Nice break

Last week I did not get chemo for the first time in 12 weeks. It was AWESOME!!! On Friday we took a short family vacation down to south-west corner of Colorado. Deniz wanted to see the Four Corners (where a person could stand on four states - Colorado, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico) at once, Ada wanted to see a ghost town.

So on Friday we drove down to Four Corners had our pictures taken, then we stayed at the lodge inside the Mesa Verde National Park. Dan and I had been to Mesa Verde National part just over 10 years ago, and had liked it. Staying within the park was nice. On Saturday we did one guided tour of one of the cliff settlements and one self guided one, and then drove to Durango. Our hotel had a swimming pool so the girls and I took a dip, but it really wasn't a great pool, too much chemicals in the water, it smelled pretty strong. For dinner we met a good friend. And then on Sunday morning we started our drive back, stopped at a ghost town just before Ouray. It was raining pretty bad - and believe it or not the temperature was 47F in some places. Thankfully we got about 15 minute break in the rain, jumped out of the car, toured a few of the houses and got back in the car before getting soaked. When we got back to town it was 100F!!

So it was great that we could cover all that we wanted to cover. I was pretty energetic the whole trip, although I did take a nap after getting home on Sunday afternoon. When we asked the kids what was their favorite part about the whole trip, Ada's response was "sharing the umbrella with my dad" and Deniz's response was " to jump from one bed to the other". Well, I guess we could have achieved those moments without leaving the town, but I am sure they will remember this trip when they are older.

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

The view from where we stopped to have a picnic lunch:


Deniz with one limb on each state:


Ada with her native American hair clips:

Cliff palace :

Chilling in the shade:
lots of ladders to climb:
The houses in the ghost town were still in great shape:

Yesterday was 4th of July, so the girls enjoyed the fireworks at night, and there were a LOT of them in our neighborhood. I LOVE long weekends, don't you?

This morning I saw my oncologist. We will start the next round of chemo on Friday, I will have half of a drug dose on Monday. They prescribed an anti-nausea drug, when I went to the pharmacy they said that it needed pre-authorization from the insurance company, otherwise it costs $440 for one treatment (3 pills) - I sure hope I get it preauthorized :)

I will try to get in an update for y'all over the weekend. New drugs, new side effects, new routine.. (one of the side effects is that I will pee RED for the first two days, the side effect of another drug is bleeding in the bladder :) )

Cheers!