are so thankful that he's returning to himself.

That's it for tonight. Thank you for reading this novel that was written.. :) We also want to thank you all again for everything that has been done for us. We are so blessed.

We'll update again soon and talk about the Christmas parties we had. Happy New Year!! ~Amber and Andy

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

We're back!!

We are back from our trip. There is so much to share that we'll probably do a few posts to show all the pictures and talk about everything that happened. We hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!

Brendon's Aunt Marcia made him a beautiful quilt for Christmas. She gave it to him Friday morning. She did such a great job on it. Here's a picture of Brendon with the quilt.

Brendon's home health nurse Mel came over before we left on Friday to drop off something she had picked up for Bren on her trip to Jamaica last month. We haven't seen her in a while so it was really great to see her again. Here is a picture of the hat she got for him. It's pretty funny. The dread locks look so real and he loves having the long hair. He automatically started talking with an accent as soon as he put the hat on. He's such a riot!

We had a pre-trip adventure to Boston on Friday night. Brendon's Uncle Tommy and his girlfriend Chelsey took the family out to eat and then to see the Blue Man Group in Boston. It was so much fun! Tommy, Chelsey, Chelsey's Mom, Chelsey's Dad and Danny all went in together and bought Brendon a PSP for Christmas along with 5 games and 3 movies.He was able to play with it for the trip to Boston. We left around 3:30pm and drove to Boston. We went out to eat, then took the T to the event. It was the most amazing thing! Brendon really enjoyed it (as did all of us). It was so nice to have all of us together doing something that we've never done before. They put on a great show. Lots of lights and music. We'd recommend it to anyone who has the chance to check them out! Great stuff!!

We didn't get home until around 1am and we were being picked up at 3:30am for our 6am flight. We were pretty tired, to say the least. Andy and Brendon laid down for a couple of hours, while I was too afraid to oversleep. So my cousin Danny spent the night to help me finish last minute things and keep me company while I stayed up. He's so sweet! The limo arrived at 3:30 to take us to the airport. We were kind of bummed because we were too tired to really enjoy the limo, but it was still fun. We were so excited for our trip that it was all good. We were followed to the airport by a few family members. Aunt Sherry, Danny, Ashley, Meme and Kevin. We were met at the airport by our Make-A-Wish representatives Frank and Connie Ayotte. It was a great send off..


The flight there was very long. We were on the plane for almost 7 hours. These are a few pictures from the plane ride.They needed to de-ice the plane and then they had to wait for our turn to take off.. Once we arrived in San Diego around 4:30 our time (1:30 CA time), we were met by Make-A-Wish representatives at the airport. They helped us get the rental and get checked into the hotel. They were so helpful and nice! It was great to have someone get us situated, being that we were all so exhausted.. The hotel was beautiful! Very classy and our view was great. We were on the 15th floor overlooking the harbor.

That's it for this post.. I'm still working on getting all the pictures online. We'll be sure to talk about all that we saw and did while in San Diego in the next post. I'll try to update again tomorrow. Have a great night everyone! ~Amber