Sunday and Monday January 20th and 21st, Road Trip!!

After church on Sunday, we headed up the road to Nashville for a super fun overnight trip.  We were meeting the Vanderbilt University Tri Delta Chapter and speaking to them about St. Jude.  Even though the kids were super excited about getting to do arts and crafts with a house full of girls, they were more excited to get to see our favorite SJ sweetie Mae and her family!!

We met the whole McNally crew at their favorite pizza restaurant and the kids went nuts when they saw each other.  I guess I should admit that I went just as crazy seeing Mae, Lucy, Winn, Tricia, and Michael as the kids did, but it had been a really long time since we'd seen them in person.  We had all the kids piled (really trapped) into a massive booth with the adults on the end; the noise level at the restaurant went up 100 times once we got there!!

After a very long meal filled with lots and lots of pizza, we headed to an amazing ice cream shop and I think sampled at least half of their selections!  Let me add that both the pizza shop and the ice cream shop were in a "new, hip area" and it was very amusing watching our 6 kids be themselves both in the restaurant AND in the ice cream shop.  So to make this even better, imagine a pizza shop packed with people and a very long wait; also imagine a very small ice cream shop packed with young people without children...in walks our families!!

With more energy to burn and super cold temperatures outside, we went to the McNally's house after we realized we were freezing from standing around talking and chasing the kids in the parking lot.  The kids played hide and seek, painted, and basically just ran around their house like wild hyenas laughing and giggling the whole time.  Needless to say, we all had a blast!!

Both of our families went to the Tri Delta House at Vanderbilt Monday and were able to tell the Chapter our SJ stories. Afterwards, the kids got to do all sorts if projects with the girls while we talked to different girls for the next little while.  We ended up leaving with bead bracelets, picture frames, and left a really huge SJ/Tri Delta banner that each if the kids helped make. With all the action in the past 24 hours, we were not shocked at all three of our kids fell asleep on the 3 hour drive home.


Winn And Lindsey...Pure Crazy Energy!

Looks Like Lucy Is Getting In On The Crazy Too!

The Whole Kid Crew!
Mae, Ingram, Lindsey, Lucy, Winn, And Madison
They Were Trapped In The Booth And Still Causing Trouble!

Lindsey And Lucy...The Dynamic Duo!

Don't Most People Feel Like The Youngest Siblings Get Away With Everything??
Perfect Example Here With Winn And Ingram!

I Have No Words For This One!!

Anyone Have Any Ear Plugs???

The Crazy Moved To The Warmth Of The McNally's House!

Everyone Getting In On The Wrestling Match!

Uncle!!!!

The Boys Trying On Necklaces While The Girls Did Some Shopping!
Hmmmm...Florida Colors?


Those Delta's Love St. Jude!

Getting Started On The Sign

I Wonder Who Did This Section??

We Finally Talked Ingram And Mae Into Doing A Messy Hand Print...
And They Loved Their Squishy Paint Fingers!

Making Bead Bracelets!

And Picture Frames!

And Of Course Making Deltas!

Madison Definitely Seems To Blend In With The Girls!
Kinda Makes Me Sad...About 6 More Years And She Could Be There :(

More Crafts With The Girls

These Two Could Definitely Cause Lots Of Trouble!!

See...Another One Of Madison Blending In With The Girls!

Mae And Winn In The Middle Of The Girls!

Throwing Deltas With The Deltas!

Ingram Has No Idea How Lucky He Is Right Now Surrounded With All These Girls!

The Crew Right Before We Headed Back Home

Ingram And Mae!!
Both Finished With Treatment And Praying Constantly Their Cancer NEVER Returns!

Tuesday December 31st, The Autozone Liberty Bowl!

Whew...so glad we're home, but it's still wayyyyy cold down here in Memphis!  We were not very prepared for our adventure at the Liberty Bowl; we did manage to have a ton of fun and warmed up afterwards with some good hot food.  I'm pretty sure everyone knew we were rooting for Rice since we were all decked out in blue and everyone else was in maroon for Mississippi State.  Ingram even wore a Rice shirt on top of his clothes that he will be able to wear for years courtesy of the Gramm family who are huge Rice fans!

During the half time show, Miss Autozone Liberty Bowl and seven cuties sporting red and blue St. Jude jackets were on stage dancing to music being played by Diamond Rio.  I do say "dancing" loosely because the kids didn't quite get their move on for the camera and the audience.  I know they were cold, but Miss Autozone Liberty Bowl tried really hard to get them to dance along with her; eventually, some of them moved a little.  Normally when we play music, our three start moving and make up all sorts of dance moves;  Ingram did showcase his famous chicken dance on stage and it was quite interesting!  There were also dance and cheer squads lining the field that were doing routines to the Diamond Rio songs as well and were really cute.  There were also about 50 Autozone Liberty Bowl Princesses and they had to be freezing too in their formal dresses!  Afterwards, they couldn't get to their coats fast enough and snuggled up with the kids for pictures in an attempt to get a little warm. 

