Outpatient Day 3....

Happy 24th of July Utah friends and family. Even though today means nothing to Minnesota, we want to wish everyone a Happy Pioneer Day in Utah. We missed celebrating with you today. Instead of fireworks we celebrated another way!  Our day today didn't start until 7:30 which was sleeping in a bit. Our first appointment was at 9:00 but we have to be downstairs a half an hour early to catch the shuttle.We got there early so we actually took breakfast on the go from the hotel today. So here is Ari eating just outside the clinic.

Our only appointment today was to finish up the Neuropsych Testing. Ariauna enjoyed most of it again, as some of it was games and things to do on the computer. The appointment was scheduled until 2:30 today but they actually came and got me about 10:30 to meet with the doctor and give me their "feedback". It was actually pretty much what I expected. They let me know that my daughter does not have any discipline problems, that she can work on her own, that she struggles a bit with reading, etc, etc, etc..... As if they know my daughter more than I do when they only spent 5 hours with her. After we left the appointment, I asked Ariauna how it was and she said it was okay other than the stupid questions they asked her.  I asked her what those were and she said they asked her if she liked her mom and dad and if she got along with her mom and dad. Nice!!  Glad my daughter is young enough to say she likes me and not a teenager that might have told them she hates us, who knows DCFS might have taken her away right then. Lol....So our appointment got done by 11:00. We decided we would go and do something fun. Ariauna wanted to go to the American Girl doll store and she really wants to see Smurfs 2, so we were planning to do that next Wednesday the day before she gets admitted. (Smurfs does not come out until that day anyways.) But the more I thought about it, the more I decided if we get a room at the Ronald McDonald House we may not be able to get down to the Mall of America. Right now the hotel we are staying at (Days Inn on University) has a shuttle that will take you down town and then you can catch the light rail to the mall. So Ariauna and I decided we would get brave and take an adventure. I was very nervous as I do not travel alone, let alone take a shuttle, find the light rail and then pray we find our way back to where we need to be and not end up in another state. So we went back to the hotel, dropped everything we did not need and headed out on our adventure. The shuttle took us down town and dropped us off at the Target. Have you ever seen a 3 level target?

We then asked the local Ambassador on the corner how to get to the light rail. They directed us about 5 blocks up the street. We caught the light rail and headed into the Mall of America.

The first thing we did when we got to the mall was went to the movie theatre to see what movies were playing and to get tickets to one. We decided to see Turbo, so we bought our tickets for the 4:45 show. We then went and had lunch, of course McDonalds was the top choice.

We then went to the American Girl doll store. We spent a lot of time in there, and we went around everything several times trying to decide what to get. It is a two story store and has so much stuff to chose from. I don't know how any girl can go in there and make a decision.

Ariauna finally decided what to spend her birthday money on. She ended up getting several new outfits, glasses, shoes and a new doll. But I can't tell you who it is or post a picture because she does not get it until her bone marrow birthday on August 8th so we will post it then. We then went shopping for new clothes. Ariauna had a little bit of money left so we went to the Children's place and she bought a new outfit and then I got some birthday money from my parents so I bought me some new clothes too. We had fun shopping just the two of us and it was good because it will be a long time before Ari gets to go shopping like that. We then went to our movie at 4:45 to see.....

It was a really cute show. Definitely a fun kid movie. Once the movie was over we headed out to catch the light rail.

We found our way back to the Target and waited for the shuttle to our hotel to pick us up. Here Ari is with her huge shopping bag.

By the time we got back to our hotel, we had a bowl of cereal for dinner and went to bed. We were both exhausted and we have another early morning tomorrow. I am grateful we were able to go down to the mall today. I am not sure that we will make it back there again. It was fun to have a little bit of our day to do something fun. We have had so many appointments, tests, scans, and doctor consults that it was good to just spend some time together today doing something fun.