Two Years, And One Day...

Today marks two years...

and one day...

since Braden was declared to be in a second remission!

TAKE THAT cANCER!!!!!

Huge day...

absolutely HUGE!

If you've been reading along, you have heard the story of what has happened since he was declared to be in a second remission.

There's 3 years more story before of that stuff,

and it's equally filled with "Seriously!"  moments...

Seriously! :)

Well...yesterday was a day of celebration and DETOURS!!

So we all detoured, first separately, then together!

Zach and I headed out for a cooking class!

He's a huge foodie..yes, he's nine, but he loves to cook and create in the kitchen! :)

His "mixes" require much supervision though...the boy would throw everything in the pantry in a dish. 

I think it's because he's a boy... LOL!! :)

We play "Chopped" at home quite a bit and one time his basket was:

(cue the dramatic music please...

and....hit it Ted Allen....)

Vanilla pudding powder mix

Milk

Nilla Wafers

and...

Bananas.

You can probably guess what I thought he would make,

BUT...you would be wrong!

He made a vanilla pudding, banana puree sauce with a cookie/cake made from pulverized nilla wafers and pantry ingredients.

It wasn't awful!  :)

So we took a class at the KC Culinary Center in downtown Overland Park..it was a BLAST!

It was a SuperHeroes class and we made 1-2 Punch, Hulk Juice, Iron Man Meatballs, Spiderman Spaghetti and Captain America Patriotic Parfaits...

We had so much fun he wanted to make it for dad for dinner so we went to the store and did just that!

And it was just as yummy at dinner.

Again.

Twice in one day...but he was VERY happy so it was worth it! :)

I heard about a million Zachisms during the day,

but the funniest one was when we were eating and talking about the ingredients in the meatballs.

They were made from ground turkey.

He suggested we call them "turkey balls" instead.

I thought Brian might spit his food out, he was trying so hard not to laugh out loud. :)

I told him we should stick with meatballs.

Oh my sweet little blonde mini me.. :)

Braden got to spend a good chunk of the day with one of his favorite people in the world...Miss Fuller (who got married and is now Mrs. Bradley but somehow...I don't think she's ever gonna be Mrs Bradley to him)! :)

She took him down to the College Basketball Experience in downtown KC...

It is his FAVORITE place on Earth.

Basketball is Braden's love...well next to his incredible teachers and friends at school...

He shoots hoops for at least two hours a day outside when the weather allows,

and on bad weather days, he shoots inside for a really long time!!

It got him through bone marrow transplant when he was three.

Transplant is so painful you can hear kids screaming day and night.

When the nurses would hear Braden scream, they would come running to the door to check on him and leave cracking up because...

...he was screaming because he just made a good shot!

"SLAMMA JAMMA" was his first really long multi-syllabic utterance!! The MLU rocked, but the verve in which it was delivered was...

...priceless!! :)

During transplant, he got up out of bed and played basketball every day, but two.

That is FIERCE!!!

I know I'm his mom, and therefore EXTREMELY biased,

but seriously...

THAT is FIERCE!!!

And that distraction and need to play is what got him released about 3 weeks after admission.

Again...

FIERCE!!

TAKE THAT cANCER!

So he got to do his favorite thing too.

And dad coached wrestling at a kids' tournament...his love too.

And then, we all sat around, completely stuffed, watching Bubble Guppies and Zach and Brian played checkers and chess.

I really don't think a day could be more perfect!

2 years ago, they said we wouldn't get this....

and it was a lovely, wonderful day of detours....

EVERY day is a gift!

FAITH is a powerful thing...

so is HOPE!

One more time....

TAKE THAT cANCER...

In Zach's words, "Braden just PONED you!!!"