Brrr... It's Cold Out Here!!
Go Owls!!

Apparently Cold Weather Turned Ingram And Lindsey Goofy!

Chatting Up Mr. Shadyac Before The Halftime Show!


Ingram Telling Mr. Shadyac About His How He Broke His Arm!

They Made The Scoreboard!


Diamond Rio, Miss Autozone Liberty Bowl, And Part Of The Dancers!

Trying To Warm Up Miss Autozone Liberty Bowl!
 
Mr. Shadyac, Miss Autozone Liberty Bowl, And Half The SJ Kids!

Snuggling With Some Princesses!

With 2013 ending, we are very thankful that we have had another year filled with good news for Ingram.  He has continued to recover from his treatment and develop into a feisty 5 year old little brother that pesters his big sisters all the time!  We truly believe that we wouldn't be here as a family of five if it weren't for our Heavenly Father and the knowledge He has given the doctors, nurses, and specialists that have treated Ingram over the past 20 months.  We are so very thankful for our family and friends that have helped carry us during this time in every aspect of life and can't imagine how we would have done it without them. 

With that being said, we would like for you all to continue to pray that cancer would never enter Ingram's body again and that he could live life fully being a testament to what great things God has done!  We would also beg you to pray for all the children and their families that are battling cancer now and that will battle cancer in the future.  We will begin the New Year with updating on special events related to St. Jude that Ingram will be a part of and with medical updates, including Ingram's quarterly MRI's.  His next scan will be Tuesday February 11th and it will be a very long day for him that begins with an IV since he no longer has a port to access.  He is already talking about not wanting to get a needle stuck in his arm so pray that it goes smoothly for him (and us) so that our day starts out on the right foot.  And of course pray for clear scans too!Again, thank you all for carrying us through the darkest days and rejoicing with us on our best days!

Friday to Monday December 27th and 30th, The Dismuke Family Vacation...Part 3!

A new day started with sunshine, snow, and more cold temperatures, but yesterday's problems were still there... a very swollen nose and a very swollen wrist.  After talking to our insurance people and the folks at the hotel desk, we decided to take Ingram to the nearest clinic to have his wrist x-rayed.  Madison got the shaft because her nose was evenly swollen but perfectly straight leading us to believe at least it was a clean break.  Ingram was already dressed and ready to ski and was not happy when we told him he got to go with Daddy to the doctor.  Obviously from his picture below, he could make a loose fist with his hand, but couldn't put any pressure whatsoever on his hand trying to get himself up off the floor.


You Could Say Ingram Was A Little Mad When We Told Him He Was
Going To The Doctor Instead Of Going Skiing!

While they were at the Clinic getting things taken care of, we decided to take care of the mountain and skied fast and furious (at least for us) while we had the chance.  Since we couldn't use our phones, we had to wait several hours before we heard anything, and trust me, the girls kept asking if Daddy had emailed yet.  Once we were at lunch, we finally got the news around 1pm what we were dreading.  After a couple X-Ray's, the Orthopedic Doctor confirmed that Ingram indeed broke his wrist: the good news is that his bones were lines up perfectly so all he would need is a cast and some downtime.  While we were at lunch, the girls went out to watch a deer that had come up to our restaurant.  You've got to watch the 10 second video to see what all they did while they were outside WITHOUT ME!

Why Does He Look So Small And Pitiful?

Yep, Broken For Sure!

At Least He's Still Smiling?

You Could Say This Clip Is Another Reason They're Smiling Soooo Big In The Picture Below!
 


They're Trying To Agree On What Color Cast Ingram's Going To Get.
Madison Doesn't Know That Ingram And Lindsey Made A Deal Before He Left
To Get A Lobos Blue Cast In Exchange For Her M & M's.
{Disclaimer on the food you see...The girls had already eaten their lunch and wanted a few more fries to warm up before we went out in the cold again.  They brought a whole new basket FULL of fresh fries!}

What the doctor didn't know is that Dismukes DO NOT do downtime.  As soon as they were back, we met up with them and headed straight to the top of the mountain because Ingram has been asking ever since we got there if he could go to the top.  The girls were beyond excited to ski with Ingram and couldn't wait to help him go down.  They would ski beside him to make sure he didn't go into the trees or off the side of the mountain and they would ski behind him to make sure no one came down too fast on him. 


The View From The Top!
Ready Or Not, Here We Go!!!

Starting Out, His "Pizza" Needed A Little Work, But He Was A Pro By The End Of The Trip!

