We're Ba-a-ck!
After Susie finished her series of 10 radiation/chemo treatments the second week of May, she was given a "vacation" of about seven weeks to get prepared for Whipple surgery on her pancreas and other nearby organs, the surgery scheduled for July 6. That break got a rough start just after we got back to Cedar Crest when the continued treatment side effects of nausea and general discomfort prevented us from driving to Alamosa, CO, for grandson Andrew's college graduation the first weekend home. The next several weekends, though, we got in a lot of time with family and friends.
Andrew is engaged to Amy, who, coincidentally, went to the same HS and graduated from the same college as Andrew. Her parents threw a combination graduation/engagement party for the happy couple the weekend after graduation. His parents, Matt and Suzy Hinkle, and siblings, Tony and Kaci, were all there for the festivities. Some scenes:
Susie and the three grandchildren.
Uncle Jeff and Aunt Valerie, left, came from Clovis, NM for the party.
The next weekend we made a quick trip to Las Vegas to see the grand-twins and their parents. Flew over Friday, home Sunday. Thank you Southwest Airlines (bags and parents still fly free). Thank you, Mandi Sue!
It's hard to get the twins' pictures - they are always in motion - but here are a couple. Landon and Julian, not necessarily in that order.
Julian has a thing for me. For weeks after our visit, whenever someone rang the doorbell, the boys would run to the door, but Julian would be heartbroken when I wasn't there. "Where's Grandpa?" he would cry. Aaaaaahh!.
The next weekend son Jeff Easterling, drove down from Highlands Ranch, CO, with daughters Malia and Macy. Some scenes:
We took the tramway to Sandia Crest, hiked in our subdivision, went to Cliff's Amusement Park where we rode one of the roller coasters over and over and over and ...., and ate in one of Jeff's favorite Mexican restaurants.
We also visited Tinkertown, on our side of the mountain. Tinkertown features an amazing, eclectic collection of animated circus scenes, a boat that the Tinkertown creator sailed around the world, and lots of other stuff, including walls built of bottles and cement. A sign says, "This is what Ross was doing while you watched TV." Guilty, as charged. For the young'uns they have a treasure hunt to find various items and the girls enjoyed that.
In the midst of all this, Susie spent some quality time with Gay Blech, one of her school-teaching best buddies.
Gay, and husband Dusty, have been spending their retirement years tandem and solo bicycling all over North America - in Canada, I believe, as this is written.
I should also add that on our second Sunday at home we attended both of our "home" churches - very important foundations of our support team - to thank them for all their support.
It was certainly good to be home in the mountains. As part of Susie's fitness program we often did the one-mile round-trip walk to the mail and newspaper boxes.
It's been a good spring in Cedar Crest for flowers and grass, too.
Returning to Houston, we traveled via the Oklahoma City area where my sisters, Connie and Verla, and assorted nephews and nieces and their offspring reside. Got to the area about noon on Saturday, June 27. I drove to Verla's, to help her clean her swimming pool, but she had a better idea. Byron Berline, world-renowned fiddle player, was having a jam session in his music store in Guthrie. Verla has been and is a volunteer worker on Berline's annual bluegrass festival, and has become a good friend of his. Here's the scene, from Verla's facebook page.
That's Byron, in the blue shirt, facing me. They wrapped up the session with my request, Faded Love.
Sunday afternoon Connie and Tom had a family gathering at their house. Five of their six sons were there, with spouses and grandchildren. One of Verla's two sons was there. A fine time was had by all.
In case you're wondering, I haven't done any cropping or editing of these pictures. It's all I can do to get most of them from iPhone to PC laptop.
I'll single out one couple: nephew Marcus and his wife, LeeAnn. They were in NM a couple of weeks before and spent a pleasant day with us.
We left OKC on Monday and timed it so that we could have lunch with Kay and Jim Collins, Albuquerque friends now living in Frisco, TX. Got to Houston late Tuesday morning and have been busily settling in since then.
We'll be in touch.
Susie and Rob
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