Sunny Day - Day 23 - Sun 13th Feb

If the last couple of days had been decidedly cloudy and overcast, today has been absolutely sunny. Not only in terms of how Evan has been, but outside also - it's absolutely glorious right now. Even stranger since it's less than two weeks ago that we had ice-storms, snow and -10c temperatures. Could well be about +10c today.

[above photo is view from our hotel room]

We got up this morning and, seeing what a nice day it was, I decided that we would make the best of it - and the best (only) way of doing this was to attack it face on. So, there I was ready to give us a kick up the backside and get us going but Ev had beat me to it and jumped out of the right side of the bed (not literally, of course).

After breakfast we skyped with home (even Sam took part for less than a flying 5 second visit), then to Grandma Skipton, then to Matthew & Rebecca, then to home again as Grandma Silsden was there and then to Grandad Skipton. Gone was the reluctant and hesitant Evan and was replaced with the talkative, expressive and actually quite giddy little fella that we know and love.

We decided to head off to the planetarium (attached to the science centre) and there was none of the "im bored", "can we go" and "dont want to do that" which was a feature of our trip last week (the day after the others had left) or from yesterday towards the end of the mall trip. We had a really good time - revisited a couple of our favourites from last time and also took in "Sea-Rex" which was in the Omnimax theatre (sort of like the IMAX). A 3-d film show of underwater reptiles. Ev's review of this was "that was really good - enjoyed it a lot".

Now, i'd like to put this improvement down to the weather, or my attitude, but I know it's mostly down to Evan. When we did his exercises this morning he seemed a little less stiff and even managed a few steps with the walker. Also, when placing him in his wheelchair, his feet didnt extend into his footholds. He just seemed so "clenched up". However, he seemed much more flexible today and he could fully get his feet into the footholds.

I know what it's like when i've had a knock or a sprain playing footy and how it can impact your general mood, so I cant begin to understand how much he has had to cope with over the last couple of weeks, but im so proud of him today. I just hope, fingers crossed, that he is over the worse and he can start to build on this - given what he has achieved so far, it could be a big couple of weeks !