Madison The Compassionate Came Out In Full Force!!!
She Watched Ingram's Every Move And Came Quick To His Rescue Many Times!

The Troublesome Trio!
We Lost These Three For About An Hour...So We Just Went Skiing On Our Own Till We Found Them.

After skiing for a few hours, we decided that since they sun was going down and the lifts were closing that it was time for dinner at the same restaurant for the third time in a row!  Seriously, we loved this restaurant and they knew us as "the ketchup family" for how much ketchup Daddy and the girls consumed in one meal.  Our waiters were great and even helped Craig brush up on his French and they also tried to help Daddy teach the rest of us a few French words too. 

Another Proud "First" For The Family...Signing Ingram's First Cast!

Madison Just Realized Her "Big Nose" Would Be In The Picture!

Pretty Sure Lindsey Is Enjoying Madison's Displeasure!
Ahhh...Sisterly Love!


After dinner and a quick change for dry gloves, we headed out to go tubing and sledding again.  This had become our nightly thing and the kids absolutely love it; I take that back, we all loved it!  While we were waiting for it to open, the kids made perfect use of their surroundings and made snow angels, had snow ball fights, and slid down the entire huge hill where we were in their boots.  The fact that is was even colder at night had no bearing on them, so we all just bundled up and took extra gloves to trade out when the others got wet.


At Least It Wasn't His Snowball Throwing Arm!

A Rare Moment...
They're Laying In The Snow...And Not Trying To Pelt Each Other With Snowballs!

Ingram And Daddy Going Tubing...100 Fast!

Our last day to ski, Daddy and Lindsey decided to got early and hit the slopes before the rest of us lazy people got out of the bed.  We kept trying to tell him it was vacation and we could sleep in, but he wasn't buying it!  A couple hours later, they came back for us and we hit the slopes hard and fast...even Ingram.  He was going faster than the day before, but our visibility was less because it was snowing and foggy.  We kept track of everyone and no one got hurt today!


The Early Risers On The Last Ski Day!

"No!  I Didn't Run Into The Building!" Lindsey Insists After Daddy Tells Us About Their Morning
And Then Shows Us The Picture That He Took...You Be The Judge!

Lindsey, Our Daredevil!
Nothing Can Keep Her From Going All Out And Super Fast!

Watch Out Below!!
Ingram The Mountain Conqueror Is On The Way!!


Sweet Sisters...They're Still Flanking Each Side To Make Sure Ingram Stays Safe!
 
We tried a new restaurant for lunch and it was great!  We sat on the porch (yes, in freezing weather) and devoured tons of pizza before we went out for the rest of the day.  The kids decided that they wanted to go back to the lake and ice skate then walk back up the mountain to go sledding;  Ingram actually was the one leading the charge because he wanted to go back to the snow fort and make it even bigger.  Secretly, I think they knew that after ice skating and sledding, we would just have to warm up with our nightly trip to the cookie store!  I mean, is it possible to walk right by a cookie store and NOT go inside to get fresh cookies??



Can We Say They're Goofy??  They Were Being So Silly And Giggling But
When I Go To Take The Picture, THIS Is What They Do.
Maybe It's Because They Were Wanting To Get A Second Pizza Because They're "Still Starving"?


The Boys!!

Booo....Last Night In The Snow!
And Yes, They're Still Wearing Their Cowgirl Boots So They Can Slide Faster
Down The Hills...Not The Playground!!

Broken Arms Don't Stop Pillow Fights!
Seriously, He Never Stops!!

Sunday morning came very early as we sadly left our little snow paradise.  On the bright side, the kids were wide awake and really looking forward to the long drive back to the airport in NYC.  We drove in snow for a few hours with the kids being all wild and crazy as usual and then finally got back to the United States.  I should probably mention that when waiting in line to go through the U.S. Border Patrol/Customs Checkpoint is not an ideal to figure out that someone needs to go to the restroom RIGHT THEN!!!  That's about all we'll say about that other than we got some serious looks from our Border Patrol Agent because we were trying to hold in the laughter and get through the gate quickly.  The perks of road trips never seem to end...


Oh Yeah, This Is Going To Be A Fun 8 to 10 Hour Drive Back To New York City!

Once we got to the airport, it got even more comical as we checked in to our separate flights just as before; Craig had the girls on one airline and I had Ingram on another.  We found out after being dropped off first at our counter three terminals away from Daddy and the girls, that our second flight had been cancelled and that we would be spending the night in Chicago and fly out first thing in the morning.  Not good!!  I happened to mention that the rest of our family was on another airline and on a direct flight and she worked hard to get us on that flight too.  For as many people bash airline employees, this sweet lady at the American Airline counter at LaGuardia worker her tail off to make sure we got on that flight home with them. 



On The Bright Side...We Found Out Why Ingram's Pants Are Tights Again!!