Black Mesa, OK (04.08)

Our first father/daughter Spring Break trip happened in 2008. The main objective was to reach the Highpoint of Oklahoma. The plan was to fly to Amarillo, TX and have our cousin Matt pick us up, as he was able to join us for this trip. However, we almost did not make it to Amarillo. We had a stopover in Dallas that included a severe seizure that lasted longer than 5 minutes. Paramedics had to be called and airport police also hustled to the scene. Just as everyone was arriving, Kellisa popped out of her seizure.

Since the paramedics were on scene, they had to check Kellisa out. At the same time, a police officer starts questioning me about Kellisa. "Where is her mother? Is she Hispanic? Do you have the mother's approval to be traveling out of state?" I did not let the questions bother me as I figured he was just doing his job in a border state. Kellisa checked out OK and they offered to transport her to the hospital for further evaluations. Did I ever miss Lisa at this point. We are use to making joint decisions in these situations.

If we go on...am I just being selfish? Would I ever forgive myself if something happened in the air?

If we stay...we are entirely stuck in Dallas and for how long? Matt will be waiting in Amarillo for a long time.

Even though Kellisa struggles with communication, we try and give her a say in these situations. Kellisa was looking good as she did not have the usual paralysis that follows even a mild seizure. I'm sweating bullets as I ask her if she is OK and ready for one more airplane ride. She answers "Yes" and that was good enough for me.

We were far from our gate and it was past the departure time. We hurry to the gate and to our good fortune, the gate agent has held the plane because he had seen us at the gate earlier and knew we where around somewhere. He was also listening to the rescue on his radio and assumed it was us. I was very appreciative that he held the entire plane about 15 minutes just for us.

How about one more problem? We fly Southwest and they are well known for not assigning seats. With Kellisa, we are always the first to board. However, being the last on a full flight would mean that we both would get stuck with middle seats and who knows how close together? I think the gate agent saw some fear in my face and correctly assumed why it was there. He told us not to worry because he had the flight attendants hold two seats in the front row. Gotta love Southwest! The flight was uneventful and we met Matt at the airport just as planned.

The following day we made the long drive to the trailhead listening to Hannah Montana the entire way. Matt can still sing some of those early songs from this trip. "Everybody makes mistakes...everybody has those days".

Black Mesa reaches 4,973 feet above sea level. The trail is 4.2 miles one way and gains 654 feet along the path to the summit.

Kellisa is ready to go at the trailhead:

Views from the trail:

The trail can be seen in the distance heading directly up Black Mesa:


Most of the 654 feet of elevation gain happens in a short distance. The next 8 pictures were taken by Matt as I work my way up the difficult trail with Kellisa:

The view from the top of Black Mesa:

Once on the mesa, the trail continues to the actual Highpoint:

Enjoying the summit of Oklahoma:

More views from the top:

The smiles continue back at the car:

The sun is setting after one of my all-time favorite hikes:

1st Day at Mandarin Middle School (8.23.10)

Kellisa getting dropped off at her new school to start 6th Grade:

At her desk in the classroom:

The Wiggles! (8.13.10)

Friday the 13th of August 2010 turned out to be a very good day for Kellisa. She had water play at Hope Haven Day Camp followed by a Wiggles concert in the evening.

Kellisa became a huge fan of The Wiggles in 2003. The Wiggles took a backseat to Hannah Montana a few years ago. For some reason when we heard The Wiggles were coming to Jacksonville, we asked Kellisa if she would like to go see them. Without hesitation, Kellisa answered "Yes". We were a little surprised and played a Wiggles DVD and she loved it, even though it had been a couple of years. The tickets went on sale and we were fortunate to get the three front row seats to a section just to the side of the stage.

How did Kellisa become such a Wiggles fan back in 2003?

Kellisa was almost 4, extremely sick and in the hospital. She had been sick for days and the doctors did not know why. Kellisa was lethargic and couldn't keep her eyes open for more than a few minutes at a time. Lisa was trying to engage Kellisa in a hospital room with very little to work with. At this point, Kellisa never really watched TV, but Lisa turned it on just to try it. As Lisa was going through the channels, she stopped on The Wiggles. Lisa did not believe her eyes as Kellisa immediately smiled and showed some life.

Kellisa was near death for the next 6 weeks before they finally diagnosed her with a shunt infection (meningitis), which required emergency brain surgery. That surgery was followed by a 2nd brain surgery a week later. During these 6 weeks, The Wiggles were the only thing that would perk Kellisa up a little.

We strongly believe The Wiggles played a part in saving her life and we've been fans/admirers ever since.

Kellisa has two friends who are brother/sister and they've been friends of The Wiggles for 11 years. Because their mother provided Lisa with a contact email to The Wiggles inner circle, Kellisa was able to meet The Wiggles before the concert.

Kellisa and Lisa danced a little at our seats before the concert even started because they were playing some Wiggles music. Kellisa had her own seat and thought she could run. Unfortunately, her body did not match her mind, despite giving it a great try. If her legs worked the way she wanted them to, we would have had an encounter with security. Because of this uncontrolled excitement and confidence, Kellisa danced on my lap and in front of me for the entire show.

On to the show...if a picture is worth a 1,000 words...based on the following pictures, we don't need to type much to tell you what an amazing time we had at The Wiggles concert.

Adventure 16 (aka: Big Red Boat)

With Kellisa growing so fast, we recently outgrew our 2 person kayak. We thought our kayaking days were over...then we saw the Adventure 16 canoe/kayak hybrid at Gander Mountain. This evening was our first outing with our new boat. We spent about an hour on a lake less than a mile from our house. It's a little rocky compared to a kayak, but we think it will work once we get the "feel" for it. What's the worse that can happen?

At 16ft. and 85 pounds...it's quite a challenge: