BBQ Tuesday

Our sweet nephew, Asher (my brother-in-law's son) was born with a heart condition. He had to undergo his third surgery yesterday. They live in Austin, but he has been being treated here in Dallas at Children's. They lived here when he was born three years ago. On Monday, Kevin and Kristi drove up to Fort Worth with Asher. He got to spend all day Monday with Kristi's side of the family and then Tuesday was the Parks turn! Sean and I wanted to have everyone over for a BBQ! We all were wanting to do special stuff for this tough kiddo!

We had the smoker going by 8:30am! Sean worked on the ribs, and I worked on the potato salad, green salad, and cupcakes!

I made tea and mint infused water to go with our meal. The mint water was an idea I picked up from my Aunt Suzanne over Easter weekend. She had a glass pitcher with mint and water in it. I asked her how she made it, thinking she boiled the water, or something! Nope, you just fill a glass with water and add mint from your garden! Of course, I had to also incorporate another trick I learned from my brother, Shawn. You must spank your mint...hard...before using it :) I swear it tastes soooo much tastier, or shall I say mintier :)

Can you find where Asher's seat was :) I sat right on the end next to him. I sat down with my plate of ribs and he leaned over to me in his cute little voice and said, "Whatcha' got, Catherine?" Ha! It was so cute! I told him what was on my plate, and then he told me what was on his (Sonic, ha!).

We had a lovely afternoon and I think Asher enjoyed himself, too :)

He loved the icing!

Silly boy!

After lunch, Jack and Sheryl took him to the aquarium!  I am glad he was able to have some fun before being stuck in the hospital for a while.

And now since it's Friday...I have an update on Asher....

Yesterday we got to the hospital just as he was put under. We sat and waited with Kevin, Kristi, and her family in a private family room for hours. Man, waiting in the hospital is no fun! 

The waiting game.  

Cool ceiling at Children's.  It was like sitting under the stars!

Jack and Sheryl came just as he was getting out of surgery! We all had lunch together while we waited for them to get Asher settled into his ICU room. Then we took turns going in 3 at a time visiting him. They kept him heavily sedated yesterday. Hopefully today he will begin to wake up and not be as scared. That's my hope anyway! He is such a tough, happy kid. I know he will be back to himself soon! The great news is that the surgery was a success and the doc was extremely pleased with how it all went.  Yay, Asher!